Phantom

Chapter 15: Over Trained
I woke up the next morning and tried twisting my leg. I sighed in relief when I successfully twisted my leg back. It wasn’t broken anymore.
“Good morning, my love,” Nathan said happily as he walked into the bedroom with a tray.
I giggled. “Good morning to you, too.”
“How are you feeling?” He asked and set the tray on the bedside table.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” I said indifferently.
“Good. I made you breakfast.”
I sat up and he placed the tray on my lap. I took the tray and set it aside. “Nathan, can I ask you a question?”
Nathans eyebrows pulled up at the center. “Sure.”
“Was there another reason to why you were so reluctant to train me? I don’t know why but I just have this feeling that you don’t like me to be trained. I know it sounds ridiculous but… I don’t know.
“You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to,” I said realizing that I might sound stupid. I took a deep breath. “Time to eat!”
“A couple months before you came along a girl was with us. Her name was Julie Greene.”
I looked at Nathan confused at what he was talking about. I set the tray back down and looked at him with intent eyes.
“Julie Greene was a ghost like us. We had no idea what ghost family she belonged to because there was no way to find out.
“Sarah and I found Julie in an alley way in a small town called Ephrata, Washington. We were searching for you but then Julie’s glow attracted us. She was in her ghost form crying. As she cried the tears created a brilliant colors all around her, reflecting onto the brick walls.
“At first she refused to be helped by us. She said: ‘Get away from me. You say you’ll help me but you’re just like everyone else.’
“‘Just leave her. She said she doesn’t want our help’ Sarah said, irritated.
“‘Don’t be ignorant, Sarah. If someone else finds her like this, we can be exposed. Look at her.’ I turned my attention back to the weeping girl. ‘What’s your name?’ I asked.
“She finally looked up at me. She looked around the age of twelve. ‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ she cried. ‘Please go away.’
“‘Nathan, look at her eyes,’ Sarah whispered.
“I looked back at Julie who was looking at the wall in front of her. I gasped at her dark blue eyes. ‘Julie, come with us, please. We can help you. We know what you’re going through and we can help you.’
“Wait,” I interrupted. “If she was in her ghost form then why were her eyes a dark blue?”
“Oh right, we haven’t told you yet, have we? Well, if a ghost stay’s in their ghost form for too long then their ghost will eventually take over their whole body; the carrier’s soul and spirit is recessive. When this happens, the eye’s gradually turn black and once they’re utterly black, the carrier is gone for good and there will be no way that we know of to retrieve the carrier back and gain control of his or her own body.”
Nathan saw the expression on my face and he quickly added, “But you don’t have to worry. It takes about a month of staying in your ghost form to darken up one hue.”
“That’ a relief,” I said and laughed. “Sorry for interrupting. You may continue.”
Nathan chuckled and picked up from where he left off. “‘That’s what they said, too,’ she hissed in disgust. ‘That’s what they said before they tried to kill me!’ She screamed.
“‘She’s a creep, let’s go!’ Sarah whispered and pulled on my arm.
“‘Julie, I know you’re having problems with what you are but we honestly can help you with that. We can help you gain control of what you are. We can help you go back to your human form,’ I said gently and sincerely. ‘I’m giving you a genuine offer, Julie.’
“Julie deliberated for a moment. ‘If I find out that you aren’t who you claim to be, I will kill you,’ Julie threatened.
“Sarah scoffed.
“‘You don’t have to worry,’ I told the girl. Sarah and I transformed and I took Julie on my back. We ended our search for you in Ephrata and ran back home.
“Keith had a lot of patience with Julie. We had to bring Julie into the white room just so that she wouldn’t break anything else.
“We all gave up on trying to get information out of Julie. We asked her who her parents were, where she came from, who did this to her, and each time she refused to answer.
“It took Julie two day’s to being close to transforming back into her human self. It was like rehab for her. Eventually she was able to transform back and that was when she gave us a little of her trust but not all of it.
“Each night Julie would cry and scream. Julie’s room was right next to mine so it would always wake me up.
“It felt like I was suffering from sleep deprivation and so one night I couldn’t handle it any longer so I went over to her room.
“She was sitting below the window, her knees pulled up to her chest and arms wrapped around legs and her forehead was against her knees. I walked over to her and sat down next to her.
This sounded awfully familiar, I thought to myself.
“‘Julie?’ I whispered. ‘Are you alright?’
“She looked up at me with her caramel colored eyes. ‘Nathan, I can’t control this,’ she cried.
“‘What’re you talking about? You’re doing excellent! You haven’t had an accident in… four days!’
“‘That’s because I try so hard! It’s like I’m holding back a brick wall from falling over. It’s too much pressure!’ She sobbed.
“‘You can do it, Julie! I’m sure you can,’ I encouraged.
“‘I’m not that strong,’ she whispered and shook her head.
“‘That’s what we all though, too but when you just ignore that fact, you can do it.’
“‘You don’t understand. The things they did to me. The things my own parents did to me. Years of stuff like that breaks you down painfully.’
“‘Julie, can you please tell me what they all did to you?’ I begged once again.
“She scrutinized my face and searched for sincerity and trust. She looked back down and fiddled with her fingers.
“‘It all started with my parents,’ she started. ‘I was an only child and we were a happy family living in the suburbs of Anacortes, Washington. We were the kind of family that was all about image.”
“‘That sounds familiar,’ I mumbled to myself.
“‘Everything about us had to be perfect. Perfect house, perfect car, perfect clothes, perfect family, perfect this, and perfect that. Some people envied our lifestyle and some people thought it was stuck up. We didn’t care as long as they knew we were better than them. We weren’t allowed to show any emotion other than happiness outside of the house. It was forbidden I guess you can say.’
“‘I was eight when everything changed,’ she said. Her voice dropped down to a whisper. She took in a deep breath of air and sighed it out. ‘Can I just skip that part? It’s really hard to… think about it and even harder talking about it.’
“Although I wanted to know what happened, I had to respect her wishes. ‘Sure.’
“Wait, Nathan,” I interrupted. “What does this have to do with me training?”
Nathan chuckled lightly. “I’m getting there.”
I nodded my head. “You may continue.”
“‘After the incident, our reputation caught fire and burned to ashes. People looked down on us. People despised us. My parents put the blame on me as did myself. I wasn’t sure what happened or how I did it but I was positive I was the main root to having four children…’ She exploded into tears and threw her arms around me. ‘I didn’t mean to do that. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,’ she repeated. ‘I didn’t mean to kill them,’ she cried.
“My eyes widened at what she said. ‘It’s alright, Julie. As long as it was a mistake.’
“‘Nathan, I told them to go jump off a bridge!’ She cried. ‘But I didn’t mean it. Everyone explodes at times.’
“‘I know you didn’t mean it,’ I said and rubbed her arm.
“‘Then they came along,’ she hissed in disgust.
“‘Julie, you don’t have to tell me the rest if you don’t want to.’
“‘I already started so I should finish it.’ She inhaled then exhaled to calm herself down.
“‘They came knocking on my door one day. All four of them. They asked to speak with my parents who told me to go upstairs while they spoke with the visitors in the living room. I wanted to know what they were saying so I decided to eavsdrop.
“‘They said that they knew what I was and they were able to help me. They said there was a new cure for what I was and I would be the first to try it out.
“‘I was ecstatic at that fact and I was ready to do whatever they told me to. My parents-without hesitation-sent me off with them. They told me to pack all of my clothes because I might be with them for a while.
“‘I fell asleep on the way to the ‘laboratory’ so they called it. I woke up in a humongous, bright white room, a smile on my lips. I looked around the place and there was nothing in the room other than me and the bed hospital bed I was fully chained to….’
“I looked over at her and there was a tear running down her cheek. ‘We can just end it off there,’ I said.
“‘No! I’m not finished. A women looked around the age of twenty-five with dark brown hair and tan skin came over to me and stood right above me so that I was able to see her face. I asked her what was going on and she told me to shut up. I was going to ask what was going on but my mouth wouldn’t open. I stared at her wide-eyed.
“‘I struggled vigorously to get out of the bed and the girl called for a man named ‘Carlos’. He walked over to me and looked at me in the eye. Suddenly I was unconscious.
“‘When I woke up once again. I was in a hole,’ she whispered. ‘I felt like an animal. I didn’t have to be a genius to know that they weren’t going to help me. I screamed and pounded on the cement wall. Above me was iron bars. Eventually, I transformed which led the same women to step above my whole and look down on me. She put another one of her mental control spells over me and told me that I was going to stay that way forever and while I was with them, I was that way. There was no way I was able to transform back and I couldn’t fight it. Each day I spent like that, I felt like I was losing myself…. Once a week they would throw in some random person…. They said that they were what I was going to feed off of and they were right. I absorbed the persons life right before their eyes. I didn’t mean to, Nathan! I couldn’t control it. I killed three people….
“‘Then one day, I broke through. I… killed one of them. A young man with the name of ‘Tyler’. He was my guard but he was a weak guard. He didn’t have a powerful power like the rest. I told him to go die and he just collapsed and never got back up.
“‘I made a successful escape. I was surprised to find that I was locked up in a house all along that rested between two hills and not to far away there was a lake. I ran as far as I could but I was so exhausted so I decided to rest in an alley way inside a dumpster. When I woke up, I was still a ghost so I started to cry. And that’s when you and Sarah found me. Ever since then, I’ve been able to keep one form but it’s still a struggle everyday.’
“‘Don’t cry,’ I told her. ‘They aren’t going to get near you ever again.’ I squeezed her in my arms.
“‘That’s not why I’m crying,’ she said and chuckled, wiping a tear away. ‘I’m crying because I found all of you. Just now, I realized that as long as I’m with you all, there is a chance for me. Nathan, you’re like a big brother to me. You are the first person I’ve ever trusted in a while.’
“We sat there for a while talking to each other about our interest and trying not to bring up Julies past. I told her about my life back home in Boston and how I kept the secret from my parents. Throughout that night, we gained each others full trust.
“The next day was Julie’s training day and she was determined to gain as much control as possible. We were all in the white room and I was standing right beside Julie.
“‘It’s okay,’ I chanted. ‘You will be able to transform. Don’t worry. What happened to all your courage?’
“‘You’re right,’ she said and took a deep breath of air. ‘I can do this.’
“‘Are you ready, Julie?’ Keith asked from across the room.
“‘Yeah,’ she responded confidently.
“‘I’m going to back away from you now, alright?’ I whispered.
“She nodded her head once then shut her eyes. I watched as she struggled to transform like always. It was an improvement when she got through eight times without exploding in anger.
“Keith told Julie to catch him as he ran around the room, haywire. Julie was very powerful. It didn’t take long for her to get right on Keiths tail.
“‘Nathan, join us,’ Keith said. I sent out a wave to locate the two and once I found them, I chased after Julie. I caught up with her and grabbed her by the ankles, sending her falling to the ground. I numbed both her legs.
“‘C’mon, Julie!” Keith called.
“She struggled to stand up but each endeavor ended in a fall. ‘Come here and help me up, Nathan,’ she grumbled.
“I walked over to her robotically and helped her up.
“‘Thank you,’ she said.
“Suddenly, I regained control of my body. ‘You’re good,’ I said and chuckled.
“She smiled and gave me a good kick on my gut and sent me flying and slamming into a wall.
“‘Why don’t you come over here and fight, Sarah?’ Julie taunted.
“Sarah walked over to Julie in the same fashion as I when I was under Julies hypnotism.
“You see, Sarah is like a cat when she fights. The reason you’ve never seen her in training is because things can get pretty ugly,” Nathan told me.
“I kind of figured that out a long time ago when I saw that huge dent in the wall that was the shape of her,” I responded and laughed.
“Sarah quickly ran to Julies side, took her by the shoulder and threw her across the room,” Nathan continued. “She then ran to where Julie laid unconscious, picked her up and flung her to the ceiling.
“‘Sarah! Stop!’ I yelled and tackled Sarah, pining her to the ground. Sarah grabbed me by my neck then threw me off of her. I became light headed due to the fact that she grabbed on my neck too hard. I laid on the ground with my blurry vision as I watched Keith struggle to get Sarah to stop beating Julie up. By this time, Julie was infuriated. Julie ran at Sarah, stuck her foot out and sent her flying to a wall, Keith who was behind Sarah, restraining her became unconscious as he was sandwiched between the cement wall and the hypnotized girl.
“I got my strength back and went after Sarah to try to stop her from fighting with Julie. Their battle was much more intense than before and it frightened me to even get in between them but I had to. I caught up with Sarah, grasped her around her waist and dug my feet into the ground. The heels of my feet were being dragged against the cement floor as Sarah fought and chased Julie. Sarah finally realized that I was trying to restrain her so she pulled elbow forward and swung it back into my face and sent me flying. I became unconscious as well.
“I eventually woke up but when I did, the whole room was dark. I couldn’t see where I was and couldn’t find the light switch. I looked around the room and far off in the room was a faint glowing of what looked like Julie sitting against a wall. I stood up unsteadily and walked over to her, holding my head to try to keep my balance. It felt like a long way.
“‘Julie,’ I whispered. Her eyes wer shut and her glow was dull. She sat against the wall in a debilitated way. She didn’t make any movement when I said her name so I got worried. ‘Julie,’ I repeated and knelt down right beside her. I held her head up with my right hand and felt her neck with fingers on my left hand to find a pulse. Luckily, she was still alive but she wasn’t responding so I knew something was wrong. I picked her up in my arms and tried to find my way out of the room by feeling on the walls.
“‘Nathan,’ Julie mumbled.
“‘Don’t speak. I’m going to get help, Julie. Just hang on.’
“‘I’m fine,’ she mumbled.
“‘It’ll be okay. I’m going to bring you to a hospital and everything will be all better.’
“‘Nathan, put me down. I’m fine.’
“‘You’re incoherent. You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ I said and kept walking.
“‘Nothing hurts,’ she mumbled in the same monotone voice. ‘As a matter of fact, I don’t feel anything.’ This time her voice was a bit higher. She tried to sound optimistic.
“I stopped walking and looked down at her. ‘You don’t feel anything?’ I asked, worried.
“‘Not a thing.’
“‘Julie, can you move your arm?’ I asked.
“Her eyes were still on me and I waited for her to raise her arm by the slightest bit.
“‘No,’ she whispered. This time, there was distress in her voice. She grunted and exhaled. ‘I can’t more anything, Nathan,’ she mumbled. ‘I think I’m just tired though. Really tired.’ I didn’t notice it, but her glow was as dull as ever now. I looked into her eyes and they were a pale, light cyan color, nearly white. I tried not to show any emotion that would frighten her so I continued walking, this time a bit faster.
“‘Nathan, you will always be a big brother to me,’ she whispered. ‘I’m glad I came with you and Sarah the day you two found me in the alley.’
“I kept walking and feeling my way against the wall. ‘We’ll talk about this later, Julie. Right now I have to get us out of here.’
“‘I love you, Nathan,’ she whispered.
“‘I love you, too, Julie. Now don’t speak. Save your strengh.’
“I finally found the door out of the room and I ran right into the office room. Julie didn’t talk the rest of the way and I looked down at her to see if she was alright. There she lay in my arms, limp. She was transformed back into human but her eyes were pure white and she was staring off into space. She never woke up.’”
A tear slid down my cheek as I watched Nathan wipe away his. I bent over and gave him a hug.
“You remind me of Julie in some ways,” He said. “You’re powers are nearly similar with the use of post-hypnotic command, the way you both didn’t trust us at first, the way that in the beginning you both thought you were hopeless. And you both kind of look alike. Whenever I see you in that white room, the incident on what happened with Julie plays at the back of my head. When I trained you, I made sure to not get you to angry because you might say something you don’t mean and I might-”
“That’s enough, Nathan,” I said, stopping him. “I would never do anything that stupid. I love you, remember that. I know that you’re looking out for me but I know how to watch myself. I know right from wrong, I know how how to keep my abilities in check, I know how to carry my own luggage, and I know how to make my own breakfast. You’re worrying yourself by worrying about me.”
“Maybe you’re right,” he said and chuckled.
“You are so stubborn,” I sighed and laughed.