PHANTOM SEPILOGUE

CHAPTER 6

Max storms out of my room, looking furious. I said what I needed to say and he needs to know that he's my only hope of moving on and passing to the afterlife. Sure I feel bad for telling him I'll never love him, but I just can't and won't. I'm in love with Harry and I have been since day one.

A slight pang of guilt rushes over me as I think about what I would do if Harry and I had this argument, but I push them away when I remember that I wasn't selfish towards him and I only wanted to solve his murder so he could pass.

I walk down the stairs and out the front door to see where Max went, expecting to go on a pretty brisk walk considering how angry he was. When I make it about 10 steps out the door I see his Toyota Corolla still sitting in the driveway, the only difference is the peaceful boy sleeping in the front seat. His chest moves up and down slowly. I walk back inside to get a blanket for him, luckily I won't need to make noise opening the car door. I can just go through it. I lay the blanket carefully on him and go back inside.

I feel bad for Max, it's not his fault he's falling in love with me. I just need to find a way to talk him out of it.

About 6 hours go by and I sit in my room waiting for when Max wakes up. He's been in his car for a while now so I should wake him up and tell him to sleep on my bed or something.

"Max," I whisper trying not to startle him. "Max, wake up," I say again a little louder this time. His eyes open slowly as he sits up in his seat making eye contact with me.

"What happened last night?" He asks rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Well, we got into an argument and I guess you came to sleep in your car," I say smiling softly.

"Oh," is all he says pulling the blanket closer to his chest, laying back down looking at the roof of the car.

"Here, come inside it must be freezing out here," I say sticking my hand out to help him get up from his sleepy position directing him into the house.

"Hey, Jane," he begins, "I'm really sorry about anything I said last night." He scratches his head nervously as we walk down the hallway.

"It's okay Max, we both said things we didn't mea-" I'm cut off from my sentence as Max runs over to the Disneyland picture hanging on the wall.

"This is where Harry's father's study was," he says tracing his fingers over the wall surrounding the frame.

"Oh yeah, Harry and I figured that out when we were searching around," I say carefully lifting the frame uncovering the hole.

"Woah, what the hell happened to it?" He says curiously sticking his head in even though there's no light to see inside.

"When we discovered the hollow wall we had to make a hole to get in, and when we did, all of the sudden Harry remembered everything even down to who murdered him." I say hesitantly as the memories of Harry going through the wall into the hole appear in my mind.

"Jane," he says. "Shine the light."

I fumble for the flashlight and click it on, aiming it towards Harry. He reaches down to touch something on the ground.

"There's blood on the floor," he says.

I accidentally drop the flashlight on the floor of the hallway and curse, bending down to pick it up and shining it back into the room. Harry is standing now and he's looking at me with wide eyes and I know he's standing right where he died, It's his blood on the floor and he was killed there. My stomach churns and my heart pounds against my ribcage as we stare at each other.