The Apparition || Bad Omens || Noah Sebastian

Chapter twelve

Noah slammed the door to his room, letting himself collapse against the wood with a heavy breath. John's words kept echoing in his head, each sentence a blow, each detail an open wound.

"He took advantage of her"

The bitterness in John's voice had hit him like a punch. Those words had accompanied him throughout the drive home.

Noah hadn't grasped the meaning of those words, as if too many pieces were still missing from the puzzle that was Ruby's life for it to be understood.

John had left after saying that sentence, still irritated by Brendon's presence, leaving him with blank spaces in the fabric of that story.

His mind began to wander. What if that man had harmed her?

He couldn’t believe Ruby had had to endure something like that. Everything that had happened before her death now took on an even more tragic and dark meaning.

The room suddenly felt too small, suffocating. The thought of what Ruby had gone through made him feel powerless. He threw his jacket onto the chair and rubbed his face, trying to make sense of his thoughts. He needed her, to talk to her, to understand.

When he raised his eyes, Ruby was already there, her ghostly figure more vague than usual. The dim light from the lamp faintly illuminated her face, but there was something different in her gaze, a deep melancholy that seemed to pierce Noah’s soul. They stared at each other for a long moment in silence, the words trapped between them like an invisible barrier.

Noah lowered his gaze, his hands trembling. “You have to be honest, Ruby” he finally said, his voice breaking. “John said that... Maybe someone hurt you. Is that why you can’t find peace?”

Ruby didn’t respond immediately. She slowly floated toward him, stopping just a few steps away, as if searching for the right words. “I don’t know,” she said at last, her voice barely a whisper. “I didn’t remember... until just now.”

Noah felt his heart clench. Seeing her so vulnerable made him feel even more useless. He couldn’t touch her, couldn’t hug her, couldn’t do anything to ease the pain that had marked her life – and now even her death.

Ruby moved closer, her face a mosaic of conflicting emotions: confusion, fear, anger. “When you looked at me earlier, at school… it was like something unlocked inside me. Memories I didn’t want to remember. Brendon… he…” Ruby lowered her gaze, her eyes lost in the flickering light of the room.

Noah couldn’t bear the distance between them. He jumped up from the bed, pacing nervously around the room. “Did he hurt you? I can’t believe you had to go through all of this, and I didn’t know a thing. Ruby, if I had only known you sooner... I would have done something. I would have wanted to protect you.”

Ruby looked at him tenderly, but there was a sadness in her smile. “It's not what you think, Noah," Ruby said with a sigh. "Brendon didn't hurt me, at least not physically. We've known each other since high school, we were great friends. When he fell into drugs with Jen, I was the one picking up the pieces of his self-destruction.” Her voice cracked, and for a moment, it seemed as though she might cry. But ghosts can’t cry. At least, not in the way the living do.

“I remember that day, Jen came to pick Michael up early from my house. She never enjoyed doing it, but her double shifts made it impossible to care for the boy, and she certainly couldn’t leave him home alone, especially since Brendon had found a job after prison. A few minutes after they’d left, I heard another knock on my door. It was Brendon,” her voice broke, “I don’t remember much. I just thought he had changed after jail. He seemed to have found balance. He often came to pick Michael up from my house and stayed for a coffee, and when there were some works to be done at school, he was always the first to help. I trusted him.”

From that evening, Ruby only remembered Brendon's lost look when she told him that Michael had already gone home with Jen.

“She didn’t tell me. We had an argument and you know how Jen is, she won’t let anything slide,” Brendon had said.

Ruby had smiled warmly. “Do you want to come in for a coffee, and tell me a little about it? Just like old days”

Her mind had blacked out after that moment. She only remembered the pain that invaded her body. That physical pain that is merely a consequence of mental anguish. As if the psyche had no other way to make itself understood than by making your heart burst out of your chest.

She was lying in her bed. Brendon had left like a coward. What young Ruby had secretly always wanted had come true. And it had been awful. It made her feel worthless. Her cheeks were red from the tears that were drawing curved lines down her face.

“I don’t know what happened after that. I just remember that one day Jen was waiting for me outside the school. It seemed strange; she never had time to pick up Michael. You know the rest.”

The air in the room had become stifling. Noah found himself thinking that there was nothing comforting about death if this was how people passed through it.

“I’m sorry I only remembered now,” Ruby said.

Noah stopped in front of her, his heart heavy with pain and frustration. “But now I know,” he murmured, searching for her gaze. “And I won’t let you face this alone. If this is the reason you can’t find peace, then we’ll do everything we can to uncover the truth. There will be peace, Ruby. For you. I promise.”

Ruby stared at him intensely, and for a moment there was only silence between them. Then, almost without realizing it, they both moved toward each other. Noah raised a hand, as if to touch her face, to let her feel that she wasn’t alone. Ruby did the same, their movements perfectly synchronized. But when their fingers brushed, there was no warmth that Noah so desperately desired. His fingers passed through her ethereal skin, as if she were nothing more than an illusion, a dream too fragile to be real.

The pain of the physical distance became unbearable, and for a moment, it seemed they both might collapse under the weight of that unbridgeable separation. Ruby withdrew her hand, a deep frustration and helplessness crossing her face. “I wish I could touch you,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I wish I could feel you, just once.”

Noah felt a lump in his throat. “Me too,” he said simply. “More and more every day.”

He sat on the bed, his face in his hands, trying to stop the emptiness that was consuming him. “I don’t know how much longer I can bear not being able to touch you. Not being able to do anything for you.”

Ruby looked at him for a moment, then sat next to him, though her body didn’t touch the bed. “You don’t need to touch me to make me feel safe,” she said softly. “You already do, every day. You’re the only thing keeping me here, the only person who makes me feel… alive.”

Noah looked up at her, and for an instant, there was only tenderness in their eyes. “I wish I could give you back your life, Ruby. I’d do it in a heartbeat if I could.”

She smiled, but it was a smile veiled with sadness. “You can’t work miracles, Noah. But you’re a pretty good one”

A brief silence fell between them, broken only by the light sound of the wind brushing against the window. Then Ruby gave him a conspiratorial look, an attempt to lighten the mood. “If it helps,” she said with a small smile, “at least you don’t have to worry about awkward kisses.”

Noah chuckled softly, struck by the contrast between their humor and the pain they were both feeling. “Don’t tell me that was one of your flaws! I couldn’t handle another disappointment” he replied, trying to match her joke.

Ruby laughed too, the crystalline sound filling the room like a breath of fresh air. For a moment, the weight of their pain felt lighter.

But deep down, they both knew that laughter wouldn’t erase what was happening.