Chapter Text
Wally was just walking around the field per usual when a light so bright he had to hide his face behind his sleeve appeared right before his eyes.
His eyes widened. “It couldn’t…” he whispers, as if afraid speaking too loud would cause the gate to dissolve.
He walks over to it and puts his hand through it to humor himself. He chuckles to himself at the tingling feeling crawling through his skin. It tickles.
He is about to back up. He’s having an inner conflict on whether he should cross over or not. He wants to tell his friends about this, but if he leaves to say goodbye to them the gate will most likely disappear. He doesn’t want to waste this opportunity—but he doesn’t want to leave his friends behind either. He wants to help them move on, and then he’ll be ready. If he has nothing it’ll be easier to move on.
Deep down he knows that he’ll always have something attached to him. Something to get attached to.
He begins to walk backwards but falls forward when he trips on a rock (“Curse you rock, always trying to roll over my ankle!” he thinks to himself) He shuts his eyes tight as he braces for a fall that never comes.
Instead—he realizes what he’s done. On accident. He realizes he has tripped forward into the gate to cross over. He won’t get to say goodbye! No!
But also…YES!
It’s not like entering a scar, that’s for sure. Going through a scar feels slimy and claustrophobic. Going through a gate feels like—….. ……Blue sky and green grass? A sidewalk he feels he has been on before and yet he somehow doesn’t recognize his surroundings? Oh, is that what Heaven (assuming he got into Heaven) or the afterlife is like?
Wait no, that’s not right. This is definitely not right. His surroundings are off. Heck, Wally himself feels off. He feels…heavier, more grounded. He looks down at his hands and immediately gets knocked to the cold hard cemented ground.
“Ow…” Wally picks himself up and looks down at his hands again. They’re bleeding. Actually bleeding—blood. Ghosts don’t ble-
“Watch it!” The young lady yells at Wally who isn’t paying attention.
He then looks up at the unidentifiable woman. He doesn’t know her. He squints but then looks down at the box on the ground in front of her.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going. Let me help you with that,” he replies and picks up the box and hands it to the woman.
“Thanks! I’m delivering this.”
“No problem! Weird question but you by any chance know our surroundings?”
“Not from around here, I take it?” The young adult questions, smacking her lips.
”No, I am,” but Wally doesn’t say that. He doesn’t know what’s going on but he’ll figure it out. He needs to find Rhonda, Charlie, Quinn, Yuri, and M- oh right, Maddie’s back in her body now. He doesn’t know how he managed to surpass the gate. Maybe this is what the afterlife looks like when you move on from your spirit. This place looks exactly like Split River but different.
“Yeah, you could say that...”
“Well, the closest and busiest place is…” the girl gives a drum roll and does a trumpet sound as she gestures in front of herself proudly “…straight ahead and on the left corner. That’s Split River high! My names Cassie and I actually go there, I’m a senior.”
“Oh, really?” Wally jerks. “I go there too. What time do we need to be there and what time is it? I have a bad memory and I left my…uhm…watch at home!”
“Your-? Oh! It’s 8:00 right now. This is my last delivery as school starts in thirty minutes.”
“Okay, thank you so much!” Wally waves goodbye in a hurry.
“Sure thing, see you around!” Cassie waves back as Wally turns around the corner.
“Dang, I forgot to ask for his name.”
-
Wally turns the corner but quickly stops. He racks his brain for Maddie’s address, he remembers her giving him a piece of paper in his—oh thank the spirits that ghosts could only switch clothes for an hour a day before everything resets, he never got the chance to wash his varsity jacket! Not like ghosts need to anyways.
A boy nudges Wally on the shoulder to get his attention. Wally is confused until he realizes that the boy is looking at him.
“Uh…what’s up, man?” Wally asks.
“I was just wondering…your jacket…are you like on varsity?”
Wally’s heart begins to beat fast, he feels like he’s going to throw up. Come on excuses…excuses…
“Uhm…”
“I’ll take that as a yes. I haven’t seen you around for conditioning! I’m on varsity myself.”
“Uh…transfer student! Played so well that they automatically put me on varsity at Split River—“(Wally laughs on the inside, why is he still talking)”—I of course still need to try out to show how good I still am!” Still? Wally doesn’t know. He’s spitballing. Anything to keep his cover.
“Huh, okay. Well, it’ll be nice to see you play, see you at the team tryouts! Keep an eye out for a boy named Luke.”
“Luke?”
“That’s me!” Wally looks Luke up and down as the boy turns to leave.
“WAIT!” Wally yells as the boy turns around to face him.
“Yes?”
“I didn’t get this jacket sent from the school, my “cousin” sent me this!” Wally lies, but he needs to think of something fast.
“Okay-?”
“She thinks I’m arriving tomorrow but I was able to get here a day early. I want to surprise her. You know anybody by the name of Maddie Nears?”
“Ah, yes,” Luke’s face expression changed. “Maddie-the runaway missing teen-Nears. Scared everyone to death”—(Wally has to fight the urge to burst into laughter on the spot)—“she was found. Everyone thinks she ran away from an abusive household but let’s just say…I have my theories…” Wally narrows his eyes. “ANYWAYS! Yeah, I have her in some of my classes. I’ll definitely mention that I know you—after you uh, surprise her!”
“Yeah, well. I’ll tell her when I see her first thing at school. You can talk to her too.”
“Well, that’s kind of the problem. She’s very quiet, kind of skittish—in her own world—does that make sense? Everyone is giving her weird looks though. I haven’t spoken to her directly-YET, I mean!”
“Yeah, kind of.” Wally knows that she’s just adjusting to “normalcy” after getting back into her body, but weird looks? Maybe it’s all the rumors that occurred while she was missing that he overheard while walking through the halls as an invisible spirit that no one could see. Heh, he knows all of the gossip.
“I heard of that! I’m very glad that she was found. However, it’s best not to make assumptions without consulting her of what really happened—that is if she wants to share” the truth goes unsaid.
“Well, I’ll tell her I ran into you since you’re going to meet her beforehand!” Luke waves goodbye as Wally smiles.
As Luke becomes smaller and further away to Wally’s eyes he figures he has plenty of time to get to Maddie’s house before she leaves.
But that would be rude…but where else
could he go for help and for a good guess at what’s going on?
He doesn’t know if he will see the fellow spirits and he isn’t sure he is just ready to return to school just yet. Besides, he’s sick of school anyways. Wally pulls out the slip of paper that has Maddie’s address on it and jogs to her house.
-
Wally makes a few slip-up’s every now and then as it’s been forever since he’s walked these streets (not counting the renovations made) but he finally makes it to supposedly Maddie’s house.
He pants and stretches. He just talked to the living. The living! The living saw him and spoke to him! And the box didn’t reset from his hands either! This is strange. Not necessarily bad…but bad as this is different than what Wally has ever experienced.
Do I really want to do this? What if she and her mom are still adjusting? What if I ruin the vibe? What if I raise questions for Maddie’s mother or ruin Maddie’s readjustment and cause her to have PTSD (Post-Traumatic-Spirit-Disorder)????
“Shut up, brain” Wally mumbles as his heart hammers against his chest. Wally begins to anxiously knock on the door.
Maybe he shouldn’t have come here.
Maybe he shouldn’t be doing this.
Has Maddie even mentioned me? Or the ghosts, of course! If I think about only me, myself, and I I’d be selfish! He needs to keep this low profile just in case her mom answers and she doesn’t know that-
“Hi!” A voice breaks him out of the spiraling in his brain and his eyes refocus to find a tall old lady standing in the doorway.
She seems much happier than she was while doing the drinking. I’m glad she and Maddie are reunited, Wally thinks to himself as he smiles. Oh crap, Maddie!
Wally clears his throat. “Hi! I’m uh—that’s not important right now. Is there a resident here by the name of Maddie Nears?”
“Oh, yes! Maddie, she’s my daughter!”
“Ahh, good. Glad I didn’t get the wrong address then! Maddie…is she home? I’m her co—”(he can’t use that excuse, she’ll know he’s lying)”—her boyf—“(she’s probably never mentioned a boyfriend and it’d be weird for her to randomly get one all of a sudden the first few days she’s back)”—I’m just her friend!”
“Oh,” the woman looks awfully puzzled. “I’m afraid she’s not at home right now, she’s on her way to school.”
“Shit.”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh! Sorry! I meant to say “dang, I wish I got here in time. I left my watch at home and lost track of time…and got a little lost. She must not have mentioned me. I’m a “transfer student” and she offered to be my “tour guide.” She was going to walk with me.”
“Huh, she never told me! Seems like she doesn’t tell me a lot of things lately.” Maddie’s mother sighs. “I mean…I’m giving her her time to adjust and be more open. But it’s been a few weeks…”
Ah yes, a few weeks. The Maddie she met earlier was Janet. However, Sandra doesn’t know that yet.
“Huh, I’ve also been waiting for her to tell you” that she was possessed this whole time and she was a “ghost” “that we were going to meet up, it’s okay.”
“No, it’s not okay. It’s not an excuse to forget plans. I can take you.”
“Oh! It’s fine, Ms. Nears! I can take myself, I asked for directions already—just wanted to make sure she was here. You’ll let her know that I was hear…yes?”
“Of course, have a great day!” Sandra shuts the door behind her but then quickly opens it. “Sorry, I forgot to ask! What’s your-“ but Sandra stops abruptly when she realizes that no one is there anymore. “…”
-
Wally can’t go back.
Wally cane go back, not yet.
Wally can’t go back just yet.
I can’t go back, the memories are too much to bear. What if somebody recognizes me? I need to have a disguise.
I think I have some money from years ago. I never used the money that my parent gave me, I’ve made quite the stash in my pocket. And Wally goes back to the street he originally found himself on.
With his hand holding $200 dollars, he could probably find a new set of pants, a shirt, jacket, and a cap. Maybe some food too, he’s getting hungry. He knows the places where the spirits never go in the school, he can stake out “camp” there.
He tells himself not to run into the ghosts. He’d think it’s be selfish if they thought that he left without saying goodbye. He wanted to, but he fell in too deep. He doesn’t want confrontation just yet. He just knows that they’ll be lingering, confused, and he can’t answer them. He hates that. Maybe he could write a note and leave it in a sca—
He can’t do that. And he knows. He just wish he could enter the scar FOR ONCE.
And…he needs a disguise so no one who looks back on the history of this place to recognize him if they can.
Precautions.
Wally shakes his head to refocus from his thoughts as he heads to the plaza with old shops he remembers. He shrugs, how much could one small town change in…what…forty years? I can’t believe I’ve been-dead trapped in the school for that long!
Well-, his brain begins to spiral as he walks.
“Don’t answer that,” he mumbles to his head.