//cooper//
The ride to Luke's was awkward with just me and Michael in the car. Michael was supposed to go back and pick up everyone else after he brought me to Luke's. I didn't really know what to say, not just to Michael but in general. I had to fake dead in front of my parents. Could I do that?
"You okay, Cooper?" Michael wondered, glancing at me from behind the wheel. He had one hand on the wheel and the other resting on the armrest between us. "You're really quiet."
"I just don't know how I'm supposed to face my parents." I said quietly.
He chuckled, "At least you don't have to act like you're having a mental breakdown in front of them."
I knew he was just trying to lighten the mood but it didn't help. Not only that, but was it really so hard for him to get upset over thinking that I'm actually gone? "You'll figure something out."
"You know, there are only two times I've ever freaked out really bad." he told me casually.
I looked over at him, "When?"
"After I woke up when Calum brought me back and then the night Mali-Koa killed you." he said, staring out the windshield.
"What about when Annie moved or when she started dating Marcus?" I wondered.
He just shrugged, "Those weren't huge deals, I guess. I mean, I could still see her if she moved and I knew she'd have to move on eventually. But when I woke up I was so confused and frustrated and- I felt like how you felt when you found out Jeremy told your parents. I couldn't see mine anymore because they knew about the crash. Then with you, you're one of my best friends, Cooper. I didn't want you to be gone and I was scared because Mali did all of that and it just- It was scary, okay."
That sparked an idea, "What if Calum listened to Ashton and didn't bring me back?"
"Don't talk like that, Cooper." Michael said sharply.
"What if I was just six feet under like everyone else?" I continued. "I don't think any of this would've happened anyway. Sure, we'd probably still be having a funeral but Ashton wouldn't have run off with Mali-Koa-"
"Bridgette, seriously." he said a little louder.
I realized I wasn't making him upset -- well, I was but angry-upset, not sad-upset. I had to get him thinking about me dying because I'd never seen him cry except then.
"Stop the car!" I shouted, pressing my hands to the dashboard.
Michael slammed on the breaks and stared at me like I was crazy, "What?"
The stop sign that Michael first brought me to was just in front of us, "Turn left."
"What, why?"
"Do it."
He grumbled something under his breath before continuing to the intersection and turning left like I told him. There wasn't anything down here but it probably looped around to a main road. I told him to stop the car again and I opened the door.
"Hit me with the car." I told him as I got out.
He grabbed my wrist and yanked me back in, "I'm sorry, what the fuck is wrong with you?"
"You got upset when I was dying so maybe if it looks like I'm dead again, you'll be able to go to my parents and-"
"You're crazy.'" he stated with a harsh laugh.
"But it'll work," I told him. "Don't hit me enough to kill me again, just to like, knock me out. I'll wake up a few seconds after anyway. But it'll put a fresh image in your head."
He rolled his eyes, "Whatever, Crazy."
I shut the door and stood a few yards down the road in front of the car. I gave the thumbs up and nodded when I was ready before squeezing my eyes shut and bracing for the impact. I felt it at first but then I felt nothing.
-
//michael//
I slammed on the breaks right before hitting her, hoping maybe I'd stop because I actually didn't want to hit her. Instead, the car skidded and ran straight into her. I didn't feel anything bump so I didn't think I actually ran her over. I got out of the car after she slammed into the windshield and fell to the ground.
She looked like an even bigger mess than before as she laid sprawled out on the road. I fucking knew it was a bad idea but I knew she wasn't going to shut up about it. I knelt down beside her, taking off the flannel I had over my shirt and used it to elevate her head.
"Cooper," I called, patting her cheek with my hand. "Cooper, wake up."
There was no response. A couple seconds went by and she didn't wake up like she said she would.
"Cooper, c'mon, we need to get going." I told her.
I knew I hadn't hit her hard enough to kill her again -- she would've disappeared and reappeared on Calum's back porch -- but she still wasn't waking up and that scared me anyway.
"Cooper, please," I begged and waited for a response. I was really starting to get frantic. What if I had managed to do some sort of damage to her? She was a ghost but she could still get hurt. "Bridgette, this isn't funny, please get up."
My stomach was in fucking knots and it felt like I would throw up if I could. I knew I'd definitely done something to her. Maybe her insides were fucked up or she hit her head too hard and she was going to have brain damage or something. Could ghosts get brain damage? With Cooper's luck, probably.
"Fuck, Bridgette, please," my voice broke when I said "please". Her plan worked but at a terrible fucking cost. What if I actually hit her so hard that I managed to kill her kill her. What if she was really fucking dead now.
I scooped her up, not bothering to take my flannel, and went to lay her in the backseat of the car. I didn't want to call Ashton and tell her -- he'd have my ass -- but I didn't want to go into Luke's house to tell him, Calum, and Mrs. Hood that Bridgette wasn't just faking and that she might actually be completely gone.
I put the car in drive and drove as fast as I could to Hemmo's place. I parked the car, got out, and ran inside. I couldn't just run in with Bridgette's parents there as I carried her dead -- maybe more so than before -- body in my arms. I found the group sitting in the living room talking when I came in. Luke looked up first which made everyone else turn their heads my way.
"Michael?" Bridgette's mom sniffed. Her eyes were red and puffy and she was holding a tissue. "Are you okay?"
I felt the tears running down my face and Calum, Luke, and Mama Hood looked at me with real concern -- they knew I was a good liar but I wasn't this good, "I found Bridgette."
Mrs. Cooper put a hand to her mouth and Mr. Cooper stood immediately, "Where is she?"
"I found her on the side of the road," I tried to explain, the memory of her body hitting the car flooding into my head and just making me feel even worse. "I put her in the backseat of the car."
"I want to see her," Mrs. Cooper requested quietly. "I want to see my baby."
I didn't know what they'd done with Jeremy's body or if maybe he was still upstairs somewhere, so I didn't know what they planned on doing with Bridgette's once they'd seen her, "Luke, Cal, give me a hand?" They nodded and got up to follow me. Once we were outside, I quickly brought them to the car and turned to face them. "Is it possible to re-kill someone. Like, permanently."
"Yeah, plenty of ways." Calum nodded.
"No, but like, could someone hit a ghost so hard with a car, for example, that the ghost actually dies for good?" I re-worded it, talking quickly as I tried to get rid of the water on my face.
Calum scrunched his eyebrows together, "Why?"
I opened the car door to show Bridgette's body. Bruises were already forming all over it and she looked paler than when we left Calum's.
Luke whacked my arm, "What the hell did you do to her?"
"I hit her with the car; she told me to!" I cried, trying not to be loud because I didn't want the Coopers hearing me.
"Calm down, I think she's fine." Calum said, trying to sound sure of himself.
"You think?" I repeated. "That's not the same as knowing, Calum!"
"Look, Jeremy's body is still upstairs-" I cringed at that. Who would want a dead body in the same house as them unless everyone else was already dead too, "-and there's a person on their way to grab him. They'll take Bridgette at the same time and we'll follow the car without them knowing. We knock out the people that will ready the bodies for the funeral and see if Bridgette wakes up then. If she doesn't, we'll bring her to my mom."
"But there's still a chance you might've killed her." Luke added and I punched him in the shoulder.
-
//ashton//
Michael came back to get us and he looked really upset but he also wouldn't say anything. The ride over, he made me drive instead while he sat in the backseat and laid his head on Annie's shoulder. I really wanted to know what was up with him. Was he really so bothered by pretending Bridgette was actually dead?
When we got there, Bridgette's and Jeremy's bodies had already been picked up, and Calum had excused himself and Michael to go follow the car that took them. The people who had to prepare the bodies couldn't actually do that since Jeremy and Bridgette weren't actually dead.
Being at Luke's was really depressing so I was kind of happy when the Coopers said they were going to go back to their hotel. Everyone said their goodbyes before they left and then we just continued to sit in Luke's living room while watching TV. It felt good to be back, actually.
But only an hour or so later, Calum was calling my phone. I answered and I could hear Michael swearing profusely at him in the background, "What's wrong with Michael?"
"We need you to come down here." he said with a tired sigh.
"Why, what's up?" I asked. It wasn't that I didn't have a problem going there to see Cooper but we planned on Calum bringing them back.
What he said next would've made my heart stop if it had been beating: "Bridgette's not waking up."
-
I wanted to bring Luke with me but I felt like he needed to stay there and watch for any ghost hunters wandering around so I left by myself instead. I showed up at the address Calum texted me and walked inside. The place was full of dead bodies in those drawer/cabinet things but Bridgette's was the only one on the table. Jeremy was already up and cleaned and he was staring down at his sister with pure worry.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "I thought she was just faking. It's like sleeping, why isn't she waking up?"
"She told Michael to hit her with the car so it would be more real." Calum told me.
Michael was in the back of the room pacing as he ran his hands through his white hair. I didn't even bother with him, I just stood by Bridgette's body and looked at her. It looked like she was sleeping. The scars and scratches that we'd put on her skin earlier were gone since we'd used makeup effects but most of her body was covered in giant bruises.
"Is she...is sh-she-" I couldn't even ask it. I didn't want to ask if she was actually dead because I didn't even want it to be considered as a possibility.
"I don't know," Calum said. "My mom's on her way and she's going to find out."
"Who's going to watch your sister in case she gets out?" I wondered, peeling my eyes away from Cooper.
"Mom called Annie over to hold the fort down."
Most of the waiting consisted of us pacing, watching Cooper, or trying to talk to her to get her to wake up -- I'd even tried telling her to wake up but that didn't work either. I didn't even think it was possible to kill a ghost like you'd kill a person. One time Jeremy pushed me down a flight of stairs which should've killed a normal person but I just woke up where I originally died in the first place. I didn't think that if I hit those stairs hard enough that I'd die for good. I didn't think this could happen.
Joy showed up about twenty minutes later carrying a bag probably full of witch stuff. Michael finally moved from the corner and came to stand by the table with the rest of us but wouldn't make eye contact with anyone. She shooed us aside before she set her bag down next to Cooper and got to work. She looked like a doctor as she tried to use different things to wake Cooper up or see if there was any sign she was alive -- how did you tell if a ghost was still okay? After ten minutes of no movement from Cooper, Joy turned around to face the four of us.
"This is something I've never seen in my eighty-three years of studying black magic," she said, lacing her hands together in front of her. I completely forgot that Calum's mom was immortal and stopped aging a while ago. "Apparently, the impact of the car matched with the force that Bridgette's head hit the concrete was able to do some damage."
"Only some?" I asked hopefully.
"Ashton, darling, I'm sorry. Bridgette's dead; actually dead."