Laconic » a.i

2.1

//cooper//

I'd flashed back to Ella's room while she tried to make sense of what just happened. At first, she thought she imagined being outside, but then she started thinking that meant she was getting worse. I couldn't let her just think she deserved to be locked up in an insane asylum, so I tried to convince her that everything I'd told her was real and I wasn't just some character in her head.

"So you actually were stabbed and died?" she questioned as she poked my face with her index finger.

"I'm not translucent or something." I chuckled.

"Oh," she said sheepishly and let her hand fall to her side. "But you are a ghost? I feel like that should freak me out way more than it is."

"It didn't freak me out at first either," I told her, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe you just won't freak out because I'm just like one of your characters you make up. But look, I have to go back to my friends and explain what I found. They need to know that there are people looking for us. You'll be safe once they realize you're not a ghost. I don't think they're dumb enough to mistake a human for a spirit. I'll be back tonight, though, I swear."

"Okay." she nodded quietly before I gave a small smile and flashed back to the motel.

I ended up outside the two rooms since that was the only place I thought of. I went to where Calum was asleep first, knocking and waiting for someone to answer the door. Calum did. His hair was sticking up a little and he looked incredibly tired.

I nodded at him before walking in and looking around. It was still just him in the room. Was he seriously sleeping all day? I turned and raised an eyebrow to ask where is everyone?

"Other room," he yawned. "C'mon."

He walked with me over to the second room, knocking and waiting for an answer. Emily cracked the door open before pushing it wider and allowing us in. She shut the door behind us as I sat down next to Luke on the bed he was sitting at. I tried to get his attention so he could look at me and know that they were hunting us, but Emily sat down on his other side and he put all of his attention on her. I fell back in frustration. Ever since she came into our lives, he's never taken his eyes off of her and it bugged me so much. I didn't think she was trying to steal all of his attention but I still wished she'd just go back to hiding out in her tree house far away from us.

"So how was your little trip?" Jeremy wondered, although he still sounded pissed.

I stared at Luke's back as he continued to make heart-eyes at Emily. He wasn't going to be reading my thoughts anytime soon, but I knew it would be better for Luke to see what happened. I'd talk to Ella because she didn't judge and she actually listened to me. She understood that silence was my way of coping. These guys just thought I was just being stubborn.

I lifted my hands and slammed them down on the mattress because Luke still wasn't paying any attention to me whatsoever. The shaking of the bed still didn't grab his attention. God, I just wanted to scream. Maybe if I did he'd finally pay even a sliver of attention to me, but then they might expect me to talk too, which I still didn't want to.

"I assume it was bad from the tantrum you look like you're about to throw," he mused. "What happened?"

I looked to Luke again and he was still out of it. He wasn't listening to us, only looking at Emily and giggling with her. Finally, I sat up and whacked him as hard as I could in the back. He grunted and turned with a look like I'd gone crazy. Maybe I had considering as soon as he gave me that look, I threw punch after punch with the sides of my hands that were probably way too tiny to inflict any sort of serious pain to his arms, back, and chest. I stood in front of him and pushed him back onto the bed as hard as I could before straddling him and continuing to wail on him. He didn't even do anything to stop me; he just held his hands in front of his face and let me hit his torso.