I'll Wait Here for You in My Time of Dying

Lesia’s P.O.V

“What do you mean?”

I rolled my eyes a little as I looked at Matt. I rubbed my hands over my face and slumped to the side slightly, so I could curl my legs beneath me.

“For the last couple of weeks since you’ve been seeing Taylor I...” I shook my head, feeling like a complete bitch for the words that were about to come out of my mouth.

“You?” Matt prompted, sighing as I shook my head once more. “Lesia, please.”

“I’m a complete bitch for even thinking it,” I muttered.

“Thinking what?”

I lifted my gaze and looked at Matt, sniffing and then looking away from him as I finally admitted my feelings out loud.

“It’s not fair that you get to get on with your life and I have...I have this,” I gestured to myself. “I’m a ghost and I have no idea what I’m doing. I don’t know how to move on or whatever the fuck it is that I’m supposed to be doing. I’m just stuck. And...you’re the only person to ever have seen me before and when you began to move on and live your life...I...”

I chewed at my lip and sniffed as I felt my eyes fill up with tears again. I blinked letting the tears fall and looked at Matt.

“I’m lonely again and I hate it,” I told him quietly. “But I hate myself more because I’m so happy for you but I hate watching from the sidelines. I want to be part of life or I want to be dead. I hate that I’m hovering between both.”

I watched as Matt raised a hand before it fell, defeated, back to his side. I shrugged a little bit and swept some of my hair away from my face, feeling my hand nudge the hat on my head.

“I don’t know...seeing you and Taylor together just...it makes me miss him so much more,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around me.

“Who?”

I looked at Matt and realised that I’d never actually told him about Tyler. I sniffed and held up my left hand, wiggling my ring finger a little. Matt’s eyes widened as he saw the engagement ring sitting there and I looked at it myself, feeling a small tear in my heart as I thought about Tyler.

“I was engaged to a man named Tyler Jacobs.”

“What happened? Where is he now?”

I shrugged and lowered my hand. “I don’t know. In all the time I’ve been dead, he’s never come to the house. All our stuff was taken by our families.”

Matt’s brow furrowed a little bit. “What did he do?”

“He was in the army,” I explained. “Three months before I died, Tyler had to go overseas and it ripped me apart to be honest.”

“I don’t want you to go,” I cried as Tyler pressed his lips to my forehead.

“I don’t want to go either but I have to,” he replied softly.

I shook my head and circled his wrists with my fingers.

“Please,” I pleaded as I rose my water gaze to meet his. “Please don’t go.”

Tyler’s brow furrowed and I could see that I was tearing him apart. He ducked his head down and pressed his lips to mine, brushing them against mine once or twice before kissing me hard. I parted my lips, taking everything about this kiss that I could, not knowing when I’d be able to kiss him again.

“I love you so much Lesia,” he whispered against my lips.

I sniffed and nodded. “I love you too.”

“When I get back,” he smiled and picked up my hand. “We’ll get married, I promise. We’ll have a nice big wedding and then we can get started on that nice big family.”

I chuckled through my tears and smiled, regardless of the pain ripping through me. We both looked over Tyler’s shoulder as a honk resonated through the air. I bit my lip as I looked at the bus that all these men were walking on to.

“I’ll come home to you, I promise,” Tyler assured me, kissing me one last time before picking up his bag and going over to the bus.

I bit my lip and wrapped my arms around myself as I watched the bus take them all away. Taking away my fiancé and taking him towards a fate unknown. For the millionth time since it started, I hated this war with every fibre of my body.

“I’ll be waiting,” I whispered as the bus disappeared from view.

“Well...” Matt cleared his throat and I looked at him. “Maybe that’s why you’re still here?”

“What do you mean?”

Matt shrugged and ran his hand over his face. “Maybe it’s like unfinished business. You told him you’d be waiting so maybe that’s what it is. You’re waiting for him still.”

I stared at Matt for a second, not sure if I believed him or not. I mean, stories always suggested that it was ‘unfinished business’ that kept spirits in the living world but was my promising to wait for Tyler really ‘unfinished business’?

“I don’t know,” I sighed, feeling myself fade away from view completely.

Matt’s P.O.V

I groaned a little as I woke up, not really wanting to face the rest of the day because I knew that the moment I woke up I’d need to tidy my house. And that was something I really didn’t want to have to do. I was also feeling a little guilty.

When Lesia told me last night how she’d been feeling, it hit me that I had kind of dropped her since I’d been seeing Taylor. I’d definitely left the little world that I’d created for myself away from everyone else and had ventured forth more, something that everyone was very happy about. Everything that I’d been doing in the past two weeks had made me almost forget Lesia...well not forget her, just taken my time away from being able to just sit around and talk to her.

And I felt awful about it.

I pulled myself out of bed and sluggishly walked through to the bathroom before showering, the quicker I sorted out the house the more time I’d have to talk to Lesia. Once I was ready for the day I went downstairs and outwardly huffed at the state of my house. It hadn’t seemed this bad last night...but then again, I’d also been a little bit drunk last night so I may have just neglected to take in how untidy everything was.

“I’m here to help,” was suddenly sung through my help and I looked over to the front door as Sarah walked through, grinning stupidly at me.

I rolled my eyes but nodded nonetheless. I wasn’t about to turn down help.

“Johnny Christ,” Sarah chuckled as she glanced around my kitchen and then peered outside. “Did we make all this mess last night?”

I nodded, not wanting to say that most of the upturned furniture was in fact down to Lesia. Sarah clapped and put her bag down beside the front door, turning to look at me though her attention was taken by the shattered remains of my coffee table that I had shoved a bit more into my living room.

“Oh ho!” Sarah laughed. “What happened here? You and Taylor get a bit too frisky after the rest of us left last night?”

“Do you really want to know the answer to that?”

Sarah looked at me then at the coffee table and then back at me, the second time with a disgusted look on her face.

“No, not really.”

I shook my head and laughed as I walked over to Sarah, slinging an arm around her shoulders as she stared up at me.

“That wasn’t me and Taylor...that was down to Lesia,” I admitted.

“Huh?”

I shrugged and looked around the room. “She got a bit angry with me last night and went all poltergeist on me.”

Sarah looked at me in interest and slowly nodded as she looked around the room before looking at me with a small frown.

“How the hell did you manage to piss her off? Dear Lord Matt. Only you would be able to piss women off who are beyond the grave!”

I shoved her to the side as she snickered a little at me and decided to start clearing things up. Sarah chewed on her lip as she watched me for a second before disappearing and then returning with a bin bag.

“So, you going to tell me what you did?”

“It was more what I wasn’t doing?”

“And that means...?” Sarah trailed off and started putting things in the bin bag.

I sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve been all social with you lot and kind of forgot about Lesia, which I do feel guilty about so you don’t have to make me feel guilty.”

Sarah held her hands up in defence, a sneaky smirk on her lips. “Like I’d do that.”

I scoffed. “You would.”

“Only when you deserve it,” she pointed out innocently. “So, what was it? Like her emotions triggering things to happen?”

I nodded and began to collect up the bits of my coffee table. “Pretty much.”

“Interesting,” Sarah muttered.

I didn’t say anything in return and instead went into the kitchen to get another bin bag before running back into the living room as Sarah sort of half squeaked and half screamed.

“What?” I asked, as she had sounded genuinely scared.

Sarah looked at me wide-eyed for a second before staring down at the floor. I followed her gaze and my brow furrowed as I noticed a picture frame face down. I walked over and picked it up, turning it over to see a picture of Lesia and a man, who I presumed was Tyler considering that they were kissing in it. I looked up and over at Sarah who had sunk down onto the couch and was looking a little pale. I looked to the doorway as something flickered and saw Lesia standing there, a single tear falling down her cheek.

“Sorry,” she muttered and then faded from view.

I took a breath and looked over at my sister. “You okay there?”

She slowly nodded and looked at me. “I just wasn’t expecting a picture frame to float on into the room and then fall to the floor.”

I chuckled and walked over to her, sinking down beside her with the picture still in my hands. Sarah peered down at the picture and pointed at the girl.

“Isn’t that the girl who used to live here?”

I nodded and passed her the frame. “Lesia’s sorry she scared you.”

Sarah shrugged and smiled at me. “It’s kind of cool to be honest. My first proper ghostly experience.”

I rolled my eyes as she grinned cheekily before she looked back down at the picture.

“Who’s that?” She asked, pointing at Tyler.

“That is why I think Lesia is still here.”