Ghost Soldier

Chapter Six

Ashley's POV:

The next morning, I found myself staring at my reflection. I was alone in my room, and for once I felt happy about that. Tommy was wise enough to realize thar after last night, his company wasn't exactly desired.

I felt like complete and utter crap, both mentally and physically. But I knew Tommy wouldn't allow me to get out of job hunting today.

As I did my make-up, I went over the argument. It'd brought something's to light that I really needed to look at. Like the fact that I expected Tommy to stay. Before, I'd never thought that he would eventually disappear. At the mention of it last night, I'd had an internal breakdown. I couldn't lose Tommy again.

But it was unfair of me to ask that he give up his better resting place for. I would never ask that of Ted, and just because I loved Tommy in a different way didn't make it okay for me to ask that of him.

I thumped my head against the counter in my bathroom. All of this thinking was making my brain hurt. I felt a cold air surround me, and knew Tommy was standing right behind me.

"Are you ready?," he asked.

I straightened up and looked at the transparent figure behind me.

"I guess," I breathed out, he gave me a skeptical look.

"What," I muttered. I really wasn't in the mood for whatever he had to say.

He shook his head and led me out of the house. I looked myself over, now annoyed that he wouldn't tell me whatever he'd been thinking. There wasn't Anyang wrong with my jeans that I could see. I patted down my navy blue blouse, making sure there weren't any wrinkles in it. I heard the dogtags around my neck jingle with my movements. Instantly I knew what he'd been staring at.

"You were going to say something about these, weren't you," I said, making the tags jingle again.

He shrugged and continued walking. I sighed and settled into the silence, figuring today's atmosphere would be clouded by last nights tension for a while.

The rest of the day consisted of me filling out application after application, while Tommy hovered over my shoulder.

We took a break for lunch, and while we sat at a café, I noticed Tommy looking at all the people going about their business with an odd expression. I couldn't quite name the expression on his face, and was interrupted when a little girl said, "Hi."

I was about to reply when I her eyes weren't trained on me. She had here wide brown eyes locked on Tommy. He noticed at about the same time, and surprised made his eyebrows raise.

"Hello there, cutie." She smiled at that

"Are you a soldier?," she asked as she hopped into a chair close to Tommy's. He tried to smile at her, but it came out more like a grimace.

"I was. But-"

"But you got hurt. Right here," she said, pointing at her heart. I saw Tommy's eyes cloud as he nodded, placing a hand over his own heart.

"Yes. How did you know?"

You look like your heart is hurting. And your eyes look so sad, like my daddy's did when we went to a big funeral for his friends."

Tommy's eyes widened and he looked around the café. I frowned at his actions, and took a look around the shop as well. There weren't any people of much interest, except a man with a buzzcut sitting next to a blonde woman. I could've sworn I'd seen him from somewhere before. Then I heard Tommy gasp.

He shot up form his seat, causing the chair to fall over. Everyone, even the man with the buzzcut, looked in my direction, but my eyes were locked on Tommy as he ran over to the couple.

"Jim! Look at me!," Tommy bellowed. Jim looked in Tommy's direction briefly, then gave a slight shake of his head.

I could see Tommy really starting to get himself worked up as he continued yelling and demanding Jim to look at him. I felt horrible as I watched the scene before me; there wasn't anything for me to do. O couldn't even calm him down.

Tommy had obviously reached his limit, because with a shattered look that broke my heart, his mouth opened as a painful, heart wrenching scream. He fell to his knees as tears slowly tracked their way down his cheeks.

The lights began to flicker. By this point most people in the establishment were freaking out as the temperature plummeted and frost began to coat every surface. But all I could do was stand there and watch helplessly as Tommy geared up for more. He flickered as he rose to his feet, flinging Jim's table over.

People screamed and scattered. The flickering of the lights sped up with a low hum, then blew out completely as an unseen force rushed out of Tommy. Small cracks spiderwebbed their way up windows.

Everyone rushed for the doors. Jim ran over and grabbed the little girl, who surprisingly only had a sad expression on her face as she watched Tommy. Jim also took hold of my arm when he noticed I made no intention of leaving.

"He's so sad Daddy," she murmured.

Jim paused for only a moment. He looked in Tommy's direction just as he flipped another table. His eyes widened, and I think he saw the flickering ghost.

Just as soon as he stopped, he was back in motion, dashing to the door with his daughter and I in tow.

I looked around at the carnage of Thomas' anguish as I ran. He stood with his back to me, his chest and shoulders heaving as he breathed.

"Tommy," I whispered. He didn't turn to face me, but everything about him seemed to slump.

"Go home," he told me in a gravelly voice. And then, like mist, he faded away.

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Sorry this took SO long to get up. I thought I updated this when I got my iPad, but aparrently it saved it as a draft instead of publishling it like I thought it did. so again, sorry for anyone reading this. I'll have chapter seven up by tomorrow as another way for me to say sorry. So enjoy this chapter and thanks for reading :)

I haven't editted this, so if you find a mistake or something please feel free to tell me about it