I Don't Believe in Ghosts {Remington Leith}

27: Slight TW, for some maybe

——What do you do when the world as you know it, shifts?——

Sofia was laying on a table. She was stiff and blue, and very dead. Remington sat with a book in his lap, his back tense with exhaustion as he looked at her limp hand. It was untouched by flame and blood, unlike the rest of her body, and had a ring on it. Her left hand, he realized, her ring finger. A sensation like ice water ran down his spine. She had a family. She had someone to count on her, to love her. How did she make it here, to this situation?

"You noticed?" Kristen spoke softly, and hesitantly as she sat next to Remington. Their knees touched, and despite his irritation with Kristen, Remington felt warm at the contact. "Yeah." He said, barely audible as the two stared at the ring on her hand. It glimmered in the light. "How?" Kristen shifted, and grabbed his hand. She pressed his knuckles to her lips, the gesture warming his heart. "I don't know. I-I wish I didn't pull you into this." She whispered into his hand, and he squeezed her hand in response.

"I wish you didn't, too." He replied, looking over at Kristen. She looked broken and pale, and just overall depressed. "But, I wouldn't have it any other way." He finished, seeing her look up at him in surprise. "Seriously?" She said in disbelief. Remington nodded, pulling her hand into his chest while keeping eye contact. "Seriously." He looked back down at the absurdly heavy book in his lap, pointing to a paragraph. "Hey, I found this, it might be interesting."

Kristen leaned over and read through the paragraph quickly. "I half expected it to be a weird ass rhyme, actually." She said, amused. Remington chuckled, nodding in agreement. "Sometimes research doesn't have to be convoluted." He said offhandedly as he reread the paragraph in the book they got off Sofia. His vision blurred as he stared into his own memories, reliving the experience of tearing Sofia's ghost out of her body and forcing it to answer Kristen's questions. It's voice still reverberated through Remingtons skull, taunting them, laughing at them as Kristen started to lose hope right in front of the brothers.

"You'll never save him. He's doomed to die, as long as Rean lives. Aww is poow Wizzie cwying? Boo hoo, you bratty baby. Get over it." She was merciless, and brutally honest. He remembered her attitude, but also her cooperation. "No, I don't know what your bond means, actually. I know that Cameron is incredibly interested in you two, though. I have a book on me that Cameron had me collect, well it's not on me but it's near me." It had taken them a while to realize what she meant, but once they did Emerson was able to get it with barely any problems. After all, Sofia was guided by Space, which Emerson just so happened to have in common with her. Emerson had opened a portal, the right one after five failed attempts, and was smacked full force in the stomach by a rouge book. He claimed he still felt the impact a few hours later.

So now, Remington and Kristen were up in their dimension separate of reality, reading this book that was centered around the abilities of a Lock and Key. It was rather strange to the pair that a book was all they needed to understand what they were, and Kristen was mentally beating herself up for not knowing that this book even existed. "So basically, if we confront Cameron and she makes both of us bleed on this weird knife, she can destroy the barrier between us and the spirit world. Lock and Key." Kristen analyzed the page that particularly interested the two. Remington nodded, forcing his brain to focus on the present. "An apt summary. Question is, why?" He asked contemplatively.

Kristen entered this kind of meditative zone. "Why not? Unleash all the dead into the world and wreak havoc. You know, Hitler, Mussolini... Dahmer." She spoke with a monotone. Remington blinked at her thought process, fairly shaken. "Oh, that would be bad." He said, severely underplaying the potential situation. Now, he understood the gravity of the situation. Now, he knew that he didn't have the choice to leave. Kristen continued, "But there would also be the greats, Warhol, Da Vinci and Monroe. The victims, JenBenet Ramsey, the Black Dahlia, any family pet." Remington listened to her, appreciating her take on this. She saw both good and bad in any situation, which he admired.