Ghost of You

I watched as the rain clouds began to pool together overhead. I sighed, looking back down again at the faded rock that made up Bill's tombstone.

“I don't know why you're doing this,” I said out loud, knowing no one was around to hear me. “I don't know why you're ignoring me. I don't understand what that last comment you made before you disappeared is supposed to mean. I don't know why you showed me that vision. I also don't know why I'm talking out loud like this.”

I hesitated, waiting. I thought that maybe coming to his grave like this would make him show. I glanced around, listening as the leaves of the oak tree behind his grave rustled in the breeze.

“Bill,” I sighed, squatting down on top of his grave. “Please?”

I reached out and gently ran the tips of my fingers back and forth across the top of the cracked tombstone. Slowly I let my hand trail down the front, brushing over the word “twin” etched into the stone.

“Look out!”

A blinding pain rushed through my skull as the words pounded in my ears. I fell back, my head thumping against the grass. I blinked a few times, trying to clear the black dots parading around in my vision. I put my hand on my forehead, leaving it there for a few minutes as the pain throbbed in my head.

“What the hell?” I said to myself breathlessly as I sat back up, rubbing the back of my head and wincing.

That's when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him. I did a double-take, trying to make sure my eyes weren't tricking me, trying to make sure he was real. I felt my breath hitch in my throat, my heart doing a marathon in my chest. I couldn't breathe. I was frozen to the grass underneath me. I let out a blood-curling scream, stumbling as I tried to pick myself up.

My feet felt like weights as I hurried around the gated entrance to the graveyard. I could hear him rushing up behind me, his feet pounding down against the cobblestone and out onto the sidewalk behind me. I kept running, my blood pumping in my ears, the pain of the headache from the graveyard dull but still present in the back of my mind.

Before I could register what was happening, the black heap of my former house slowly rose up to greet me.

“Miss Stephan!” I screamed for my neighbor, watching as she peeled her eyes away from the darkening sky to smile at me.

“Tom!” Miss Stephan called back, waving.

Nearly tripping as I dashed over the curb and up onto her lawn, I doubled over, my side searing in pain, as I started gasping for breath.

“Tom, good heavens, is everything alright?” she asked, peering around the yard.

“G-G-G,” I stuttered, trying to get his name out as I gasped for more air.

“Spit it out, boy!” she cried.

“Gor-Gordon. In the graveyard. In the grave...”

“Tom!” Miss Stephan screamed as everything went black.

“It's going to be okay. Don't worry. Relax now.”