CYOA Page 191
Sep. 11th, 2013 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12You can't just dismiss this. The... apparition, or whatever? Fucking said your name. You have to go.
You wish now that you'd bothered to put on your pants before leaving the house (wet jeans are better than no jeans, right?), but you didn't, and you can't exactly tell the ghost to wait while you go attend to such trivial matters. She (...it?) might not be able to stick around for long. You're not sure how it all works, having never encountered a ghost before in your life.
You don't see her now, you don't hear her calling your name... but you sense her, somehow. You feel her pull.
When you're just starting up the walkway to the front door of the house, you hear your name again!
"Ellie!"
...Only it's a male voice this time. A very familiar male voice. So faint you almost didn't hear it.
You consider ignoring it, afraid that you're going to lose your connection to this spirit thing... but you just can't. It would be too cruel. "I'm down here, Joel!" you call back as loud as you can. "I'm okay! You don't have to come! Go back to sleep!"
Man... I didn't even wake him all the way up when I went out! Does the man know when I'm taking 'too long' even in his fucking SLEEP now? It's like he has a TIMER in his subconscious!
You squint in Joel's direction... and are completely unsurprised to see him jogging toward you. "I said you don't have to come! As in -- do NOT!"
"What the hell are you doin' over there?"
"Okay, so! If you're gonna come! Can you bring me my jeans? Please!"
He pauses briefly, but then keeps coming your way. "You wait 'til I'm almost there to tell me? ...Why in the hell did you come out here without--"
"Cuz I was just peeing! Why bother?"
He pulls up in front of you, panting. "Why? Well... see, when you end up... not just peein'..."
"Okay, but-- Joel, listen. You didn't need to come over here. I'm fine. There's just... something I need to do without you. Sorry. Nothing personal. On my end, anyway. I think it might be personal on... the other end."
"...What are you talkin' about? You ain't makin' any sense, kiddo. You were the one who insisted we get away from this house."
"I know, I know, but... I think that was a mistake. I think I just misunderstood! I didn't know, so I got scared. But now I know... and I have to do something about it."
"Know what?"
Of course he has to ask that. Of course! "Uh... you wouldn't understand."
He just gives you a hard look. "Try me."
"It's... sort of a girl thing." Because SHE'S a girl, and I'M a girl...
"Oh no you don't. That might work with... other shit, but you can't tell me you had to come all the way back to this goddamn house in the middle of the night -- with no pants on -- for a, quote/unquote, Girl Thing."
"I can tell you that because... that's what it is," you insist. "Can you be quiet for a minute? I need to... um... think..." ...Really, you're just starting to panic that you've lost your tether to the spirit world. Perhaps 'panic' is a strong word for it, but... it does make you feel anxious... you close your eyes, not sure how that would help, but if it's like... a distraction thing? Like, you need to block out the world? Then--
"What do you need to think about? You're actin' crazy."
--or, more specifically, you need to block out Joel. You shoot him a glare. "You're not helping here!"
"Helpin' with what?"
"With -- fuck, I don't have time to explain. I need to go inside--"
But Joel grabs your arm. "You ain't goin' inside without tellin' me what the hell is goin' on with you."
"I can't." It's like... if you try to explain it, the spell is broken? Or... you're betraying a confidence? Both of those sound crazy, even to your own open mind.
"You can, and you will."
You jerk your arm away. "You can't stop me from going in there." ...He can, of course, but he won't turn this into a physical fight; if you're really determined to go in, he won't hold you back against your will. What he'll do is just--
"Then I'm goin' in with you," he says.
Yeah. THAT.
"Joel! No," you groan. "This... totally doesn't concern you!"
"If it concerns you? It concerns me. I can't just--"
"Fine! Fiiiiiiine. But you have to be totally quiet, okay? Don't say a fucking word."
"Yes ma'am."
He follows you inside the house, no 'fucking words' spoken. That's more like it! It's nice when he's obedient (especially so respectfully obedient).
However! It doesn't seem to help you regain the... spiritual connection you felt earlier. You wander around the house, shining your light over every wall, every surface... just willing the girl to lead you to where you're supposed to be... ...fuck!
When you've reached the last bedroom down the hall on the second floor and still haven't felt anything, you whirl around and give Joel a death glare. "You ruined everything!"
"What did I do?" he asks -- sounding way more amused than sympathetic, much to your annoyance.
"You're just -- here, and you're not supposed to be! It's supposed to be me by myself! That's the only way it will work!"
"What will work?"
You sigh at the irritating question. "You just don't get it!" (...To be fair, neither do you?) "Look... you've seen that there's no one here, right? So can you just go wait outside now?"
"...What if I just go wait downstairs? Would that make you happy?"
Maybe you're supposed to be downstairs... fuck if you know. "I guess... hey, what's that in your hand? ...Where'd you get that?" It's important! I can feel it! But WHY...
"This? Picked it up in the master bedroom. Would've missed it if my light hadn't hit it jus' so. It was nearly all the way under the--"
"Let me see it!" you demand. "Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Uh... 'cause you warned me not to talk?" Of course he has to use that technicality as an excuse! He hands it over to you: it's a necklace. Or... a ring, actually, with a gold chain strung through it. A broken chain...
"Is this a wedding ring?" you wonder out loud.
"Looks like it."
You examine it from all angles with your light. "There's words on the inside..."
"It's engraved?"
"Yeah..." ...engraved... enGRAVEd... A shiver runs through you. It's not the same as the feeling you had earlier, but... it's something? "Derek and Austin... 2-11-12..." you read aloud. So old... but this girl WASN'T old... I don't think she was older than me -- or if she was, not by much... and those are both BOY names...
"Does that mean anythin' to you?" Joel asks, probably because you're concentrating on the thing so hard.
"No, but... is this ring a man's or a woman's?"
"Woman's. Definitely."
"But... Derek? And Austin?"
"Don' know about Derek, but Austin can be a girl's... name..." He looks at you with sudden recognition at the same time it hits you--
"Right right -- you told me that before -- there's a country song about a girl with that name -- I asked if you could play it for me on the guitar and you said yes. ...But then you never did," you can't resist adding.
Joel chuckles. "That was a while back. You gotta remind me about shit like that if you're real serious about it, kiddo."
"Okay, well, you owe me! When we get home. That one and 'Don't Take the Girl.' "
He nods. "Steel trap, that memory of yours."
"Okay okay -- so we were talking about Austin in the first place cuz we had one, in Jackson. A female one. Except we never knew her, she was just someone Tommy and Maria mentioned..."
"She died before we got there," Joel remembers.
"Yeah. They died together... her and her husband. But they had kids... two boys and a girl..."
"I don't remember talkin' about their kids," Joel says unhelpfully. You two were taking in a lot of information -- about all the townspeople -- around that time, so you can't blame him for not remembering all the details.
"Only one is still alive -- we know him! Jamie -- remember?"
"...No. I don't."
"You know... quiet guy? Very quiet... talks less than you, I think... a little older than me... blond... walks with a limp?"
"I think I know who you're talkin' about. Didn't he get hurt in a raid on the dam... a few months before we came through the first time?"
"Yeah, see? Your memory's not that bad. The summer you and I met, it would've been. His brother died in that same raid... and his sister disappeared! They looked for her but by the time they got people up there -- and they were helping the wounded first and stuff -- so it was too late! Joel -- what if she was the one wearing the ring necklace!"
"...You think she's here?"
"Yes! I know she is!" you exclaim...
...so excitedly that Joel gives you a pitying sort of look. "Ellie... we've been all through this house. Twice now, since I checked it when we--"
"No no no... I know she's not alive. But she's here." Fuck, what was HER name?!
"All right, so... where's her body?"
"I don't know..." ...I was referring to her SPIRIT... because I saw her in a long white dress... like an angel? You keep that bit to yourself because Joel already thinks you're a few cards short of a full deck...
"If someone abducted her... if they were stayin' here for a time... maybe they killed her an' didn't want the body rottin' in the house," Joel says sensibly.
"Maybe she wasn't abducted! Maybe it was like... a Romeo and Juliet thing," you suggest -- less sensibly, but it kind of rings true? "She had a boyfriend who was in this band of hunters-- so they ran off together!"
Joel gives you a Look. "Do you really think that's what happened? How'd she die?"
"Well, I don't fucking know! But I like my version better than--" You cut yourself off mid-sentence as another... something passes through you... except this time it makes you feel... nauseous?
"Ellie? What's wrong?"
An image flits through your mind -- two images, actually! -- only for a split second, but they're so real and vibrant -- "I know where she is! Come on--" You thrust the necklace back at him and tear out of there, flying down the stairs... you don't know why you feel like you have to go right this second or you'll lose the... knowledge? the guiding light?... but off you go--
--into the backyard, which is rather large. You sweep your flashlight beam around... If I can just find it... there! "This way!" you call back to Joel, who's so far behind you he might not have even heard you. You race toward the tree with the tire swing on it. Somehow, you know she loved that swing...
Right behind that tree, you find a large stone. Smooth as a river rock... and yep, it's a tombstone! You kneel in front of it. "Erica! Her name was Erica..." You say it to yourself as much as to Joel, who's only just now catching up to you. "It sounds right, doesn't it?"
"...No idea."
"It has to be. He buried her... wrapped in a white--" ...Ohhhh -- it wasn't a long white dress that I saw! "--A sheet. Like a bed sheet." You don't know who 'he' is, but you know there was a he...
Joel crouches beside you. "How do you figure that?"
"...I just know." Maybe you shouldn't have said the sheet part out loud; not like Joel even needs to know what she's buried in! You run your fingers over the stone. "There's no birth year," you notice. "Don't tombstones always have that?"
"Maybe they didn't know it," Joel speculates.
"I guess not. 'Died 2034.' So... she was here a while, then. She disappeared in '33."
"You wanna add the birth year?" Joel suggests.
"Oh! We can do that?"
"Why not? There's room on there..."
"Fuck, I don't know how old she was," you lament.
"Well, it ain't important."
No... it's not... what IS important? She said "HELP ME," earlier... she was already dead, so what did she need help with?! You ponder that for a moment, then look at Joel. "I think we're supposed to take the ring back to her brother. It was his mother's ring... he should have it. And we can tell him where Erica is. That it wasn't his fault."
Joel quirks an eyebrow. "That what wasn't his fault?"
"You know. Whatever happened to her."
"We don't know what happened."
"I know, but... I think she'd want him to know that, don't you?"
"Sure. Though I don' know how we're gonna explain it when you don't even know--"
"Let me worry about that part," you say dismissively, gazing down at the rock. You're the one Erica 'spoke' to, after all. She revealed herself to you. You sort of feel like she's an old friend. Which makes no fucking sense, of course, but--
"I know what we can tell him," Joel interrupts your thoughts. "Maybe it would be a comfort to him to know that someone cared enough... to bury her when she died. Give her a tombstone and all."
You look at Joel again, impressed. "That's... yeah. Yeah! I bet it would. She wasn't alone. Whoever buried her... was a friend. Even if she was here against her will... at least at first? Right?"
Joel nods. "A combination of both of our ideas, then."
"Maybe it was a hunter with a conscience -- like you!"
"I still don't got one of those," Joel scoffs.
You give him a playful shove. "Whatever! You like to lie about it for some reason but it's there. Oh-- you know what else? Jamie can come visit her here -- maybe he can add the birth year."
"Don' know if he can ride, with that injury..."
"Oh yeah, huh... well, if he can't, we can help with that!"
Joel chuckles. "You're really gettin' into this... takin'-trips-to-do-good-deeds-for-people thing, are ya?"
You smile. "Yeah, maybe I am. And you're my little helper!"
"...Little helper?"
"Of course! I'm sorry I was bitchy before -- if you hadn't come inside with me and found that ring, maybe I never would have put the pieces together and figured out what... what it all meant." Oops... shit, now don't ask me--
"How did you figure it out?" he fucking asks you. "How did you know right where to find her grave?"
You decide you need to stand up right then... and brush yourself off. "My legs are freezing. Can we go back now?" you ask... as if you didn't even hear him.
Joel rises as well. "All right, don't tell me then."
"Maybe tomorrow?" you offer... rather sheepishly (you have no intention of telling him tomorrow, either). "Can we come back here before we go? See it in the daytime?" See if Erica wants to tell me anything else, or if she can rest now... rest in PEACE~
"Sure. Might look different with pants on."
You roll your eyes. "I didn't leave them behind on purpose."
You and Joel walk back down the street to 'your' house, mostly silent. You're thinking about Erica... and her family... how poor Jamie doesn't have any family left. You're... not even sure he has friends, come to think of it?
You've been there, and it fucking sucks. But that was a long time ago... now I have both! Because Joel, of course, is your family now. Which makes Tommy and Maria and her dad your family as well, by extension -- you went from no family to a big family! And you've made some friends in town... -I will be Jamie's friend when we get home! you vow.
You think Erica would like that.
If you'd like to start another adventure, return to page 1.
Carlos
Date: 2020-12-03 12:35 pm (UTC)The song you mention here I read it in one of you other stories right?
Re: Carlos
Date: 2020-12-03 01:08 pm (UTC)