GHOST CABIN ☆ EARTHMIX AU

Part one: forever

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness."

- Desmond Tutu

The wind outside was harshly hitting the window frames on the old wooden two-story cabin on the edge of the dark, wast forest in the middle of the Canadian wilderness.

The rain was splashing window glass with its sharp pointy droplets accompanied by the frequent outbursts of white lighting and the roaring sound of the last wilding thunderstorm of the summer as nature slowly but unapologetically morphed itself into autumn.

It was shortly after three in the morning. The tall silhouette of the young man—still in his twenties—was standing next to a half-open window, a few sharp droplets that got inside were falling right through him on the dark brown, worn-out carpet that was covering the whole tiny square bedroom.

The man's jaw was clenched, his eyes worried as they were focused on the old petite lady, laying in her bed shaking and groaning in her sleep, knowing he couldn't help her, knowing that it was her last night.

His eyes shot to the calendar hanging from the wall beside a toilet table by the window; August 30th, 2021...exactly fifty-six years from that stuffy summer night in the convenience store where he spent his last moments alive.

He made his way closer to the bed as another radiant lighting slashed through the stormy night. Sitting on a chair he put his hand on a trembling, greyish hand, feeling the light touch of his old friend. His only friend, his only true company for fifty-six years.

Praewa had been blaming herself for that night all those years. Every day she was repeating to the ghost of the young man who saved the life of her son and her own, how sorry she was. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. You should still be alive, living your life with someone you love and who loves you. I will keep the promise I gave you on that night. One day you'll be alive again...I promise."

Each day she used the same or similar words to express what she had felt and what she knew she had to do to make it right. As if repeating this as a mantra would ease her pain and guilt from that night. As if it would erase the fact that her saviour was dead...Nothing more than just a ghost who sacrificed his young life to save two innocent souls, and was from that moment on stuck with her because she had made a promise—a promise which bound him to her until she fulfils it. He couldn't move from this crossroad between life and death, he was stuck, until that person comes. Or maybe forever.

Praewa will die tonight, without fulfilling her promise.

One weak scream erupted through the old lady's lips, her eyes shot open, frantically searching for her ghostly companion. "Earth..." her voice was weak, barely audible as she tried to tell her last words to him. The words Earth needed to know, the words he had to remember because even though she was dying she had to try one last time.

Try to bring to Earth someone who could possibly love him, who could bring Earth back to the realm of alive. Someone young and full of life, someone stubborn but gentle and caring. Someone who won't be scared of Earth. Someone who...doesn't believe in ghosts. But that someone was Earth's last hope.

And somehow Praewa felt that it had been him all along. Long before he was born before his father met his mother before his father even knew what life really was. The red string of fate was created between Earth and her grandson, Mix back then in the convenience store when the bullet ripped through Earth's heart, leaving a wide crack spreading its tiny cracks all over Earth's body and soul, waiting for someone to heal them, to cover Earth in tender, pure, and healing love. To bring Earth back to life, where he belongs, where he should have been all those fifty-six years.

"Earth..." Praewa called him again, her tired eyes were barely open.

"I'm here."

"I'm dying," she coughed.

"I know," Earth knew for months. He could feel it, he could even see it. The aura around Praewa, always bright white, yellow sometimes even pink, slowly lost its brightness, faded away from its colours. Now looking at her, Earth could see only the pitiful stain of what it used to be.

"I-I had promised you...I...find you a man who will love you...who" she coughed again, her body shaking, "who will give you your life back."

"Praewa," Earth squeezed her hand as much as he could, "I know you had tried your best. That's more than enough for me—you tried."

She shook her head, weakly, "no, it's not enough. Earth," she looked at him with the last ounce of determination she could find in her, "you have to trust me...give me one last chance. Mix..."

Mix.

Earth heard so much about Mix. Praewa loved to talk about her youngest grandchild. She talked about him so much that Earth sometimes felt he met him already like he knew him like they knew each other for a long long time already.

"...my grandson, he will come to live here once I'm gone. He promised me, he will take care of the cabin. Earth...Mix will come. I know that you can find a way to him and he...he can find a way to you—"

"Praewa, that's—how you can be sure? Does he even know I'm here? You told me he doesn't even believe in ghosts. What if he wouldn't even be able to see me?" Earth sighed, "You can't force love onto someone, Prae, you just can't."

Praewa closed her eyes and opened them again, and Earth knew she had opened them for the one last time, "Mix, he—he will be able to see you. I know he will. He is young and he has so much to learn, and I want you to teach him everything, and maybe he can teach you something too." The words were coming out harder and harder from Praewa's throat, her lips were dry and shaky. "Earth, please, please...don't lose hope. Not in me. Not in yourself. Not in Mix. Not in your life."

Praewa's last words were lingering around Earth in the tiny bedroom while the darkness of the night crescendoed into a tender light of the peaceful morning.

And Earth watched as the chest of the only person in the world who was there for him stopped its movement.

Forever.

To be continued...

P.S. Welcome to the Ghost Cabin. Feel free to choose any room you want. 👻