AN EMPTY REFLECTION
I tightly shut my eyes, grasping the towel around my body. My heart flutters a little and my feet turn inward at his words, my knees knocking together. What am I supposed to say to something like that? A boy dies, then turns up in my mirror and tells me that he won't leave because talking to me makes him feel alive again... What can I say to that?!
Still unsure of how to respond to him, I stand up from the bath and walk into the middle of the bathroom.
"Can I at least get changed... you know, in privacy. Then... then I guess we'll have a talk about this.., you... me... last night and now," is all I can seem to say. He nods.
"Sure. I'll wait out there," he says before he disappears suddenly from the mirror.
I close the bathroom door and double check that he's gone before I slip off the towel and get changed. Once I'm dressed, I towel dry my hair before plaiting it down my back. After I have no excuses left to still be in the bathroom, I take a glance at my mirror and sigh. Grasping the sides of the basin, I stare at myself head on, tracing those ugly scratches and bruises with my eyes. That'll take a bit of make-up to cover for tomorrow, I note to myself.
Taking myself away from the mirror, I turn off the bathroom light and open up the door. I can't see Ryden so I walk into the middle of my room and sit down in the middle of my bed, crossing my legs.
"You have a very beautiful ceiling," his voice suddenly comes out of nowhere. It sends a shudder down my spine.
"Thank-you," I reply, looking up at the origami bird filled ceiling. Silence falls.
"I... I think I owe you an apology... for being really rather rude to you last night and some of this morning. I guess that I'm a bit jealous of you is all," he says. I look down from the ceiling and feel my brow crease a little.
"Jealous?" I ask.
"That I'm dead and you're alive," he replies. I make an 'o' with my mouth and feel a bit awkward.
"Anyway, what was it that you wanted to discuss?" Ryden asks.
Cautiously, I look over to the mirror in my dresser, just for an idea of where Ryden might be in the room. When I look up, I find that he's also sitting on my bed with his legs crossed, behind me. To be a little more open with him, I turn around on the bed and check in the mirror to see if I'm sitting across from him yet. It looks about right so I turn to where Ryden is supposedly sitting.
But before I can start with my questions, he speaks up.
"You didn't have to do that," he suddenly says. I look up at the empty space before me and give in to a small smile.
"Yes I did. I may not like you being here all that much, but the least I can do is face you when you're talking," I reply, "Anyway, back to business. If you aren't going to leave, how is this going to work? What happens here?" I ask him.
"I... I don't know. I don't know why I'm here... or even why you seem to be the only person that I can make contact with. I'm new at this as well, so this might end up being a learning experience for us both," he replies. I swallow hard and bite down on the inside of my lip.
"Oh... Okay... so, now we just do this until you figure out what's going on... is that it?" I ask, feeling a bit disappointed.
"Yeah."
I can't lie. My heart sinks at his answer. How could he just expect me to accept this? I'm still dealing with my own traumas what good is more trouble going to do to my state of mental wellbeing? And how do I go about everyday life with a ghost following me around? If high school didn't have to be hard enough already, now I have extra baggage to carry around.
As if in defeat before fighting the battle, I uncross my legs and fall back onto the unmade bed. I close my eyes, covering my face with the palms of my hands.
Will he always be around? Will I have to check every mirror before I use the loo? Check around me every time I take a shower or get changed in case a strange dead boy just so happens to see me in my underwear, or worse, naked?
"How can I know that I can trust you?" I ask. I remove my hands from my face and sit back up, opening my eyes.
"Well, I brought you home last night instead of leaving you on the roadside after you passed out," he replies. I frown.
"I don't get how you could do that. You don't physically exist so how could you possibly do that?" I ask, still trying to wrap my head around this whole situation.
"I don't get it either. I'd spent some time previously trying to pick up objects and make contact with other people but I didn't get very far. Then last night, you passed out and I... I hate seeing girls looking vulnerable, so I just picked you up in my arms. I didn't really think about what I was doing, I just walked back down the road until I recognised the house. Once we got here, I put you on the front step and I was going to just leave you there... but... I just couldn't. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it properly," he explains.
I'm silent the whole time he's talking, simply because I have nothing to say to what he is talking about. There's a small smile on my lips and a really nice warm and fuzzy feeling inside of me, but I can't explain what it means or why it's there.
"I gotta tell you though, it was literally an uphill battle getting you inside," he adds. I feel my smile widen, comedic images of this boy carrying me around and getting me inside the house invading my thoughts.
"There we go... finally a smile from you," he almost whispers. I look up to the mirror and see that he's sitting a bit closer to me now. Maybe you just shifted on the bed and that's why, I tell myself.
I clear my throat.
"Thank-you," I say, still staring at him in the mirror.
He notices my staring and meets my eyes for a second in the reflection. A smile comes to Ryden's face and for some reason that makes me feel a little happier. But the emotion is short-lived as before I can look away from his reflection he suddenly disappears, leaving me alone in the reflection of the mirror.
I frown.
"Ryden?" I ask.
But there's no response and I'm left alone in my empty room, still trying to figure out if this is all really happening or if it's just some weird coping strategy I've created from the depths of my imagination to get over the events of the crash and the boy who died before my eyes...
Rewritten 25/09/2014
YOU ARE READING
How To Love A Dead Boy
Paranormal[editing-slowly] Despite doing everything she can, Lucy Ainsworth can't forget the night that she held the hand of the dying stranger, Ryden Mitchells. However; when she finds herself face to face with his ghost in her bathroom mirror, she's throw...
