Danny runs ahead excitedly; he's like a kid in a candy store. Ahead, on a pedestal, is the chest our benefactor requested.
"Grab it and let's go," I say impatiently.
"Oh, all right. But can I just see what's in it?"
Corey rolls his eyes. "He said there wouldn't be anything in it."
"Bullshit, man. No one pays a million bucks for a chest with nothing in it."
"They do if a million is chump change for them," Laura says.
"Screw it, I'm opening it." He flips the ornate latch on the front of the box and opens it. Inside is... nothing.
"There, you happy?"
Danny nods, dejected. "Can we go? He wants us back tonight."
We all follow him our to where we left Jimmy, our pilot, in the plane.
After we've been in the air for about 25 minutes Jimmy turns back to us. "You may want to buckle up. There's very little air traffic up here so there must be a storm up ahead. The radio's out so I can't check."
"Should we turn back?" Corey asks.
"No, we passed our PSR a while ago, we'll just have to plow through." He turns his attention back to the controls so we go quiet.
We arrive back at headquarters at half past nine in the evening. Obviously we're late because there aren't any cars in the parking lot. No one's inside either. Odd. Usually, our boss would still be on duty, and security. "Something's not right here," I say. "You guys stay here; I'll take a look around."
"I'll come with you," Corey, the senior member of our team says.
Our team works to acquire artifacts for clients around the world. You can't call us archaeologists, really, or treasure hunters. Exotic interior decorators, perhaps.
I push through the double doors leading to the front parking lot. Outside we find nothing. No people, no animals, not even cars. Something is very wrong. Same story in town, and the next town, and the next. Everywhere. We're totally, utterly alone.
Several weeks pass. Since none of us actually lives in the area, we make homes in the abandoned buildings. Some members of our team decided they'll be better off on their own. Alliances are formed, friendships are broken, love is found.
Six months later, only six of us are still trying to work and live together. I find myself living with Corey, I've slowly come to find myself madly in love with him.
It takes about a year but strange things begin to happen in our uninhabited Earth: the animals return. Or had they never left? None of us are really sure. Six months after that, people return. It was confusing at first, things would move we didn't touch, we'd see cars driving, but eventually we could see the culprits: people going about their daily lives.
Our world had returned but it couldn't see us. Try as we might to communicate, no one in our world is aware of us.
In the months that pass Corey and I live in a young woman's house, or rather, we live around her house. Avoiding moving anything that would clue her in to our presence. Sometimes it seems if her dog can sense us but never enough to be a concern.
It's Halloween, the few of us still on speaking terms gather. We drink, laugh and joke about what we'd be dressing up as if anyone could actually see us. After the others leave Corey and I sit back to relax. He's been talking about marriage lately but really, I can't see the point.
"I love you," he presses. I can tell already where this is going.
"And I love you. But... There's not even a priest who could marry us if we tried."
"Would you pleas--"
"Corey!" I prepare for a fight.
"HELLO?!" The shout comes from our knowing hostess' kitchen. "Who's out there?!" She walks into the living room where we sit. She looks around, confused.
I let my breath out in a low hiss. "She can't see us."
Corey nods. The woman shakes her head and says to her dog "I could have sworn I heard someone talking." She shrugs her shoulders. "Oh well, back to work!"
The dog sits and stares at us. "Come on, bud!" The dog shoots us one last look and follows her.
"That was weird... Right?" Corey asks. "Maybe we should leave?"
I agree. "Who knows how long it'll take for audio and video to sync up."
"Where will we even go?"
I shake my head."I don't know but as long as we go together, I'll be happy."
We slip out into the chilled air as the first Trick-Or-Treaters arrive. We're careful not to touch anyone, they've never felt us before but why take chance? We walk around the neighborhood for a couple of hours, twice I'm sure I see people look directly at us. "What do we do if we're seen again?" I ask. "I mean, we've been MIA for almost three years."
Corey's deep in thought for a minute."I don't know. But we'll work it out. We always do." He smiles. Clearly recalling the same memories I do; botched missions in our early days, us making fools of ourselves. "We can get ourselves in and out of trouble better than anyone." He turns and grabs me around the waist, suddenly serious. "If anything good came of all this, it's us." He leans down and kisses me. The world seems to shift during our kisses like this.
There's a commotion behind us, we turn to see someone fall to the ground, a trickle of blood in the corner of his mouth. No one else saw a thing.
"It's one of us." Corey and I realize at the same time, it's Danny, I'm sure. "Run!" he shoves me ahead.
"Not without you!" I plead.
"I'll be fine, baby, but I need you safe. Go. Please."
I do as he says but I'm not sure where to go. I decide to warn the others. I run to the houses they've been staying in but they're not there. I head back to where I left Corey, he's nowhere to be found, either. They're all gone, as is Danny's body.
"What is going on?" I scream.
"You're getting what you wanted." I spin around. A figure, cloaked entirely in black, standing about 15 feet away, is clearly talking to me.
"What?" I gape."I never wanted anything like this! I'd never want my friends dead."
"Dead? Who's dead?"
"I saw Danny die!"
"No. He's not dead. He's rejoining your world.
"WHAT?!" I shout again.
"This is what you've all been wanting, to get back into your world, is it not?" I stammer uselessly in the figure's direction. "Your friend," it gestures to where Danny's body had lay earlier. "Awoke me from my resting place of nearly one thousand years--"
"The chest?" I manage to croak out.
The cloaked head nods. "You were transported to my world: the Spirit World. I got you as close to your realm as I could but my power can only go so far. So there you sat, between your world and mine for almost 3 years but you were, as you can see, growing ever closer to home. Do you know why that is?" I shake my head, completely bewildered. "Love. The power of your love is stronger than any magic in my world. You saved your friends, Ash. You and Corey."
"But... Danny..." Still useless but trying to spit out my thoughts.
"What you saw was me giving your friend one final push into your world." The figure reached up and lowers its hood, revealing a blue shriveled head. I could see its pointed lips sticking out over its teeth. "This, I'm afraid, is the point where I have to stop being nice, darling."
I pull my eyes from his dancing lips. "What?"
"Your love saved your friends but it could also destroy them. If you were to return to your lives and suddenly find you no longer loved Corey, or the other way around, you would all perish. No spirit world, no afterlife. You'd just be gone."
Realization hits. "I have to stay here, in-between worlds, to save them?" The figure nods. "I can't..." I stop. I can't what? I can't give up my life to save theirs? I can't save the love of my life because I'm selfish? No, That's not me. "Okay... I'll do it"
"No terms?" I shake my head. "Good." He claps his hands and the 12 members of my team appear before me. "I'll let you say goodbye." He vanishes.
"Wh-Where's Ash?" Corey asks.
"Behind you," Dan says.
Corey turns around and I begin to run to him. But I stop short. Something isn't right. "Where?" he asks. In that one word my world stops spinning.
Dan begins to say something but I cut him off. "He can't see me. This is the only way I can help you." I'm aware that the team is staring at me but the only one I can look at is Corey. He follows their eyes but sees nothing. I continue, "Lie to him. Find my body. Never let him know. Tell him... I'll always love him." I walk away while I still can.
I collapse onto a park bench. "It had happen that way. If he knew, he would have resented you for it." The figure is back.
"I know. But... I'd hoped to... I don't know but if he's okay, I'm okay." The sobs take over. I'm not aware of anything for several days, or weeks, I'm not sure.
I spend my days in my prison thinking of ways to escape but there are none that don't kill my friends, who have become my family, and... I can't even think his name without the bone-rattling sobs returning.
Dan's the first to come back to see me, to say how sorry he is and to thank me, but eventually the whole team does. That is, except...
Laura is the last. She separated from the group after just a week of being trapped in the spirit realm. She's had it out for me since training.
"I won't say thank you. Or sorry... Frankly, I'm glad you're here. You deserve to be."
"Is that all?" I ask, too broken to deal with her.
"No... It's not. I'm taking Corey--" A stab goes through my heart. "for myself. It's taken a while and a few drinks, but he's mine."
"No." I blink back tears.
"Yes. It started off simple, after all, what's a drunken kiss between friends? But I've finally convinced him that this is what you'd want, for him to move on, and who better to than with me?" She smiled and it pushed me over the edge. Something in me snapped and I hurled myself at her. I passed right though her chest.
"You can't hurt me, Ashy, I'm the only one with that power here."
I sit back down on my bench. I'm never moving again, I decide.
Fifteen years go by, I've hardly moved from my spot since my encounter with Laura, the great thing about being dead? You never have to do a damn thing. But that day was... different. I found myself drawn to move. I'm not sure how long it took but I found myself in a bank in Texas. Before I could even finish thinking "What am I doing here?" I saw him. He's older now but it's definitely him. Corey. It's didn't feel as bad as I thought it should. Maybe being dead has numbed me. When he left, I followed him.
Outside, waiting for him, is a young girl, maybe 9, she's definitely his. It only took him five years to move on and start a family. I look around to the passenger seat, expecting to see Laura, but instead find a woman I've never seen before.
Looks like we both lost, bitch, I think. Great, I hurt my own feelings.
I shift myself into the back seat, compelled to see how life turned out for him. We pull up in front of an impressive looking house about 15 minutes later. Corey and his new family head inside but I stand next to the SUV and sulk.
Another car pulls up across the street and a family of 5 pours out. "Go ahead inside," a familiar voice says. "They've got a nice house, don't they, Ash?"
I look up, surprised, Dan grins at me, I give him a watery smile. "What are you doing here?"
He sighs and I can see that the years have worn him down. "It's Jenny's birthday. You?"
I quickly decide not to ask who Jenny is and reply, "Honestly, I have no idea. I was... pulled here... by... something."
"Well, that's vague."
"I'll be leaving now." I don't wait for an answer before I begin to walk. No particular destination in mind; just to where ever no one would see me.
I don't feel that pull again for nearly 25 years. When I do I find myself back in Texas, in another bank. There's been a robbery and a bystander has been shot. A shock runs through me, Corey lays on the floor in a pool of his own blood.
"No..." I grab his hand. "This can't be ha--" I grabbed his hand?
"Ash?" He can see me. He's as good as gone.
"It's me."
"You waited. Forty years?"
"Yep," I fake a smile. Confusion crosses his face. "I stayed behind. To save you."
"Oh... I never stopped loving you."
"I know." And I realize it had to be true or they'd all be gone. "I haven't stopped, either."
"Am I... dying?" he asks calmly.
"I think so. It's the only way you'd be able to see me."
"It doesn't hurt anymore."
"That's good," I lie.
He coughs a few times and I can feel his heartbeat faltering.
"I should tell you... I have a daughter."
"I know." His hands are like ice now.
"After I lost you... I just wanted to feel something. I started this relationship with this girl... I didn't love her but... You were--"
I shush him."It's fine, I understand."
He's getting hysterical now. "She was the only good thing. I missed you so much. I tried to get back. I tried. For years. I couldn't get over-- I could--" He coughs a few times, it's almost over.
People are standing around us, no one knows what to do so they let the dying man talk to his hallucinations. Corey takes a few labored breaths then stops. His eyes flutter and he's gone. A stranger drapes his jacket over him and everyone else knows what's already hit me: The love of my life is gone.
I can't bear to be there any longer. I head back to my park bench, the one I spent my first fifteen years on, and the one on which I'll wait out the rest.
When I arrive I find a young man already sitting in my place. "Someone else stuck waiting?"
"Yep."
Whoops, didn't realize I'd said that out loud.
Out loud?
There was no out loud for me anymore. The young man stands up.
It can't be.
He turns to me. Corey. My Corey. The one I haven't seen in over forty years.
"You came back to me?"
"I'm never leaving you again." He grabs me around the waist and kisses me. The world shifts. For the better. Forever.
The end.
