“Can you hear me say your name forever? Can you see me longing for you, forever? Would you let me touch your soul, forever? Can you feel me longing for you forever?
~~~
I know the light grows darker down below, but in your eyes, it’s gone before you know. ‘This is the moment of just letting go.’ She said, if you had life eternal.”
Life Eternal - Ghost


Andy pushes through the last stand of waist-high grass between us as the rocky riverbank above the canal. I am delighted by the return of his noisy Prophet jacket, the handcuffs on the back jingle with each step he takes through the sea of yellowed reeds.

We’d deviated from the road once it curved left. Following it would have meant a forty-five minute detour that neither of us were in the mood to pursue. Getting there quickly seemed like a much more preferable option.

Andy stands high above the canal, looking out across the land on the otherside like a lion looking over his kingdom, the wind tossing his hair back off his forehead. I stand back a bit, hands buried in my jacket pockets, feeling the chilly spring air in my lungs while simultaneously wondering how on Earth tomorrow could be warm enough for swimming weather.

I risk a few steps closer to the edge and look over for myself. The city workers must’ve gotten out here early this morning, because there is only a foot of slowly moving water left at the bottom of the riverbed.

“So... Are we here to site-see or is this all part of a bigger plan?” Andy wonders, enjoying the wind in his face as much as a dog with its head out the window.

“No... This is purely for the sake of curiosity... Hey, when was the last time we explored something because we could, not because our lives depended on it?” I smack his forearm. “Come on.”

We find a place further down stream severely damaged from the storms. The rain had washed out a large portion of the bank and had carved a long slope into the side of the deep waterway. I wedge myself down into the space and begin to scoot down to the bottom while being careful of falling chunks of mud and stone from above. Andy follows without complaint.

At the bottom, I jump from the little ledge to a small island made up of mud that had gotten caked to the bottom. My boots immediately get eaten up by it, water squishing into them to soak my socks.

“You know, I’ve been thinking...” Andy says, looking around us and into the water where a sunfish was swimming its little heart out to get far enough up stream before the rest of water evaporated.

“About what?” I ask him, beginning to make my way down the mud trail.

“All the weird crap that happened after I came back as a ghost. One has to stop and wonder if it’s all coincidence.”

“What do you mean?”

“Pendant’s never flooded or had terrible storms... There was never hushed chatter about a mass grave in the forest, the world felt like it was spinning around just fine until me and Ashley crashed into things and now... I can’t help but feel that we’ve destroyed the perfect balance and harmony over the city.”

“You mean that you think you’re responsible for the storms?” I ask, cocking an eyebrow at him doubtfully. “You can do some weird stuff, I’ll give you that... But isn’t that a little ‘out there’?”

“Think about it... Nothing is off limits now, right? Anything is possible. It’s like the pretty wallpaper over Pendant is peeling back now and all the dirt and grim from the town’s past is peeking out, daring to venture out and destroy everything again.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “So what? Do you think Pendant has an even darker past than what we’ve come to know? Charlie Apture was a psycho who lived anonymously in the town in the fifties until he died. No one knew it was him abducting people, and no one suspected him because he was a lowley old man. Beyond him, Pendant was a happy place, right?”

“This all started when we visited the Dead Zone the first time.” He says matter of factly. “And then afterwards all of this has been coming at us like a slow moving storm.”

“So what then? We triggered some... Paranormal apocalypse by disturbing those tormented spirits?”

“Those spirits are stronger than they even know. Hate is a powerful emotion and they’ve had a lot of time for that feeling to sit and fester inside of them. It’s all they know, now. There’s no reasoning to be done with them if they become aware of their freedom and venture out of the woods... They’ll be able to do what I can, but they’ll have no moral compass driving their decisions.”

“...They’ll be weapons.” I say, echoing Ashley’s words in shock. I look up into Andy’s eyes, but he’s not surprised... Just saddened. This is a revelation he’s been keeping to himself for some time now.

“Yes... Weapons. Directionless, emotionless, and seemingly unstoppable... They’ll project their anger at anyone they encounter, and if you remember that day in the woods when I was attacked... You know why.”

“They’ll kill to reclaim their mortal bodies.” I say, my brow furrowing. “How many people would they have to kill for even a chance to have a body?”

“I have no clue. They don’t regenerate, per se, but are reincarnated in whatever body they possess. The more souls they can consume afterwards, thus sending said-soul to Hell in the process, the more the body will adapt and tranform into their true, former self.”

“So if for example you wanted to do this... What would the steps be?”

“I’d have to possess someone first. Then from there I would simply have to rip the souls out of other people. I imagine it’s a very grisley process.”

“And the souls can be from living or dead?”

“Right. But the removal of the ‘core of the soul,’ if you will, is the same. They just have to kill you.”

“You mentioned that before. What does that entale, exactly? You’re already dead, no bodily harm can come to you and you couldn’t possibly die more than you have already, right?”

“In theory, no... When I spirit is killed, either by another, stronger one, or condemmed to Hell by a priest, it’s considered the second death. The second death being that you wind up in Hell.”

“So they just have to destroy you somehow?”

“Correct... By physically maiming me, though. Gunshots and running me over repeatedly would not work. Those are the weapons of man, the weapons of the body are much stronger, driven by raw impulse and emotion for the kill to be carried out. To stare into the eyes of your victim as you shake the last of their second life from their body.”

“What is the point of dying if there’s still a chance you can die again?” I snap, very frustrated with the rules of immortality. Once you die, you’d think that was hard enough on someone, why pile more bullshit on top of it?

So even if you were a good ghost and missed your chance to cross over to the afterlife like Andy did, you’d be stuck on Earth to be tormented until you die again anyway and end up in Hell regardless of the life you lived. Unless...

“Are you sure all spirits go to Hell? What about the ones that priests help move on to the afterlife with burning sage?”

Andy is quiet for a moment while he thinks up a proper response. “I don’t know, to be honest, and I don’t know how to experiment with the idea. All I know for certain is that you’ll go to some other afterlife if you’re killed in this one.”

We walk on a little further, but our muddy island runs out quickly, prompting us to climb back up out of the riverbed to walk along the grassy bank above. We stroll in silence before I ask my next question.

“That one that was in the woods... Why did it try to kill you first instead of possessing me? I feel like doing it the other way around would have been more useful.”

“I’m your guardian,” Andy explains, “it couldn’t take the chance that I would choose to protect you while it was trying to possess you. It’d be easier to kill the guardian first, right?”

I nod in thoughtful silence.

“If it had killed you, what would have happened to me?”

His grave look tells me all that I need to know.

“Anyway, going back to my previous statement... Don’t you find the weather patterns to be bizarre? I mean, it rained every single day following my death, and then not at all until we’re reunited. It rained the entire time we were in California, almost like the town was grieving our depature and brief seperation.”

“What are you saying?” I laugh, “That Pendant is personally rooting for us and wishing us all the happiness in the world.”

He shrugs, his eyes distant, gleaming with excitement at his latest theory.

I have to admit... Standing here above the drained river, looking down stream to the broken silhouette of the once-great bridge, I can’t find myself feeling too doubtful about his theories. Something fucking weird is going on, and there is a good chance that it all traces back to Andy’s death.

So what was it then? Was he not actually supposed to die that day, and so now the scales of justice have tipped and the Earth cannot keep spinning on as it once did? The death of a lone mortal hardly seems like enough to throw the world into an apocalyptic shadow.

I bury my hands deep in my jacket pockets and stare out across the wetlands on the otherside of the river, sprawling, dense landscape until it reaches the other half of the city... Something we’d yet to explore and would have the chance to do so briefly tomorrow. Talia Lake is on the other side of that side of town.

The wind blows my hair back from my face, its biting chill making me doubtful about tomorrow’s activites, but it also helps me clear my head more than I expected. New ideas and thoughts are forming in my head with each second, in hopes that I’ll be able to solve this problem and discover what has happened to make things go so badly before they get much worse.

But then, I’m just one person, with the army of two ghosts and a few human friends at my disposal. Even if I could get the entirety of Black Veil Brides on my side, it’d be the handful of us against the supernatural wave that could eventually come crashing down out of the woods... Angry spirits spilling free of captivity, hungry for power and revenge, eager to kill anything in sight for the chance to live again.

And what about the rest of the world? The towns outside of Pendant? The places outside of Utah? Will their ghosts revolt in the same fashion? There’d be Hell on Earth if that were the case.

I mull around these thoughts for a little longer before Andy speaks again. “We have taken all these precautions to protect ourselves against the onslaught of terror... But what about those who don’t know? The innocent who have no reason to believe something awful is coming? They’ll all be doomed.” He shakes his head sorrowfully. “I don’t even know where we could begin to craft a cure for this problem. What church could we go to? How many priests could we rally to go up there and cleanse it? How many gallons of holy water will we throw in a tiny attempt to cleanse the dirtied and tainted soil?”

“Is there even a cure?” I breathe doubtfully. “If all of that weren’t bad enough, there’s now also more of this.” I gesture around us. “Who knows if there will be another environmental hellfire to run from. Maybe next time we won’t be so lucky.”

I look to him in a quiet, sullen moment... Knowing as we lock eyes and I stare into his soul that there is nothing he can do to make it all better and he knows it. He reaches for my hand, which I clasp with his and we stand there on what feels like the edge of the world, looking out to the wasteland ahead of us.

In this scenario we’ve been placed in, there is no heroes... No one to step in and make everything better for everyone. There’s just us in a sea of ignorant people, knowing full-well that when it comes right down to it, we’ll have no choice but to selfishly save ourselves and no one else... What will that mean for those we love?

Andy seems to read my thoughts and sighs. “My sole job here now is to protect you, no matter the price. You will always be safe, no matter what comes.”

The doubts come to mind and I almost voice them but stop myself. I look into his eyes again and I see the uncertainty that keeps me from saying anything. He’s trying his best with the knowledge he has to make it right. I am panicking that nothing’s going to be okay and he can’t be so sure that I’ll be safe forever...

I might be safe for now, we both may be... But tomorrow? That’s not definitive and I cannot put too much faith in it.

~~~


I walk into the foyer and sit down on the bench, untying my muddy boots, trying not to smear dirt and grime onto the tile. I set them aside, wiggling my feet in my soaked socks for a moment before deciding that they, too, had to go.

Andy wanders off toward the kitchen while I finish off. That’s when I pick up on the enthusiastic laughter down the hall and get up to follow it. Just as I enter the kitchen, my Mom is walking back from her sewing studio with her client - my old teacher.

They’re laughing about a story or joke I didn’t hear, making me feel very much like the awkward third wheel just hanging out. Andy takes a seat at the same spot my Dad was sitting this morning and begins to play with the salt shaker, rolling it around in his hands while idly inspecting it, eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Ash!” My Mom catches me before I can slither off, not wanting to interrupt her professional business. “You remember Miss Bloom, right?”

I look into the eyes of my former teacher and I feel the nostalgia of my kindergarten days just being in her presence. She was always the greatest and one of my favorite people.

She had the look of your typical ‘blonde-haired country bride’ they always advertise in Better Homes & Gardens magazines with the multi-toned blonde hair, blue eyes, clear, tan skin, and a smile that could stop the heart of any man. Yep, she’s gonna make a fantastic bride.

I smile at her and nod. “Yeah! How’ve you been?”

“Busy,” she laughs, gesturing around herself. “As you might’ve gathered.”

“Congratulations on your engagement and wedding. I wish you both all the happiness in the world.”

This comment lights up her face and warms my heart. She’s the kind of person who is hard to hate or feel malice toward, she’s always been so friendly and sweet. Of course, I haven’t seen her in a long time but the feeling lingers.

“Aw Asheen, thank you,” She comes toward me and pulls me into a hug that feels familiar to me. Have you ever met someone and it felt like you were best friends in a past life? That’s how she is. No matter how minimal my interaction was with her in Kindergarten, she just gives off this loving, best-friend feeling even though she’s twice my age. “Look at you, though! Kid, you grew up.”

“Tends to happen.”

She sighs fondly and turns back to my Mother. “I just moved back to Pendant in March and I cannot believe how much the kids I taught have grown. You’re all in high school and getting ready for prom... It’s crazy.” She laughs, shaking her head.

“So, do you have any plans after you get out of school?”

“At the moment, no, but I’m hoping to be getting onto that just as soon as things calm down.” I say and my Mother takes it as I’m talking about the California move when in reality I am referring to the great amount of paranormal trouble I’ve found myself in.

She nods, still smiling. “That’s good to hear. Your Mom told me about your upcoming move. Hopefully you and your family settle in well down there. Sometimes change is the best thing you can do for yourself, I mean, look at me. I moved to Idaho for a couple years and I meet my fiance there and then fate brings me back here as his family are from the area. It’s a small world.”

“Can I get you some coffee, Eden?”

“-Oh that sounds perfect! Thank you.”

My Mom heads to the otherside of the kitchen to start the coffee pot. In the mean time, she asks me to get the tea biscuits out of the pantry. While my back is turned, I hear Andy hissing my name to get my attention even though I’m the only one in the room who will hear.

I look over my shoulder and he’s pointing toward Eden who is leaning near the sink, looking down at something with a sort of fond glint in her eye. It takes me a moment to realize that it’s the same pamphlet I was looking at this morning from Andy’s funeral.

“I tudored this kid in Math for a while.” She says conversationally, tapping his photo. “I knew his parents pretty well, too... And him. I babysat him a couple times actually when he was fourteen and always getting into trouble. I remember that he hated his parents for getting someone to watch him because he was ‘old enough’ to take care of himself...”

Her tone is kind and reflecting as she speaks. It’s only afterward that I hear her mutter something under her breath only meant for her own ears. “How did that work out for you, kid?” Her voice suddenly saddened.

My Mother brings her her cup of coffee, casting a dismissive glance down at the flyer.

“How was the funeral? How is his family holding up?” Eden asks, expression perplexed. “I was still in the process of moving back when Chris called me to tell me what had happened. It’d been a while since I’d heard any news about him, but when his parents had updates to share, they always called... My bond with Andrew was never super tight, but in the end we had a sibling-like bond. I think he just needed someone to listen to him most days.”

My Mother processes her sentence in silence before answering her previous questions. “The funeral was hard on them... They took the news as best as could be expected. I’ve seen them both a few times since and always take the time to reach out to them. It’s not much, but after such a heavy loss, I imagine a little kindness goes a long way... Not everyone loved him afterall... Or considered it a loss.”

My Mother’s expression becomes bitter to match Eden’s while they stare down at the photo of the boy sitting a few feet behind them, wearing the shocked mask of a little kid overhearing his parents talking about a suitable punishment for a wrongdoing.

Confused, I listen in, trying to figure out if it’s the same gossip tales I’d heard after he initially died. The stuff that got spread around the school like him using drugs in public and doing terrible, obscene things.

Eden sighs and shakes her head, taking a sip of her coffee and stepping away from the flyer to lean against the edge of the sink, looking around our kitchen thoughtfully. “Andrew had a way of making enemies and picking fights, that’s for sure.”

I look to Andy, and he’s looking at her, looking like there is so much he wants to say and I wonder if he will risk breaking his cover to speak to her. After a few moments, they move on to a new conversation and he huffs a sigh, getting up from the island and exiting the kitchen. He walks past me on his way out in silence.

I excuse myself and follow him briefly, stopping at the bottom of the stairs to watch him ascend. There’s still work to be done today and I feel as though I can handle it well enough myself.

I climb the stairs to my room, intent on getting the holy water and covering the perimeter while my Mother is too engrossed in chatting to notice me outside waddling along, pouring water along the hedgeline.

“You okay?” I ask, hesitating in the doorway, looking in at his dark shadow lying on the bed, facing away from me.

“Yeah... I’m good.” He replies but his voice betrays him. I inch further into the room, feeling out of place in my own bedroom.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not right now, no.”

I purse my lips and nod once, reminding myself that it’s nothing personal. I go toward the closet and dig around inside for the jugs of holy water.

“Well if you decide to, you know where I will be. I’ll be back in a bit... Try and get some more rest.”

He doesn’t respond as I leave, shutting the door behind me. I look down at the two jugs, deciding to cut through the back door to keep my Mother from spotting me with them. I carry out the task of getting them to the back yard, and after crossing my heart and saying a quick prayer, I get to work spreading it around. I must’ve been a sight, constantly looking around like a paranoid mess, while sloshing water all over the outer border of my property.

Luckily it went off without a hitch. I smile proudly at my job once it’s completed, taking joy in the little wins right now, because who knows how long we’ve got until the next storm of terror grips us?

Notes

Thank you Merelan and Mezzy18 for commenting!