Even Forever Doesn't Seem Like Long Enough

“Do you believe in ghosts?” I asked Brendon the moment he walked into my room.

He seemed taken aback by the question as he sat down beside me on my bed, “Okay, first of all,” He kissed me quickly, “Hi and second of all, why?”

“I’m just asking,” I shrugged, “And hey,” I grinned widely and sat up, facing him.

“Well, I don’t know if I believe in ghosts. I’m more of a seer-believer than just a believer,” He responded.

“Are you busy tonight?”

“Um... Not after eight,”

“Are the guys busy?”

“Not that I know of,”

“Call them and see if they are please,” I linked our fingers, “And see if they want to come somewhere with me, you, Hannah and Ruby tonight,”

“I’ll call them in a bit. Where are we going?”

“You’ll find out when we get there,” I smiled innocently.

“Is this for number eighteen on your list?” He enquired, casting a fleeting glance down to our entwined fingers.

“Yeah,” I nodded, “It’ll be great, trust me,”

“I do and have done in the past but your first question about ghosts and this one has freaked me out a bit,”

I chuckled, “It was bound to,”

“Are they linked or did it just seem like they were?”

I shrugged mysteriously, smirking somewhat, “Maybe. You’ll just have to wait and see, I guess,”

He rolled his eyes, “I hate the way you do this,”

“No you don’t, you love it, it keeps your brain thinking all day,” I joked.

“Yeah but my brain needs to think about other things rather than your cryptic messages,”

I laughed, “Oh well,” I shrugged nonchalantly, “At least this time you’ll have three other people to think about it with,”

“The guys might not come if they don’t know where we’re going,”

“Just tell them it’ll be fun and if they don’t like it at any point they’re free and very welcome to leave,” I said as I got up from the bed, “Oh, and tell them to bring a sleeping bag,”

8.30pm

Brendon had managed to convince Jon, Ryan and Spencer to come to an unknown destination so we’d picked them up and were now standing in front of the decrepit, old house.

“This is creepy,” Jon almost shuddered.

“It’s freaking me out,” Spencer added.

“They’re right Ambs, are you totally sure you want to do this?” Ruby questioned shakily, gulping as she looked at the frightening building.

“Don’t be a wimp, Rubes. It’s only a house,” I responded jokingly.

“That’s supposedly haunted!” Hannah exclaimed in addition.

“It’s haunted?!” Ryan went wide-eyed.

I slapped my forehead with my palm and sighed exasperatedly, “Oh my gosh,”

I heard Brendon laugh from beside me and I let my head fall onto his shoulder.

“I’ll still come in with you, Ambs,” He murmured into my ear.

“Aw, my brave hero, thank you,” I grinned at him, “Guys, we’re going in with or without you,” I announced, locking my fingers with Brendon’s.

“Amber, are you seriously going to sleep in there? What if you get murdered by a ghost?” Hannah worried.

“Well, if we all go in together then we can look after each other,” I suggested with an innocent shrug.

They all looked over at Brendon and me with unsure looks then up to the huge, albeit very unsteady looking, house.

“Oh, come on guys, it’ll be fun. If you guys wimp out then you can leave,” Brendon spoke as he wandered forward, taking me with him, towards the path to the house.

I smiled to myself and grabbed Hannah’s hand as I passed her causing her to grab Ruby who then grabbed the closest person to her, Spencer, who grabbed Jon who was pulled too fast for him to grab hold of Ryan.

“Well, I’m not staying out here on my own,” Ryan mumbled before snatching at Jon’s arm so he was pulled in with the rest of us. I chuckled at Ryan’s reaction as Brendon pushed open the creaking front door.

“Did you bring a flashlight?” Brendon questioned.

“Yeah,” I nodded, “Hang on,” I pulled my bag from my shoulder and dug around in it before pulling the aforementioned item from my bag in triumph and handing it to him.

“Thanks,” He smiled slightly before switching on the small light source and shining it into the darkened room, “This place is really sinister,” Brendon frowned as he took a step inside, still clutching onto my hand but his grip had tightened slightly.

“It’s abandoned and supposedly haunted, I think we should expect it to be sinister,” I squinted to try and see clearer in the small light that the torch was producing.

“Point taken,” He replied, “I think here in the hall looks like a pretty great place to stay,”

“I agree,” Hannah added quickly.

“That’s one of the smartest things Brendon’s ever said in his life,” Ryan threw his sleeping bag onto the floor and sat on it in a finalising way telling us he wasn’t moving.

Chuckling, I did the same, “Here it is then, I guess,” The hall was open plan into the living room so the place was big enough for the seven of us to sit in comfortably.

“I really don’t like this place,” Hannah rubbed her hands up and down her arms as she glanced uneasily around the room.

“You should’ve invited Jamie, he could’ve protected you,” I teased with a smirk.

She shot me a glare and fell into a seating position on her own sleeping bag.

Brendon sat down beside me and the rest of the group followed suit so we were all in a circle. I reached into my bag and pulled out a few candles and a box of matches.

“Are we having a séance or something?” Ruby frowned.

I rolled my eyes, “No, everyone’s freaked out enough just being here. I brought these as an extra light source,”

“Oh, right,” She said simply.

“So, what’s the deal behind this house anyway?” Jon questioned, looking over at me briefly as he pulled his sleeping bag from its cover.

“Do you mean, why is the house haunted?” Jon responded with a nod, “Well I don’t know if the story’s true but apparently, back in the Second World War, this really religious woman used to live here with her three children and, one night, the mum found out that her husband had been killed in action and went a bit crazy. Then she got into this argument with the middle child about noise or something when the kids were playing Hide and Seek, and she hit him in the head with the blunt end of an umbrella and the force killed him,” At this point Hannah snorted with laughter.

“Are you kidding me? Death by umbrella?” She raised an eyebrow.

“I know, it’s a bit unbelievable but it’s still feasible,” I shrugged, “Anyway, so she killed the middle child and hid him in the cupboard. Then later on the kids were still looking for the one the mum had killed and the youngest one found him. Then the mum flipped out and killed the other two kids because she thought they were going to tell the police or something like that. Then when she realised that she’d killed her kids she shot herself. Now, the ghosts of the kids come back, still playing the same game of Hide and Seek, searching for the soul of their brother and the mother comes back to make sure that they don’t find it,” I explained, “So the story goes, anyway,” I shrugged.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds and Hannah almost screamed when a chill breeze blew through the room and the candles flickered before returning to their upright position again.

“Oh my God, I’m going to get killed by a crazy, kid-killing ghost from the nineteen-forties,” Hannah squeaked.

I laughed slightly, “Emphasis on the ‘kid-killing’ bit. You’re not a kid Han, so she wouldn’t kill you or any of us for that matter- She’s here to stop her kids getting the soul of their brother, not to torture and maim intruders,”

“If I was a kid-killing maniac from the nineteen-forties then I’d want to kill any intruders if they were in my house,” Ruby contradicted me, folding her arms.

“Well it’s lucky that you’re not her then isn’t it?” I raised an eyebrow before casting a glance out of the window that was caked in dust so I couldn’t see that well out of it anyway.

“If I get psychological problems from tonight Amber, I’ll be sending you my shrink bills,” Jon joked.

I laughed heartily, “And I’ll willingly pay them, Jon, I promise,”

The conversations continued, only stopping a few times when there were creepy noises heard by one of us or an unnerving chill came over us.

“So, what’s next on your list then?” Brendon whispered into my ear at around one-forty-five.

“Are you going to come with me?” I caught his eyes.

“Yeah,” He responded automatically with a smile.

“What’re you doing next weekend- Are you busy?”

“Probably now I am because you’re going to be taking me somewhere, right?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “I’m whisking you off to a romantic destination,” I grinned at him.

“What ‘romantic destination’ might that be?”

“Paris,” I smiled, awaiting his reaction.

“Ooh, sounds like fun,” He beamed at me and wrapped an arm around my waist, sliding me closer to him.

“It will be,” I assured, “Romantic city, me, you and a whole weekend completely alone,”

He smirked cheekily, “I like the sound of that,” He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine in a short kiss.

“I’m tired,” Ruby announced, running a hand through her hair to move it away from her face.

“Go to sleep then,” Hannah spoke back as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Ruby crinkled up her nose in distaste; she didn’t like to be the first or last person to go to sleep.

Suddenly, all of our attentions were caught when a chill ran through us almost simultaneously, the candles flickered and a loud bang echoed from the upstairs direction causing all of us to look towards the noise.

I shivered and sighed, feeling fear build up in my body when my breath came out in a grey cloud rather than the invisible form it had taken on only seconds previously.

As if that wasn’t freaky enough, in an ominous, sinister tone with his breath forming the same cloud as mine had, Spencer let out the words that chilled us all to the bone.

“Something’s here,” He whispered, fear slightly embroidered in his voice.

I slowly turned my head to look over at him and then burst into laughter, “Could you have said that in a scarier way?”

“It’s true! Something’s here, you can feel it as well, you shivered,” He pointed accusingly at my giggling form.

“OH MY GOD!” Hannah yelled, her arm shooting out and grabbing Jon, who was to the right of her, on his thigh at the knee end.

“Ouch! Fuck, that’s my leg not a freaking stress ball!” Jon exclaimed, trying to pry Hannah’s fingers from their death grip around his leg and failing miserably.

“I just saw a ghost! I just saw that woman upstairs!”

We all turned to look at the top of the stairs.

“You’re cutting off the circulation here, Hannah,” Jon groaned.

“Hannah,” I rolled my eyes with a sigh, looking over at her, “That’s a curtain,”

The group fell into laughter and she finally released Jon’s leg, much to his relief.

“I wasn’t talking about the damn curtain! I swear to God I just saw a woman up there!” She pointed to the stair way.

A chill went down my spine again and I felt for Brendon’s hand, which he gave me willingly.

“Um... Ambs,” Ruby’s voice was shaky, “I think I just saw something too,”

“Do we really have to stay here all night?” Ryan gulped.

“Well...” I looked at my watch that showed me it was a little past two a.m., “My list actually says to spend the night in a haunted house, but it’s actually so late it’s practically morning so that’s eighteen over with, let’s go,” I spoke in a rush, blowing out the candles and switching on the torch.

“Fantastic idea!” Spencer shot up from his seating position and everyone began quickly throwing their stuff together.

So, we collected our very panicky selves and rapidly made our way out of the house.

Brendon and Spencer came in the car with Ruby, Hannah and me because we were passing their houses on our way home.

“Thanks for coming tonight, Spence,” I smiled as we pulled up to his house, “And I’m sorry if you got freaked out and you have nightmares,”

“It’s alright,” He chuckled as he opened the door, “Night, everyone,”

“Night,” We all chorused, waving when he got inside his house.

I didn’t move from the middle seat I was strapped into beside Brendon. I sighed and leaned my head on his shoulder, to which he responded by resting his head on mine.

“I’m not going to be able to sleep properly tonight, I’m going to think I’m getting haunted,” I shuddered somewhat and I heard Brendon chuckle slightly, “Too bad I’ll be sleeping alone tonight. I’ll have no-one to protect me,” I faked a whimper and let out a dejected sigh.

“If I’m not mistaken, I think that was the most unsubtle subtle hint you’ve ever given,” Brendon murmured into my ear.

I looked up at him and grinned innocently, “I know, it was awful wasn’t it?”

He nodded in agreement and gently rubbed his nose against mine, “Yeah, but I’ll take the hint if you want me to,”

I smiled, “Yeah...”

“Your place or mine?”

I shrugged, “Whichever,”

“We’re here,” Ruby pulled up outside Brendon’s house.

“I guess that decision is made for us,” Brendon leaned up away from me and I did the same so we could both undo our seatbelts.

“I’m going to crash at Brendon’s tonight Rubes; I’ll be home tomorrow,”

“Okay,” She nodded in understanding.

“Thanks for coming with me tonight,” I placed a hand on Ruby and Hannah’s shoulders.

“You’re welcome even though you’ve scarred me for life,” Hannah joked, placing her hand on top of mine.

“See you tomorrow,” Ruby rubbed my hand before I took them away and got out of the car with Brendon. We waved the girls off and wandered inside, fingers interlocked, before heading straight upstairs to bed after locking the front door.

Brendon lent me some clothes to sleep in and, after getting ready, we were lying in his bed, facing each other. In the darkness I could just about make out his features. His arm was draped over my waist loosely and my hand rested gently on his neck, tracing his jaw-line with my thumb.

“Thanks for coming with me tonight,” I whispered.

“It was nothing. I said I’d come with you for the rest of your list and I’m sticking to that,” He mumbled, tightening his grip briefly around me. We fell into silence for a few seconds.

“Bren,” I moved my hand up slightly so that I was caressing his cheek.

“Mhm?” He breathed sleepily, his eyes flickering closed.

“You’ve turned my life around,” I murmured.

He turned his head and pressed a kiss to my wrist, over my ‘live’ tattoo, before his grip around me tightened enough to pull me closer, “You have no idea what you’ve done to me, babe,”

I rested my head near his chest, able to hear his heart beating faintly, and felt a wave of emotion come over me. I knew what it was.

I’d fallen for him. Hard.

And there was nothing I could do to stop it. Now there was no turning back.

To Do List1. Buy flowers for mum and help them understand.
2. Have a space hopper race.
3. Swim with dolphins.
4. Hold a charity night.
5. Get drunk & sing loud and out of tune on karaoke.
6. Ride the biggest, fastest, highest rollercoaster
7. Go to the highest point in the city at night to see the lights
8. Sleep under the stars
9. Crowd surf
10. Meet favourite band
11. Sky-dive
12. Plant a tree
13. Go to Italy
14. Jump from a cliff into water
15. Ride in a hot air balloon
16. Put a message in a bottle
17. Learn a song on an instrument
18. Spend the night in a haunted house

Eighteen down, seven to go.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With you and time there's nothing else
My life stands still
You are the will that makes me strong
Make me strong
If ever alone in this world I know I'll always
Find me, here in your arms
Now I'm wondering where you've always been
Blindly, I came to you knowing
You'd breathe new life from within

Boyce Avenue- Find Me

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------