The Holes in the Surface

Chapter 4

~Image not mine~

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"So...this is where you died?" Hazel looked up at the wooden beams, her once dark face now transparent. "It's so lonely..."

"The only place that really had something to hang on." Nico sat beneath where they had found his body, able to still see the way it swung in the breeze. "Nobody comes up here. So you can stay up here if you want. You and Frank."

Hazel moved to the window and looked out at the sunny sky. "Can you open the window?"

"You won't be able to feel the breeze."

Hazel shrugged. "Can you open it anyway?"

Nico sighed in annoyance but moved to the window, opening it enough to send the summer air into the dusty attic. "There."

"Thank you." Hazel moved to hug him but stopped herself. "I'm...I'm going to go sit with Frank."

Nico smiled thinly. "You can hug me if you want, Hazel. I haven't had anyone to hug since I was a child, so I might not be any good at it. But I'm open to it."

Hazel hugged him, her thin fingers gripping onto the fabric of his shirt. "That's sad...that you're not used to hugs."

Nico wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on the top of her head. "Now I can be, with you here."

"Hazel..." Frank walked over to them, his large frame nearly invisible. "It's getting worse."

"Oh, God..." Hazel tore herself away from Nico to look Frank over, her eyes flashing with concern. "Nico... Help him."

"I can't." Nico looked out the window. "I'm sorry. I think...I think some of us just have more power. I have theories but I doubt they're right."

"Tell me them," Hazel demanded. "They could help me help Frank. So tell me them."

Nico eyed the scorching sun with disdain. How many slaves was it punishing with its harmful rays? "I think those who are left behind as ghosts still have some purpose here. I think that's why my mom and Bianca got to move on and I didn't. I had some purpose here, still, and they didn't."

"So...so Frank and I have some purpose..."

"I think Frank's only purpose is to stay with you until you go," Nico admitted. "That would explain why he's so much weaker than us. I don't know what my purpose is or yours, unfortunately."

"You just said downstairs that you have no idea about any of this," Hazel argued.

"I don't." Nico defended. "I told you that that's just a guess."

"It sounds real." Hazel sat with her back to the wall, Frank's watery form sitting next to her. "It sounds like it would be real."

Nico shrugged. "Who knows, Hazel. We can't really do anything about it either way."

Hazel's dark hair laid across Frank's chest as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I just want to move on already..."

"Don't we all?" Nico muttered.