GHOSTS - GRAYSON DOLAN

three: lemonade

Valerie tried to sleep, hoping that when she woke up things would be different. She tried lying with her body, tried drifting off, but nothing worked.

Something did happen though. She got caught in a haze for a few hours, not asleep but not fully awake. It allowed time to flow at least partially faster so she wasn't lying there bored and annoyed.

When she finally snapped out of it, it was a new day. But she was still stuck in her coma.

"I can't believe this..." Valerie mumbles, standing up. "Fuck."

That's the moment she realizes this is real. There is no denying it anymore--only getting answers.

Leaving her room, she sees the hallway is empty again. Upon closer inspection, so are a lot of the rooms. If not empty, they had other people in comas inside.

In one, she sees a little girl rocking back and forth on the floor next to her sleeping body. In another, an old man was staring at the ceiling. She almost went in to talk to him, until she felt something touch her arm.

"What the--Grayson?" she gasps. "I didn't know I could feel that."

"You should stay out of there. He's not very friendly," Grayson whispers, pulling her away. "You're not really gonna find anyone else willing to talk to you here. Honestly, I almost didn't, but I'm pretty damn bored waiting to die already."

Valerie scoffs, but walks down the hallway with him. "Have you always been an asshole or is it just now that you have nothing to lose?"

He laughs, shrugging a little. "I've been here for over a week already, Valerie. I've had a lot of time to think and brood."

A week didn't seem like a very long time, but stuck in limbo between life and death it felt like forever. Especially when you had no one to talk to.

Grayson wasn't always so cynical, in fact he was usually a really positive person, but here, his feelings of discontent are amplified. It was the time alone, forced to look into his life and unable to return or pass on making him this way.

Valerie was new to this, and she had him to learn everything from. She had him to fend off the hours of boredom and loneliness, so things are already different for her.

"Alright, so why the hell can't I move things? Are we just stuck unable to do anything?" She asks, crossing her arms.

"Not exactly," Grayson grins, and the reaches over the nurses counter to flick her pen off the desk. "You're just new. It takes a lot of focus."

Valerie frowns, attempting to push a cup, but nothing happens. "So, we're basically ghosts?"

He shrugs, making some of the papers on the desk fly around. Workers scramble to grab them, but Grayson just laughs. "Call it what you want. It's boring."

"Well it's even more boring not being able to do it," she grumbles. "Teach me."

"Demanding," he tsks, already walking away once more. "You're lucky there's nothing else to do around here."

Grayson rolls his eyes, Valerie jogging to catch up with him, though unsure where they were going. He always seemed to have other ideas in his mind, even though there wasn't much to be done or anywhere important to go.

Valerie was a tad annoyed, but curious about him. He was also the only one willing to talk to her, so she wasn't going to just walk away, as much as he was already getting on her nerves. There was also something generally intriguing about him--though that could just be because there's no one else around.

They enter a small waiting room of sorts, dark blue curtains covering the windows. It's empty, the perfect place for Valerie to practice.

"Try and move the curtains," he snickers as she pushes against them, nothing happening. "Picture them moving before you try again."

Moving things required a lot of energy, because they existed almost as ghosts. To interact with things in the physical world, since they weren't part of it, they needed to manipulate the energies. That requires a good amount of focus and visualization, along with strong intent.

Valerie lets out a soft sigh, blocking out everything else from her mind. When she tries again, it still won't move. "That didn't fucking work."

"You're not gonna get it right away, but don't give up so soon, dollface," Grayson chuckles. It was ironic that he was encouraging her not to give up despite already having given up on the idea of waking up himself.

It took him the better part of two entire days to finally move something. Again, that doesn't feel like a long time, but it was almost constant since there was nothing else to do.

Valerie keeps at it for some time, trying different techniques and smaller items. Nothing budges, and it's not long before she gets frustrated again. It was easy for her temper to get to her.

"This is so stupid!" she groans, and as she does, her foot kicks the small table. It jolts. "Wait... I did it!"

"I guess anger is one way," he snorts. "Can you do it again though?" Nodding slowly, she takes a deep breath and then tugs on the curtain. It yanks right off the window. "Yeah, I mean, looks like you got it, but you don't need to take out all your anger on those curtains, dollface."

"That's not my name," she mutters, attempting to fix it. "Fuck--why does my head hurt so bad again?"

Grayson laughs, standing up and walking toward the door. "Happens when you overexert yourself like that."

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Valerie says, giving up and clambering to follow him.

"Thought it would be funny."

"You're an ass," she sighs. "At least I'm not alone. When life gives you lemons..."

He rolls his eyes, "or death."

"We're not gonna fucking die, Grayson. Why are you so insistent that we are?" By now, Valerie was getting a little tired of his constant pessimism.

Grayson felt it, though. He got to feel what it would be like to leave. He was becoming infatuated with the memory of it and could barely think about anything else when he was alone. It was fogging his mind.

"Yell at me about it after you get a glimpse," he says, shaking his head. "It... it changes you, Valerie."

His very first day after waking up, he saw someone be reaped. He saw them being taken away, given peace, and that feeling of the open door radiated toward him. It felt like peace.

Maybe she would help him, or maybe he would convince her death was better. They were on opposite ends, and they both had a choice to make regarding their life and death. But neither of them were ready to make that choice, not quite yet.

A/N

I'm probably gonna update this a couple times a week just because the chapters are short :)