The Ghost of You

There was pain, but now she felt nothing. She wondered what had happened, she wondered where she was. She wished she could open her eyes, but they felt so heavy. Really everything felt heavy. Suddenly she felt something on her hand; she moved her fingers trying to figure out what the mysterious weight was.

"Open your eyes Annabell." A voice, she only heard in her dreams, spoke into her ear. "Open them now, you know you want to."
"Matty?" She spoke her best guy's friend's name. He had passed just a few months before her and Prue had taken off four Europe.
"You know it pretty girl, now open those puppy eyes and let me see them." He laughed, she had missed the sound. She opened her eyes; they no longer felt so heavy.

There was that face, her best friend who had suddenly died in a car accident. He smiled and slowly helped her up. Looking around she noticed that she was in their spot, a clearing the woods where she used to live. She remembered this place because it was where she came to cry when she found out about Matty and his accident. He wrapped his arm around her and walked her towards the couch they had dragged out there one summer. He sat down and she sat down next to him, not able to take her eyes off his face.

He looked like he did the day she last saw him. His brown messy hair falling across his bright blue eyes, his freckles were still in place and his red lips hadn't faded like they did in his coffin. She reached out and touched his cheek, the blood rushed to them and she laughed through her tears.

"Old habits never die." He said laughing; before he had died when ever she had touched him his cheeks flamed red.
"All the old habits that I've missed very much since you left me." He reached out and wiped her tears.
"I didn't leave you." She knew he wasn't lying, in a way she always knew he was there, watching over her making sure she was safe. She could feel his disappoint when she let that boy smack her around and beat her.

Matty had just come out of the closet before he died, his parents accepted him and he was finally able to show people how much he was in love. After Matty died, his boyfriend left town and hadn't been back. Annabell hadn't talked to him since. No one has, he wanted no memory of the love he lost.

"I'm sorry that I haven't tried to talk to Ben, or find him. It hurt too much to even look at his face and see how sad it was. We all missed you and your parents were a mess, they've tried to find him." Annabell suddenly felt guilty and small under Matty's gaze, even though he was looking at her with all the love he had ever looked at her with before.
"Annabell, do you know why you're here?" He reached out and clasped her small hand in his. His fingers were callused from all the years of guitar playing.
"I'm dead." Suddenly all the memories came rushing back, Gage biting her and sucking her blood as she watched the tore up Riley crying just a few feet away from her unable to save her. "Oh Riley, my love, I'm so sorry."
"You have a big decision to make my little Bug, you can go back and live, but forever be connected to the life of the dead. Or you can stay here and die peacefully."
"What do you mean by being connected to the life of the dead? I'm a vampire, I'm already dead really." She was confused, but the sadness in Matty's showed her she really didn't know all that she thought she did.
"Yes in a way you are dead, but you're still alive. If you choose to live and go back, you'll see things and feel things. You'll see the ghost of the ones that don't cross; they will haunt you until you figure out what's wrong with them. Fix what went wrong in the lives that made them die, fix someone's life that was ruined by the person's death. Do you understand what I am saying?" He looked at her, his eyes begging to her to understand.
"If I go back, I'll still have one foot in this life, the death world. I'll have to spend my life helping the ghosts that find me and fix what went wrong?" She wasn't confused anymore, but she wanted to go back, she would take anything to go back.
"Yes, but there is more. Much more." He stood and began to pace in front of the couch. "You won't be the same either; you'll be able to do things that no other vampire can do." There won't always be good ghost Annabell, you'll have ghost that want to harm you or use you to harm others that they think should be punished. You have to try your hardest to only help the good, do you understand me? Only help the good!" He had grabbed her shoulders and began to shake her hard.
"MATTY!" She screamed and he stopped, he was shaking and she understood that he was truly scared for her.
"Are these ghosts really that bad?" He could barely speak, he just nodded, "I want to go back Matty, there are lives I can help and there is Riley. I just now found him, I can't give him up. I LOVE him, with everything that I am. Please Matty, I want to go back."
"Alright, but please just be careful, don't trust every ghost you try to help. Please?" He reached of up and cupped her face lightly in his hands, she looked him straight in the eye and made the promise.
"I promise." She kissed his forehead just like she always used to and he let go of her face, suddenly things began to fade.

She began to panic, she didn't want to leave right that moment, and she wasn't done talking to Matty. She wanted to tell him everything about Riley and the rest of the guys from the band. He had been a fan too when he was still alive. She watched as his head fell to his chest and his shoulders began to shake from his sobs. She reached out to him, just to hold him, but her hands had begun to fade. Her whole body was beginning to fade.

"MATTY!" She screamed out to him, but it just made his sobs worse. She didn't say anything else, she just let her body fade and let the clearing around her disappear.

Riley was still clutching on to Annabell's dead body, Gage was simply watching him not sure what to do or what to say. He knew that Riley wouldn't want him to say anything, he was pretty sure he was hated more now than he was before. He stared closely at Annabell's face trying to remember one moment from before when he didn't want to suck her blood or kill her. Suddenly her eyes began to move under her eyelids. He thought it was just a trick of light, until her eyes opened. Her brown eyes stared at Gage sending a shiver down his spine, something was different about her.

She sat up out of Riley's arms, but swayed, she needed blood badly. She kept her eyes on Gage, even though Riley was trying to call out to her. Gage like he was under a trace came towards her bending his neck exposing his throat. She smiled and quickly bit down, to quickly that it snapped Gage out of his trace, and he began to fight her. He put his hands on her shoulders and tried to push her away, but weakness took over his body and his hands became limp, but before Annabell could kill him, she let him drop.

"I just wanted enough blood to live, unlike you left me you dirty fucking bastard." The voice come from her mouth wasn't her own. It was deep and evil, a voice you never thought to hear coming from a small girl like her. She pushed herself up off the floor and walked over to her husband. "Honey, it's time to put you back together, I'll be right back with the rest of you."

She walked down the stairs with a walk she didn't have before, her body was held tight, her shoulders straight back. Gage shook with fear at whatever Annabell had become, he was weak with hunger now that there was no more blood in him and he feared that he would go back to what he was before. But his body had flushed out the bad with Annabell's blood, but was still mixed in. Riley was sitting there in shock, waiting for Annabell to come back, the voice that spoke to him wasn't the one of the wife he loved he so much.

While the guy's were upstairs thinking of what might happen, Annabell was piling the pieces of Riley into a blanket to take upstairs. She turned and let out a gasp, her first ghost was standing in front of her. The ghost was a girl, her hair was messed up and her clothes were torn. Her neck had what looked died blood smeared around two holes in her neck. Her hair was a flaming red and long, Annabell tried to remember something about a red haired girl, but her thoughts were taken over by the girl's when her ghost hand touch her arm.

"Help me kill him." She snarled.