Afterlife (A7X)

Chapter 20: Convincing Change

~~~~CHAPTER 20~~~~

Convincing Change~~~~

~~~~Zacky's Point of View~~~~

Brian gave me a brief smile as he took a seat next to me on the sofa in the living room, everyone else laughing and talking amongst themselves.

"So? What'd he say?" I asked, keeping my voice down as Jessie looked over and gave me a smile.

I just gave a brief attempt of a smile back before looking back to Brian who was watching me as he thought. I indicated for him to speak, wanting to know what Matt had said about him staying back with me when they went to The House on the weekend.

"He said I can stay back here with you," Brian said, the relief going through me. "We'll stay back here and the others're gonna go."

"Thanks Brian; you're the best."

Brian gave a shrug, turning his attention to the others as they continued to chat.

"Matt made the decision, not me."

I gave a nod and fell silent. I was glad Brian was staying back with me; we all knew the ghost was still tied to Matt, but we didn't know how long it would be like that. Surely the ghost would be back at The House when the others went back there; I just assumed it would want to defend its territory from outsiders.

"Can I ask something?" I said, getting Brian's attention away from whatever was going on with everyone else a few paces away in the room.

"Sure thing," Brian said, looking at me tiredly. "What's on your mind Zacky?"

I hesitated, but Brian just stared me down, basically forcing me to answer him.

"Whatever you guys end up doing with this ghost," I began, Brian nodding to indicate he was listening. "If you get rid of it somehow, does that mean it'll stop existing? Like, if someone else goes down to The House after you guys take care of this, will they still be able to get haunted?"

Brian looked at me and I watched as he thought; he was thinking it over and it looked like this hadn't occurred to him until I'd brought it up just now.

"That's a real good question," was his answer a minute or two later. He looked me up and down with thought as he decided on his next words. "Maybe ask the expert; she's in the room."

I sighed. "Still trying to get me to like her hey?"

Brian gave a half-hearted shrug. "I can try Baker."

I shook my head and Brian just gave me a tired smile, pushing me playfully and making me smile back; it was his way of basically telling me to lighten up a bit. He switched his gaze to Jessie and I saw he was thinking again; he was possibly thinking over whether or not to ask her about the question I'd just thrown his way.

He looked back to me before giving a shrug and getting up.

"I'll letcha ponder on that for a while," he said. "Give you a bit of time to decide whether or not you wanna ask her yourself."

I watched as he turned and began heading out of the room.

"Hey, where're you going?" I called, making the others all look over at Brian as he came to a halt in the doorway; the sliding door hadn't been fixed yet.

Brian turned slightly to look back into the room, seeing everyone watching him now. He gave a sigh and shot me a look briefly before just walking out, not bothering to explain anything about where he was going. Once he was out of sight, I caught Matt's gaze and gave him a shrug.