Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ My Ghost ❯ Chapter Eleven ( Chapter 11 )

My Ghost

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Chapter Eleven

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© 2009 Ohne Sie

 

 

 

Author's Note: It's a new year! Anyway, sorry this took so long, but I had some serious writer's block. I knew where the story was going and how it was getting there, but the actually writing part became really difficult for a while. Meaning, I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to word everything I wanted to write. I'm still not completely satisfied, but I can always edit it later. Anyway, thank you for reading, thank you for your patience, and I hope you enjoy chapter eleven.

 

 

 

Will had been planning what he would say to Callie all day. He owed it to her, after all. She had done nothing but try to help him over the past few days, and how did he repay her? By lying. “How was I supposed to know she'd have visions, too?” he mumbled. “I don't see how knowing about Nora will help, anyway. It's not like she killed me.”

 

He heard the door slam shut downstairs and peered over the stairwell railing. “Hey,” he said.

 

“Hey,” Callie said softly. “You ready to tell me what's going on?” Will hesitated. Then he nodded. “Good,” Callie said. “Outside. In case my parents come home.” She frowned. “Where is my mom, anyway?”

 

“Grocery shopping with Carrie,” Will said, following Callie to the backyard, where she sat on the swing, which appeared to be her new favorite place.

 

She swayed back and forth, looking at Will expectantly. “Well?”

 

He sighed. “I guess I owe you the truth. What you saw was the truth, at least at the time. I loved Nora, and we were together for a while.”

 

“For a while? What happened?”

 

“My brother happened.”

 

“Wait, I thought you said that Edward wouldn't have killed you. That sounds like a motive to me. You were fighting over the same girl.”

 

Will shook his head. “Not Ed. Ed was too shy to even really talk to Nora by himself. He'd never try anything like this. It was Sam.”

 

“What?”

 

“I caught Sam and Nora in the gazebo—“

 

“The one from my dream?”

 

“Yeah, it belonged to her family, but it was really only used by her and me. It was our private meeting place. Anyway, what they were doing in there I'll leave up to your imagination.”

 

“Wow. Nora was just a big ol' ho, huh?” Callie laughed, but stopped when she saw the serious look on Will's face. “Sorry. Please continue?”

 

“Well, needless to say, I was pissed. So we all fought for a few minutes. A lot of harsh words were said by all parties, I assure you. Somehow through all of the swearing I learned that they'd actually been seeing each other secretly the entire time we were together.”

 

“Why would she do that?”

 

“At the time I thought it was because of the inheritance.”

 

“Inheritance?”

 

“Yeah. My parents weren't exactly rich, but they had a good bit of money and they had this really nice house. The house and a majority of the money would go to my father's oldest son when my parents died.”

 

“Which would be Sam, but…”

 

“Yeah. Nora thought it was Sam. But really, Sam was my half-brother.”

 

“Right. Different father. I remember.”

 

“Yeah,” will said. “So it was actually me. And I, being the petty, selfish brat I was, decided it was a good idea to tell her the truth.”

 

“You told her that Sam wasn't your father's heir?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“I bet Sam was furious.”

 

“Pretty much. For days he wouldn't talk to me or Ed. He didn't even talk to Nora. But then he just stopped being mad one day.”

 

“Why was that?”

 

“I have no idea. Usually he held a grudge a long time, and that was for little things, like the time he got blamed for the three of us fighting, just because he was the oldest. Stuff like that would leave him angry at us for a week, at least. But like three days later he asked me if I wanted to go fishing with him, like nothing had ever happened.”

 

“Did he keep seeing Nora?”

 

“No, they broke it off. I'm not sure if it was mutual or if one or the other did the actual breaking, but I know they weren't a couple anymore.”

 

“So you got back together with her?”

 

“No. I was still angry about finding her with my brother. She tried to apologize, but I called her some very unpleasant names and refused to have anything to do with her.”

 

Callie frowned. “But you said you loved her. Did your love just…stop?”

 

“Well…no. My life kind of did. See, that all happened a few days before I died. And yeah, I still loved her. I was in pain, though. I would have forgiven her eventually, I think.”

 

“Have you?” Callie asked.

 

“Have I what?”

 

“Forgiven her.”

 

“Yeah. I mean, it was a terrible thing to do, but when you think about it for eighty years—and what else would I think about for eighty years?—you kind of realize it doesn't matter anymore.”

 

“Do you still love her?” Callie asked. She planted her feet and the swing stopped swaying.

 

Will paused. “It's…kind of irrelevant at this point. I mean, it's one of those things that don't matter anymore. Why do you want to know?”

 

“I don't know,” Callie said. “I'm just kind of a romantic at heart. The way you talk about her…you think of her fondly. I just…” Her voice trailed off.

 

“You just what?”

 

Callie shrugged. “It's stupid. I meant…I just hope that someday someone will talk about me like that.”

 

Will smiled, noting the light blush in her cheeks. “I'm sure someone will. Maybe more than one person. I mean, look at Nora. She was self-centered and manipulative, but she had three brothers fawning over her.”

 

“For someone you love so much, you have a lot of bad things to say about her.”

 

“Loved,” Will corrected her. I don't love her anymore.”

 

“So now you answer my question,” Callie said.

 

Will shrugged. “I just never really thought about it before. I guess at some point I did stop loving her.”

 

Callie looked at Will, a thought suddenly forming in her head. “Hey,” she said. “How did Edward take all of that stuff?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Like, how did he respond to learning that Nora cheated on you, that you told her about the inheritance, et cetera?”

 

“He took it rather well. I guess it was because he thought he had a chance with us out of the picture.”

 

“What an interesting choice of words,” Callie mumbled.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Nothing. I just have a theory about your death. It would help if I had your brother's journal, to confirm it, though.”

 

“Well, good luck finding that,” Will said. “You already said you can't pull up the carpet in your room, if the journal is even there.”

 

“Yeah, but Ashley and Aaron are looking, too.”

 

“And what excuse did you give this time?”

 

Callie smiled sheepishly. “That I needed it to solve their great-great uncle's murder so that his spirit would be at peace?”

 

Will stared at her. “You're not lying…”

 

“I had to say something! And I'm a really bad liar, so…”

 

“That's true. Both parts. So you told the truth.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“And they're not only still talking to you, but they're willing to help?”

 

“Ashley thinks it's, like, the coolest thing ever, and Aaron…well…Aaron thinks I'm insane.”

 

“Shocking.”

 

“I was really expecting worse, though, you know?”

 

“What, like, `It's a witch! Burn her!'?”

 

“More like, `God, you're such an attention whore, making up stories so people will like you more. Get away from me and get some help.'”

 

“I'm surprised she even believed you.”

 

“Yeah, she's really excited. Jealous, too. She really wishes she could see you.”

 

“Yeah, it's strange enough that you can see me. It's stranger to be able to see my brother's descendants. It would be beyond strange if said descendants could see me.”

 

“Anyway, if they find anything, they're supposed to stop by.”

 

“Great,” Will said. “Yeah, I'll be somewhere else.”

 

Callie smiled, walking toward the back door to head inside. “You're such an antisocial ghost.”

 

Will scoffed. “As if there's any other kind.”