Dannies, Death, and Dates

Chapter 12

"What the heck was that?" Dani exclaimed. 

Gage glared at her through the ghost cell. 

"None of your business," he said shortly. "And by the way, I do not appreciate the fact that you made me give up my ghosts secret before you revealed yours. Bad form."

"It is too my business," she corrected him, pacing furiously. "You can't just go to any random house and start forcing people out! My business is stopping creeps like you from hurting people."

"A random-Stop me... CREEP?" Gage spluttered, incoherent with fury.

"That was not an innocent man, or a random house! This is my business and my life... or afterlife or whatever. Keep your naive do-gooding out if it!"

Dani felt as if she had been punched. Naive? He thought she didn't know how painful reality could be? 

"Never... ever... call me naive," she growled. 

"I have been through things you can't imagine. I have been brought low in every sense of the word. You don't know who I am and you don't have the right to judge what I know!"

"Follow your own advice!" Gage snarled. "I stuck around on that ski hill. I tried to teach you. I carried you safely to the bottom when you were too weak to move! And you can't even look at me without seeing what everyone else sees. A stupid skater punk!"

He stormed around the cell as he spoke, the words gushing out.

"That house tonight isn't random okay? That's my old house, and that man you saw? That poor innocent man? That's my stepdad. The guy who makes my mom feel like she is worthless. The guy who never had a problem hitting me to keep me in line."

He turned his back on Dani.

"As long as I'm free I will never stop trying to get him away from her."

Dani's anger slowly washed away as she stared at Gage's back. His shoulders trembled slightly with emotion, and his next words shook.

"I'm not a bad kid. My mom is the only one who saw that. And now... now..."

His words trailed into silence. 

"She's alone. She's alone with him, and I'm- I can't..."

He straightened his shoulder and turned back around.

"Never mind. I don't know why I'm telling you this. Just shoot me back into the ghost zone already so I can get back sooner."

His eyes were wet, but his mouth was pressed into a firm line. Dani's hand hovered over the switch to the ghost zone. But then she looked back at Gage. And his eyes testified to the truth of everything he had just said. 

She deactivated the ghost cell instead. Gage looked up in surprise as the green walls melted away. 

"Family rule," Dani said, not making eye contact.

"Ghosts go in the zone unless you know their motivations. And now I do."

She slowly walked up the basement stairs and said, without looking back,

"I'm sorry we met like this. You do what you need to do. I believe you, and I won't get in your way. But please-" she said, glancing over her shoulder, "please don't hurt anyone. In the end, it's you that ends up with the pain."

Gage met her eyes, nodded seriously, and phased through the floor. Dani closed the basement door behind her, sure that he would never again return. Not now that she knew how broken he was. 

Not now that he knew how broken she was.