Spook

Chapter 23
Indifference

"SO, BOTH Charlie and Danny were really dead for a while?" asked Joseph as he kicked back on his bed. He had to break his date with Lea because of what happened a couple of hours earlier, which Tim had been trying to explain to him since they got back to their room.

"Well, not really dead because their bodies were still functioning, but their souls were elsewhere for a while," explained Tim. "Without their souls, though, or an artificial life-support system, their bodies would have died in a matter of minutes."

"Then we should've brought them to the hospital," Joseph argued. "What if Danny didn't find Charlie in time? They could've died..."

"If we brought them to the hospital, then what?" answered Tim. "We're gonna tell the doctor that they just dropped on their feet? It wouldn't have mattered anyway. If Danny and Charlie spent enough time in the astral realm, they wouldn't wanna go back here."

"The astral realm is what most people would refer to as heaven or hell... or even purgatory," continued Tim. "In there, you play out your happiest moments in all your past lives, as well as try to correct in vain all the mistakes you've done in your past lives. Given enough time, both Charlie and Danny would forget that they still have living bodies here on Earth and they still have a life to live here. Charlie would be consumed by reliving all the past lives he had, and Danny would have spent eternity looking for Charlie, eventually forgetting who he was actually looking for and why."

"Meanwhile, here on Earth, their bodies would be wasting away in a hospital until somebody decides to pull the plug," Tim said. "It would've been useless to artificially prolong their lives because they're already living it elsewhere."

"I guess you're right," Joseph agreed. "And some other soul could've taken over their bodies while they were in a coma and we wouldn't even know it."

"Well, we probably would notice if some other spirit took over their bodies," said Tim. "But I wouldn't worry much about that. It takes a really powerful spirit to possess another body. Even for demons, possessing a human body takes so much of their energy that if they are expelled, their spirit eventually disintegrate."

"You mean they die?"

"No," answered Tim. "I mean they cease to exist. Very few spirits could possess a body and still manage to hold themselves together if they are expelled. And even if they do manage to survive the exorcism, they usually become weak... fragmented. That's why it's not a very popular way of acquiring life on Earth. Most spirits would rather be reborn and start a whole new life of their own."

"Ahh... so we go back to reincarnation," said Joseph. "How many past lives did Charlie and Danny have, you think?"

"I'm sensing that Charlie and Danny both have very ancient souls," Tim said with certainty. "They are probably two of the oldest souls ever. The difference is that Charlie had had thousands of past lives, while Danny, well... I'm not really sure."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because his abilities are far greater than mine that's why I couldn't even get a glimpse of his past lives. Or maybe this is only his second life, after the original one he had so long ago."

"But if that's true," said Joseph, "why didn't he choose to be reborn like Charlie did so many times?"

"That's something that only Danny's soul can answer," Tim replied. "But if I have to guess, I think he spent all that time in the astral realm looking for Charlie."

"And he couldn't find Charlie there because Charlie was busy living his lives here on Earth," Joseph concluded.

"Makes sense, doesn't it?" Tim smiled.

"Wow! This is like a really great love story that spans several millennia!" Joseph exclaimed.

"Not just several... probably hundreds, even thousands," Tim said with a bit of worry. "And they haven't reached the end yet."

THE STRAPS felt tight on his wrists. He struggled on his bed again, trying to tear away the velcro that held the straps firmly in place. He wanted to get out of this hellhole. He needed to get out of this hellhole.

"I'm not crazy," he muttered. "Why wouldn't anybody believe me? It's coming for me... I need to get out of here!"

He began to whimper. His bruises and his bones had all healed up pretty nicely. But they still wouldn't let him out of the hospital. He heard that he was still on the suicide watch. They thought I jumped from the fire escape to try to commit suicide? Now who's talking crazy?

The lights in his room suddenly flickered. "Marcus..." he heard someone calling him. He looked around the small room. Nobody was there.

"Wh-who's there?" he said, his voice quivering in fear. This is it... it has come to finish me off.

"Don't be afraid," the voice said. "I'm not here to hurt you."

"Wh-what do you want from me?"

He felt the straps on his wrists and legs being ripped away. His heart was ramming in his chest as he slowly sat up on the bed.

"Don't even think of running," the voice warned. "You can't outrun me."

Marcus tried to calm himself. "A-are you here to kill me?" he asked.

"No," the voice answered. "I would never hurt you, my dear, sweet Marcus."

"Th-then, wh-what do you want?"

"I need you to do me a favor," replied the voice.

"Favor? What favor?" Marcus probed.

Suddenly, a face appeared in front of him... a beautiful face that looked so familiar. He gasped as he realized who he was talking to. And he felt himself begin to relax.

"I figured out a way to get back," the face said as its whole body began to appear right before Marcus. "But I'm gonna need your help. I need you to take care of some things for me."

An evil grin began to spread across Marcus' face. "I'll do anything you want. Just get me outta here."

CHARLIE found himself with a sword in his hand fighting with someone. He felt inexplicable rage at the man who was dodging his blows.

"This man killed my lover," he thought as he sliced through the man's body and then pierced his chest with his sword.

"Ahhhhhh!" he screamed to let out his anger. Then he looked at the top of a huge wall where the family and supporters of the man he just killed were watching the fight.

Then, he opened his eyes and found himself in his bed sweating and breathing fast. His heart was pounding. He could still remember the rage he felt... and the sorrow of losing a lover. He sat up and tried to breathe deeply.

"Charlie, are you okay?" he heard Danny say.

He looked at Danny's concerned face and he knew right away that if anybody would hurt Danny, he would kill them with no hesitation... just like he felt in the dream.

"But it wasn't really a dream," he thought. "It was real... it did happen. But it wasn't Danny I was avenging... it was someone else..."

"Charlie?" Danny interrupted his thoughts.

"I-I'm okay," he answered. "J-just a dream."

"You've been having quite a few lately," said Danny. "Used to be that you only dream about me. I'm kinda getting jealous."

"It's not like I can control my dreams," Charlie snapped. And he immediately regretted it as he saw the pain that crossed Danny's face.

Danny managed to shrug it off. He smiled at Charlie and said, "I know, baby. I need to get to class. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah," Charlie said. "I'm sorry... I just... I'm okay. You go to class and learn something."

"I'll see you later," Danny said as he gave him a quick peck on the cheek before he went out the door.

Charlie stared blankly at the closed door for a long time. It had been over a week since Danny had saved his life again. He wished everything would just go back to the way it was before, but it just wouldn't.

The memories of his past lives had been invading his dreams. The pain... the sorrow... the rage... the losses... It was like he was reliving them again. And lately, it was invading his mind even during his waking hours.

"There's a good reason why you shouldn't remember your past lives," he thought.

He stood up and went to look out the window. Spook was part of a lot of his most recent lives. He felt it. Spook was the lover he was avenging in his dream earlier.

He had yet to remember all of his past lives, though, but they were rushing through his mind like a raging stream. He had already seen glimpses of his original life, but it was still mostly a blur to him. He was afraid, though, that if he couldn't get these rushing memories under control, it would eventually take its toll on Danny.

He unconsciously touched Danny's ring on his finger. Danny gave it to him that day. Danny said it would protect him the way it protected Danny.

"But you need it for your protection," he protested when Danny was slipping the ring on his finger.

Danny just smiled at him. "After spending some time in the astral plane," Danny said, "ghosts don't scare me much anymore. What scares me most is losing you."

Charlie didn't believe that the ring would do him much good. But he kept it so that Danny would feel secure about his safety. Besides, it might not exactly be an engagement ring, but it was still a ring given to him by the man he loved more than anything else in the world. The man who still showed so much love these past few days even if he wasn't really reciprocating it.

He couldn't help it. He felt guilty that in his past lives he loved a lot of people other than Danny. He felt like he cheated on Danny and he couldn't understand why.

"It's not like Danny was there," he thought. "But it feels like all this time, Danny had been faithful to me, and I went and fell in love with everybody." He sighed.

He knew Danny was getting hurt every time he snapped like he did earlier. Or every time he pulls away when Danny was trying to get close to him.

"I have to get through this," he thought as fresh tears began to roll down his cheeks. "I have to get these memories under control. I can't let them take over my life with Danny. I love him so much... I finally found the one I'd been looking for since the beginning of time. I can't lose him now..."

He closed his eyes and concentrated on containing the memories of his past lives. He visualized himself pushing the memories into a room deep in his mind. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he used all his might to push all the memories inside the room. Once the last of the memories were safely tucked in the room, a large steel door appeared on the doorway. He closed the door and bolted it, locking all the memories inside.

He didn't notice that the ring was glowing while he was doing that.

He opened his eyes and a feeling of relief and happiness swept over him. He knew he'd done it. The memories were locked away until he needed them to resurface.

But the feeling didn't last long. His heart started hammering in his chest and he felt as if the ring was tightening around his finger. He then felt an intense pain in his chest, which was soon washed out by a profound feeling of loss that he couldn't understand.

He came back to reality when he heard his phone ringing. He grabbed it and saw that it was Rommel.

"Hey, what's up?" he said as he answered the call.

"Charlie?" Rommel said, his voice was quivering.

"Rommel, what's wrong?" Charlie asked, visibly alarmed.

"Please help me..." Rommel said.

DANNY was trying to focus on what the professor was saying. But he was failing miserably. He just couldn't stop thinking about what was going on with Charlie.

He tried to be very understanding. Charlie just literally went through hell and back. The things he might have seen... the memories that might have surfaced... Danny couldn't fathom what horrible things in Charlie's past lives were now back in his memories.

He knew there was no danger for him in that aspect when he went into the astral realm. He already tried looking into his past lives before when he was trying to find out more about his powers with the help of Apo Gusting. He couldn't find any. Except for one that was very ancient. Unfortunately, he couldn't unlock that memory for some reason.

"A huge part of you had been taken away from that life," explained Apo Gusting. "Your memories are locked away because you're still not ready to deal with that pain. Everything will reveal itself when the right time comes."

When he embraced Charlie in the astral realm, he saw glimpses of that past life. And that was how he knew that it was Charlie he had been missing all along. It had always been Charlie.

But just as he thought that nothing could come between them anymore, Charlie suddenly became indifferent towards him. And he couldn't understand why.

Charlie wouldn't even snuggle with him anymore. And most of the time, he gently pulls away when Danny tries to get intimate.

He was trying to be brave about it, but Danny was hurt and confused. He didn't know how long it would take for Charlie to deal with this, and he didn't know how much more he could take.

"Just give him the space that he needs," he told himself. "He'll come around soon enough. He loves me... I know he does."

He sighed as the professor wrapped up the class. He stood up and began to walk out of the classroom. He felt a lot of spirits looking at him as he walked out of the building.

He had gotten used to them by now. They couldn't touch him anymore because he knew how to repel them if he needed to. But for the most part, they left him alone. Which was fine by him.

He didn't have another class until late in the afternoon and he was trying to decide if he would go back to the dorm or just hang out somewhere until lunch time.

He knew Charlie would be in their room and he didn't know if he could stand another rejection so soon. He sighed again. He decided to go to the UP Lagoon¹ instead.

He sat on a protruding root of one of the big trees there and he looked at the other trees around him. There were some creatures lurking in this park and they were curious about him. He just ignored them and he let out a small burst of energy to warn them to stay away.

He never felt more alone than he was now, though. He wanted Charlie to be there next to him. He just wanted Charlie to want him around again.

He breathed deeply as he tried to hold back his tears.

Then, he felt a piercing pain in his gut. He clutched his stomach, but the pain coursed through his veins all over his body. He felt like he was literally getting yanked off his own skin.

He tried to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth. He tried to release an energy blast, but it was too late. He felt himself getting thrown and getting sucked into a void... and then he couldn't feel anything anymore as everything went dark all around him.

¹ UP Lagoon is actually a small man-made lake with a nice park around it and is located in the heart of the UP Campus, just behind the UP Admin Bldg and the UP Amphitheatre. A lot of 'action' also happens there, especially at night. Hahah! back