His head had been bowed down for a minute or so, thoughts slushied up in his head like a blender in his cranium had been set onto high speed. The white figure was sat down in the other side of the bed, features tainted with concern. Jonny gulped and swallowed, Adam's apple bobbing with uncertainty, before he spoke.
"C-c-chris?" his almost inaudible voice wavered, no firmer than his trembling heart.
"Yes, Jon?"
The familiar way Chris spoke was finally reaching Jonny's ears again. It was extremely surreal, hearing a voice emit from what was merely a ghostly cloud. His being was a delicate pale white, but the voice was as if Chris were a real, living, skin, flesh and bones, human sentient.
Jonny's eyes watered.
"Is it really you?" his words softly cracked and faded in the air.
Chris smiled a wide smile.
"It is, Jon. It is."
The other man did not reply. He could hardly breathe let alone do so. He was emotionless for a minute or two, but the facade soon broke as his lips started to quiver and tears started to silently pad their way down his face. He made a few wheezing noises, broken whimpers of disbelief.
Chris glided noiselessly from the other side of the bed, hovering above the ground. He came to halt in front of a Jonny who was sinking into the bed, breaths ragged in shock.
Jonny was in shock, and even more as Chris lifted up one of his ghostly hands and proceeded to gently wipe the tears off his face. Chris's fingers left a cool, burning trail down his cheeks.
"It can't be. It can't be. You're dead, Chris. You're dead. You can't be here. I'm imagining this. My stupid brain is hallucinating. I'm hallucinating." Jonny was falling in the depths of denial. After months of such hurting, his heart had closed without him knowing. It hurt too much to let love in. He didn't want to be hurt again. Not like that heart smashing he had copped already once.
"Jonny."
He looked up and saw Chris's face contorted with his own worries and a sad smile.
"I know this might seem like the craziest thing in the world. I know you think you might be a total nutcase, but I am here. I'm a ghost."
"Ghosts don't exist." Jonny frowned.
"Well I look like I exist and I do." Chris grabbed his shoulder and looked straight into his eyes.
What Jonny saw in them was enough to change his feelings. What he looked into were definitely real. There was no mistaking the complexity, however pale they were, of the blue rays of hope.
It was true. Chris was here. With him. Which set Jonny's eye sweating off again. He could nearly punch himself.
Chris sighed, a beautiful wavering sound.
"Don't cry love, I came to see you happy again. Not to see your tears." he implored as he stroked Jonny's face and his shoulder, feeling it, reminding himself of the feel of Jonny's skin. It was a long time since he had felt tactile sensations.
Wherever Chris' fingertips were, there was an otherworldly chill, but Chris's words made Jonny feel warm inside. Chris extended a translucent hand and Jonny took it, his hand experiencing the queerest of sensations as he was pulled up from the bed by practically air. Chris enveloped him in his arms, Jonny's body hit with tender cold from everywhere.
It was so very beautiful that Jonny could nearly explode.
He was finally feeling Chris against him again, a fair bit colder, but the feel of Chris all the same.
