Intrinsical - Lani Woodland [45]
“Cherie,” Steve said softly. “I’ll keep trying. Go get help.”
“I can’t leave her,” Cherie sobbed. She had her eyes squeezed shut, tears cascading down her cheeks. Her tears sliced my soul like a razor and I had to look away. Finally she left the pool screaming, “Help!”
“Don’t give up! I’m still here!” I told Steve as he continued pumping on my chest.
“Yara,” Brent said. He shook his head, a deep sadness in his eyes. “No, it’s too late. You’re not going to be okay. You’re dead, just like me.”
****
Brent’s words echoed in my ears, ‘You’re dead just like me.’ The refrain opened an emotional chasm at my feet and I was teetering on the edge about to tumble into it.
“There’s still hope,” I yelled, shoving Brent hard. I tried to block out Steve still attempting to revive my motionless body.
Brent rubbed his shoulder grimacing. “I forgot about your temper. I thought maybe dying would have cured you of that.”
“Are you sure we aren’t just projecting?” My eyes studied Brent’s, waiting for a smile to crack his grave expression.
“Yara,” Brent began warily. “You know you drowned.”
“Maybe I did . . .” I gulped, forcing the word from my tongue, tears puddling in my eyelashes. “Maybe I did d-drown but you didn’t. You’re alive. Get back to your body and tell them not to give up because I’m still here.”
“I can’t.” Brent said, his head swiveling to watch as Headmaster Farnsworth entered, a bathrobe pulled hastily over his pajamas, with two other faculty members in tow, each talking frantically on a cell phone.
“Brent, you’re not dead. I would have noticed. I’ve been with you all night, at the party and then here.”
“I was at the party, but I wasn’t sitting beside you,” Brent said, slowly rubbing the back of his neck.
“Of course you were sitting beside me. We both saw your brother when he appeared. He—”
Brent interrupted me. “That wasn’t my brother, it was me.”
“So you projected during it . . . as some sort of prank?”
“I wasn’t projecting and I wasn’t one of the guests.”
“No,” I said with a firm head shake. “You were sitting beside me.”
“Let’s try this again,” Brent sighed and I heard his teeth grind together. “The guy sitting beside you wasn’t me.”
“Wait,” I said, holding up my hand. “What?”
“The body next to you was mine but the soul inside of it wasn’t. Think about it, if I had been projecting, I would have been wearing the same suit as the body sitting next to you. But I was wearing this thing, remember?” He asked in disgust, gesturing to his school uniform. “And you were wearing that.” Across the room, now being encircled by faculty, my lifeless corpse was wearing a mangled version of the gown I was clothed in.
The truth started to sink in, but before I could mentally take it any further he interrupted and kept talking. “So yeah, I was at the party. I was the crasher, the entertainment, the rambling ghost who garbled out a cryptic message that made no sense.”
“Yeah, what was up with that?” I demanded. “Why couldn’t you just say ‘Hey, Yara, the jerk next to you stole my body and he’s trying to kill you’?”
Brent shot me an annoyed look. “It’s not as easy as it looks! Ever since that jerk stole my body, I’ve been trying to tell people what’s happened. I’ve had a hard time communicating with the living. Every time I did I’ve been rushed or interrupted by you freaking out and severing the connection we had. Tonight I was determined to get through to you. I turned on that song I used to whistle to let you know I was coming. But as soon as it began, this thick black barrier erected around me. Did you see it?”
“It was the mist. Or at least that’s what I call it.”
“Well, it took all my concentration and energy to break through. I made the whole room shake just trying to get through.”
“That was you? Poor Audrey was so scared.”
Brent tipped his head back and laughed. “That’s right. The mouse even made her jump.” He wiped away tears. “Anyway, after my little earthquake, there was this flash of bright light and you could see me. But I felt different. I was so