The Ghosts

Chapter Two, Part Two

I needed to talk to someone, someone who wouldn’t judge. I thought of calling Luke but I knew he was busy with his new charge. I was going to call my brother but that just didn’t seem logical either.

So went to the park, Central Park, and took a walk, like I used to when I couldn’t clear my head. Only this time Luke wasn’t there to join me and after a while I felt more than a little lonely. I found myself next to a lake where several weeping willows stood. I plopped down under one and closed my eyes.

“What are you doing, Ana?”

I knew he wasn’t really here, he never was. In fact, I hadn’t seen my usual illusion of Aidan in a while. But when I opened my eyes and looked to my left, there he stood with his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “I’m a little lost.”

He sat down next to me and propped himself up with his elbows, looking up at the sky.

“You like him.”

“Why do you have to put it like that?”

“Because it’s the truth. You’re confused and you don’t know how to feel.”

I shook my head and closed my eyes. “This wasn’t supposed to happen again. Not after…”

“Hey,” he reached over and placed a see-through hand on my shoulder, “it’s ok. You’re allowed to have feelings, Ana. Even if it is for someone else.”

“Not like these. I can’t get involved with him, in any way. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“You can’t be alone forever.” I opened my eyes and looked at him. “You’re allowed to be with someone else.”

I shook my head. “No, not with the cost.”

“What happened…” he looked at my throat where I still bore the scar of what happened between us, “that’s never going to happen again. For one, he’s not a Vampire and two, the circumstances were different. Things happened between us that don’t usually happen in a normal relationship.”

“I can’t…”

He moved so he was kneeling in front of me.

“First loves are supposed to be hard and for you it was made doubly hard. They burn bright for a short period of time, eclipsing everything else and making you feel something you’ve never felt before. That’s why you remember them forever but it eventually, they burn out and it’s gone.”

“No it doesn’t.”

His hand moved to my face and I wished for the millionth time that it was real instead of my imagination trying to make me feel better.

“You’ll stop feeling it. Eventually, you won’t even remember what it felt like when I touched you, kissed you. It’s already fading, you know that. Same thing with Michael. Soon you’ll forget how either of us felt, our faces will begin to fade from your memory, the sound of our voices…”

“No,” I snapped. “That’s not going to happen. Someone has to…to remember you the way you were.”

“That’s a burden you can’t carry, Ana. No one should have to be burdened something like that.”

“I can’t forget what it was like…I have to keep remembering in case…”

“Don’t you think if it was going to happen, if he was going to remember and come for you, that he would’ve done so already? It’s been a year. The chances of it coming back have dropped dramatically and will more than likely never come back.”