Laconic » a.i

3.1

//cooper//

I woke up on the bed that Michael was laying on when I had visited him and Ashton in the attic. I didn't know who I expected to see next to me when I woke up, but some girl with thick, black glasses and brown hair wasn't exactly that person. She didn't look like the tiny girl that had caught Luke and I, and it definitely wasn't Mali-Koa or anyone else I knew. Michael was standing behind her, a strained look on his face. Why was he okay with her being here.

"Hi," the girl smiled. "You're Bridgette, right? Do you know where you are?"

"I'm back in the house, aren't I?" I guessed. "I was caught right after getting free."

"I'm sorry, Bridgette," she gave a sad smile before holding out her hand. Her fingernails were perfectly polished with a bright shade of pink. "My name's Sarah Elroy. I'm friends with your brother, Jeremy."

My eyebrows furrowed together. She knew Jeremy? Then why was she here with me? Was she a ghost too? "W-what?"

She let her hand fall down to her lap. She was kneeling by my bed to be level with me, "I didn't know you were his sister when I caught you on the lawn. But by the time I realized, it was too late and Rebecca was already outside; I couldn't let you go without being labeled a traitor and getting sentenced to death."

Her words processed in my head but still made no sense. She was friends with Jeremy and was going to let me go? But she was a ghost hunter working for Mali-Koa and the people who were trying to kill me. None of this made sense.

And I still didn't understand why Michael was here.

"Your brother used to sneak off at night," Michael interjected, walking slowly closer to us. "It was to see her. No one knew that it was her. Even if we did, we wouldn't have known she was a hunter; I didn't know Marcus was one either."

"Who?" I asked again.

"Remember how I said Annie was dating my best friend?" Michael asked, kneeling next to Sarah. I nodded. "His name is Marcus Elroy and he's a ghost hunter. He's the boy with dark hair. He's big and muscular and shit."

"He's my brother," Sarah added. "I didn't know the girl we were hunting was you. I mean, I knew it was you, but I didn't know you were the Bridgette Jeremy told me about. I'm really sorry, Bridgette, I mean it."

"Then let us go." I begged.

She shook her head slowly, "I can't, I'm sorry. If I let you go, they'll kill me for treason. That's how it works with ghost hunters. Annie's already on serious probation."

"So it's you die or I die," I let out a sharp laugh. "That's how it always seems to be lately."

I never realized how big of a theme death had played in my life lately. Everyone around me was either dead or going to die, it seemed.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked quietly, staring up at the ceiling.

"Mali-Koa's brother is still here; he's downstairs fighting pretty bad with her. He managed to get everyone away before everyone got caught. Well, except this one, here," she chuckled, motioning to Michael. "He refused to leave you. So did the boy with the thick glasses but the blond boy grabbed him and vanished."

My eyes widened as I sat up so quickly it made my head spin, "Ella; where's Ella? What happened to Ella?"

"Melek's fine, Cooper," Michael assured me, gently pushing my shoulder so I'd lay back down. "When one of the witches rushed out, so did Hood and her. Noel made sure to grab her before she left. You think that girl who has the power to see the future wouldn't plan ahead?"

"If she can see the future, why didn't she see us getting screwed over?"

"It's only the immediate future; nothing too far away. She didn't see it going downhill until right after we got out of the basement."

I nodded, turning away again. I didn't really know what to do now. Our only plan had failed so I was doomed to be erased. I'd spend the rest of eternity in nothingness like I always thought I would. Everyone was meant to die at some point, even those who were supposedly damned to walk the Earth forever. There was a time for everyone and mine was close.

-

I didn't even know how long it had been since I'd been in the attic with Michael. Hardly anyone ever came upstairs, and when someone did, it was usually Sarah. One time Marcus came up with her and I thought Michael was going to literally bite him. He never came back up after that.

Michael and I sat under the only window in the room. Neither of us really said anything anymore. We just sat close to each other and enjoyed the little bit of time we had to be around each other, I guess. I'd never see Ashton again and he'd never see Annie. Just like before, it was us keeping each other together. We may not have been right for each other in the sense of love, but there was a very close friendship there. Almost like siblings.

"Where did everything go to the shitter?" he wondered aloud. "When did life become some sort of freak show?"

I didn't have an answer for him. I felt that things went crazy before I even showed up to Westfield Drive. Michael, Luke, and Ashton were already ghosts before I showed up, and Calum already practiced black magic. Mali-Koa was already insane from her heartache and trying to get Calum to help her get Ashton to love her again. Things went insane before I was even in the picture.

"You know, it may seem hard to believe, but things actually used to be somewhat decent. Before people went insane and were killed and dead, things were normal on Westfield Drive." he said as he leaned back against the wall and clasped his hands over his stomach.

I stared at him for a while, just watching him remember what Westfield was like before people were dead and crazy. I couldn't even imagine a life like that anymore. I couldn't picture Luke always free from the prison of his own house or Ashton emotionally stable all the time or Michael not being able to pop in at the worst moments. I couldn't imagine Mali-Koa not thirsting for blood in some way or her and Ashton in love and in a normal relationship. None of it seemed possible to me and I wanted to know what it was like.

"Can I hear the story?" I managed to get out.

Michael shrugged, looking straight ahead. "It's long."

"I'm going to be erased," I stated blankly. He gave me a sideways glance. "And my dying wish is to know what it was like before."

He smirked before reaching out to hold my hand. "Alright, Cooper, that seems fair. Get comfortable."