Now, it sat there, staring him in the face. Well, he wanted a sign, and that was a flashing neon one.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Can you please close the cabinet? That’s freaky.”
It slammed shut on command, and he ended up jumping, nearly shitting himself.
Oh, Jesus Christ, he was in a haunted castle with dead people who could communicate with him.
That couldn’t be good.
Right?
This was one to tell the other Marines when he got back to the States.
IFhe got back.
He might just die of a heart attack first.
“Do you want me to read the letters?” he asked, pointing at the box. “If you do, can you shut the lights off?”
Well, hell.
They went off.
Now, he was sitting in the freaking dark, two dead ghosts near him, because he could feel the cold, and that had been the dumbest thing.
ONLY, it got worse.
The lights came back on, and the phone on the counter began ringing.
Because Finn had told him about the painting, he was more than happy to talk to someone—other than the dead.
When he picked it up, he got a shock.
“Hello?”
There was no one there but static, and then, he realized that the dead were trying to get him to read the letters.
“Okay,” he said, hanging it up once he put two and two together and realized no one would call this late at night. “You made your point. You win.”
Picking up the first letter, he went with the one that was closest to the date they broke up. It was the yearAFTERhe’d walked out and never returned.
‘My Dearest M'eudail,
It’s been a year. One full year has passed since you walked out of that shit apartment door, and never returned. For one full year, I kept the apartment, staying here and living with the ghosts that were our past and for one reason alone. I had hope you’d come back.
I had hope that we’d fix what I’d broken, and that wherever you were, you’d hear me crying myself to sleep at night in our bed.
I don’t know why I’m even writing this letter. I know you’ll never see it. Maybe one day, our paths will cross again, and you’ll see me and fall back in love with me.
Deep down, I know that’s never going to happen, but I’m not in the right frame of mind to believe anything else. I know that truth. The day you left, I died. I’m nothing but a hollow shell, and I can’t even look at another person without hating myself.
My tour of duty ended, and I was offered another tour with more money, more prestige, and more everything, and I took it. I only took it so you could find me. I figured since you were a Marine, youcould have a way to connect to me via my service record.
But it’s been a full year, and nothing. You didn’t call. You didn’t text, and honestly, I feel like I’m lost. I don’t know how to do this.
You were the strong one.
You were the one who kept me going.
