Ghostly Guardian - A Tragedy

If you haven't read this, then read it, and after that, then read this.

All caught up on yer homework?

I got The Ghostly Guardian in paperback form from Michael on November 21, 2012.
At the time, I told him I liked it when I read it, but...well, I didn't think it was his best work, and I think he'll agree.  I didn't want to tell him what I really thought of it, but turns out, give it a year or so, and he condemns himself.  Cool beans.
If you did your homework, you would know that in his self-critiquing post, Michael's laughing at some plot holes.  He's got some elements for romance, but he missed out on some...or...a lot...of loose ends.  (Sooorry.)

Me, being the CDO (like OCD, just with the letters in alphabetical order AS THEY SHOULD BE) person that I am, thought I'd work off of his story and write a sequel and tie up as many loose ends as was humanly possible.  I wrote the story, saved it, and then, when I realized it might hurt his feelings, decided to let it rot a little in the digital corners of my computer.  Now that Michael has renounced his romance-writing ways, it seems like a good time to bring it back out.  :)

Yeahhh...despite my best efforts, I couldn't figure out the monster, and I couldn't come up with a reason for Toshiro's memory loss, but the rest of it makes more sense...I hope.

~ ~ ~

The Tragedy

Part II of The Ghostly Guardian

For, as once spoken by a well-known pastor's wife, “There are no good break-ups.  That’s an oxymoron.  Like jumbo shrimp.”

   “No, we don’t need memories now.” [Editor's note: Michael had this whole phrase closing his story when I got it; I guess he edited it out for his blog to just, "No."]

   As soon as Mariel spoke those words, she felt herself flying up back through the black tunnel.  The light from the cavern was growing dimmer and dimmer as the unreadable signs flashed by.

   Toshiro’s arms were still wrapped around her, and she clutched him, fearful that he would return to just an apparition, but he remained solid to the moment that Mariel opened her eyes and collided with the ground of her room.

   Toshiro joined her on the floor, and instead of rising with her, he stayed there, his breathing ragged.

   Scrambling to her feet, Mariel realized his blood was still soaking through the jacket where he had a weak hand to apply pressure.

   It was worse than what he let on to.

   Without hesitating--or thinking--she called 911.

   The moment she put down the phone, Mariel was hit with an aggravatingly sane thought:

   How the heck am I going to explain this to Mom and Dad?

~ ~ ~

   “So...”

   Mariel shuffled uneasily and glanced at Toshiro who was knocked out on the couch from the sedating drug he was given at the hospital.  The ER did a quick stitch job, and having paid with her own money for their services, Mariel had driven Toshiro home, lugging him by the arms to where he was positioned now.

   “Your friend...” Mariel’s father intoned, “...what’s his name again?”

   Pushing her cold hands into her pocket, Mariel answered slowly, “Toshiro.  I named him Toshiro.”

   Her father raised an eyebrow and questioned, “And how did you get to know this...Toshiro?”

   Mariel met the skeptical eyes of her father and turned to her mother, looking for any signs of understanding.  “He’s always known me.”

   “Mariel,” her mother addressed, irritable reason at her tone, “I know and approve of a lot of your friends, but I’ve never seen this boy before, and I’m not quite sure you should stay associates with him.  You say you don’t even know his age or what you did before today when he got hurt by a...”  Confusion flashed by Mariel’s mother’s visage.  “A, what was it again?”

   Mariel closed her eyes.

   It was dark when Toshiro had gotten hurt by that monster.

   She couldn’t say.

   She didn’t know.

   “Whatever it was,” her mom went on after the silence, “Well, I don’t see a problem with it for tonight since he’s already...”  She gestured at Toshiro’s muscled chest, rising and falling with his easy breathing.

   “But tomorrow,” Mariel’s dad cut in, “I don’t want to see him around you until we get solid answers, Mariel.  This isn’t a homeless shelter, and he probably has family elsewhere.”

   The matter was obviously disclosed, and Mariel crossed her arms and watched her parents until they left the living room, not making any further objections partially out of shock, but mostly because her anger was strangling her, stopping the words dead in her throat.

   Hearing the door to their room shut, Mariel jerked her arms down and caught the cry of hatred before it rung out.  Frustration put tears in her eyes, but she was too heated to think of crying, and she swallowed, biting back her anger.

   Her nerves were shot.

   She was nearly killed by a monster, saved by Toshiro, who turned out to be flesh and blood, and had fallen in love.

   All in a day.

   And now that was being ripped apart.

   Just when things could be settled back to normal.  Or was it normal?  Was it magic of some sort?

   Determination streaking her vision, Mariel paced to Toshiro and gazed resolutely at him.

   His presence melted part of her ire, and Mariel ran her fingertips across his jaw and lips.

   If she looked like an angel when she slept, he looked like a god.

   Mariel would never let him go back to a no-name.

   Never.

   Mariel’s dreams were haunted with the look of Toshiro’s face as he was sitting outside her window, weeping bitterly.  The hatred in his unfocused eyes.  His clenched hands.

   No human contact had turned him to look at insanity as a possibility.

   And somewhere in the subconscious of her sleeping mind, Mariel vaguely recognized that she was being told to turn him back to that.

   When she woke, she was startled to first see Toshiro examining the stitches at his torso in the full-length mirror at the wall of her bedroom.

   “Toshiro!  You’re up.”

   He turned and smiled at her.  “And?”

   “You should be--”

   Mariel caught sight of his bare, muscled chest, the deep shadows of his abdomen, and a few scars at his side.  She faltered, averting her gaze and blushing.

   Toshiro laughed.  “Mariel, you know I always follow you.  I don’t mind the pain.  Just because I’m real now doesn’t change my loyalty.”

   Pacing over to where his black shirt was thrown over a chair, Toshiro slipped it over his head as Mariel shook off her nightmare, slid her feet out of bed, and combed her white hair with her fingers, walking up to him.

   There was a glint in his eye, like he was in ecstasy to be real, breathing, feeling, being felt.  As if translating her thoughts to action, he palmed her cheek and gazed at her gray eyes, pressing his lips against hers.

   While reciprocating physically, Mariel inwardly felt her heart scream and shudder beneath her chest.

   He was so happy.

   Any intention Mariel had to talk to Toshiro about her parents’ hostility faltered and fell through.

   Unable to remain in that contact, Mariel broke away, cast her glance down at his feet, and turned her head away from his touch, escaping to the bathroom.

~ ~ ~

   Everything was different now that Toshiro no longer operated in Mariel’s mind.

   She drove him with her to college, and it was weird to hear his rich voice speak out loud when his words were once only thoughts in her mind.

   It was even weirder when he shamelessly embraced her before her first class, causing at least fifteen pairs of eyes to swivel to her back.

   Before Toshiro, college had functioned with Mariel evading the campus-girl-hunting males.  Mariel’s friends used to badger her with assigned dates and dances, hoping she would hook up.

   Now, they were overjoyed to know Mariel was in love, and yet she felt like what she lived in and what her friends lived in were two completely different dimensions.

   If faced with evil, winged, memory-stealing creatures, she doubted her friends’ lovers would have the courage to take the hit like Toshiro.

   Mariel sat now, same history class, same teacher.

   It was difficult with Toshiro’s absence, one because she missed his presence, two because despite the fact that he was restrained to pacing in and out of the doorway when the class and teacher were distracted, he kept making heart signs with his hands and acting wooed by tripping over his feet.

   She found it unfathomable to see this amusing Toshiro as the same one that had first cried outside of her window just a little while ago.

   He was so happy now.

   In the car ride back to home, Mariel cleared her throat and turned to Toshiro.

   He raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s the face for?”

   “I...”  Mariel cleared her throat again and looked at the road, resettling in her seat to find her with some annoyance that her new position was just as uncomfortable as her previous one.  “Mom and Dad said...they said they won’t let you stay anymore.”

   There was an unhealthy silence.

   “Why not?  They think I’m a bad influence?”

   “No, it’s not that.”

   Realizing the conversation was going to stretch, Mariel turned the car to a longer route home.  When she had crossed an intersection, she added, “They want to know more about you.”

   Toshiro folded his arms and leaned against the door in his seat.  “Like what?”

   “Well, your age for one.  And your past, how you got hurt, how you know me...aside from soccer and walks back from school.  Toshiro, I don’t even know those things, and either you’ve changed too much for them to recognize you or you weren’t significant enough in the past for them to remember.”

   “But my past doesn’t matter to our relationship now.”

   “Exactly.”

   “So why would it matter to them?”

   “Because--”

   Mariel cut herself off and frowned.

   Toshiro tilted his head to the side, the action obviously translated as, “See my point?”

   “It’s not me you have to convince.”

   He gestured at the sword resting between his knees.  “Consider it done.”

   “Toshiro.”

   He smiled and leaned towards her.  “I dare them to take this, Mariel.”  That glint in his eyes grew wild, and he put his warm hand on hers.  “I might as well tell you this now,” he whispered, “but I’m as stubborn as iron at times.”

   She raised her eyebrows and countered, “Then I might as well tell you they’re as stubborn as diamond, and diamond can cut through iron quite easily.  I can find you a place to sleep and eat, but Mom and Dad are serious.  I...”  She blinked back tears, paying special attention to the road.  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

   He leaned back with somewhat of a superior air and continued to smile coldly.

~ ~ ~

   Toshiro said he would survive on his own for the night; he refused any help from Mariel, and she wondered if that was just to prove a point.

   So that night, Mariel cleared her thoughts of Toshiro and tried to locate that black wall in her memory.

   She wanted Toshiro.

   Badly.

   And it was obvious that she couldn’t have Toshiro without her remembering.

   That safe.

   And the key.

   Toshiro said he knew that monster.

   It hardly made sense.

   She’d have to return.

   She’d have to find another way.

   A soccer game, Mariel thought, he said we played soccer.  Where?

   There it was again, that blank wall.  Mariel probed it with her mind, tried to find the corridor leading down the tunnel to the cavern with the monster.

   Before she even recognized locating it, Mariel fell, desperately hoping Toshiro could no longer follow her.  The familiar ride seemed to be much shorter this time, and she touched the bottom, gently catching herself with a hand to the ground.

   Rising, Mariel noticed with a grim demeanor that the cave had gone from darkness to light, and it seemed to be fading into dusk now.

   Like us, Mariel thought, We were nothing--darkness.  Then we loved--light.  And now the light is threatened--dusk.

   An amusing analogy.

   Mariel jumped and caught her shriek.  The monster’s voice; it was hardly audible.

   Oh, yes, I’m still here.  I see your friend is not with you.

   Mariel circled in the semidarkness, trying to locate the familiar white-masked face and green body.  “W-where are you?”  Mariel cursed her voice for shaking.

   Instead of answering, the thing just hissed, What brings you back?  An urge to remember?  Why?

   Mariel swallowed and refused the urge to answer or even contemplate how the thing could still be alive.  Instead, she began by rote, “You said I must defeat you to remember.”

   And you never did.

   “No,” Mariel replied, “but Toshiro did.  Let me see his memories.”

   There was a cackle of laughter, and for a long second, Mariel wondered if she had just walked into her death.  She shrieked when a bony hand pressed into hers.  There was a cling and the sound of wind.  Realizing the monster had just given her the key and she had dropped it, Mariel knelt, searching for the item.

   It was getting darker.

   You don’t know what you’re getting into.

   “Sh-shut up,” Mariel squeaked.

   She quickly found the key and stumbled to the shaft of light that was resting on the safe.  The key was the right fit, and afraid of losing an opportunity, she quickly swung open the safe.

   The first thoughts hit her like a ton of bricks.

   He was born exactly two years and twenty-six days before her.  That would make him nineteen.

   Before the memory loss, Mariel had lived elsewhere, playing tag with Toshiro and other children.

   That had to be at least a decade ago, Mariel thought.

   After that, Mariel was presented with so many memories to sort through.  She found herself standing in the center of a globe of flashing scenes.  Realizing it would take years to scan them all, Mariel focused on the easiest one in her mind, one that stemmed from her own memory and was related to Toshiro’s memory.

~ ~ ~

   A young Mariel had been walking to school alone, savoring spring.  An older boy had leapt out, surprising Mariel at the school gates and demanding she give him her lunch.  She refused in fear, and he grabbed her wrists, dragging her by the arms to heck-knows-where.

   She was saved before long by some teachers, and after a few moments of composure, Mariel had gone off her own way.

   A typical day of bullying to the girl of the “moonlight.”

   But it wasn’t just that.

   Mariel had always noticed a particular blank wall when it came to school after that day.

   What happened?

   Who had walked her back from school?

   Who had accompanied her?

   And even more, Mariel distinctly remembered a sudden halt to the bullying after that incident.

   She had a vague notion that it was all tied to Toshiro.

   Delving into Toshiro’s memory of the account was an interesting experience.

   It was like Mariel was there, however many years ago it was, watching the young Toshiro.

   But it was more than that.

   Like she could also understand his thoughts and motives.

   The memory began with the former Toshiro walking the former Mariel home; they had been friends for some time now, and Mariel was recounting the story of the bullying to Toshiro.  The black-haired boy walked with his arms crossed, lips set tight.

   Mariel’s tale was finished as they reached home, and the past Toshiro bade her farewell.

   As the image began to fade, Mariel thought in the safe, Well, this is more drab than I thought it would be.

   But it wasn’t completely over.

   The young Toshiro was angry.

   Angrier than any child should be.

   The memory faded out, leaving the montage globe surrounding Mariel again, but there was one lingering thought that lasted in Mariel’s mind.  It echoed there in Toshiro’s voice:

   She will never be harmed again.

   I will never let her be by herself.  Even if I die, my ghost will protect her.

   I swear to it.

~ ~ ~

   Mariel spent a good part of the night digging into Toshiro’s memories.  He really had died...in a car accident...then his ghost really had protected her, just as he vowed.  She emerged from the tunnel with enough memories to convince her parents about anything they would ask and had put the key to the safe on her nightstand in case she ever needed to go back again.

   Sleep was delightful, and Mariel was horrified to wake to the sound of sirens.

   She jerked up and ran to her room’s window overlooking the front driveway.  There were two police-cars parked and an assortment of people--her parents, cops, neighbors.  There was someone dressed in black with his face against the car, his hands being cuffed...

   Was that Toshiro?!

   “Toshiro!”

   Mariel flew to the front entrance, bursting out of the door as the policeman hauled Toshiro up.

   “Toshiro!” Mariel exclaimed, “What the--”

   “Mariel.”

   Mariel whipped around to see her parents beckoning her.  She stopped her movement and raised her eyebrows, demanding an immediate answer.

   “Don’t be worried,” her dad began in a tone that only invited worry, “Nothing too valuable was stolen, but we were broken into last night, and they’re just taking Toshiro away for interrogation.”

   “But he’s--”

   “It’s just interrogation.  He was waiting on the front porch when we noticed the break-in, and he was still waiting there when the cops came.  It’s just an interrogation; they have no evidence against him.”

   Something in Mariel’s father’s voice made it seem like she wished there were evidence, and Mariel bit her tongue in her desperation and turned back to see Toshiro sliding into the backseat of the car.

   He had always been protecting her from the break-ins.  The night that Mariel had been forced to send him away, they had gotten robbed, and now...

   They were coinciding the break-ins with Toshiro’s sudden appearance.

   It made too much sense.

~ ~ ~

   Mariel had gotten a call from the police department a few hours after the incident saying Toshiro was found innocent of any thievery, although they suggested he find a psychiatrist for his acute memory loss.

   Skipping class, Mariel had put away her cell and had run out to her car, leaping to an instant ten above the speed limit.  Her speedometer threatened to edge higher, and Mariel displayed as much self-control as she could to keep it steady.  Getting a ticket wouldn’t help anything.

   Hardly soon enough, the police department came into view, and Mariel quickly parked, slamming the door closed and leaping to the lobby where she found Toshiro pacing.

   Before she could even react, he had turned to her and wrapped her in his arms.

   Mariel nearly pulled back in her surprise--and then realized that that would be a stupid mistake.  Pressing into him, she put her hands at his back, feeling the deep dip of his spine, smelling his masculine aroma.  His palms slid up to her cheeks, and he put his mouth on hers.  She nearly groaned out loud when his tongue touched her lips.

   The receptionist’s cough was the first thing to bring reality back, and Toshiro and Mariel pulled away at the same time, glancing at the lobbyist, who at the sudden hostility and attention, sunk into his seat and began tapping at a keyboard.

   Toshiro leaned back with disdain and finally said, “So much for that moment.  Let’s go.”

~ ~ ~

   “So what happened?”

   “Ask them,” Toshiro answered as Mariel’s car rumbled back home, “I was waiting for you to get out of bed so we could get to your school, and then suddenly the cops were at the front door, asking who I was and how I was affiliated with your family.  I told them I was your friend, and they said I was under arrest for interrogation.”

   Mariel felt her eyes narrow.  “And what did they ask you?”

   “Everything I don’t remember about you.”

   Mariel shook her head and gazed off; she was relieved beyond words that Toshiro was safe, but she knew what was coming upon arrival.

   Her parents wouldn’t be happy.

~ ~ ~

   They weren’t.

   Mariel laid in her bed, glaring at the ceiling as she ruminated over the conversation she just held with her parents.  Her back and thighs were slick with ire-originated sweat, and she shed her outer clothes, heaving a sigh as she threw her white hair from his neck.

   “For one,” her father had said, “Toshiro was arrested.  I don’t want you associated with those type of people.”

   As if Toshiro were a drug-dealing murderer.

   “And for another,” he had pontificated, “That boy is causing you to skip class.”

   Toshiro saved my life!

   That was what Mariel had wanted to scream, but she bit her tongue, clenched her hands, and forced herself to remain silent.

   Toshiro had saved all of their lives.  And their belongings.

   And Mariel’s parents were paying him back by restricting her from any contact with him.  Almost as an afterthought, they had grounded her as well.

   Mariel still couldn’t get cool, and she rose out of bed, pacing and airing her flushed face.

   It was near dawn when she finally fell asleep.

~ ~ ~

   The next day as Mariel was about to get into her car, she heard a familiar voice speaking her name in a near-inaudible whisper.

   “Mariel.”

   Startled, she turned around to see Toshiro, his sword in its proper place at his back, his black hair tussled in the wind.  The male stood tall, heroic almost, but he looked tired; he looked committed; he looked beautiful.  He was beautiful, his black clothes and eyes framing his light, smooth skin.  He was a warrior, her protector.

   Her surprise and awe had no time to turn to words before he closed the space between them, grabbing her shoulders and saying in a tight voice, “Mariel, please listen.  I mean to change back to a ghost.”  He hesitated and corrected, “I am going to change back to a ghost.”

   Silence.

   She almost laughed.

   But he was too serious.  His eyes were too cold, too narrowed, too...real.

   Real.

   Ghost.

   Crying outside of her window, protecting her countless times, amusing her in class.

   Then to this, flesh and blood.  Everything she wanted.  Bravery, empathy, attention.  His lips, so soft and comforting, his body.  His real body, his vulnerable body.

   His beauty.

   It was hers.  It was hers.  He couldn’t just disappear; he couldn’t just take it all when it was getting going again.  They had their memories, their answers; she needed him, his love, his attention; he couldn’t just disappear, he couldn’t take it all, he--

   “YOU CAN'T!”

   A flock of birds took flight in the early morning at Mariel’s shriek.  She started to laugh hysterically, devoid of further words, the thousands of excuses at her mouth, as he tilted his head to the side.

   Her mania morphed to sudden sorrow, and she snapped, choking on her tears, “Toshiro!  How could--why are you--is this a joke?!”

   Fluid thought seemed impossible, and Mariel stamped her foot, crying out in frustration and turning with all the intention to drive away, but he grabbed her shoulders, turning her around, and putting her back against her car as he pleaded, “Mariel.  Please.  Hear me out.  I’m going to stay true to my vow.”

   Mariel felt her eyes narrow until Toshiro slipped his hand into his pocket and drew out the key to the safe; he must have taken it from her nightstand.  His eyes held the sorrow of remembrance.  “I found out who I was, Mariel.  I remembered why I must protect you.”

   “Because of that bully?” Mariel exclaimed, “Toshiro, that was an eternity ago!  That doesn’t matter anymore!”

   “No.  It doesn’t.  I no longer protect you out of fear for your safety, but because I...”  Toshiro cleared his throat and looked down.

   “I love you, Mariel.”

   Something in Mariel’s heart began to roil, and she took a step forward and put her hand up to his chest.  He grabbed her hand in his warm palms and added, “And I can no longer protect you if I am a mortal.”  Before she could speak, he covered her mouth and said, “Don’t object, Mariel.  You saw the break-in.  What if you had been there?”

   She pulled his fingers off of her lips.  “Then you would have saved me.”

   “And how could I?  Mariel, you know there was no way.  You know you were in danger.  Besides, I’m ruining your family.  Your parents hardly trust you, knowing that I was arrested.  I mean, just think of it from their point of view: they find their daughter hanging out with a guy that they don’t even know, who’s wounded by some unknown creature, and then he’s interrogated for what appears to be a robbery.  Mariel, they don’t trust me, and I--”

   It was Mariel’s turn to cover his mouth with her hand.  She jerked her head back in frustration, the tears streaking their familiar paths.

   The silence grew intolerable, and Mariel said between grit teeth, “I don’t want to hear it!”

   His jaw clenched behind her hand, and as gravity seemed to strengthen, Mariel’s hand slipped back down to her side as she cried bitterly.  Toshiro raised his own hand and stroked the hot tears off her cheeks with his thumb, saying softly, “Mariel.  You don’t understand that this is what I must do.  Your life will be in danger if I don’t.”

   “My life will cease to exist if you do, Toshiro.  I don't want to live without you.”

   He just shook his head and looked past her shoulder in a pensive, agonized state of mind.  “And would that be better?  It’s an impasse, Mariel.  Either I stay here and can't protect you, or I change and can protect you.  Either way, you're miserable.”

   She grabbed his wrist and put her hand in his.  “Don’t care about me, Toshiro...I’m not miserable.  I’m happy that you’re here--”

  “And your happiness is what kept you up until five last night?”  He shook his head as her mouth dropped open and said, “I came to say goodbye.”

   Mariel hardly stopped to consider what that fully meant, how she was going to convince him, why he would think of changing again.

   She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his torso, feeling his heartbeat with her chest and delving into the softness of his lips, his tongue, his hair in her fingers.

   For the last time.

~ ~ ~

Write on!

Clove
P.S. Wondering why the tragic ending?  This had a tiiiny bit to do with my own life at the time I wrote it.  Just a smidgen.  Also, at school, I was assigned to read a bunch of Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe...hehehe, you write what you read.  ^.^