𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 30
3𝐫𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐯

Knock

Knock

Knock

JASPER stirred awake with a frown, his brows furrowed, is Sam at his door? It couldn't be Colby, he was beside him in bed, still sleeping heavily.

The knock came again and he groaned as he dragged himself out of bed, going to head to the bedroom door when he caught sight of the real cause of the noise. A tree branch hitting the window.

"Are you kidding me?" He grumbled sleepily, "What is this, an old horror movie?" He shook his head, refusing to go to the window and instead got back in bed, lying down beside Colby who instinctively moved closer, a hand curling around his waist and pulling him in.

Colby had insisted on sleeping in here again, to keep him safe, he was sure the man would continue with the excuse to sleep here for the rest of their trip, and though Jasper had no doubts Colby was truly worried about him being alone, he knew there were other reasons for him sleeping here. Not that Jasper complained.

After a while, Jasper fell asleep, the tree branch still hitting the window and causing a strange knocking sound to echo through the quiet room throughout the night.

✧˖*°࿐

THE next time Jasper woke, it was not because of the tree branch hitting the window, no, in fact, that sound was gone when he woke, he woke up because the room was freezing cold.

Shivering in bed, he pulled the blankets closer and curling up against Colby's sleeping form for warmth when he saw the window was open, the old shutters creaking in the wind. The window didn't even have a screen, so the wind was blowing full force into the room, causing the coldness he felt.

He frowned confused and untangled himself from the bed, standing up. Jasper wondered if the tree had managed to open the window, it was an old enough window that it wouldn't exactly surprise him. Whatever the reason, he just wanted to close it so he could warm back up and go back to sleep.

He reached forward, pulling the window closed. He pulled the curtains closed too, and then turned back to go back to bed except when he faced the bed, it was empty.

His frown deepened. Surely Colby would have said something if he woke up, right?

Suddenly, he heard Colby's voice shouting his name from somewhere else in the house. Without a second to waste, Jasper sprung into action, rushing out of the room all signs of sleep gone from his form as his shoulders tensed and his eyes widened.

"Jasper!" Colby's voice shouted in a panic distressed tone from somewhere down the hall, "Jasper!" He repeated in the same tone as Jasper rushed down the dark hallway, his heart pumping fast.

"Colby!" He exclaimed when he spotted a figure further down the hall. As he got closer, the figure disappeared completely and so did Colby's voice.

"Colby!" He called, turning in a near circle looking for him.

The house was strangely quiet now, and everything seemed unnaturally blue. Like literally, every wall, floor and furniture was coated in a shade of blue light.

He stepped forward, prepared to go downstairs and start searching the rest of the house or even the outside if he had to, to find Colby, when he heard the floorboards creak behind him.

He spun around, his eyes wide because he was certain the hallway had been empty.

Not now anyway, that was clear as he came face to face with the person — no, the spirit — behind him.

He wasn't alone. Not anymore.

Only, he wasn't afraid either.

"Julian." He breathed out relieved. He had never met his grand uncle (and wasn't that a strange thought because the man looked the same age as him, but was so much older — and dead) still he felt safe around him. Or as safe as one could be around a spirit.

"I'm sorry for tricking you." Julian spoke, his voice coming out as a strange echo, and strangely wistful, "Colby's safe, asleep still. So are you, I just— I needed to talk to you."

Jasper stared, unable to make sense of this... Dream? He didn't know anymore. He didn't have any words either, at least none that could form a sentence and made sense. (other than what the fuck, which was quite a prominent thought in his mind)

With Jasper speechless and Julian studying his grand nephew, as if trying to memorize every feature, the hall was silent once more. Until Julian seemed to tire of waiting for a response and took a step forward, asking, "You want answers don't you? That's why you've stayed, why you refuse to leave." Like he did, Julian doesn't say, but they both hear it.

Both know wanting answers was Julian's doom. Jasper wasn't even sure how he knew that with such certainty but he did.

He knew the man before him died by trying to find answers in this manor, he knew it like he knew the sky was blue and the grass green.

Jasper swallowed, trying to get his mind back on track, "Yes of course, I want answers. I need answers for—"

"For her." They said in unison, Julian with a nod of understanding. Perhaps they both needed answers — for Jasper's grams and Julian's sister.

"To find your answers about the present, I have to first tell you about the past." Julian paused, "or rather... show you."

"Wait what?" Jasper asked confused, "what does that even—" as he spoke the Briar Manor he knew fell and twisted, bringing with it the sensation of falling through the air, and when Jasper landed he was outside on the sidewalk of Briar Manor except the streets were different, the older houses appearing newer and the newer ones were simply gone, the most startling perhaps was the people around but none seemed to see him, walking right past without so much as a glance, "Mean," Jasper finished with wide eyes, Julian was beside him, his ghostly figure more... solid in this strange space of the past.

"That house gives me a bad feeling, Julian." A young girl who appears to be a few years younger than them.

"You've said that forever!" The blonde teased, glancing at the building he continued, "but it doesn't give me bad feeling it draws me in. Aren't you curious about it at all?"

"Of course I am but I'm not putting myself in danger to find out, and neither are you." She said sternly.

"Of course not." He assured but the way his eyes went back to the building as she dragged him away spoke of just how much he wanted to find out the mysteries of Briar Manor.

As the girl dragged away a younger Julian, the scene flickered and changed with a flash of lighting, an echo of thunder, before the Julian Jasper recognized stood before the gates of Briar Manor, staring up at it with an old brown leather messenger bag strapped to his side.

"I'm sorry, I need answers." He said to the empty space around him before he pushed open the gates and the  

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Jasper's mind was still reeling, his body wavering like when you get off a boat after hours and think you're still rocking, he still feels himself falling, when he managed to shake off the feeling some he realized they were now stood not outside the Manor, but on the stairs right where Jasper had been almost pushed off, and for a moment, Jasper almost thinks he's watching his own memory, except Julian is alone and when Julian is pushed down the stairs, there's no one there to catch him and he

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Jasper watches, his feet planted firmly to the ground as blood pools around an alive Julian and he wants to help, wants to save him, but he knows he can't.

But then, as the light fades from Julian's eyes, the man sees Jasper, "Will she be okay?" He asked as if knowing somehow that Jasper is not from this time, not meant to be here but he is.

Julian — the ghost Jasper's come to known not the one bleeding out now — nods at the same time he does, "Yes," Jasper managed to choke out, "yes she's okay. She— she has a family."

"She has a family," Julian repeated with a smile before his gaze meets the ceiling, he doesn't try to get up, to save himself, he succumbs as if ready — as if knowing this is how it must be.

The world fades again.

✧˖*°࿐

SOMEHOW, when it returns, Jasper knows they're back where they started, a lonely and dark hallway, silent, save his own breathing but not Julian's because the man is dead, has been for a long time, longer than Jasper's been alive and yet he saw him breathing mere seconds ago. Saw him dying.

"I was ready to die, because death would give me answers about my greatest mystery. This house." Julian told him suddenly, breaking the silence, "but that is not your fate. This house is not your mystery. It's mine, and I'm sorry I dragged you into it."

Jasper meets his gaze, ready to protest, to argue in any way he can and say no, it's not his fault but Julian beats him to it, knowing, showing how truly similar they are, "You stayed because of me. Because you knew that she needed answers, but, little medium," Julian smiles gently, "my sister already got her answers a long time ago,"

Jasper paused, staring in surprise. No. There's no way, he'd heard stories of his grand uncle from his grams, she always said she didn't know, even if she blamed the house she didn't know, and Julian smiled as if knowing this, "grief is a strange thing, it eats away at you, and she... she wanted to forget."

"What am I meant to do?" Jasper asked feeling numb in a way. This whole time he's been determined to find answers, for his grams and for himself and yet now he's been given at least some, and he... he's lost.

"Say goodbye to the Manor," Julian said as if it was simple, "The spirits will be fine, it is the living that needs to live and you can't do that by trying to succumb to the shadows and the spirits."

Julian stepped forward and met his gaze sternly, "you have to live, Jasper. That's all."

"It doesn't feel that easy."

Julian shakes his head, "It never does, but you won't be alone."

He knows who he means of course. Colby.

"I love him." Jasper told his great uncle.

And Julian smiled, "I know."

"I want to live with him."

"I know that too." Julian paused then, "Does he?"

Jasper paused too, "I have to say goodbye to this place." He said as if it was simple, it wasn't, but perhaps it could be, but... "But what about you?"

"I'll still be here. Watching." He smiled, "Maybe someday we'll meet again, properly this time. And I expect you'll have many stories to tell."

Julian's smile grows, "it's time for you to wake up, Jasper. To live."

"I'll be okay." He told his grand uncle before the world faded yet again, except this time he woke not with Julian by his side but with Colby.

It was a bit anti-climatic he supposed, he barely saw any of what really happened to his grand uncle, but he saw what mattered, what Julian needed to show.

How fast this Manor could take things away.  How fast it could take your very soul.

He wouldn't be like Julian, because history did not need to repeat itself. He could say goodbye to the Manor, to Julian, the spirits and mysteries alike and leave with Colby.

He would be okay.

He would live.

✧˖*°࿐
2000 words