11. TWO GHOSTS

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❛ chapter eleven!

eleven | two ghosts—harry styles

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eleven | two ghosts—harry styles

       The brumal night air plays with my hair, tickling my neck and face. My chin is nested in my had as I take in the night scenario of National City from a rooftop. Ward stands beside me, propped on his elbows while tracing his fingers across the brick ledge. It's been only a few days since I got my best friend back and now I'm losing him again. It's as if everything I have loved is still trying to slip right through my fingers and I wonder if this is permanent, because it feels like it.

       "Are you sure you'll be fine here?" I ask not averting my eyes from the skyline which remains dotted with millions of lights. My question floats in the air for a moment.

       "You know I will," he replies and I'm dam sure he's right, "it's really different from home, and earth one's Central City is quite the mirror to our city—without wars every five years or so, though," he cracks a small laugh and I allow myself to do it too.

       "Yeah, it is," I rub my arm in an attempt to get warm, "I really like it there."

       "Me too. But, I don't think I can stay there without causing pain," I cup my cheek in my hand when I turn to see him, Iris West's face blurs into my mind, "I guess me leaving is for the better."

       "But to a whole different earth? What about another city, another state perhaps?" I question, hoping wholeheartedly that he would just stay on Earth-1. He's right, though. When we came back from my earth and we stepped out of that breach in S.T.A.R. Labs, everyone's faces flashed sorrow, especially Iris's. This moving to another earth things was all Ward's idea and I wasn't the only one to suggest more alternatives, the team did too.

       "Vee, I've lived in the wrecks of what used to be our home for four years," he tells me and I see the pain flashing in his eyes, "I need a new start. You need one too and don't say you don't," I shoot him a confused look.

       "I had my new start when I became a Guardian," I say, averting my eyes from him, "I had it when I killed Zoom."

       "When I say a new start, I mean moving forward, not keeping your mind busy by running across the multiverse," I can feel his eyes on me and how he's waiting for me to look at him, "It's been four years, you have to get out of this funk already."

       "Funk? What funk?" I ask hastily, "I'm not in a funk, Edward."

       "Of course you are! I'm your best friend, you can fool anyone else but you don't fool me," I breathe deeply and I can feel my body tensing, "you're just pretending to be happy when you're definitely not."

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