19A/N: I forgot how much I liked this fic... I suck for leaving it unfinished for so long.
It was like someone had hit the fast-forward button on my life.
Only days ago, I was seeing my death.
And Jonah…
His death too, I suppose.
Mom was there, right to my left in a sleeper-chair. She didn't look so good. Probably had been there since I was admitted. There were still ashes smudged against her cheeks, tear-tracks cutting lines through the grey.
And I was here.
I was alive to witness it all.
A nurse came in making rounds, "Hi, I see that you're awake now."
Two digits of her hand immediately wrapped around my wrist, taking my pulse.
"Can you tell me your name?"
"Mathew Campbell."
"And the date?"
"Uhhh… Not sure."
"Okay, it's the 27th. Do you know where you are today?"
"I'm in the hospital. I burned a house down."
She quirked a brow. "What is your pain like, on a scale of 1-10?"
"It's… a 3? But, only my skin." I felt shocked. "Hey, I don't feel anything else!"
"Just these scratches and the burns, but I don't feel anything else. My joints, I can move without pain, right now! Is this from medication?"
"Actually, we took a blood sample when you were admitted. Your oncologist, Dr. Lau, would like to speak with you once your mother wakes up."
Oh, God. Here it comes… Saved only to die here pathetically. This must be it. My nerves are shot. No feeling at all, not just in the tips of my fingers and toes now. It's gotta be everywhere. It spread.
Why couldn't I have just gone with him when I had my chance?
Why?
Looking over I saw Mom shift and turn. I didn't want to wake her… Actually, I knew that I probably shouldn't have.
"Mom." My voice was loud in the quiet room.
"Mom, I'm alive. Wake up." Her form froze for a moment, before she looked straight into my eyes.
"Mom, I—"
I've never seen her move so fast.
Correction, I've never seen her go from zero to tears so fast.
But there it was and we were hugging and crying.
I say "we" because in the end it was a fool's victory. Living through a fire to burn to death in an entirely different way.
Cooked from the inside-out by chemo. And in the end, dying still.
It was more irony than a life could take. You could say…
The tears streaming down endlessly were nowhere near finished, even as I spoke. "Hey, calm down. I know, I know…"
"Matt, what were you thinking? You almost died, Matt. How could you be so STUPID? The house! All of our belongings!"
"I had to. You knew…Everyone knew something was wrong with that house. Only I can see them, Mom. They weren't hallucinations, it's because I am so close to dying. I can see things." She looked at me with tears still filling her eyes and a solemn face. She was trying; that was good. "There was no time. I had to do it before I died. Or else everyone would have kept ignoring it and I was the only one who could see them."
"Matt, how do you expect anyone to believe that?" She grabbed my hand and looked earnestly into my eyes.
"Insurance representatives are calling your father nonstop. The local news reported on it, Matt."
I was silent. Hearing about these types of concerns meant nothing for me. I was going to be dead soon, but my family still had to deal with everything I had done in the name of exorcizing a haunted house.
Great.
"For God's Sake, Matt! Say something!" She forced my head back to her general direction.
I couldn't meet her eyes.
"The policed asked me if I wanted to press charges against you! If the owner wanted to press charges!"
And there were no words for the look in her eyes.
"They wanted to arrest you after you were stabilized. They have consulted the doctors. And guess what they are going to decide?"
Was it irrational for me to feel so angry with her? Because at this moment… I just want to give up. I wanted to scream at her! So much for being family!
But what the hell? I wouldn't believe me either….
"What about the bodies?" She stopped, short.
"What do you—"
"What about the bodies?" I practically hissed.
"There were no bodies. None were found. The place was raised to the ground"
"How? How is that possible?!" She was staring at me like I was crazy again… "Billy and Wendy saw them! Where are they?! Ask them! Let them talk to the police!"
"They will take you into custody, eventually Matt. To sort this whole thing out. And I'm almost positive that we will go to court over this."
"Do you know what this means for your father's reputation? For the business?" She was livid. "And what about Wendy and Billy! Ask them WHAT ABOUT THE GHOSTS!? They're here too! They were admitted for shock, Matt! Billy hasn't said anything yet. It's been two whole days, already. And he won't sleep on his own and he won't speak!"
"What about Wendy?"
"She's, not well right now, Matt."
"What do you mean? Just because she's telling the truth!"
"There's evidence of this, Mom. When they built that highway they had to dig up a bunch of corpses."
She made a sound of disgust and turned away in disbelief.
"They found over a hundred coffins empty!"
She shook her head and didn't stop.
"They were in the walls!"
I, I felt empty at this point…
"Mom… don't you believe me?"
A knock sounded on the door, shortly following, "Nurse. May I come in?"
The door opened anyway.
"We understand that this is a difficult time for your family, but it's very late. And others around you are resting…" She looked sincerely sorry.
Our heads all turned at the next short knock.
"It's your physician, Dr. Lau, Matt. We have to discuss your most recent blood work. We need to run an MRI immediately."
"Doctor, I don't want him put through anything else. I think we've all had enough…" She sounded resigned. Resigned to my death…even though… Even though she had always fought for me before. Was this her…letting go? "Right, Matt?"
I couldn't speak.
"I highly recommend it. You see, his blood work is normal. He has a normal white blood cell count, a healthy count. It's not elevated, despite all of his cuts and burns. And it's not within the hundreds like it was a few days ago." He looked at me. "Matt, we didn't know how you were alive, last time. But this is even stranger. Within two days, you are seemingly cured of systemic, autoimmune cancer?"
My mom's face was shocked. She couldn't say anything as the doctor came over and sat at the end of the bed.
I couldn't either.
"We need to run a scan before anything is definite, of course. And we will need to monitor you for another few nights."
He looked down at the floor for a moment. "I know that the police have been questioning us and other members of your health care team about the likelihood of mental instability, of hallucinations, and depression due to your most recent hospitalization and your condition… But something isn't right.
The way I see it, you should not have survived. But here you are today. Alive, breathing. Normal assessment, normal vitals, normal blood work. As if you were any other healthy, kid. Matt, I believe something miraculous…" He looked towards my mother. "Something maybe supernatural… Must have occurred to bring you to this point."
"I'm not…dying." It was a foreign thought in my head and on my tongue.
"No, Matt. I don't think so. You are very much alive." He smiled widely at me and clasped my leg.
"I'll give you some time to let it sink it. I know you both need it." He excused himself.
"Matt…?"
"Jonah."
"What?"
I looked her dead in the eye. "Jonah did this."
"Jonah?"
"He…He saved me. He was the one that told me about the house and the spirits. Why all of these strange things were happening…"
"Mom, remember?" She looked as if she was talking to a ghost right now.
I closed my eyes. "The firemen pulled my body almost the whole way to the oak tree in the front of the house. They pumped my chest there and tried to revive me." I opened them. "You were in complete hysterics the whole time. You were the one that saved me. You ran in there and found me, even after the smoke…"
"I remember everything, Mom. I was there with Jonah. We were there over my body, watching everything. Billy and Wendy were being held back by firemen. They were wrapped in blankets… I started breathing there on the lawn."
"Oh, my God… Matt, you're not, you can't be lying. You were unconscious…." She held a hand up to her mouth, "But, how?"
"It was Jonah… I was dying, but he said he would return me. I don't think I understood what he meant at the time. But he saved my life. He possessed me, Mom. He kept me going until I made it to the house."
I was mumbling now, staring past her and outside of the window where dawn was breaking…
"Just until it was burning… But he must have done something else… Taken away the cancer… Taken my death along with him…" My head hung low. My upturned palms rested in my lap. They itched from the tears dropping and collecting there.
Even though he's been dead for so long…
Why is it that I still felt like mourning?