Limbo

ASHLEY:

I look at Andy and CC standing in the doorway grinning at me, and the only thing I can get out at first is "Huh?"

"When did you start studying magic tricks, dude?" CC chimes in. "Andy's right, that's pretty damn good."

"But now you'll have to pull it on Jake or Jinxx, since we've already seen it," Andy continues. "Or maybe Bob. But Jinxx would probably be your best bet, he'd be more likely to fall for it."

"Guys, that's not me," I inform them. "I'm not doing anything."

"Come on, dude, you don't really expect us to fall for this 'ghost' crap, do you?" Andy groans. "Okay, I get that you're probably bored off of your ass, but there have to be better things you can come up with than this."

All of the noise has gotten everyone else's attention, and they all show up at my door. Rachel has brought the pencil over to the desk, and is standing next to me, with a look on her face that is somewhere between exasperation and annoyance. Charlie walks over next to Andy and asks, "Is there a problem, guys?"

"Apparently Ash has been playing around with a new prank, and I guess we came in too soon and spoiled it," CC tells him. "He actually had the fuckin' pencil hanging in midair, you couldn't see the wires or anything."

"And I told you two jackasses that it wasn't me, damn it!" I growl, and Susan walks into the room to stand between us.

"Stop it, right now!" she orders. "Ashley, if you start trying to yell, you're going to send yourself right back to the hospital, and maybe do permanent damage. And the rest of you should have enough sense to know that, so stop trying to antagonize him."

"She's right, guys," Bob adds. "So just leave it alone for now."

Jinxx has been standing in the door, looking around the room, and he asks, "Just for the record, are you sure you weren't doing anything, Ash?" I nod, and he says. "Okay, then. Is whoever it was still here?"

I nod again, and Jake takes a pull from his water bottle and says, "Okay, I know where you're going with this, man. You're gonna try to get him to prove it, aren't you?"

"Well, if there really is someone else here, why not?" Jinxx retorts. "Assuming that he, or she, is willing, of course. We just have to think of something that no one would have had a chance to rig up ahead of time. Do you think that they would do that?"

I look over at Rachel, and she nods, then starts moving closer to them, so I say, "Yeah, she says that she's okay with it."

Jinxx lights up like a little kid on Christmas morning and whips out his phone, and Susan appears to be interested, but everyone else except Andy just looks a bit uncertain. He rolls his eyes and snorts, then says, "Oh come on, guys, you don't really believe this, do you?"

"Well, then, genius, how do you explain what happened the other day, with the phone calls and stuff?" Jinxx challenges him. "And the mess in the kitchen?"

"I have no fucking idea, but what I do know is that there's no such thing as a fucking ghost!" Andy barks in return.

No sooner do the words leave his mouth than I see Rachel swoop up the wastebasket next to the door, wave it in front of his face, and jam it down onto his head. She then snatches the water bottle out of Jake's hand, and stuffs it, neck first, down the front of Andy's pants. He jumps back and almost falls on his ass, and I'm forcing myself not to laugh as Jinxx records every second.

"Well, looks like someone doesn't feel like playing with you today, Biersack," Bob observes.

When he manages to get the can off of his head, I very calmly ask, "So, do you believe me now?"

"Dude, what the fuck?" he sputters. "My fucking pants are soaked, I look like I just pissed myself!"

"And that has what to do with me, exactly?"

Before he can even try to answer, he finds my sketchpad and pencil hanging in front of him, and they all watch with their mouths hanging open as a sentence forms on the paper:

"Do you still think I don't exist?"

"Holy shit!" Jake blurts, while CC blinks several times, and Jinxx starts grinning so widely I almost expect to see the ends of his mouth meet in the back, and the top two-thirds of his head to fall off.

His mouth opens and closes several times, but nothing comes out for several seconds, until she adds a second sentence:

"If so, I can always come hang out in your room tonight when you go to bed. I'm curious as to how well you'll be able to sleep if you have to get up and turn off your light every five minutes."

He clamps his eyes shut for a second, then opens them and looks again at the pad, seemingly hanging in midair. He then turns to me, and finally says, "You're really not kidding, are you, Ash?"

"Nope, I'm not. She's really here, and if she wasn't, I wouldn't be either."

"Well, that's good enough for me, then," CC announces, turning to look at the sketchpad. "You saved my buddy's life, so I'm cool with you. Thanks."

"Same here," Jake adds.

"Me, too," Jinxx chimes in.

Andy takes a deep breath, then says, "Since you're apparently really here, that goes for me, too. But why can't anybody see you?"

She turns back to me and shrugs her shoulders, so I tell them, "She says that she doesn't know. Apparently nobody has until now."

"So you can see her?" Susan asks. "Or hear her, at least?"

"Both, actually. She looks exactly the same as that night at the show, and we were having an actual conversation when they walked in."

"So why can you see her if nobody else can?" Jake questioned.

"There's actually a pretty simple explanation for that," Jinxx responds. "If you remember what they said at the hospital, he was dead, or real fucking close, at least twice. There have been other cases where a near-death experience has given people abilities that they didn't have before. I actually saw a program once about a guy who was actually declared dead after he was struck by lightning, but they brought him back, and he wound up becoming psychic."

"So you're saying that because they had to resuscitate him, that he can talk to ghosts now?"
CC demands.

"That's the only thing I can think of that makes any sense," Jinxx replies. "He couldn't do it before, at least not that he's ever told anyone, and that's the only thing that's changed."

"He's right, I think," I say. "This is definitely new, so that pretty much has to be it. I just wonder if this means that they're gonna start actually hunting me up now, or if it's just her."

"Since we can't actually answer that one right now, I have a slightly more immediate question," Charlie interjects. "Now, I'm not saying that I mind or anything, of course, but is there a chance that your new friend can explain exactly why she's choosing to haunt our B and B? Is it just because she lived here before, or what? Is there something about the place that we need to know about?"

I look at Rachel, and she says, "If you're willing to help, I'll try to explain everything. As well as I can, anyway."

"Okay, everybody, why don't we go downstairs, and I'll tell you what she says," I inform everyone. "And it may be a long night, because if my voice doesn't hold up, I may have to resort to writing everything down."

"I'll go make some coffee," Susan says, heading for the stairs. And without another word, they all turn and follow her, leaving me alone in my room with Rachel.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I ask her.

"Yeah, I am," she says. "Maybe somebody can fill me in on what happened afterward. And since one of the guys who broke in here was part of the group, they need to know what they're dealing with, before something happens to one of them."

When she says this, I feel a chill go down my spine, and I grab up the pad and pencil. "What are we waiting for then?" I inquire as I move into the hallway. "Let's go."

Notes