My Life As a Teenage Zombie

Homecoming

The idiot poltergeist didn't even give me a remote location of where his mother might be. Still, this is the place where he decided to land, so I guess she might be here. Using my phone, I look up any and all Layla Vittenbergs, and only get one match. Not that surprising, given the last name.

I look at Henry, who's still trying to get his bearings. He looks like he might faint again any second.

"I'll be right back," I tell him once I find the address. The walk is about half an hour long, though it easily would've taken anyone other than me about ten minutes. When I do find the house, I see a woman through the window, looking down at something.

Great. Now what? Didn't take a genius to find her, but what do I do now? Walk up to her and say, "Hi, your son's ghost says bye."? No way can I do that. That's insane, and she'd probably call the cops on my ass for arriving this late at night, anyway. I can't well wait for the morning, either.

Fuck it. I'll just knock and tell her I'm a medium or something. There's that Kol Kennedy guy. I could say I'm him. I walk up to the house, and realize she's saying something. I kneel beneath her window to hear better, and realize she's praying.

"Oh, Lord. Please take care of my baby." Oh, boy, did I get the timing right. "I know he's with you. I just know it. My breast cancer hasn't been getting any better, so tell him I'll be up there soon. At least I hope I will."

As soon as she finishes, I run away. I don't care if she sees me; I'm not about to bring him up when she's already at peace with it. Kid, you're just gonna have to trust God with this one. I'm not your guy.

I run all the way back to the harbor, and the sun starts coming up just as I get there. Woah. The sun rising over the ocean... I don't know if I've ever seen anything like it. Henry doesn't seem to notice it at all, and only raises his head to look at me as I walk up to him. "You don't like it?"

He looks at it, then shrugs. "I've seen all there is to see already. We should get going. I checked the bus schedule." He points toward the old bus station just near us. "That'll take us to the next town over, and it leaves at 7. We can hitch a train from there."

Why a train of all things? Can't we just walk? "You don't know any spell that'll take us there?"

"I don't know any spell that won't reveal our location to sensible ears."

"Ah."

"Since we have a full hour to wait, how about you get some practice in?" Ugh, why now. I've been up all day and night, and I really just wanna sleep. "You're in bad shape, so this'll be good. You won't be in perfect shape in fights, either." Fair point, but I still don't wanna. "Try to confuse me again. Work on giving me orders this time."

Okay. Time to calm down and focus. Don't send the full river out. Focus on only a small portion of the waves.

They come out as planned, and this time I lead them directly toward his brain, making them spiral as they get there, then go from spiraling to bouncing up and down. Henry gets a dopey look on his face, and I know it's working. Then I say, "Raise your left hand." He doesn't do it. Shit. What did he say I had to do again? Can't remember. Too tired.

I reach out and flick his forehead. "Forgot what to do."

He looks around, still in a bit of a daze, and I can't tell if it's the tiredness, the brain damage, or the confusion. "Send waves out with your voice instead of your mind. They're everywhere inside you; Make use of them." Sure. Peace of cake.

I send out the small breeze of waves, and make them dance across his mind. He gets confused quickly, and then, in a deep voice, I tell him, "Raise your left hand."