The Life Of a Ghost

VII

- K O G I E -

When I woke up, Alex wasn't by my side.

He wasn't in the kitchen either.

Nor was he in the living room, or any other room in the house.

"I'll be back!" I yelled behind me before grabbing my coat and stepping outside, into the frigid forest.

The cold air hit my face, and I almost immediately regretted my decision. The only thing that was keeping me from going back inside was the fact that Alex was most likely somewhere out here.

And I needed to find him.

"Alex!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the air, "Where are you?"

My response was silence. The only things I could hear were the winds whipping through my clothing and the animal feet crunching the grass and twigs.

"Alex! You out there?"

No response once again.

The air got pushed out of me as someone tackled me to the ground, holding a knife to my neck. "What are you doing out here all alone?" My attacker questioned, "I thought you'd learn better after what I did to you precious fiancé."

"Strife!" I shouted, trying to get out of his grasp, "What the hell are you doing out here?!"

"Well, I had a little bit of an encounter with your deceased lover." He grinned, getting off of me and pinning me to a tree, the knife being pressed against my neck once again. "He tried to kill me, like I did to him, so now I'm gonna do the same to you. Only I'm gonna go all the way this time, unlike what he did."

Strife grinned, his irises red, and I started to question the possibility of him getting back into blood magic. My train of thought was cut off, however, when a sharp pain shot through my neck. I screamed, trying to get away, but as I squirmed he pushed the blade deeper inside of me, almost slicing my airways.

It was either fight back, or die.

Strife yelped as I kicked him in the balls, flying back and ripping the knife out of my neck. Leaping straight into action, I grabbed the knife out of his hand and threw it as far as I could behind me.

"Is this really how you wanna be, Strife?" I asked him, standing up so I was now towering over him, "A psychotic blood mage who kills people to satisfy himself?"

"H-how'd you know?" He stuttered, looking up at me in fear.

"Your eyes are red."

"Oh."

"Anyways. You already killed Parv, and I'm not letting you kill anyone else. I'm not gonna let you take away innocent lives and leave people without a brother. A sister. A mother. A father. An uncle. An aunt. And the list goes on. I don't want you taking any more people and throwing them into Heaven prematurely. "

"But-"

"No buts, Strife." I got off of him, fixing my jacket, which was falling off my shoulders. "Goodbye."

Turning away, I started walking in the opposite direction from both him and home, hoping that Alex would be out there somewhere.

"Parv is still alive! I'm telling you, he's still alive! And he's dangerous! Come back, Kogie! I can help you! I can help you hide from that monster!"

Growling, I kicked a pebble, it landing several feet away from me. "Shut up, you psychotic killer," I yelled back at him before speeding up into a jog.

"Don't listen to him." I stopped in my tracks as I recognised Alex's voice, and looked up to see him hovering just above a tree branch. "He's talking nonsense. Most people don't come back to the living, especially people who damaged their bodies as much as he did."

"Yeah, I don't believe him either." I grabbed onto a sturdy tree branch, hoisting myself up.

"What are you doing, Kogie?"

"Sitting beside you."

Once I finished my ascent, I sighed, swinging my feet around. "So there's a possibility that people could die, and then come back to life?" I asked him, looking up into his almost transparent eyes.

"There is a possibility, but blood mages like him only have a 0.0001% chance at coming back. People that do other forms of magic have higher chances, the highes-"

"Yeah, I don't really fucking care." I looked down at the ground, maybe around fifty feet below us. "I just wanted to know if he could come back. I guess not, though, because the chances are so low."

"But there's still a chance, Kogie! Don't give up! He could still be out there somewhere!"

"Probably not, like you said."

"Hey! At the very least, at least it's not a 0% chance! He could still be out there!"

"Probably not, Alex!"

"Stop being pessimistic, Kogie."

"I'd rather not."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's not out there, and he won't be for a very long time."

"Kogie, just shut the fuck up and-"

"You know what, Alex?!" I broke right there, looking up at him with my fist balled up and practically screaming. "You don't understand life anymore, I bet. When you die, you're gone. You don't come back as the same person, if you even do come back at all. Parv. Is. Not. Coming. Back! He's dead! Why can't you just accept that?!"

"Kogie-"

"No. You know what, Alex? I'm done. I'm fucking done with you." I started to descend the tree, grabbing onto the branch below me and swinging down. "Don't follow me, in fact, don't even bother coming back to the house tonight! I'm fucking done!"

I swung down two more branches without fail, but on the third branch, I slipped, screaming as I plummeted to the ground below.

"KOGIE!" Alex screamed, flying down after me.

Closing my eyes, I accepted that I was going to die and just waited for my bones to crash against the earth, breaking into a million pieces.

I was prepared for the instant death that would consume me as soon as I hit the ground.

But that moment didn't happen. It didn't happen at all.

After a few seconds of waiting for my death and it not coming, I opened my eyes to see that I was still suspended up in the air by nothing.

Except Alex.

"A-Alex?" I questioned, tears brimming my eyes.

"Kogie, what-"

"I don't know what's happening either."

"Have we-"

"I don't know, but I don't care."

Alex slowly brought me down to the ground and I hugged him, burying my head in his shoulder as I cried tears of joy.

This was real.

And I didn't ever wanna go back.

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THE ENDING IS SO FUCKING CUTE AGH SYNTH WHY WHY W H Y

Whale,

Adios