She said I had to teach him to live again... Lina lay sprawled on the floor, looking as though she had tripped, fallen, and just stayed there. One leg was flipped over the arm of the couch next to her, while the other was hooked around a table. The redhead was flipping through old, dust newspapers, and her fingers were stained black from the ink. Who would have thought I would move here only to do a giant research report? She mused, flipping through another paper. I need a hobby, it seems.
Lina had gone back to the library t search through death records before looking up all the newspapers they had on file for the day of Zelgadis' death. She was currently occupying a large study corner, and had filled it with newspapers, files, and histories, making it look like a tornado had gone through a magazine stand. Suddenly, a headline caught her eye, making her jump up and shriek for joy.
"SHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Felia glared at the quailed redhead evilly. "This is a library! Be quiet!"
Lina sheepishly turned down the volume on her enthusiasm and ran to the copier to xerox the article. Greywyrds killed in head on collision. Sounds like it was fun. Lina walked back to her nook, staring at the article. Poor guy.
Lina sighed, flipping through the files. What can I do to help him, anyway? I'm not exactly the greatest person for this job. Lina snorted. She wasn't the perfect person for anything. All she wanted in life was to draw and travel. That was it. I never wanted to help some stupid ghost who can't get over a breakup... Lina's fingers fell over a photograph, crackled and yellow with age. She slowly drew the glossy paper out of the folder, trying to see the faded picture better in the iridescent domes of the florescent lights above.
A young man of maybe nineteen stood against a background of trees, staring out at the camera with a look that told you he simply didn't care. Lina tried to make out the face in the tiny black dots on the picture. Damn old cameras... Lina couldn't make out anything but his overall face. What good is a picture of someone if you can't see what they look like? She muttered silently, ramming the photo back into its folder. I don't know why I'm doing this. My eyes already hurt from all the squinting at old typing. I'm not going to find answers here. Lina stood and stretched, trying to pull her leg muscles out of their preference for sitting cross-legged. I feel like I was run over by a two-ton truck, Lina mused, putting all the files and papers away where they belonged. I didn't know that sitting and researching could do that much to you... Lina caught a glimpse of a window and sighed at her own stupidity. The sun was just reaching over the horizon, it's tendrils of purple and red reaching out to touch the town in a soft caress. Lina sighed. Of course. It's not six-thirty pm, it's six thirty am. I stayed here all night. No wonder I feel like crap. Lina hurried out the big mahogany doors and down the steps... then paused and looked back.
I could swear... Lina stared at the intricate carvings on the doors to the library. They were oddly familiar. Lina stood and stared at them critically for a bit before realization dawned.
It's Zelgadis' work! The doors had the same flair, the same perfection as the doors to the studio in the house and the molding at the bakery. So he had a hand in the library, too. He seems to enjoy making everything around him beautiful... or maybe, if the hate theory is true, it was for more practice. Lina sighed, turning and walking back home. Hah. Home. Yeah, right. It's not even mine, it's his. At least this way I don't have to see him. He doesn't seem to come out during the day.
Lina slumped down on the couch and stared at the ceiling. I should clean a bedroom, she mused, but she couldn't convince her weary body to move. Maybe I'll just lie here for a while. Liana stared at the intricate designs decorating the ceiling above her and sighed. Make him live again. Yeah right. Well, if she had to make him live, she had to keep him from yelling at her every chance he got. What should I do? How do you tell a ghost you want to be friends with them? Lina stared at the bags she hadn't bothered to unpack and a slow smile made it's way across her sleep-deprived face, littering her sullen lips with a smirking craftiness. He appreciates life in art, doesn't he? Well, then. Lina unzipped her army green art bag quickly and pulled out her drawing pad and her pastels. That's what I'm good at. Lina grinned as she quickly began the careful strokes of color across the heavy paper, humming off tune and happy as a clam. I want to be your friend, Zelgadis. Would you let me try?
Lina felt an odd stirring against her arm, pulling her from the sweet embrace of blissful slumber and nudging her back to hard reality. She sighed. It had been such a nice dream, but she couldn't quite remember what it was about. Something to do with sapphire eyes that shone with all the sadness of a sea of tears...
?
Lina started awake and stared about her. The sky was beginning to turn a deep royal purple as the sun set between the trees, and the room shone with a deep lavender. Her pastel sketch was sitting on the table where she had left it, filled with every color in her chalk box, making the surrounding room dull in comparison. Lina looked around for what have woken her, but there was nothing to see. Merely an empty, dark room.
Looks can be deceiving, Lina thought, shuddering. What happened?
?
It was a question, nothing more. The mental butterfly that settled softly over her sleep-drenched mind was not even a complete thought, but an emotion - confusion. Lina looked towards the picture she had sketched, then looked back across the room that was not quite empty.
"You mean your picture?" Lina asked the air, wrapping her jacket about her. It was slightly chill in the room, but no amount of shivering would warm her as she pulled the frayed jean jacket close.
...Mine??
As always before, it was not said in words. Surprise and confusion swept past her, coupled with... maybe a little bit... of uncertain gratitude. Lina smiled.
"Can't you tell? It's a picture of you." Lina smiled and looked back at her work.
It had taken time, hours and hours before she finally fell asleep in the middle of signing it. She had worn each of her pastels down an entire inch, putting all the color she could into each stroke, every swipe. Because that's what it was; pure color.
Emotions swirled as each color swept by the beholder, silvers and blues and golds all vying for attention in an explosive display of emotion. One spark of red and orange sat against the edge of the paper, while the deep blues and silvers ripped through the canvas about the middle. It was surrounded by the dark greys and deep russet that gave an overall feel of dark, unused dwelling around the picture, and the colors seemed pulled to the center.
What was most compelling was the one golden spark in the center. It was surrounded and even in places covered by the emotional waves of heart wrenching blue, but it was there, strong and tall and defiant. Each color blended so perfectly and so gradually with another that it was hard to tell where one began and the other left off, and the entire parchment was a riot of different hues.
But even the colors were drowned out by the emotions present in them.
Wonder and curiosity jumped out at you from the tiny bit of red pervading the desolately heartbroken swirls of blue, probing into them to find the weakened but still strong gold deep within. It was clear the artist has put her very being into this picture, drew all of her fierce emotion into the bright, chalky colors. The rips and dashes of color only annunciated the explosion of emotion, and where the colors bent so effortlessly into one another it told of mixed frustration and betrayal. Lina sat and waited for a response.
Finally the presence turned back to her mind from the stony silence she had received while it absorbed itself with the design.
Beautiful.
The emotion came at her in a wave, as awed and amazed as a young child seeing a magic trick, an old woman seeing a talented acrobat dancing about the wire. Deep gratitude, amazement and pure astonishment swept through her in a wave of swirling, chaotic feeling, making her smile and laugh for joy simply from the backlash. She grinned as the ghost slowed its amazement slightly, waiting with the patience of the inanimate for her reply.
"I take it you like it?"
Immensly.
Again, a sweep of emotion, but it was all Lina needed. She grinned from ear to ear, Jumping up from the couch and smiling into the room that was so full of.. of someone that no one could ever feel alone there. Lina put out her hand into the not-so-emptiness, a huge smile present across her delicate face.
"Want to be friends? I'm going to be here for a while. It might be nice." Lina felt hesitation from the presence. What had hurt it so much that he would not accept a friend? She stifled the frown and put her pleading heart into her eyes. You want life? I'll give it to you. I am fire, boy, just as you were ice. And I'm going to melt you if it takes my entire life. Lifespan, anyway. "Come on. Everyone needs a friend." Slightly less hesitation, but still there. Lina finally frowned.
"Doesn't it get lonely?"
Lina felt a slight brush of a cool spring zephyr across her palm, but it was enough. She grinned so wide you might think her head would fall off, and laughed aloud into the resulting confusion.
"I get lonely a lot too. Maybe I won't anymore?" She said aloud in explanation.
And maybe... maybe I could call this... home...