Shadowing My Dreams (Haunted Hearts)

Chapter 14

14

Archie

I grabbed Jack by the arm and stopped him on the small, windy street at the edge of Sunset Plaza. He was a man on a mission. “This is a giant leap. Just because I found his records, and…”

“But he died here,” he whined. “If Isaac is waiting for him, there’s a good chance he’s waiting for him too.”

“Maybe? The choices of people still astound me.” I shrugged.

He reached for my hand, and our fingers intertwined. “Would you cross over? If you were in love with… someone, and you died first, or would you stay and wait for them?”

“It is something that seems very romantic.” We slowly started walking toward the house at the top of the small hill. “I don’t know. How can someone know what they would do when they die? Maybe not everyone is given a choice?”

“I hope I would. I want to be in that kind of…”

“Stop. Don’t say that, Jack.” I squeezed his hand. “If you were mine and you died before me, I wouldn’t want you turning into Isaac. I’d want you to be at peace, whatever that was for you. We have no idea what happened to Drew, do we? What if he loved Isaac, but then he found someone elseand loved them just as much? What if he found another love? It’s not a finite thing, you know? We have no idea what we are walking into if anything. He may have moved on. Most people do, Jack. It’s not the norm for a spirit to stay here. They’re the fly in the soup, right?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he chuckled and pulled me slowly up the hill.

“The fly in the soup theory. It’s an abnormality. Flies sink or get stuck. Most people with soup never have a fly in it, but some – the few – find a fly. God, my legs are on fire.” I panted as I walked.

“I am totally lost. I have never heard of this theory.”

“Earthbound spirits are fairly rare. Most people die and move on. It’s the rare few that stay. There’s just been thousands of years of human history. I’ve also discovered that some spirits choose to come and go, which blew my mind. How do they do that?”

“Oh, I see. That’s…” He stopped as he thought about it. We were on an incline, and I was afraid that I would topple over at any moment. “So out of the roughly five trillion people…”

“Come on.” I pulled, and we continued our ascent. “It’s actually eight and a half billion as of this year.”

“Ok, smarty pants. I think it’s very hot that you know that. So, if one percent stayed, that would be?”

“Over eight million people,” I sighed. “I don’t think it’s that high. But, yes.”

“That’s a lot of ghosts. So, if you looked at this from a generational thing and said, maybe point five percent for every generation over the course of human history… Fuck.”

“It’s a lot of fucking ghosts.” I frowned. “I see them almost everywhere. There are very few places where ghosts don’t at least pass through. Older places – you know, most of the world besides the Americas, have many more ghosts than we do because they have so much more history. I once went to London on a getaway and stayed in my hotel for most of it. Their streets were crawling with the dead. It made me so sick to be surrounded by them. It was overwhelming.” We finally made it to the top of the fucking hill, and we stood in front of a small cottage with a red front door. I pointed to the house. “Looks like we’re here.”

“It’s cuter than my house.” Jack frowned. “Drew upgraded.”

“How are we going to do this ghostnap?” I scrunched my face up and stared at the house. “I’m still confused as to how this is supposed to happen unless we break in when no one’s home. I wouldn’t survive prison.”

“We’re not going to jail. I’ll take care of everything. I’m very charming.” He let go of my hand and pulled out a pamphlet from his back pocket.

“I’ll give you that.”

“Trust me.” He opened the small kissing gate, and we walked onto the property. Roses lined the flowery walkway.

“This is… maybe a little more dangerous than what you’re used to, Jack. If I can make contact and allow him inside, I won’t really be me in the way that you know me anymore – not until I release him into your house.” I stepped in front of him at the base of the small porch. He needed to really understand what I was planning on doing.

“I can’t believe you can even do this. Is it possession? Wait, are you going to be possessed?” His eyes widened with concern.

“In a way, but not in the way that you think. We’ll be sharing my vessel – my body. Our two souls will be cohabitating in a way. I have to make sure that he’s… willing to do this, of course, and I have to decide that I feel safe enough after finding him. Reading a spirit’s energy is a little harder than a human's, but I can do it. You’ll have two ghosts in your house,” I chuckled. “Super spooky.”

“Not for long, I hope.”

“Fingers crossed. This is dangerous, Jack. But I think it’s the only way. But – and that’s a very big but, by the way – I must find him inside the house. If I can’t locate him or talk to him, we’re back to square one. We’ll have to find another way.”

“According to the obituary we found online, Drew died five years ago at home. He owned this house that he bought from his landlord ten years earlier. We have to have hope that he’s in there, Arch. I just feel it – I know he is. You don’t forget how someone like Isaac loved you. I’m sure of it.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me slowly up the stairs. My feet were heavy – I can readily admit that I was nervous about the whole thing. What I needed to do was dangerous if I let the wrong spirit in. But I didn’t see another way. It’s not like you can catch a ghost and screw the cap on. This wasn’t fucking Ghostbusters.

“Ready? It’s showtime,” Jack chuckled as he rang the doorbell.

“Hold on!” A male voice said in asing-song.

Jack winked at me and pulled his tank top over his head. He stuffed it in his back pocket, and it hung out like a small tail. “I did my research.”

The door opened slowly, and a forty-ish-year-old man stood in the doorway. The little man gasped as he caught sight of Jack. The way he looked at him made my stomach churn. “Well, I… How can I help you, Sir?”

Jack shamelessly flexed his torso. “I’m here to see if I can help you, actually.”

“Are you a shirtless handyman? I am looking for someone new to take care of the lawn and garden.”

“That’s not what I do, unfortunately. I’m a shirtless trainer, and I’m very hands-on, and I’m offering a free try-out to new clients. I work out of Gym Bros down on Santa Monica, but we also do private one on ones in house for those people who don’t like going to the gym. No weights necessary.”

“Working out? I’ve never been into that.” He patted his small gut.

“It’s because you don’t like going to the gym. The people there and the lifestyle of meatheads who look down on newbies are the real reasons, though, right? You’re what, in your thirties?” God, he was laying it on thick. But the guy was totally buying it.

“Well, I… maybe. I mean, I used to get on the treadmill at LA Fitness. But I didn’t go very often, so I gave up my membership.”

“Memberships are not the way of the future. No one wants to pay a monthly fee. I think you would excel at the in-home training. And I can totally tell that you used the treadmill. Your legs look amazing.”

“Oh, I… Thank you!”

“Can I come in? I can show you some of the things that we might do if you chose to do some in house workouts with me? I could also use a glass of water. That walk up the hill in this heat made me real thirsty.”

“Of course.” He was flustered, and his face was turning red. “I’m not really dressed to work out.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll do it, and you can watch. There's no need for you to get sweaty until you decideto. I’m already sweaty enough for both of us,” Jack laughed, and I had to suppress a giggle. He was so fucking stupid, but it was working. The guy was practically salivating in front of us, and I didn’t blame him.

“Oh, of course. It is really hot out.” He stepped aside, and we walked in.

“This is my friend, Arch. He’s here to answer any questions you might have about… uh… billing. I’ll just follow you into the kitchen for that water, and Arch will hang out in the living room. He’s not into muscles,” he winked at me, and I threw my hand in front of my mouth to hide my grin. He knew exactly how much I was into his muscles. But his plan had worked, and I had a few minutes alone to try to see what, if anything, was inside this house.

“Do you like the way my abs look? How about my chest? I think I’m pretty massive, and all I do is this program that I’m about to show you. I hope you don’t mind my sweat…” He followed the guy into his kitchen, and I went over to sit down on the couch.

I didn’t know how much time I might have. I cleared my mind and opened myself up broader than I usually did – casting out my energy to feed any spirits inside the house. I connected automatically, but it was vague. The spirit wasn’t strong and had faded over the years. Five years… I could feel him.

“Drew?” I whispered, continuing to push my energy forward.

Nothing.

“Andrew Parker, if you are here in this house, I have a message for you. Isaac Nelson is waiting for you. Are you still here waiting for him? I feel you, Andrew. Are you trapped in the house?”

Who are you? His voice spoke into my mind. He was too weak, even with all the energy I was giving him, to manifest.

“Someone who can reconnect you to Isaac. Are you Andrew?” I felt for him through the void and could sense a small presence on the other side. I was assaulted by images in my mind. It was who I hoped for, but he was not a strong spirit. Perhaps not strong enough to accomplish what I needed him to do. “Come to me, Drew. I feel you watching. I hear you.”

Isaac is still here? I thought… lost to me. A flash of Isaac sitting in a chair by the window. The of him lying in a bed as he was close to death.

“No. He’s still in the house you once shared. He’s been waiting for you for over forty years. Can you manifest? I need you to cross through so I can help you,” I tried to keep my voice down because if that guy heard what I was saying, we’d get thrown out no matter how hot he thought Jack was.

I felt the veil shimmer. He was not a strong soul. I doubted that the gay guy who lived here even knew that Drew was present and still lingering after his death. He was so insubstantialthatI wasn’t sure I could accomplish what I needed to do to reunite them.

I pushed energy into the void and could feel myself weaken. Jack would have to carry me out of here if this didn't work. But for a second, a glimmer in the void appeared. Connection.

Isaac? Where is he?

“You did wait for him?” I could feel the desire and love that Drew had for him. It enveloped him in the same way that Isaac’s sickness did him.

Yes. He was my only real love.

“You have to find form, Drew.”

He was so broken.

“He’s finally whole, and all he needs to find happiness and cross over into the light is you, Drew. He’s waited for you. Do you want to see him again?”

Yes.

“Find your form. Feed off of me, Drew. I came to bring you to him.”

I tried to leave. But I cannot.

“You can. I can take you to him, but you will have to trust me, and I will have to trust you. Can I trust you?”

I want Isaac. Please?

“He wants you too. He’s been waiting all alone, and he’s been so sad. But he will be so happy to see you again. You are all he’s been thinking about.”

Why didn’t he find me?

“He is also stuck in the place he knew. It happens, Drew. This was your home. It belonged to you, and you became attached to it. Isaac is in the home you shared, the only place he felt that was ever a home to him. I can take you.”

I dropped my shields and stood up. My knees shook as I stood in this very tackily decorated house and offered my body to this sad and lost soul. I was so weak – I had given so much to Drew so he could cross through the in-between to this realm of existence.

“Find form, Drew. Manifest,” I pleaded.

I…

“You have to,” I raised my voice as loud as I dared. It was now or never.

I…

I pushed all the rest of my energy into the void, and he shimmered into view.

“Quick, before I’m too exhausted to accept you. Come into me, Drew. Share my body and take possession of me.”

He glided across the room, barely a mist hanging in the air, and entered me. The static of our two souls intermingling inside me caused the lights to flicker.

“Am I safe?” he whispered. “Do I have form?” My voice and my lipsmade the words, but it was not me who spoke.

Yes, I replied from inside my mind. I was still in control in some ways but not in others. I carried a passenger inside me, and his spirit lay on top of my own. I wrapped myself in as much protective energy as I could. But I had almost nothing left. I was as weak as Drew.

“Now what? I’m so tired… I don’t know how long I can stay here.”

Jack! I screamed, but it was only in my head. Only Drew could hear me.

“Jack?” Drew realized what I needed. He knew my thoughts as well as I knew his. So many visions of happy time – of pain and despair – it overwhelmed me until I didn’t know which memories belonged to who.

He quickly poked his head in. His body was glistening with sweat.

“Nice,” Drew laughed.

“Drew? Archie?”

Yes

“Yes.”

“Ok. It was really nice to meet you, but we have another appointment.” Jack quickly put his hand on our back and ushered us out the door without even waiting for the guy to respond.

“I think I’d like to…” The guy's words were cut off as the door slammed.

“Drew, are you inside my boyfriend?”

“Yes. He… I think he loves you.”

“Good. Because I love him too.”

I shivered inside myself. But his words gave me warmth. I had a boyfriend.