Shadow Souls

Chapter Twenty-Eight

After that, anytime I would wake up in the middle of the night after dreaming of the accident and Tyler would be gone, I would convince myself that he had disappeared and wasn't coming back. I would panic, and then he would just suddenly appear, looking confused. It didn't take long to realize that I was the one doing it. Then one day I finally asked him about where he kept going. He told me he was usually with his mom or brother, but soon it got too hard for him to be around them since they never knew when he was there, and he couldn't talk to them. After that he started wandering around to see if he could find other ghosts and maybe try to find answers about why he was still here. Not that he was in hurry to leave, he assured me. He just wanted to understand. Which is very Tyler.

After that conversation, the next time I woke up without Tyler there, I would force myself not to freak out, and just wait for him to come back on his own. However, this time I wouldn't be so patient.

Sitting on my bed I close my eyes and picture Tyler's face, thinking of him appearing in front of me. I do this over and over as the minutes tick by. I know the more emotional I am the faster it will work, yet this time I make sure to keep my nerves calm. I really don't want any other surprises courtesy of my recent power surges. It takes much longer than I would have thought, but finally I hear him.

"What the hell, Alice," he says sounding annoyed, and I release my breath and open my eyes. "You really shouldn't do that." he continues, "You could accidentally raise something out there."

"I make sure to only think of you, whenever I do it. So far that seems to work," I smile at him. "Now then," I say changing the subject, "Where were you? You better not have spent the whole night over at Paige's young man," I cross my arms over my chest and fix him with my sternest look.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be gone so long this time," he says, losing the last of his irritation over being summoned. "I didn't expect you up so early."

"Yeah well, I had a bad dream," I inform him as he comes to sit next to me on the bed.

"I'm sorry, I should have stayed here with you."

I can hear the regret in his voice, and I instantly feel bad for giving him crap about being with Paige, when Finn had been here last night. "It's not a big deal Ty. So, were you with Paige all night?"

"Actually no, I wasn't."

"Then where did you go?" I ask him again.

He drops his eyes, and I know the answer before he even speaks it. "I went to visit my mom," he says barely above a whisper.

"Oh geez. I'm so sorry Tyler!" I say feeling like the biggest jerk in the world for summoning him away.

"No, it's okay," he assures me, cutting off my apology. "I just wanted to check-in. And I did."

I wanted to argue and tell him to go back, but he doesn't give me the chance before changing the subject.

"So, tell me about this dream," he says lacing his fingers behind his head and leaning back onto the pillow.

He can try to act casual all he wants, but I'm not letting him off that easy. "Tyler, are you positive you don't want to talk about your mom instead? I ask. "Or head back over to see her?"

I scrutinize his face as he answers. Trying to detect even the slightest possibility that he isn't being truthful with me.

"I'm sure. Really." He gives me a halfhearted smile, and I know that he just doesn't want to dwell on it any longer. Seeing his mom or baby brother is still a difficult thing for him.

"So, this dream?" he presses. "Was your mystery man in it again?" He wiggles his eyebrows, and I can't help but laugh.

"Yes, he was," I tell him as I lay back to join him on the pillow. "And I am also now positive, that I somehow know this person, Tyler."

"What did you say he looked like?" he asks.

I describe every detail I can about him. From his incredible green eyes and dark, almost black hair. To his olive-toned skin and tall athletic build.

"Sound familiar?" I ask.

"Sorry, no. I honestly have no idea who that could be."

He sounds certain and it's discouraging. There isn't anybody I know that Ty doesn't know too. I begin to think I am wrong about having met him before. Maybe it's just because I keep dreaming of him that he feels familiar.

"You better be careful Ali-cat or your new boyfriend is going to get jealous about you dreaming of another guy," Tyler warns me jokingly.

"Will you shut up, so I can please tell you the most important part," I scold. "Do you remember what we hit on the bridge that night?" I ask him more seriously now.

"No. I never did see it. But you said it was some kind of animal. Right?"

"Well, I only saw the shadow of it," I tell him. "And this time in my dream the shadow... It was different," I turn my head to face him.

"What do you mean by different?" he asks while moving to face me too.

"I mean, I don't think it was the shadow of an animal, Ty," I watch his brow furrow in confusion, "I think the shadow was by itself."

I can tell that he is trying to process this new detail. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"I'm not really sure," I confess. "But it looked like the shadow itself was.... alive," I say as Tyler gets up off the bed and walks over to the window.

"I saw it move, Ty," I go on, "Like, it tried to hit our car. The shadow itself." I pause thinking of what I saw in the dream. "Actually, I think it did hit the car. I think it might have been what pushed us over that bridge."

"A shadow of nothing, pushed our car over the bridge?" he asks skeptically. "Okay Alice, you do know you sound crazy right now, right?"

"Oh really? You mean the girl sitting here talking to a ghost, sounds crazy?" I say fixing him with a pointed look.

"Touché," he smirks, "But I still don't know what to think about this."

And he's not the only one.