Ghosting Wounds

Chapter 7

"What changed? Why can you talk to us now?"

"The line between the living and the dead is shifting, which is why you can see me and talk to me. They don't know much about it which is why I convinced them to allow me to experiment and interact with you guys now." Emily said with a large smile, she'd been invisible for far too long, it was nice to finally talk to her friends or even get acknowledged by them.

"Em," Emily nodded towards Hanna, "How long have you been with us? Like on earth as a ghost."

"Five and a half months, I was here when Aria broke up with Ezra and when you broke up with Caleb. I spent a lot of nights watching over you while you cried yourself to sleep, sometimes I'd even hold you and run my fingers through your hair hoping to in some way or form comfort your bad dreams away." Emily confessed. She was proud of herself for the nights when she was able to help Hanna fall asleep after she broke up with Caleb, the brunette had never wanted to see that kind of pain on the blonde's face.

"I felt you," Everyone's eyes went to Hanna and waited for her to continue, "On some nights when I'd stopped crying—you obviously thought I was asleep—I would just leave my eyes closed not being able to fully fall asleep, then out of nowhere I would feel this cold breeze go through my hair and surround my back. At first I thought that maybe mum had left a window open somewhere but then it felt more like fingers running though my hair, and a body curled into my back, I thought I had some sort of guardian angel watching over me," The blonde paused before continuing.

"Turns out I did," Hanna admitted shyly.

"I didn't know Han, I'm glad I could help,"

"As much as I would love to continue this because I literally want to cry right now," Spencer said, breaking the moment shared between the two friends, "Em, does this shift mean that maybe we can somehow get you back?"

"That's not possible-" Alison said before she got cut off by the ghost.

"Actually it may be possible. Recently I've been feeling things that a ghost shouldn't be, I was cold outside in the woods, and I got an overwhelming amount of pain that radiated through my body before you guys found me, then when I got up I saw this red glowing light coming from my chest. I don't know what it means, but all I do know is that I'm changing," The brunette said as she looked to Spencer who was jumping out of her seat obviously struck with a bright idea as too why Emily was feeling this way.

"What?"

"What if you are slowly becoming human again?" Spencer said with her hands resting on her head, happy to be able to voice her opinion. "I know that you'd obviously need a body, you can't just materialize one out of nowhere, but—"

"Spence, I may be blonde but even I know that's crazy," Hanna stated.

"No, no, think about it. She's got this glowing red chest—which we can all see by the way, I just didn't know if I should bring it up—and you're starting to feel these human feelings again, maybe this shift between living and dead is your chance to jump through and become living again?"

"Yeah, but why now, and why me? None of these other ghosts have glowing red chests," Emily said, she had bumped into a few ghosts when she was out in the woods, most of them wandering around lost in their own chaos. The voice had told her about them, ghosts that had never finished their unfinished business. Most of them had gone crazy after being a ghost on Earth for so long, and she had quickly figured out that it was better to pay them no attention.

"I don't know, but we need to take advantage of it, but not tonight, I'm stuffed and I need a good sleep if I'm to process this and deal with the test I have tomorrow." Spencer said before she started walking off to the room she had dumped her bags into when they got here, Aria said her goodnights to everyone before excusing herself too. Hanna followed suit, but also offering if Alison wanted to sleep in her bed instead of the couch, the blonde declined saying she was used to sleeping on couches. A painful expression fell over Emily's features at the statement, and she couldn't help but wonder how many uncomfortable couches the blonde had had to sleep on while she was on the run. Hanna closed the door, which left the two girls both still seated.

"Here, I'll get you a blanket," Emily said as she made her way to the linen closet.

"Oh, no, Em I can do that," Alison protested but faintly saw the ghost girl walk off anyway – she shook her head – Emily always had to be helping someone, that was one of the things Alison loved most about Emily. She moved the couch cushions together to create a somewhat comfortable pillow.

"Here we go."

"Whoa," Alison exclaimed as she turned around to a floating blanket in front of her, "I'm not going to get used to that," she giggled.

"Yeah don't worry, I'm the one doing it and I haven't gotten used to it either," Emily said as she sat down on the chair – feeling quite drained from the events of tonight – across from where Alison was making her couch bed, she watched the blonde settle into the covers and tuck a few wild strands of hair behind her ear.

A few moments later the blonde broke the silence.

"Em?"

"Yes?"

"Wh- Why'd you do it?"

Emily wasn't sure exactly what she was referring too, "Do what?"

The blonde could now barely see the ghost, just a faint and very opaque outline of the brunette. Alison's voice was so soft when she said, "Kill yourself,"

It was a good question, why had she killed herself. It wasn't one any of her other friends would get the true answer to, but Alison deserved it. "Because I couldn't live in a world where you didn't exist anymore."

Silence fell over them once more.