NECROMANTIC

seventeen.

"Rob!" my voice broke and cracked as I screamed his name out, and my feet pounded down the path, and god, I was probably fucking them up, because they were bare, but I didn't care. I threw the gate open, and sprinted out into the road, grabbing his arms in my hands and trying to pull him away. His bare skin was ice cold, so cold it felt like my palms should surely be burning them with their lukewarm heat. "Rob, come on, move, come on, please!" I said desperately.

His eyes were open, staring straight ahead, unseeing, his pupils so big there was barely any hazel surrounding them and fuck, I was so terrified, he wouldn't budge even a little - he blinked, and his pupils returned to normal, colour flooding his pale cheeks. "Sarah?" he said, frowning, before looking around him. "I'm on the road." He remarked, almost casually, but still, he still wouldn't move -

"Rob, come on, we can't stand here, it's dangerous, we need to get onto the side-" I said desperately, my voice hitching in panic.

He smirked. He smirked. Only for a moment, before his expression cleared. "There's no cars." He said, waving a hand around him.

"Not now there isn't!" I said, disbelief flooding my tone. Why wasn't he moving? "But there might be one that-"

"That comes out of nowhere. Like the one that hit me. Right?" he cut me off, and I stopped. I stopped trying to tug him away. Instead, I dropped my hands - I left red imprints on his skin for a moment before they faded away - and stared at him in shock and incredulity. "Rob-"

"Right?" he said, again, louder, cutting me off once more. He raised an eyebrow.

My shoulders slumped, and I backed away from him a step. "Right." I said in a small voice.

"I don't remember coming out here." He remarked, more so to himself than me. He shook his head, and before I could react, he reached out and grabbed one of my wrists. I let out a little yelp of surprise. "I died."

I didn't know what to say. How to react. My heart was hammering my ribs to smithereens and I was too cold, too hot, oh god- "Yeah. In your dreams. You told me."

"No." he shook his head. And suddenly, the scary façade dropped, and he just looked bewildered, hurt, scared of me, though his grip didn't lessen on me. "I died. When that car hit me. Didn't I?"

"Rob, I don't know what you-"

"I died." He repeated, slower, as if talking to a child Emily's age. "And you-" he pulled me closer to him, until there was but an inch between us, and he put my hand onto his chest. Over his heart. "You did something. You brought me back."

"No," I shook my head, tears beginning to fall down my cheeks messily, hysteria rising up in my chest, suffocating me. "No, Rob, I-"

"Don't lie." His voice was low. It sent a chill down my spine, temporarily freezing me, right to the spot. "I died. I remember."

Rob's voice began to tremble as he said "I want you to tell me everything, Sarah. Everything."

I gulped, letting the wetness slick down my cheeks, before nodding.

His eyes flickered over to the house. "Not there," he shook his head. "And not tonight. Tomorrow. We'll skip school. Go somewhere private. And I want to know everything. What happened. How I'm alive, standing here, right now, when that car killed me, when it broke my neck, broke my spine. What I saw before you... brought me back. And why you freaked out at the hospital."

"Ok." I nodded again. "But..." I gasped, and pressed a balled up fist to my mouth to keep back the sob. "How... I won't be able to sleep."

"So we don't. We put a movie on. Lie in bed. Close our eyes. I don't know. But tonight... I need a few hours to think."

"Do you want me to... to stay in the spare room?" I asked in a small voice.

He shook his head sharply. "I want you to- I don't wanna wake up in the middle of the road again." He paused, before snorting. "Not that me getting hit by another car would matter, right?" he waved a hand at me.

"Don't joke about that." I said, my voice wavering, scared, but firm and horrified at his implication. "Please." I added on, softly.

He looked at me for a long moment, before nodding, and starting to head back toward the sidewalk. I paused for a moment, as two pinpricks of light shone from a little distance away, before I closed my eyes. My blood was cold and my chest felt hollow. Rob knew. He knew he'd died. He knew I'd brought him back. He knew. In a way - there was a sense of relief. Now he knew... I could tell him. I could tell him about the frog, the crow. I could tell him about the ghosts. Why I freaked out. I wouldn't be so terribly alone because Rob would know, too. I mean - he'd figured out I'd raised him from the dead. He'd have to believe me about the ghosts. But at the same time... this could be how I lose him. Why would he want to be with me, when I'd gotten him killed, resurrected him, then lied about- he'd know I'd lied and kept things from him from the moment I met him... I'd lived with this burden my whole life. I felt scared. I felt relieved. I felt dread. I felt hope. I felt... confused, lost, upset, angry, a fuck-up, a disappointment, a... a freak.

I opened my eyes again, and the lights were closer, almost ready to bathe me in their white glow. I waited a moment more, before I turned away and walked back to the sidewalk. The car passed by quietly as Rob and I made our way back into the house and he shut the door behind him.