❝ There's a stream of what I've done,
where I've been it's not clean I'm not sober, 
and you are in my head. ❞

───────

FIVE | TWO WORDS

After managing to get up and walk, wincing, touching my side and breathing heavily, I reached the machine. I didn't know anything about machines, but I could tell that the harvester worked perfectly, probably like the first time it was used. I wasn't feeling well, I felt like I could pass out at any moment, I was bleeding, my knees were shaking, my head was pounding and the fact of trying to understand everything only confused me even more.

The cold wind hit my face, cooling the tear that had just rolled over my cheek. Slowly and holding my injured hand, I turned around. I startled when my eyes met the white and ghostly silhouette of a man that appeared two or three steps from me. At first, he looked like the wind was taking him away but then he began to look more tangible. He had a wound in the cheek, I stared stunned at how it seemed to bleed but the blood that came out of it didn't stream down his face, it floated in the air and then vanished. Fear overpowered me and my body started to shake yet again. I thought he would do something like the woman inside the house, I thought he'd jump on me and somehow I would die there.

The stories were real. All my stubbornness was gone by then, I had just seen and been attacked by a violent and angry ghost in there. The spectre raised his gaze to me and I couldn't fix my eyes on him anymore so I just closed them and stood there, weeping and begging under my breath in front of another ghost, if the ghost inside the house didn't kill me, this would finish the job. Nobody would find my body, not until Josh got really worried and decided to look for me.

Something cold touched my face, making me flinch and let out a shaky gasp, I was going to die, it was the only thing I could think of. His hand ran through my hair and then I heard the voice, the same voice I had heard two decades ago in the workshop.

"Edith . . ." He said almost in a whisper and my eyes opened right away, between tears I looked at him and when I did, he dropped his gaze, staring at the ground again. I tried to remember the man in the workshop, but memories were totally blurry and the only thing I remembered were his cold fingers brushing my hands and how he had disappeared in a blink, I couldn't recall more about him.

"What do you want?" I asked in a whisper and waited for the answer that never came. I don't know, but I began to feel bad for him as I wondered what had happened to him, why was he dead and why was still there. The locals said bad things happened there and the first thing that popped up in my head was murder, "Who killed you?" I felt the tremor going down my body when he looked up at me. His face contorted, he looked sad, like something was hurting him so bad. My jaw dropped when I saw him tilting his head a little and one silent tear running down his face. He said the name 'Edith' before reaching for me with both hands, making me gasp and step back. His movements were slow and smooth and the mask of sadness on his face grew thanks to my reaction.

"What are you doing here?" I asked and saw how the wind was really taking him away this time, he became light and thin, returning to his insubstantial form again, vanishing.

"Help me." He whispered, with that my fear towards him decreased. I thought that if that was the same man/ghost I had seen when I was a kid and he was asking for my help again, he wasn't going to hurt me. He would have already done it, right?

"How?" I asked but he didn't answer, instead, his hand reached for my face and caressed my cheek before disappearing completely, leaving me staring into nowhere and listening to the machine's engine.

I turned to see the house, going into that place and get my stuff back wasn't something I was thinking of. My hand went to my pockets, looking for my phone, it wasn't there anymore but I still had the car keys.

"Get out of here Adeline," I said as I began to walk towards the car, "you just have got to get out of here." I unlocked the doors and got in, placing my hands on the wheel, I realised how tense I was and how my hands were shaking when I tried to insert the key in the start, it wasn't time to have a panic attack, I had to focus on starting the car and drive back home.

Five hours later, I was turning the key to my flat in the lock. It was the middle of the night so I never expected to find Josh awake at those hours let alone sprawled on the couch in his laptop.

He turned and his eyes widened when he saw me in such state, dirty, bloodstained and ripped clothes, "What's happened to you?!" He asked as he got up, tossing the laptop on the coffee table and running to my side, "Are you okay? Who did this to you?!" He took my hands in his and examined them, "Adeline, speak to me!" I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his chest and I lost it. I had managed to hold it in but I couldn't anymore. My body collapsed against Josh's and his arms never let me go as I cried. He kept asking what had happened but when he realised that I wouldn't give him an answer, he limited himself to hold me. Of course the time of telling him came. Everything seemed to be part of a film, I knew he wouldn't believe me.

Josh paced in my bedroom with a hand on his hip and the other rubbed the back of his neck as I sat on bed, hugging a pillow and glancing at the bandage on my finger from time to time.

"Alright," Josh muttered and stopped walking, "She pushed you down the stairs and kicked you out if the house, all this for a ring, is that what you said?" I nodded and he reciprocated, "I strongly believe that you should take a break, you should stop writing for a while," I frowned, "you're way too stressed out. Ghosts, really? Adeline, for the love of God, what are you talking about?!"

"I'm not stressed out! It's true, she did this, it was her!" I said and Josh rubbed his face with his hand, "It was real! I'm not lying to you!"

"There must be another reason, maybe you were dreaming and you were sleepwalking," I rolled my eyes and rubbed my temples, "have you been taking pills again?" He asked without looking at me and I scoffed.

"God, I can't believe you're doing this-"

"Have or have you not taken pills again?" His voice echoed in the room and I kept silence.

"I haven't," I said, "I haven't taken antidepressants in the past ten months, Josh, neither another kind of drug if that's what you're implying," I took a deep breath, "I began to take antidepressants when dad passed away but what's the point if not even those can help you? I felt like they didn't, so I stopped a long time ago," He looked at me, "I'm not an addict, Josh," I whispered, hurt, since I never thought he would think that, "I'm telling you the truth, it was real."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that. It's just -"

"You don't believe me," I shrugged, "I didn't believe in these things this morning either," He sighed and got up.

"I believe you, but by now you should get some sleep," I nodded. I could tell he didn't believe me at all. Some of us try to ignore these sort of things, but we know deep down that ghost are real, we just don't want to accept it for fear of being right, "good night."

"Yeah, good night." I gave him a small smile and he left. I looked down at my hands, thinking about what had happened, like re-playing it in my head, "Stop thinking about it." I said to myself and reached for the lamp on the nightstand to turn it off, getting under the covers and closing my eyes, determined to sleep. Two hours had passed and I was wide awake.

"...help me..."

I couldn't get his voice out of my head. I rolled on my side for the millionth time and took a deep breath. Helping a ghost was the last thing I could have ever imagined, "A living person helping the dead," I smiled at how ridiculous it sounded. But then I remembered that pained expression on his face. I buried my face into my pillow, trying to stop myself and failing, "I have to go back," sometimes being a tender-hearted person only brings trouble.

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