Not Quite Dead

Chapter Five - Not Quite Answers

Dawn

Artemis stood at the front door of his house, looking at me with an expression I couldn't quite pinpoint.  I honestly didn't know what he was doing here.  I'd been torturing him since we met.  Yesterday, he himself had said he didn't like me, that I was "annoying".  For that comment, I could have destroyed his laptop.  But I didn't.  I'm not that Dark. 

I heard Serena and Samantha talking about how Artemis was having a nightmare.  He kept moaning things in his sleep.  It wasn't anything they could understand. 

I had a feeling it had something to do with the text message he had gotten last night.  He said it was from an old friend, but I'm slightly outdated, not stupid.  I highly doubt it was just a friend.  I had two possibilities:

1.  It was an ex-girlfriend, hoping to rekindle the fires of their previously passionate romance. 
2.  It was an old bully, threatening to rekindle the fires of their previously shared memories.  Memories such as "Artemis, do my homework" or "Artemis, put in a good word to that hot chick about me". 

Anything was possible.  Especially the latter, considering it was Artemis. 

Artemis didn't seem to know what to say.  It had been about seventeen seconds, and his brows furrowed in frustration due to lack of words. 

"I..." he started, then trailed off.  "Dawn, I..." He stopped himself again.  "What are you?" 

Oh, great.  That question again. 

I pointed to my mouth and throat, and shook my head, as I had done so many times since he moved here.  You would think he'd have gotten the picture that I can't talk.  At all. 

"Oh, right.  You can't talk."

I turned away, and pulled my knees up to my chest. 

"How about we play Twenty Questions?" he suggested, sitting down beside me.  "But," he said, getting up as soon as he sat down, "we should probably go somewhere else.  I don't want the neighbors thinking the Alexander's boy is a freak."

They didn't need to see him to see that he was a freak.  He kind of proved that on his own. 

We went to a nice part of the nearby woods.  There was a lake and a bench to sit on.  As long as I'd "lived" no one had ever gone here for leisure.  But environmentalists had kept it presentable anyway. 

The place was really just a lake and a bench, with some trees to surround it.  It wasn't too far from the neighborhood. 

I sat next to Artemis on the bench.  We both sat very straight, and Artemis had his hands folded in his lap.  He twiddled his thumbs. 

"So," he said, "There are a lot of...people like you, aren't there?"

I nodded.  Considering how many people died in the last six thousand years, I would think so.  There just weren't that many in Blue Falls, North Carolina. 

"I still find it hard to believe that, despite all I've seen, that you're real."  Artemis mumbled something, and ran a hand through his hair.  Tried to, really, but he got his hand stuck in a little knot.  I tried not to show my actions of giggling.  "I feel like you and the other spirits are my imaginary friends."

I rolled my eyes.  Imaginary friends?  He was such a child. 

"I dreamt about you last night," he said suddenly, not looking at me.