Ghost Boy (Lams)

The Clouds

John just flew up.

Up, up, up, the street below fading smaller and smaller until POOF! He flew straight through a cloud, bursting out on the other side. It was gorgeous. Clouds twisted and twirled in a spiral of patterns with each other, glowing in the gentle moonlight. Everything was frozen up here, dead still, the only sound being a gentle wind and John's heavy, erratic panting.

His breaths slowly evened out and he sank back down, floating backwards and finishing lying on his back on a cloud, staring up into the stars.
Then he let the tears roll down his cheeks. At first it was only a few, but soon a heavy load of sparkly glowing tears were springing from his eyes as shaky sobs wracked his body.

Why did he go back? He knew something like that would be happening. Even if a tiny little part of him wanted to see his Dad grieving, in some way, it was inevitable this was just a big joke to him.

John rolled over and buried his face in the cloud, but his head only sank and popped through on the other side. He gasped when the cold air and water hit his face- wait, water?
John glanced around and realised the cloud he was sitting on had turned grey since he perched himself there, and was now bucketing with rain. Had he done that?

He sniffled lightly and hastily wiped away his tears, floating up and off the cloud. As soon as he was off, it stopped raining. Jesus there was so much he didn't understand. He didn't want to be doing this, he never asked to be brought back as a ghost, why couldn't he just go to whatever heaven's available and live there happily ever after?

That's when a thought struck him.
What if there is no heaven?
No afterlife?
And this was the last chance he got?

After this would he just, disappear into nothingness? Cease to exist entirely? John panicked a little, his eyes darting around erratically. He didn't want to be erased from existence, and what would happen to Alex?
Oh Alex.

John sank back into the cloud, curling into a ball. Alex couldn't see him like this, fragile and vulnerable. He had to stick it out. Maybe he could just sleep here for tonight...
Yeah that would be nice. Just drift away for a while.

John closed his eyes with a sigh and convulsed protectively, snuggling into the cloud.
Oh that's right, ghosts don't sleep.

John's eyes shot open and he yelled in a fit of fury, launching his fist at the cloud but falling through with a gasp. Now his whole upper body was dangling out the bottom of the cloud. Wait a second, the street below did not look like his home street.

John's eyes widened and he frantically glanced around, finally spotting it a little into the distance to his right. Shit, the clouds moved with the wind. If he stayed here he'd easily be lost by morning.
John frowned and floated down from his cloud, gently advancing forward back towards his street.

But why was he going back there?

John turned absentmindedly and began to fly deeper into the suburb. Before he knew it he had arrived above Alex's house.
He dropped down to float beside Alex's bedroom window, carefully peeking in. Was he still awake?

John squinted a little and saw something moving, he leaned a little closer and his stomach dropped to his toes when he made a connection between the fast pumps under the blanket and the sounds coming from the room.

John practically screamed and launched himself backwards, falling into the bushes with a very noticeable rustle and thud. 
Everything fell still for a moment, then John heard the rustle of bedsheets being thrown around from inside the room, followed by the soft padding of quick footsteps.

A face popped up at the window, worriedly looking around outside. John was panting like a manic with a furious blush igniting on his cheeks, but an odd sense of relief washed over him when he recognised the face properly.

It was Peter. Thank god. He had just flown to the wrong window. God knows he was never making that mistake again.

Once Peter returned to bed to uh, finish off what he had started, John shielded his eyes and hastily floated down to the next window. This one had a warm glow emitting from inside. John carefully peeked in, still flustered from his last window experience, but relieved to see Alex was keeping his late night activities fairly PG.

He sat at his desk, working by lamp-light on pages upon pages of school work. John couldn't decipher was subject he was doing, there were 4 different possible candidates scattered across the desk.

Alex suddenly looked up, spotting John through the window and smiling tiredly.
"Come in," he mouthed silently. John hesitated a little before slowly floating through the window, his arms crossed protectively. "You okay?"

John just hummed in response, sinking to the floor against the desk and just sitting with his knees drawn beside Alex's feet.
"John, you look like you just saw a ghost," Alex muttered with a gentle chuckle.
"You'd be traumatised too if you walked in on Peter jacking off," John mumbled with a shiver, hiding his face in his arms.

Alex threw his head back laughing, pushing back in his chair and spinning the swivel chair to face John.
"Oh I have, one too many times, it's not pretty, I know, the nightmares might last for a week or two?" Alex chuckled, spinning a pencil skilfully in his fingers.
"Good thing I don't have nightmares," John chuckled weakly, sparing Alex a quick glance.
"Right no sleep- heheh, but uh really how did your... visit go?" Alex muttered sheepishly, watching John worriedly.

"I blew all the lights and levitated my dad in front of his work colleagues," John muttered nonchalantly.
"John no."
"John yes."