CHAPTER 31

HINTS OF EDRIC

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As I neared the cornfields, I realized I had forgotten where exactly was the path that led to the Rosegrass street. It had been months since I took that path to reach Irsia's home. I paced back and forth twice to make sure I took the right path. Turning the music in my headphones, I found the path. It was a little damp, but it could have been worse if it had rained that week too. I trod on the path, singing the song that played as there was no one nearby. I had to look where I placed my feet because there was a chance that I could fall with a misplacement of my footing over the short stumps. A breeze passed by me, rearranging my hair, causing a susurration of the leaves and left a trail of goosebumps on my fully covered hand. I turned off my music to hear the leaves that I hadn't heard in a long time now. I didn't even know I missed it. I looked at the movement of the stalks that harmonized with the other stalks and they amazed me. The leaves and the stems giving off a sound as they touched each other by the passing breeze –a soft melody to only those who have ears for them and eyes for them.

"What are you smiling at?" came a voice.

Startled, I looked straight and I saw a beautiful face with swaying hair standing a few feet away from me. He had an olive-green t-shirt on, paired with a black-jeans and no weather-proof jacket on. His dark hair swaying like the cornfield's stalks.

"Come to rescue me from nothing?"

He didn't answer me as I walked toward him. I couldn't look at him as I had to look where I place my feet. As I neared him, he extended his hand and I realized that my lips formed a smile. I took his hand and to my surprise, he pulled me closer. He put his other arm around me and pressed his lips to my forehead. His warmth just spread over me and suddenly I felt a little less cold.

"I missed you," he said against my forehead. "What was with that girl from Aelburn?"

"Don't be ridiculous. It's only been hours since I saw you last," I said as if I hadn't missed him.

 "Freshman at our school. She wanted to become friends. I walked away from her. Rudely."

"Did she touch you?" He twirled his finger in a strand of my hair.

"No... she stood at a pretty decent distance, but if she had tried, she could have and I don't think she is infected. She looked... I don't know... normal to me."

I walked with him, holding hands, for a couple of minutes and I realized Irsia could see us when we reach the end of the field. She could see us from her window. He had to set his long legs' pace small. I smiled at it. He didn't notice that and was still rubbing his thumb against my small palm that actually almost hid inside his. As we neared the road, I let go of his hand.

"Irsia could see us," I declared.

"Okay." He huffed.

"Act normal," I commanded.

"Whatever you say, commander in chief," he mocked and as usual, I brushed it off.

As we reached Aiden's home, I saw that his mother wasn't home yet. Verena was already there. She gave a knowing smile at me as I walked into his home, and I couldn't help but smile back. Sheepishly. I called Irsia to come over.

"You are late," she complained.

"I should be the one that should complain," Verena added. "No time to waste. Let's go." She stood up from the couch.

"Where?" Aiden and I asked in unison and Irsia gave us a shocking look. I shrugged as if it was going to clear away the doubts that she had.

"To Auroville Villa. Margo, you have to test something out, only then I'd know for sure if the ghost had left the house."

"Are you asking Margo to be the bait?" Aiden growled, just a tad little. I just stood there trying not to look at Irsia or Aiden as I had no idea how to stop him from going all knight in-shining armor.

"I am asking Margo to help," I think Verena used her PSB voice. "And don't worry, she'll have you both to help her if something comes out of the dark, because clearly you both have supernatural powers," she threw a sardonic tone at Irsia and Aiden.

"How do you know that the ghost isn't there? I mean, how did you get the idea?" I asked her the question that I had been dying to ask from the moment Aiden called last evening and I had been suppressing the question so that I wouldn't have to think about the ghost.

"You didn't tell her?" Verena looked at Aiden.

"It's a confusing story to narrate over the phone." Aiden removed his crossed arms from his chest.

"To keep it short, the information is sourced from the phantom realm. So I had to go in there and check it for myself, but I couldn't find anything." That wasn't terrifying at all.

She just told me that she had contact with ghosts. What next? She had ghost contacts in her phone and they all go partying and camping?

"What's AVV?" Aiden asked, addled, which Irsia and I had already understood.

"Short for Auroville Villa." Irsia and I declared in unison.

"I know you are a PSB and all that, but what experiment does it involve to find if the ghost had left?" Irsia flung a logical question.

"Margo has to go inside the room where we found her that day. She has to unblock her thoughts about the ghost. That way, Margo will feel all the feelings that she felt that day when the ghost abducted her and since she won't be blocking her thoughts... if the ghost is lurking in there, it should come out. It will."

"How is that going to do us any good?" I asked, terrified, with a fear prodding at my gut.

"If it isn't in there, it is somewhere out there trying to possess someone or had already succeeded." Just the thought of that was scary. "Or it is hiding somewhere to possess one of you. But the chances of it are less, since you can block your thoughts." Like that was supposed to make me feel any better.

"Okay... let's get this over with...," I said, with an elevation in my panic.

As Verena and Irsia stepped out, I put my bag near the stairs and was about to follow them. Aiden nudged me with his elbow. "You okay?" he asked with a frown on his face. He hated the idea, but it was necessary to put an end to the ghost chase or whatever this was. There was some part of me that kept telling me that this was not going to end with just finding out whether the ghost was in there or not.

"Yeah..." I nodded and I followed Irsia and Verena.

When Verena opened the gates of AVV, something inside of me screamed. I felt an icy shiver threatening to shake my body. I felt a little dizzy, but I had to do it. I pushed my body with my legs. I knew that Irsia was scared, too. Aiden kept looking at me as if I'd fall, breaking into pieces. And I hated that. As we reached the porch, a wave of eerie feeling roiled. I remembered how we ran out of AVV for our lives, the day the ghost touched me and then the day I was abducted. We climbed the stairs to reach the room. Even in daylight, the house looked convincingly scary.

I went inside the room and I looked at Verena. "What now?" I asked, hoping that my shivers weren't visible.

"I need you to stay inside the room for a few minutes and close your eyes and let the blocked thoughts hit you. If you feel something is near you -scream. It'll probably take two minutes the most. We'll be outside."

"WHAT?" Aiden asked. "I'm not leaving her alone in this room." His voice was welcomed by walls of the long unused room and it echoed. It could have woken up the sleeping ghost and stirred up the doubts of Irsia. Both were equally worse.

"Aiden, it's just two minutes. I've been here longer than that. I'll be okay." 

I said to him, but mostly it was to convince myself. He still looked at me like I was going to break down or something.

"Are you sure? Because if you don't wanna do this, we can leave." Irsia said, in a voice that showed that she was just as much as scared as me.

"I am sure." I nodded like it was what I would normally do on Sundays. "Shut the door."

As Verena shut the door, I knew Aiden had his eyes on me. Etching.

As scary as it felt, it also felt so stupid. I closed my eyes, letting the blocked thoughts out of the container. It was scary to even think of it, but I couldn't feel anything near me or touching me so far. So I went on and imagined how helpless I felt the day the ghost first touched me. Nothing yet. I went to the extent to feel how hopeless it made me feel for a few minutes when I was in that room, that day, in the dark. That hopelessness gave the she-phantom a power. It sucked the energy and emotions off me and tried to possess me. I wasn't scared this time; instead, I felt something else. I felt a strange energy. To be more precise, something so sad and something so grief-stricken that it forced a tear or two out of my eyes. Apart from that, I felt nothing dangerous in that room. Two minutes felt like twenty minutes in that god-forbidden room.

"It's two minutes, we should open the door." I heard Aiden's voice, impatient from outside.

Verena opened the door and I opened my eyes, which had moisture in them now.

"Are you okay?" Irsia asked.

"Margo?" Aiden called out.

"She is okay," Verena said before I could say anything. "You didn't feel it here. Did you?"

"No..." I sniffled.

"What happened?" Aiden asked, before Irsia opened her mouth and Irsia looked at Aiden with a knowing look, which also carried a touch of annoyance. 

"I don't know. I just feel sad."

"I said observe not absorb." Verena gestured me to come out of the room. "Go home and block the thoughts like how you always do and also stay out of the dark –," she reminded "– until we find where the ghost is." She pressed her fingers to her temples, as if she had a headache.

"Are you okay?" Irsia asked Verena.

"It's such a headache," Verena spat in what seemed to be disappointment.

"Why is this so important to you? I mean, as long as Margo blocks the thoughts of the ghost, we are all safe, right?"

"What do you mean, Irsia? Are you telling me to allow her to possess someone?" Verena was a little flared up now.

"All I ask is, why is this important to you?"

"Are you asking me not to help you?" Verena asked, with a flicker of anger gone up a notch in her tone.

I stood watching Irsia interrogate the PSB with questions that I had in my mind as well and Aiden leaned on the wall watching me. I looked at him to assure him that I was okay. He still didn't look convinced.

"I just want to know why, Verena. I'm just curious."

"You haven't sensed it. Have you?"

"Sense what?" Irsia and I asked.

"The ghost is part PSB." It was unnerving that I gasped and Irsia and I wide-eyed each other.

"Wait, WHAT?" Aiden's voice was sent back by the walls.

Irsia and I looked at her to explain more about it. "I just know these things," Verena continued. "I can sense that the ghost is part PSB. She either got her powers by killing a PSB or she was a PSB and lost her powers after she died. That is why she can hide so well from me. That is why it is hard for me to find out where she is. If I don't find this hybrid ghost, she is probably going to take over some innocent's body and might as well go to the extent of taking someone's life."

We walked out of AVV with a confirmation that the house wasn't inhibited by the ghost anymore.

 Irsia asked, "So can I keep my window open now?"

"Sure," Verena uttered, absentmindedly.

I saw Irsia's car get pulled over. Edric had hair grown to his shoulders. His sharp hairline down his forehead made him look more scary. He walked up to us. "Hey, Wilder."

"Hey..." Aiden returned the gesture.

"Fawn..." Edric addressed me. "Sorry about Damon." He was sincere.

"I am fine now. It's okay." I shrugged. I was beginning to mull over this neoteric thought that had never existed in my brain. Why was Irsia the only one to be diffident about her green eyes? I mean, Edric had the same eyes.

"Fawn... Wilder..." He smiled and I wanted to run through the Crossburn woods and jump in a rabbit hole and curl myself inside it. He swiftly changed the subject. "Where's Withers?"

"She is at Coldlyn. You can't see her." Irsia bit.

"Did I ask you?" He bit back.

"Her uncle is getting married." I said, trying to be polite.

"Sean? The cop?"

"Yup."

Pushing the overgrown hair back, he asked amusingly, "I heard the rift between her and Miles is serious this time." And I imagined the grin was involuntary.

"Ed, it's never going to happen." Irsia hissed.

"Answer me only when I mention your name in the sentence, little sister," he hissed back.

"Nice to see you... Arevalo? Right?" Verena was just as much as surprised like the rest of us, by Edric having the knowledge of her name.

Verena nodded. "Yeah, nice to see you, Edric Bookman." Well, everyone knew his name. No surprise there.

"And nice to see you all together." He pressed together too much, hinting at Aiden and I again. "Guess I'll see you later then, Wilder?"

"Later..." Aiden promised.

He walked back to his home and I wondered why Elec and Edric had the same intensity and still wanted to kill each other. Like poles repel?

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