“But shouldn’t I have at least started?!” he cried. “Like, I love knowledge. I will read everything I can get my hands on, yet when it mattered, I didn’t!”
“Ollie, you need to give yourself a break.” She rested a hand on Ollie’s tightly clasped together hands, and lightly squeezed. “You need to stop trying to hold yourself to standards that no one else could possibly keep.”
Ollie let out a soft whimper, as a few more tears broke free. “B-but what i-if I do…and someone dies because of it?”
“Ollie, you are not responsible for the lives of everyone around you.”
“But I am now, don’t you see?! If a-a witch hunter comes and one of you gets hu-hurt, it will be m-my fault! Not to mention, if I-I…if I lose control again and hurt someone!”
“Then you won’t lose control again.” She gave his hands another squeeze. “You’ll learn, and you’ll get stronger.”
“But—ha—what if it’s n-not enough?”
“The only thing you can do is try your best, Ollie. And remember that you are not alone. You have me, Red, and…even Noble, I suppose.” Even as Jahla said the last part, she couldn’t help but think that having Noble may not be a good thing, depending on what he was hiding.
Ollie quickly initialed each page of the contract on the tablet, signing the last part that confirmed he agreed to the services outlined in the previous pages, before handing the device back to the man with a smile.
“Thank you, Mr. Cross. The signed contract will be sent to your email, along with the contact details of the foreman for the job. They will likely get in touch with you later today with further details. But a team should be in first thing Monday to begin clean-up, and to haul away the tables set for repair, while disposing of the two we mentioned were a loss,” Roger Wright from Kings Historical Restoration said as he grabbed the tablet.
The mask the man had used while checking out the room was hanging off one ear, and Roger’s gaze seemed very focused on the left side of Ollie’s face. The man was obviously trying his bestto avoid looking at the bruises on his right side and around his neck. Ollie was, at this point, very hopeful the bruises would be gone by Monday. It was Friday already, and they were at the tail end of healing, leaving just a light-yellowish color that was still visible on his skin, but didn’t really hurt.
“Will they be removing the parts of the floor we mentioned that day?”
“That will be up to the job foreman. But I imagine they may want to take measurements, and run the Hydroxyl Generator overnight, before cutting into the floor.”
He nodded. “Makes sense, I suppose. I’ll see you out.”
Ollie walked Roger down to the front door. After shaking hands, he waved goodbye before closing the door behind the man and heading back up the front steps with a sigh.
All the books were officially out of the room, and the majority had already been shipped off. It was nearing noon, and if all went well, they’d have the last of them cleaned and boxed by tonight, if not also shipped off, which would allow him to give his librarians Saturday off.
Ollie paused when he reached the top of the front steps as Annabel appeared. Her whole existence consisting of slightly transparent shades of white, gray, and black, the British ghost looked the same as the last time he saw her with her large eyes, pert up-turned nose, high cheekbones, and plush lips. And as always, she was wearing a 1700s-style dress, while her hair was styled up with just a few select pieces left down and curled, as was common back when she’d been alive.
His smile grew wide, as Ollie resisted the urge to try to hug her, and instead, blurted, “Thank you! Really, Annabel, thank you. If it wasn’t for you…” He trailed off, swallowing hard as he worked to shove back the fear that tried to raise up with all that could have happened if she hadn’t come.
“I’m just glad I managed to help.” Her nose wrinkled slightly, as she no doubt also thought about it.
As he looked her over closely, he hesitated on noticing she didn’t appear as bright. Or rather, her body seemed…fainter than normal? He’d swear he could see through her more than before. Ollie frowned on realizing he hadn’t actually seen her since Sunday.
“Annabel, are you…okay?”
She blinked, briefly looking down at herself before saying, “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? You are looking a bit more—uh—see-through?” He winced. “Is it rude for me to point that out?”
The ghost let out a tinkling giggle. “I’m not sure if there actually is any etiquette when it comes to commenting on how transparent a ghost is. As I never actually met a ghost before my death, or even after it.
“Regardless, I’m afraid my current state comes back to the reality of me being just a fragment of a soul. Truth be told, under normal circumstances, I would never be able to even dream of gathering up enough energy to be noticed by the living, let alone physically interact. But thanks to the boost your very presence seems to give to the ability of any ghost you come across, I was able to act.
“That being said, doing so depleted most of my energy, and it took me a while to build up enough again to even show this much. Though, by all standards, the ‘while’ was far less than what it should have been.”
He wrung his hands together, running his gaze over her again. “So that’s why I haven’t seen you since Sunday? Does it hurt when you are…out of energy?”
She smiled kindly. “I’m a ghost. Well, a fragment of a ghost, but the concept still stands. I can’t exactly feel pain, or usually anything physical at all, even if I do still have emotions. I wasdrained, yet it was more that I was tuned out from the world. My battery was on empty, but it wasn’t really the physical bone-tired exhaustion that the living can feel.
“As to where I was…well, I was pulled back to my diary, and I basically floated there, unable to move away until I'd gathered enough energy again. I’d say I was almost in power-off mode; aware yet not, with time moving oddly fast. Mind you, again, with you being here, what likely would have taken me years or even centuries, only took a few days.”
“The way you talk about me being like a power boost to ghosts…makes me think it’s not normal.”
