nothing like us [ ziall au ]

Chapter Three

Zayn’s POV

“When exactly did you...pass away?” Niall asked me as he drove to where my house, well, old house is.

“I died about a year ago. I probably should’ve mentioned that,” I said, glancing down at my lap. It was a touchy subject, even though I’d been for a year now. I mean, this was my death here. I couldn’t communicate with my family or anyone up until now. A strange feeling had guided me to find Niall, and I was glad that I’d followed my gut on this one.

“I usually deal with recently dead ghosts from all over the place. You were killed a year ago and it really surprises me you’re still here. Ghosts aren’t usually able to stay here this long unless their circumstances are brutal. You should’ve passed on by now. Although, you were young with hardly any life experience, which could be the reason why you’re still here. You never quite fulfilled your life’s purpose,” Niall declared. This blonde-haired kid was pretty smart. He wasn’t really the nerdy smart. He was just clever when it came to his knowledge about ghosts.

“I felt lost for the longest time,” I began to explain. “It was like I’d slipped into some sort of oblivion. I kept screaming for someone to hear me. I didn’t realize I was actually dead until at least a week after I died. Then I gave up on trying to pass on or trying to be seen or heard. I gave up until I had this weird feeling a few days ago. It led me a county over, to you.”

Niall took in what I had said for a few minutes. He didn’t speak up right away and I assumed his mind was whizzing around, trying to form an explanation for my situation. This whole thing must be a lot for him. I was one who didn’t even believe in ghosts when I was alive and Niall has dealt with them for quite a while now by the looks of things.

Niall finally spoke up, yanking me from my thoughts. “That makes sense. I think I’ve only had this happen one other time, but his story was a lot less complicated than yours. It almost seems like those guys, Harry, Dalton, and their friends, had more of a motive than you were aware of. Maybe it was based off of a false accusation or thought? I don’t know. I’ll have to look into that more.”

Niall’s car slowed down and he pulled up to a familiar looking house. That was when I realized that this was my former house. My mum and dad were in there; my brothers and sister were possibly in there. All of a sudden I felt like I could be sick, even though I was physically incapable of puking.

Niall must’ve seen the look of anguish on my face as I gazed at the old house. Nothing much had changed about the house. It was still large and old-looking, but it just felt different to be approaching it then it had felt when I was alive.

“You better stay here… I don’t think it’ll be good for you to enter the house. Maybe after I’ve figured some things out, but not yet,” Niall spoke to me in a soothing tone. I took a deep breath and looked at him in his bright blue eyes. His hand reached towards my hand out of instinct.

That was the first time I allowed him to touch me.

As soon as his skin came into contact with mine, I felt a tingle shoot up my arm. That was weird, but it was kind of satisfying. It wasn’t a bad kind of tingle, like a jolt of electricity or something. It was like holding hands with your lover for the very first time…

Niall’s hand laid on top of mine for a few seconds before he had realized what happened. His hand jolted away and he gazed in amazement at his fingertips for a few more seconds.

“That…” He began breathlessly, “has never happened before.” His eyes connected with mine. A smile was forming on my lips and if I was alive, I’d be blushing.

“It just happened. I allowed you to touch me,” I told him, shrugging it off as no big deal; it, however, was a big deal. I’d never felt that feeling before, not even when I was alive. It was completely new to me. I wonder if he’d felt it too.

Niall nodded a little and cleared his throat. “I’ll be back in 15, maybe 20 minutes, okay? Please wait here.”

I nodded in response to Niall and watched him get out of the car and walk up to the front door of my house. To think that he’d soon be in contact with my family gave me a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. It wasn’t exactly jealousy, but it was close. I’d give literally anything to be able to walk in through the front door of my house one more time and spend a day with my family. I missed them dearly, but there was nothing that I could really do about it.

I glanced towards where Niall was standing on the front porch. He’d just knocked on the front door and soon it opened. He was now talking to someone; I couldn’t see who it was. After talking for little while, the person invited Niall inside.

I know Niall told me to stay here in the car, but I had to look at them. I don’t care what kind of pain I’d be feeling, I just needed to see my mum, dad, or any one of my siblings. I needed to see their faces.

I floated out through the car door and up to the living room window. I peeked inside and luckily Niall was sitting on the couch with his back to the window I was peeking into. That was when I saw my whole family was downstairs, talking with Niall.

Did Niall ask to speak with all of them? He must have. My eyes first came upon my mother. She’d lost quite a bit of weight, but she didn’t really need to in the first place. This tore at my heart. I just wanted to hug her so badly.

Next to her on the couch was my little sister Nikki, who was a year and half younger than me. She had changed. Her hair was darker and longer than I last remembered. Her eyes were lined with black eyeliner that was smudged purposefully.

My dad was on the other side of Nikki with his arm around her shoulders. He looked as if he’d aged five years since I’d last seen him. That couldn’t be good for his health.

My youngest sibling, Brayden, was sitting on the floor with the family dog, Flash. His hair was cut shorter on the sides and the front of it was quaffed up like I used to do with my hair when I wasn’t boxing.

The only one of my siblings that wasn’t there was Jeremiah. I assumed he’d gone off to college or maybe got a separate apartment in the city that was closer to the boxing facility. I hoped he was still boxing.

After just staring at all of their faces for a few minutes, I felt so upset that I could cry if I was able to. I was so angry at myself. My family seemed to be so depressed; things had changed about them. It was all my fault! I felt like I was being killed all over again...

The next thing I knew, I found myself storming away from the house and down the road. I didn’t want help from Niall. I didn’t need help from Niall. I had to disappear sooner or later, right?

A/N: Hi! I haven't updated this in a VERY long time, but that's because I thought I'd be discontinuing it. However, that is NOT the case! I am continuing it now :) 

Please please please leave me feed back! It's greatly appreciated and will motivate me to update. 

Like! 

Comment! 

Follow me! 

Thank you so much for reading!