Mitch's POV

A couple weeks went by before anything strange happened…well, in real life, that is. I was still having the dreams, and after a certain point, I found myself asking the others about theirs more frequently.

Soon enough, it became an everyday thing to discuss what’d happened the night before. 

Unfortunately, not every dream was a good one.

“It was just like Mom and Dad,” Rain rocked back and forth, eyes glazed over. “It hurt. I could feel it.”

“They pushed me down the fucking stairs.” Alex grumbled as he stared at his phone, playing a game of online chess with Eli. “As if I don't fall down that shit enough.”

“Noble girls are weird,” Sarah mumbled as she erased something on her drawing tablet. “They make everything a competition and then bully the ‘losers.’”

I even had a dream where I almost got murdered! Crazy, right?

Unfortunately, Mom and Dad had been fighting a lot more lately. I would either hole up in my room or slip out of the house when that happened; at least I was getting exercise, since I was taking so many walks…

And then, one day, I was on a walk, and heard his voice for the first time.

I was humming the song Eli was working on, and eventually started singing what I could remember; I got stuck on a certain line, when suddenly…

“It's ‘and soon enough I see a flare.’”

“Oh, thanks!” 

It…took me a second. 

“Wait, what?” I stopped walking and looked around. “Who's there?”

“Wait, you can hear me?”

I started spinning around, but nobody else was on the street with me.

“What the heck is going on?!”

“I should be asking you that—!”

I tripped and fell on my butt, but the world kept spinning.

“Who are you?! What are you?! Am I going crazy?! WAS ELI RIGHT?!”

Sometimes, Eli would joke that since we were brothers, I must be “mentally fucked” too. He wasn't wrong, but I didn't think his schizophrenia would rub off on me!

“You…you can hear me. Oh my word…”

His voice sounded a lot like mine, but…just off enough to tell it was someone else.

“Whaddya mean? Who are you? Why can't I see you? ARE YOU A GHOST—?”

“Calm down! I'm not a—” He paused, like he was thinking. “...Am I a ghost?”

“That's what it looks like!” 

“This has never happened before!” He shrieked, disorienting me for a second. “What of the others? Can they also—?”

“Woah, buddy, back up!” I finally stood up and dusted myself off. “Whaddya mean ‘the others?’ And ‘this hasn't happened before?’”

He started panicking as I turned around and headed back the way I came.

“Wait, if you're having the dreams already—you need to get to safety, and fast. You never know when she may strike—”

“Huh? What are you talking about? Who's ‘she—?’”

As I approached a crosswalk, a car came out of nowhere, wildly swerving and nearly hitting me; I admit I screamed like a little girl and fell on my butt again as it just barely missed me.

“That!” He hissed. “At any moment, you could be dead!”

And then he gasped.

“Wait, when you were at school, she said—”

“You've been ghost-stalking me?! For how long?!” My heart was pounding in my ears, and hearing him freak out wasn't helping much.

“That doesn't matter! Listen, Matthew, this time is different! You can hear me! Maybe we can change things!”

“It's Mitch! And again, what are you talking about?”

“I'm you, for god's sake!” He snapped. “I'm your past life!”

Everything froze for a second; I couldn't hear anything but my own heartbeat, and the air was painfully cold for a summer day.

“...Huh?”

“My name is Mattheus.” He replied. “I'm from…ack, how long has it been? Hundreds? Thousands? There's been so many now…”

My head started spinning again; I shakily stood up and started making my way home, determined that if I could just lie down and take a nap whatever the heck was happening might stop happening.

Yeah, I haven't been sleeping much, that's all! Too many fire nightmares! It was making me crazy! Haha! 

I was on the verge of fainting when I stumbled through the door, attempting to ignore Mattheus as he started rambling about me dying again. Mom stopped me, though, which scared me until she actually started speaking.

“Alex is upstairs. He came over unannounced, but of course he was looking for you, so I gave him a drink and told him to wait in your room.”

She looked me up and down and clicked her tongue.

“Tch. I don't know what that boy sees in you, but you'd best count yourself lucky to have such friends.”

And then she walked away.

Confused, I stumbled up the stairs and into my room; Alex came over alone sometimes, sure, but without letting me know? Something had to be up.

As I opened the door, I found that Alex was in a worse state than me; he was shaking, holding a full glass of water, and covered in sweat.

“Alessio!” Mattheus cried; he literally sounded on the verge of tears.

“That's not his name!” I blurted out; I instantly regretted it, since I definitely sounded crazy, until Alex looked up at me with wide eyes.

“So you're hearing one, too."