Haunting Grey

"Let go," I snapped. "Please, I can't do this. I have to go back. My dad."

"No!" Natalie shouted, her voice shaking with anger. "Don't you get it? I need you. I need you to stay with me. I can't do this alone."

"Do what?"

Nat's eyes were wide, and full of tears. "I can't live without you."

"You're not alive."

"Stop," she whispered. "I'm alive with you, Travis. I feel you. How can I feel you if I'm dead?"

"You said it yourself—the woods mess with your head, they make you see things. Nat, I promise you, this isn't real." My voice caught. I shut my eyes. "You're not real. This isn't real. You're making me see things. This isn't you. You're not a vengeful person."

Natalie's grip loosened, but she still held me. "I wasn't supposed to die," she said. "It wasn't supposed to be me. It was supposed to be you."

"No," I said, looking at her. I pressed my hand to her cheek. "Things happened the way they were meant to, and I am so sorry for that. It's been two years since you went missing, and then you were found. Your body was found. Whoever found you, they released you. None of this is real, Natalie."

"Travis." But it wasn't her voice that I heard. It was someone else.

Dad.

I saw him, then, hunched over my body, in the hospital. He was sobbing, repeating my name. Holding my hand.

"I love you," I told Natalie. "You will always be with me."

I watched her face flood with understanding, and then finally, she let me go.