The Peculiar Alchemist

71 || A Crushed Hope

A hand passed by Van's face and he had no idea that it was there.

It was nothing but a loving touch done out of pure longing and admiration. The hand belonged to his biggest fan and most loyal admirer, it belonged to a pouting Sammy who wished that this simple touch was felt. Alas, the living cannot interact with the dead, and all the myths about the presence of ghosts causing room temperatures to drop or an unnerving feeling were nothing but that.

Myths.

Sammy had tried to let his living family members know he was there, but when he tried everything and got no results he knew he should just give up. Never had he ever felt anything from any ghost when he was alive, and he was relentless in his efforts, too. There was just no way to make someone see or even feel him.

The same thing went for Van, but Sammy found himself wanting to try. Maybe something somewhere actually causes Van to be aware of him, but he was completely oblivious to Sammy.

"You answered this question wrong." He mumbled letting his hand fall from Van's face as he looked at the assignment he was doing, and it amused him to see that Van had made similar mistakes to him when he was a student. "This one is always so tricky, I always mix it up with the other rune. Gosh, I lost so many marks over it that I might have cried a little bit when I went back home."

But Van didn't respond, he only sighed looking down at the questions with a frown.

"Hey, you're doing fine and you look so perfect doing it, too. Why wasn't I as hot as you whenever I got something wrong?" Sammy whined, looking up at the guy of his dreams who would probably still be clueless of Sammy even if he was alive. Would Sammy ever have the courage to actually approach him if he were?

Guys like Van had always been the type Sammy would obsess over. There were so many times he got distracted while on the streets, in class, or even when they spoke to him and he often admired them from afar. They were nothing but fleeting crushes, Sammy didn't have the time nor bravery to go and approach any one of them. It obviously never got anywhere, and it seems like Sammy was always doomed to be alone.

Sammy made the mistake of taking advantage of the fact that he was an intangible invisible ghost because he had learned so much about Van, and that made Van more than just a fleeting crush.

He was a source of headache, both good and bad, and a potential heartbreaking waiting to happen at any moment. In his head, that heartbreak would inevitably come either because Kellen took his time to revive him or because Van simply didn't return Sammy's feelings. It was hard to think about it, so he started distracting himself by counting the moles on his face.

He really was being creepy, but he couldn't help it.

If he had a heart, if ghosts had heartbeats, then his would be picking up its pace and if he had blood coursing through his veins, then it would all rush to his face because he chose that moment to remember every instance he gushed about Van to Kellen.

It was dumb and Sammy really wished he stopped talking sometimes, but he really thought Kellen couldn't hear or see him back then. He didn't know why he chose Kellen of all people to tell him all that to – it made him feel better to think he was an annoying presence and talked his ear off – but in all honesty Kellen was a very interesting person to follow.

Seeing him lie, steal, and break into places was exciting. People always made their assumption on him, it was funny, and they never really truly knew anything about Kellen. What's funny is that even Aubrey didn't know everything, but Agnes and Sammy did.

His fault for wanting to uncover secrets on his own, Sammy was too busy getting sad and heartbroken over Van, but it was a little bit funny to see him make the silliest mistakes as he answered. Not a very bright student it seems, not that Sammy ever cared about that.