Truly Madly Ghostly

Chapter Thirty: Before the Storm

Rebecca delicately set her white teacup down on the table, her gaze shifting between Charlotte and the cup. "Perhaps the door to the other side is closing for him," she mused. "The recent events seem more like signs or symptoms of that eternal disaster."

The scent of lemon tea wafted through the air, but Charlotte found herself sinking into a pit of dread. "Does that mean—" Her words trailed off, leaving room for Rebecca to take the lead.

"Yes," Rebecca replied solemnly. "It seems he's going to get stuck on Earth. Soon."

Charlotte's grip on the teacup tightened.

Noticing it, Rebecca sighed.

"Why?" Charlotte asked, her voice trembling.

"I don't know for sure," Rebecca replied, her jaw ticking briefly. The strengthening bond between him and you might be the reason. The more it intensifies, the more he's tethered to this world."

With an incomprehensible expression, Charlotte stared at the door of the cafe.

Seeing her silence, Rebecca spoke again, "His soul is getting bound to the world."

Charlotte's hands clenched under the table, her mind racing with fear.

Rebecca said, "A forever cursed, undeliverable vengeful ghost doesn't have his memories of who he was and all that he loved—" releasing a breath, Rebecca said slowly, "of all who he loved. That fills the soul with an unending frustration paired with the darkness of rejecting the eternal light or getting rejected by that eternal life."

Charlotte's heart stopped dead for a moment.

She realized she was just a few steps away from being Alex's ultimate destruction.

--

"You heard what she said," Charlotte said in a mechanical tone after coming out of the cafe's door and trailing off towards the small garden at the side.

Alex had quietly followed her from the door. "I don't care."

She stood facing the flowers, and he stood right next, facing her.

She scoffed. "Oh, you will care after you forget me and everyone else in your life. You'll care when you only know that deliverance is no longer allowed for you."

"Char—"

She shook her head, almost bursting out all her emotions. "The starry light in the sky you see will forever be gone, Alex! Can't you see what it means?"

Growing agitated, Alex replied, "I don't know how to freaking go into that light. I don't get pulled toward it. But I get pulled toward you instead."

Such sweet words had the taste of doom written within.

"I don't want to be your doom," she said. "I want to be your sky, where you will find your deliverance."

Alex's eyes shone with watery sorrow and sweet emotions. "Says the girl who has already become my entire universe."

--

Charlotte was lying. Ian could clearly see the signs of it.

Whenever he asked her if she was alright, if she had had any more hallucinations recently, she would deny it and say she was alright. But while doing so, she would not hold Ian's eye contact in a constant manner. She would blink or look away or touch her face in a way like she wanted to cover or distract his line of sight.

Despite wanting to help this girl so badly, he had to helplessly just worry. She had created a mirage for herself and had denied any help that he had had to offer.