The Tale Of A Certain Shut in

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Dia Thames

Dia Thames

The Beast lingers just beneath the surface~
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
  1. Looking for partners
Posting Speed
  1. One post per day
  2. 1-3 posts per week
  3. One post per week
Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Advanced
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
  3. Primarily Prefer Male
Genres
Dark Subject Matter, Post Apocalyptic, Apocalyptic, Romance, Fantasy (usually Urban fantasy, but I've done high fantasy before too), Horror
That night had changed him forever. He shouldn't have gone out, he should have been home and he could have stopped what happened next. Ethan should have been able to save her, if only he had been with the living and told the dead to leave him be. Sylvia was dead now and the one dead person he wanted to talk to, to see wouldn't come to him. She had been dead for three years and never had he heard one whisper from her. The man clenched his jaw and swallowed a lump in his throat as he sat cross legged at his computer. He had not left his one bedroom apartment for three years. Going outside was out of the question it just got you killed. He ordered everything online and his sister Iris whom he had not seen since Sylvia's funeral sent him money and paid his rent. It wasn't cause he couldn't work but because he didn't and getting evicted from his one safe haven would absolutely destroy him. No one came in and no one left this place.

Once in his life he had been very social and helped all sorts of people out. He had been on TV and done readings for some famous people, he was well known but now didn't want to be, he wanted to be left alone. The spirits stayed out if he kept a locked door. He kept them at a distance and absolutely refused any living or dead that came to him for help. Who was he kidding? He couldn't help anyone, not at all. They were fooling themselves as well to believe someone as broken and dysfunctional as him could do anything to help them. He couldn't help himself. He brushed his shaggy reddish brown hair from his face. Normally cropped short it was getting a bit long because of his lack of a hair cut. His brown eyes were numb and tired as he watched his computer screen lazily.
 
It had been a rather stormy night. It was three years ago, when Avery had had yet to discover the dreadfulness of her own abilities. She was just on a walk - like she did every night when she had the chance - but something was different this time. Starting to feel uncomfortable, she decided that sitting down on a bench would be a good idea. So that was what she did. But something was just... different. Something wasn't like it was supposed to be. Something was so absolutely wrong. And Avery was soon to figure out what it was. Avery had always been strange - after all, she showed no signs of being an albino, and yet her hair was white as snow, soft and reaching below her waist in long, straight strands. Her eyes were crystallic and blue, and she usually wore boyish clothing, her hair in a loose ponytail. It was weird, because with her tall and slender frame, she'd look beautiful in dresses and skirts, but she just preferred hoodies and loose jeans, something baggy that she could hide away in. Though when that night came, she had been even more cautious.

It had stormed and she had felt this pain. A cruel, hurtful and burning pain in her chest. It had lasted for what felt like hours, while images flooded her head. Death... pain... suffering... a man drawing his last breath... everything just made her be boiled over in the intensity of that very scene in front of her eyes. Yet, as the image faded, she was just herself again, or, almost. She had drawn down in her hoodie to figure out just what was happening to her. And on her chest was a black mark, etched into her skin like a burn. It was even still evaporating smoke. She had hidden it at that time and went straight home from there, falling into a dreamless sleep. She had had trouble going to work after that, trouble with her life in general. She was reluctant to talk to people and didn't want to be with too many at once. The experience had been so horrible.

Avery woke up that morning with a heavy gasp of fear. But she was just in her bedroom. Alone. Again. There was no one there. He wasn't there. Not anymore. After that day, he had been gone. They called and told her that his body couldn't sustain the injuries... and that his life had been lost. She had cried for an entire day after that, and people well understood why she couldn't come to work in the next while. But she still really couldn't, and her friend helped her out with keeping the house and paying her bills and bringing her food. Because she knew what a state Avery was in.
 
Ethan's bored brown eyes caught the headline on every news website he could find and widened. It was today three years ago that he had become a recluse. And in the headline read his full name, much to his complete horror. Ethan Whitman. It was a news story how a celebrity was trying to find him. He lived in this apartment under and assumed name and had never met any of his neighbors. They didn't know who he was and he didn't know who they were and that was how he wanted to keep it. It was on the TV everywhere as well when he turned that on. Once a celebrity he no longer wanted to be and didn't want to help one either. He just wanted to be left alone and it seemed that no body wanted to let him have his peace. Growling to himself he shut the TV off. It should have been obvious that he didn't want to be found. He didn't become a recluse for nothing. He didn't even own a cellphone, the only cellphone he still had was Sylvia's. It had her pictures, voice mails. When he was particularly lonely he would flip though the pictures and listen to the only memory he had of her voice. Her voice...He missed her so much and with each day the ache only got worse and no matter how much he wished for it to go away he couldn't. He couldn't deal with her death and refused to get help to deal with it no matter how much Iris insisted. He didn't need help, he just wanted his loving girlfriend back. He wanted to love without it hurting.
 
Avery watched the news every day as if that would bring him back somehow. She saw the advertisement about Ethan. Maybe she could contact him. She decided, even though it was a foolish idea, that she wanted to talk to him just one last time. And she knew there was no one as good as Ethan out there. He was the only one she could think about contacting. She went to her bedroom to get the computer from her desk. She opened it up, turned on the switch and searched his name up on google. She found his mail address and decided that it was better than doing nothing at all. She began typing slowly, her words coming out as the painful truth.
'Hello, Ethan.
I believe that it has been a while since you have last gotten anything from anyone, and just to start out, I don't want to pressure you to help me. It was a thing that happened to me and... and my boyfriend, three years ago. In the evening, I was on a walk in a nearby park when I got this horrible chest pain, enough to knock me to the ground. I saw my own boyfriend dying, and the next morning I was called by the local hospital and they told me he had died almost on the spot in a car accident. I... I was devastated. I still am, sitting lonely in this house of mine trying to make sense of why he had to die. Why I had to see him die. And not only that, from them on I've seen several deaths that come on the news the morning after. I'm pretty much frightened about this, and I want your help to talk to him... I want to at least say a proper goodbye... I know this is a lot to ask of you, and if you don't want to, it's alright... but... you're my last hope of getting closure... you're my last hope of getting back to the person I once was...
I sincerely apologize for my emotional outburst... don't feel too responsible.
- Avery Harrison'
She had to close her eyes and click send before she fell back on the couch, rolling onto her stomach to cry into a pillow. She tried not to let the painful memory envelop her, but she couldn't stop it from coming to her like a knife stabbed into her chest. She didn't want this pain anymore. She didn't want to be hoarded up in her house in shorts and a t-shirt she slept in, with her white hair unruly and those stupid, ugly scars on her arms. She wanted it all to go away, causing her to shut out everyone and everything around her. She didn't keep track of her eating but sometimes days passed without her ingesting anything but water. She threw up after half of her meals and she couldn't get up in the morning. She hated herself for everything that had happened and felt as if she was guilty somehow.
 
Ethan was asleep on the couch when he heard something he had not heard in a very long time. It was the chime of his email and he sat up and looked confused. All of his contact information had been striped from everywhere but apprerently that is only what he thought. Getting up off the couch he slowly went to his computer. Who had found his e-mail address? He hesitantly sit down on the floor and pulled the laptop on his lap. Opening his email he saw it and clicked on it. Reasding it he frowned and sighed. This girl was practically pleading with him, an ordinary girl that sounded as if she had abilities of her own. He growled and ran his fingers through his hair. He didn't want to help anyone but she had lost someone three years ago as well. He understood the guilt and heart ache she must have been living. Biting his lip he responded, typing hesitantly.

Miss. Harrison,

I don't know if you know but I have retired from helping people and sprirts. I don't want to in fact. My Girlfriend also died three years ago when I was on a job. I could have stopped it but I was there instead of where I should have been. I haven't left my apartment in three years, nor will I ever. I am sorry to hear about your boyfriend...I understand how painful it is to loose someone. Hundreds of people want me to come out of hiding but I'm done with that part of my life. But...I guess I will help one last person. You. Disclosed is my address. You can come, I will speak to you but I won't leave my apartment. I can't so I know how it is but you will have to come my direction. DO NOT under any circumstance disclose my address to anyone else. Come whenever is convieant for you...just don't make me wait too long or else I will probably change my mind.
-Ethan Witman

He forced himself to push send and laid back on the floor. Why was he doing this? He had refused people time and time again by hiding away and now he just accepted another job. Cursing himself he got up off he floor and went to the couch again and dozed off.
 
Avery waited in anxiety for the reply. She was so angry with herself. He had been gone for three years. There was no saying he wouldn't be gone forever. He was probably done with this side of his life, the side that talked to the dead. She knew and yet... she wanted him to help her. She wanted to, one last time, give her beloved one a proper goodbye, just in order to become herself again. Then maybe... she could also help this guy out. He was probably feeling down over something too, with the way that he hid away from the world, or so she thought. She didn't want to be wrong, but her intuition told her that she wasn't wrong, but rather, right. She had no reason to be wrong. But as she waited for the mail, she got more and more reluctant, her greenish teal eyes welling with tears of regret, that was, until the screen made a sound and she ran over.

Reading the first few paragraphs, her heart sunk. But then she figured that he had accepted her request. She blinked and sent back a quick reply saying she'd be coming somewhere tomorrow. She slowly went to her bed after that, dozing off wrapped in an amount of blankets that still didn't warm her cold body. The next morning, she woke up with a jolt and went to dress herself. It ended up with a hoodie and tight jeans, along with a pair of sneakers. She pulled the hood of the hoodie so that it was covering her long, white hair from view.
 
The second time he heard his computer go off a second time when he woke he ignored it. By the time he woke it was late in the afternoon. Groaning he sighed and bit his lip as he sat up. Ethan didn't want to be awake, he wanted to be lost in his thoughts, lost in the darkness his mind held. For the past four years he had not been remembering a single dream he had, had. Just then he heard a banging at his door and frowned. Only one person knocked because only one person knew he was really there.

"GO away Iris!" he called as he leaned back into the couch. He could almost audibily hear her crossing her arms.

"This isn't Fair Ethan, I pay your rent and this is the thanks I get, one of these days I'm just going to stay paying it you know! And guess what happen's then? Then you have to come out of here."

"Iris..." he groaned. "Please...Please just stop this. I'm not coming out."

"This isn't what Sylvia would have wanted!" she called. "Your making yourself Miserable.

Hearing her name he went silent and swallowed a lump in his throat. "Well she probably didn't want to die either..." he trailed off, not knowing the girl would sometime be over today.
 
Avery tried to get out of the house, but her body wouldn't let her. She paced back and forth in her house while thinking about what on earth she should do. She was also sort of scared. What if they couldn't find him? What if he was gone? She just wanted to say goodbye, but she could see no reason why it should go well. She was so scared and decided to tug a pillow over her ears as she thought deeply about it. When she finally finished her "thinking", it was in the afternoon and she decided to go see him, as her last resort. She didn't want anything to happen.

She put on her sneakers and walked out of her apartment, locking it after her as she went outside, the cold cutting into her skin like knives.

The long way down the road was cold and she almost wanted to go back to the safety of her house, but of course she couldn't do something like that, not now when she had finally promised herself that she'd go.

When she reached the house, she didn't know whether or not she should go in.

She saw a girl leave, blinking as she watched her pass from under her black hoodie.

After collecting herself, she pulled her hood further over her face as she walked to the front door, knocking on it with her shaking hands. She tried not to run away again and stood as nailed to the spot.
 
Hearing a knocking at the door once again, once he had finally gotten Iris to leave, he tensed. He sat on the couch his face buried in his hands. His face was wet with the tears he had not cried for so long. Tears that were long, long. very long over due. Sighing heavily it could be heard from the other side of the door, He thought she was back so he got up and frowning, his eyes and face wet with tears went to the door and took the doorknob in his hand and breathed shakily.

"I thought I would you to go away Iris!" he said, looking upset as he yanked the door open and saw another broken girl there. A hoodie on covering her he was very embaressed. "I'm sorry..." he said. "Someone was bothering me."

But looking at her his eyes widened a bit, surrounded by her was the souls of the dead. At least a dozen of them, up to seventeen. But he saw one man at her side looking particularly worried for her. Frowning he bit his lip. "Great..." he muttered. Soon the man looked to him and as he made direct eye contact the dead man looked to him.

"You can see me..." he breathed, his eyes wide. "You can see me! Help me...please...help her!"

The dead man motioned to the girl and Ethan bit his lip.

"What have I gotten myself into..." he said to himself and shook his head and looked to the woman. "I'm Ethan...come in. I'm not keeping the door open all day."

His eyes followed past the girl though as she would come in, the man closest to her followed her in and he slammed the door blocking the rest out. He leaned against the door, his forehead touching it as he gathered his thoughts and blocked out the thoughts of the other dead people coming inside and then turned to her.

"I didn't know when you were coming. I live by myself....excuse the mess a bit..." he trailed off walking into the living room.
 
Avery stood by the door for what seemed like a long while, but she didn't walk away. Something pushed her to stay right there. She did, though, look over her shoulder towards the direction where the woman had walked off to, silently wondering who she could be. She didn't do anything else, though, as she stood there with the hood pulled in front of her face to hide her strangely colored hair so that people wouldn't get curious and follow her or something like that.

When she heard the sigh, she felt a need to run away before she got yelled at. When he came out, she almost broke down in surprise, her body frozen in spot. When she got the movement back she pulled the hood further over her face. "I-it's alright."

Her voice was crooked and a bit broken. She noticed the way that Ethan was looking at her, and dared to look up from under her hood. But she noticed that he wasn't looking at her, but rather at something beside her or behind her. She couldn't quite tell. She looked behind herself but didn't see anyone. She wondered what he was looking at.

When her dead boyfriend spoke to Ethan, she saw something in Ethan's eyes as if he realized something.

Then he looked at her and she instinctively hid away under her hood.

She nodded slightly as she stepped inside, never pulling down her hood. She did take off her shoes, though, a flash of white showing when she bowed her head down.

Sher didn't really know what was going on. She followed him with her eyes, wondering why he looked so distressed. She didn't see a reason as to why there'd be more spirits than her dead boyfriend there. She slowly, though a bit hesitantly, pulled down her hood to reveal her pale, white hair that shone in the dim light coming through the cracks in the curtains.

"It's alright... I wouldn't dare say that my house looks any different from this, anyways..." She mumbled as she looked down slightly, not used to people seeing her face.
 
"Come on! Don't just stand there and stare...come on..." he said pleadingly, looking at him. "Help her...help me. I want to talk to her..."

He watched as the man tried to reach out and touch this girl. But just short of her he frowned.

"Don't touch her..." he frowned. and looked to her. He noticed her white hair as she pulled back her hood, after taking her shoes off. He had been told over the email of her seeing her boyfriend die in something similar to a vision. "What are you...?" he asked. "Have you always had these ablilites...?" he asked and motioned to her, walkig further into the house. "Because you have about a million spirits following you around. He then stopped in the living room and turned around looking at her. "And Another man I let in with you. Blonde hair, Brown eyes...taller than you, about my height..."
 
Avery looked at him as he seemed to be in contact with someone else, and she thought about it being her boyfriend, she hoped it was.

When she saw Ethan frown, she got a bit worried herself and bit her lip slightly trying not to show it.

"Huh...?" She realized he wasn't talking to her and blinked softly as she looked at him. She ran a hand through her hair, pulling it out of the hood. It was very long and soft and almost seemed to glow in its own way as she played with it. "As I said, I don't know." She looked up at him. "The abilities started when he died... or... before he died, I just had dreams. Now, when I walk outside, I get physical pains." She widened her eyes. "What...? Are they following me? Why?" She looked over her shoulder. "That's... that's him. Aiden. My boyfriend... before he died."
 
Ethan listened to her carefully. Blinking he thought of her dreams, right boyfriend died. And the chest pains she would get. It seemed she could tell events before they even happened. She could have some sort of abilities or it could be a coinsidence. It was very rare for someone to be gifted like he was. TO see and communicate with the souls of the dead was much more a curse than a blessing.He listened to her and grabbed a drink from the fridge and went over, sitting down on the couch he sighed-

"If you think that is bad, try looking out these windows with my eyes. Spirits everwhere...." he said and looked at her."They see you and how you can help them and they flock...but Aiden can wait for longer. "It appears you might have ablities as well...anything else strange, unexpected...? he asked and looked to her.
 
Her dreams had always haunted her and made her feel like some sort of freak. She always saw things before they happened. Once she had seen her mother get run over by a car, and out of anxiety she had followed her mother around all day. When she had seen the car, she had pushed her mother out of the way and gotten hurt herself. She didn't die, but from then on she had been scared of her own abilities. She knew it was not normal and that she was different from other people, but she hadn't been able to tell anybody. She couldn't tell anybody, she didn't want it to go wrong. There was nothing such as being "gifted". In the end, her gift became a curse and she would rush out and try to save people because of it.

"You don't get it. I have a dream about a woman getting run over by a car. I see her the next day and try to deny it, and then she crosses the road and gets run over by a car. I always see the people that are in my dreams minutes before they die. I've tried desperately saving them for years, but what I see is fate. If I save them once, they'll just die at another time. I see things that I can't prevent from happening." she looked down, covering her face with her hands, her white hair glimmering in the little rays of sunlight."
 
Ethan frowned and narrowed his eyes a bit, cracking open his drink and took a sip. Sighing heavily he looked to her.

"That is what you DON"T understand. I do get it....It is terrible. It really is. But try living this nightmare. You wake up, see the dead and how they died, then they beg and plead with me all day long to help them, until you go to bed again. Then you wake up and start all over... It drains you...It's painful. I understand..." he said and looked at her, a sadness in his nearly numb expression. "We are cursed...with different curses but a curse the same...."

He got up and pulled the curtains all the way shut, the dim light of a lamp being the only thing to light up the space. Going over to her he gently touched her shoulder.

"You have got to learn how to reign it in. And you can...It's why I haven't help anyone, including any dead since Sylvia died. You can block them out...and for the sake of your chest pains you need to. Or it could get worse and you don't need to live like I have. I will help you speak to Aiden. He is right here, but He will stay with me until we do. I won't let him follow you home. You don't need him over your shoulder as he has been since he died. He's never left your side..."
 
Avery looked at him as he began drinking. She didn't mind, she didn't want anything to drink herself, anyway. She felt like she was suffocated slowly from the inside.

Avery sat with tears in her eyes, covering her head as if everything was falling down above her. Her white hair almost shone in the room even after the curtains had been pulled in front of the windows. She was weakened by all of these sensations that had happened to her in her life. All of these things that had been going on for so long. "At least you can help them... at least you can do something for them... I know this is all painful... and it just doesn't matter because no matter how much we argue, we're still both cursed and depressed and sad and nothing will change, ever..."

She sniffed as she sat there, her shoulders shaking. When he touched her shoulder, she flashed her eyes open, falling back against the wall as if he'd burnt her. She looked down and bit her lip.

"Sorry... please refrain from touching me.. I.." She trailed off and glanced up at Ethan. "Ethan, I meet these people every day, almost. I don't think my power can be helped... sometimes there's nothing, and then there's a lot of deaths in one day... my power isn't constant... it's there, gone, there, gone... I don't know when it'll happen, I don't know how to prevent that... and... is that true?" She asked as she looked around. "Is he really here with me...? Why hasn't he shown me that he's been with me all this time... if he had just... I could've said my goodbye to him..."
 
This was why he didn't let people in, this was why he didn't want anyone living or dead anywhere near him. But now he had this woman sitting in his living room, crying to him. He had, had such a hard time letting her in but now here she was, asking him to not touch her. Suddenly he went very quiet and pulled back. He clenched his jaw and turned, his back towards her as he listened to her finish speaking. He wished he was drunk right now, he wished this was all a dream, that he had not auctually told this woman where he lived. Taking a sip of his drink he sighed and nodded.

"Yes, of course he has been...you were his girlfriend. The accident that happened was very unexpected. He wasn't going to die but one of the doctors made a wrong call that cost him his life....Some spirits are trapped here and they can't communicate...he just isn't strong enough of a spirit to show signs that he was there. He can't move on either. He wants to talk to you but I won't do that. Not right now." he said. "You...your chest pains...they come from channeling spirit energies through your body. I can't stop you from witnessing their deaths...the visions but the pains can go away if you don't want to feel them...and I can help you get that under control. Feel what you want to feel...."

He glanced over his shoulder and saw her sitting there, her long white hair draping over her shoulders. It was beautiful but then an image of his Sylvia flashed in his head and he went silent, hanging his head he was shaking, it obvious by the can in his hand.
 
Avery knew that she shouldn't be crying. She barely knew Ethan, and her crying would just be a burden to him. But as she tried not to, it just became strangled sobs and in the end, she couldn't stop. It was too hard, thinking about all that had happened... and yet, she wanted this to happen. She didn't regret meeting Ethan, at all. She hadn't felt anything in so long, and she appreciated that he was making her feel like she was a human again. It made a strange silence rise to her and she slowly calmed down her tears and wiped them away, her teal eyes closed as she tried to control all of her energy on calming down.

She nodded slightly and looked down. "Okay... I see... I just wish that... that it didn't end like this... I told him to rush to work and suddenly... suddenly he was out of my grasp like all of the others, I witnessed his death just after he had left that morning, and trying to find him... I... I... I saw him get run over... I just wanted to apologize to him... I could've saved him and I didn't make it..." She sniffed as she looked up at Ethan again, blinking slightly with her big, beautiful and shining eyes. "I... I don't know how... my entire life I've just walked around, scared like this... I have no idea how to focus my powers or shut out the things that I don't want... I just let the bad things stab me inside and then I sit at home and cry about it..."

When she looked up again, he was looking at her strangely. She was about to say something when he turned away from her, and she reached out, wanting to put a hand on his shoulder, just anything. But she realized her position and quickly retreated, mumbling an apology as she clenched her hands on her chest.
 
He felt completely useless as she started to cry. Not knowing what to do it had been such a long time since he felt bad for someone. He felt terrible but she didn't want him to touch him. He had no right to anyways. It was confusing and was making his emotions all confused as well. Biting his lip he contemplated what to do. He didn't know and it was a bit painful for him. But after she stopped crying and started speaking to him he turned to her and then turned away as she stopped. But as he was about to turn around he saw he reaching out to touch him. He looked confused. The woman just asked him to not touch her but now here she was, wanting to touch him. She pulled away and mumbled an apology to him holding her hands close to her chest. He sighed and for the first time in three years forced a smile.

"Don't worry about it..." but then the smile faded as fast as it came to his lips. He looked filled with such a darkness that it would be very hard to chase off. "I will teach you but you have to try...promise me that you are going to try and make something of yourself. I'm not going to help you if your going to sit around and pity yourself. I'll teach you how to control your Powers...and then I'll help you speak with Aiden...and you can move on with your life. Trust me...it wasn't your fault. He would have been fine if the doctor had given him enough of the medication....
 
Avery couldn't tell what she was feeling, and things were mildly complicated for her. She had always kept a distance to people, and didn't know if she wanted phyiscal contact or not with other people. She looked down and ran a hand through her hair, wondering what she should tell him. She knew that she was probably making him feel terrible about her crying but she didn't know what to do about it when she was truly sad and depressed. She didn't want him to see, and didn't want anyone to judge her for it. But even so, she showed it to him without thinking. She wiped back all tears that came forward as she took a deep breath, looking over at Ethan with a different expression than before. She had realized something, but she wasn't ready to say what, not just yet.

Avery looked up at Ethan as she thought her answer through, then she looked at him with a stern expression. "I will do as you say... but on one condition. You'll do the same. I know... I know that you said that Sylvia won't contact you, but maybe she's doing it purposefully so you can move on with your life.... if I move on, I want you to follow with me. I won't be able to get better if I'm stuck thinking if you'll be okay as well. Because it will be like that for me, I'll be stuck like that with a feeling that it's my fault that you're still depressed because you helped me but not yourself."
 
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