A Healing Touch

That morning after they had all eaten breakfast they were sitting around trying to figure out what in the hell they were going to do with their day. Ana was holding Kaila and sitting beside Johnny and her eyes kept moving to the pile of papers that lay on the table in the center of the living room. Willa’s eyes followed hers when she saw her cousin’s gaze.

“Hey what’s that stuff?” Willa asked. Everyone’s eyes landed on the papers.

“They were in the attic at your father’s house.” Leana was the one to say it.

“Have you looked at them?”

“Well no, not yet.”

“Why?” Willa asked.

“Because a lot’s happened since then.” Gena said.

“Well lets look at them then.”

“Willa wait!” Matt said, but it was too late she had opened them. She dropped the papers almost immediately. It was a map of the park she had gone to with her mom when she was little to meet her sister and brother all the time. There were four black X’s on the paper. In different spots that were out of the way of the normal places people would walk. A name was written above each. She began crying really hard. Ana moved Kaila to Johnny’s lap and moved quicker than anyone else to Willa’s side.

“Willa, are you okay?”

“This is… this…”

“We know Willa, it’s one of the reason’s Cara died.”

“There’s something else, something you don’t know.” Willa said tears pouring down her face.

“What Willa?” Ana asked gently.

“Mya told me that when our dad died he told her that she couldn’t sell the house. That she needed to keep it empty. There was a ‘gateway’ he told her. One that something evil had come through. See when Mya was born, she was born at the house, but I guess our dad had some friends over supposedly to cleanse the house for Mya’s birth and they accidentally stumbled upon a gateway or whatever and Mya’s mom died ten minutes after giving birth to Mya. She always blamed her dad. She says that whatever came through that ‘gateway’ got to Hale, who used to sneak out when he was a teenager and break into the old house. Mya wanted nothing to do with that house and Hale told her to sell it. I told them it wasn’t a good idea and they told me that it didn’t matter. I had no say. So they sold it and Cara and her husband moved in. I think you know the story from there.” Ana held Willa as she cried and looked helplessly at the others. She glanced down at the map laying on the table.

“Johnny, do you have a copier?”

“Yeah on my printer… why?”

“Make four copies of that… actually five, I know what we’re gonna do. Nana, you and Megan stay here with Kaila. She’s been having a lot of visions lately, keep an eye on her. The rest of us are gonna do a little searching.”

“Ana this is no way to spend your birthday.” Angelique told her great granddaughter.

“Yes it is, I made a promise to Cara, and I’m gonna come through on it. She wanted my help and I’m gonna give it to her.” Twenty minutes later they were out the door and had split into two vehicles. Five people in each one. When they got to the park Johnny passed out the maps of the park and they looked at them.

“Alright, we’ll break up into groups of two and each take an X.”

“There’s only four.” Willa said glancing at the map in Ana’s hands.

“There’s five, I just seen it. Down in the corner.” Matt said.

“That’s mine and Johnny’s. Look at the name.” Ana said. Everyone glanced at a map. It was Brook. They all agreed with her.

“Alright, lets do this who’s with who?” Johnny asked looking at everyone. Gena moved to Zack, Michelle moved to Brian and Leana moved to Jimmy.

“I guess that leaves me and you Willa, c’mon, we’ll take the one that’s furthest to the other end of the park and apparently the opposite side from where Johnny and Ana will be.”

“We’ll take the one closest to them.” Michelle said pointing to a name and X close to the one Matt had randomly picked. Once the others had decided upon which one they were going to look for and they moved off. They had a plan and hopefully they weren’t going to get caught doing this, because it would look really bad on the guys. Ana held Johnny’s hand as they walked to the other side of the park. It was empty probably because it was ten o’clock on a weekday and all the kids were in school. Michelle, Brian, Willa, and Matt took off in one direction together. As they walked Matt and Michelle looked at one another and then around them.

“Something wrong?” Brian asked them.

“I just thought…” Michelle said and spun around quickly. No one was behind her.

“You felt it too, it wasn’t just me?” Matt asked suddenly seeming to relax about it a little more.

“Yeah… it’s not possible is it?” Michelle responded.

“What’s not possible?” Willa asked looking between the two.

“Val…” Michelle said

“Entirely.”

“Great…” Michelle muttered under her breath, “…and it’s just like her to fuck with us.”

“Yeah hey this is where we split… see that tree.” Brian said and they all nodded taking off in opposite directions. Suddenly Willa found herself alone with Matt and it was quiet. She hadn’t been sneaking into the other’s minds’ but their nervousness and fear had been washing off them in mass amounts. She glanced at the map in Matt’s hands and they pointed to something on it at the same time and Willa got a brief image in her head from last night as their hands touched. She moved her hand quickly.

“I’m gonna look over there…” Willa said and taking the map started looking for something on it to tell them where they were. Matt stood there and started looking for the large group of boulders that had been in the clearing in the map.

“You know some of those landmarks could’ve changed in the past three years, if a tree died or they moved the boulders or something.” Matt called out.

“Yeah, I know, we’ve got to try, this is a big clearing.” She yelled back. Matt sighed as he watched her for a minute, even though he should’ve been looking for some sort of landmark. He was however startled a moment later.

“Hi Matt!” Val said as she popped into existence in front of him.

“What the fuck!!” Matt said when he found himself staring at the ghost of his dead girlfriend. He glanced towards Willa she wasn’t paying attention to anything other than what she was doing.

“Sheesh after everything you’ve been through you didn’t think this was possible?”

“I…you…what are you doing here?”

“Do you really have to ask that question?” Val asked raising an eyebrow.

“Yes”

“I’m here to help… you know he did kill me.”

“Yeah…I…I… should’ve stayed with you at the hospital.” Matt said as he thought back to the day she had been stabbed.

“Matt it’s not your fault. You wouldn’t have been able to stop it.”

“But…you didn’t do anything…”

“I know, but we can’t change it now. They all tried to save me, really they did. It’s no ones fault but his.”

“I miss you…”

“I miss you too…” she reached out like she was going to touch his face then pulled her hand away. “But you’ve got to move on, I can’t come back.”

“I can’t move on Val, I love you too much.”

“Yes you can Matt, you just have to find the right girl.” She glanced briefly in Willa’s direction to where the woman was studying a copy of one of the maps and trying to find a land mark on it. “What about her… she’s cute.” That got Matt’s attention. He moved his eyes from following her gaze to Willa back to Val.

“How long have you been hanging around me?”

“Since you got shot.”

“Not all the time though right… like cos that would be creepy…”

“No Matt not all the time. I was your girlfriend, you should know I’m not a stalker.” She responded rolling her eyes. Now he worried about that.

“What about last night, when we all went out? After Ana kicked some supernatural demon ass?”

“I was there for a little while.”

“…when…” Matt asked groaning.

“Don’t worry… I know you well enough. I knew when it was time to go somewhere else. I think I scared my sister though…” Val said grinning.

“Despite everything that’s hilarious.”

“Ask her out Matt, you like her, she definitely likes you.”

“How do you--” He was cut short as she disappeared. “Hey that’s not fair.”

“What’s not fair?” Willa said and obviously wasn’t watching where she was walking because she tripped over a stick and Matt reacted fast enough to catch her before she hit the ground. He looked up and saw Val smirking at him from a little further off. For some reason he had to smile as he pulled Willa closer to him and didn’t let go.

“Thanks Val” He mouthed in her direction.

“We found it… OH my god is that… was that VAL?” Michelle asked staring at the spot Matt had been staring at.

“Yeah it was and we’re having trouble over here.”

“Look’s like you didn’t find what you were looking for… you found something else.” Brian said noticing that Willa wasn’t complaining about being in his arms. Willa looked up at him.

“You’re dead girlfriend…? She’s the one pushing us together?”

“Actually, I’m just making what was bound to happen, happens faster. Hi Guys!”