Chapter 11: Take the Time
(Dang the lyrics on this song. /cry. This was actually supposed to be a different chapter, but I felt like this one needed to happen first.)
The eyes were gone after a single blink, but he wasn't going to take the situation lightly any longer.
"Caleb?"
The wraith didn't respond for what felt like forever, but finally, he retracted his claws and brought his hands around to grasp the front of Taylor's shirt. Nikolai's growl behind him was ignored as he met Caleb's blank stare.
It seemed like he wanted to do something, but either the thought process was no longer there, or he was hesitating.
Taylor was just about to speak when Caleb suddenly vanished. He quickly looked around the dark area, but the wraith had truly disappeared.
Turning his attention to his friends by the stairs, he realized that Nikolai was also no longer trying to control Adon. He had withdrawn back into his body.
"Well... that was fun," he mumbled as he hurried toward the stairs.
Sasha was thankfully coming around as Martin and Adon helped her up the steps. Taylor followed behind them, but paused a few steps up to look back toward the skeletons. Their outline was barely visible in the darkness.
"Taylor."
The scratchy voice that said his name was new to his ears, but as he looked around, there was no one to attach it to.
"Caleb?"
He carefully turned in a circle, trying to locate the owner of the voice. When he returned to facing the remaining stairs, Caleb was suddenly there, sitting a few steps above the one he was standing on, leaning forward with his arms resting on his knees. The added height put their eyes level with each others'.
"Was that you who said my name, Caleb? Can you talk?"
There hadn't been any information online on whether wraiths could actually talk, but that was no surprise. There was barely any information on them at all.
He focused as Caleb started moving his lips, but after several long moments, he relented. It didn't make much sense for a wraith to talk.
But he had screamed earlier...
"Taylor! Are you okay?" Adon yelled from the landing above him, clearly worried that Caleb was intentionally blocking his way.
Nodding up at him, Taylor replied, "I'm fine. I think he actually just said my name, but I don't think he can do it again yet."
Adon gave him a look, but Taylor just shrugged and stepped up a few stairs before sitting down next to Caleb. The wraith turned his body slightly, along with his head, to stare at him. His lips moved again, but no sound came out.
"Hmm, I wonder what made you talk a few minutes ago."
Martin appeared on the landing as he spoke, casting a shadow down toward them.
"You're losing your marbles, boy. Best get away from that thing before he tries to possess you like his brother got your friend."
Tilting his head, Taylor looked at Caleb's face, taking advantage of their closeness.
"You really do look alive in so many ways... but also not," he whispered as he lifted his hand toward the wraith's face.
Caleb let him run his fingers through his stiff hair. It felt dry; Dead.
No surprise there.
"Maybe there was a reason that you had to say my name? Maybe that's what let you do it?"
It didn't make much sense, but then again, nothing else in his home seemed to. What was one more thing?
Thinking, Taylor went through his mind to try and figure out something that might actually spark some sort of emotion in the guy. He knew that something to do with his brother might, but there wasn't really anything positive he could add to that awkward little situation.
Hmm. What does he like? What did he like?
Following that train of thought, Taylor felt a grin slip across his lips.
"Would you like to go to the aquarium with me, Caleb? I can bring your fish bones."
At first, the wraith didn't seem to have heard him, but then Taylor saw Caleb's expression slowly begin to change.
He's processing.
Over the next two minutes Caleb opened and closed his mouth several times, clearly trying to get words to form. He looked down at his hands twice as he leaned a little closer. Then he looked back up at him and what Taylor wanted to hear, happened.
"Yes."
The word was barely recognizable, but the glint of interest in the wraith's eyes was easily visible.
Taylor got up and Caleb quickly followed as he limped up the stairs and toward his bedroom.
"Oh, right. Most of my stuff is downstairs now."
He turned toward the door to go back downstairs to get a box of his clothing, but Caleb was standing in the door with one of them in his arms.
"Excited to get going?" he asked with a smile as he took the box and set it down near the bathroom, then tugged out some clothing.
He got the shower turned on a moment later, but when he stepped into it, Caleb was there, waiting. He looked a little impatient, which was actually pretty funny.
"I promise that we'll go soon. I just need to not smell like sweat and dust," Taylor said as he quickly got busy scrubbing his hair.
He was just about to start putting shampoo in his hair when Caleb took a slow step forward, then pressed his forehead against Taylor's bare chest.
"You... want me to wash your hair?"
Would it actually do anything?
He'd noticed that Caleb never seemed to change his clothing or really, anything about himself. He doubted that he could.
In fact, all of the whole eight articles I'd found online mentioned that wraiths can't change their appearance. Whatever they die in is what they wear for their undead life.
Granted, the guy could probably put something on over what he was wearing, but he doubted that it would stay long, since Caleb liked to disappear completely sometimes, and not just simply turn invisible.
Well, it can't hurt to do it.
Taylor squeezed a good amount of shampoo into his palm and carefully began working it into Caleb's dry, dirty hair. He knew that it wouldn't change anything, but he put all of his effort into massaging his fingers into Caleb's scalp and making sure that every single strand was coated in soap.
The wraith never moved from his position against his chest, but that honestly didn't bother him. He wanted to think that he was enjoying the attention, at least, and that's why he wasn't pulling away.
It's too bad his appearance can't change.
Taylor turned just enough to reach up and grab the detachable showerhead with one hand as his other one went around to Caleb's back, holding him there without really thinking about it.
"Alright, close your eyes... just in case," he said, a bit embarrassed that he even said the words. Of course Caleb wouldn't care if soap got in his eyes.
Or would he?
Shaking his head, he started to slowly wash out the soap. As he did so, Caleb lifted his head, his hazel eyes meeting his own. Figuring that he wouldn't close them, or need to, Taylor just did his best to rinse out the soap, but his hand froze with the spray pattering against the top of Caleb's head as dark tendrils of dirty water began to wander their way down the wraith's face.
Real... dirt?
Swallowing nervously, he reached up with his free hand and gently began running his finger through Caleb's hair, paying much more attention than he had been. He made sure to rinse every inch of Caleb's left side, then took a half-step back to stare.
I really cleaned him.
"Your hair is very pretty," he whispered without thinking.
Tilting his head, Caleb seemed to take a few moments to process his words. When he decided on an action, he reached up and took the sprayer from Taylor.
"You want to do it yourself?" he asked, curious. He didn't expect Caleb to be able to connect the dots very well, from what he'd seen previously, but he also appeared to be learning how to be a person again, and not just a spirit.
When Caleb turned the sprayer toward him, sending water right into Taylor's face, he quickly closed his eyes and turned his head out of the way. Thankfully, he hadn't put shampoo in his own hair yet, so he could open his eyes back up without worrying about them burning.
"I don't have any soap in my hair yet. There's nothing to wash out," he said as he gently took the sprayer back, then continued working on Caleb's hair.
Dark water pooled around their feet, reminding of him of when he'd washed his mother's dog after it had taken a good roll out in the mud. The thought made him smile, but it disappeared from surprise when Caleb reached up and pressed a finger to the side of his bottom lip.
When he didn't do anything else, Taylor smiled again, then rustled his hair before returning the sprayer to its place above his head. He turned back toward Caleb afterward, but the wraith was gone.
"I guess you don't want any conditioner?" he asked with a bit of humor as he started scrubbing his own hair.
The rest of his shower was uneventful, but when he stepped out, dried off, and quickly got dressed, he realized why. Stepping back into his room in a pair of dark jeans and a black button-up shirt, Taylor stared at the guy before him.
"He's been trying to put on your clothes for a while now," Sasha said from the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest. A scowl was settled on her face, but Taylor pushed her attitude aside and walked over to Caleb as he was trying to tug on a blue jacket over his blood-stained one.
That's definitely not going to fit, bud.
Granted, he would be able to get it on, eventually, but it would be obvious that there was something under it. It would look awful... but he had a point. He couldn't walk around the aquarium in a blood-stained jacket.
"It's too bad that they are stuck as they are. I am a bit confused as to how he intends to keep the clothing on, too," Martin said as he walked up beside Sasha. "It will drop to the floor as soon as he decides to disappear."
Taylor had already had a feeling that that would be the case.
"Wouldn't he be able to just stay invisible the whole time?" he asked, curious. He'd honestly thought that he would do that, anyways.
Martin eyed Caleb with an expression that Taylor couldn't quite read.
"You think a guy, dead or alive, who seems so excited to try on new clothing, would want to hide the whole time he finally gets to go out of the house he's been stuck in for years? Let alone to somewhere he definitely wants to visit? Maybe for the first time?"
Well, I guess you have a point.
Stepping forward, Taylor reached over and gently grabbed either side of Caleb's jacket, then carefully began working it backwards and over his shoulders.
"What the hell?" Martin mumbled at the same time Sasha gasped.
Taylor glanced over toward them with a raised eyebrow after he tossed the jacket off to the side.
They both pointed past him to where he'd thrown the jacket, drawing his attention back to it... except, it wasn't there anymore.
"Um, well, he definitely didn't need that, anyways," he said awkwardly.
Caleb seemed unfazed by losing his jacket. Instead, he was quickly tugging on the one he'd been trying to get on. It settled on his shoulders easily, covering the back of his bloodstained shirt. It was a tiny bit too big, but that was fine.
"It's all yours, if you like it," he said as he grabbed a black jacket for himself and pulled it on.
He was just tucking his wallet into his back pants and hooking his keys to his belt loop when he noticed Caleb's bare feet.
"No shoes, no service," he said quietly as he looked around.
"Hey Caleb? You're going to need shoes. Can you grab some from downstairs?" he asked.
The wraith started to fade, but stopped after a second. Taylor was about to question him, but then realized that what Martin had said must have been true. Caleb proved him right when he quickly walked out of the room and headed downstairs. He returned a few moments later carrying a pair of worn white tennis shoes.
"Perfect. Try them on," he said as Caleb started doing just that.
They were a tiny bit to big, too, but after Taylor knelt down and tied them, he nodded and stood.
"They'll do. I guess we'll have to go shopping eventually. I wasn't really expecting you to be able to wear things and be cleaned," he said while looking toward Martin, hoping for some sort of acknowledgement.
"Wait, you cleaned him? While you were taking a shower?" Martin asked, making Taylor nod as he walked past them to grab a snack from the kitchen.
"Yeah. I just washed his hair. It was super dirty."
Sasha's brow scrunched as Martin shook his head.
"I knew he looked different somehow, but no undead can change their appearance. They are as they had died."
Looking toward Caleb, who was standing near the counter, Taylor pointed his thumb toward him.
"He begs to differ."
Both of them sighed, then Sasha returned to sit on the couch next to her boyfriend. Adon had a laptop out and glanced up at him for the first time since he'd walked out of his bedroom.
"I would actually come with you, but since Nikolai can't leave the house, I'm stuck here for the time being, too," he said as he typed away at the computer.
"I'm going to do a bit more research to see if I can remove him from my body."
Taylor nodded as he walked over to the door, swiping the fish bones on his way. After sliding them into his back pocket, he carefully put his shoes on, then grabbed the crutches that he'd had leaning against the doorjamb.
"Ready to go, Kay?"
A quiet growl came from Adon's lips, drawing them upward as he glanced sideways at Taylor. One of his eyes shone with Nikolai's color.
"He doesn't want you using that nickname, it seems."
Rolling his eyes, Taylor stuck out his tongue and headed out the door with Caleb on his heels. Well, the wraith was actually running ahead of him, stumbling every few moments because it had definitely been a hot minute since he'd worn shoes.
When Caleb finally stopped next to the car and turned toward him, Taylor couldn't help but return the guy's smile with one of his own. It didn't show on the wraith's lips... but the excitement that shone through his bright eyes conveyed the gesture clearly.
When Taylor stopped next to his car, he reached up and mussed up Caleb's hair a bit more.
"I'll help you smile for real one day, and you'll love it so much that you'll never stop."
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro