Dream for the Dead (Completed/Editing)

11

"What?" I asked again, "how is that possible? I didn't even know you needed a Saviour, so how could I be the Saviour? How do you even know that I'm the Saviour?"
"Will, you thought others were the Saviour before, right? You told me. But they weren't. How can you be sure you're not wrong again?" Elias asked.
"This time I. Am. Positive!" Doctor Carver banged his fist on the table for each of the last three words.
"Yeah - she can actually touch us without it feeling numb," Kyle spoke, and lounged back into his chair with a smug grin and offered a grim wink in my direction. He was sat with his legs dangling over the arm of his seat, a hand supporting his chin.
I looked to Elias and watched his jaw clench. Simultaneously, his grip on me became tighter.
"Could someone please explain what the Saviour is? And why you're trapped?"
"Sweetheart," Kyle grinned playfully as I turned to him, "you're aware of what happened to Doctor Carver, aren't you?"
I nodded.
"Fine. Fine! I'll tell her," Doctor Carver interrupted, waving his hands to shush Kyle, "I might as well tell the story myself, I'm the one that lived it. When I was murdered, my brother-in-law killed himself. His wife wasn't too pleased - as you'd expect - and decided to punish me further. What nobody knew at the time was that she was - is - a witch woman. She decided to curse the house, so that any resident of the house would be bound to this town if they died in this town. The only way we can gain our peace is for our Saviour to come along. The Saviour has to have specific traits... and something very important, as well as very tragic, that the witch told me once I was brought back here, is that in all eternity, there will only be one Saviour. One chance to gain our freedom and eternal peace."
"And why do you think I'm this 'Saviour'?"
"You can touch us properly," Doctor Carver gave me a gentle smile, "that's something nobody else has been able to do so far. It's also a trait of the Saviour. You also live in the mansion, which is something the Saviour has to do."
"Just because she can touch us without us feeling numb doesn't mean she's the Saviour!" Elias' voice was louder than it needed to be.
"It may not. But it's highly likely that she is," Doctor Carver hissed, leaning further into the table with every word, as if he was trying to pull himself closer and closer to his release from captivity.
"Why don't you want me to be the Saviour?" I asked Elias, confused at... well, everything that was happening.
Elias ignored me and instead stared at Doctor Carver, unblinking and with an intimidating expression, his chin tucked and eyes dark, lips curled into a faint snarl. Carver grimaced.
"You need more evidence before you do anything else," Elias removed his arm from around my shoulders and stood, "come on, Tabbi. Let's go home."
Nobody said a word to stop us, but I turned back as we left and saw Carver and Kyle smirking, each pair of eyes peering at us, unblinking, as we departed.

*

When we returned to the house, Elias took my hand and led me to the side of the mansion where the basement was situated, making me a little hesitant to move further. He gave me a reassuring smile, and we continued until we arrived at a room right at the end of the hallway on the ground floor.
"Why are we here?" I asked.
"You'll find out soon," Elias laughed, "you really aren't patient, are you?"
Elias opened the door, revealing a rather worn, untrustworthy-looking staircase. We had to walk in single file, but he kept hold of my hand, nonetheless. Once we made it to the top of the stairs, he led me to the end of the hallway. There was a black door, quite unlike the others in the home, which were brown. Another difference I noticed immediately: the door handle was silver in colour, whereas every other door handle in the house was gold.
"She liked to be different. She wanted to change all of the doors in the house, but that would cost too much," he laughed lightly.
"Are you talking about-" I paused for a second, and when I spoke again, I deliberately softened my voice, "your mother?"
Elias nodded, a mild and rather sorrowful smile playing on his lips and dancing in his eyes, his demeanour shrinking as his eyes left me and entered the distance, as if he was travelling someplace else, to a childhood moment where he could be with his mother.
He opened the door and uttered, "I left her bedroom just the way it was."
In her bedroom, Elias' mother had kept a bed - obviously - a bedside table with a lamp and a book which appeared to be a photo album placed on it; a small chandelier; a dressing table cluttered with a wide selection of perfumes, an abundance of jewellery and makeup products, and a wardrobe. The only out-of-the-ordinary decoration was a huge stack of papers on the floor by where I was standing. I looked at the piece at the top of the stack, and it was a horrific (though very artistic and skilful) painting of the torture of a man by two people: one female, one a male, but much smaller and more child-like.
"It's a shame she couldn't put her talent to good use. She just painted her mental illness down onto paper," Elias frowned at the stack of paintings, "you can probably tell what that is. Me and Mum, torturing Dad. Never actually happened, it was just one of her crazy fantasies," he beamed at me and tugged at my hand, speaking sweetly and quietly, "but that isn't why we're here."
"Why are we here?" I asked again.
"This is why," he walked to the dressing table and carefully retrieved an astoundingly beautiful necklace. It was a dirty silver colour, with a small, intricately-detailed heart pendant dangling from the chain. It was simple, yet stunning.
"I want you to have this."
"I can't-"
"It was her favourite necklace. Dad gave it to her when he first told her he loved her. It's not being used, so I thought I should give it to you," he held it out towards me.
"Are you sure?" I paused, waiting for a reply, but when he simply continued to grin, I decided that it would be rude to refuse again, and smiled as I said shyly, "thank you. So much. I really mean that."
I looked to the necklace in Elias' hand. The late afternoon sun rays filtering through the ruined, dirtied curtains were drawn to the pendant, and it shone as a star.
Elias blushed as he said, "turn around. I'll put it on for you."
I obliged, moving my hair over my right shoulder as I turned away from Elias. He was extremely careful with the necklace as he draped it around my neck, and then he took hold of my shoulders and span me back to face him.
"It suits you perfectly. You're beautiful."
My heart beat faster with those words. What did all of this mean? Did he like me? I was panicking, wondering where this would go next, but then he simply strode past me, heading back towards the door.
"You can look through those paintings if you want. Or try out her perfumes. I'll see you later."
He opened the door, but turned back to say one last thing: "by the way, William and the others don't seem to know about you being able to see us all the time. Don't mention that to anyone. Not under any circumstances. Understand?"