The Dangerous Beauty of Silence- Chapter Four

Now that I have seen for myself another ghost, and learned what other ghosts can do to me, I have learned to be more careful. I am now able to figure out if someone is a ghost or not, even if they don’t have the tell-tale wounds.

Other ghosts seem to let off an aura that they shine with slightly. The few ghosts I have seen that have bright auras are usually the people you can tell have a good soul. The dimmer the aura is, the more evil you are. As well as the brightness of their auras, there are also colors I have come to associate with different personalities. Yellow indicates an intellectual soul; Pink is a loving one; Murky brown is someone who is dishonest and manipulative; Gray is a wise person; Blue indicates an easy-going soul; Purple is a spiritual one; and Black is completely evil.

I have continued to watch Lizzie at night. I have yet to discover why she fascinates me so. I asked Derek, once he had calmed down, what the people he had a fight with had meant by saying his sister wasn’t going to make it to middle school. It turns out, Lizzie has heart problems. After learning this, I have stuck with her almost constantly when she’s home.

Now, though, I’m following Derek into his school. I watch the students meet up with their friends or walk by themselves. Not a single one of them see me.

Suddenly, I notice a pack of boys leaning against the wall, watching Derek. As the two of us walk through the door, the boys follow us. Derek goes to his locker, unlocking it easily with a few twists of his slender fingers. As he opens the locker door, one of the boys approaches and slams the locker door shut. He stares Derek in the eyes.

“How’s that eye of yours? Did your mama fix it up for you?” The boy says nastily. Derek remains silent, glaring with stony eyes. I watch his fists clench by his sides.

“I don’t want any trouble, Tobias.” Derek says.

Tobias sneers. “Oh, yeah?” He says, “Too late.” And then he punches Derek-hard-in the stomach. Derek doubles over, gasping. Tobias must have knocked the wind out of him. I glare at the inferior boy standing there with a cocky smirk on his face. I wind back, and then punch him in the face. There is a nasty crack as something breaks and blood gushes out of his nose. He jumps around screaming. “Ah! He attacked me!” As Derek looks on, I swear I can almost see a smile twitch at the corners of his mouth.

A teacher immediately rushes to Tobias’s aid. He repeats over and over how Derek had hit him, although it is pretty obvious that the teacher doesn’t believe a word he says. I had seen her out of the corner of my eye earlier, watching the exchange so she could interfere if it got bad, so she obviously had seen Derek on the ground and nowhere near Tobias’s nose. She leads him away to the nurse’s office.

The rest of the day passes by uneventfully. I sit in the empty desks during class and sit next to Derek at his lonely table, which consists of him, me, and a boy further down the table whom I have caught more than once picking his nose. Gross.

It’s completely beyond me as to why Derek doesn’t have any friends. He’s good-looking, smart, athletic, and nice-which, needless to say, are some qualities that rarely fit together. Derek looks up and notices me staring at him.

“What?” He asks, “Do I have something on my face?” I snort and shake my head.

“I’m going to wander around.” I say to him. And then I get up from the table.

I meander past the multiple cliques in the cafeteria. The nerds are discussing their calculus homework, the art people are drawing, and the popular people, who are all sitting together, are talking about-of all people-Derek.

“Why don’t you like him?” A pretty girl with long chestnut hair asks some of the boys.

“He thinks he’s better than everybody else.” One of the guys responds. The girl just shakes her head and rolls her eyes in exasperation.

She stands up. “Well, I think all of you guys are being pompous jerks and I’m going to go sit with him.” There are a few mutters of disapproval from the group of boys, but she goes over to Derek anyway, unaware of me trailing her.

She sits down next to him. At first, he doesn’t notice, so intent is he in eating his lunch, but then he looks up and meets her eyes. “Hi,” he says hesitantly, “Do you need something?”

“Only someone to talk to.” The girl says, batting her eyelashes. I groan inwardly. “My name’s Circe. You’re Derek, right?” Derek nods, a wary expression on his face.

Something about this girl strikes me as off. Maybe it’s the pathetic way she bats he lashes and stares at Derek with doe eyes. Maybe it’s just because she’s one of the popular people, which is a pretty good explanation for acting weird. But I’m pretty sure it’s neither of those things.

I drift closer, and it’s then that I notice the hazy aura surrounding her. It’s a murky brown, the color of mud. As I get nearer, her back stiffens and she turns partway around. She sees me and her eyes widen.

“What are you doing?” I ask threateningly. I have finally figured out what’s wrong with Circe. She’s possessed and the ghost inside of her wants Derek’s energy. I’m so pissed off, I quite literally reach inside of her chest, searching for the ghost occupying her and yank it out. It’s a young girl, maybe ten. She stares at me through black eyes that are shimmering with resentment.

“Leave.” I growl. Her mouth opens in protest, turning back to Derek with a wistful gaze, but thinks better of it and goes, drifting out of the cafeteria. Circe is left standing there, blinking and looking rather bewildered.

“What’s going on?” She asks Derek, frightened. He only shrugs his shoulders, as if saying ‘I don’t have a clue.’ Circe stands up, wobbling as she does so. Derek shoots up, gripping her elbow to keep her balanced. She flashes a grateful smile at him and heads back to her previous table.

I’m about to say something to Derek when I’m overcome by a wave of vertigo. A frantic need pounds through me. I need energy. I stand up straight and survey the room. Everybody is now lit up, not with auras though. The brightest glows are the people with the most life energy.

I’m taken over by an animalistic hunger, leaving almost no room for any sensible thought. I turn to Derek, who is by far the most vivid light in the room. He’s staring at me, eyes wide. The small rational part of my mind tells me not to drain him, and I listen to it.

I stalk around the room, searching for the brightest glow. The majority of the people are about the same, some dimmer than others, some brighter. One of the more vivid ones is a boy sitting with the band geeks. I go over to him. He shivers, looking over his shoulder. My cold fingers reach out and make contact with his neck. Pure life washes through me. The energy is a brilliant orange that jumps around like sparks of electricity. Once again, the reasonable part of my mind warns me to stop and, once again, I listen. The boy slumps forward momentarily before shaking his head and looking around bewilderedly.

I’m still on the hunt when Derek intercepts me. He looks at me, worried. Then he walks out of the cafeteria and into an empty classroom. I follow him, like a dog on a leash, riveted by the intense glow surrounding him.

“Go ahead.” He murmurs and I leap upon him like a predator to its prey. As life runs through me in waves, rational thought gradually returns to me. I suddenly shy away, my hands clutching my head.

“Oh my god,” I mutter to myself, “Oh my god! I can’t believe I just did that!” I dissolve into tears, which run down my face like I’m standing outside in the rain. My body sinks to the floor, my head buried in the cold cushion of my arms. There’s a hesitant touch on my shoulder, a very warm touch. Derek. He sits down beside me and I turn to him, still bawling. Gently, he lowers me down so I’m curled up next to him. It takes a moment, but I eventually gather my wits together. “S-sorry.” I whimper.

“It’s fine. The article said you needed energy frequently. It was stupid of me to forget. I could start bringing plants in or something if you don’t want to drain people.”

“I don’t want to drain anybody!” I wail.

Once I calm down, Derek and I head back into the cafeteria. We’ve only been seated a minute before a teacher announces on the microphone, “Derek Wilson. Derek Wilson to the front office, please.” Derek stands, with me trailing behind him, and heads to the office.

As he takes a seat in the uncomfortable chairs against the wall, a grim-looking man appears.

“Derek?” He asks. Derek nods with a bleak expression on his face. “Derek, I’m afraid your sister has just been hospitalized.”

Derek’s head drops, but I shoot straight up. Derek watches me out of the corner of his eye. I’m shaking like a leaf caught in a strong breeze. And then I’m off like a shot. I go straight to the hospital- I don’t know how I knew how to get there, but I’m in too much of a panic to ponder this- and run through the door.

An odor hits me right away. The smell of death. But judging from the expressions on everybody else’s faces, they can’t smell it. Forces pull me in all different directions, some stronger than others. The strongest of all of them draws me upstairs and into a dark room. There is a small girl there- not Lizzie, though. Her long almond hair is splayed across the lumpy hospital pillow. The girl breathes in one raspy, difficult breath in her sleep. And then the heart-rate monitor by her bed starts droning one long beep. The girl has flat-lined. There are shouts in the hallway and nurses come bustling in.

They try shocking her but it doesn’t work. The girl sits up. That is, her spirit does, not her body. She looks around, obviously confused. I step forward and scoop her up into my arms. She looks up at me. “Who are you?”

“My name is Linnette.”

“What’s going on?”

I say nothing at first, but then answer her question. “You died.”

Her eyes widen. “But that’s not possible!” She scrambles out of my arms and falls to the floor gracefully. Rushing over to a shocked and grief-stricken couple in their thirties, she shouts and waved her hands back and forth in front of their faces. “Mom! Dad! I’m right here! It’s Hayden! Mommy! Daddy!” She screams their names a few more times before collapsing to the ground at their feet. I pick her up and she doesn’t fight me.

Another ghost walks into the room. “I’ve come to collect her.” He says.

“What are you going to do with her?”

The guy looks at me. “New?” I nod. “Well, most souls don’t carry on to be ghosts. They go Beyond. We stay to collect everybody. Well, some of us do. Most wonder around for decades, not knowing they’re dead. And of course, plenty go around stealing souls.” He stares at me again. “You’re brighter than the average new-born. You’ve taken a soul?”

I shake my head. “I don’t take the entire thing. A psychic gives it to me.”

The man’s eyes widen. “A psychic? Damn, you’ve got some good luck.” I smile and hand Hayden over. As I look on, the two of them fade away until nothing is there.

I stand there momentarily, not sure of what to do. What had I come here for in the first place? I slap my forehead. Lizzie! I charge out into the hall. As I run, it amazes me how many ghosts there are here. Some are carrying spirits, while others are just wondering around. A sudden thought occurs to me. Why not ask one of them?

I skid to a stop in front of a middle-aged man. “Do you happen to know where Lizzie Wilson is?” He points down the hallway. It ends in a dead-end, so she has to be in one of those doors. “Thanks.”

I finally locate Lizzie’s room. Nurses are crowded around her, as are two ghosts. “What are you doing?” I ask them.

“We’re waiting.” The young woman says.

“No, you’re not. You’re leaving.”

“Well, this is interesting.” The man says to the woman. “The girl appears to have formed a connection. They’re linked. The only one who can take this soul is the girl herself.”

“A link? Connection? What are you talking about?”

“You’ve formed a bond. No one knows how it works, but sometimes a ghost links with a mortal. Usually a very old and powerful ghost. How long has it been since you were Reborn?”

“A few days.”

“Interesting.” The woman whispers. But before I can ask them more, they both disappear. Damn. I need to learn how to do that. It’s irritating having to actually move around.

I move through the doctors and nurses to get to Lizzie. Laying a white hand on her heart, I close my eyes and concentrate. When I open them again, my hand is lit up like the sun. Light travels into Lizzie’s now-transparent chest, where it surrounds her beating heart. The great, big, flabby heart there begins to shrink to a normal size, becoming a deep red. It pumps strong and steady. Somehow, I have healed Lizzie’s heart.

Lizzie’s baby-blue eyes flutter open. The nurses and doctors surrounding her gasp. They mutter to each other. The two doctors shove all of the nurses out. One of the doctors leaves and returns a few minutes later carrying a toolbox filled with medical equipment.

They draw blood, check her pulse, take x-rays- they do anything they can think of to explain the phenomenon of a near-dead girl suddenly becoming a perfectly healthy ten year old. But her miraculous recovery will remain a mystery. They’ll never figure it out.

Finally, the doctors exit the room, leaving Lizzie and I by ourselves. She turns to look at me. Somehow, I’m not surprised she can see me now. She was so close to death.

“I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?”

I nod. “I watch you when you’re asleep.”

“Oh. What’s your name?”

“My name is Linnette.”

“I’ve heard my brother say that name a few times before. Was he talking to you?”

I nod again.

“Did you bring me back?”

“Yes.”

Lizzie thinks about this. “I could feel myself dying. Everything was getting fuzzy. But then my chest started getting really warm on the inside, but it was cold on the outside. Was that you?”

“Yes.”

She’s about to ask another question when Derek and his parents run into the room.

“Lizzie!” Derek shouts. He scoops her up in a giant hug.

His father slaps him. “Put her down! You’ll kill her!” He takes Lizzie from his arms, sets her on the bed, and shoves Derek out the door.

“Brian!” Lizzie’s mother scolds. “Don’t you ever hit your son. Lizzie is cured! The doctors said so! You don’t need to treat her like she’s fine china!”

“I’m not willing to take my chances yet, Annabelle.” Brian says.

Annabelle sticks her head out the door and ushers Derek in. He gives Brian a wide berth. Lizzie, to my amusement, jumps out of her bed and leaps into her brother’s arms. Derek hugs her tightly, rocking her back and forth. Lizzie whispers something in his ear and the two of them glance over at me. I smile at them, and then leave the room, giving them some private time.