One Dare, One Weekend

[Sleipnir]

He took a breath in, leering at all four. To him, they hardly seemed like people. Shannon backed up, watching Blake and looking dumbfounded at the girl's willingness to try and get through to this ghost. Jason seemed to be in about the same boat, shocked that she'd even thought about the possibility.


Then he looked at Blake again. "Why would you want to?" He asked, his tone significantly less threatening. "All this time I've been here and all anyone wanted to do was either show proof I was here or just get out. None ever did." He paused again. He wasn't really one for company, but this girl's attitude was so far removed from what he was used to that he was compelled to give her some sort of chance. He was used to Cole's reactions and have him a glare that could frighten a viper when he spoke. But he looked at Blake again, waiting for an answer.

 

[minokawa]

Cole shrank back again, trying to hold his whimpers in.


"I... I don't know," she stammered, answering with honesty. "It just feels right. You're... Well, no offense intended, but you're dead. You shouldn't be stuck here, you know. Confined to this space, so dank and dark and... lonely. It'd drive me nuts, I tell you," she said. "I... I'm sorry that's all anyone ever wanted to get out of you and your lighthouse." She hoped the ghost could feel that she meant the apology sincerely.


"You don't deserve to be stuck to this world. No one does. I know I've been here for a shorter time than you, but 16 years is all anyone needs to know that this world is fucked up." She looked him straight in the eye, her expression soft. "You deserve peace."

 

[Sleipnir]

Bael scoffed. Again, he was almost at a loss. He then turned and head turned to the building. "I don't think you understand. I worked here in life. I love this place. It isn't as if I don't want to be here," he said, then turned back around, back to looking terribly hostile. "It's that I don't like uninvited guests. And that's why even the most innocent of them die. You say your world is a mess — yeah, it is. And that's why I don't want it in here."

 

[minokawa]

Blake looked on, her vague understanding etched on her face.


"What else do you love?" she asked tentatively. A silence spread between them. She broke it with her own answer, "I love the skies. The colors the sunset and the sunrise paint on them. How sometimes, the stars look so close I could reach up and touch them but no matter how far I reach and stretch for them, I can never even so much as lay a finger on them. And if I could, I don't think I'd ever dare make the slightest change to its little perfection. I love the afternoons by the edge of the forest behind my house. I love the excited barking I hear from inside my house whenever I come home. I love my dog and how she stares at me like I'm the world to her. I love my dad's farm and his animals and getting to call them all by name. I love the smell of the fire in the hearth, the crackling that comes from it, and the little shred of warmth I used to get when my dad used to sit on the couch with me. I love my dad.


"If I died and I stayed in my dad's farm, I'd still get to see the skies painted in those sunset and sunrise hues. I'd still get to see the stars and reach out in vain to touch them. I could still enjoy afternoons at the forest's edge behind my house. Maybe I could even get to see my dog for a while. Maybe I could even get a fire going and enjoy the smell. But I'd never get to see my dad. Not if I stayed here."


She was looking out one of the grimy, blackened windows, at the stars beginning to appear in the sky. "Surely," she said, "Surely there's someone out there waiting for you. Waiting. And waiting. How much longer, the must wonder," she trailed.

 

[Sleipnir]

He scoffed, looking almost disappointed or maybe sad as she spoke. He looked away a moment, listening to her answer, then turned back once she finished. "I love nothing else," he replied. "I have nothing else. Just the lake and the lighthouse." Then his voice rose more than a touch. "Everything else is dead."

 

[minokawa]

"What is everything else then?" she asked. "You have nothing else but the lake and the light house in the living plane of existence, but what about everything else?"

 

[Sleipnir]

Suddenly, Bael was shouting. "Everything else was everything I lived for! Nothing else mattered, and what it was is not for you to know!" Again objects flew across the room, crashing violently.

 

[minokawa]

Blake and Cole ducked, Cole's hands shaking and his knuckles turning white at the strength with which he pulled on his hood. They sat there like that for a while, waiting for it to stop; it seemed like ages. Blake sucked in a breath to steady herself. Finally silence fell. Blake looked up at the ghost to see if he had anything to add.

 

[Sleipnir]

Bawl looked around the group, then, suddenly, he took Blake by the collar of her shirt and dragged her into a conjoining room, the door slamming shut behind him. It was pitch dark in there until he lit the lamps.


Shannon gasped, standing up. "Oh my god! Oh my god!!" she looked at the others, panicked. "He's going to kill her! He's going to kill us one at a time!"

 

[minokawa]

Cole rocked back and forth helplessly. "This is it. We're done. We're done and I'll never get to see another Avengers movie again."


Blake blinked, her eyes taking time to adjust to the lighting. She tried to keep her thoughts steady.


"So... I'm going to assume you didn't bring me here to just sit and chit-chat, huh?" she asked. The word death skittered through her mind. She looked around at her surroundings, assessing the situation.

 

[Sleipnir]

(Cole's got his priorities straightened out. Good job, Cole.)


Bael scowled and sat down on a chair across the room. He was quiet for several long seconds, as though he was trying to decide what exactly he was planning to do and say. Then he turned his sharp gaze into her. "Not quite," he told her. He hesitated, then frowned and told her. "No one ever asked questions. Why do you ask questions?"