ghost - cake

Seven

"Have you found him yet?" Calum mumbled, burying his face sleepily into the sofa. Despite having gotten a decent nights sleep earlier, he was exhausted - and very, very bored.

"No, stop being so impatient."

Calum sighed. "But you've been at it for hours now. Do you know anything more than you did before?"

"Genius takes time, idiot."

"Wait," Calum frowned, climbing into a sitting position and fixing his eyes on the floral wallpaper. He was slightly tenser now, and he was helpless in stopping the frown that crept onto his face. "What do you mean?"

Michael sighed. "It's really not that har-"

"Not you, I was talking to Luke."

"I just went into town to check a few things out," Luke explained, his voice a little shaky. "Your picture is all over the news. There's a full on investigation, they were pretty sure you were guilty before but you managing to escape? Now they're certain that you killed me."

Calum was frustrated, more so than he was willing to let on. There was nothing he could do but help Luke out and then keep on running, he would be locked away for life if anyone found him and it wasn't exactly like a ghost could defend his innocence.

"Thanks for telling me, I guess," Calum smiled weakly.

Luke laughed a little, following the boy's thoughts closely. "Just, don't punch another wall, okay?"

Calum lifted his head in the direction he was convinced Luke was standing, flinching a little when he swore he saw a tuff of blond hair appear and then disappear moments later.

No, that wasn't possible. He was just imagining it, right? Probably because he was so tired.

"Calum?" Michael asked, removing his gaze temporarily from his laptop screen and fixing his eyes on the frozen boy instead. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm, yeah, sorry."

Michael raised his eyebrows, but decided not to ask anything else and returned to his work. He was already pretty freaked out by Calum and Luke having a conversation across his living room, especially when he couldn't even hear Luke and was still reluctant to agree any of it was actually happening.

"I've got it," Michael grinned, attracting Calum's attention and Luke's too (although he didn't realise it). "It's definitely his laptop."

"Where?" Calum asked, leaning forward and now entirely concentrated on the situation.

Michael turned his laptop around so the screen was visible to Calum, pointing to a small red marker positioned in the centre of a black square. "This building is an old warehouse, half an hour or so away from here."

"Right, so we just go and get it?"

"No," Michael frowned. "It won't be quite that simple, there's a lot of heat signatures surrounding the place. They represent people, and that means it's guarded."

Calum sighed, that was just what he needed. He wasn't going to bail out on Luke, not after everything, but the doubt in his mind was becoming harder to ignore. Maybe if he handed himself in, they'd give him a shorter sentence. Maybe he could plead insane, and live out the rest of his life in a mental institution.

Breaking into a guarded warehouse wouldn't exactly help his case in court.

"Stop questioning everything," Luke groaned, "nobody's gonna find you. You don't even have to go with me. I'm a ghost, remember? I can get past them without anyone noticing and take my laptop back, then everything will be fine."

Calum shook his head. "You're not going alone. We're in this together, and I don't think the guards will particularly appreciate seeing a flying laptop. You may be invisible, but nothing else is."

"So, are you leaving?" Michael asked, not entirely sure what the plans were given he could only hear one side of the conversation.

Calum bit down hard on his lower lip, a bad habit of his in times of uncertainty. "Do you mind if I hang around here for a couple of hours? You know, until it starts getting dark, and then it will be much easier for me to move around."

"Sure," Michael shrugged. "Hunted by the law, huh? You don't look like that kind of kid."

"I'm not that kind of kid, I didn't do anything."

Michael nodded, slamming his laptop shut and sitting still for a moment. Everything still felt so surreal - too surreal - and he hated it. He wished he could just accept that Luke was dead and move on, his best friend was as annoying as hell anyways.

But he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried to. When Calum had first told him that Luke was stood on his doorstep, he'd felt something. Not just chills from knowing there was a ghost in front of him, but Luke. No matter how strange it sounded, he had felt Luke.

It was both thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

As the hours passed, an awkward silence hung over them almost permanently. Calum kept checking up on Luke, making sure he hadn't left without him, but other than that no one spoke.

They all had things on their mind, things they didn't quite understand but desperately wanted to. However Luke had given up on attempting to deal with his own problems, as Calum's thoughts were so loud, almost like screams, that he physically couldn't focus on anything.

"You should probably head out," Michael whispered suddenly, the first words he had spoken in a long time. It wasn't that he was eager for the younger boy to leave, it was that he disliked the uncomfortable atmosphere and it was beyond painful for him to know his dead best friend was somewhere in the room. 

Calum nodded hesitantly, climbing slowly to his feet and walking towards the front door. "Thank you, for everything you've done. I'm so sorry about your friend."

Luke scoffed but Calum ignored it, hanging back to hug Michael. The blond haired boy lowered his voice, putting his lips to Calum's ear. "Please look after him, he's not as strong as he sometimes seems."

Calum smiled, pulling away. "Of course."

With that, the door squeaked open and Calum turned away, his figure blurring into the darkness.

~~~~~~~

A/n: not much to say so here you go, thanks for reading xx