You Make Me Feel Alive

Part 2

           

"I got my wish Lo, I love you."

Lauren shoots up in her bed, beads of sweat covering her forehead, her skin feels hot and clammy. She wipes the sweat from her brow and rests her head in her hands, breathing in and out heavily. Camila's voice echoes in her head, over and over, despite that fact that the last time she heard the voice had been just over two months ago.

The memory was still fresh in her mind. How Camila's hair had stuck to her face and the mix of tears and rain dripping down her pale cheeks. How she had looked at Lauren amongst all of the chaos and somehow, managed to smile. How her cold, wet fingers had brushed against Lauren's cheek and how even though her voice was quiet when she talked, Lauren heard it over all of the surrounding noise.

Sometimes, Lauren wakes up and she swears she can still feel Camila's lips pressed against her own, she can still feel Camila's fingers lingering on her cheeks. On her worse days, she wakes up with the familiar sound of a lighter, flaring in Camila's grasp, replaying in her ears; haunting her.

And every single day, no matter what she remembers most from her dream, Camila is still gone.

She takes a few minutes to recollect herself, evening out her breath and clenching her fists to ease the shaking of her hands. She hears a small thump and looks over to see Vince. He looks at her with his bright blue eyes, tilting his head as he takes a seat on Camila's usual half of the bed.

"She's not here." She grumbles in her tired voice, pushing the cat off of Camila's pillow. She doesn't want him to tarnish Camila's scent that still lingers on the soft, white material.

Vince meows and flips his tail back and forth in annoyance, moving to the bottom of the bed instead and curling himself into a small circle. Lauren wonders if he misses Camila just as much as she does, but the thought is quickly disproved when she remembers that no one can miss Camila as much as she does.

She rolls out of bed, wanting so badly to just stay inside her sheets and pretend that Camila was still here with her. But she had work to do.

Sure, she wasn't hunting ghosts anymore, whatever the Necromancer had done eliminated all of the ghosts from the living world and since then, there hasn't been so much as a single spook. Their EMF machines were silent. That didn't mean, however, that Lauren didn't have to go to work. If anything, she was busier now than she had been before.

Since she and her crew had been the ones to assist the Necromancer in closing the veil, they had been credited in doing so. The word had gotten around quickly and she and the girls had become quite famous. It was as if they were real life super heroes, saving the world from evil. In a sense, Lauren supposes that she had but, the title seems undeserving, especially considering that Camila and the Necromancer had done most of the work and yet neither of them were around to celebrate.

The Necromancer had exerted herself almost to the point of death and as soon as the veil was closed she feel into a deep coma, blood leaking from her nose, mouth, and ears. Lauren, Ally, Dinah, and Normani had promptly emitted the girl into the hospital and she had yet to wake up. And Camila, well, Lauren assumes she is back behind the veil along with all the other ghosts.

So, that left Lauren and the crew to overview everything with the government and attend the ceremonies and help with reestablishing society. In a way, it was a good distraction. It took her mind off the pain from Camila's second death of sorts, but it also reminded her over and over how much Camila deserved to be there with them. It had, after all, been her idea to help the Necromancer and if she hadn't have lit the ground on fire, they would have been killed/possessed by the ghosts.