Hopelessy Devoted

Chapter Fourteen: Essential

He loved my Aunt so much that he'd kill his best friend? Or attempt too?

"Then why are you still being punished?" Giving me jaded eyes, he turns with his back outward so his legs touch the roof top. It freaks me out watching him with his back to the open space and below- like one wrong move and he could fall to his death... Or just fall.

"Huh, listen Greene, I had a lot of anger when I died. He knew very well that I loved Genevieve. Yet he married her anyway....but that's not why I tried to kill him." Pausing in his thought, he catches a butterfly on his finger, but being ghostly, it flies through him with ease. "I followed Wort for weeks before the Wedding date, just wondering if I could influence death to take him without having to do it myself. It wasn't until we stopped at his doctor's office- the only Doctor in town mind you- that I realized my friend was dying of consumption."

"Consumption? Like alcohol?"

"No dumby- Consumption as in Tuberculosis, that's what they used to call it. I couldn't let him go on like that, to make Her life miserable, to lose a husband. I was gonna kill him early to spare Her the pain, but when I saw him smile at her and gaze into her beautiful blue eyes...I couldn't take that away from him. For conspiring to kill the Living I was sentenced to a millennium of Spiritual servitude before I could be accepted into the Heavens."

"Isn't it almost over then?"

"Jees Princess- ready to get rid of me already? Cause once I cross over, you won't see me until you are plucked from the millions of souls and brought to Paradise. And that can take several years." He leans toward me and then leans back falling from the building and turning in mid air to gracefully land on his feet. Shaking my head, I jump, even though I'm scared and land in his arms.

"I don't wanna see you suffer."

"With you? I'm golden."

Walking through town, I feel my world shake. I don't know if I could do this whole soul searching deal- save people? Who? Who in this God forsaken town would need my help?

"So what about yer dad and Merle- they're still here."

"They're not the helper type and once Dad "accepts" his fault he'll go to Hell anyway, so why would he give up living in his house- haunting and hurting people? As for Merle, he just doesn't give a rats ass. He likes to torture people all the same."

"How come I could see them then?"

"That's another tricky thing. When two or more spirits- good or bad- are inhabiting one place, it's technically called a haunting. During a haunting, they have the choice of either presenting themselves to you or remaining hidden. Kinda like that show you watched before...Ghost Hunters. Some of those spirits wanted to be heard or seen in some ways- others don't. Merle and my dad only do it to scare people. Me I tend to myself, when I'm not trying to find more people to help."

"You sure do know a lot about this stuff."

"Well I've been dead for nearly a hundred years so I'd hope so. It's essential."

I couldn't imagine what he went through, is going through. I feel bad for Daryl. Having to watch people he cares about die and he continues on. That's my fate now- a fate I wish I would have been spared. But as long as I have Daryl by my side, it can't be too terrible. I mean, he is the sweetest person I know- true he's a little rough, but he is one of a kind.

As we reach the Farm, Daryl looks up at the old house and shakes his head. How many times had he stood outside this place waiting to get a glimpse of my aunt? How many times had he attempted to woo her and then gave up? All those years of torture and all he wanted was her. What if when he goes to heaven he finds her and they make a life? Leaving me all alone here by myself...he says he's happy with me, but only because I look like her. Is he still living that fantasy that he's with her? It hurts. There's a pain in my empty chest that causes me to feel small and withered. How can I feel so alive in this world when I'm dead, but also feel so dead that I wish to leave this world- even if it means I don't go to Heaven or Hell?

"Ya know...all I ever wanted to do was grow up and leave my rotten family." I look at him as the night sky starts to form over head. Stars never looked so bright and beautiful before. "Even before I met you all I wanted was to stop the pain I had in my husk of a body."

He feels the same way I do.

"But since I've met you..." Grabbing my hands and looking down into my eyes, I see his sparkling blue eyes shimmer in the light of the full moon.

"Well...well...well. What have we here." A low growling noise comes from the brush in the field. Turning, Daryl and I find several deranged looking men coming toward us- the one talking is Merle. "We've waited all year for this perfect night... Boys- are you gonna trick...or you gonna treat?"

Halloween? It's already Halloween?

"Leave us alone Merle!" Daryl pulls me close to him and all those nasty demons come closer.

"You can't ward us off tonight little brother. It's Halloween- our awakening. We're free to leave our God forsaken plains and go soul hunting. And we found the sweetest soul of all- the one that just might fill us up for eternity!" He voice is something out of a horror film. The cackles of the other fleshgaits ring in my ears. As they come closer, all I see in their eyes- is black.