Author's note: I'm SOOOOOO sorry I haven't been writing; I was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital and I had to stay there for a few weeks. Anyway, I'll try really hard and finish this; enjoy!
If you have two apples and I give you two more, how many do you have now?
Mel awoke slowly. Her eyelids hesitantly opened, and she immediately shrieked. She was suspended fifty feet in the air. She continued to shout until she noticed she was not falling. Once she calmed down, she had time to take everything in.
"H-h-how is this happening? Where am I?" She stammered to herself.
Still mildly alarmed, she began to look around. All she could see were the miniature rooftops of the buildings in the city below. Seeing the quiet, amazing view of the whole city fast asleep in the middle of the night gave her an odd calming feeling. She felt as if it were a dream, but she knew it was real. Everything was just so beautiful and peaceful; it felt too good to be true.
Looking around, she began to recognize some of the streets in the far distance. She wanted to move towards them, but she couldn't think of how. She tried performing a swimming motion, but by putting her paws in front of her, she noticed that her body was completely invisible. She was taken aback by this discovery, but this was barely comparable to when she first woke up, so she shrugged it off and continued trying to move forward.
Since her previous idea hadn't proved successful, she tried out her only other idea, which was to think about being pushed forward. It seemed to work, as she felt herself drift forward a little. She was overcome with joy, and she felt herself move a little faster. Eventually, she had picked up a decent pace. It wasn't one that was too fast or thrilling, but one that was relaxing and calm, and giving her the powerful feeling of serenity. She was still rather far away from the city, so she had time to look around and really feel her surroundings.
She flew overhead buildings with few lights still on. The streets were empty and only faintly lit by the soft warm glow of the intermittent street lamps. The atmosphere was completely silent; nothing was making noise. She could see outside the city, where fields and plains extended for as far as the eye can see. Everything seemed so still and quiet, it was too similar to a still, tranquil dream of flying underneath the light of the stars.
Eventually, Mel had come across the path home. She was eager to show Xavier and the others, and possibly get some answers as to why she was the way she was. She had finally come across her home, and she didn't wait to enter inside. She landed on the ground and tried to push open the back door, like she always does whenever she wanted to get inside. However, this time something happened she was not expecting at all. When she pressed on the door, her leg phased directly through it. She lost her balance and fell over, landing inside the house. With each new discovery, she became even more curious.
As she continued to their bedroom, the atmosphere changed dramatically. All of the lights in the house were off, and the whole place was completely silent.
"Guys!?" She shouted. There was no response.
She peered inside the bedroom, only to discover that it was empty.
"What? Where could they have gone?" She said to herself.
The dark and unsettling atmosphere of the empty house started to overcome her. The horrifying silence filled her with a feeling of dread.
"Am I a ghost?" She asked herself. "Could I be...dead?" She understood that she was being rash and irrational. "Could the black dog have..." She then gasped heavily. "The black dog!" She then suddenly remembered the events of the spirit world, and the events before them. She remembered that she had gone away to visit the spirit world, and she remembered what happened there. She now knew what she needed to do. Without thinking, she jumped up and flew straight through the ceiling of the house.
She hurried as fast as she could to Shelter 17. She arrived there in under a minute and immediately began searching around. She found the end of the secret exit from the pound and where she sat down to enter the spirit world. As she continued to look, she made a horrifying discovery: her body was gone. Mel was now really starting to panic. She entered the underside of the pound; it was empty, and the lights had been shut off.
"Where could they be!?" She asked herself.
She realized that if they weren't at home or at the pound, she must have flown by them without noticing. So, she began heading down the path they usually take when visiting the pound. About halfway back, sure enough, she spotted all three of them walking back toward their home, including...herself.
After some thought, she came to a conclusion as to what must have been happening: the black dog must have taken possession of her body. She immediately flew in front of Xavier's vision.
"Xavier!" She shouted. He continued to walk on. She felt a wave of sadness overcome her as she realized another harsh reality to her state. "Xavier!?" She called sadly. Again with no response, she tried it with Ty. Still no response. She tried it with Tera, and the same thing occurred. She looked on in dejection; she saw Xavier, Ty, and Tera walking like nothing was wrong. No one had noticed that she was absent. They had no idea what was happening. They had no idea that the black dog had returned, that she had seen Blake again, that she had seen the spirit world, or even that it was real.
"It's all my fault." She thought. "If only I had told them when I had the chance. If only I hadn't been so afraid. Now people could get hurt. All because of one dumb mistake. One...dumb...mistake."
She was suddenly invigorated by the determination to set things straight. She no longer would accept failure. She was determined to fix the problem she had created, and she was determined to not let anyone get hurt on her account. Accepting her new mission, she thought about what the first step should be. However, she was suddenly interrupted when she heard her own voice.
"Hey guys? You wouldn't mind if you came with me tomorrow morning to see something I found, right?" Mel heard. She was a little confused by the black dog's question. After a brief pause, Xavier responded.
"Yeah sure, anytime." He replied. The conversation ended. Mel became even more nervous, and without waiting for the others, she flew straight home. She wanted to find a way of communicating with them before they arrived. She needed any way of messaging them, any sort of signal.
She tried to pick up a sheet of copy paper that was lying in Xavier's room, but she found she could not. Upon discovering this enormous issue, Mel's heart sank deep into her stomach. She tried another object. Nothing. She tried another...and another...and another. No matter how many ways she tried to lay out a message, her efforts proved frivolous.
She took a few steps back in horror when she heard the back door open. She immediately felt shame when she realized something bad will definitely happen and she will not be able to do anything about it. She watched helplessly as Xavier opened the bedroom door and stepped inside, followed by Tera, Ty, and herself. She found the black dog to be somewhat of a convincing actor as her, mimicking her facial expressions and the way she walked in a way that made her hope of them guessing what was happening on their own disappear.
Everyone soon crawled into bed; it had been a long day. After Xavier had pulled his covers over him, Mel listened to him speak.
"Goodnight, guys." He uttered. No one responded. Mel watched as the four of them drift off to sleep. Still overcome with great sadness and helplessness, she climbed onto Xavier's bed and affectionately placed one paw upon his cheek.
"Goodnight, Xavier." She whispered. She spent a long moment there while she looked at him with loving eyes. She had fallen into a deep state of grief and depression as she continued to look on at the third-person view of the whole group together. She understood that none of them knew how little time they had left, and this could be the very last time they were all together. She felt as if a boulder was tied onto her back; the weight of the guilt was too much for her to bear and she broke down.
It was all coming back. She recalled the sheer joy she had felt when she laid eyes on Xavier for the very first time. She recalled when she met Ty and the long talks she had with him about Blake. She recalled when she sacrificed everything to protect the ones she loved. She recalled when she woke up in Xavier's room and seeing everyone again. Lastly, she recalled meeting the one who brought her life again, and the one that added so much more to their friendship.
She realized that all of her sacrifices for them signified that she really did love them more than anything in the world, and that she really would do anything for them. As a result, she couldn't come to terms with what she had done. She couldn't stand the fact that the ones she cared dearly for were going to get hurt because of her. All of these happy times... it was all coming to an end, and it was all her fault. For the first time in her life, she was afraid of the future.
She walked toward the bedroom door and without thinking, she unleashed her anger onto it. Forgetting that she was still merely a phantom, she threw her fist into it. Per usual, she phased right through, but something happened that time that caught her attention. She heard the faintest creak come from the door's hinges.
She twisted her head backward in surprise. If she really did just hear what she think she heard, then this would change everything. Maybe it is possible to communicate with them after all. One thing was for certain: if there was a possibility, she would try her best to make it happen.
Mel replicated the movement, repeatedly flying through it as fast as she could. Each time, the door closed the slightest bit more. After a very long time, she had completely closed the door. She looked back at her friends and the black dog; they were all still fast asleep. Mel began to write out a message the only way she could think of. It took all of her might, but she managed to scratch off one small paint chip from the door. She understood that this could take all night, but she was willing to do whatever she had to in order to fix her mistake.
Before Mel even knew, the familiar orange glow of the early morning sunlight began hitting the dust particles in front of the window, causing beams to string out from it. It took many hours, but Mel finally believed she had created a message that might work, given the little time she had. She had scratched the door's surface to form small letters. She didn't even know if they would understand it, but she had to take the chance.
The sunlight had finally reached Xavier's eyes and he woke up, shortly followed by the others. Mel immediately began shaking with nerves. She was anxious to find out if she was successful, because she didn't know what she was going to do if she wasn't.
Eventually, the black dog did end up asking if he could take them all somewhere, to which they were all too curious to refuse. Mel observed from above Xavier turning towards the door and reading the words that were written upon it. Etched into the door was the sentence "DON'T FOLLOW HER". The black dog had a notably surprised expression on his face, while Xavier was simply confused.
"Whoa, that's creepy. Which of you did that?" He asked in genuine curiosity, especially considering the height at which it was written. The other three just looked back blankly. "What? Nobody?" He replied. "Maybe my dad knows what it is." Xavier then proceeded to call his number, only to be met with the answering machine. "Oh yeah, I guess he already went to work." With that, the four of them brushed it off and proceeded to walk right past the message and out the door with the black dog in the lead.
Mel lowered herself to the ground in shock. She couldn't believe what just unfolded before her eyes. It all happened so fast. They didn't even think about it; they just walked right past it. Hours of work had been for nothing, and she no longer knew what to do; she felt so alone, guilty, and helpless. The horrible wave of grief returned to her; her only plan to protect her friends didn't work. She... had failed.