Chapter 27

Time seemed to freeze as days and days of pouring over files coursed through Zach’s mind. His brain was a pinball machine and every time the ball hit something, the same words rang out. Aoi Yamada, the girl who went missing and then came back to her family two weeks later.

But if she was here, and she was calling Blue, ‘her old self’…

“What’s going on?” Blue weakly whispered as the strange woman approached Blue.

“Oh you’re so cute…” She reached out for Blue’s hair and snickered. The ghost was too frozen to do anything as the strange woman managed to touch and play with her hair. “So innocent, so carefree.”

There was a sharp glint in her eye as she suddenly pulled at Blue’s hair. She let out a squeak as the two were forced face to face.

“So stupid. So weak. You’re the one who ruined everything!” Her screams echoed out as she threw Blue by the hair, sending the poor ghost flying off.

Zach’s brain finally rebooted as she rushed to her side, making sure to put himself between him and the woman.

“Who are you and what are you doing to her?” the strange woman just laughed, apparently finding Zach’s request hilarious.

“Aoi, what’s happening? Who were you yelling at? Who are all these people?” The older woman glanced between Zach and his grandfather. “You said you needed to come here, to explain what happened to you all those years ago.”

Aoi, she said it. The name which made no sense. Zach and Blue both felt the world under them shift.

And then Zach’s grandpa coughed.

“I think I may be able to explain some things.” There they were the words that Zach and Blue had been waiting for. It was time for all of this to slot into place. He turned towards the woman who was probably Aoi… and Blue’s, mother. “I suppose that for your sake, I might as well start from the beginning. You’re going to want to brace yourself for this.”

Zach carefully watched Aoi as his grandpa told the story of noticing strange noises and people in the woods ten years ago. Of calling in some old favors and friends to keep an eye on things since he was too old to do so. The whole time, Aoi just starred at Blue, not even twitching at a single word in the story.

“And then I got the call. Those people in the woods, they brought a little girl with them this time, and taken her downstairs. My old friends went in after them, but got their too late. The girl was already bleeding to death, and the people were leaving via other methods. They just barely managed to close the wound and stop the bleeding.”

“And I have the giant scar to show for it.” Aoi clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Makes it hard to find a decent swimsuit too.”

Despite everything so far, Blue couldn’t help but agree with her.

“Well I suppose it would. They only just barely managed to save her. In fact, she died and had to be revived at least once throughout the process.”

The three people who hadn’t known needed an extra second to process that last bit of information. Aoi’s mother just lounged forward and grabbed Aoi into a hug the tears already forming. But Zach and Blue, they didn’t get anything more than a single second, because Zach’s grandpa quickly turned to address the two of them.

“Now, there’s a bit of a debate in the psychic community about ghosts. What they are and where they come from. We figured out pretty early on that only people with psychic potential become ghosts, but we never knew why. I think I do now. Tell me Zach, after everything you’ve heard today, what do you think ghosts are?”

Aoi’s eyes flashed with psychic power as Zach gulped.

“Yeah that’s right… I have powers too,” she smirked as her mother let her go. “After your grandpa’s friends saved me, they took me to a compound far from here to help me recover and taught me some tricks while I was there.”

Zach took a deep breath as both his and Blue’s minds went back to everything they knew about ghosts and the story they’d just heard. It was all clear now.

“Ghosts aren’t a person’s soul or anything like that…” Zach started, but couldn’t bear to say the next part himself.

Blue had to do it for him.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Ghosts are… a psychic footprint left behind on the world when a psychic dies in a traumatic way.” She and Aoi locked eyes, and Blue felt fear. She was fake, this in front of her, was the real her.

Blue felt weirdly heavy… like a pit had opened up beneath her and had started pulling her downwards. She had no real throat, she has no real lungs or stomach, but she still felt like she was suffocating and heaving at the same time.

Everything she’d done after meeting Zach… all they’d done… what did it matter?

“Blue?” She became aware of the world around her again as she looked at Zach. He was looking right at her… no it. His mouth was moving, but no words reached it’s ears. All this time, it had been lying to him… and he’d wasted his time trying to help something no better than a photograph.

Zach jumped back as Blue screamed and flew upwards through the ceiling. His first instinct was to run up to where she’d been and reach upwards.

“Blue! Where are you…” he trailed off as he heard a cruel snicker echo throughout the room. He looked back and found the source, Aoi Yamada standing next to her bewildered looking mother.

“What is going on? What was that just now?” she asked as Zach’s grandpa went up to her, leaving Zach and Aoi herself starring at each other.

“You’re laughing. You just watched someone go through a break down, and you’re laughing?” He growled at her, his anger carrying his feet forward.

“Something kid, not someone.” She looked up at the spot Blue had flown through. “Something that I left behind, all the worst parts of me. I don’t know why you care about it so much.”

“Blue’s my friend, and from what I’ve seen so far, she’s a better person than you.” He snarled at her and took one step too far. One second, he was right in Aoi’s face. The next he was flying backwards.

He hit his back on the stone wall, the air forced out of his lung as Aoi held her arm out. He narrowed his eyes and saw small ripples in the air between the two of them. He pulled his arm off the wall and took aim with his finger.

If he really was psychic… then this should work. He willed a ball of ghostly… psychic energy, to form at the end of his finger, the same way he’d do as gestalt.

He could only manage a ball the size of a marble, nowhere near the head-sized one he’d managed earlier in the day. It would have to do.

“Just what are you going to do with…” Aoi’s sneering grin was cut off as the marble sized orb hit her right between the eyes. She let out a shriek of pain, dropping her arm and her grip on Zach. The young exorcist fell, his back rubbing against the wall.

He landed on his feet while keeping his aim steady. By the time Aoi had recovered from the first attack, Zach already had another blue marble ready to go.

Zach tried to ignore the intrusive through that Blue would demand he start calling it by that name if she ever heard him call it that.

“That is enough! Both of you!” Zach’s grandpa rushed between the two of them and put his hands up. With the temporary pause, both combatants noticed Aoi’s mother trembling in the corner. “Aoi, you told me you came here to face your past. Zach, you came here to learn the truth of Blue’s past. I expected that you two would help each other, not start a fight.”

“Well than maybe you should have given me a heads up about this?” Zach demanded before looking back up at the floor. Blue had been gone for a while now. She was coming back… right?

“Maybe I should have. I figured that you wouldn’t believe me unless you had breathing proof. If I’d known you’d both act like this… I would have done things differently.”

“Sorry Eugen, but your grandkid’s an idiot who can’t tell a ten year old photo from the real thing.”

“Wait,” Aoi mother suddenly called out as everyone looked over to her. “Everyone just… stop. Give me a second.”

Everyone stopped moving and speaking, but their minds were still going. Zach still had his arm ready to move and form another Blue Marble if Aoi as much as twitched. Aoi, for her part, was ready to do exactly the same thing. And Eugene was keeping a frantic eye on both youngsters in case they did something foolish.

“Okay, so this ‘ghost’… she’s Aoi from the moment she died.” She turned towards Zach who took a deep breath to calm himself down.

“Well, she was. Now she’s that plus ten years trapped in this cabin, plus all the stuff we’ve done since I got out of here.” He explained as Aoi rolled her eyes and started walking around the room. Zach kept a spare eye on her as he told her mother a few of the things he’d done with Blue. Mostly the fun stuff, like the beach trip and going out to see the town.

The older woman actually started crying when Zach started talking about the beach. Specifically when he described the swim suit she’d worn. Blue had mentioned the outfit just coming to her, so figured he’d ask about it.

“Her old swimsuit didn’t fit anymore, so we went shopping a few weeks before… everything happened.” Aoi’s mother explained as Aoi herself opened up a side door and went in. “It was her first time picking one out for herself. She was so excited to wear it to the beach, but she never had the chance.”

The woman cried out again before pulling Zach into a hug.

“I don’t know much about ghost about psychic powers or ghosts, but you helped one of my daughters, so thank you.”

“Excuse me, did you just say ‘daughters’?” Aoi’s head shot of the side room, her arm poking out while holding a child’s t-shirt. “Mom…”

Aoi took a second to glare at the boy who’d shot her before switching over to perfect Japanese. Zach flinched back, thinking back to Blue’s lack of skill in any language other than English.

Something he had plenty of time to think about as Aoi and her mother had a long back and forth conversation in Japanese. Volumes were raised, and by the time it was done Aoi looked ready to fight her way out of here if she needed to.

“Fine then, you learned what you wanted to know.” Aoi scowled before walking back to the stairwell. Her mother frowned after her and turned back to Zach. She looked like she had something to say, but thought for a second before leaving up the stairs. Soon the only two people left were a grandson and grandfather.

“We’ll give them a second to gain some ground before we head up ourselves.” Eugene and his grandson awkwardly waited a few minutes before the older man finally started heading back up the stairs, this time giving the flashlight to Zach so he could light the way.

With any luck, Blue would be waiting for them outside.