Ghost and the Writer

Sarah

Mandy slowly opened her eyes at the same time August did. She flushed red while August merely averted his eyes and let go of her hand.

"Morning," August said.

Mandy floated higher up and nodded. "Morning," she mumbled.

Being that close to any guy would have been flustering no doubt, Mandy reassured herself, calming her own ghastly heart. As she snapped out of any passing drowsiness she noticed something being very different. Her head was now clearer than it had been over the past several years. She felt light. Even if she was weightless as she was, she felt as if she had dropped a dozen of invisible kilograms off her shoulders.

"Feeling better?" August asked, turning his eyes back towards her.

Mandy nodded. She did. "Thanks."

August nodded as well, as if that had been only natural, and sat up.

"You could have said something, though..." Mandy let out a small complaint. He had dragged her to sleep completely out of blue, not to mention... didn't he say she shouldn't try to sleep together with him? There being side effects and all.

"Felt too tired." He said, scratching his own head.

"Yes, that might have taken some time to explain," Mandy nodded, choosing to let go of it. 'Come sleep with me' wouldn't have cut it, rather - made it harder. She could understand that much.

August nodded.

"I could sleep with you," Mandy felt her own cheeks burning up at the wording, even though it wasn't meant in THAT sense – "because of that po-- concoction, right?" Mandy asked.

"Yes, otherwise you would be stuck in my dreams and that wouldn't be of any use to you," he confirmed.

There had been something of 'trapping other astrals in our bodies' talk before, but it seemed like it was just about being stuck in dreams, not being stuck in general, or perhaps those were one and the same? Mandy made a faint nod.

"While it is called a dreamless sleep concoction, we still dreamt, just at a deeper level so there was no overlap either of us could slip into. Had it been truly dreamless, it wouldn't have done either of us any good," August said. Mandy could trace a hint of disapproval in August's voice. "In other words, the concoction has an inaccurate name. It's named like that, because it's targeted at those having intrusive nightmares that hinder getting a proper night's sleep, or so one Alchemist excused the naming."

Well if there was one thing August stressed over then that was the proper use of words. For some reason. Mandy welcomed hearing an elaboration and it did feel like lately, he had been speaking a lot more to her. Mandy felt happy about that fact. And from the way he spoke, it was apparent that he had made the sleeping potion for her sake, rather than passing out on his own. A soft smile settled on her lips. "Thanks, I feel way better than I did in the past several years."

August averted his eyes and scratched his head again, seeming troubled. "Hope it evens out some of the... stuff, you went through," he said.

"It does, so don't worry about it!" Mandy said, trying to reassure. She had asked to help herself, so there was nothing he should feel guilty about.

Either way, she decided not to think about the stuff she saw back there and since she wouldn't be seeing any nightmares, the memories would likely fade. She had helped all those people to pass on. Experiencing some awful illusions that didn't even actually harm her felt like a small price for breaking many many people out of an awful place like that.

Her thoughts lingered at the very end. To think they would turn into birds, though... how curious. Why hadn't she turned into one? Not then, but before, back when she had died. Not that she wanted to. Even like this, she liked being alive.