The Third Word

Chapter 69

1st December

Home-

I gasped as I opened my eyes and sat up," Ethan!" I screamed and felt fresh tears run down my cheeks.  My body was aching, but I was feeling warm. I looked around at the familiar room that I was in. It was my room.

I got off the bed and hurried downstairs. My legs were paining, as if I had been walking for miles. Mom and dad  were seated on the couch and were watching TV.

"Mom!" I yelled.

"What? What's wrong?" She asked in surprise and exchanged glances with dad.

"What happened to me?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" She asked back in confusion. She didn't look like her daughter was found unconscious in the park at night. Both of them whispered something and shook heads before looking back at me.

"Uh nothing...nothing. It must be a dream." I said and ran back upstairs. I almost tumbled on my own foot near the bed but balanced myself," What happened to me last night?" 

They didn't find me passed out in the park. I had come back home safely and I didn't remember a thing after I passed out. That meant only one thing- Ethan had possessed me.

I glanced at the wall clock. It was 8 AM. I didn't have time to take a bath so I brushed my teeth, changed my clothes and left for Elijah's house.

I was tapping my foot while standing at the porch of his house. I rang the doorbell and while waiting, I made up my mind to tell him about the previous night, but If Mr. Cooper was there too, I doubted I could talk about Edwin breaking into my room.

Elijah opened the door for me and greeted me with a captivating smile which he had never done before.

"You actually didn't have to come." He said," I guess the barrier has been removed." 

He was talking about the Holy Water. I had surely got rid of it but there was someone more troublesome that I couldn't get rid of and another important thing that I had to tell him. 

"Ethan spoke to me." I said," Last night."

He parted his lips to speak but swallowed his words and turned back to look inside his house.

"Come on in." He made way for me to enter and closed the door behind us. His house was really pretty, which made me refuse to believe that only males lived in that house and I wasn't wrong. I heard the clinking of utensils coming from the kitchen and saw a woman walking around, wearing an apron and oven mitts.

"Don't mind my mom," Elijah said in a whisper," She comes here on weekends." I nodded.

 He took me to the room upstairs without introducing me to his mom, but I didn't mind since she didn't notice us either. He opened the white door and lead me into a room that looked similar to the one in the Frat house. He turned the lights on and I had a better view of the room- Huge, with all four walls covered with photographs and marker lines. The shelves behind the messy table were half plants and half dusty files. The room smelled of paper.

"Give me a minute." He said and pulled drawers out on the desk and accumulated the pencils, photographs, scotch tape, a stapler, old glasses, pushpins and other similar office stuff in one; index cards, return-address labels and envelopes in the other. He then pushed the drawers back into the little mantlepiece and moved over to the couch in the right.

"Tell me about it." He said as he sat down.

"I got rid of the bottle and washed myself up," I paused," Then, I went outside, to the park, where I called him out and he spoke to me. It was his own voice. He kept repeating 'Help me' and then I passed out. But when I woke up, I was in my room, which means he brought me back by possessing me."

"True." was all he said after I told him everything.

"I don't understand..."

"What?" He asked.

"Ethan...When he died, he must've seen the face of his killer." I said," If I talk to him and-"

"He didn't." He said and I looked at his face as disappointment clouded over him.

"How d'you know?" I questioned.

"He told  me, last night." He shrugged and I shrugged back," You said only I could see and hear him then how?"

He bit his lip before speaking," You came to me last night, Gwen."

           Dedicated to ElijahBerryman