Chapter 40
✾Zak✾
“If you’re not back in an hour I’m coming and hunting you down mister,” Vera warned me and poked my nose before opening the door.
“I’ll be sure to stay out all night,” I chuckled and looked away from her.
“If you feel light headed sit down,” I felt something tap against my arm and I look back down at Vera then follow her arm to see her pressing the thing she calls a phone against my arm, “Take my cell, if you get too dizzy then give the house a call.”
I nod and take the thin square object from her and I stare at the black screen then at her then back at the screen. I don’t know how to work this thing? How do you even turn it on? She does it so fast and when I’m not paying attention, so it’s not like I can observe her doing it in the house or anything. “Um…”
She started giggling and took the phone from me, “Click this little circle button that has a square on it and the screen will light up,” she showed me as she explained, “Then make this pattern while connecting the dots and it’ll unlock for you. Once it’s unlocked you’ll go here and then use your finger to scroll down the contacts list and there’s the home phone there. You just double click on it and it’ll start to call the house phone for you,” I follow her fingers movements and read over the house phone number three times to ingrain the new number into my mind. That way I can just dial the number instead of taking this long way around that she showed me, “Do you want me to explain it again?”
“I think I have it, thanks,” I smile down at her and push up my glasses with my free hand as she hits the circle button with the square on it and it brought the phone back to the thing she called the home screen. Then she pressed a little button on the side of the phone and it turned the screen black again. Sliding the phone in my pocket, “Thank you again, I’ll be back in an hour, I promise,” I wave and start off walking around the house to get to the woods. Once I enter the woods I start my jog. I’m sorry Vera, I didn’t want to, but I’m going to have to break my promise. I jump over a log that fell into the main path. This is the way that I would normally go to the graveyard. The animals in the woods must have continued to use this path even after I was gone. I want to see how fast I can go, but I don’t want to push it with the ground being a bit wet. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get Vera to go for a jog into town and back if it’s not raining. I took the left, less worn path at the great tree. The right goes towards the graveyard while the left goes to the treehouse. The only way you can see the path is if you know what you’re looking for. How did I find this path in the first place? I think it was no accident. But I was so young back then when I first found the tree house.
The tree house came into view so I slowed down and moved some branches out of my way. I’m breathing heavy from the jog. Damn this sucks, I hate being this out of shape.
“You came!” A familiar voice came from the base of the treehouse.
“Of course I did. I had to break my promise to Vera, but I came,” I smile a bit walking up to stand five feet away from the ladder. Anthony was standing there in front of the stairs.
“Thank you for coming,” He has a soft smile on his transparent face. I walk up to him.
“I want to give you a hug so bad right now. Why didn’t you come to the house?” I asked him putting my hands in my pockets.
“I thought that you would have moved on, and you know how bad I am with directions. You know I would have gotten lost going home if it weren’t for Cody sometimes,” He laughed sheepishly.
“You got better as we got older though, and you were visiting my grave?” I pushed up my glasses and looked away from him, “It’s because of me that you were hit by a drunk driver. It’s all my fault.”
“Zak, it’s not your fault. It just happened, the roads were bad that night and it happens. I didn’t feel anything, it was quick,” It fell silent between the two of us after he said that, “So, how are your visions? Do you still get them?”
“I haven’t had one since the day I saved Vera from drowning. It’s kinda weird not having them. You know, after having them since we were in grade school,” I answer looking down at the ground.
“You…came back while you were here at the tree house, didn’t you?” I looked up at his face once more.
“Y-yeah, I was with Vera when it happened. I was told by some voice to come back alone, but how did you end up here? Was it whatever is connected to that voice I heard making you do this? I don’t understand,” My head feels like it’s spinning.
“Zak, Zak, calm down, the tree house has something strange going on about it. I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t seen whatever lives here myself either. I was told there’s a way to come back, but I would need your help,” I lock eyes with my best friend.
“What do I have to do? I want you with me. I want my best friend back. I don’t want to go through this life without you here too,” Tears start to blur my vision as I clench my fists at my sides, “I know I shouldn’t ask for anything and that it sounds like I’m being selfish, but I want you back, with a beating heart,” I look up at the doorway of the tree house and I see something looking down at us. It’s a little glowing ball. “What’s that?” I mutter my nose plugged from me crying. I feel like I’m being drawn to it. Like, I want to follow it. I walk around Tony and go to the ladder.
“What are you doing?” He asked me, but I just kept looking up at the little ball. I place a hand on the ladder and the little ball zips into the tree house.
“Hey, come back,” I call out to the little ball and start climbing up the ladder.
“Zak, be careful,” Tony yells at me from under me.
“I’ll be fine, there was a little glowing ball and I want to know what it was,” I tell him as I get to the top and look around. I look around from the ladder and I see the little ball floating in the corner on the far end of the tree house.
“What is it?” I jump when I hear Anthony’s voice next to me.
“Geez, now I know how Vera felt when I would do that to her,” I sigh looking at him with a flat expression.
“What?” He asked and I roll my eyes and climb into the tree house, “No, seriously, what did I do?”
“It’s nothing, just popping up out of nowhere, I did it to Vera a lot,” I answered focusing on the little ball.
“Do you know what that little thing is?” He asked me as we both looked at it as it started bouncing.
“I have no idea, but I feel like I’ve seen it before,” I took a step towards it and the little ball shot towards me. I move my head so it’ll miss, but it changes course at the last second and hits me square in the face.
“Zak,” I hear Tony yell, but his voice fades quickly as I feel myself fall to my knees and I can’t catch myself and I know that I hit the floor of the tree house.
I groan and open my eyes and blink a few times, “What happened?” I sit up and look around.
“Thank god, you woke up,” I look over to my left to see Tony floating above the floor of the tree house.
“How long was I out?” I asked him fixing my glasses.
“Not long, maybe about two three minutes’ tops,” He answered as I get up on my feet and pull my hair tie out to fix my hair, “Whatever happened the little glowing ball thing when straight through your head and then disappeared. It hasn’t been around at all. You feel okay?”
“I mean, I don’t feel any different. Nothing’s changed from what I can tell,” I answer and put my hair back up in its little ponytail, “Should get back to the house though, before Vera comes looking for me. If she finds out I came here then I’m going to be in trouble,” I chuckle walking back over to the doorway.
“U-Um…”I stop and look at Anthony, he’s fidgeting with his shirt.
“What are you floating around for, you’re coming too. I’m not going to let you stay out here alone like an ass. What kind of best friend would that make me?” His face lit up and I carefully made my way down the ladder. He was already waiting there at the bottom by the time I got down. Then I started jogging back towards the house.
“I’m just going to stay hidden. I don’t want to spook anyone,” Anthony commented as he floated along with me as I jogged.
“That’s up to you. Vera’s family is very nice. Her dad did freak out on me when he first met me, but he didn’t even realize I was a ghost at first. It was kinda funny, actually. But, you can come out whenever you want. I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“I know, I feel like I should.”
“Fair enough,” I chuckle and it falls quiet between the two of us as I run. I almost make it out of the woods and I see a certain raven haired girl walking towards me, “Vera!” I wave and pick up the pace just to make it to her a bit faster, “It couldn’t have been an hour already,” I say as I slow down to a stop.
“Well…no, but I was getting worried that you may have slipped and hit your head or something, so I decided that it would be best to come and look for you. I guess I didn’t have anything to worry about,” a light blush spread across the bridge of her nose as she looked away from me.
I smile and place a hand on her head, “I’m fine. Yeah, I got a little light headed, but I sat down for a little bit and I’m fine now.”
She looked back up at me and puffed out her cheeks as her eyes darted around looking at me, “How can you feel fine, you look a bit pale. We’re going back home and your sitting down mister.”
“Okay, okay,” I sigh as she turns on her heels and starts back towards the house. I walk alongside her as we walk the rest of the way out of the woods. We go in the back door to the house and she pushes me along after I take my shoes off and makes me sit down on the couch.
“Now you sit there and I’ll get you some water,” she walks away from me and I lean my cheek on my hand then push up my glasses.
Yeah, I feel tired, but just because I’m a little pale shouldn’t mean anything major. I understand why she’s worried, but still… “Thank you,” I smiled at her as I take the glass from her hand.
“Your welcome. How fast were you going?” She asked.
I took a drink of water then set it down on the coffee table, “It was just a slow jog, but I’m not in the same shape I was back then, even though I look like I am. I just have to take it slow, as much as I don’t want to. Oh, which reminds me, do you want to go for a jog slash walk tomorrow if it’s not raining?”
