Fall Away

“Hey, um, Lex, can you like come out?” Jack asked into the empty air of his room. He had gotten home just minutes ago after his friends dragged him to the mall for hours. Not once did the golden-haired boy reappear, but Jack knew he had to be nearby. “L-Lex, I’m sorry you had to hear that, okay? Nobody needs to hear what happened to them. I just, I thought you knew already.”

To say that Jack was worried was an underestimate. Jack was panicking out, because he simply wanted to know that the ghost wouldn’t freak out and do something crazy.

“I didn’t know.” The voice came from behind Jack and he spun around to see Alex sitting cross-legged on his bed, holding his head in his hands. Jack jumped slightly at the sudden presence but stayed calm as he took a seat beside the boy.

“How could you not know what happened Alex? I mean it happened to you.” Jack was truly puzzled, and he wanted answers, but was disappointed as he realized that the boy couldn’t give them to him, because he didn’t know himself.

“You never came near my family or friends so I couldn’t figure out what happened. I just woke up one morning and I was in your bathtub, and I couldn’t remember anything from the day before. The last thing I remembered was being in school. But when I entered your room and you didn’t even see me, I decided that something was really fucked up. Eventually I caught on, I guess, I just thought I was dead.”

“Well if you were dead, you wouldn’t be able to come back to life, dumbass, no matter how many times I fell in love with you,” Jack stated, lightly punching the boy’s arm and shivering when a light electric shock ran up his hand.

“I know. I remembered going to this fortune teller, Clarissa, just a few days before I got hurt, or whatever. And I guess I put two and two together to realize that you’re my soul mate.” The boy smiled sadly at Jack, worry covering his face. “I don’t even know who I am, I just know my name. And I know you.”

Jack took the new information in, trying to understand the situation. It was barely a minute of silence before he came up with the most brilliant idea, well at least in his mind.

“Alex! Let’s find out who you are and why you’re here.”

-----

“This is so fucking dumb.” Alex complained as he slid through the car door of Jack’s shitty Jeep, as if it wasn’t even there. Jack was once again overcome with the knowledge that the kid beside him is a ghost.

Jack sighed. “This is necessary for both of us. Now are you sure this is the right place?” Both boys looked around the empty strip mall. “This looks like something out of a horror movie.”

Alex giggled. “Jack, stop being a pussy. That door right there leads to her office.” It was a fairly normal door, and the windows to the building were covered in neon lights, none of which were easy to distinguish.

Jack couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, but he walked towards the door anyway, opening it slowly and wincing when loud bells rang through the shop. The entire room was filled with huge couches and there were plants all over the room. Little trinkets littered the floor and Jack cursed when he stepped on one. “Remind me again why you went here in the first place Gaskarth,” He growled, but the other boy simply rolled his eyes.

“We were drunk, we were bored, we saw the place and we went in. That’s all there is to it.”

Suddenly a woman walked into the room through a dark curtain that covered half of the wall. She looked to be in her fifties and her long gray hair was tied in a big bun on the top of her head. She wore a jeweled scarf around her head and a long dress that looked like it came straight from a Shakespeare play. Jack stared at her in fear, avoiding the intense gaze coming from her bright blue eyes that were half-covered by eyelids smudged with black coal.

“Well? Won’t you two come in?” She spoke, sarcasm lacing her harsh and gravelly voice. She used her hands to motion them towards the curtain and Jack noticed what seemed like hundreds of rings covered her fingers. It wasn’t until he felt Alex’s hand tug his sharply that he realized what she’d said: ‘Won’t you two come in?’ It was a simple phrase really, but to both of them it symbolized that she knew Alex was there and that was a truly terrifying thought. Alex’s fingers laced tightly with his and they both stumbled through the curtain into a dark room.

There was a small table in the middle, and a few chairs surrounding it. The entire room was pitch black except for the small light emitting from a few candles on the table. The light smoke from them was rising into the darkness and the scent was intoxicating; a mix of dark aromas and spices that made Jack’s nose itch.

“Sit.” She commanded and both boys scurried to take a seat, letting go of each other’s hands. The woman didn’t even flinch when Alex moved the chair to sit on it, even though to her it must’ve seemed like something from paranormal activity. “Jack. I’ve been waiting for you,” She stated, her eyes boring into his as she smiled brightly, resembling a cheshire cat.

The minute the words left her mouth, Jack felt himself tense up even more (something he didn’t think was possible) as he sputtered out his response. “Y-you, I-I, how?”

She laughed throatily, before continuing. “You brought Alex.”

This time Jack couldn’t hold in his comment. “HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW THAT?” He screamed, terrified of this woman and what she claimed she knew. He immediately felt Alex’s hand reach for his own as their fingers intertwined and a sense of comfort washed over him. It was as if Alex’s touch could bring him down from the manic anger he felt until he was barely comprehending what was happening. But to be honest, it could’ve been the incense-laced candles too.

The woman stared at the seat beside Jack and Alex shifted uncomfortably. “I can feel his presence. Not quite dead, but not alive either. And you’re Jack, his soul mate.”

With another reassuring squeeze of his fingers, Alex said to Jack, “Ask her to explain everything.”
Jack stared at their hands for a moment before looking up at the woman. “Can you explain everything?”

She contemplated it for a moment. “You’re paying,” She finally decided, before clearing her throat and reaching under the table for something. She came up a few seconds later with a box. Opening it carefully, she looked through it for a few moments until she finally found what she was looking for and pulled out a long chain with a dog tag on it. “It’s Alex’s. He left it here last time he came, because he was in such a rush to get out.” She handed Jack the necklace and he inspected it in his free hand, trying to make out the writing in the dark. “Put it on. Alex can’t wear it now.” Jack’s hand shook as he pulled it over his head and it fell onto his chest, hanging from his neck, cool metal against his hot skin.

“Alex ran out of here in a rush because the dumb boy came in here drunk. I warned him, told him to stop drinking because it would lead him into a mess that he wouldn’t be ready to deal with. And it did, didn’t it? Poor boy couldn’t handle his alcohol.” Alex’s hand gripped onto Jack’s tighter and the boy’s eyes were glazed over and unfocused as if he was remembering the moment.

“He was supposed to meet you five days after he visited me. And, as a fortune teller I am going to be the first to tell you that I speak from experience, and I knew you were meant to be. He would’ve met you and you two were supposed to start dating a few weeks later. Eventually, you two would be inseparable; soul mates. I sensed immediately that he was missing someone, although that feeling is gone because he’s found you, but I sense it in you now. Since you’re still clinging to your idea that this is all some joke, and you refuse to find him.

“Well, Jack Barakat, let me explain to you what happened four days after Alex came to see me, and consequently one day before he was supposed to meet you. Alex went to a party, like I said he would. And he got drunk, just like I said he shouldn’t. You know, teenage boys and their tequila and their brilliant ideas.” She chuckled quietly. “Matt, I believe his name was, suggested that they go to their bridge: their favorite place to hang out. You’ve been there Jack, I sense that too.

“And on that bridge, Alex Gaskarth decided to dance with himself, while drunk off of more substances than he could remember. But you see, the boy has always had an over-falsified sense of confidence and he thought he could have a little bit of fun. Not the case though is it?” She stopped for a dramatic pause and Jack thought he was going to punch her, because really? He was finding out crucial information and she was trying to turn it into an episode of Gossip Girl. “Because he fell off the bridge and hit his head on a rock, causing him to start bleeding profusely. His friends took very long to realize that he was actually seriously hurt, and then took another while calling for an ambulance. By the time the doctors got to him, Alex had hypothermia and he was delusional, borderline crazy. But the minute he got into the hospital he blanked out and he’s been in a come since then.”

Jack gulped as he tried to concentrate on what his next question would be, but he felt Alex’s hand in his go slack and he turned to the other boy who was now shaking quietly in tears. For the first time since Alex had come into his life, Jack knew exactly what to do. He grabbed the boy and pulled their chairs closer together, before holding him tightly and whispering “Sh, It’s okay Lex, I’m here. I promise we’ll get through this together.”

Of course the bitch decided to intervene. “Don’t make that promise Jack.”

“And why not Clarissa?” He snarled, remembering her name from Alex’s rants a while ago.

“Because he wasn’t lying to you. You have to fall in love with him for him to come back to life.”

“I know.” He whispered sadly. “I don’t know if I will be able to. I mean it’s four months. Is that even enough time?”

The woman sighed, for once letting down her sarcastic façade. “Son, you have to look past all of this. He’s your soul mate and if you let him die, you’re letting a part of you die too.”