Fennel and the Haunted House - VI

Everyone wants to be the best on something, that one person who manages to do a thing that no one else could be able to do, or at least that’s what I dream of, something that only I could do…

“Fennel, what do you mean by that?” – If only you could see the expression that I made when I heard her talking about a “ghost problem”, is she also able to see the same things as me? Did I just lose that one thing that only I could do…?

“Obviously I can, is it something so weird?”

“But… how? I thought this would be something weirder, something that only I should be able to do”

“I don’t know if you can realize that on your own, but that’s a really childish way of thinking *chuckle*” – Come on, she is mocking me now! Oh god, I don’t deserve this stupidity…

“Adam, that girl… she is also able to see people like me?” – Prescott was as surprised as I was, no one would have been able to blame him for that, being ignored for almost ten years, and suddenly two persons come out of nowhere and start talking to you…

“Well… Prescott… she is-“

“You don’t need to explain anything Adam; I’m completely capable of doing that on my own”

Every word that Fennel said was told in such a cheeky way, she may be cute, but her happy-go-lucky way of doing things becomes a tiring attitude really fast…

“Could you give us a second, Prescott, I need to explain some things to this dummy here” – She then gave him a little eye wink and a big smile to both of us, I can’t deny that I was worried about what her cheerful attitude was kind of charismatic, but I was sure that she was hiding something behind that cheerful mockery, if what she was hiding was good or not… that’s something that even I can’t be sure of…

Grabbing me by the arm, Fennel took me to a little stroll, out of Prescott’s sight, where we could tall on a more private way…

“What do you want to tell to me, Fennel?”

“Let’s go easy on this, Adam, as you may have realized, I can also see ghosts, the same thing that you do”

“Yes, I believe in that, not like you could easily lie about something like that; and I assume that you know more about this than me…”

“Uh, why do you think that?” – Her gestures were the stereotypical cutesy things that you would see on a fictional girl, like those weird and pretty girls that used to appear so much in those romantic movies from a decade ago, she almost looked like a caricature of herself now, so I guess that her previous behavior was no more than a façade to look like a normal girl.

“You didn’t bother to stay here, almost as if this was a usual thing for you; I’ve been capable of seeing these things only for a little more than a month, so everything still amazes me, but you acted like you couldn’t see them, believe me, this experience takes some time to be accustomed to, especially if I wanted to act like I couldn’t see them”

“Wow, that’s some interesting reasoning if I’ve seen one! I can’t say it is necessarily the best way of thinking about this, but at least I can say that you’re right!”

“And you realized without any problem that I can also see them?”

“Oh, Adam, I’ve known that you are able to see for a long, really long, time; I would dare to say that even knew long you managed to hear Sara’s voice”

“Wait, how do you know about her?”

“I’ve been observing you for some time”

“Well, I had noticed that, but I thought that you liked me”

“Maybe, but is mostly a mission given by my master”

“Who is that “master” that you have been mentioning?”

“Want to meet him?”

“Can’t tell for sure, but at least I’m interested in who he is, and why you were looking for him”

“That’s an easy answer, I happened to need his help to solve the problem that we have here…”

I can’t say that I instantly understood what she was talking about, helping this family seemed like an impossible task to do for me, even if she knew more than me about what we were doing, I don’t know if just being able to see ghosts is such a meaningful ability on this context, it feels almost like I’ve been living in a lie, like my idea of being special only because I could see weird things, that was nothing than the smallest bit of a way bigger picture.

“You already know what we need to do, right, Adam?”

“We have to help Prescott, he needs to go inside, calm with his family and then ask for their forgiveness-“

“You’re almost right! But you don’t know what’s the most important part of our mission”

“Yeah, and what would that be?”

She gave me a little grin, and with another little eye wink, she took me back to Prescott.

“Prescott! Kept you waiting?” – I still don’t know how she manages to deliver every line with such a happy behavior, I will never get used to this world...

“Uh, no… well… I’ve been waiting here for a solution the last ten years or so, it’s not like I can do something else- *he he-*” – Come on man, even Prescott went completely nervous with this crazy chick around!

“Try to go inside”

Prescott was kind of surprised with such a simple petition, not like he hadn’t tried before, so it was obvious that he wouldn’t be happy with something that he was sure of how it would end…

“Here I go!” – Prescott still followed her orders, even with the doubt, this was his only chance… he was pushed away from the house…

“Ouch, that must hurt, don’t you think so Adam?”

“He is a ghost…”

But Prescott added…

“No, it really hurts, it feels just like how being thrown away would feel on a living body…”

“What? But that doesn’t make any sense… how could something like that be possible?”

“Is easy, do you remember where Prescott died?”

“Right here, on the garden”

“Is that correct, Prescott?”

“Uh, well, he is right”

“Now, give it a thought Adam, what was he trying to do when he died? What was his last will?”

I can’t deny that it took me a little more than a while to figure it out, but with how stressful this day has been, and with every mannerism that Fennel does getting on my nerves, it’s been quite hard to maintain a straight way of thinking…

“He wanted to enter his house, to see his family…”

“That’s right! Nice job Adam; now, as you may have already realized, every person has a last will that they must accomplish before ascending, after that, they can freely go to another world, or even stay in this one for some time if they would like to”

“Yes, Sara and Zack, even the dog I helped once, all of them ascended once they accomplished something special for them; the only exceptions have been Marco and a weird old man…” – Apparently, Fennel didn’t like the “weird old man” part, her expression turned into something way funnier than any of her “quirky” faces, it almost looked like I had offended her by saying that, but I didn’t want to give it a deeper thought on a situation that was way more serious than the facial expressions of a co-worker.

“Can you give me an idea of why he wasn’t able to go inside?”

“No, I would be lying if I said that I understand what could be stopping him”

“Can’t blame you, but let’s explain this on the easiest possible way; as you may know, this world has rules, and I’m not talking about not killing or something like that, but things like gravity or friction, those kinds of things that I didn’t like at school. The thing that you most likely didn’t know, is that the other world also has rules”

I must admit that the idea of another world was crazy on its own, so crazy that I had never thought about how it works, about why some people “live” as ghosts, while some others seemingly don’t… I guess that it’s normal to ignore your own curiosity when something starts to seem normal to you, but as usual, it makes you feel like a fool when you ignore the sole idea of trying to learn about something, especially something that is so in your face…

“One of the main rules, as you already know, is that thing we talked about before, the task that you must accomplish to be able to ascend; aside from that, another thing includes the energies that exist around us”

“What energies do you mean?”

“Well… I don’t know to explain it, but imagine something like an aura, something that you can feel around you; did you ever feel like you’ve been observed or like something was going to happen?”

“Yes, I’ve felt things like those you mention, but what are those?”

“I already told you, I-DON’T-KNOW! I really don’t have any idea; maybe I could say that these are like things that come out of our souls, our desires, what we want and our thoughts, that’s what brings these energies into the world”

“Ok, but what does this mean when we talk about Prescott’s situation?”

“The last thing that he wanted to do was going inside, embracing his family, lying on his bed; his last moments were full of dark thoughts, fear, guilt, he was filled with anger against himself, his rage was what doomed him to be here”

It feels really weird to finally realizing that this world is way more complicated than my initial thoughts, the sole idea of these energies, spirits, souls, thoughts; all of those things are concepts that I wouldn’t have considered on my own, but more importantly, I would have never been able to help this family without Fennel’s knowledge about this weird world…

“Now it’s your turn to act, Adam, you must go inside and bring Amaris here”

It would be a lie if I told you that I was sure about following her orders, but I knew that it was the best way of acting.

Prescott looked at me with doubt; personally, if I was in a situation like him, I wouldn’t be sure about what to do, so I can’t blame him for what happened to them, to his family, but if I was in their position… I’m not sure if I could forgive him, even if this situation isn't able to show a real culprit, no, this story has only victims, multiple proofs of how bad this world can be…

“Prescott, whatever happens inside, it’ll be your work to ask for their forgiveness, are you ok with that?”

He didn’t say anything, looked at me, and with a swift move, he nodded, that was my call to solve this problem.

Everything started feeling weird again once I went inside the house; I guess that those bad energies are what caused this feeling all this time. While I was exploring the second floor, something took my hand once again, but now it wasn’t Oakley who appeared with me, Brooke was standing right there beside me.

“Did you find him?” – She was clinging to me, but I still could feel a fierce behavior, just like what Prescott told me about her younger self, it was weirdly soft though, it didn’t feel like she wanted to attack, I suppose that she was more like someone who didn’t know how to explain that she wanted to be protected…

“I did, he was lying there on the garden”

“*chuckles* That feels so dumb, it really fits him to be right next to us”

Realizing that she didn’t know about her father’s inability to explore the house wasn’t that hard; I had to explain everything to Brooke, about those thoughts as well, so she wouldn’t feel that I was talking out nowhere.

“How are you going bring him here?”

“Do you want me to be completely honest?”

“Would you ask a question if you wanted the other person to lie?”

“You don’t know if a person always wants to hear the real answer”

“Maybe you’re right, but let’s act like everything I say is expecting the truth out of your mouth”

“Then I must tell you that I don’t really have a plan, this is just following the concepts explained by a friend, but I can’t promise you that everything she says is completely true”

“I guess that it works for me…”

Suddenly, as something that I don’t know if I should call good or bad luck, Amaris appears walking right in front of us, Oakley is walking by her side; Oakley came running to us, Amaris followed him, they didn’t need to say anything special for me to understand that I had to run, this was my moment…

Amaris threw her arm to grab me, but Brooke put herself as a shield, I wasn’t going to allow her self-sacrifice again. I ran to Brooke, tried to take her, but I couldn’t do it; once again, like I had done with Oakley when I arrived here, I put all of my heart into it, I grabbed Brooke’s hand, put her beside me alongside her brother, took Oakley in my arms and kept running… Once again, things were floating around, but this time nothing would stop me, shattered glasses and a bunch of jars wouldn’t be enough to stop me! And they weren’t…

I was there, under the doorframe…

“Here I am, Fennel! What should I do now?”

“You should know, just look at your hands!”

Prescott and Amaris looked at each other, the man tried to go through the door, Amaris tried to trap her, but the energies wouldn’t allow them to do anything…

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? My hands are important here?”

“Not just your hands' idiot, you are a bridge between their world and ours!”

“Could you be a bit more literal?”

“I am being literal!”

Finally, I had managed to hold both of the siblings with my hands; I guess that leaves a more than obvious idea about what I was supposed to do…

“Prescott! Give me your hand!”

I stood under the door until he managed to reach me, then the real test came.

“Amaris! This goes for you; this goes for your family!”

She was almost demonic again, it would have seen like she had no redemption from there, but I wasn’t there to surrender at this point… I reached her hand…

“Grrr…”

I couldn’t believe it, that pressure that pushed them away, I was feeling it in my body, I started pulling them to me, but my body felt like someone was tearing me apart… I couldn’t believe this pain, it was worse than anything I had ever felt, my hands couldn’t go on anymore…

“Please! Mr. Adam, you can do it!” – Oakley, Brooke; both of them had all of their hopes on me, I couldn’t surrender now…

Everyone had their hopes on me, I could hear their voices… Oakley, Brooke, Prescott, even Amaris, and Fennel… then came to his voice…

“Adam Forte! Are you capable of helping this family!?” – Bob, the weird old man, he was the last voice resonating in my head, at first I thought that I was going crazy, but then I saw him…

“Boy, do you want to know who you are?”

My desire to help people could have been enough, but Bob’s words made me realize that he knew more than anyone here, he would be able to explain everything? I don’t really know, but I knew that being torn apart wouldn’t help in any meaningful way…

I pulled my hands, as hard as I could… after just a few minutes that felt an eternity, they touched their hands.

“Adam, thank you” – A big grin came out of her face… Amaris, she was back to her old self…

Bob was there alongside Fennel, I brought them to another place, Amaris and her family deserved to have their time alone…

No one said anything, and then some hours later… Prescott came out…

“Adam Forte… they forgave me…”

A big smile appeared on his face, tears were overflowing him, but I knew that the biggest part of his soul was dominated by happiness… he came near to me and said.

“They are resting now, thank you”

“No problem, now… you should go take care of them once again!”

He laughed a little bit, his body emanated a big light… I can’t deny that this man had failed in life, I can’t deny that he committed mistakes, bigger than anything I could think of right now, those mistakes had an impact that no one should cause to their loved ones… after all those things, I can’t deny that I was happy to know that he would finally be resting with them…

“Goodbye, Adam, Fennel, thank you” – And then, he went away… Goodbye Prescott…

Bob came near to me, Fennel by his side…

“I told you that I went for my master!”

“So, the old man is your master?”

“Don’t call him the old man”

“Now now, calm down Fennel, Adam is my friend, I don’t have any problem”

“Old man, no, Bob; could you explain to me what are you doing here?”

“Is easy boy, I’m going to ask you one single question”

I knew that what was coming would be meaningful for me, I could feel it like, something that I never felt before…

“Tell me, boy, would you like to know the origin of your powers? Would you like to know the secret behind what you are?”