Chapter 5

“We made it!” The new existence yelled as they ran through the trees. Two sets of laughter rang out as they looked back towards the cabin. Looked like Samuel had stopped chasing them. The new existence came to a stop as they caught their breath.

“[So that’s what breathing's like,]” one of the voices said on her own as a flash of pain shot through their head again. Once again, the Marble and Blue Flame Heart appeared in their heads only for the chains to shatter apart and the two halves came apart.

A single pair of eyes closed as the nameless ghost flew out of Zach’s chest. She fell forward as he fell backwards, both hitting the ground at about the same time. The two of them sat up in silence. Zach stared at the nameless ghost, not knowing what to say. As for the nameless ghost…

She was looking at everything but Zach. Her eyes greedily drank up every sight around her as she floated up and started dashing around, attracted by every new sight and sound which crossed her senses.

“I’m out,” she whispered just loud enough for Zach to hear. She shook in place for a second before spinning around with her hands out and rushing upwards. She reached the top of the trees and this time he had no trouble hearing her cheering and yelling. “I’m finally out of that stupid cabin!”

“Well, at least she’s happy,” he muttered to himself as he tried to follow the ghost through the trees. He smiled as she flew through the branches, laughing the whole time.

After one last rush around the trees, the nameless ghost calmed down and floated over to where Zach was. Even under her messy hair, he could see her wide smile.

“Thank you so much,” she lifted her arms up for a second before blinking for a second and dropping them. She shook her head and just kept smiling. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be stuck there.”

“Don’t worry about it…” He couldn't help but mirror her smile, even as a question played in his mind. “So what are you going to do now? You have the whole world open to you now, so where are you going to go now?”

The ghost froze in place before slowly looking at the dark forest all around her. She chuckled nervously before gripping her hand into a fist.

“I don’t know…” She finally said. “Oh wow. I really do have the whole word open to me now, don’t I? I never really thought I’d escape the cabin. I’ve never thought about it.”

“Well if you want, you can stick with me for a while until you figure it out,” Zach pointed to himself. Not only would it give the ghost a chance to see how things had changed since she died, but he’d get a chance to hang out with a ghost for the summer. Maybe they’d even be able to try that weird fusion thing again. Whatever it had been, it had left him feeling like he had super powers, so he just had to try it again.

“I could? You would do that for me?” She leaned forward into Zach’s face, causing the young man to lean back.

“Sure thing. It’s the least I can do after everything that happened…” He paused as he looked at the nameless ghost and realized he had no other way to refer to her. All of that, and they’d never actually exchanged names.

“Are you okay?” The ghost asked, finally noticing the way Zach had frozen up.

“We never told each other our names…” he whispered. The nameless ghost’s eyes widened as she froze too. The two of them just looked at each other, Zach unmoving and the nameless ghost slowly sinking towards the floor.

“Heh heh heh…” neither of them was sure who’d started it, but after a few seconds, both of them were laughing their heads off in the middle of the woods. Slowly, the laughter died down as the pair looked at each other.

“All of that, and we never gave each other names,” the ghost said between her dying laughs. “It feels like we did things way out of order here.”

“You think? Might as well fix that now. My name’s Zach, it’s nice to meet you,” he reached his hand out. Even if the ghost couldn't finish the handshake, it was the thought that counted.

“Well my name is… uhm…” the ghost stopped and glanced down at herself. Zach could see the gears turning in her head. After a few seconds, she looked back up and smiled. “I don’t really remember my name, but you can call me Blue.”

“Nice to meet you Blue,” Zach smiled as the now named Blue looked at his hand and went to try and shake it. Her hand went into his, just as expected. He fought back a shiver as he slowly raised his arm, Blue matching his movement until the jury rigged handshake was done.

“Well that was weird,” Blue giggled as Zach looked at his hand. It felt weirdly cold, but nothing that wasn't fixed by a few seconds in the heat of a Florida summer night. “But it was kind of fun.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“I guess you can call it that,” he flexed his fingers a few times until he felt it go back to normal. “Not sure how my parents are going to feel about having a ghost around, but what they don’t know won’t…”

His parents.

Zach’s eyes widened as he started to scream. Blue jumped back as he reached for his phone and looked at the time. Despite all he’d been through, not as much time had passed as he would have expected. He was still way too close to being late.

“My parents are waiting for me at the entrance of the forest. We have to get going now before they start getting worried about me,” he turned around and started running. “Follow me, if we get there fast enough, I won’t need to worry about being grounded for the rest of the summer.”

Blue watched him start running through the woods before quickly following after him. The pair made their way through the woods in relative silence. Zach was too focused on running as quickly as he could before his parents skinned him alive and Blue was too busy taking in the night around her to make much conversation.

As they neared the exit, Zach, finally spoke up.

“Once we make the edge of the forest, stay back and keep your distance,” he said as Blue came to a stop. Zach glanced to his side and noticed Blue’s absence. He stopped and looked back to see her with her arms on her hips and a pout on her face.

“And why exactly do you want me to that?” She demanded.

“Because I have no way to explain how I met you without getting into a mountain of trouble for the rest of the summer,” he pointed out to a seemingly unconvinced Blue. “Blue, I wasn’t even supposed to open the door to that cabin, let alone go inside. Unless you have a way to explain it, you’re going to have to stay hidden.”

Blue grumbled for a second before letting out a sigh. Zach got the feeling she was narrowing her eyes at him as she slowly gave him a thumbs up and slowly slinked away until she was out of sight.

Zach resolved to make it up to her later and then left the forest.

“There you are!” The second he stepped foot out of the forest, he was instantly assaulted by a pair of arms that wrapped around him. It took him a second to realize he was in his mother’s grip. He looked up to see his mother’s narrowed glare.

Despite how much trouble he might have been in, only a single thought played in his mind. He had met two ghosts tonight, and neither of them were as scary as the idea of his mother finding out what he’d done.

“What took you so long?” His father added as he walked up to the pair.

“Yes, what took you so long?” His mother added in a stern tone. “We were waiting by the entrance of the path for almost twenty minutes, only for you to come out all the way over here.”

“I got a little lost on the way out and came out over here instead?” He gave what he hoped was a believable lie.

“Well… you look all right,” his mother looked him over before letting go of him. “Just do a better job of not getting yourself lost next time.”

“Don’t worry, I’m way ahead of you,” he said before being interrupted by a convenient yawn. “But man it’s late, can we head back and get some sleep?”

“I guess fighting Samuel Pickerpepper really took it out of you?” Zach had to fight to not laugh at just how right his father was. He just nodded along as the three turned towards their temporary home. He glanced back behind them a few times on the walk back. He only spotted the faintest hints of a blue glow a few times, but it was enough to reassure him that Blue was following them.

After a short while, the three managed to make it to the home of Zach’s paternal grandparents. Waiting for them inside were both grandparents, his uncle and Travis, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

Zach’s father didn’t waste any time to start telling everyone about what had happened in the woods, earning a groan from Travis. Seeing where this was going, Zach quickly excused himself before climbing up the stairs to the guestroom he’d claimed as his own. He sat down on the bed and waited for the hairs on the back of his neck to start rising again.

They’d worked as a ghost radar so far, and with nothing else to do but wait for Blue, might as well test them out.

A few minutes passed without Zach feeling anything from his neck. He reached up and felt the back of his neck and found everything there worryingly smooth. Maybe Blue had changed her mind and was going to head out on her own after all.

“Hey,” he almost jumped at the whisper from above. He looked up to see a certain blue ghost sticking her head in through the roof. He rolled his eyes as he noticed that she was holding her hand over mouth and trying to laugh.

“Very funny,” he whispered back, even as he reached up to check the back of his neck. It felt smooth, with not a single hair sticking up. This could mean one of two things. Either he really didn’t have some sort of ghost radar, or he did and he was just ‘used’ to being around Blue so she didn’t cause it to go off anymore.

“Sorry,” she said as she fully went through the ceiling and floated down next to Zach. “I saw you sitting by yourself through the window and thought I’d scare you a little,” she smiled cheekily as he stood up from the bed.

“Well at least you made it, I was starting to worry you’d never show up. Especially once I didn’t feel anything on my neck,” Blue titled her head at him in confusion, prompting Zach to explain his ghost radar idea.

“Well we did do that weird combination thing,” she pointed out after hearing what he had to say. “Maybe that’s why I’m not making it go off anymore.”

“Maybe…” Zach blinked as he quickly realized they’d just stumbled onto a way to ask about something else he’d wanted to ask Blue about. “Speaking about that… you want to try it again?”

“What, the combination thing?” Blue’s eyes widened at the suggestion. Almost as though she hadn’t been expecting him to ask her about it. “Why would you want to do that again?”

“Well it’s just…” he trailed off as he tried to think of a way to phrase ‘it felt cool having super powers’ without coming off an insanely childish. “It was… cool being able to just run through the forest that fast. I wanted to see what else we could do,”

“So because it gives you super powers then?” Zach felt his face heat up as Blue snickered. “Looks like I hit that nail right on the head. Sure, we can try to do that again. You’re not the only one who can get something out of it.”

“Wait, what’s in it for you?” Zach relaxed, not feeling as selfish as he had before.

“If we do this, we split our time between running around the woods and doing stuff, any kind of stuff,” she stopped looking at him and instead looked down at her own hands. “After that arrow, I want to touch things. I want to feel them on my skin.

“I think… that can be arranged,” He said as he held his fist out for her. Blue starred at in confusion, and one explanation later, their fists met, her slightly entering his.