Chapter Text
It’s the afternoon after Maddie woke up in the hospital. Despite having severe blunt force trauma to the head, and excessive smoke inhalation, she was relatively unharmed apart from a superficial wound on the back of her scalp from the metal pipe in the boiler room. The doctors can’t explain it, but Maddie not only survived, but is highly unlikely to have any lasting complications.
Even though she’s been medically cleared, the hospital requested an extra night for observation to be sure there are no delayed complications.
Sandra had left to prepare the house for Maddie’s discharge date. The REAL Maddie. Xavier had gone with his father to the sheriffs station to go over the events of the previous night, leaving Claire, and Nicole to keep Maddie company.
It’s a very conflicting feeling seeing Claire, her ex-best friend, and the girl that that had been seeing her boyfriend, knowing that she and Xavier were dating. Yes, she did play a major role in getting Maddie’s body back, but it’s hard to look past the betrayal. Was Claire’s help enough to cancel out her previous actions?
These are feelings that Maddie will ultimately need to face, but there are far too many things on her mind at the moment that take priority.
Claire and Nicole are engaging in idle conversation, but Maddie can’t focus on any of it. The questions running through her mind are endless. Where is Simon? Is he safe? What about Wally, Rhonda, and Charley? Do they have Mr.Martin under control? What’s in store for the rest of the spirits? The not knowing is unbearable.
“Maddie?” She vaguely hears but it’s as if she’s underwater.
“Maddie, are you ok?”
It takes effort to snap out of it, but Maddie recognizes the voice as Nicole’s.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry, I was just… thinking”
Maddie contemplates her answer. Of course she’s not ok. She left her spirit friends when they needed her most, but what else was she supposed to do? They wanted her to live. Deep down she knows she wants to live, but the relationships she built with Charley, Rhonda, Quinn, Yuri, even Janet… Wally, are once in a lifetime. Not only is Maddie uncertain of their outcomes, but now also Simon.
“Ok… ok, good.” Nicole can see straight through Maddie’s lie, but doesn’t want to pry. “Xavier’s planning on stopping by Simons house to see if he’s there. We’re going to find him, Maddie. We will.”
Maddie can see the determination in her friends eyes, and knows that she believes it. She wants to believe it herself, but after everything that happened in the last month, it’s hard to know what to hope for.
“I know,” Maddie tries to sound hopeful “I know we will.”
She doesn’t want to bring it up, but Maddie is just as worried about the spirits as she is about Simon, but Nicole would never understand. Nicole didn’t know the spirits the way she did. Not the way she knows Simon. If Nicole or Claire knew her true feelings, she worries they’d be angry. Angry that she cares as much about people she knew for a fraction of the time she had known Simon for.
But why should she care what they think? The two people in front of her have betrayed her in ways Maddie couldn’t dream of doing to someone she cares about. Even Xavier, the man who was supposed to care for her more than anyone, made her feel like a joke. He made her feel despair that she can’t imagine Wally could do, even if he tried.
Was this really the right decision? Leaving a group of people that made her smile and laugh more in a few weeks, than the living people in her life have in 18 years?
Maddie’s thoughts are once again interrupted, this time by the high pitched ringtone from Claire’s phone.
“It’s Xavier, I’m gonna step out”
Claire tells the two as she’s already headed towards the exit.
Nicole takes this moment of solitude between them to see if Maddie is more willing to open up with Claire out of the room.
“Look,” Nicole says sternly, but not aggressively “I know you went through a lot. A lot that no one can truly understand. You don’t need to share anything you’re not comfortable with, but I need you to know that I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
Maddie feels a sense of comfort she hadn’t expected to feel. The best friend that cares so deeply for her is still there. She feels her eyes begin to tear up, mimicking Nicole’s, sinking into the feeling of peace until Claire renters the room
Nicole is the first to speak, “Well? What did Xavier say?”
Claire has a look of something between concern and dread, and can’t quite figure out the words to explain what Xavier had told her.
The sense of peace Maddie had just been feeling is immediately replaced with fear. “Claire, what is it? What happened? Is it Simon? Is he hurt?”
“N-no, Simons fine”
There’s a moment of silence far too long for Maddie’s comfort. She was just about to insist Claire continue when she began to speak on her own.
“Xavier said that Simons on his way, but he sounded strange over the phone. Like he’s hiding something”
Maddie feels some relief in knowing that Simon is ok and she’ll be seeing him soon, but still has a rising sense of panic at what had Xavier acting so strange. If nothings wrong, why would he feel the need to hide something?
After what was probably the longest 10 minutes ever experienced, Simon walks through the open door to Maddie’s hospital room.
He rushes to Maddie and hugs her like they hadn’t seen each other in years.
“Simon! Simon, oh my god! I was so scared, where the hell were you? What took you so long?”
Each of them had matching streams of tears running down their face by the time they had finished embracing.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here” Simon manages to choke out through tears “I’m so, so sorry. I’m here now”
Maddie wants to be mad. She wants to be furious that he would leave her in the dark for so long, but all she feels in relief.
Before Maddie can say anything else, Simon speaks up again.
“I can tell you everything. I promise I can tell you everything, but I have someone that can help me with that. Someone I think you’ll be happy to see”
Maddie doesn’t think there’s anyone she’d be more happy to see than Simon, but she looks towards the door anyways.
With tears still obstructing her vision, she sees a tall figure with a blue jacket and grey sweatpants. Maddie rubs the remaining tears from her eyes. It looks just like…
“Wally?”
“Hey, Maddie” Wally weakly mutters, attempting(but failing)to hide the break in his voice.
Maddie has so many questions. Too many. She doesn’t even know where to start.
“How did you get out of the school? W-why didn’t you reset back to the field? Am I hallucinating? Maybe we should call the doctor-”
While Maddie rambles on, borderline incoherently, Wally slowly approaches the hospital bed, and gently takes a seat on the edge of the bed. He then does something that shocked Maddie into silence.
He grabs her hand.
“I’m here. Simons here. We’re all here. With you”
Wally’s voice cracks consistently, not even trying to hide it.
“No…” the worst case scenario starts flooding through Maddie’s mind “no,no,no don’t tell me we’re all dead. How could that happen? Did the ambulance crash? No, Simon wasn’t near the ambulance. My mom… no not my mom too”
With the hand still holding Maddie’s, Wally pulls her hand to lay flat in the center of his sternum and pulls his other hand to apply extra pressure into his chest. Maddie’s face flushes of all color, making her look a sickly pale. She feels something she’s never felt before.
A heartbeat. WALLYS heartbeat.
“Wally, are you- you’re… alive”
Maddie grabs Wally’s neck with her free hand and pulls him towards her, kissing him in the way she wishes she could have before she ran to the ambulance. Being vaguely aware of the others in the room, she pulls away from the kiss, but keeping her forehead touching his. Savoring every touch like they’ll never be able to feel each other again.
“But how-”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out” Simon answers before Maddie could mutter the question.
Remembering the conversation with Xavier, Claire speaks up, “Wait, Xavier sounded all freaked out, what was that about?”
“He though he saw a ghost” Nicole barely spoke above a whisper, not quite sure the proper response to a situation like this.
Glancing between Simon and Wally, Maddie speaks up more coherently this time, “Is this what took so long for you to get here, Simon? You were getting Wally out?”
“Not exactly” Simon and Wally both answered simultaneously, earning a confused look from everyone in the room.
Glancing out the door, Simon hesitantly spoke, “We shouldn’t get into it here. The wrong person over hears this and you’ll be discharged straight to the psych ward.” He lowers his voice even more, “We can meet at your house when you’re up for it. I think your mom and Mr. Anderson should be part of this”
“I’ll text Sandra, but why Mr. Anderson?” Nicole says slightly louder than she last spoke.
“His spirit was in the school with us.” Wally whispers, partially to keep others from overhearing, and partially because everyone is still shocked seeing the ghost talk. “He can understand Maddie’s side of this better than we can.”
“My mom is more likely to believe any of this if Mr. Anderson can back it up. She trusts him, and so do I.”
Maddie starts feeling more at ease with a plan in place, but another concern comes to her mind.
She fixes her gaze onto Wally, a hint of concern in her tone, “Where are you gonna go? You’ll get caught at the school, and I’m sure your mom won’t respond well to her previously dead son showing up at her doorstep after 40 years.”
“He’s staying with me” Simon inserts himself, “I told my mom he’s a friend from school and his parents kicked him out”
The room has a tense silence for a moment while everyone glances back and forth with each other before Nicole breaks the silence.
“Umm, Simon? You know you’re one of my best friends and you’re amazing, but Wally doesn’t really look like he’d be a ‘good friend’ of yours.”
Simon looks at himself, then at Wally in silent defeat
“I’ll make sure my mom knows he’s Maddie’s friend. Better?”
“Look,” Maddie interjects, “we have more pressing matters right now. My mom is going to be back soon, and she’s staying overnight until I’m discharged in the morning. I’ll let her in on the surface level of ALL of this, then we’ll go from there”
She turns to Wally, hesitant to let him go in fear of losing him again, “Lay low, don’t draw attention to yourself, and please, PLEASE, don’t mention ANYTHING about being dead for decades.”
He nods, worried that his words would give anyway how much dread he felt leaving her side. He instead clasps her fingers in both of his and gently kisses the back of her hand.
“I’ll see you tomorrow” Wally whispers before releasing Maddie’s hand and following Simon out of the room.
Nicole takes the spot on the bed where Wally was previously sitting, “Try not to worry. We’ll handle this. The same way we always have, together.”
She pulls Maddie into a tight hug, and Claire gives a thin lipped smile and a nod. She watches the two leave the room and for the first time is left alone with just her thoughts.
So much has happened in just one afternoon. The unknown is far greater than the known, and Maddie has no idea where to start.
It’ll all have to wait until tomorrow.