Eli wasn't really sure which was worse: being an apparition or being a student. Both were equally tiring. Eli couldn't just stop being either one of them, and they couldn't just stop doing their best at both parts of their life.
But what they could do was escape from everything for just a little bit. The forest outside of the old academy buildings had never looked so inviting. They had been in the clock tower with the other two members of the school's first mystery, waiting for anything apparition-related while working on some homework.
But now they were heading down the rickety stairs with a caution that only came after almost falling through them, their form going from apparition to human by the time they reached the bottom step.
Next up: the woods.
They left the darkness of the clock tower for the darkness of Ravenwood's forest. They knew they'd only get lost if they kept wandering aimlessly, but wandering aimlessly honestly sounded like a great idea. They could really use a break from all of the planning and stressing.
Sylvan watched from his shadowy tree as someone's whisp walked towards the woods. He hopped down from the tree, hiding behind it. Trying to listen for a voice to identify his visitor. He knew they were likely an apparition or a student who had taken a dare. Mostly no one traveled towards this part of the woods. Whisps moved and flowed, so it was hard to identify a person by them.
Little did Sylvan know, his cloak stuck out from the tree, as well as a bit of his hair. It was hard to tell for him, since the cloak wasn't living.
Eli had always had good instincts. They didn't always listen to those instincts. If Eli had, they would have never entered the clock tower in their freshman year.
But they were paying attention to those instincts now. There was someone else in the woods. Eli was sure of it. It was impossible to tell if they were an apparition or a regular old human. Eli could have switched to their apparition form, but chances were they were just dealing with another student.
Eli turned.
They caught a glimpse of messy black hair first - the same shade of black that their hair had been before they dyed it. Then they noticed the cloak, too.
They reached out a hand and grabbed onto the cloak.
"It is," they confirmed. This shouldn't have been as surprising as it was. Apparitions were ghosts, sometimes. Sylvan had died. His death hadn't been a pleasant one, and it had been out here in these woods...
A second later, Eli wrapped their arms around their friend. They were too shocked to cry or say anything else. Focusing on the hug was the best they could do right now.
Sylvan shakily hugged back, letting out a soft whimper as a few tears slid down his face. He'd been alone in these woods for what felt like forever and having a friend again had seemed impossible to him. Especially Eli.
He felt some butterflies flutter in his stomach. He had missed this. The affection and reassurance of having a friend, though he hadn't quite realized just how much until he was receiving it again.
Eli finally took a step back - they weren't sure how long they had been hugging, but they knew the hug couldn't last forever.
"I can't believe you're a-"
They faltered.
Sylvan wasn't alive. They knew that. They were an apparition, too. Sylvan was as dead as Eli would have been if they hadn't been saved in the clock tower.
"I've been good," they said, rubbing the back of their neck. "And busy. And, um, it wasn't that high up?"
It was. But if Eli said it was, they'd have to explain how they survived the fall. They didn't want to bring up their role as one of the Clock Keepers right now. They just wanted to focus on seeing their friend again.
"How have you been?" Eli asked. "You're a ghost now. That's...that's hard to deal with, isn't it?"
He laughed again. "I've gotten used to the whole being dead thing. Its been a couple of years. I've been a bit lonely if anything, and I miss Mirana, but I've been mostly okay," He smiles to himself and pulls his cloak around his body slightly. "I can kind of see now, which is cool. Though it's much different from how you see," Sylvan giggles, "at least I assume so if this is how you see I'd be quite concerned about the way you've described things to me before,"
They couldn't tell if Sylvan could actually see the smile, but they liked to think that their friend just knew they were doing it. Maybe it was just them being optimistic. But they had always hoped that, even back when they first met and both of them were still just normal kids.
"How do you see now?" Eli asked, curiosity lacing their voice as the last giggle died out. "Now I have to know."
He nibbled on his lip, trying to think of how to describe it.
"Well, I can see anything living, grass, trees, moss, people, animals, etc, but I can't really see their shape perfectly. The whisps they're made up of kind of move around, flow, that sorta thing. Everything else is just..." He tried to think of how to describe it, never having had to before. His face twisted into confusion. "I suppose you'd call it darkness?"
Eli wanted to sit down as they listened to Sylvan talk, but there wasn't really anywhere there could. They settled for leaning up against a tree as they thought it over.
"I think I understand that," they said after a minute passed. They tried to imagine what that would be like, but it was hard to perfectly imagine something that they couldn't experience.
Sylvan carefully reached up to a lower but sturdy branch in an apple tree nearby, pulling himself up and straddling the branch, leaning against the trunk of the tree. He gently pulls an apple from its leaves and bites it, using his hands to feel where the stem is and avoid it since its no longer "living."
"It's okay if you don't fully understand, I don't understand how yours works, you don't have to understand how mine does."
There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it. — Christopher Darlington Morley
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