He gets increasingly frustrated with me as I insist on using my injured leg to search every inch of the cave. Suddenly I trip and fall into a puddle, arms and legs shaking as I lift myself up. I'm on the verge of crying again. I looked up to see that the most solid version of the boy yet had his arms out to catch me. I fell right through them. I start laughing. The first time I have since this all started. My leg was going lame, it was starting to go bad and I’m out of food but I’m laughing because a ghost tried to catch me. I watch his expression change from its normal annoyance to shock then he starts to break into a toothy grin. 

I roll a little sides splitting as I watch him break into nervous giggles then double over laughing so hard tears go down his face. He gasps and gasps whipping his face with a now permanent lopsided grin.

I feel my face go slack after a long second of us grinning at each other realizing, “You smiled.” He covers his face with his hand then gets yanked around, crouching to fend off the ghost bear. I flinch back, looking away. “Don’t bother.” He sighs, voice sounding lighter than before. “It’s not actually happening, it’s just a memory.” 

“Really? You don’t…feel anything?” 

“From the bear? No.” He reaches out and passes a hand through one of mine. I stare at him for a long time. He didn’t say it and I don’t dare ask. I searched everywhere, there’s no entrance or exit. Not one you can get to without repelling and needing rope. How I got the stitches became more of a question everyday, but it was more along the lines of how to explain it without it becoming supernatural?

“I give up.” I tell the ghost as he sits crossed legged in front of me. He raises an eyebrow. “I’ll stay off my leg and wait for help…if it ever comes.” He nods and gets up, floating with me back to the main area with all the other bones. “Why aren’t there more of you?” I ask him suddenly as I fall against the wall slumping down to the ground. 

He tilts his head at me. 

“More ghosts?” I point to the other bodies. 

He sits next to me, I noticed that he likes to pretend he can touch me, he could literally pass through me but no he chooses to act like he’s restricted. 

“They all moved on when they died.” 

“Why didn’t you, do you have unfinished business?” He looks at me, “I think it has something to do with the fact I didn’t want to die. I wasn’t ready. I fought so hard to live, I refused to let go.” He reappears looking down at his bones. “Now I can’t move on.” 

“You must be so lonely.” I say feeling my throat tighten. 

He looks at me grimly, “I might not be for much longer.” I flinch, mouth open in shock and then realizing I couldn’t really blame him when he was right I curl in on myself and try to sleep. It was starting to hurt too much to do so.

The next day my leg got much worse. I gently touch the hot, swollen skin. I’m going to die of infection. I pull out my tactical knife and start heating it. 

“What are you doing?” The boy asks. 

“It’s going to split open soon, I’d rather let the pressure out on my own accord.” He watches as the knife cools. 

“How do you intend to clean the cut afterwards?” 

“By not rubbing dirt in it.” 

The boy puffs out his cheeks, annoyed. Something he does all the time. 

I pause before I do it, “I can’t tell, some days it really seems like you’re intent on saving me but if I die you won’t be alone anymore.” 

The boy stares soulessly for a long time then replies coldly, “That’s only if you don’t move on, and you definitely aren’t the type to stay.” I feel a twinge of anger, confused at the jade. 

“Well if I die,” I stab into my leg relieving the pain momentarily as the pressure build up dissipates. “I’d be happy to stay with you.” I bite my lip glaring, thinking, ‘But it’s not nice to want someone to die.’ He can see there’s more behind my words. 

“I don’t want you to die, believe it or not!” He snaps. “I was human once, and I know what it’s like to die in a frustrating situation, if you manage to make it out of here alive we both win!” He points at his bones before crumpling into a head burying his head in his arms. 

“Just let my parents know that I didn’t suffer.” 

“But…” 

“Lie to them, return my bones, tell them my neck snapped on impact and I didn’t feel a thing.” 

I sigh, “The forensic scientist would examine the bones and tell them a different story.” He looks at me with red eyes. 

“I forgot about that.” He bites his lip. “What year is it?” 

I raise my eyebrows, “When were you from?” 

“The…1980’s” He murmurs. 

“Oh,” I laugh. “I thought you were going to say you were hundreds of years old, it’s only been like 40 years.” The boy’s eyes widened and water. 

“My parents… if they’re still alive they might not even remember me anymore, they’re in their early 90’s.” 

I close my mouth. “I didn’t consider that I’m sorry.” 

He stands up and gives me a painful smile turning to hide a tear going down his face, “Well hopefully they are alive because if they’ve passed and didn’t come to get me…” He chokes up and I struggle not to cry.  

The bear goes to maul the ghost again and he smacks it across the snout hand going through it. He screams in frustration. “Why do you keep tormenting me!” He swings at the ghost bear again who is still in the ripping and tearing animation, “Was killing and eating me not enough for you, 40 years! You’ve tormented me for 40 years!” 

He falls to his knees and goes catatonic. I watch in discomfort as he falls over on his side and “rots”. After a while I approach him. He doesn’t respond to my voice or attempted touch at all. For some reason his sobs hurt more than the repeated death versions of them. 

A sudden thought occurs to me. I go over to his bones. From the firelight I can see the position the bear left him after tearing every morsel off his body. I reach out and touch his arm. 

“It’s okay.” I comfort looking back at the ghost boy. 

He flinches and touches his arm then turns his mushroom and moss growing skull towards me. 

I look at the bones, they’re broken and gnawed and some of them are missing. They must be inside the bear. The piece of bone that went through my leg is covered in dry blood. I gather the piece of him that had stabbed me and put it back where it belongs. 

“I wish I could do more.” I murmur. Suddenly he appears laying where his bones were, startling me. He looks startled, himself. I hesitate and then hug him, “I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry.” We stay like that silently until I suddenly feel embarrassed.

When I pull away he’s smiling softly. “I feel better now.” He looks up through the hole which I had fallen. “You need to try.” He looks at me intensely. “Try! If you don't, I'll never forgive you.” 

I look up like I had a thousand times before and sighing tell him, “I’ll do my best but the lower rocks are still a little slick from the rain.” I brush myself off and look nervously through him at the sharp skeleton. He presses his lips together as I start climbing and immediately slip falling back down.

“Again.” He appears beside me. Floating, “I’ll help.” He points out which rocks to grab. I scream in pain as I lose my grip and take a second to recover, cradling my wounded fingers. “Please,” he reappears beside me, “You made it higher than last time.”

“I’m so weak.”

“I know, I know but you can’t give up, you have to try all the way up until you don’t have the strength anymore. You need to live.”

I sigh and wincing as I stand, trying again. He floats beside me saying encouragement every time I fall, every nail I break and begs me to keep pushing myself, pacing anxiously between breathers. 

Finally I can’t take it anymore. 

I cover my ears, “I can’t…I’m sorry.” I look up with tears in my eyes. I’m panting exhausted, “Every time I fall it actually makes me lose hope more.”

“No, please don’t do this to me.” He crouches, half of his face normal, the other decayed and terrifying but I’m used to it now. “Please don’t give up.”

I look down at my body not wanting to tell him that I can see something he can’t. “Why?” I feel my voice break full of anger at myself, him, everything. “Why does it matter so much to you?” I snarl.

His eyes are wide and they break a little as he whispers the last thing I expected to hear from a ghost I met less than a week ago, “Because I love you.” 

I start and then look down in horror, his hands are on my arms. He realizes it too. 

“No.” He jerks his arms back. Then reaches out to touch me again, “No, no, no!!!” He panics. 

“I’m dying.” I tell him. He blinks at me. Then forcing me to my feet drags me back to the hole in the ceiling. 

“You’re not dead yet.” He sounds so determined I can see why he refused to truly die.

 He pushes me to the wall, much stronger than me. “One more time…I won’t let you fall.” 

I take a deep breath. I grab the lowest rock expecting my hand to go through but it doesn’t. I strain to lift my body. I'm weaker than ever but he’s carrying most of my weight. I pant against the damp stone wall. 

“Once you reach dry rocks it’ll be a breeze,” he encourages in my ear. 

I continue to gasp, I’m seeing and experiencing double. I don’t want to tell him. I lift my arm again but my real arm doesn’t move. I strain, struggling against gravity and my body and then reach again. This time my arm moves. I look down and let out a gasp of amazement. I…I was going to make it. I feel a little strength return to my limbs as my hope returns. I watch the ghost start to grin as a little spark of life returns to my eyes. 

Then the ghost's eyes widen in horror as he loses his grip on me. I let out a yelp as the full force of gravity and pain hits me. I hug the wall like my life depends on it, I chuckle at the irony. The sun and the top of the hole are right there. I reach up again and look around for the ghost but it’s completely silent and empty. I feel my heart wrench and start to lose hope again. My legs and arms shake violently. I feel spent. 

I didn’t know what to do as my grip slipped, I fall, only a few feet from the exit in what feels like slow motion. I relax, closing my eyes, ‘It’s almost a relief to know that this is it, this is the end.’ I don’t feel pain anymore so when I open my eyes and the ghost is screaming and crying at me I hug him. “It’s okay, I told you.” I whisper. “I knew I wasn’t going to make it but I can finally relax now.” 

He grits his teeth, “It’s not okay, you were so close.” He looks up muttering to himself, “Maybe again?” He tries to lift me but gasps as he’s leaving my body behind. 

I look at my double body moving slowly and then at the skeleton of the boy. “I’m tired.” I say and he starts crying again collapsing cradling me in his lap. “Can I hold you?” I ask. He nods. I go through him to his surprise, dragging myself slowly to and carefully wrap my arms around the skeleton. A leg over his to get comfortable. He once again appears where the skeleton was. 

“Oh.” He says, eyes wide and cheeks flushed, momentarily forgetting he was mourning me. I can’t help but start laughing again. 

“I know, I know, you’ll never forgive me, but…could you maybe try?” He makes a bunch of faces at me shaking his head sobbing and laughing at the same time. I feel my breath rattling and get scared. He pulls me closer.

“What did it feel like when you, you know…” I whimper, holding him tightly.

“Like a snap.” He says seriously. “It’s not painful or scary or anything, you just feel a sudden release. And then…you’re a ghost.”

I look up at him nervously and then hug him tighter, gasping as I feel exactly what he described. Like a line or tether I couldn’t see or feel until it broke. I breathe which was a weird first instinct being dead and look at the world through ghosts eyes. “Whoa.” I say sitting up. I look around, eyes sparkling, then I look at him. He’s fucking gorgeous. He makes a nervous expression ducking, some hair falls out from behind his ear. I look away quickly. I pick him up we’re both light and heavy at the same time. I look up. “Let’s go.” 

“Where?” He says nervously, looking at me like I was bizarre.

“Hiking.” I say grabbing my things with the biggest smile, “We’ve got nothing to lose.” I laugh heartily at my horribly timed joke. Then getting more serious I offer him his backpack, “I have so much I want to see and, now,” I look away embarrassed coughing, “I want to show you.” 

He breathes a little heavy, looking nervous as he puts on his backpack. I can see he doesn’t think we can go very far but I believe we can. I know we can.

I start climbing and he giggles, floating beside me, eyebrow lifted, “You know we can float right?” I breathe heavily, a little out of breath, but at full strength this is easy. “I want to.” 

He becomes very serious, “Closure?” 

I laugh, making him start. “No,” I look up at him where he perches looking down at me from the top of the hole, “It’s because it’s fun.” His eyes light up and he reaches down to give me a hand. I take it and he pulls me up. I take another deep breath as I finally get to see the beautiful mountainside again. I look at the other ghost's eyes sparkling and full of excitement. 

He has a look of awe aimed towards me and grabbing my hand points, “There was a waterfall over there 40 years ago, want to see what happened to it?” 

“Yeah!” I exclaim stumbling to run after him and then stop looking down to see that my leg flashed between wounded, infected, and perfectly fine. I look up and see him look worried but then shrug it off, “Could be worse.”

“Wait until you start rotting.” He says playfully.I make a face and start running after him so he lets out a squeak and sprints away screeching. I love being able to run again and kind of get caught up in the moment. I tackle him with a yell of exhilaration only to freeze when I realize I could be activating his trauma. But one look at his face and I realize he’s not thinking about that. 

“You’re…he bites his lip, “A lot more attractive than I thought.” Then he looks away, puffing out his cheeks, “When you’re not covered in dirt and blood.” 

I stroke his hair out of his face and he looks back up at me then lifts his face towards mine pulling me down towards him. I close the distance quickly kissing his soft ghostly lips quickly. He pulls away gasping for air, again funny for someone who doesn’t need to breathe, “Okay I forgive you.” He covers his face flushing. I laugh hugging him in the long grass.