Into the Light

10

I took her into my arms, and pulled her against me, laughing a little. "You would not be mega old," I replied. "Only as old as Christine. I don't know how it's possible, exactly, but hasn't everything that's happened been impossible? Only, this time, it's a good thing. Cliff notes version, Sam and I left you at the hotel and went to an apartment building, where Lilith lived in the penthouse suite. There, we discovered- OW! What was that for?" I exclaimed, when she punched me in the shoulder. "You. Left. Me," she replied, glaring at me. "You left me in that hotel, without a word! Do you know how worried I was, when I woke up and both of you were gone?!" I rubbed my shoulder, and tried to calm her down. "Okay, maybe it wasn't my best idea, but I didn't want you involved. Christine said that she would come keep you company. I didn't tell you, because I didn't want you to worry." She let out a noise that sounded a lot like 'harumph,' but didn't say anything else. "Can I finish?" I asked. "Or do you want to keep abusing me?" "Don't tempt me," she responded. "You know, I don't think you were ever this feisty as a ghost," I teased, smiling at her. "Don't smile at me like that. Just talk," she replied, grumpily. "Okay, okay," I replied, holding my hands up in surrender. "Just don't hit me again." She tried to push me, but I just caught her in my arms and held her still, while I laughed. "I'm sorry," I replied, after I calmed down. "I've just missed you, and I'm overly happy about this. I'll stop teasing. Okay. We found this secret hospital wing, somehow attached to the apartment. I found you down there. Just as pretty as the day you supposedly died. I picked you up, you opened your eyes and said my name. Christine called Sam to tell him that you, well, ghost you, had disappeared. I brought you here, where you stayed unconscious until now. Obviously, we got help in waking you. For now, that's all we know. Well, that and some of Lilith's life story." I shrugged, but still held this enormously stupid grin on my face. I couldn't seem to make myself stop. Anna pulled back from me, and looked down at her hands. I watched as she started pulling the ends of her jacket sleeves down over her wrists, over and over again. Kind of how I twisted my my rings. I stayed quiet, and waited for her to process what I had said. This couldn't be easy for her. The amount of things, of unbelievable circumstances, that she had had to face in her life was enough to make anyone certifiably insane. "So, she kept me preserved? For over 30 years, my body has been preserved, so that my soul could stay alive. If she kept me alive, my soul couldn't die, or move on." "I never said that," I replied. "No, this is what I know. It's the only explanation. Why would she keep my body alive? She told me over and over again that I was her 'special girl.' I was different from the others that she took. This must be what she meant!" "I don't know," I replied. "There were others there, in that place, hooked up to machines. You weren't the only one there. Maybe she only kept them long enough until their souls burned out." "There are others?! Why didn't you help them?" she exclaimed. "Well, we were trying not to get caught and die, Anna. Honestly, you were my only priority. I didn't expect to find you there, but when I did, I had to get you out. I guess I was being selfish, but I'd do it the same way, if given another chance. Plus, I don't know if we would be able to help them, even if we were able to remove them from that place. Your body started to age when I unhooked you. It took a couple of days for the effects to start, but you even had gray hair." She grabbed her hair and started finger combing through it, looking for the grays. I chuckled, and ran my own fingers through her raven locks. "It's not there now. I already looked. It's like, when you came back to me, the, um, side effects? I don't know what to call it, but it disappeared." She was quiet again, staring down at her hands. Sam, Kat, and I didn't make a sound either. I watched her, hoping to get some sort of feel about what she was feeling. All I got was nervousness. She pulled on the sleeves of her jacket again, tapped her fingers against her knee, and randomly started twisting a lock of her hair around her finger. The longer she was silent, the more anxious I became. I needed her to say something, because this silence was just allowing every bad thought that I had enter my brain. What if she wasn't happy with me, now that she was human? What if she resented me bringing her back, since she could never really have the life that was stolen from her? These worries and a million more raced through my mind, as I watched her. Just as I was about to ask her what she was thinking, she looked up and met my gaze. There was a small smile playing on her full lips. "So, I'm really back? Like, I'm alive again? I don't have to wear these clothes all the time, and I don't have to be scared of just popping out of existence? I never have to think about accidentally falling through floors, or scaring the shit out of someone because I forgot to be human around them...I'm really back?" I nodded, and felt the smile on my face grow. None of the other stuff mattered right now. She was happy and she was flesh and blood, sitting right beside me. "You're back," I replied. "And it's about damn time, too!" Sam exclaimed, before a loud pop had me ducking and Anna screaming. She buried her face into my chest and clung to me tightly. "Oops," Sam said. He was holding a bottle of champagne that had just overflowed onto the floor. "Maybe a warning next time," I laughed. Anna peeked out, and saw what had happened. She sniffed, and sat back, while smoothing her skirt. "I kind of hate you right now," she replied, stonily to Sam. "Nah, you love me. Since this is celebration is for you, the first glass is for you," he said.