Courtney's POV

You would think it would be like a movie. The music fades in as you walk toward a broken-down old house, long abandoned by the owners. BEN would walk in, look at the crumbling bricks, see the ghost of a younger him staring back at the him now from around the side of the house, before the child smiled and scampered off into the woods.

It wasn't like that. We walked up the concrete driveway, and BEN had that look of concentration still, trying to remember. We reached the well-kept, small brick house, and there were no ghostly children, but the yaps of a small dog could be heard coming from one of the windows, under which grew red and yellow tulips.

Thankfully, there was no car in the driveway. The house's owners must be out. I turned to BEN.

"Can you remember?"

BEN grimaced, concentrating. "Not…not really. I can sort of remember how those windows up there look like eyes, and the door like a mouth…I thought it was scary back then…"

He squeezed his eyes shut, wiping off his face, which I realized was slick with sweat. He must be really nervous to be sweating like that. Or really concentrating.

"I…remember how the flowerbed kinda curves around the house there…" He mused, heading behind the house. I followed him, the dog grating at my nerves. I wondered if his aunt still lived here. I didn't think it mattered much. No one was here, and no one would likely be thrilled to see us roaming around their backyard.

BEN stared at the backyard. "I..I can sort of remember how that tree branches off into two trunks…that's where we went into the forest." He said, walking faster through the open yard and into the dark forest. I followed him, ducking under the branch of a young maple, as the foliage grew thicker and the dog's yaps grew fainter.

BEN's POV

No path remained, nothing of the trail that Ricky had once led the three of us down. It was grown over, saplings springing up in the footsteps I had once taken. But I kept down, following a long-forgotten path, following the tug I felt on my mind, my heart, my soul.

Felt my life-energy call me.

I bent saplings to the ground under my feet, trying to go slow enough for Courtney, tried to go slow enough so my aching legs wouldn't stumble. I felt the burn of my forehead even in the shade; walking right now was one of my least favorite things. I was exhausted from the loss of water.

Silly, then, that I felt like running straight to what very well may be my death. But my life energy beckoned me, called me, a siren's song, luring me forward with seductive whispers, promises of being able to see, to feel, to live. It was all I could do to stop myself from sprinting straight into the waters I had once fell into.

I arrived soon enough, anyhow. The forest opened into a clearing, and we walked up a somewhat steep incline that had a chunk missing from the end of it.

It was the ridge, I realized. The one I had fell from so many years ago.

I tighten my grip on my cartridge, which I held in my hand now. Since this morning, it had been in my pocket, one hand always brushing against my leg, feeling the edge of it. Making sure it never fell from my person. I still was my cartridge, but now I was this, too. Nearly a human.

Here, in the clearing, the sun shone on my hair, and I felt sweat drip into my eyes. My legs were threatening to give out, and my arms were sore. I ached all over, but I could feel a soothing feeling coming from the water, like water on a burn. I inched toward the edge of the ridge, pushing up onto my toes to peer over the edge while staying a distance from it.

I could see a blue glow coming from the waters. I stared, entranced, and threw caution to the wind as I stepped forward, staring into the waters, looking at the glow, which seemed to come from the bottom of the deep hole. I could see a little figure that the glow surrounded, so far away and so much smaller than me, the features not clear, the water distorting him.

My body.

Me.

Sleeping at the bottom of the swimming hole. The blue glow surrounding him was my life energy.

I stared, captivated. My exhausted body began unconsciously leaning toward the waters, and I would have fallen in if a voice hadn't snapped me out of my trance.

"BEN…?" Courtney asked tentatively. I turned, seeing her standing a few yards from the edge where I stood, staring at me.

"Are…you ok?"

I wasn't. I knew it. I knew I could die here, and that I well might. I decided she had a right to know, too.

Just in case I didn't come out of these waters.

I stood at the edge, gripping my cartridge, as I explained everything to her, from me rolling onto the necklace, to me realizing I couldn't go into the cartridge anymore, to me coming here on unsure legs. Her expression changed as I spoke, and by the time I finished, it was one of horror. She shook her head, as if disagreeing to an unspoken statement.

Probably disagreeing with this entire situation.

"BEN…you don't have to do this. It's not like we have to give up, but we can go back, get more water, then come back…you'll be ok by then…" She said. I shook my head.

"We can't. I couldn't make it back to the lake." I said. "This is my last stop. In this form, anyways."

She shook her head, rooted to the ground, her breathing picking up. "N-no! You can make it back, BEN! You can't do this! What…what if you don't come out of the water?!"

"If I don't, promise me you'll make a good life for yourself." I said, looking her straight in the eyes. She whipped her head back and forth, tears spilling over.

"Don't say that, BEN! You CAN'T do this! YOU CAN'T!"

"I have too," I said, looking at her. I could feel the glow pulling at me, wrapping fingers around my arms, tugging me backwards to join my child self in the deep waters. I gripped tightly to my cartridge in one hand, holding my arms out to the sides, in the air.

Ready to fall back.

Something flashed across my mind; a human memory. A human word.

A human feeling.

"I love you, Courtney." I said.

Then I let myself fall backwards, the glow wrapping tendrils around my arms, my legs, my stomach, pulling me down. I saw Courtney rush forward toward me, a sob breaking from her throat, leaning over the ledge and grabbing for me just before I hit the water. I heard her cry out as I went under, just as Ricky and Sammy had so long ago.

I could feel the waters pulling at every part of me, tugging me from this skin, these bones, these veins, and from the cartridge clenched in a hand I could no longer feel. I felt the glow start to envelope me, so bright, so blue.

I looked up through the gap in the growing sphere, looked up through the layers of water, and saw the distorted sun.

Then the glow engulfed me.

And everything was bright.

Catz: We're in the home stretch here.

BEN and Courtney…I don't have notes for this chappie.

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