The Ghost Story

Chapter 7

It has been maybe a week since Emerson started having the nightmares, every night now he wakes up from them. He and his brothers have only been home around two and a half weeks and things are already getting bad. At first, the nightmares were more of weird dreams that didn't make much sense. But now they're clearly cruel to his mind, he can no longer sleep without Clockwork beside him or he of course has horrible night terrors. Even with Clockwork, he still can’t sleep well. Early in the morning of Tuesday, he can hear a knock at his door. He slowly raises his head, tired because he barely slept that night. "Come in…", he rasps, his voice almost inaudible. His elder brother walks in and places his hand on Emerson’s back, it's Remington, "Em, me and Sebastian are planning to go to the city fair today. You wanna go?". Emerson drops his head in his pillow, his pale looking face buried in it. "Mmmh...not really…sorry...", His reply is muffled by the pillow. With a rough sigh, Remington walks to the door. Emerson can sense his frustration, both his older brothers are obviously worried about his condition. He hasn't slept great at all since they got home, it had been more than a few days after all. Remington stops at the door, "If you change your mind, let one of us know. We'll be leaving in a couple hours.", He states, exiting the room. For a second Emerson keeps his head in the pillow, suddenly feeling a cold touch on his head. His head rises and he looks to his left, seeing the tall ghostly figure beside his bed. There's a concerned look on the ghost's face, "Wow you look like sh-t. Is your sleep really that rough?", He asks. In response, Emerson nods, "Yeah...I can hardly sleep now…". Andy looks away, ashamed a little. Why was he so upset about him being this way? They barely know each other, Andy doesn't stick around that much since he usually haunts his friends so that makes it hard to try and interact. "I guess that's my fault. I can't even reverse what I did and it angers me because you weren't the one who hurt me.", he whispers, sounding regretful. Emerson's eyes dart away and he stares down at his pillow, "How come you didn't know who had your necklace? What you said to me doesn't exactly make sense. You said that you couldn't leave till the necklace was activated yet you said you've been haunting your friends for a while...how does that even work?". There's silence from the ghost for a moment because Emerson quickly changed the subject, this silence is something Emerson isn't sure he likes. "I can answer that easily. I used to just be able to leave temporarily, through items they have that were mine. But I'm free with that necklace, I can do whatever I want to now. I have you to thank for that but I hate that it had to be you.", Andy responds with a sort of aggravated tone. Emerson lightly groans as he drops his head into his pillow. This of course makes the ghost a bit upset, "What? You think I wanted this to happen?", He asks. Quickly, Emerson lifts his head again and looks up at him, "No, I... I'm sorry if it seems like I'm mad at you. I'm not. I'm just really tired.". If Emerson could be compared to anything, he looked a bit dead. Dark circles on his eyes and a sickly look to his skin, it seemed to make Andy angry seeing this. A few items fall off the shelves, making Emerson flinch. "You're just saying that! How could you not be mad at me?! I don't believe you've forgiven me that easily!", The ghost shouts with a look of disbelief, "Do something! Stop being so scared! Yell at me! Be angry at me! I know you are!". There's footsteps outside of the room and a knock, Sebastian peeking in the room, "Emerson, is everything alright in here?". He knows he can't see Andy, but could he hear him still? He doesn't remember if Andy said anything about them hearing him. His tired eyes meet Sebastian's gray ones, "Yeah everything's ok...sorry..", he says. The elder brother narrows his eyes a bit, "I heard something fall, are you sure you're ok?", He insists. Great, what was he supposed to say about the noise? At least he obviously couldn't hear Andy. "Yes Sebastian... I'm alright, I promise. I don’t think anything fell in here", Emerson replies, in a hushed tone. The items on the floor are luckily hidden in the dark. Sebastian shakes his head a bit, "I guess I might just be hearing things. Just try to get some sleep.", He says, closing the door and heading downstairs. With a sigh of relief, Emerson lays his head on his pillow again. His eyes lay on Andy, who stood by the whole time without being noticed. "Please, don't throw my sh-t around next time you're mad, ok?", He whispers. Andy's eyes soften and he crosses his arms, his head popping a bit as he head swivels downwards on the left a bit, "I didn't mean to do that. Guess you're actually mad at me now then, right?", He asks. It takes a moment for Emerson to sit up, gazing at the entity beside him, "Andy, I'm not even close to mad at you. I don't really care if you cursed me, got mad at me, or whatever, it just sucks, it's tiring, and I hate it. But that doesn't mean I have to hate you.". Once he's fully sat up, he swings his legs over the side of the bed and sits upright while looking at Andy. There's a sorrow still in the ghost's face as he stares back at him. The reddened blue eyes study him, as if searching for any sort of anger in Emerson. When he doesn't find an ounce of it he turns his head away. It takes a moment for Emerson to speak again, "Look Andy, I'm really not the saint you think I am. You may think that I'm that much of an innocent person but even I have done bad things. Maybe not to you but there’s a few things I'm not proud of. In a world like this, no one can be that innocent. I have no reason to be mad at you for this mistake you've made, we all make mistakes and we have to live with them. The only difference is that you're dead and I have to live with it instead...but I know that this isn't your fault.". This angers Andy again and he knocks something off Emerson’s nightstand, it seems that he wants to believe Emerson is as innocent as he wants to make him out to be. Maybe he wants that so he can see Emerson as an actual victim, an innocent, defenseless victim of his own mistake.Though, Emerson knows well that things don’t work that way. A small clink echos off the floor, pencils and paintbrushes scattering on the floor. The angered throw must have hit his pencil holder, at least it was something that wouldn't disturb the rest of the house. He gets on the floor to clean the mess, but a booming voice stops him, “Don’t clean after me, idiot! Ugh, it makes me mad that you just have to feel obligated to clean it! STOP CLEANING IT RIGHT NOW!”. The ghost continues shouting at him and kind of throwing a fit over Emerson’s attempt to clean the mess, he’s used to yelling since his brothers both do it towards him and each other sometimes. Things were shaking on the shelves at this point from Andy’s angered aura, the ghost was near his bursting point over spilled art supplies. He could feel the rage as well, it was somewhat intimidating. It makes him feel stupid for trying to be nice, “Well, if you don’t want me to clean, YOU clean it.”, he whispers. In his tone is a little annoyance from being almost unbearably tired and being upset that Andy got mad over something so little. That’s when suddenly the ghost stops speaking and everything calms. How did that come close to calming him? Purple light emits from the necklace and Andy pushes Emerson aside a bit to pick the art supplies off the floor, he simply stands up and gets back in bed for the sake of keeping things calm. Dizziness overwhelms him after he lays down, getting up may have been a bad idea on his part. He gazes at the glowing of the necklace before resting his head back on his pillow. His mind buzzes with thoughts and emptiness on and off. Light tinking noises of wood on tin could be heard beside him as Andy put the pencils and paint brushes in they're holder. Was Andy calm now because he actually got mad at him? It can be true, Andy seemed to want him to be angry with him earlier but he wasn’t. Now that he did get irritated with him, was he happy with that? Why he wanted that couldn’t be answered unless he asked the ghost about it, and he feels a little too sick to deal with another of his outbursts. Clearly he would have to be more assertive or outspoken if there was a problem, Emerson despises that since he’s more introverted. But if it needs to be done to keep things in line, he needs to do it. Emerson lays his arm across his eyes, the sun in his room causing him to develop a headache. “Andy, can you please close the blinds..?”, he asks weakly, in a polite tone. The light vanishes after he asks this and he moves his arm off his face, turning on his side to look at Andy. Bloodshot eyes look back at him, “Emerson, I need to go now. Ok? Ok. Try and get some sleep.”. Andy stands up and grabs Clockwork, placing it close to Emerson’s chest next to the crystal necklace hanging off his neck. Emerson holds it with his hands and tries to relax, watching as Andy disappears right in front of him.