Page 25 of Shadowing My Dreams
“I don’t understand that. I thought, I mean, in movies, people who die don’t stay sick. I can’t think of an example right now, but… Star Wars! Kenobi wasn’t cut in half as a ghost.” He looked so pleased – it was adorable.
“That’s a movie and not real… ghosts. But I’ve never met a sick ghost until now. It’s like he’s wrapped himself up in it somehow.” I didn’t understand what I had felt from him.
“Like a shroud?”
“Exactly. It’s not normal. But spirits are never normal. It depends on… them, I guess.” I shrugged and pushed my plate away. I didn’t even want to look at it.
“Have you always been able to see ghosts?” He asked so casually as if he didn’t see me as a freak. Most people did when they found out, and especially when they saw me interact.
“I was really young. I was six.”
“That had to be scary. You were just a child.” He looked concerned and it filled me with a warmth I didn’t expect from him. He was continually surprising me.
“I was terrified. I had just attended my grandfather’s funeral and saw him in the coffin – which was already scarring for me. Then, that next night, he walked into my room and sat on the edge of my bed just like he always used to. I screamed, and the look he gave me broke my heart even more than it already was. I was ready when he reappeared the next night. I wasn’t scared. I knew it was really him. He had wanted to say goodbye – he did – and I never saw him again. He went to wherever it was he went.”
“That’s really heavy.”
“For a six-year-old? Yeah. But it never ended after that. I knew what they were, and my grandmother told me that they couldn’t hurt me, so I stopped being scared. She also was sensitive to the dead, but her gifts weren’t as developed as mine, even at a young age. I now know better. I was able to get help from someone who could teach me how to shield myself when I needed to. Dealing with the supernatural takes a toll in a lot of ways.” Exhaustion mainly, and right now I was truly running on reserves. But I wanted to be here. I wanted to know more about him, even if I knew it might be a bad idea.
“I bet. I almost shit my shorts as I ran away.” He snorted.
“That was smart. Not all spirits are… kind.”
“It seems like mine is a master at throwing shade.”
“Agreed. Now, you.” I placed my elbows on the table and leaned on them. “Tell me something about you.”
“I… What do you want to know?” He smirked. “You already know my wifi password.”
“Tell me about growing up,” I offered. I was dazzled by him even if I should know better. But his energy wasn’t bad. It was just scattered. But the colors were those of kindness and sexuality mixed with the fading hues of his death. “What was young Jack like?”
Hi sighed and leaned back in his chair. “He ate and breathed football and soccer. It was all I thought of. My dad was a highschool football star, and he expected the same from me since I was his only son. So, I played, and I was pretty good – but not as good as he was. Not as good as he wanted me to be. We don’t really get along. I moved out the minute I graduated, took all of the money that I had saved for college, and moved here. God, it was a stupid thing for me to do. But it was what I wanted, and looking back, I guess it was what I was supposed to do.”
Suddenly, his bravado made sense. It was all a cover for the wounded person he was. “Did you go to college?”
“No. I got a job at the gym almost immediately. I was in perfect shape and eighteen – they hired me on the spot, and I learned from the other trainers what I needed to know.”
“A pretty face and a hot body opens doors.” I giggled.
“I really like itwhen you tell me I’m hot. It does things to me,” he growled, and I almost fell off my chair.
“Stop flirting. We have a ghost to save,” I begged. If he kept flirting, I wasn’t sure I would make good choices.
“See, you keep saying things like that. I just want him out of my house.”
I took a second to respond so he might understand. “He’s hurt, somehow. Lost in a way, even if he doesn’t know it. There’s something tying him there, and he needs help. He’s a soul inneed, Jack.”
“You really are a very good person. I see you, Arch. The way you try to take care of everyone and, I guess, everything. I bet you even save cats from trees,” he chuckled. “It’s very attractive and… It makes me want to know you.”
“You’re talking biblically, aren’t you?” I flirted back, unable to stop myself.
“Yes. But I’m really talking about you.” He leaned forward and began to slide his hand across the table before pulling it back. God, I wanted to touch his hand again.
“Tell me something else about you. I’m… sorry about your parents, Jack. That’s hard.” I changed the subject back to something safer.
“They don’t even know about the accident. They have no idea that I died. I don’t think they get to know that anymore.” He was so matter-of-fact about it.
“Your mom?”
