Koda kept running, turning down road after road until he neared the end of the town. He didn't slow down until his insides begged him to stop. Koda was very out of breath as he neared the graveyard. He didn't stop moving until he fell to his knees in front of a black marble gravestone. Koda clutched the grass, staring painfully at the name: Enya Oaks.

Enya lay peacefully next to her father, Koda's grandfather. The cemetery itself was small and tranquil, home to many of the deceased, old and young. Enya's grave was littered with all kinds of flowers and Koda watched through his tears as they wilted and died in minutes, turning from soft bright petals to distorted and crumpled skeletons. Nobody was around to see what he was doing to them, but Koda felt very exposed.

"Why didn't you tell me, mum?" Koda asked through weak sobs. "About what was happening to me?" Koda crossed his legs and hid his face with his hands. He hadn't yet found the strength to visit his mother, not since her funeral. What Alfie had said about the souls restoring to health once separated from the body made it easier to picture his mother in a box in the ground. Koda's mother was no longer struggling with an addiction, she no longer battled with the darkness in her mind.

Koda shook his head. Even in death, Enya battled with another issue, her murder. He wished for her to be rid of the horrors that dragged her through life. Nothing could settle until Alfie was able to send Enya off to a place that remained unknown to the living.

Even though dealing with a mother's death felt like a lot, Koda had to deal with his estranged relationship with a father who he thought didn't love him anymore. Morlen, for years, had cut their bond into tiny little pieces and let them blow away to an unreachable place. Now, a forceful wind had been whistling through their home, replacing the bond piece by piece. Koda didn't want his dad to fix their relationship because of guilt. He wanted his father to mend it because he cared.

Koda shivered despite the sun beating down on him. He wasn't aware that his mother's ghost sat in front of him with her back rested against her headstone. She longed to wipe the tears from his face, praying for the happiness to find him again.

"You and your father need better friends," Enya whispered despite him not being able to hear. "You need a fresh start with people who will help you grow and make you smile." Enya knew she used to be the core of their dysfunctional home life. If she wasn't so caught up on the drugs, Morlen might not have been so miserable and angry, and Koda might have felt the love he deserved from his parents. "Alfie will teach you how to love again. I'm so sorry that I failed you. I'm so sorry."

"I'm sorry mum, I should've worked harder to get you help," Koda muffled into his palms.

"A child should never have to fix a mother's poisoned mind. I should never have burdened you like this."

"I still can't believe you're gone." Koda lifted his head, feeling the misery weighing it down. Clouds started to hide the blue sky, dimming his eyes even more. Koda was going to reach forward to move some leaves from his mother's grave until his palms tingled and his head started spinning. His gaze caught something perched on top of his grandfather's headstone, watching him with a tilted head.

A dove.

* * * * *

After Alfie's last client, he barely had the strength to move from his office. The side of his head was rested flat against the table with arms drooped by his side. His black velvet chair had never felt so comfortable. He could feel himself drifting when three loud knocks startled him enough to make him gasp.

"What?" Alfie barked before the door opened. His father leaned against the doorway with a smile. "What're you still doing here? It's late."

"I stayed until your last client to make sure you got to bed safely."

"I'm not a kid."

"No, but you have been in your office since yesterday afternoon, so I know you didn't sleep last night. You've barely eaten or stopped for a break. Before you protest, tea is not food."

"I couldn't stop," Alfie said, feeling his eyes close without his control. "Too many ghosts."

"They will wait till you get some sleep."

"They give me nightmares if I make them wait."

Tom sighed and rolled his sleeves up to carry his son to bed. Alfie groaned when his dad placed hands under his armpits and lifted him. Alfie wrapped arms around his dad's shoulders and legs around his waist.

"I thought this would get harder as you got older. I'm doubting that this growth spurt the doctor thought you'd have will ever come," Tom chuckled, remembering the many times he carried Alfie to bed when he was very young.

"It might," Alfie mumbled, resting a head on his shoulder. His dad smelt of firewood, as usual.

"Maybe one day I'll be the one looking up at you," Tom smiled and entered Alfie's bedroom and turned on the light. The scent of lavender seemed to linger in every room. It was a scent Molly and Tom had to quickly get used to when Alfie started diving more seriously into his mediumship. "You should really tidy up." Tom moved a box with his foot and climbed over a mountain of clothes to reach Alfie's bed.

"I'm not the one who messes it up," Alfie said when Tom flopped him down onto his bed like a fish slapping a table.

"Right," Tom chuckled, not believing that ghosts could mess a room up quite as much. He tugged Alfie's socks off and rolled him under the duvet, thankful that Alfie chose to wear black joggers and a big t-shirt that day. "Do I take your rings off?" Tom felt uncomfortable when his son started to wear the rings. He thought other kids at school would bully him, but he soon learned that Alfie did what he wanted and didn't care about what others thought of him, and his dad should adopt the same thoughts.

"Yeah." Alfie's eyes were closed and he didn't have the strength to open them. He felt his fathers warm hands gently twisting his rings and removing them.

Tom smiled at Alfie's chipped nail varnish. That was another thing he wasn't fond of to begin with, but it was a unique trademark that made Alfie who he was. Tom wouldn't change him for the world.

"I haven't brushed my teeth," Alfie mumbled, "or showered."

"Just go to sleep." Tom tucked him in and planted a kiss on his forehead.

When Tom turned to leave, a hand reached out and curled fingers around his wrist. "Dad, when can I visit your house?" Alfie managed to unstick his eyelids, ignoring the stinging of tiredness as his father's blue and brown eyes avoided him.

"I don't know," Tom said with a quick smile. "We can discuss it another day." He headed to the exit faster than needed. "Go to sleep." Tom switched off the light, and shut the door, leaving his son staring in the darkness.

* * * * *

When Koda still wasn't home at 10:00 in the evening, Morlen got back in his car and phoned the parents of Koda's friends and then Alfie's mother. The hope shrunk in his heart when nobody had seen Koda all day. Morlen didn't know how upset his son was after his friends cornered him at the gym and said things to break Koda's heart.

Morlen had to make it right, and feeling the immense worry was a start. He had never concerned himself with the whereabouts of his kid. Now that he had lost Enya so easily, he couldn't lose Koda too and had to know that he was safe. Morlen didn't know how unstable Koda's mind was, he didn't know if his son was capable of doing something stupid.

After sitting hopelessly in his car for ten minutes, Morlen resorted to either phoning the police or checking the one place he hadn't been since Enya's funeral. Morlen fought against his grief and set off down the road. Part of him worried that Koda would return home when he wasn't there, but he pressed on, following the gut feeling churning inside.

It took him five minutes in the car to reach the small church where Enya was buried. The gate to the graveyard was locked, but the fence was short enough to climb over. The metal fence poles had sharp points on the top and Morlen was careful not to injure himself as he struggled over to the other side. The night was very quiet. If anyone caught Morlen, they might think he was a grave robber, breaking into a graveyard to steal from the dead. Morlen shuddered. He had done many things in his life that went beyond the law, but messing with those who had died would never be one of them.

Once Morlen turned on his torch, there was something rather creepy about the yard of the deceased, so he sped up his search and stormed in the direction of Enya's gravestone. It didn't take him long before he saw it. A rush of shivers and sorrow injected his heart, stopping his lungs from breathing in the cold evening air. His legs froze on the gravel path. He thought if he avoided where she lay, then her death might not seem so real. The headstone with gold letters spelling his wife's name brought every memory of Enya to the surface, the good and the bad.

Morlen thought that one day they might get a divorce if Enya continued to abuse. He never envisioned being a widower before they had the chance to revive their relationship. He would have much rather had a divorce than never being able to touch her, talk to her, or share one last glance.

The despair was too much, but it didn't stop Morlen from taking a step closer. His hand trembled and he struggled to keep his torch up. This made the light point down to a lump on Enya's grave. Someone was curled up by her headstone, someone big and familiar.

"Oh Koda," Morlen said, his voice heavy with desolation, the same heaviness that hunched his shoulders and throbbed his head, the same heaviness that made him long to go back in time to save a life he used to love.