Forever a Ghost ✓

Matthew C. Roberts

I apologize in advance for any and all fight scenes, I'm not very violent and I'm better with argument writing than full on physical fights lmao. I hope y'all understand. 

Love is a gift.

Without love, there'd be fighting. Wars between people. Wars between ourselves and our own minds, because even self love is a form of love. For many, self love can be one of the rarest kinds of love.

I can say with full certainty that I love Abbie.

The phrase "love" can be used rather loosely. The idea of love is appealing. We want to say we have love or we're in love because love usually means happiness. We want to use the term, even rush the term.

I'm not rushing it. I've known her for a while, now. We've been through countless hardships, whether it be between people like her mom, or just our own thoughts not showing us love.

Love is truly a gift. I've never felt more alive because of her. More... Willing to do anything to simply see her captivating smile. That freckle beneath her eye. I never even noticed it at first, but the more I know her, the more details I notice.

Love is also a curse.

I spend so much time invested in her, the lovely person she is inside and out, that when she's gone... I stop functioning. It's like a piece of me is missing, but I don't know where that piece could be. Maybe I'll never see that piece again. Is that... Healthy? In my defense, she's one out of about two people I actually am at least friends with.

I was wrong about that piece always missing, because she's currently holding my hand, and God do I love the feeling of holding her soft hand. I glance at her, sneaking a peek at all her beautiful features, and she looks back to me. I look away immediately, suddenly finding the floor quite interesting. She chuckles softly and my heart feels like it's going to burst out of my body.

She needs to stop being so admirable if I want to focus.

We continue down the hall, keeping guard, staying silent in case enemies are nearby. Eventually, I stop in front of a door, pausing for a moment before pointing to the one on my left. "This door. He's in here."

"Okay, let's go, then," she nods. I squeeze her hand reassuringly and use my other to twist the doorknob and push the door open. We come face to face with Markus, who is sitting on the ground. His eyes flick up to meet Abbie's and he immediately stands up to wrap me and Abbie in an embrace.

"I saw no doors. No escape. I thought I'd never see you guys again..." he confesses in a low voice, shaking the tiniest bit as he rests his body weight onto the both of us.

"Calm down, there were just tricks being played on you. It's over now," I try to soothe him. Markus nods, taking a deep breath. "Now, we have to get going. There's a copy of me running around and an army looking for us. We have to find my mom before we run out of time."

"Okay, yeah," Markus lets go of us and backs away a step, exhaling deeply. "Let's get this over with." Abbie nods in agreement and we continue our quest.

***

I'm starting to go insane.

I'm so tired of seeing the same pattern everywhere I look; door, hall, door, hall, door... It's starting to mess with my head. My brain is getting bored. Tired of the same thing over and over again.

"Guys... We need to find his office soon before I completely lose my mind," I break the silence between us. "All these doors... They're starting to all morph together."

Abbie nods, sighing. "Are we ever going to find the door? What if we're just walking in circles?"

"We could have even missed the door considering all the tricks that have been played on us," Markus suggests solemnly.