Charlie

Chapter 6

I spun around in my spot, my hand flying to my chest. Charlie stood behind me with his hands on the edge of the bed, leaning all his weight forward against it. He made a weird face, between a 'you're stupid' and 'surprise' expression and I barely composed myself. The picture fluttered down onto the bedside table surface as I began untangling my feet from the comforter, which had savagely cut off the circulation when I had turned.

"You know, you could be less sneaky when you appear."

"What do you propose I do then?"

"I don't know!" I said, exasperated, throwing my hands up. "Walk loudly down the hall first or possibly knock?" He smiled, flopping down on my bed. He circled his arms behind his head, one of which rested on my bare foot.

"Um, excuse me." I scowled, throwing his limb off me as hard as possible. "Mind telling me what you're here for instead of strutting around like you know the place?" He looked up at me, his vivid eyes barely visible through his lashes. "I do know the place, butterfly. It's mine."

"Don't call me that, no one calls anyone that."

"I like to be different."

"You can't help but be different."

He chuckled lightly, shifting his head. I watched as he picked at some mud under his nail, possibly the only dark color on his body. Out of the sunlight his skin looked normal apart from its extreme paleness, the blinding reflective light gone. His hair, lashes and eyebrows were white too, the only actual color practically flooding from his eyes. I was startled to meet them as he watched me examining him.

"So you want to know why I'm here." It was more of a statement than a question. I nodded. "Well, it all started on my birthday. My mother died when I was just born, so every night on the 26th I'd go to the cathedral her funeral was held at and pray for her." He pointed vaguely out the window, most likely in the direction of the church he was mentioning. I hadn't seen any church's nearby; just trees. A whole lot of them.

"It was my 19th, and I was stopping by the church to pray after I had gotten my braces off." He smiled slightly as if it was an inside joke. "After that I was planning on heading back to the dorms to show my room mates, Jack and James..." He trailed off but my attention was quickly snapped away.

Jack Grief. And James Smith. I knew it was only a coincidence- it had to be a coincidence. I had been around them enough to know they weren't ghosts. They weren't pale, they didn't glow, they were very human. I relaxed as Charlie took a breath like he was going to continue.

"There was a man with me in the cathedral and I waited until sundown for him to leave but he ever did. Naturally, I had to be somewhere, but I wouldn't go until I prayed. So I went up to the steps and kneeled in front of this huge angel statue. I was so stubborn, I should have just left."

Charlie ran a hand over his face, staring up at the ceiling. I suddenly felt sorry for him, but I was eager to know what could have happened to him that made him so pained. I nudged his shoulder with my toe and his lips hinted at a smile. "What happened then?"

"The man attacked me, closing his hands all the way around my neck." He acted out the motion, his fingers forming claws as he should them in front of his face. Shadows appeared across his face as his nose wrinkled in a scowl. "I couldn't breath, but not because of the pressure really...it's just his hands were so cold, like dry ice. And then I blacked out." He ran his fingers over the skin of his neck at the memory, staring off into space.

"I woke up during the night in a forest. I couldn't feel, smell, or taste, but I could still move around. With some difficulty." He added, smiling though his eyes were pained. "And then there was a man there, walking towards me, and I couldn't believe my eyes. The man was me."

I shook my head, bewildered. He held up a finger as if to stop questions. "I didn't know how it was happening either, but he explained it quite well. The man in the church was an ancient ghost, and had sucked my soul out of my body and thrown it aside to use the body as his own." Charlie's eyes darkened and he pushed himself onto his elbows to turn more towards me.

"Dante Molinero." He growled. I shoved the name to the back of my mind to research later. "He wanted to feel again, and the only way to do that was to find a human vessel. He wanted my body as I was in my prime, so he stole it."

I stared at him, processing what he had said. What I was hearing was absolutely crazy. "That's what happened to you? No suicide, no kidnapping, no murder?"

"Kidnapping, sure." He shrugged, scooting into a sitting position on the bed. He glanced down at my bedside table where the picture of him lay. "I knew you were taking a picture you know."

I followed his gaze to the piece of paper leaning against a picture frame. "Why didn't you hide then?"

"I wanted you to see me. I need your help Ann."

"How can I help you?"

"Adults don't understand the whole ghost thing; even if I appeared to them they'd make some excuse as to what they had seen and forget. I knew you wouldn't." He winked, a smile lighting up his face. "I've figured out the catch to stealing someone's body. When a body loses its original owner, a sort of chain is planted between the soul and the body. The chain is only broken by death and the body being buried.

"Another chain is fused with the body and the earth where it first became empty. In my case, the cathedral. My body can only go so far from the church before it runs out of slack and can't go any further. Meaning Dante can't leave Vilas County."

"Would it be the same for you if you got your body back?" I asked hesitantly. He shrugged. "I sure as hell hope not. I've been here for six decades. If I can get control I'll run as far from here as possible."

"Wouldn't Dante be old now though?" I asked, folding a pillow behind me to lean against. Charlie crawled up next to me and rested his back against the headboard, closing his eyes. "You'd think that, yeah. But just by watching I've come to the assumption that the body can't age unless the original soul is inside. Dante still looks 19, which is probably why he wanted my body right then so he'd freeze in good condition."

He wrinkled his nose and scowled, keeping his eyes glued shut. My phone suddenly rang softly next to me, the bubbly ringtone muffled somewhere underneath the blankets. I dug around through the fabric until I unearthed it, holding it up to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hey Ann, I just want to apologize for earlier."

"Jack!" I exhaled with relief. The thought of our little fight had been weighing on my shoulders since I had gotten out of the frigid rain. I heard him laugh at the other end along with the shuffling noise of his phone switching ears. "What would you say if I told you I wanted to hang out? And that I was outside your house, prepared to kidnap you if you said no?"

I flung myself up from the bed and jogged into my parents room, whose windows opened up to the front yard. Jack stood leaning against his black truck, his phone still pressed to his ear. The rain had stopped, a few droplets quivered on the edge of the roof and glittering on every leaf.

I laughed and watched him smile in response, tucking his phone into his pocket. I fled down the stairs, reaching the door in a matter of seconds. I could feel Charlie had disappeared as I twisted the handle, capturing Jacks attention and motioning him inside.