Out of the Darkness

97

I always do that, knowing that I will end up getting hurt. She's a fucking ghost, for Christ sake. "No, um, I'll go with you. That is, if you still want me too," she replied, looking down at the ground. I shrugged, like it didn't matter one way or another to me. "Yeah, I don't care. Let's go then. After you," I replied, holding the door wide for her. She walked through, the expression on her face unreadable. I saw Sam's door open out of the corner of my eye, then realized that she was still transparent. I was getting way too comfortable with this situation. "Go solid," I whispered hastily. She turned, gasped when she saw Sam coming out, and turned fully corporeal, right before he looked our way. "Hey guys," he said, with a smile. "What's up?" I shook my head. "Nothing much. Gonna go out and do a little more snooping, see if we can find anyone who knows who Anna was," I lied. His smiled faded. "Oh. I'm sorry we haven't made any progress with that,' he said, looking at Anna. She smiled at him. "It's okay. I can't miss what I don't remember right?" Sam looked like he didn't know how to reply so he just smiled at her awkwardly, then looked at me. "Need any help? Kat has plans today, and I'm caught up on all of my videos. Jason, the new editor, he has the duo video. I have nothing to do today." "Oh um," I started, trying to figure a way out of this. "Sam, can I talk to you for a min? Over here." He looked confused but followed me down the hall, away from Anna. "Is something wrong?" he asked, glancing over my shoulder to where she stood. "Kind of," I admitted. "I kissed her, pretty heavily, and it didn't go over well. I think I need the day to smooth things over. Just the two of us." "Oh...okay, yeah. I understand. Bring me back some Taco Bell though," he said, giving me a small smile. "And remember that we don't even know if we can bring her back. As far as we know, her time being alive is over. Don't get in over your head, brother. I don't want to see you get hurt." I pressed my lips together and nodded. He started back into his room as I turned back to Anna. When I met her emerald green eyes, my heart skipped a beat. "Sorry Sam," I murmured. "Little too late for that." She stayed solid long enough for us to get into my car. Anna went transparent again, as soon as I reached out to take the gear shift, which she had her hand close too. I caught her eyes when I looked back up. The look of guilt and pain on her face was confusing. "Sorry," she replied. "Staying solid drains my energy, so I think I should only do that when I have too." I nodded. "I was just trying to drive, Anna. Not touch you," I answered, my voice monotonously flat. As much as I liked her, I had to remember that she was a ghost. She was off limits. Even if she weren't acting like I was going to give her the bubonic plague or something. "Oh," she said, then turned her head to look out the window as I started driving down the road. We didn't speak, so I set my playlist on the car stereo and let my mind wander. These roads were second nature to me but the high traffic did entail a certain amount of concentration, so I couldn't let it wander much. "Oh FUCK YOU!" I yelled, as a bright yellow Porsche cut me off. "Fucking rich asshole," I muttered under my breath. I had money, sure, but it was nowhere near as much as the upper class of LA had. I would never act like I owned the fucking world or look down on others who didn't have as much. I knew how much I had been blessed in my life and how one small mistake could take it all away. Especially, when you lived your life on social media, millions of people's eyes on you, waiting for you to make that mistake, so that they could tear you down inch by inch. I had watched it happen to some of my friends. I had almost had it happen to me before. Social media was a tricky temptress, for sure. I heard Anna sigh, so I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. She was staring out the window, her cheek in her hand, drawing little faces on the glass. I watched her for a moment, then spoke up. "You know I'm going to have to clean that right?" I asked, gruffly. She looked at me, wide eyed, and let her hand drop into her lap. "Sorry. I was just- I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. I'll clean it for you." I smirked and rolled my eyes at her, playfully. "I'm just messing with you, Anna. I did hear you say that you were going to only go solid when you needed too though, right? Is drawing on my window a necessity?" I was still just messing around, so I kept my voice light and playful, so that she didn't misunderstand. "Oh," she said, holding her hand up to her face. "I hadn't even realized that I did that. Guess it was just triggered by my memories." "You're remembering more?" I asked, my eyebrows going up in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me?!" "I guess I didn't think about it with everything going on. You should be concentrating on Sam right now. Not me. I'm not going anywhere," she replied, sadly, looking away. "You still should've told me Anna. There could be information in your memories that will help us find out who you are, maybe even track down some relatives!" I said, excitedly. She shook her head, and looked at me as I pulled over onto the side of the road, in front of the laser tag arena. "No, I shouldn't have told you, Colby. This is my life. Well, my afterlife. My memories. My choice."