Chapter 4

How About A Little Road Trip?

She had seen it just as clearly as the ball of fire shooting straight from her palm, but didn't have any time to wonder how the hell this was even possible; Cora could have sworn that she had seen the skin on the right side of the young man's face grow so transparent that she could literally count his teeth on that specific side and witness the anatomy of an entirely exposed human eyeball, resting inside its socket. The exposed skull was almost instantly covered up again by the thickening of the skin as it regained its original texture, right after that thing that had a strong resemblance to her deranged ex-fiancé was torn in half and vanished into thin air, as if his body was made of paper. If only she knew how that man who had nearly struck her with his van was capable of restoring his face… it would without a doubt astonish her even more.

But even though his face had gone back to completely normal, there was apparently nothing he could do about healing the deep, bloody gash that had been sliced into his stomach. Darby's face crunched into an expression of pain while letting out a grunt, pressing onto the wound as hard as he could in an attempt to stop the bleeding. This was, however, to little to no avail. Cora gasped in shock as she saw a startling amount of blood leaking out of the wound in thick trickles like some sort of sinister, gory, little waterfall. Enough drops had fallen onto the concrete to form small puddles; God, were the neighbors going to be in for an unsettling sight as soon as they would get out of their houses in the morning. If the pair of pants Darby was wearing weren't black, the blood that had soaked into the fabric would be completely visible.

He wasn't going to make it, Cora suddenly realized. There was no way he was going to make it if she wouldn't help him.

'Oh my God!' she exclaimed as she scrambled to get back up on her feet. As soon as she stood up despite the immense trembling that made her legs feel like they were filled to the brim with lead, she darted towards the blonde young man who was entirely powerless to stop the bleeding by himself. It was only when she got close to him that Cora noticed that despite her knight in shining armor looking young, it would be safe to assume that he was still a few years older than her. 'I'm going to have to get you to the hospital! Here, let me help you!'

She grabbed his arm with the intention to put it over her shoulder so he had something to support himself on while heading towards the van, but as soon as she had taken a hold on it, Darby yanked his arm away as if he were repulsed by her. It would quickly appear that he was going to need that bit of help after all, because when new trickles of blood increased the red pools on the concrete, his left knee buckled due to the increasing weakness; a small splash was heard when this knee touched the blood below, followed by another pained grunt coming through Darby's clenched teeth.

'Damn, it's only going to get worse… please, just let me help!' Cora said, once again grabbing onto Darby's arm. Whether he liked it or not, Darby had not much strength left to protest. As soon as his arm was draped over Cora's shoulder (it didn't really occur to her then, but when his bloodied hand brushed over the skin of her upper arm, it left behind a wide smear of red), she helped him to stand up and walked towards the van, its headlights revealing the blood that had been spilled in all of its chilling glory. Only more was added to the red mess when a trail was created, all the way to the vehicle. The engine had still been left on, which means the key was still inside, thank God; Cora already pictured her hands being entirely soaked with blood if she had to inspect this guy's pockets to look for the damn key.

'Wait, hold up… I can still drive.' Darby muttered as she carefully placed him onto the passenger's seat, even getting ready to get out again.

'No way in hell, buddy.' Cora replied, gently pushing him back into place. 'You think I'm going to let you pass out behind the wheel? I can do this!'

Yeah, she wasn't going to lie about it; driving in another person's car feels awkward as hell, but waiting for a taxi, Uber or an ambulance to show up wasn't going to be an option right now. Cora instantly ran over to the driver's side after she had shut the passenger side's door and as soon as she sat down on the mildly pre-heated seat, her foot slammed onto the gas pedal, jolting the vehicle forwards with sudden speed and screeching tires. The neighbors would be bound to wonder whether a quiet but violent hit-and-run had been committed the following day if they'd spot the deep red tire tracks running through the entire street.

She refused to lift her foot for even one millimeter as they sped through the streets, only slightly slowing down when there was a curve in the distance. Numerous houses, some with the lights still on in either the living room, bedroom or both, flashed them by so fast that you could barely take a look at them. Cora was holding onto the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles paled, and she occasionally glanced to her right to see if her passenger hadn't bled to death right next to her. Darby had firmly pressed the back of his head against the headrest, occasionally uttering a four-letter word and not moving his hand away from his wound for one inch, which appeared to be nowhere near close to stop bleeding. Fuck, this was bad, this was really bad… it would only be a matter of time before his body was going to run dry and he was going to slump over, which was reason enough for Cora to press in the gas pedal even deeper, all while dearly hoping that they were going to make it to the hospital in time for him to get help. Oh God, they were going to be so fucked if she would happen to rush past a police car and the next moment, she would see the much-dreaded red and blue lights in the rearview mirror… Cora somehow managed to shake off that thought and focus back to the road in front of them, thankfully remembering which way she had to take in order to get to Driggs' local hospital. Damn, who knew she would be returning to that place right on the exact same day she was discharged from it...

'Hang in there, it's going to be okay!' Cora said as she once again glanced at Darby; her voice noticeably trembled when she spoke that last word. 'We will be at the hospital in a couple of minutes!' She dearly wanted to believe that whatever amount of minutes was going to be enough to get there and drag him inside the emergency room, but when she looked down, she heavily started to doubt her own words, much to her horror. Unlike the clothes Darby was wearing, the leather of the seats wasn't black, and the area between his thighs that was originally beige had become drenched with red at this point. Oh Jesus fucking Christ, he had lost so much blood at this point, was he even going to make it?

Maybe her passenger was thinking the same thing too.

'You've got fire powers, right?' Darby asked. But before Cora could react to this, he started speaking again. 'Pull over.'

'Why the hell do you want me to do that? Look at you! We've gotta hurry!'

'There's no time. You're gonna have to burn it shut.'

'Wha… Burn what shut…?'

That's when it dawned on Cora. Her eyes slightly widened in shock. 'Wait… You can't be serious! I can't do that!'

'Bullshit.' Pain jolted through Darby's body once more, causing him to groan out loud. 'I saw what you did earlier. If you can launch fire at a ghost, you can do this too.'

Cora intensely struggled to find any words to say after hearing that 'ghost' part, not knowing what was more absurd; his request of her treating his wound with what had to be one insanely painful matter or him addressing that thing that resembled her deceased fiancé as something she thought only could exist in horror movies.

'But I… I…' she managed to stammer.

'For fuck's sake, lady! I'll probably be dead by the time we get to that damn hospital! And besides, even if we'd somehow make it…' Despite the immense pain he must have been in, he wryly chuckled. 'I don't have insurance.'

Oh, goddamn it… she really didn't have a choice about this, did she? Cora was barely able to suppress a stress-filled whimper and feverishly looked around, trying to look for a spot that looked safe and big enough to park the van at. Nothing but trees and some lampposts on the sides of this road, but luckily for her, she didn't have to search for long. Just as they rushed by a lamppost on their right of which the massive, flickering bulb needed to be replaced as soon as possible, she saw the square-shaped parking lot of a small convenience store (not the one Trevor used to work at, he worked at a supermarket that belonged to a way bigger company) and adding to her building sense of relief, it was empty; no convenience store of this size could possibly be open at this hour. Which was probably for the best, considering this situation… just imagine the reaction of the people inside the store if they'd hear bloodcurdling screams coming from a van on that parking lot and smell burning flesh.

Letting out a trembling sigh, Cora steered the van onto the parking lot and despite the place being completely empty (and perhaps a force of habit too), she neatly parked the vehicle between the lines of the parking spot and turned off the engine.

'Okay… okay…' she whispered to herself as she slowly lifted Darby's shredded shirt, which had become so drenched with blood that it had been sticking to his body, so she practically had to peel it off of him; the metallic stench became so strong at this point that it nearly made her gag, more so than the sight of the grisly cut across his stomach. She couldn't help but briefly glance up at Darby and immediately was astonished by how calm and collected he looked, staring mildly annoyed back at her.

'Well, what are you waiting for? The bleeding is not gonna stop itself.' he said. Damn, his voice matched his face's calmness… did he even know what he was going to be in for? Or did he simply not care? No time to wonder about this, Cora knew. Because some way, somehow, she had to pull off the same thing what she had done earlier, and here was the kicker: she had no idea how the fuck she was going to do that. She steadily breathed through her nose in an attempt to calm herself down since she swore to God that she was this dangerously close to freaking out and she hovered her hand above the large wound, but couldn't hide the trembling her fingers. Nothing happened. Not even a tiny ember came whirling out of the palm of her hand. Her hand remained in place for a few seconds, and when Darby didn't even feel one little bit of heat that you'd expect coming from a flame, he clearly grew frustrated.

'Are you fucking kidding me?' he asked. 'Come on! Do it!'

'I'm trying!' Cora replied, her voice a little louder than she intended to but come on, as if she wasn't under enough pressure already. Her sight had shifted from the wound to her hand, slightly bending her fingers every few times, but even with this, nothing was happening. How did she do this earlier on the street? Cora knew she had reached out with her hand and was terrified of something happening to this guy, that's all that she knew. And yes, she absolutely didn't want him to bleed out right in front of her eyes, but then why wasn't any fire coming out? Cora tensed her hand with one sole thought rushing through her head, over and over again. Fire, fire, fire… come on, let there be fire!

Then, much to her and most likely Darby's surprise, they both saw a small flame shooting out, which was quickly followed by a few more, but none of them big enough to even brush against the bloodied flesh. Right as this was happening, Cora felt something that she couldn't quite describe, the only word she could use that would come close to it being 'focus'. So that's what she did. She tried her hardest to hang onto that feeling, focusing as much as she could, the very thought of fire continuing to repeat itself like a broken record. And it did help. The flames eventually gathered to form a small, thin flamethrower, and from that point on, Cora tried her best to not let the fire grow out of control. Now the hardest part had begun… and it wasn't going to be pretty, she knew. Darby's eyes fully widened as soon as he felt the fire searing his wound, feeling his blood and flesh bubble with heat. Droplets of saliva flew through his clenched teeth as he tried not to scream in pain, instead letting out a deep, throaty, elongated groan. He held onto his seat so tightly with both of his hands that the leather came close to tearing underneath his fingernails, and it surely would remain wrinkled for a long time after he would let go. The heavy, suffocating, sickening smell of roasting flesh filled up the entire van. This odor, combined with the intense reaction to the pain he was forced to go through, made Cora heavily consider to quit on the spot and continue their trip to the hospital instead, but at the same time, she feared that she wouldn't be able to produce another flame after that and he could still risk bleeding out later on. So that's why she tried to keep herself together and not vomit by swallowing whatever amount of saliva her mouth could produce and kept going, going down the wound centimeter by centimeter until it was completely covered with a deep red, thick, sizzling, stinging strip of burned meat. The flames disappeared as soon as the job was done. Oh, thank God, it was done… seeing the result of this crude procedure did nothing to make Cora feel less sick, but at least the bleeding had stopped.

The death grips on the passenger's seat finally loosened and Darby fell quiet, softly panting and closing his eyes. After a brief moment, he glanced down at his sealed wound and once again, much to Cora's astonishment, he let out a little chuckle.

'Could have been a lot worse…' he mumbled. But before Cora could ask what could possibly be worse than having your wounds burned shut with pure fire, he started speaking again. 'If that angry asswipe had been in the Mindless phase, I would have gotten hurt much worse than this.'

'What?' Cora blinked her eyes in confusion, forgetting about that sick feeling pooling in the pits of her stomach for a moment. 'Mindless… phase?'

Sensing that she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, it suddenly dawned onto Darby.

'Ah, I see. You must have gotten the gift only recently, huh? Makes sense, I guess.' he said. If he thought he was going to make more sense by saying all this, he was dead wrong. It only confused the hell out of Cora even more, but before she could even ask him what this 'gift' was all about and how it could be connected to this Mindless phase, Darby started talking again. 'Looks like you're the same as me, girlfriend. You must have gotten a little to close to dying a bit more than you would have liked, haven't you? Well, that's how it goes for all of us. I mean… for those who have the gift. Or curse, depending on how you look at it. But either way, that's how you get it… the ability to see ghosts. Whether you like it or not. And some other power to go with it to fight them, as you may have noticed by now. Ghosts can go through a variety of phases when they don't move on. They're still pretty harmless when they're in the Wandering phase, but when they get into the Restless phase… that's when shit's starting to get risky, as you've seen.' He briefly paused to point at his wound, that was radiating with a faint heat. 'But hell… you wouldn't wanna see them once they get pissed enough to shift into the Mindless phase. And it's my job as a ghost hunter to get rid of them.'

It was completely quiet in the van after he was done explaining. Cora didn't even look at him, she just stared at something ahead of her in the dark distance, her eyes big and too flabbergasted to utter one single word. So that explained it all, huh? Nearly dying on the kitchen floor, bleeding out like a pig in a slaughterhouse… this is what she got for it in return. Trevor had died after all, that's why she saw him. That's why he was still walking around despite his neck being snapped in two like a twig. Nobody could be alive with that, only if he were a ghost… which he was, obviously. She had been attacked by a damn ghost… This realization had crashed onto her, hard, like an avalanche. And even though this made so many thoughts whirl through her mind, she was unable to voice them.

This was too overwhelming, too surreal, too insane to believe… but it explained everything, didn't it?

Observing the shock in her eyes and her quietness made it too tempting for Darby not to make a joke that fit with his wry sense of humor.

'Yeah. Give it some time to let it sink in.'

Then, as if his wound hadn't been burned shut moments earlier, he got out of the van and walked towards the vending machine that could only offer various brands of soda located near the entrance of the convenience store, even whistling a little tune while he did so. It was this oddly cheerful whistling that made Cora snap out of it and turned her head to look at him. This was just unbelievable, she had never seen anything like this before. Only moments ago, this guy looked like he was going to pass out from blood loss any second and had his wound sealed shut with fire and without any form of anesthetic. And yet there he was, walking like none of that was affecting him the slightest, not even limping on his way to the vending machine. His pain tolerance must have been off the charts. Did he want that wound to open up again? Cora hopped out of the van and walked around it, making the first few steps to follow him.

'Hey, be careful! You've gotta take it easy, uh…' She suddenly fell quiet, realizing something pretty important. 'Wait a minute… I never got your name. What is it?'

'Darby.' was the blonde ghost hunter's brief response, not bothering to look over his shoulder. His hand found some loose change in the right pocket of his pants and without even asking what she wanted to drink, he slipped the coins through the slot, pressed some buttons and returned to the van with one can of cola and one can with orange soda. He handed the latter over to Cora while twitching the left corner of his mouth into a smirk.

'I take you for the orange soda kind of girl.' he said.

Was he freaking serious? Cora couldn't help but roll her eyes at this, but she accepted the soda nonetheless after muttering a little 'thanks'; she could use a drink after all this. After the can was opened with a click and a hiss, she thought it was nothing but fair to let this guy know her name as well. 'The name is Cora, by the way.'

'Gotcha.' Darby gave her a small nod and took a sip from his cola, followed by a bigger one. Being on death's door moments ago can make anybody thirsty as hell, who knew. Cora took a sip as well, and though the drink was delightfully cold and thus perfectly fitting for a summer night like this, it didn't do much to take away this whirlwind of confusion, shock and disbelief that was still going through her. They both leaned against the van, their bodies cooling down for a bit thanks to a sudden summer breeze rolling across the parking lot. For a short moment, no words were exchanged between them, a few crickets somewhere in the distance, hidden in the grass of nearby gardens, occasionally breaking the silence. All and all, despite everything that has happened earlier, this moment felt oddly… peaceful.

'So what were you doing in that house anyway?' Darby asked this so suddenly that it did catch Cora a bit off guard. Well, nothing wrong with telling him the truth, right?

'I… I used to live there.' she said, taking another sip from her orange soda afterwards. She noticed Darby slightly raising his eyebrows after hearing this, but she decided to continue nonetheless. 'Up until tonight, that is. I was busy with moving out, I was only there to pack up some stuff so that I could head off to my mother's place tomorrow.'

'Ah.' Despite this short answer, Darby seemed interested enough to continue asking questions, as it turned out. 'Had that Restless always been there? Was that why you were moving out?'

Cora's response to this was quietly shaking her head.

'Did somebody die in there recently?'

Damn, that hit a raw nerve… Up until now, Cora had been pretty honest with him, but telling him during had to be the most traumatic night of her life… it was too soon for her. Too uncomfortable as well. How was she possibly going to tell him what had happened without the remorse and horror she had felt throughout her recovery all coming back to her after she had been somewhat able to cope with them and break down in tears? Crying in front of someone she only got to know for less than an hour… she could already imagine the embarrassment flooding over her after she would be done crying. And just the thought of her confessing what she had done to Trevor for him to return as a vengeful, murderous ghost… no way, no way in hell. Unbeknownst to Cora, her discomfort was so easy to read on her face, which Darby definitely noticed. She then decided to try and change the subject as quickly as possible.

'So where are you heading to next?' Cora asked. 'I can't imagine Driggs being that freaking exciting to stick around, unless this is a popular spot for ghost hunters to check out.' Which honestly, she highly doubted; up until now, Trevor had been the only ghost she had seen around here, but then again, the possibility of this town being plagued at night by seriously pissed off ghosts was there.

'I'm on my way to Autumnfield, this place just happened to be on my route.' Darby paused to take another sip of his cola, of which there was not much left anymore. 'I got plenty of work cut out for me there. That town has been teeming with ghost activity lately and I'm pretty sure where exactly I have to look.'

Holy shit, what were the odds? Cora couldn't help but blink her eyes in surprise upon hearing this reply and thankfully didn't choke on her orange soda. It was right after this where an idea popped up in her head. And yes, she had to admit it. This idea was without a doubt absolutely nuts, no, scrap that, crazy would be a better word for it, seeing that they had barely got to know each other. She agreed with this for a full hundred percent, but hell, what hasn't been crazy as of late? Ending up in a hospital thanks to a sudden explosion of violence of your fiancé, being forced to move in with that one person in your life you had tried to get away from for years, your financial state hitting absolute rock bottom, seeing ghosts and shooting fire from your hands… yeah, none of that sounded pretty sane, if you'd ask her. It was worth asking, right? All of this looked like the perfect opportunity, she would be stupid to let this pass.

Cora decided to not hesitate on this bold question.

'Can I come with you?' she asked, turning her head to look at Darby. 'My mother just so happens to live in Autumnfield, would you be cool with me tagging along until we get there?'

The blonde ghost hunter was about to sip from his last bit of cola, but halted and looked at her as if she had just asked him the dumbest question imaginable. He didn't need to think long about what kind of answer to give, because he shook his head.

'Hell no. I'm a ghost hunter, not a fucking Uber driver.'

'But… I can help out!' Cora said. She knew she was still a complete and utter rookie when it came to all of this ghost stuff, but maybe, just maybe… she could still be useful to him for the time being. 'We both got powers, right? I might gonna need a bit of practice with this, but think about it. If you need me to, I can back you up with my fire powers when you're doing your job. I could help you with that, it's the least what I could do for you. You scratch my back, I scratch yours, you know? Does that sound good to you? I promise you'll be rid of me once we get to my mom's place!'

'Forget it, girlfriend. I don't even know you, so why should I-' Darby promptly paused when he saw a hint of sadness making itself apparent on her face. It then suddenly struck him. He remembered how uncomfortable she looked when he had asked her about any possible deaths in her house earlier and he hadn't tried to switch back to that subject after she had quickly changed that, feeling like there was something she didn't want to talk about. Whatever it was, it probably must have been something incredibly shitty to go through. And on this night, she clearly had gone through her fair share of shit as well, being attacked and running for dear life from a murderous ghost, who knew how it could have ended for her if he didn't happen to be driving through that street… hell, she had been nice enough to drive him all the way to a hospital while he was bleeding like a stuck pig, despite him being a total stranger to her back then. A little bit of kindness would be much appreciated by her right now, he knew.

Darby breathed in through his nose while rolling his eyes in annoyance. 'Alright, fine. You can come with me, I'll get you to your mom's place. But let me make this perfectly clear to you, Cora. Living the life of a ghost hunter is anything but rainbows and sunshine, it can get as hard as it possibly can be. And if you can't stand any of that while we're on the road, I suggest you get out of the van and walk all the way to Autumnfield. Think you can handle it?'

After everything she has gone through as of late… she was pretty certain she could.

Cora gave him a small nod. 'Yeah.'