Ghost In The Mirror

Josh’s P.O.V.

Everyday she’s gone it gets harder and harder. Every time I talk to her it’s like this knot in my throat just keeps getting bigger and bigger. This void in my chest proves I have no heart anymore. She took it the day we met and never gave it back, not that I care. Now that she’s so far away though, it just hurts to breathe.

I want to be ok. I really do. I want to be able to say that my girlfriend and I are going to be just as close as she was before she moved to Britain. I want to be able to say that we’re still happy and nothing is going to come between us while she’s gone.

I can’t help but doubt everything though. We’re still close, yes. I don’t deny that at all. We’re always talking. It just isn’t the same. I can tell she isn’t as happy as she was before I went and fucked everything up. Im sure if I just beat the hell out of brad and threatened him with something, I would’ve never put her in this situation.

Everyone else is really depressed, a lot like me. No one is nearly as bad as I am, though. Im around all my friends five out of every seven days and they’re all with someone, well, each other. Im the odd one out though. Im like the third wheel on a date that you didn’t want to be a part of. They all have that shoulder to lean on and Im alone. Before, I didn’t care. I was happy for them. I was happy they had someone to be with. They deserved it.

Now Im jealous. Im jealous that all of them are still happy with one another. Im jealous that they have their other half. Im jealous that they see the person they love everyday. Im jealous that when they get to say they love the other, they can say it to the others face.

It hurts more than anything. Im always alone, finding solitude in myself rather than comfort in my friends. Sometimes I’ll just go to that spot behind the school we sat at during lunch when our friends ‘banned’ us from sitting with them because we were to flirty for them to handle. I even go there after school just to remember what it was like when she was here, even though she has only been gone for two months.

That’s where I am now, actually. Im just sitting here, listening to the Misfits on my walkman, Last Caress to be exact, and thinking about what it was like six months ago when I had her here with me. Before Ryan blamed her for his girlfriends abuse, before we even knew who Brad and Sarah was, before Tarra left for Britain, when everything was right. I want that time back. I want everything to be ok again. It wont. Not for another year at least.

Speaking of Tarra, she finally made a few friends. Their names are Ben Bruce, James Cassells, and Matt Nicholls. From what she told me, Ben helped her out when some guy was trying to get her to ‘have some fun’ with him and his friends. For that, Ben is ok in my book.

I don’t really like that the only people she’s made friends with is guys but it’s something Im going to have to get use to I guess. As long as she isn’t isolating herself I support her, even if it makes me sound like a major hypocrite because I’ve gotten to where I would rather be alone.

The band, the one she supported me into getting together, has been going great, for the most part. They wrote a few songs while I was gone because of Sarah and Brad. Bleed In Black And White, Trace Out The Heart, and Violets Are Blue. I’ve listened to them and they’re pretty good. They’ve labeled it as ‘Demo’. They’re so creative.

Chris wrote Trace Out The Heart for Tarra. From what I’ve heard from him, she called Angelo and him crying a few times before I went to see her. They got a lot closer over that time period.

They asked if I wanted to put any keyboard into it and I told them no. Demo makes me want to rip my non-existing heart out and I’d rather not be a part of it. The guys all understand so we agreed to just start writing new songs. We still don’t have a name though, which really sucks. We didn’t want to just have some dumb temporary name until we find something we really like so were just nameless until that perfect name sticks out for us.

My phone started ringing as Last Caress changed to Return Of The Fly. I looked at the screen and saw Ryan’s name flashing across the screen. I turned off the walkman, shoving it deep in my pockets along with my ear buds and I answered the phone only to be greeted by heavy sobs. “Ryan, what’s wrong?”

“It’s Ariel.” He choked, trying to regain his speech as I barely understood what he was saying. “She- She’s in the hospital.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I rushed. I hung up the phone and stood up and started my walk to the hospital.

-

We’ve been in the waiting room for about an hour now. Ryan hasn’t stopped crying. He’s really worried. From what we’ve heard from what little Ryan has told us her dad beat her pretty bad. He went over her house because he was worried about her since he hadn’t talked to her in two days. Her dad’s car wasn’t there but he went inside anyways, hoping that maybe she would be.

She was.

He found her in her room in a puddle of her own blood, lacerations everywhere. She barely had a heart beat when he found her. Her own father left her to die. He’s so scarred from what he saw he can barely even be here. If it wasn’t for the love he has for her Ryan would be gone. He’s absolutely terrified right now and nothing anyone can do is going to help him.

I heard footsteps come from down the hall and looked up, hoping that it was a doctor. It wasn’t. If anything, other than Ariel’s father, the two people I saw were the last people I ever wanted to see again. It was Chrystal and Vanessa, the social workers that we assigned to Tarra’s case. The women that took the love of my life from me.

They stopped in the waiting room’s doorway and they gave us a sympathetic smile. I didn’t want their sympathy, though. They can shove it up their ass for all I care. “Seems like you bunch can’t get away from us.” The woman I recognized as Chrystal muttered.

Ryan looked up at the sound of her voice. His face paled as he asked, “what are you doing here?”

“We’ve been assigned a new case.” Vanessa sighed. “It’s your friend Ariel’s case.”

“You’re not taking her from me.” Ryan stated, drying his eyes. “You can’t.”

“I’m afraid we have to. We can’t let her stay at her home. She isn’t safe.” Chrystal explained sadly. “She’s going to a safe place though, I can promise you that.”

“Where?”

“The same place as your friend Tarra.”

“You’re taking her to Britain to?” Opal asked, tears finding their place in her eyes again. “Fuck! You took Tarra two months ago and now your taking her? Who’s next? Chris? Mary? My fucking sister? I mean, Jesus fucking Christ! Can’t she just go to a local foster home? Couldn’t Tarra have gone to a local foster home?” She fumed.

Chrystal and Vanessa sighed before taking a seat across the room from us. “Listen, all of you,” Chrystal said, “Tarra’s parents were killed in a car wreck a year ago, as you all know. She woke up in a hospital alone and was told about what happened and what was going to happen. She chose to run away and try to live on her own. That told us she wasn’t mature enough to actually succeed in her goals. If she would’ve stayed in a home for at least two months, she would’ve had the choice of being emancipated. With that being said, we had to send her off.

“Ariel, of course, is a different story. Her father is dangerous. Im gonna go out on a limb here and say that he has been for quite a while judging from the scars that cover her body. We have to get her away from that. Putting her in a local foster home just tells her father that there is a possibility of getting her back when there isn’t. That man is going to be imprisoned and Ariel is going to be taken care of. I can promise you that she will be so much safer there than she ever has been before. This is for the best.”

Notes

This is it. The FINAL chapter of Ghost In The Mirror. Are you guys as sad as I am? What did you guys think of the ending? PLEASE tell me your thoughts. I would love to hear them.

Im doing a sequel! I already have the link set up in the description. This is going to be a trilogy of sorts. I hope to see all of you guys following me to that story. You all have been amazing readers, even if you didn't comment. You all don't understand how much your reads, subscriptions, comments, and votes meant to me. This is my favorite story of all of them that I've written and to see that it has a reaction like this really warms my heart.

The sequel will be called The British Invasion. It's going to be more about Ariel and Tarra and how the friendship between the two will grow as well as the friendship between Tarra and the guys she has met. Im sorry that I couldn't bring all of your character along but the description that I got for this character made more sense to move as it would seem like she is being saved. I can promise all of you though that your characters will not be thrown away. You will see them more in the third book.

I love all of you! I hope to see you guys during The British Invasion. Hopefully more of you guys will comment. Don't be shy! I don't bite! New readers, tell me your thoughts! I don't care that your new! Welcome to my aco- taco family! It's amazing. Old readers who haven't commented, go right ahead! I will love you no matter how weird the comment is, I promise. :D

So comment! Please! Or vote! Even subscribe if you haven't yet! I love you!