Author : Wild-Melody

Disclaimer : Doesn't this get a wee monotonous after a while? I would have to answer that with a yes…dunno about the rest of you.

Summary : Annie tries to tell Jack what she needs his help with…will he ever find out?

SO WEIRD

ALL IS NOT AS IT SEEMS

Chapter 5 : Return of the Paranormal Visitor

"ANNIE!!!" Jack screamed, suddenly feeling his back slam into the headboard of his bed. His hands clenched his comforter and his breath was coming in quick uneven gasps. His eyes were opened wide, focused on the girl sitting on his bed. She wasn't suppose to be there, she was DEAD! This wasn't possible, his mind kept telling him. This was absolutely and utterly NOT possible!

"Hi Jack," she said softly. She made no move, just stayed where she was, waiting for him to come to grips with the fact that she was there when she wasn't suppose to be. The expression on her face was total serenity, and her eyes were as blue as where the ocean meets the sky…Jack could almost imagine himself drowning in their cerulean depths.

"What…what…" his mouth was moving, but he was having trouble forming the words he wanted to say. He shook his head, trying to clear the clutter from his mind. Trying to form a half coherent thought.

"What am I doing here?" Annie asked for him.

Jack nodded his head, his voice inexplicably not working at the moment.

She laughed at the perplexed look on his face…she could see fear there too though. Fear of the unknown and fear of her and it saddened her heart to see this. Before the event that took me away from them, he would have never been afraid of me…now he looks at me like I'm something out of a horror film. Maybe in a sense, I am. She thought sadly.

"I'm here to ask for your help, just as I had tried last night before Fi interrupted me," Annie began.

"Before Fi interrupted you?" Jack asked, his body relaxed slightly, but he still kept himself pushed up against the headboard of his bed, as far from her as possible. "Wouldn't Fi be the one to ask for help? She's the one that believes in this sort of thing, not me. She's the one that's an expert on these kind of things, I wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to help you or how to go about it."

"I did try talking to Fi, she can't hear me for some reason." Annie explained.

"She…can't…hear…you…?" Jack repeated slowly, as if the words didn't want to register in his mind. In fact, the whole situation didn't want to register in his mind.

"Yes, she couldn't hear anything I said." Annie let out a breath of annoyance. "I had tried for a good twenty minutes before I came to you…I never thought you would be able to hear me…or see me." She added as an afterthought.

Jack just stared at her, still not being able to accept that she was really there…or that she was a ghost. It just shouldn't be possible. Ghosts, they weren't real…were they? "What…what do you need my help with?" He finally asked.

Annie opened her mouth to speak, but just as it had occurred last night it happened again. Fi knocked quietly on the door, opening it just a crack. "Jack, you in there?" Her voice came through the door softly.

Did she hear me scream? Why hadn't she and Mom come running? "Yeah, I'm here Fi. What do you need?" He glanced back at Annie, but she was gone once again. Maybe it was just a figment of my imagination. He thought and quickly glanced around the room, just to make certain that she wasn't hiding in the shadows someplace. The quick search came up empty, Annie was truly gone, again.

The door opened completely and Fi walked into her brother's room. "Just seeing if you were awake yet. Mom and I just got back from the store."

"Oh," Jack said. That explains why they didn't come running, they weren't home.

"I told Mom you had a rough night so she decided to let you sleep."

"Did you tell her about Annie?" That's all I need, Mom thinking I'm as crazy as Fi is. I don't know if she could handle it if she thought both of her children saw ghosts…I don't know if I'd be able to handle it. I mean, I'm suppose to be the logical and down to earth one after all. Fi's the crazy one that chases after ghosts and all that paranormal junk…not me. It all had to be my imagination. Just left over pieces of the dream…Annie wasn't actually here. But for some reason that thought didn't set his mind at ease, he was having a hard time trying to wrap his mind around the idea. He knew what he had seen. If he had reached out, he probably could've touched her.

"You all right Jack?" Fi asked, ignoring his question and asking one of her own. She came further into the room and stood at the foot of his bed and looked worriedly down at him. Her brown eyes sought out his, looking for any clue as to his distraction. Had he seen Annie again? Why was she coming to him and not me? Fi wondered. She knows Jack doesn't believe in this kind of stuff, knows he wouldn't believe that he's actually seeing her. Annie knows that Jack would totally flip. Then a thought suddenly occurred to her, Maybe that's it, maybe she's doing it on purpose, maybe she's trying to prove to Jack that there is another realm of existence!

Jack looked up at his sister, meeting her eyes and nodded his head. "I'm fine," He said. "I'll be down in a few minutes." He said, knowing that that would have been the next question, and forestalling any other questions he knew his sister was bound to ask. Any of the paranormal questions she would undoubtedly ask.

Fi nodded her head and turned around and left the room, but her mind was working furiously. Contemplating all the possibilities…Could Annie actually be trying to contact Jack? And if so, what for? There has to be more to it…she can't just be trying to prove to him that there is another completely different realm than our own. There has to be more to it, and somehow, I will find out.

Once the door had quietly shut behind his sister and he was certain that she was gone, he got up off of the bed and searched his room once more. Again the search came up with nothing, Annie was nowhere at all within his room. "Annie?" He called softly, hoping against all odds that there would be no answer.

There wasn't.

"Thank God," Jack said softly to no one in particular, considering the fact that he was all-alone in his room once more. "I have got to be imagining things, that's all. Ghosts are not real…such things don't exist. There has got to be a logical explanation for all of this." With that thought, Jack grabbed a pair of jeans and a dark blue shirt, put them on and ran down the stairs to help his mother and sister put the groceries away.

*** *** *** ***

Jack heard the phone ringing as he reached the kitchen. His mother picked it up before either he or Fi could get to it.

"Hello?" She said.

"Molly?" The other person asked.

"Yes, is that you Lisa?"

"Yes…um…" Lisa paused and Molly could tell the other woman was fighting back tears.

"Lisa, is everything all right?"

"Yes…no…nothing has been all right since we received that call Molly. Nothing will ever be all right again."

"I know," Molly responded weakly, thinking back to her own loss of her husband, even though it had been such a long time ago, the memory was still fresh in her mind. It would always be fresh in her mind, you just couldn't forget something like that. You just couldn't. There was nothing she could say to either Lisa or Eric to banish the heartache they were feeling at the moment. Nothing that would help lessen it. "I'm sorry Lisa," Molly said, knowing as soon as she said it that it would help in no way, but having nothing else to really say.

"I know Molly…" Lisa said softly. "When will the hurt go away?"

"Truthfully?" Molly asked, but didn't expect a reply, nor did she give the other woman enough time to respond. "It never goes away, it may lessen over time, but it never goes away. It's always there at the back of your mind…the what ifs, the could've beens. The dull ache will always be there in your heart, but it does lessen with the passage of time…but you must go on. Annie would've wanted you to. You just have to remember that."

"I know, it's just…it doesn't seem right that she died before we did." Molly could hear the tears in the other woman's voice. "You're not suppose to outlive your children Molly. You're just not suppose to." Then Lisa Thelen broke down into tears.

"Lisa?"

"Yes?"

"Things will get better, it'll just take time, that's all." Molly said, the compassion in her voice. "You just have to live from day to day and remember that she'll always be there in your heart."

"Thank you Molly."

"Now, what did you actually call for?" Molly asked. "I know you couldn't have called just to break down in tears on me." Molly said, trying to make the other woman smile, even if it was a lame joke.

"About the funeral," Lisa answered.

"When…when is it?"

"Can you be here in two days?" Lisa asked.

"We can be there tonight if you want us to," Molly answered.

"That's really not necessary-" Lisa began.

"It may not be, but all you have to do is say the word and we'll be on the next flight down," Molly interrupted.

"Molly?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you so much," Lisa said.

"Your welcome. You know you can call anytime you need to talk. I'll always be here, and if I'm not, just leave a message and I'll call just as soon as possible."

"I know, and I greatly appreciate it," Lisa responded. "I have to go now…there's still so much to be done…and I just don't…don't know how I'm going to handle it all."

"Do you need help with anything?"

"No, we're managing…somehow."

"All right, but if you do need any help, you know you can call."

"Yes, thank you again. I'll talk to you later. Bye." With that, the phone clicked and the line went dead.

Molly looked at her children and they looked at her. "What…what did Mrs. Thelen want?" Jack finally asked.

"They've made the funeral arrangements," Molly replied. "Call Irene and Ned up and let them know that we're leaving as soon as possible."

Hmmm, I didn't do a cliffhanger this time around, will the miracles never cease? Although this chapter was really nothing special, we still haven't found out what Annie needs Jack's help with, but you still won't find that out till a later chapter. In the next chapter, Fi runs into a creature straight out of the twilight zone…or could it be straight out of her scariest nightmare? Stay tuned to find out, and be sure to review! It's the little button there in the left hand corner, click on it and leave me a review, I thrive on them! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!