Sing Me to Sleep

What is Love without Pain, it ain't Home

"You look like you've seen a ghost" Javi chuckled; whatever residual confusion in his mind was washed over by the sweet relief of being acknowledged. Amelia was acting weird, but who wasn't, today? At least she was acting less weird.

"And I thought you'd be a bit more excited about seeing a ghost" he continued, joking.

"I— do you—" she tried to form understandable, sensible sentences but she didn't know what to say.

Was he playing with her? Did he know he was a ghost?

He stared at her, with a piercing gaze, as if trying to figure out what was going on inside her mind, then finally relaxed, she was here, she was acknowledging his presence, she was talking to him. Maybe she was a little shaken up for whatever reasons, but she'd be fine, right?

"Do you remember what happened yesterday?" She asked, trying to make some, any sense of what was happening. If he were a ghost, he was in no way actually aware of the fact, or he wouldn't have been having such a... normal conversation with her. He was confused to say the least. Her mind was in overdrive, thinking of all possible scenarios, and possibilities, but seeing his calm, almost too innocent face, she realised she needed to put him, and his feelings before her own.

Her obsession with ghosts could wait.

She needed to know what had happened to him.

"I..." he started but then decided against it, his tone turning apologetic, "I didn't wanna make you feel awkward, Amelia, I— I mean, I really like you" she could tell he was nervous, but she couldn't tell what he was going on about, "I acted on reflex, I was carried away in feelings... I just..." he sighed, gaze locked at his feet, "I just really wanted to kiss you..."

"You what?"

"I... still want to kiss you" he said nervously, "I want to. I really like you, Amelia, and I think we can be something" he said, now actually feeling afraid, "do you... don't you feel the same?" He asked, softly, mentally preparing himself for a cold rejection.

Her words surprised him though, "I do, Javi, I wanna kiss you too..." she said, her voice a bare whisper, "but I can't..."

His eyes searched hers for an explanation, anything of the sort, anything that would make sense of the words she had just said, but when she evaded it, looking down, he understood. Or at least he thought he did.

"It's Ollie isn't it?" He asked, his tone being carefully balanced, trying to contain the hurt, trying to stay calm.

"It's not Ollie!" She revolted, sat up, and looked him in the eye, "it's not Ollie, Javi, honestly, I don't know how to say it..." she looked on the verge of tears, in a flow of emotions, she said the words, "it's you!"

She regretted the words the moment they were out of her mouth. She watched his expression shift, as he turned from a flame to bare smoulders, right in front of her, and almost got up to leave.

But he didn't.

Because she spoke again.

"Javi do you even know what has happened to you?!" She questioned, trying to keep sane. She was talking to a ghost. The ghost of the boy who she had adored. The ghost of a boy who had tried to kiss her yesterday and had just admitted he had feelings for her. The ghost of a boy who was dead.

Dead.

"It's Ollie" he said, with finality in his voice, "I— I gotta go, Amelia" he got up, and before Amelia could say anything, he walked out on her.

A ghost had just walked out on her.

If there had been the smallest seed of doing in her mind, it was gone now, she believed it completely, as Javi walked away, she could see it— Something she hadn't even imagined, she would see when the day started— a faint halo around him. He didn't look as crystal clear as he had when he had been sitting in front of her, talking to her, communicating with her, as normal as she was used to seeing him. But as he walked away, he was almost translucent, fading, bathed in a deep violet aura, like that of his Ranger Powers... shimmering like stardust, and then fading into nothing.