Alone in the Dark - A Dark Ghost Sequel

ELEVEN

I watched the flames dancing. After everything I had been through, everything I had seen, being trapped in this fire no longer scared me. The figure in the centre of the chaos turned around to face me, and I felt like I had been stabbed, someone slowly twisting the dagger more and more with every detail I took in.

I felt time slide out from under me as I looked into the eyes of the person I thought I would never see again. Even though his hair had been buzzed short, making it a shade darker than the blonde I knew it was I still recognised him instantly. How could I forget? How could I have possibly forgotten him?

"Cole?"

It took everything I had, every ounce of self-restraint to not rush towards him through the blaze. I stood there, held in place by fear. His eyes had always had a little bit of cold in them, but now... now they were like ice, like frosted glass. The blue I once knew, the shining eyes of the boy I loved had been replaced by dark stone. Almost— almost like he wasn't in there anymore.

I fought against the flames, the only weapon I had telekinesis, as I tried to reach him.

"Cole!" I tried him again, just trying to get him to look at me.

The corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. But it wasn't the smile I knew.

I reached for his arm, my hands closing around it, refusing to leave even as his hot skin burnt them before I had a chance to absorb the fire. He had a scar on the side of his neck, the ghost of a handprint, pale against his skin. He pushed me away, swatting— no, throwing me from him. My arm cracked against the wall and I struggled to not howl in pain. I tried to access the telekinesis inside of me to move the rubble but it was gone, replaced by the fire that I used to welcome. The same fire that now felt like a stranger. Dredging up memories I had tried to bury, I called on the flames. It had been so long, yet it still felt like second nature to use them as my own.

The fire around us extinguished, and I was left bracing myself against the wall for support after manually pushing the pieces of plaster and wall casing from where they had landed on top of me. Clutching my hand to my chest, I took another slow but steady step forward.

"I know you can hear me. I know you're in there. Look at me."

If this were the movies, he would've come running and swept me up in his arms, kissing me until the credits started to roll.

But this isn't the movies.

He didn't recognise me.

The fire raged again, flames bursting out of nowhere and I was powerless to stop them, too in shock. I just about had time to throw myself out of the way as part of the ceiling collapsed, and the fire was getting dangerously close to the fuelled-up helicopter. I had to move him away or we'd be in big trouble.

Picking myself up, I tried again. I may be immune to the fire, but I wasn't immune to the heat or rising smoke that it caused and my eyes burned as I tried to get closer to catch his attention.

"Hey!" I yelled.

"You don't quit, do you?" He laughed. "Resilience or stubbornness?"

"Definitely stubbornness. If you remembered me, you'd know that," I shot back. "Let me guess, Clancy Gray is behind this?" That name caught his attention, and he quirked an eyebrow as we circled each other. "Oh, now you'll listen to me? Okay." I rolled up my sleeves. "Tell Clancy that his favourite little ghost is back in play. Oh, and that she's royally pissed. He'll know exactly what I mean."

Cole scoffed, "Do I look like a messenger pigeon?"

"Trust me, he'll want to know I'm still kicking, if he doesn't already." I replied as I drew ever-closer. "You probably don't remember this, but we used to train together? Yeah."

"Oh, did we now?" He smirked.

"Yeah," I lunged at him, but he ducked the blow with ease. I hadn't taken into account the fact that my muscles were almost gone from disuse, so I didn't have the strength that I used to. There wasn't ever really that much strength, but it was enough to hold my own. I had to be evasive instead. I dodged his fist when he ignored the fire and came at me in hand-to-hand instead, testing my skills.

I practically ended up thrown into a cabinet, and in my haste to stand up I noticed the playing card, the jack of hearts, had fallen out of my pocket. An idea steadily forming, I led him towards the office that was miraculously still mostly intact. Darting inside, I fumbled around for a pen and by the time I grabbed one, he was already at the door. At the same time as he set fire to one of the cabinets— blocking the window, the only other escape— I got the pen to work and scribbled onto the face side of the card.

Find me.

Pocketing it again as he reached where I was, I slid through his legs and out the other side, kicking his knee from behind as I scrambled out of his way. He rolled his eyes. "I have shit to do, you know. Quit wasting my time."

I grinned, running towards him and using all my energy to knock him over, sliding the card into his inside jacket pocket as I did so. Please work, please work. Cole pulled himself to his feet and grabbed me by the collar, lifting me off the ground ever so slightly. He frowned when he realised that despite being bruised and bloody, I still had a smirk on my face. Instead of speaking, I pointed upwards, where one of the ceiling lights was on its last legs, seconds away from falling. He let go of me and I stumbled backwards as he moved out of the way, and if I hadn't felt the warm tingling of telekinesis pulling me backwards then I might have been crushed.

Liam's arms were warm around me as my legs gave way, and I coughed, trying to suck clean air into my lungs. Vida was on me in an instant.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" She yelled, "I specifically told you not to—"

The building behind us started to collapse and her, Chubs, and Liam barely had time to combine their telekinesis for a makeshift shield so we avoided the worst of the blast. I was still clutching my wrist to my chest as Liam held me up, my other hand completely curled into his shirt for extra support as Chubs instantly turned to assess my injuries.

"It's Clancy. Clancy Gray is behind this," I spluttered, and Vida's expression turned cold.

"I knew it."

"There's more," I whispered, already lightheaded. "I remember everything."

Liam frowned, "I thought you already got your memories back?"

"Not quite. Now I remember everything," I looked dead at Ruby and her eyes widened.

"How?"

"Cole's alive. And he's part of Jamboree 2.0."

Find me, Cole. Find me. 

Please.