ghost of you

4 - healing

harmony's pov

"So," Gwen starts up a conversation as we both walk out of school to the park, "what do you think Mavis means? Is he like haunting her as a spirit or something?" I shrug my shoulders, "That would be pretty cool, but how would she know? Can spirits like..write on paper?" "I don't think so." Gwen mutters and kicks a rock on the sidewalk. "Maybe this is just a prank then?" I suggest and Gwen shakes her head, "I saw her face when she first saw that Dominic kid in the yearbook. It wasn't prank material, she was genuinely...terrified." I kick a rock right next to me as well. "You didn't strike me as the type to believe in ghosts and spirits-!" "Well if that's what he is, I...totally believe it." She mutters and we walk in silence for a little while. "She did mention something about a camera though, right?" Gwen speaks up again and I rethink our conversation in the bathroom. "I, luckily, have my camera with me so let's meet each other at the park after school and we'll talk about it, okay?" "Oh yeah, she did. Well, you can also identify ghosts with cameras-!" "Yeah, but like don't you need to be in a dark room or a room at all to see the orb thing? A sunny park wouldn't really be the best fit." Gwen states and I sag my shoulders, pouting, "I hate it when you always one up me in a conversation. You always sound like the smart one in our group." "Well..I mean..c'mon. It's not hard to one up someone as dumb as you." She jokes and laughs as I elbow her in the side, lightly. "HEY! YOU GUYS!" I hear a voice yell and we both look in the distance to see Mavis, waving us over. We quicken our pace. "How the frick did you get here so fast?!" I yell to her and she chuckles, "I'm just a faster person." I smirk at her smiling. I'm glad she's feeling okay after the whole mess with Cliff. "So, what did you mean by knowing him..after he's dead? Or is he dead?" Gwen asks and Mavis shrugs her shoulders as she takes her camera out of the case, "Dominic doesn't even know himself." We both look at each other, confused. "Okay here," Mavis hands me the camera, "take a picture of me, yourself, Gwen, whatever. Just take a picture." "Uhhhh okay." I mumble, pointing it at Gwen. "Say cheeseee, baby." I tease her and she sighs. I take the picture before she can and I laugh as she gets blinded by the bright light. "AHH! Why is that shit so bright?!" She yells as Mavis takes the photo out from the bottom. She snickers at it herself before clearing her throat. "Okay, now look at this." She shows the picture and I laugh once again as I see Gwen's surprised expression. "It's just a god awful picture of me. What's so special about it-?" "Just wait." Mavis hums and we wait for a moment...nothing showing up. "What the hell." Mavis whispers, flicking it with her finger. "What's supposed to show up?" Gwen asks her as she flicks it even harder, clearly frustrated. "Does he only appear in my room?" She whispered to herself and shakes her head, "No, because he was in the Harley photo. Why is he not showing up-?!" "Mavis!" Gwen yells and she snaps back to reality, "Is there something wrong-?" "We need to go to my house." She says and I groan, "We just missed the busses though-!" "Then I guess we have to walk there." Mavis sourly mumbles, grabbing all of her stuff and walking ahead of me and Gwen. "This better be worth it." She mutters and I follow her. Guess we're going on an adventure.

••••••••

We finally arrive at Mavis's house and she bursts into her home, immediately running up the stairs to her room. "Geez what a clutz." Gwen mutters and I snicker as we go up the stairs, "Okay mom." "Oh shut up." She responses to my tease. We make it into her room and she seems to hurriedly grab photos and place them all over her bed. "Hey, where's your mom?" Gwen asks and Mavis shrugs, "I don't know. I think she said she's working late today so it's just us." I put down my backpack on the ground and look at the photos. "Woah." I blurt out, looking at all of them with my eyes wide. They..they all had Dominic in them. Or what looked like to be him. And mostly all of them were in her room. "See? I'm not crazy! I only took these like one week ago! This camera is seriously special." Mavis defends and I look over at Gwen, who's eyes seem to be wide as well. I look back at one where he seems to be holding a peace sign and graze my finger along it. It definitely wasn't photoshopped or glued on. "And not only can I see him, but he can HEAR ME. He can hear US! Crazy, right?" She asks and I look over at her in shock, "Why were you keeping this from us?!" "Well, I didn't think you guys would believe me and I needed a decent amount of proof. That's why I'm so interested in this guy's backstory. Because he can't say anything to me so I have to ask questions and he either as to put a thumbs up or form an x or something," She explains and I relook at the ones where he has his thumbs up, "that's why I was so shocked when I saw him in the yearbook. I didn't think he ever went to our school. And when I saw him next to Cliff, it was almost like the universe wanted to me figure out what's going on but-! That..kinda backfired as you could tell from lunch." "So," Gwen speaks up, "what are you gonna do? Are you gonna try to talk to Cliff again? That seems kinda dangerous." "I know but," She sighs, "how else am I supposed to find out the truth though-?" "What about the guy that sold this camera to your parents? I'm sure he knows something about it." She shakes her head to my statement, "I talked about it with him like the first day I found out, but he didn't believe me even though I showed him proof. Then, I found Cliff, so I never got an answer....but Cliff's the only one I get can answers from right now-!" "Are you INSANE, Mavis?! He almost KILLED you for bringing Dominic UP! If you try again, the result will be even worse-!" "WELL WHAT OTHER CHOICE DO I HAVE?!" Gwen and Mavis yell at each other and Gwen turns to me, "Don't you agree with me?" I open my mouth, nothing coming out. I really didn't want to pick sides today. "Look," Mavis quietly says, "I get that you guys are trying to protect me, but that's a risk I'm gonna have to take." She looks at the camera, gripping it in her hands, "What if Dominic's actually alive or something? What if he's trapped in this camera? I can't let that happen forever, because I'm too scared." "Okay, and what if it's late?" Me and Mavis both look at Gwen, confusedly. She sighs, "I mean, what if he's already dead. You'll be wasting your time-!" "I'm not wasting my time. I'm spending time helping someone I care about." Gwen and I both flinch in surprise as we both see how serious Mavis is about this. "I'm sorry, but none of you guys are gonna change my mind about this. I'm gonna talk with him tomorrow." Gwen starts to open her mouth and I grab her hand, looking at her. She stares at me, closing her mouth. It's useless arguing with her if she's not gonna change her mind. That'll be a waste of time. "Okay," I say and nod my head, "we'll always be here." Mavis brightly smiles and hugs me, bringing a smile back my face. My heart races just thinking about tomorrow. Hopefully we'll all find out the truth.