The Ghost

54. The Video

Third Person

Rosie sits on her bed frozen in shock, staring at the screen where Galaxy sits hesitating. As Galaxy takes a deep breath, her confidence returns and she starts talking. "Hey Rosie, happy half birthday. So I know you're pissed at me right now, but I need to explain a few things to you." Ashamed of herself G looks down and lets her cold mask cover her face once more.

"Look I know that in your eyes I've abandoned you again, but this is me trying to protect you. By rescuing you all from Jackson, I'm telling the world that you're special to me and who I really am. My leaving is to show that the Ghost is never to be messed with. Unfortunately, nothing will be enough, so as much as it pains me to say it, I may never see you again."

As G talks her eyes start glistening with unshed tears that she fights back to keep her sobs for later. 

"Right now I'm building a second persona that will help me protect you. I want to make sure that people know you're surrounded by protection from all sides.

"Now on to you. I need you to do something for me. It will be one of the most important things I will ever ask of anyone." Galaxy hesitates to continue almost as if she wishes to never ask this, but eventually the darkness she had been hiding since the beginning of the video shows its head for just a moment. "Live your life. Live enough for the both of us. Forget about me though. I will always be there in the shadows, a ghost keeping watch, but you can't live if you've got me in the back of your mind."

Taking another moment to compose herself again, she continues, "I know the girls have been trying to find me, and that none of you have read my letters, so I'll just tell you. If you seek me out, I will run. And I will keep running till the day you all give up. I don't care what they say about how broken I am or how much I need to be protected from myself. 

"I chose to be like this. I chose to be alone. I chose to protect you. I chose to leave. I chose to abandon all of you. So get the fuck over yourselves and stay the hell away from me. I don't need you." Galaxy's rant comes to an end and the video stops. 

Rosie, who had been frozen since receiving the present, finally broke down. All she had wanted was to know that Galaxy loved her, but Galaxy only protects her out of duty. 

Thinking aloud about what she had heard, Rosie declares, "I will live my life, but I refuse to live for too Galaxy," she sneers at the name in disgust. "You aren't even worth thinking about, you bitch. I will never tell them to stop looking, just so you don't get a moment to rest without looking over your shoulder and seeing those you've abandoned." 

She sits there, tears rolling down her face and anger burning in her soul. Eventually Mark walks in carrying two tubs of peanut butter ice cream. He sits down silently at the edge of the bed, hands her a spoon and the tub of ice cream before opening his own tub and taking a bite. 

The silence surrounding the siblings becomes too unbearable for the pair, so Mark speaks up. "Look, the others don't know this, and I only just pieced this together, but when G was about 16 she found out one her rapists had managed to impregnate her. She was fucking terrified, but this was her chance to finally protect something from all of the cruel people who been hurting her family since birth. She had a chance to make at least one person normal in this fucked up family, but the child was forcefully aborted from her and then they raped her again. 

"She woke up to this immense pain in her body, and when she looked down there they were fucking her again and laughing about it. 

"That year everything changed for her. She stopped caring about the people on her missions and even took on extra jobs. For an entire year no one was able to break her shell open and she took so many lives, but one day a little girl saved her. 

"G had been tasked with killing this man, but when she moved in for the kill a little girl showed up. The girl begged for G to save her father because her grandfather was forcing him to do awful things. Suddenly she was snapped out of it. Sure the darkness was still inside of her, but she had control now. She saved the man and killed his father instead. That man eventually became one of the only people in the world she trusted with her whole heart." As Mark finished his tale, Rosie finally took a bite of the ice cream and moaned at the flavor dancing on her tongue. 

The pair spend the rest of the day together talking about nothing important and just distracting each other from their missing piece. Even Jace joined them and they watched movies, played games and lived life. Just how G had asked them too. 

At the end of the night, Rosie gave the laptop to Mark, saying "only watch this if you really, really need to. She… she says some things that I don't think you want to hear."

Sighing, Mark nods his head, "alright, I'll just stash it away where it'll be safe for now, but if I ever need to find her I will watch it." His defeated voice convinces Rosie to hand it over, but in his heart he knows he will watch that video tonight.