"True love cannot be found where it does not exist, nor it can be denied where it does."
- Torquato Tasso
Mix waited a fraction of a moment for something to happen, a voice to enter his ears, before he got ahold of himself, shaking his head with a chuckle, "that sheriff really messed up with my head. Ghosts don't exist, Mix." He said for himself, deciding to stop standing at the entrance and made his way to the cozy-looking living room.
Making another step upfront a sudden coldness engulfed him again and it suddenly felt harder to move as if Mix bumped into something, but there was nothing. The closest thing in front of him was a dark wooden wall with a shelf carrying three black and gold candlesticks. And that was at least another six-seven steps away from where he stood.
Furrowing his forehead, Mix slowly looked around, laughing at himself he repeated, "ghosts don't exist!"
"Ghosts do not exist? Damn, right they do! You just walked through one!" Earth was with a very persistent voice speaking at Mix, shifting his intangible body in weird ways trying to get comfortable again. "How rude! Don't you think you are being too intimate at the first meeting?"
Earth obviously got no reaction from the younger, who mindlessly put his luggage next to a surprisingly comfortably looking brown leather sofa, which was facing a majestic stone fireplace.
If there was a heart of the cabin it had to be the fireplace, Mix thought in awe, plopping on the sofa, his eyes stuck on the beauty in front of him. Mix had never seen a fireplace like that in real life, only in some historical movies. Fireplaces like this one belong to medieval castles...and not to a cabin in the woods.
Next to the fireplace stood empty wicker basked; it looked like Mix needed to find outside some wood before he could try to use the fireplace.
Mix closed his eyes, exhausted from the travelling, the funeral, and the moving. But it was alright. It was done. He was there, in the cabin where his grandmother wanted him to be. It didn't feel weird, or unsettling. On the contrary, somehow it felt right. As if for the first time in his life, he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
Earth was standing at the same spot where he was when Mix walked through him, watching Mix, unable to look away. Something much stronger than Earth's will was pulling him towards the young man from the moment Earth saw him through that window, getting out of the Jeep. Was Praewa possibly right? Was Mix all along, the one Earth was waiting for all those years?
But how could someone who didn't see Earth nor hear Earth be the one?
"How can I make you believe in ghosts, Mix?" Earth asked, looking at Mix's peaceful face, eyelids fluttering like wings of a butterfly, soft round cheeks and mildly open lips breathing air in and out.
And then it happened, the moment Earth said those words, Mix's butterfly eyelids sprung up open, head, turning in Earth's direction, eyebrows furrowed. For a second Earth thought that Mix could see him or at least hear him, but then Mix just shrugged and stood from the sofa, taking his luggage.
The creaking sound of the wooden staircase sounded through the cabin as Mix walked upstairs.
Upstairs were only two rooms, a bathroom, and a small corridor with a map of the local area framed on the wall.
Mix slowly entered the room on the right, a sudden wave of cold air immediately hit his body. It wasn't the same coldness he felt twice already since he had arrived. This time it was the wind blowing through the half-opened window. Mix quickly approached the window, closing it, rubbing his arms with his hands, figuring out that the window was probably opened for the whole week—since the death of his grandmother.
"Grandma's room," Mix said and with a bit of heaviness in his heart, he looked around.
The walls were, like the rest of the cabin, from dark wood, Mix didn't know how to tell which wood is from what type of tree but his best guess was Oak. There wasn't much on the walls, just a shelf here and there with a few old books and candles. The carpet beneath Mix's feet was soft but the richness of the brown colour was long gone. In the corner next to the window was an old shabby looking toilet table with a mirror with a long crack right in the middle.
But Mix's eyes were mostly drawn to the empty single bed, where his grandmother left the world. "I'm sorry granny, I don't think I can sleep in your room," Mix breathed out, sitting on the bed, his hand touching the soft but cold bedding.
"For a person who doesn't believe in ghosts, you sure talk a lot to Praewa," Earth said, rolling his eyes and leaning with his arms crossed, at the door frame.
And there it was again, Mix's eyes focused on the place Earth was standing at.
"Hmmm, so what is it, Mix, you can hear me but not strong enough to actually realize that you are hearing what you are hearing?"
Why do I keep...ugh, whatever. Mix took one last glance at the bed, about to leave when his eyes landed on something under the pillow.
Diary.
It looked new. Mix was sitting on the bed, staring at the diary in his hands, torn between reading it or putting it back at its place—respecting his grandmother's privacy.
His eyes wandered once again to the spot near the door where he heard something...no...he didn't hear anything...it was just...something was going on in the cabin. Ghosts don't exist...but something is definitely weird about that place.
He returned his gaze to the diary, took a deep breath and opened it, "this better give me some answers."
Earth got nervous. He wasn't nervous for decades, but standing there, watching Mix opening Praewa's diary, about to find out everything...Earth was nervous. There may be only mere minutes before Earth will be alone again—before his last hope will be gone.
Earth won't blame Mix if he runs away after reading the diary, after all, the whole thing sounded outlandish, especially to the person who didn't even believe in ghosts.
A white page with nothing just two words in the middle was staring right at Mix...
Dear Mix
Mix gulped, holding his breath he turned to the next page.
Before I start, I want to thank you Sahaphap, thank you for coming to the Ghost Cabin. Right now you can't imagine how much the fact that you have decided to come here means to me. And not only to me.
I don't know when will you read this. If it's before your first meeting with Earth then I hope that this will help you understand everything. However, if it's after your first meeting with Earth, I just hope that it wasn't traumatic, not for you or him.
Mix I know that all your life you lived in the assumption that ghosts don't exist. But they do, Mix. They always did.
I don't think that my words alone can actually bring you to believe it, but, Mix, all I'm asking is open up yourself to the possibility that there is more to the world than what can be scientifically proven. Not everything needs to have a rational explanation for it to be real. There is a world that can't be explained, it just needs to be accepted.
And Earth is the part of that world, because of me.
Mix, fifty-six years ago a young man died while protecting me and your father.
Fifty-six years ago I made a promise to that man.
The promise of true love.
You are Earth's last hope, Mix. I'm not forcing you to love him, I don't even know if he will love you. All I'm asking is, please open up your heart and your mind to everything, no matter how impossible it may seem.
Please, believe.
I love you, Sahaphap and I know that you will do what is right.
To be continued...
P.S. EarthMix's first interaction.😍 Well...kind of.🤣