Haunted Homecoming

V

Vay

Guest
Few things change people surer than death.

The was was over, after a year in the navy and another in a prison camp it was finally time to go home. He had changed, rougher around the edges, thinner. It was a novel experience to be driven in a military owned sedan, drab green and driven by a superior officer, the navly's small gesture to someone who lived in prison for them.

But now It was all behind him as the car pulled into the street where he lived. He was home, his sisters would be waiting, now maybe the dreams would stop. He had tried writing, tried to get a phone, tried everything to contact them when the dreams had begun but had no luck. The car stopped and he opened his door not responding to the words from the driver, he just wanted to see his sisters.
 
It was about a month ago that she got a message finally saying that he would be coming home. They were so close once upon a time and she wished it would be the same now. Little did she know that something inside of him would change and he would never be the same. When she heard the sound of the car door she knew instantly who it was and dropped everything she was doing and ran to the door. Tears filled her eyes when she opened the door and looked at her brother he was finally home. "Hey." She called out waving her hands over her head feeling giddy hoping to see her brother the way he was before.
 
He stood, suitcase in hand. While in contained little more than the uniform he had changed out of when they had found clothes his size it was all he had other than what he had left behind. The car pulled away behind him and he was left looking at the house and the girl waving enthusiastically. He couldn't help but crack a smile and dropping the suitcase running over the grass to hug his sister tightly. It had been over two years since he had seen her and even though he had left willingly he still hadn't expected to be away that long.

"Hey." it was a simple greeting but Reid didn't need anything more for his sister as he opened his eyes and took a step back to look at her, then into the house. "Where is everyone?"
 
When she saw him running towards her she couldn't help but meet him part way and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. It felt so good to have him back her best friend in her whole life since they were in the womb. Her head went against a flat hard muscle chest unlike the chest she had felt when he was here before he left. The hug ended only to soon she was hoping it was going to last longer then it did because it had been two years. She did not know he did not get the letter about their sibling dieing and she did not want to mention such a sore subject right now. "Mom and dad are fine." She left out Jessie.
 
The look on her face worried him. "I've missed you." he said standing there with her, still she was the only one greeting him... "I was expecting a bigger welcome." he said teasing her, "I've been worried, you wouldn't believe the dreams I've been having..." a moment of silence, awkward after all this time but he was eager to get inside and catch up with Jessie and it only took him a second to retrieve the suitcase and rejoin.

He has the happiest he had been in months seeing his sister again but he was impatient to be a family again, to have the gang back togetehr and hand out. "So wheres Jessie?"
 
He seemed so happy she did not want to ruin it with having to explain Jessie was gone. "Didn't you get my letters?" She asked following him inside to the house. Him and Jessie were close to he loved his siblings and she knew it but explaining the death over again would kill him. When he was inside she locked the door behind him and turned towards him waiting for the answers she knew was coming.
 
He looked at her blankly shaking his head. "I got nothing, I tried writing but...." his smile had disappeared as the dreams he had been having of death resurfaced in his mind. "Wheres Jessie?" his tome had changed from a simple inquiry to take on a desperate tine, as if he knew her answer would be bad news but still wouldn't believe it would, refused to accept that is would. "Something happened didn't it." it washed over him as sure as if she had said it and he pulled her into another hug his hands gripping his sister's clothes. "Tell me what happened."
 
When he pulled her into another hug her heart broke she had no idea how she was going to tell him. "Maybe you should go sit down in the living room. I will tell you then." She said staying in his arms a few more seconds and then pulling away wondering how in the world she was going to tell her best friend about their sibling. Telling people about someone's death is never easy and she remembered that they were quite close so this was going to hurt him. Little did she know about the dreams from their sister and he already knew about her death a while back. How could he not get her letters she sent them.
 
He went inside and sat heavily on the wooden chair the joints creaking under his eight. "It was a car crash wasn't it?" he asked he had no idea how he was going to explain how he knew, he wasn't even sure himself. He put his head in his hands his hair poking out between his fingers before he lifted his head. He hadn't believed she could be dead, from the person he knew two years ago to gone. He didn't know how he knew but he knew why, it was his fault.

"I take it you didn't get my letters either." he said his voice distraught. "I tried to send them to you both, so you knew I was ok."
 
She stopped a few feet away from him standing in front of him how did he know how she died. "Yes it was a car crash." When he put his hands in his hair she put a hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him. "How did you know that? I did get some letters at first then fewer and fewer then nothing. I got your message about coming home though."She said leaving her hand there for comfort hoping he would be ok.
 
"You know I was captured." he said, all the letters I wrote at sea went down with the ship. We were lucky the ship that sunk us stopped long enough to pick up prisoners." he stood, he needed to look into her face when he told her this, he had though the night he had been thrown into the sea just before the fuel floating on top of the water ignited would be the worst night in my life, and the dreams that followed..." he closed his eyes, and fell back down onto the chair unable to continue, she was really dead, seemingly on the same night his ship had gone down.

"I'm sorry I... Haven't been sleeping."
 
When she heard all that she gave him a slight hug before he sat back down. She wanted him to talk to her about what happened maybe he would need some professional help. "I'm sorry." She whispered sitting on the arm of the chair he was on and wrapping her arms around him to try to be there for him. Somehow she found this hard since he had be gone for so long and she had not been able to see him or help him. "Why don't you go try to get some sleep?"
 
He looked up her and their eyes met for a moment and his recent history was written them. He had left his family, found another aboard a ship before losing them too and had been plagued by the feat that when he returned to his old one he would find it broken, and now he had.

"Sounds like a plan." he said tearing his eyes from hers as he saw her own sadness, he had brought it all up for her and she hadn't come to terms with it either. "Thank you sis." he said standing and returning her hug as he stood. "Maybe things will make more sense in the morning." it was a half joke, but somewhere in the back of his mind he was looking forwards to pancakes in the morning, they had always been his favorite, and in the navy he had learned how to make them, not quite hoe his sister made them though.

He stepped away and suitcase in hand looked int he direction his room was, or at least the one he has before he left. "I'll see you in the morning."
 
When he looked at her she saw in his eyes that something more happened there that she did not know about. Something she probably would not know or never know. When he stood up so did she and hugged him back hoping he would be ok sometime or another. "I'll make pancakes in the morning for you just please try to rest ok?" She always did that read his mind before he said anything which was sometimes annoying on his end. When she saw him look towards where he thought his room was she nodded showing that it was still there. "Try to have a good night ok?" She asked while she followedh im to her room so she could rest to.
 
"I'll try my best..." he said before giving her the first genuine smile since the news was delivered. "Its good to see you sis... Its good to be home and theres one thing I want to say because I've though you deserved it and I don't know how many of my letter you got. I'm sorry for leaving."

He turned and stripping his shirt pulled open the covers before sitting and kicking off his shoes. He hummed a song he had often heard in the last year but had never understood the meaning of the words.

Pulling the blanket over himself he lay awake his eyes on the wall... so much had changed today, but he was finally home.
 
When she saw the smile on his face a smile she had not seen for a long time she smiled back at him. "Thank you for saying that. I did not get many letters at all." When he went in the bedroom she stayed by his door quietly so he would not know she was there for a few moments. He was finally home. A few moments later she left and walked down to her room knowing this would be the start of their new friendship and their new life.
 
He spent what felt like hours staring at the wall as the night got colder. He didn't know when he drifted off but when he did he felt the heat of the fire, smelled the burning, everywhere he looked there was more fire and twisted metal. More than what could come from one car... The heat was burning his skin and he looked down to see it bubbling. Then came her voice, the words lost in the heat and yet... it sounded like his name.

Then she was before him. He tried to back away from her but he was rooted to the spot. Her skin was mostly burned away and almost her entire left side was mangled beyond recognition. Her bloods hand came up and touched her cheek and the dark pits where her eyes should be brew him in, he didn't know it but he was screaming.
 
Moments later she was woken up by the blood curtling scream from just down the hall where her brother is. Thinking something might have happened she got up fast and started running down towards her brothers room and opened the door. "Reid?" She called out walking over to him hoping hew as ok and shook him slightly to wake him up. Maybe she would have to put her bed in here at least until the nightmares stopped. Maybe he should go see a counselor about her death she would talk to him about it in the morning.
 
The shaking didn't seem to help as in the dream the figure before him came closer and closer, already touching it didn't stop until they occupied the sane space. He could fee the pain and despair of her death and she could feel.. shaking.

His head turned to her but the expression on it wasn't his. He watched though his own eyes as his body moved, turning to face her, sitting up. She might be relieved to see him awake, the nightmare over. But the nightmare was just beginning. The pain still permeated every fiber of his being as he watched his own hands reach out towards his sister as if to hug her...

"NO!" this time the scream was purely in his head as he felt the intent behind the movements his fingers curling around her shoulders.