Chapter Text
Leaving for England was the only bright spot in what had been a pretty terrible week for Pete.
It all started with Alberta. She had pulled Pete into the library and said she needed to talk to him while everyone else was watching the some new movie in the other room.
He knew what it was about before she even said it. They just hadn’t been clicking recently the same way they used to. Or ever, if he was being entirely honest, not in the same way they had back when they were just friends.
Pete couldn’t even argue when Alberta broke up with him. Because she was right. What they were doing wasn’t working. It made the most sense to go back to being friends before the resentment set in and made it impossible.
But that didn’t make it any easier.
More than anything, it was that he had liked Alberta for so long. Everyone knew about it. And they already thought he was an idiot for not knowing about Carol and Jerry. This would make it infinitely worse.
The situation with Ever Creek was terrible, but a tiny, selfish part of Pete was glad that it meant he could put off telling the others about him and Alberta.
At least he could try to help Sam and Jay find Nancy’s portrait. Pete loved helping, and he couldn’t deny that it would get his mind off the whole situation.
Besides, England was close enough that he wouldn’t have to worry too much about disappearing while he was away.
Or so he thought.
His arm disappearing was the first sign that Pete should have started making his way home. But this was too important.
That was what he reminded himself as the locusts swarmed the museum. As he watched the flight get delayed again and again. As he sat in the back of the car and told Kyle not to mention his arms vanishing.
But lying in the back of the car, everything but his head gone, Pete was starting to wonder if maybe he should have gone back earlier after all.
Kyle kept turning around nervously, looking like he wanted to say something. Pete wasn’t even sure what someone could say in a time like this.
He thought of the other ghosts, waiting for him and Jay to come back with the good news. He thought of all the time they had spent together, alone in this house, before Sam and Jay had moved in.
Even as a ghost, there was so much to lose. Memories spiraled through his mind like water down a drain, flashing past so quickly he could hardly keep up.
And then, for some reason, the image of Trevor, hand on his heart, watching Pete watch his grandson, burst to the forefront.
He didn't know how. He didn't know why. But, nervously humming Whitesnake in the back of the car, Trevor's face was the last thing Pete remembered before the world faded into darkness.