"it's gonna be okay" [discontinued]

~19~

One particular morning, Harvey was outside, just lying on the concrete, staring at the sky.

"What are you doing?" Darryl asked, walking outside and sitting down on the sidewalk next to him.

"Just looking at the sky."

"Oh, okay. How is it?"

"Bright."

"Okay well, it's almost your turn for guard-"

"Shh."

Harvey shushed the other, listening, and hearing quiet sobs from down the street.

"I hear someone."

Harvey made his way across the road, and knocked on the door of a nearby house.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" he called.

There was no answer.

Darryl glanced up at the roof of the 7-Eleven, where Zak was standing, looking bored.

"Harvey, what are you doing?" Darryl asked, a look of concern growing across his face.

"There's someone in there. A ghost I think."

"Hello?" Harvey asked again, before opening the door.

He stepped inside and the two walked around. Harvey walked what must have been the living room, following the cries and saw a spectral girl crumpled on the floor, crying.

"Oh, hey," Harvey said, crouching down on the floor next to the little girl.

She looked up. Her hair was long and tangled, and she was wearing a tattered and bloodstained nightgown.

G- Go away.

The little ghost sniffled and started to cry again.

"Hey, are you okay? How did you get here?"

I-I there, he- the people with guns came. An-and they shot Riley!

The girl started to sob, prompting Harvey to try to reach out and comfort her, he only touched air.

Darryl, who was next to him the entire time, was extremely confused, and turned to go look throughout the rest of the house.

"Hey, hey it's okay, I'm Harvey. What's your name?"

She looked up, tears in her eyes.

Austen.

"Hi Austen. Who's Riley? Do you know what happened to them?"

Riley was my b-brother. And then h-he made me go and I didn't want to b-but he shoved me out of the way an-and he fell down a-and he didn't m-move a-and more people with guns came a-and I ran away and came here.

"Wow, that's so brave. I can't believe you did that all by yourself."

B-but when I got here, it hurt. A-and I fell asleep a-and everything was black a-and I woke up like t-this!

She burst into tears again and recoiled when Harvey reached out to her again.

At that moment, Darryl came back through the walkway, a look of horror in his eyes.

"You should probably see this. Leave the kid."

Harvey turned back to the girl, who had her head buried in her hands, still crying.

"Hey Austen, I'm going to go with my friend for a few minutes. You stay right here, okay?"

Not expecting an answer, Harvey followed Darryl into the kitchen.

There, he saw the body of the young girl lying on the floor, wounds still fresh.

And the string attaching the body to the spirit.

Tentatively, Harvey reached out to pull it and when he did, it rippled as slowly, the girl moved.

"What the fudge," Darryl whispered under his breath.

"Wh-where are I?"

Harvey immediately helped her up, having her sit on a stool in the kitchen. She had a wound on the side of her stomach, which had already created a large bloodstain on her white nightgown and the girl held her hand to her stomach.

"Austen? Are you alright?"

Harvey felt a wave of nausea, but fought it back, trying to keep this little girl alive.

He reached out to touch her again, but she recoiled.

"Don't touch me- please don't!" she cried. "I can feel it already!"

She covered her ears with her hands and started to rock back and forth, eyes welling up with tears again.

"What-"

"Hold on," Darryl said, cutting her off. "I think I know what's wrong."

Darryl turned to Austen, crouching next to her so he was eye level to the girl.

"Austen, I'm Darryl. Can you hear our thoughts? Is that what's wrong?"

"No," she whispered, hands still over her ears. "I can feel it. The emotions."

"Can you try to block it off?"

"I can't," she hissed, teeth gritted.

"What if you focus on my voice? It's alright, just look at me."

She slowly lifted her hands off her ears.

"That's it, Austen, you're doing so well! Now, can you tell me what you feel?"

"Pride. Amusement. But also guilt. And longing."

She suddenly gasped.

"I'm sorry!" she cried. "Let me go!"

Darryl reached out to touch her, but she recoiled and immediately covered her ears again.

"Let me go! Please!"

"Let me go," she said, her voice barely a whisper.

Harvey's head was spinning and he found himself leaning against the counter for support.

Darryl looked to him for help.

"She's going to die again," Harvey was able to get out, barely able to focus.

"Can you-"

"I was never meant to come back," Austen whispered. "Please, let me go."

He could see the thread starting to reappear.

"Cut it," she whispered.

He nodded and reached out.

"I'm sorry."

Austen gave him a sad smile.

"It's okay."

With that, he severed the connection. 

a/n: i felt like harv needed some lovin

anyways, i wrote this chapter so i could kind of flesh out his character more but it was starting to get long so i decided to split it into two parts but from bbh's pov cause i just did tapl anyways.

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR 1.5K YOU DONT KNOW HOW MUCH IT MEANS ILY GUYS :)))