Oblivion (25 page)

He thought it a thankless job they took on, knowing the deadheads outnumbered them ten to one. Every day they picked up three to four people who joined them while the deadheads added twenty to thirty to that number.

At the end of each patrol, he asked himself why he was sent here. None could tell him even that much. That was the hardest. To have lived as he had and been cut down at barely eighteen; what could he have possibly done to displease God?

Merrick laughed and said that had nothing to do with it. He clung to that theory. He prayed daily his dealing with Cameron and seeking his own justice was forgiven despite the warnings it lengthened his stay there. How could any of them know what was intended for them?

Jace walked around the yard and was grim-faced to see the lost souls Daphne spoke of walking down the street. The ghostly wraith’s moved toward him curiously. They walked from the road and the fields, rising up out of thin air.

He saw that they were harmless, could see in their confused expressions they didn’t have a clue to why they wandered the earth in the state they were in. He felt sorry for their bleak expressions. There were men, women and even children, all dressed in different time periods signifying how long they dwelled here.

A feeling of relief was known that they didn’t show any aggression. He was as unsure here as he’d been when he first arrived in Oblivion.  

“Who are you?” a ghostly man asked as he drew near, his eyes soulful and lost. “Did you see the angels?”

Jace recalled Daphne telling him how confused these ghosts were. He had no answers for them. “I didn’t see any angels,” he replied and saw the man’s expression fill with anger.

“You lie!” he shouted and the other ghosts followed suit, glaring at him.

“I didn’t see anything,” Jace insisted and tensed from the sudden change in their demeanors. “I can’t help you. I’m new here too.”

“You came from beyond,” the man sputtered. “What place did you leave?”

“It is the same as this,” Jace replied and backed away from them. “It isn’t Heaven if that’s what you think.”

The ghosts all muttered and Jace used their distraction to get away from the growing group. He ran down the rutted lane of his old driveway to the main road, pleased he seemed to fly over the ground, leaving the group behind. He felt exhilarated as he ran down the road, the blur of all he passed reminding him he needed to slow down as he neared town.

He walked into Little Bend and smiled as he stood on the corner of Main Street outside the bowling alley. He guessed it was midday. The traffic was light. Pedestrians passed him without seeing him, some walking right through him. He gasped as he felt there life force within him only seconds. It infused him with warmth, but only for a moment and they moved on, oblivious of his presence.

Jace jogged across the road to Merriman’s grocery store and went around back. He frowned as he saw the unknown vehicle parked near the stairs. Before he wondered whose vehicle it was, the apartment door opened and Lance Morgan stepped out, Marnie right behind him.

He was surprised to see Lance’s hand at her elbow as they walked down the stairs. It was obvious the pair were quite close. The lingering kiss Lance gave her before they got in his car confused him.

Marnie was dating Cameron when he died. The two had a tumultuous relationship, on again and off again. Cameron was merely using her for sex and didn’t feel responsible when she became pregnant.  The confusion in his expression intensified when the pair got into the silver car and drove away.

Glass was everywhere, shards under his feet despite the obvious efforts at clean-up. He wondered what Lance was doing home. He ran off months before in the middle of the night without a word to anyone. Lindsay thought he was upset about the divorce. Judging by the looks passing between him and Marnie before they left; he didn’t look upset anymore.

Jace looked for Deborah Morgan’s station wagon and was confused. He walked up the stairs and smiled as he recalled Daphne telling him he could walk through doors and walls here. He stepped through the door and gasped as he came to stand on the threshold of the doorway inside. The apartment was quiet.

Everything looked the same as it had the last time he was here. It was neat and tidy inside; as always. He stepped through the kitchen and stood indecisively in front of Lindsay’s bedroom door.

The last thing he wanted to do was invade her personal space. He heard music within from her IPOD player. The strains of the music reminded him of lazy days spent studying for their final exams, eating Oreo’s, and enjoying one another’s company.

Pain filled his eyes to know they would never have that again. Lindsay was alive. He was dead. He had no right coming here and forcing his way into her life now. She didn’t need him haunting her after everything his death put her through.

Just then the door opened. His eyes widened as he stared at his girlfriend, wearing only a tee shirt and panties as she walked through him. A gasp escaped him as Lindsay’s life force filled him with warmth. It was a pleasant sensation and made him feel alive for the barest of seconds it happened.

She looked as pretty as she always did. Her hair was secured in a pony tail and she wore minimal make-up. He watched her walk to the kitchen and tried not to admire the sight of his girl’s rear end in the cotton panties, but it was difficult. Fantasies of Lindsay filled his head since the eighth grade.

Jace watched her fix herself a glass of Diet Coke and nibble on crackers and cheese at the counter. He walked closer, enough to see the sad look in her eyes. Sorrow made her blue eyes even bluer. A hand reached out and attempted to touch her cheek, only passing through her.

Frustration filled him to be unable to touch her now. The desire to hold her close was quadrupled the longer he stood watching her brood. A slight frown marred her forehead. He knew that look. She was worried about something.

“I love you, Lindsay,” he said and she appeared unaware and unmoved.

She left the counter and walked back to her room. He followed and almost turned away when she slid off the tee shirt. Despite what seeing her partially nude did to him, he was startled.

A cord was taped to her chest under her bra. He watched her adjust it. Realizing it was a listening device confused him. Why was Lindsay wearing a wire? She dressed in the khaki slacks and red shirt with Merriman’s logo on it.

She worked for Merriman now? A grin split his face to think of his spoiled girlfriend working at all. Lindsay thought money just magically appeared before he died. Now it appeared she held a job. He couldn’t help but think it was about time she learn some responsibility. Deborah had never wanted her daughter to work while she was in school. Something changed, and for the better.

Lindsay put on her sneakers and he watched as she paused and looked up, her expression grew suddenly wary. He saw the look on her face and knew she was feeling his presence. She felt something. The hair on her arms stood up. Some awareness told her she was not alone in her room. It gave him hope he could reach out to her. Lindsay had always been like that; noticing things others might not.

Jace used his concentration to focus on her dresser where a picture of her and her parents sat. He focused and suddenly the picture fell forward and clattered onto the wood top, making her jump.

She went and placed the picture back where it was and he did it again. She backed away from the dresser now, her face stark with fear. He hated scaring her. He needed her to know he was here.

“Jace, is that you? Please tell me it is?” she whispered finally and her hand went to her throat. She looked terrified and he hesitated to continue.

He focused on the IPOD button and mentally pressed it to the on position. She looked horrified when the music blared in the room. He went further to advance it to his favorite song. The country song he loved by Rascal Flats started up and she was pale and trembling by now.

“Oh my god, it is you,” she whispered and was wide-eyed. “If it really is you; put on our song.”

Jace grinned and fast forwarded the IPOD to Faith Hill’s ‘Breathe’ and saw tears fill his girlfriend’s eyes. She sank to her bed and sat on the edge. The song filled the room and his heart as he watched her.  Trembling hands stilled in her lap, eyes large and luminous stared back at him, not seeing him, but knowing he was there.

“Are you ok?” she asked and her voice had a catch in it.

Jace wanted to reassure her but didn’t know how. He went and sat beside her. Her warmth was all he could feel. Wishing for more he looked around her room for some way of telling her he was fine.

He spied Sara’s bulletin board on the opposite wall. The picture of all three of the Turner children was old, taken five years before. It was wrinkled and faded but it was one of the few of them together. He focused on the push pin that secured it to the cork board. The tack popped and fell, along with the picture.

Lindsay gasped and got up. She went and picked up the picture, wiping her eyes and looking around with anxiousness.

“They’re ok, Jace. They live with my mom and Jack now. You don’t need to worry about them anymore. My mom adores Sara and Dougie is winning her over. Jack and my mom hit it off pretty good. They live together now.”

Jace was stunned Deborah Morgan and Jack Miller were an item, pleased his brother and sister were together and not in a foster home. His relief was profound. He recalled Daphne telling him of how everything improved with her death for those she cared about.

“Your father is another matter though,” she continued and looked grim. “He’s worse than ever before. I think losing the kids and the farm after your death finally pushed him over the edge. I’m sorry but he’s a lost cause.”

Jace used his mind to push the dry erase marker hanging by a string on the memo board. He mentally pulled off the cap. He saw her look of fascinated joy as he pushed the marker to the board. Writing proved more challenging than he thought. He grinned as he managed a very rough-looking heart in the green marker.

Lindsay started to cry again, sobs making her shoulders shake. “I love you too, Jace. I won’t ever stop. I miss you so much. You just don’t know.”

Jace wished he could hold her then. He did know. Seeing Lindsay brought back every bit of longing and love within him, reminding him what they planned was never going to happen. Anger filled his gaze at the unfairness of it.

They were both alerted to the phone ringing then. She ignored it as she looked around the room. “Please don’t leave me, Jace. I have to go to work right now. That’s probably Mr. Merriman looking for me.”

He used the marker to draw an arrow through the heart on the memo board. She looked relieved.

“I get off work at six tonight,” she said and looked around the room. “Please wait for me. We’ll find a way to talk to one another. I have an idea.”

Jace stared at the pillow on her bed until he managed to send it flying across the room to land at her feet. She bent and picked it up, holding it to her chest, smiling through her tears.

“A pillow to land on?” she asked softly and shook her head. “I’m probably losing my mind.”

His answer was to turn the knob of her door and painstakingly pull the door open for her. She appeared stunned to know his ghost was now ensconced within her bedroom. He was grateful Lindsay had a back bone and didn’t run away screaming her head off. She believed in such things as life after death. He used to tease her about it.  He hoped she found a better idea to communicate because using his mental energy was draining for him.

Daphne hadn’t enough time to tell him everything. Just these few pushes and he felt exhausted by the exertion. Anger and adrenaline probably disguised these obvious drawbacks to these powers. He would have to practice while she was at work. They definitely had to talk, even if that would be difficult.

Chapter Fifteen

Lindsay was eager to get her shift over, even asked Merriman if she could leave early. The man was still stung by her mother breaking off with him and refused, lecturing her for fifteen minutes on the importance of being grateful.

She glared at his back when he walked away from her register. The store was dead. Only a handful of customers had come in the last hour. It was dinnertime in Little Bend. She fidgeted to get back to her room, excited and in awe of Jace’s ghost.

There was no doubt in her mind that her boyfriend was reaching out to her from beyond the grave. Given his currently unsolved murder, she could use some incite from him of what happened that day.

Bells alerted her as the door to the grocery store opened. She groaned inwardly as she saw it was Matt, Cam, and another boy from school. The two boys sought Merriman out on the ruse of wanting a job. While her boss was busy looking for job applications in the back office, Cameron approached her register with a smirk on his face, his blue eyes full of amusement.

“Hey, Lindsay, how’s workin’ in this shithole treatin’ you?” he drawled as he played with her scanner on the conveyor belt. “Heard about the big boom the other night. Would have been somethin’ if you were in that car, huh?”

She stiffened as he laughed. “You don’t scare me, Cameron. I saw your car out there. You keep harassing me; you’re just going to get caught.”

“Aw, now you know I didn’t have anything to do with that,” he protested with a lazy smile. “My car was stolen yesterday. We just found it in the woods a couple miles from here.”

“That’s convenient for you,” she snapped and ripped the tape off her register and tossed it into the trash. “Like I said; keep it up.”

“You’re gonna pay for turning me in, Lindsay,” he warned and his blue eyes turned cold as they met hers. “I got more friends than you can even imagine. I can’t help it if they got my back.”

“I’m going to be there when you get executed for what you did to Jace, Cameron,” she stated boldly and smiled as she saw him bristle in anger. “I’m going to hope you suffer every bit as much as he did. I just have to ask. Did you get off on it? Did killing Jace make you feel like a man for once; you sick piece of shit?”