Chapter 26
✾Zak✾
A smile found its way onto my lips as I watched how happy Vera was to see her father. He looked to be a very strong man. Very kind and cheerful with his family. When her father said that he would try his best to not be moved so they could stay here it made me so happy. I had finally found people that seem comfortable living in this house and knowing that I’m here don’t want to leave. I placed a hand on Vera’s upper back then let it drop to my side and I decided to give them some space so I went up to the attic.
They were so happy, and I don’t know if Vera’s dad believes in ghost’s and what not so I’m not going to pop in and say hi right off the bat. I’m still shy even with being dead. I pushed up my glasses and wandered around the boxes that were up here. A good amount of them were opened from Vera exploring through my stuff. That’s what was up here. All of my old clothes, records, cologne, sketchbooks, everything, even my journals were up here. I squatted down and pulled in enough energy so I could look through the box that I was near. “Hey my comics.” I smiled. I haven’t seen them in years. “They seemed to still be in good condition. No water damage or anything. Some of them were still in their packaging because I never got a chance to read them.
I set the comic’s back into the box when I heard the door to the attic open up. I disappeared from sight and waited to see who it was. “Vera be careful going up there.” I heard her father’s voice from below.
“I’ll be fine. I come up here all the time.” She said and then I saw her black hair pop up from the stairs. She crawled all the way up.
I got up from my spot and went over to her and floated behind her. I waited till she was away from the door to say anything. “What are you looking for?” I asked her making her jump. I couldn’t help but chuckle and I appeared in behind her. “Boo.” She swung back and her arm harmlessly went through me.
“Don’t scare me like that. You could have given me a heart attack.” She gasped clutching her shirt.
“Vera are you alright? I’m coming up.” Her father said and I disappeared from sight once again.
“I’m fine dad. I just scared myself is all.” Vera lied as her father came up into the attic with us.
“There are a lot of boxes up here.” He noted stating the obvious.
“They were here when we moved in.” Vera stated.
“Really? Did the last owners forget them then?” He said squatting down at the box that still had some of my old sketch books and journals in them. The journal that Vera had downstairs was the one that I was working on before I died. He picked up one of the sketch books and flipped it open. “Property of Zachary Marquardt, if found please return to either locker number 201 at Sliverleaf High School or to 8211 Sleepy Meadows Road.” Vera’s father read before turning the page and his eyes went wide in shock when he saw the first picture that was in there. It was just a picture of the view from the roof top. I’m sure that it’s changed by now. I think there were more houses in the neighborhood. Maybe I can some how teach Vera to draw and she can redraw it for me.
“These are amazing…who would leave these behind?” He asked and I looked down at the floor and took a step back but ended up tripping over a box because I still had a fair bit of energy stored up and I fell over the box. “What was that?” He asked looking around.
“It was just me. I tripped over a box on accident.” Vera laughed sheepishly covering for me. “But yeah, there are some news articles about Zak up here.”
Her father chuckled. “You say that like you know him.” He commented and I puffed out my cheeks a bit as I got back up from where she was laying.
“Well, you can learn a lot about something through their stuff. The articles help too.” She mentioned and smiled a bit.
She found the articles that my parents collected through out the years of me playing sports and even about my death and showed them to her father. She started talking about them to him. It made me smile to see her so happy and content.
I decided to leave them alone for a while and I went back downstairs and to the living room. Vera’s mother was in the kitchen and I reappeared, “Hello.” I said pushing my glasses up before putting my hands in my jacket pockets.
“Oh Zak there you are. I was wondering if you were going to come out today.” She stated as it looked like she was getting dinner ready.
“I’ve been poking around. I haven’t showed myself though.” I answered honestly wandering into the kitchen to see what she was cooking.
“It’s probably best to break him in slowly that you’re here. Damian doesn’t exactly believe in ghosts.” She told me and I sighed a little.
“Alright. But Vera and him are up in the attic and Vera is showing him my stuff.” I told her.
“It’s a start though. If Vera can tell him about you then maybe, it’ll be sooner rather then later for you to be able to show yourself to him.” She smiled trying to cheer me up.
“We’ll see how that goes.” I chuckled a little bit and leaned against the counter with my back to the living room. “Do you care if I go with Vera to school tomorrow. Since it’s her first day and all…” I asked hoping that she wouldn’t mind. I would be going either way because I already told Vera I would go with her, but I wanted to also her mother’s okay just in case.
“Of course you can. I think you need to get out of the house a bit more anyways.” She giggled as she put the meat in the oven.
“Awesome. I was going to go with her anyways, but I figured that I would just make sure it was okay with you first.” I smiled at her laughing lightly. I hope that I can show myself to Vera’s father and he won’t flip shit and think he’s going insane soon. It’s really no fun keeping quiet.
