Limbo

Best Of Both Worlds

DAWN:

Ash leads me into the house, with everyone following along behind us like a flock of ducks or something, sort of whispering amongst themselves. When we get inside, Amy walks up beside me and says, "Come with me, and I'll show you where you can wash your face, hon."

I let go of his hand, and suggest, "Why don't you go ahead and start looking at my sketches while I'm cleaning up? I'll be right back, and then you can tell me what you think."

"Okay, yeah, I can do that," he agrees, giving me a dazzling smile. "But hurry up, okay? We've got some catching up to do."

I follow Amy down the hall to a bathroom, and she gives me a washcloth and a bottle of soap to wash my face. "I guess it's a good thing I didn't decide to wear a lot of makeup today," I comment as I dry myself off. "At least I don't have to worry about mascara on my blouse."

"Yeah, about that..." she says hesitantly. "What they were telling us outside... That can't be for real, can it?"

I look her directly in the eye and tell her, "Depends on what exactly they told you. If you're referring to the 'ghost' thing, then, yeah, it was most definitely real. I know it might be kind of hard to believe, but they were telling you the absolute truth."

She's quiet for a couple of minutes, and seems to be having some difficulty processing my answer. So when she opens her mouth to respond, I'm pretty much expecting her to proclaim that we're all nuts, but what I hear instead is, "Do Gwen and Jed know about this?"

"Most of it, yes. They had a little trouble believing it, too, until I was able to tell them things that I shouldn't have known about, since I was in a coma for over a year. Then they kind of had to."

We go back out to where the others are waiting, and before anyone else gets a chance to say anything, Alice has basically enveloped me in a huge hug. "Thank you so much for letting me have my Jinxx back," she murmurs into my ear. "You didn't have to give them that awful necklace, but you did, even though you knew that you'd be putting yourself back in that maniac's grasp, and I'll always be grateful for that."

"You're welcome," I reply. "Knowing him as well as I do, there was no way I'd just leave anyone in that situation, especially someone I think of as a friend."

Then, when she finally lets go of me, CC swoops in and whirls me up off the floor, and ends up handing me off to Andy. After that, I basically wind up getting passed around like a baby bunny at a petting zoo before I finally make my way over to the love seat where Ash is sprawled out with my sketchbook propped up on his lap. He pats the cushion next to him, inviting me to sit, and inquires, "You okay there, hon? Looks like they got you a little mussed here."

"Yeah, I'm good now. And I don't mind a bit, I'm just glad to be able to see everyone again. Up until I got here, I didn't think I ever would again. Outside of music videos and that sort of thing, that is."

"And I had myself convinced that I'd never see you again at all," he admits. "I honestly figured that you hated my guts, since I was such an asshole to you that day. I was just stupid enough to let myself believe that Jimmy actually knew what he was talking about. Or Wade, or whatever the fuck his name is."

I'm a bit confused as to what he's talking about, so the guys explain how Wade was passing himself as some sort of "ghost hunter" down at the cafe, trying to get himself into the house, and how he'd been trying to convince everybody that ghosts are dangerous, and would take advantage of people whenever they got the chance. Ash sort of hangs his head, looking utterly ashamed, and says, "And when some of our personal talks seemed to kind of line up with the things he was saying, I guess I just got paranoid, and jumped to a stupid conclusion."