How To Love A Dead Boy

Chapter 19 | Something is Coming

SOMETHING IS COMING

After spending the majority of my day at Christopher’s in front of a computer screen, and then using half of my night to come up with some character profiles he's set for me; I find myself feeling more tired than ever on Sunday morning. 

Outside my window, it's dark and gloomy and rain drizzles down the house. I sit up in my pyjamas and hang my legs over the side of the bed. Taking my digital clock in my hands, I look down at the time and scrunch up my face; ten o-clock. Well there goes a third of my day wasted sleeping... I think to myself. With no sign of Ryden, I rise and grab a few items of clothing for the day and step into my bathroom. I close the door behind me and switch on the lights. 

Before I unchange, I double check that Ryden isn't around and with there still being no sign of him, I strip off. Throwing my towel onto the edge of the basin, I step into the bath and turn the hot and cold taps of the shower. After adjusting the temperature a few times, I step fully under the water and sigh. Haven't enjoyed a shower like this all week... 

Once I've washed myself, I turn off the taps and step out onto the bath mat, grabbing my towel from the basin. The steam from the shower has fogged up the mirror and for some reason this gives a sense of being hidden from Ryden's eyes, even though he doesn't just exist in the mirrors anymore. 

Putting on my underwear, I take my towel and tip over my head and dry my wet hair. I flick up my hair and shake it a bit before turning back to face the mirror to wipe away the fog. My eyes widen when I see the words written on my mirror. 

I take a careful step towards the mirror and read the perfectly handwritten sentence;

We need to talk, Lucy Ainsworth.

"Ryden?" I ask the thin air around me. There's no sound except that of a squeak, like running a wet hand down a pane of glass. I look back to the mirror and inhale sharply.

Ryden doesn't have anything to do with this. This is between you and me, Lucy Ainsworth.

I find myself conforming to the talking mirror, more easily than I should be doing. Swallowing hard, I speak back to the mirror like a lunatic.

"Who are you exactly?" I ask. 

I keep the dead in the afterlife so that there is no interference with both worlds. You may call me The Keeper, if you like. 

"What do you want with me?" I choke out. 

I have noticed a certain relationship between you and one Ryden Mitchells. This, as you may have guessed, is creating quite a lot of interference. 

I want to make a deal with you, Lucy Ainsworth. 

"What?"

There's something on that list. There's something on that list that should never be fulfilled. It goes against nature in any possible way. And it will cause me to do things I'd rather not do.

I know that you are helping Ryden move on, and I am grateful for you doing so. But that one thing on his list has to be removed.

If you remove it, and never ever full fill this, I promise no harm will be brought to you.

But, if you don't, I cannot guarantee that the two of you will come out this mess in the same states that you both are in now. 

"I don't understand."

There's a fine line between dead and alive, and I assure you that you do not want to cross it, Lucy Ainsworth. He doesn't belong in your world, he belongs in mine.