Disclaimer: All I own is Juliet, my OC and her basic plot. The Haunting in Connecticut belongs to Lionsgate Films and Children of the Corn belongs to Stephen King. If I somehow come upon ownership of either, I'll let you know :)

Note: I know it's been forEVVERRRRRR and you can totally tell me off in reviews if you want but I, my friends, am a dreadfully busy bee. School is almost over, but even with that done, I will still have softball, driving stuff, and other sites and stories to attend to, so I will do everything I can to update this on a decent basis. Sorry again for the huge frickin' wait!

Nowhere Man

In the morning, the house felt...wary, if that's the right word for it. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it was as though something was buzzing under the floorboards and in the walls and especially in my head. It felt like the whole house was bucking underneath me, spinning and unstable. Jonah had avoided me mostly since our incident, but whenever he was around, I did see or sense him, just not in his preferred form. It was usually just a whiff of sulfur, or maybe out of the corner of my eye I would spot a piece of his charred silhouette. I saw through his transparent little plan. He was trying to make himself less appealing to me so that I would leave him alone and I wouldn't be in risk anymore. But by taking himself away from me, I just wanted him that much more. Not only was he a protector, not only was he a guardian, he was a friend, a confidant, and someone that maybe...maybe I could love.

God, it was like that Stephen King story, Children of the Corn that I had read a few months ago. Whispers ringing through every empty space, that paranoid feeling in your bones making you go mad. The fear that something you know you should be able to defeat jumping out from a corner and killing you anyways, regardless of who you were or what you'd done. They didn't care. I knew that the rest of them, the ones that weren't Jonah, they wanted me and Matt dead.

Wendy and I sat in the living room playing cards, a game called Egyptian War, if you've ever heard of it. She and I played dirty, and we knew all each other's tricks. By the end of the game, she won, leaving red marks all over my hands from all her rings (cough, dirty cheater, cough). She had gotten a scratch or two from my fingernails, but ultimately, she ended up victorious.

"So the other night when you, uh..." she broke off, shuffling the cards again so we could play a round of regular War. "...when you, uh, passed out or whatever...we called this priest over and he said...he said he thought this freaky seance Jonah kid was doing everything that happens in the house..." Partially rational and partially irrational anger seeped through my veins.

"He is not doing everything that happens. He's stopping the bad things that could be happening to us." She gave me a quizzical look. I heaved out a sigh. I was going to tell her. I had to tell her.

"Jonah's not the bad guy, here, Wendy. Don't give me that look, I'm not crazy, you know I'm not. Ever since we came here I've seen him. He's the one protecting us, Wendy, there's about a hundred spirits in here that are trying to come after us, but Jonah's the one keeping them away from us. Haven't you noticed? Every time something bad, something really bad could happen, he's always there, he's the one keeping us safe. He cares about us, whether or not you see it. He l–..." I broke off, my hand clenching into a fist. "I've spoken to him, he's my friend." Wendy looked at me as though she couldn't believe her eyes. I swallowed hard.

My shoulders were falling, and my heart was pounding hysterically against my ribcage. I set down my hand of cards and took in a deep breath. He was there again, his cold blue eyes sad and locked with mine. His mouth was set in a thin line under his nose and his hands were fiddling with the suspenders on his pants. He shook his head sadly, almost like he was trying to convince me...but of what? What was I doing that was so wrong? I looked back to Wendy, whose eyes were riddled with concern.

"He's here, isn't he?" she mumbled, and Jonah and I nodded in unison. "Can you show me him?" I looked to Jonah again. He stood up, chewing on his lip uncertainly.

"I don't know if it's possible...she's not in any state, as you and Matt...as you and Matt are," he muttered shamefacedly. I nodded, trying to understand. "I will do my best, Juliet, I will." He shut his eyes and concentrated for a moment, then sat down beside me and took my hand. "Wendy?" he asked softly. Wendy's eyes widened and she flinched. "I'm sorry for frightening you. I...I am only trying to help you all." Wendy opened her mouth, but no words came out. "Wendy, please, I ask only that you at least try to believe me." Wendy cleared her throat and took in a deep breath.

"I'll try," she forced out.

"It's true, I was a medium for Ramsey Aickman during life. I took part in his necromancy. Ramsey did not understand the full wrath of those he had desecrated. One night, during a seance, as I was channeling the spirit of a kindly old woman, her weakness allowed the rest of them to interfere. The power of their anger killed Ramsey and the rest of the sitters. Ramsey said for me to leave, they'd be after me next. They were indeed. I tried to flee, but they held me in. I attempted my last escape through the dumbwaiter, but as I tried to get out through the furnace, they trapped me in and burned me to death. They're still here and they are still angry. They think that Matt and I...they think that he and I are one and the same. He is weak, as I was. I am here to protect you all, and I am doing everything in my power to keep them away from you. I am not strong enough to keep them all away, but I will do everything I can." Wendy stared at him for a moment, letting it all sink in. She looked a little sick, to be honest, but I could tell she was trying to process it all. Slowly she turned to me and nodded.

"Okay," she whispered, her eyes flickering back and forth in between me and Jonah, looking down at our hands. "Okay, I believe you. But, um, can I ask what that's about?" she inquired, pointing down to them. Jonah and I exchanged a long look. I said nothing, but he stepped in for me.

"One will always fall in love with what he cannot have," Jonah muttered. "Juliet is a lovely person, and she does not deserve for me to want her. But something in her reminds me of myself, the part that I like about myself, perhaps the innocence I was unable to retain after joining Aickman in his...horrible rituals. I should never have fallen for her, but I did." A deep flush rose in my neck and cheeks. Jonah let me lean on his shoulder and I did. Wendy slowly eyed the pair of us, before shutting her eyes and nodding.

"Well...I can't say I understand, but if it makes the two of you happy...then I suppose...I, uh, approve?" Wendy looked very confused, most likely wondering how on Earth a ghost, something that shouldn't have existed, could have possibly fallen in love with a real, existing human girl. I swallowed down the strange buzzing feeling rising up in my throat, the feeling that told me I needed to have an explanation or an excuse or a reason or something. You shouldn't need a reason to love somebody, right? Love means never having to make excuses. Right? Love means never needing a reason for loving somebody. Right? Love can't ever be explained, and shouldn't have to be...right?

And when I tried to find an excuse or an explanation or something, I really just couldn't find one. It wasn't because of the obvious things that first popped into my head, like saving me from the other side of me, the woman that demanded I remain thin as a twig and dead as she wanted me to be, and nobody knew her. Nobody understood her, nobody but me and Jonah. She was the poison in my personality, the tragic flaw, the Achilles heel. And Jonah loved me nevertheless. Even though I had her buried to the core of my soul, he loved me anyways. Even though she was anorexic, even though she had control of me sometimes, even though she could have been the darkest entity in the house, darker than anything Jonah had to deal with because she wasn't separate from me, she was me, she was imprinted in my soul forever, even though she could control me like her damn marionette, Jonah loved me.

And...I loved him too...right?