Chapter Four:

"Moony, how many times have I told you, you're not allowed on the bed," Henley groaned as she woke the next morning. She had felt another presence on the bed with her the moment she woke, but she shrugged it off as the dog trying to sneak around the rules.

She realized, however, as her eyes slowly drew open and discovered the dog settled on the floor beside the bed, that it wasn't him at all that was on the bed with her.

Her entire form froze, her eyes growing wide as her heart pounded in her chest. She tried to remember if she had locked all of her doors and windows before going to bed. She had. There had been nothing to awake her to a burglary. She should have been completely alone besides her trusty dog.

But she was anything but alone.

Henley had a sinking feeling who exactly was behind her and she felt sick at the thought. She didn't want to look, to turn around, but she knew she had to be sure. Slowly peeking over her shoulder, she yelped at the sudden sight of Godric on the bed. Startled to find the ghost simply lying there, waiting for her to wake, she rolled right off the bed and to the floor below. Moony barked as he hurriedly scurried away, his head turning left and right to search for the cause of his owner falling. Finding nothing, he turned and padded back over to his pillowed bed.

"What a great guard dog," Henley muttered to herself as she rubbed her sore lower back. She remained where she was, however, not wanting to see the damn vampire.

"I was worried you would never wake," he mused from the bed.

"You're in my bed," she grunted. She was not pleased at all. The shower was one thing, but her bedroom? Her actual bed? Godric was going too far now.

"You simply stated not to pester you when you were without clothes."

"That extends into my bedroom!" she pushed herself to her feet, glaring darkly at the smirking vampire. "Out!"

"I'm rather comfortable."

"You're a ghost; shouldn't you just go right through it?" she crossed her arms over her chest moodily. She still had another hour until she had to wake up for work, but instead she was dealing with this annoying being.

Godric chuckled as he turned his head towards her, an eyebrow rising. "You claim to have this gift the majority of your life, and yet you act as if you have no knowledge of my kind."

"Most of them aren't annoying assholes," she snapped back, grabbing the tangled sheets that had fallen off the bed with her and threw them back on the bed. She was careful not to let them touch Godric, noting to wash the sheets that night. The last thing Henley needed was to lie in a bed that felt like death himself. The mere idea caused her to shudder. "You can leave at any time."

"You know why I will not."

"Yeah, well I'm not helping you," she twisted on her heel and stormed towards her closet. "Especially not after last night."

Godric suddenly materialized before her, stopping her dead in her tracks.

"Move it, Ghosty."

"Godric," he corrected, his amused tone disappearing. "You are heartless."

"Excuse me?" her eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "I'm the heartless one here?"

"How could you not have helped them? They were pleading with you, and you acted as if they didn't even exist," his eyebrows furrowed, his lips forming a thin line. "I once thought vampires were the cruelest creatures. Perhaps I was wrong."

His words struck her like a razor sharp knife. "You have no right."

"I have caused thousands pain. I have acted cruelly for many centuries. And yet, never could I have ignored someone in desperate need," he shook his head.

She shook her head, in complete disbelief of what Godric was saying. "You are unbelievable."

"Perhaps my former underlings were correct to detest humans."

"Don't preach to me. Don't you dare preach to me," Henley had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep her emotions at bay. "You don't understand anything. You don't get any of this."

"Pray tell, how exactly do you justify the cruelty you exhibited last night?" an eyebrow raised as the vampire stepped forward.

Henley hurriedly took a step back as the anger boiled inside of her. How dare he? How dare he assume anything about her? She had cried herself to sleep, felt terrible the entire night because of what he had done. And yet here he was, acting as if she was the heartless one.

"How many people have you killed?" she snapped back. "How many of the spirits I've seen have been your victims?"

Godric's orbs narrowed. "I have not killed a human in many decades."

"But you have killed, so do not preach to me. I haven't killed anyone. I haven't taken a single life. I am not the one in the wrong here," she defended, trying to move around him. She couldn't deal with him anymore. She was at her breaking point, but she wasn't sure yet whether she would start sobbing or screaming.

"Isn't hurting an individual just as cruel?" he refused to leave her alone, appearing once again in her path. Only this time he grew even closer, forcing her to take another step back. "Isn't your refusal to help someone in need just as cruel?"

"I never wanted this. This was never supposed to be my job. It isn't!"

"But you were given this gift."

"How many times do I have to tell you it isn't a fucking gift!" she had embraced her anger, her voice rising as she forced the lump rising in her throat back. She was not going to cry again. She wasn't going to sit on the ground and sob, not like she had every night in high school. She wasn't that girl anymore, and she refused to let herself become her again. "I don't want this. I never asked for this."

"And yet you were still given it."

"After I died!"

Godric seemed taken back at her outburst, taking a step back as he processed what she had said. "After you died?"

She just stood there, her breathing heavy as she glared at the vampire she wished would just disappear. She wished they would all just disappear and leave her alone.

"How?"

"How what?" she snapped.

His head tilted to the side. "How did you die?"

She cursed at herself for letting it slip. "Don't worry about it."

Henley successfully moved around the vampire and entered her closet, slamming the door behind her for a moment of peace and quiet. She was mildly surprise the vampire didn't follow her in there as well. But he had given her an ounce of space, and she was thankful.

Not even turning on the light, Henley closed her eyes and leaned against the closed door. She inhaled sharply as she tried to compose herself. The memories of that day, however, were returning. They always did, and she always hated it. She didn't want to remember it. She didn't want to be reminded of the pain, of the fear. She just wanted it to go away, for her to forget.

She just wanted to forget all of this.

"I'm sorry."

It took Henley a moment to realize Godric had spoken at all. Her eyes snapped open, her eyebrows furrowing as she glanced over her shoulder.

"I did not realize," he continued. "I assumed you had been born with this gift. I…I did not realize it occurred in such a way."

She sighed as her eyes fluttered closed. "It still doesn't make what you did last night all right."

He didn't reply at first, and she was almost hopeful that he had finally left her alone. She wasn't that lucky, however.

"How did it happen?" he asked curiously again. "How did this come to be?"

Henley didn't want to tell this story, not again. But there was a small ounce of hope that perhaps her story would make this pestering vampire leave her alone. She was damn well going to take that chance.

"I was seven," she began, sliding down the closet door and curling her knees up to her chest. "I was crossing the street after my dog when a car hit me. By the time the ambulance got me to the hospital, my heart stopped."

The memory flashed before her, the screams of her parents ringing in her ears as if she was experiencing that day all over again.

"I was technically dead for 30 seconds because they were able to revive me," she remembered waking up, gasping for air, crying and screaming in confusion. She had only been a little girl, so confused and scared as to what was happening to her.

"And this is when you began seeing things?" he wondered.

"Not right away," she admitted. "Everything was fine for a little while. I mean my parents never let me out of their sight, and I was glued to my mother's hip. But everything was normal."

She faintly remembered what it used to be like, to be normal, to be happy and not worried of the things she would accidentally say. She didn't have a care in the world when she was younger, before this all began. She was just a seven-year-old girl. There was nothing special about her, nothing odd. She was just average, and Henley so desperately wished she was average again.

She never would be again.

"I started seeing things six months after. I didn't…I didn't know what I was seeing. My parents thought it was just a phase, that they were all my imaginary friends I created."

"But they were very much real," Godric sounded closer, as if he too as sat on the ground on the other side of the door.

"Except not real at all. That was the problem," she wrapped her arms around herself. "I didn't understand it back then. I mean I still don't get it, but back then…"

"You were only a child. You couldn't possibly comprehend this gift," he agreed.

"Not a gift," she murmured. "Eventually I realized I wasn't supposed to be seeing these people, that I was the only one who could talk with them. After my own teachers wanted my parents to send me off and lock me away, I began realizing I had to hide what I could do. It wasn't a gift though; it never has been."

"But you were given…"

"I was ridiculed my entire life because of something I couldn't help. And I wanted to, Godric. I so wanted to help them. I tried. My best friend when I was eight was a girl who had died before I was even born. I would talk and play with her every day until my parents started getting worried. One day she pointed her mother and younger sister out to me and I tried to help, I tried to give her family her message but…"

A sigh sounded from the ghost. "You weren't believed."

"Why would they?"

"If you proved that you could…"

"If I came to you, Godric, and told you that someone you loved who had died asked me to give you a message from beyond the grave, would you really believe me?" Even with the knowledge of the supernatural, thanks to vampires making themselves known to humans, no one had ever believed a word she said. They would always just think she was troubled or insensitive. After awhile, it had become exhausting to try and make these people believe her. She was tired of it.

"I suppose I would not," he admitted.

She wasn't surprised. "It's not easy. It's not like I haven't tried. Because I have. My entire life I've tried. I don't want to try anymore."

"But the people that you could help…"

"When do I get a break? When do I get peace and quiet?" she would never be left alone. There would always be other spirits, always persistent ones like Godric. She would live the rest of her life running from this curse, and it just wasn't fair. There were plenty of people wishing and praying to be special, to be unique. But all she wanted was to be normal, to have one day where she wasn't seeing what wasn't even there.

Godric was quiet, but she knew he was still there, just on the other side of the door. He didn't utter a word, however, and she was grateful. She didn't want to talk about this anymore. She didn't want to share. She just wanted to be left alone.

But eventually, the comfortable silence they had fallen into had to be broken.

"I'm sorry. I truly am. That is…that is not a childhood anyone should have endured," he spoke hesitantly, choosing his words wisely.

"Does this mean you'll leave me alone?" she asked hopefully. When he didn't respond, she knew she had been asking for too much. "I'm not going to help you. I can't. I'm sorry, but I just can't. I'm tired of this. I don't want to do this anymore."

"My child is in danger. I fear for his life."

"How am I supposed to fix that?"

"By helping me. I only need you to talk to him, to tell him…"

"No!" Henley quickly pushed herself to her feet, yanking the closet door open and glaring at the ghost that suddenly appeared on his feet. "After everything I just told you, you're still going to pester me about this?"

"I'm sorry, but I need your help."

"And I need to be left alone," she was exasperated. Why couldn't he get it through his thickly ghostly skull that she wasn't going to help him whatsoever? "Please."

"He's in danger. You may be the only one that could save his life," despite her story, he was still determined. "Please, Henley."

"No," she shook her head. "No, I can't."

A look of frustration grew on his face. "You are being…"

"If you say selfish, I swear to god…" Henley trailed off angrily. "I'm tired of this. I didn't ask for this. I don't want this. Why can't you just understand that?"

"If you would only just help me, perhaps I could…"

"You could what exactly?" she challenged him, her arms crossing over her chest.

"Perhaps I could help ward the others away," he propositioned. "I could give you a peaceful existence."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "That's not possible."

"It could be."

"But it's not," she sighed. "I'm destined to be cursed with annoying ghosts the rest of my life. So don't promise some meaningless crap and just leave me alone!"

"I will not."

"You're an asshole."

"And you're a selfish coward."

His words struck her hard. "I am not a coward."

Godric stepped forward. "Then help me."

"No."

"Then I will not stop. Not until you help me."

He disappeared before her very eyes, leaving her to scream out in frustration. She kicked at the wall, only to cringe at the pain that shot up her left.

She was never going to find a moment of peace, she realized. Especially not with Godric haunting her.