What Ghost? (Complete)

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Party

Billy found Kate and told her about Eric and the other boy still being in their rooms. They headed out of the dorms in search of Mr Ballou, who they found crossing the basketball court on the way to the party.

Mr Ballou smiled at them. "Hey you guys...how goes the party?"

Billy frowned. "Ummm, great sir, except two of the boys, Eric and Sean, are still in their rooms. We've tried knocking, but neither of them will answer their door. Do you think you could get them to at least come out and have dinner? We can take it from there."

"Yep, I can certainly do that. They know attendance at meals is compulsory, so they can't really argue too much. Oh, and Miss Kate, I must say you are looking particularly stunning tonight."

Kate blushed. "Thank you, Mr Ballou. I had someone special to impress."

Mr Ballou looked at Billy and winked. "Well, I think you succeeded in your quest. Okay, well I'm off to wrestle these two boys out of their rooms. Have fun."

Billy and Kate were almost back at the door to the common room when Billy grabbed Kate and pulled her into the shadows. He wrapped his arms around her and looked down into her eyes.

"You know what...every day since I met you I've thought 'this is the best day of my life'. But I've decided that this is definitely as good as it gets."

Kate's eyes filled with tears, and she cleared her throat. "Me too. So now can you just shut-up and kiss me already."

And of course, Billy was more than happy to oblige.

* * *

Billy, Lance and John laughed as they watched the girls trying to organise everyone into teams for the games. The idea was to hold an orange under your chin and pass it to the next person on your team without using your hands. Becky was busily helping those who were totally hopeless, while Kate and Mandy cheered on the teams. Even Eric and Sean were playing.

Everything was going great until the girl passing her orange to Eric tripped and head-butted him as she fell. Becky had been helping the other team at the time, and turned around too late to intervene. Everyone cracked up laughing, but Billy saw something flash in Eric's eyes. The guy was definitely not seeing the humour in the situation at all. He looked around at the crowd of laughing kids and something seemed to snap.

Eric reached into his back pocket and pulled out a knife. The silence in the room was suddenly deafening. "Ya know what...I was right about all of you! Trying to trick me into believing you were my friends...you were all just waiting to pounce. Well, who's laughing now huh...huh?" He brandished the knife in a couple of kids' direction, a wild look in his eyes. Someone needed to do something quick, before hysteria set in.

John took a deep breath and turned to Billy. "Okay, someone needs to end this...now. And we all know it has to be me. I can't just stand around and let Eric pay for the rest of his life for something that's not his fault. Tell Becky I love her, and I'm sorry, but this is the only way it's going to work."

Billy opened his mouth to argue, but John had already blinked out of existence. Damnit, where was Becky? He frantically searched the room, and saw her hovering close to Eric. How the hell had everything gone downhill so fast? Eric's hands were shaking and sweat poured down his face. Billy just hoped whatever John planned to do worked.

Just as Mr Ballou enter the common room there was a shuddering boom from the direction of the senior boys' rooms, and then Eric fell to the floor unconscious. Billy's stomach was in knots. What had John done? And how the hell was he going to tell Becky?

Billy pulled himself together and finally caught Becky's eye, putting his shaking hand up to his ear. Something in his eyes must have told her something was wrong. She instantly began to search for John. Unable to find him, she was beside Billy in an instant. "Where's John...please tell me he didn't...?"

Billy just looked at her, his heart breaking at the horror in her eyes. "Becky, I tried to stop him, but he said he had to..." But she was already gone.

* * *

Becky flew through the door where the poltergeist had been. Please don't let me be too late. Please let him still be here. But deep down she knew what had happened. John had sacrificed his existence to supply the final burst of positive energy necessary to destroy the poltergeist.

The area looked like a bomb had gone off, and a deathly stillness hung in the air. She knew instantly that whatever presence had been here was gone, and taken John with it.

"John...where are you babe? John...please don't be gone, I need you. Dammit, why'd you have to do it? Why didn't you let me help you?"

Becky knew he couldn't hear her...he was gone. Her worst nightmare had come true...a future without John. She sat down on the floor and curled into a ball, the tears pouring down her face as she stared blankly at the wall.

"I love you John..." she sobbed into the silence.