Author : Wild-Melody

Disclaimer : Previous chapters

Summary : Jack receives a late night visitor, but will his mind allow him to believe what he's seeing?

SO WEIRD

ALL IS NOT AS IT SEEMS

Chapter 4 : Visitor of a Paranormal Kind

Jack fell asleep that night and it was a restless sleep, he still couldn't believe what his mother had told them earlier. It just couldn't be true…could it? Was Annie actually dead? His dreams became nightmares, he was experiencing what his mind assumed Annie had felt during her last few seconds of life. Fear engulfed him as he watched the murky waters of the ocean below coming ever closer. Waiting to swallow him up like they had Annie.

The car plunged into the cold waters and he watched helplessly as water began to seep into it. There was no way of escape, but she must have gotten out somehow because they didn't find her body. She had to have gotten out somehow…was there the slightest chance that she could still be alive? Could it even be possible?

He grabbed hold of the door handle and began pushing with all his might against the door. It didn't budge. He suddenly remembered reading somewhere that it was nearly impossible to open a car door under the water because of the amount of pressure pushing against it. Taking a deep breath he quickly rolled the window down and watched in agony as water began to spill into the car…Wait a minute, her car was a convertible, wasn't it?

Jack sighed in his sleep as his mind conjured up an image of Annie fighting for her life, trying in vain to reach the surface before she drowned. She never reached the surface though.

Jack fought against the water in his nightmare. It was no use though, he just couldn't reach the surface. With each stroke he took it seemed the surface actually got further away from him. His lungs were on fire and he had to fight the impulse to take in a deep breath of air which he knew would be a large lungful of water. Had this been what she was thinking as she was fighting to get to the surface? He wondered.

"Jack?" He heard someone call his name.

He ignored it, he needed to know how this scene played out, needed to know how it ended.

"Jack?" It was her voice this time, Annie's voice, calling to him across time and space, the urgency in it was not lost on him.

Still he ignored it though, he needed to know, needed to know how she had died.

"Jack?!" Her voice became more insistent and he could almost image her shaking him. "Jack, I need to talk to you!"

Still he ignored her.

"Jack!" Her voice was a scream of agony this time.

He sat upright in bed, his breath coming fast and labored. He glanced around his bedroom and found himself to be alone, there was no one else there with him.

"Jack…" her voice echoed in his room and sent chills running up his spine.

"What?" He asked softly and felt ridiculous for speaking when he knew there was no one there, he was totally alone.

"I need your help," her voice said quietly. "You must help me!"

"My…help?" He asked softly and couldn't believe he was talking to something he couldn't see. "Help…help you?"

"Yes," her voice answered. "You must-"

She stopped speaking as soon as the door to his room opened a crack, "Jack?" Fi asked from the doorway.

His eyes sought out his sister, relief flooding through him to see her standing there. "Fi?" He asked, feeling suddenly very strange. Had he actually just been talking to…a…ghost? A ghost he couldn't even see? But he didn't believe in such things!

"Are you all right?" Fi asked as she stepped further into his room.

"Yeah," he answered and gestured for her to have a seat on his bed. "Why would you ask that?"

"I heard you talking to yourself," Fi explained. "I thought maybe you couldn't sleep either." She paused as a single tear winded its way down her cheek. "I can't stop thinking about Annie," she said as she sat down on the bed beside him.

Jack wrapped his arms around his little sister and drew her close, "I know. Actually I was having a nightmare."

"'Bout what?"

"Annie," Jack answered.

"Oh," was all Fi said.

"I was seeing the car accident…or at least what I think probably happened." Jack said slowly, not sure if he could tell his sister the rest of it. Would she think him crazy if he said that Annie had been here, in this very room asking for his help? Or would she be the Fi he expected her to be and think it was yet another paranormal adventure?

"There's something you're not telling me Jack," she said, picking up on his sudden discomfort.

"Yeah there is, but I'm not sure how to explain it," Jack said.

"Just tell me," Fi urged.

"Annie was here, I think." Jack said quickly, needing to say this before logic reasserted itself. "I was dreaming about her car accident and I kept hearing her calling to me." He became quiet and sadly shook his head, not believing what he was saying. It was impossible, just utterly impossible. Ghosts didn't exist.

"What was she saying?" Fi asked, knowing Jack was fighting against himself, knowing he didn't want to believe what he was saying.

"She said she needed my help," Jack answered.

"Your help?" Fi repeated.

"Yeah, she said she needed my help. That I must help her."

"Help her? How?" Fi asked. Had Jack been dreaming all this, or had Annie actually been there and asking for his help?

"I don't know," he answered. "She was just about to tell me how, but then you came in."

"Is she still here?" Fi asked as she quickly looked around his dark room.

"I…I don't think so," Jack said.

"Annie?" Fi said loudly, hoping that their friend would answer her.

But no answer came.

"Maybe it was all just a dream," Jack said after a brief pause and the silence had become to much for him.

"Maybe," Fi conceded, "Or maybe she actually does need our help. Maybe she has some unfinished business…that's the reason most ghosts remain here and don't pass over."

"Or maybe it was just my imagination…the dream may have just fed it, causing my mind to think I was hearing her when I actually wasn't." Fi just looked at her brother and realized that his logical side had taken over yet again. She'd get no more information out of him this night.

"Maybe," she agreed, but Jack could tell by the tone of her voice that she didn't believe it.

And maybe he didn't either. It had seemed to real, felt to real for it to be just his imagination. "It's getting late," he finally said to his sister. "Annie's mom is suppose to be calling in the morning to let mom know about the funeral arrangements, we should really get some sleep."

Fi just looked at him before she finally nodded her head and agreed with him. "You're probably right. 'Night Jack," she said and kissed him softly on the cheek. "See you in the morning." She got up and left his room, gently shutting his door behind her. Moments later he heard her own door close.

Jack laid back down on his bed and closed his eyes, but no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't get back to sleep. Her voice still haunted him and he had to wonder why she had come to him and not to his sister. This would be something she would be more likely to believe…more than he would anyhow.

Finally, when the sun was just starting to rise, sleep claimed him. And just like before, he heard her voice calling out to him from the beyond.

"Jack…?"

He tossed in his sleep, trying to ignore the voice he knew all to well.

"Jack…?"

He threw his pillow over his head, hoping that would blot out the voice he shouldn't be hearing.

"Jack…?"

She wouldn't let him be, wouldn't go away. Couldn't she take the hint?

"Jack, please, I need your help…"

Jack sat up in bed and came face to face with a pair of blue eyes that were as blue as they had been in life. A pair of blue eyes that belonged to someone that was dead…had someone forgotten to tell her that she was dead?

What do you think? Getting creepy yet? Is it Annie or Annie's ghost that Jack is seeing? Or is it even actually Annie? Review as always and maybe in chapter 5 you'll find out what's going on.