The Ghost of Sander Jones

Chapter 22: Gone

I knew I was falling, free-falling into the darkness and there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. No one was there to catch me, I felt this and I waited for the impact of the fall. I was falling but there was no wind lashing around my face. Nothing. It was like I was in a dream; it was fake but somehow real. I hit the ground with a thud and I jerked awake by the impact.

My eyes flew open as I realized that I had not been falling but had only been experiencing the sensation of it. Like my soul had fallen back into my body. The first thing I registered was that I was still in the training arena – which was now in worse conditions – and that my skin still had its ghostly glow that was now starting to fade. Mark was there by my side, his clothes ripped and shredded throughout. His hair was thrown every direction and his face was scratched and smudged. I looked to my other side and Sander was there holding me. Maybe I'd fallen after all. I thought disoriented. I blinked and then went wide eyed. Sander was no longer transparent, he was human! "Sander!" I said hoarsely. He nodded once already knowing what I was going to say. His expression changed to concern.

"What happened?" I asked rolling my head toward Mark. My neck was stiff and there was an aching throughout my body, but mostly in my arm was the pain truly bad. Sander sighed when Mark answered. "I'll explain it later." I nodded once my vision clouding again until it eventually went black.

I was in my room when I woke again. The room was dark, the curtains were closed. Everything ached and I couldn't even lift my head. I tried to think of previous events that had left me in my room. The memories of the earlier events came flying back to me, each their own different color. I sighed angrily at my lack of movement.

In the corner of the room someone cleared their throat. I strained to see where the sound had come from but I couldn't move at all. "Hello?" I said in a barely audible, labored voice. I tried to lift my head so that I could see but failed. I waited and strained my ears so that I could hear the footsteps approaching the bed. "How do you feel?" An unmistakable voice asked. Sander leaned over so that I could see his face from where I was at. He assessed my expression with soft brown eyes. I ignored his question and made my own statement in a stronger voice.

"My dad is going to flip when he sees you in here!" Sander shook his head. "Already taken care of. He knows I'm here but he wants to know my ties to you." He frowned. "I didn't give him the glory of it, just half of the truth, and I must say I watered down a lot." He added as an afterthought. "He's going to want to hear the truth from you though." I made a slight attempt to nod which failed, but sander knew it was an indication that I understood.

"What day is it?" I asked cutting my gaze as far as I could to the windows. "It's December eleventh." Sander said matter-of-factly. I blinked stunned. I'd been out for four days? "Impossible. I must have been in a coma or something." Sander shook his head before I finished. "Not really. The doctors have you on some really powerful medicine." He shrugged carelessly and reached over and took my hand that was closest to him, holding it gently between his. "You were in and out though. You were talking a little, mumbling most of the time about what happened..." He trailed off. How come I didn't remember any of that? "I don't remember any of that." I tried to move my arm but for the first time I noticed that it was all wrapped up and bandaged. I frowned and sighed. "How bad am I?" I rolled my head toward Sander stifling a scream of pain as I did so.

"Your right arm is broken; three of your fingers are broken on that hand. Five of your ribs are cracked and you are covered in bruises, the biggest ones at your neck and back. You have burns mostly on your legs and back from where the battle spells had hit you and of cours from the blast. There are a couple others including burns on your face from the explosion and some internal damage." I shut my eyes. That list explained the soreness. It stayed quiet for a moment while I let Sander's words fully sink in. "how did I get the bruise on my back?" I asked interrupting the peace. "When you fell out of the sky you fell pretty hard even though I caught you..." Sander answered.

"Tell me what happened." I said. Sander dipped his head once understanding what I meant. "You remember that blue light that was coming from your skin when the solstice started? Well it caused you to explode. That blast was horrific. Mark had drug Kalan back when he tried to run I had your father and luckily I could get him to safety... As for Helga – she vanished after Kalan was killed from the explosion –I guess the blast vaporized him – she told me to tell you thank you before she did completely fade out though. I'm not sure what happened to you mom. She just vanished. But before she had went crazy – or at least that's what Mark had theorized had happened – and decided to kill you after all. I guess she got tired of all the orders and mixed feeling from everything snapped." Sander turned my hand over examining it being careful not to touch the bruise in the middle of my palm.

"Thanks." I said sighing. I was upset. I didn't not want this to come upon my mom even though I knew of the plan she was involved in.

"And you?" I said to Sander trying to make the mood less dreary and bring up a topic that had only been brushed over. "Are you completely human again or...?" Sander half smiled and held up his free hand and let me examine it for a second then it flickered to the transparent blue like he had been before, then flickered back. "Oh." I said in amazement. "Human but still have a few of my ghost-like qualities." His smile tipped higher.

I smiled a little feeling no ache in my face. "Still immortal?" I half-teased. He nodded once. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully trying to remember something. "Oh, I found out some other information about your own mortality." His voice became dull at the end. What was wrong? "What's- what happened?" I asked cautiously. "Its nothing really." Sander began, reading the worry in my eyes. "Its still unknown if you are immortal or not. Though most of what I saw was that you were immortal. I'm still not sure but from what I saw three days ago, some of the injuries that you sustained should have killed you, which adds to my own theory that you may In fact be... well you know." He continued. He must be talking about the injuries he didn't say earlier. I thought.

I sighed. I wasn't really concerned with being mortal. There were still much more maters to deal with outside my own life which reminded me –

"You said you explained to my dad what happened and he didn't put a fight with your explanation? None at all?" I raised my eyebrow slightly. Sander shrugged. "More or less." I made a sound of disapproval indicating that I wanted him to explain. Sander frowned a little and then his eyebrows creased, thinking. "It wasn't easy. After the solstice passed and he saw you he put up a huge fight – he started bawling which is very, very unusual for your dad. He demanded to know everything." He shrugged again. "Oh." I said, "that's more like it." I turned my head so that I was looking at the ceiling again. "What's going to happen now?" I asked blinking slowly. "Life is going to keep on going." Sander replied simply. I blinked again feeling my eyelids droop a little. I widened them so they wouldn't shut. I grunted softly in response. "You should sleep now." Sander said observing me, noting my tiredness. I shut my eyes feeling relieved as I did so.

"Relax." I said quietly to myself. And I was relaxed and finally calm.