Blue Spirit

After the incident in Italy, things were different in some way after the 4 men flew back to the united states. Zak was himself, true, but in other ways he wasn't quite as he had been before he heard the teenager's story a few days earlier. He was quiet, a bit unusual, for a couple of days. Sure, he talked, but not as much. After a couple days passed, he seemed like his normal self. But Joey had a nagging suspicion he was hiding something, very well to be exact.

Bastion wasn't much better. When he heard they'd be making a return trip to Gettysburg, this time with special permission to investigate the actual battlefield, he'd gone very quiet. More so than usual. And frankly, Joey was tired of it. The ghost never answered any questions about why he was acting the way he was, and when he did say anything it was barely anything at all.

After another few days of Bastion's near silence, Joey had finally had enough of it. It was time to get serious. If he had to reveal the spirit's presence to the other three, then so be it. Enough was enough. He said as much one of the times the ghost actually appeared like he normally did. The spirit's eyes went wide, but then he sighed, resigned to the fact that whether he liked it or not, it was time to tell the other men he was here, and what his problem had been the past few days.

"Okay..enough is enough!" he eventually blurted out, while in the company of the other three men he'd been traveling with for about a month now. They all started with surprise, but before they could say anymore, Joey continued on. "Does one of you have a fresh voice recorder that can allow us to hear voices as soon as they can be?" Zak blinked, but he nodded, and pulled such a device from a bag by the table they were sitting around. Behind Joey, Bastion fidgeted, but he'd seen this coming, and had briefly cussed at his own stupidity, before resigning himself to the fact that he was to "show" himself to the other people finally. As soon as the device was on and on the table, Joey started talking again.

"Alright...I've had enough. I'm sick of not being able to mention you. Now speak, and tell them your name, and just how long you've been with us" Zak's mouth started to open, to ask Joey what he meant, but then he froze in place, along with Nick and Aaron, when the smooth, and slightly rich voice came on over the device. The voice even had a southern accent to it.

"...my name is Bastion. I've been with you four since you checked out the abandoned mine about a month ago. And I was there on that Italian island when all the bad things went on..."

The three oldest men just stared at the device in shock, not quite believing what they were hearing. This was definitely not a residual spirit, no, this one was beyond intelligent. Joey narrowed his eyes.
"Now...what the hell is with your behavior whenever we mention the sight of the worst battle in the Civil War?" He saw the spirit flinch again out of the corner of his right eye.

There was a pause, but then the shocking answer came, the spirit's voice still smooth, but a sad undertone going through it.

"I...participated in the Battle of Gettysburg...and..not on the Union side...I was a Confederate soldier...I was one of the thousands and thousands who died on that field...and when I lay dying of a fatal shot...I began to regret what I'd done until then...killing people who were fighting for what they believed like I was was stupid..." The voice trailed off, and Joey caught the spirits ghostly ice blue eyes sliding shut, as he began to look regretful, and thoughtful. "I've been paying the price for it ever since...or it was...until I encountered you four at the old mine where I was hiding..."The ghost, unseen by the other three as always, turned to Joey. "I saw Joey...and I saw a lot of myself in him before my death...angry...hurting...lost...and I knew I had to do something...so I began to follow you...mostly him...everywhere you went..even Italy..." The spirit sighed, then finished. "But..that's why I've been...off...so to speak...that battlefield is like my bane...I can barely stand to think of it..or look at it..." With that, Bastion was done. Joey spoke next.

"Then maybe you should go back to it with us and actually face it, instead of hiding from it or acting weird when it's mentioned..." And inside his own head he added 'I should talk..have my own problems I should face...but I'm not there...yet...'

"...Maybe" That was as close to a yes as he was going to get out of the ghost, and he knew that. Joey then stretched, keeping his mouth shut to stifle a rather large yawn, as Zak turned the little device off. It was getting late, and they had a flight to the airport nearest to Gettysburg in the morning. They all stood, and briefly exchanged good nights, with a surprised comment here and there, and then split up to go to their rooms.

Once Joey was in bed, the covers up to his eyeballs practically, his muffled voice could be heard once more. "I'm sorry...but I had no choice...enough...was" here he yawned "enough..." he voice trailed off as he quickly fell asleep. By the moonlight window, a see through figure stood, looking outside, up at the stars above.

"I know..." Bastion knew Joey was right. He had to face his "fear" of the field where he died, once and for all. It would be hard, but he had a deep rooted feeling that with these four, it would be a lot easier for some reason.

END CHAPTER 5!