Continuing directly from the end of Chapter 2. Thank you all for your comments and critiques. 🙂

“I..am..so..sorry.” G.G. cries through broken sobs. Anger and sadness paint my features as I look at her.

Silently willing her to tell me why. To give me some sort of explanation of how Ashley is ok, of how she’s just

sleeping. I hear a small whimpering and I realize it’s coming from me and I start to cry fresh tears. “What is

your name?” I ask her, a steely calm coating my voice, in spite of the tears flowing from my eyes.

“Kylie, it’s Kylie..” She says in a small break from her sobs. She starts again and ceases floating. Falling to

her transparent knees she begins to talk. “I..I didn’t know..that there was another spirit like me here. As soon

as soon you left me, she appeared before me and blew a strange wind at me. As it hit me, I felt myself getting

weaker and weaker..until I couldn’t even materialize. My power started returning slowly but the rate of it’s

return was too slow. You had already gotten here before it fully came back. The imposter, copied my form and

deceived you. I could only watch, invisible and silently as she forced you to take her. The energy released was

so strong I managed to speed up my recovery and come to you now.”

My tears have dried and stopped running. I stand up, still naked, and walk over to Kylie. I regard her with an

unwarranted cold expression. I have so many questions but the most important one; The one I care the most

about, is the one I ask first. “Can you help Ashley? Can you fix what that bitch did?”

She looks at me somberly, her tears still running, albeit slower now. She looks past my legs over to Ashley’s

prone figure and sighs. “I don’t know. I told you before, my powers are not that strong. I don’t think ghosts can

even bring people back from the…dead.” She says the last word slowly and cautiously, minding my emotions.

“The best I can do is..” She pauses and my anger from earlier flares.

“What?” I ask her, slight menace dripping from my tongue.

“I can possess her, but instead of merely residing there..I can..become her. She hasn’t been gone long so,

her body is still conditioned to harbor a soul. If I do this, I’ll technically be living her life..” A small smile tugs at

the corners of her lips and it sickens me. I still feel sorry for the girl but if Ashley is found dead..my life would

be over. My mind is in a tumble right now. Live with Kylie/Ashley, knowing that the real Ashley is gone? I don’t

know what answer to give her to her implied question. So I ask her a couple of the other questions I now have.

“Where is Ashley’s soul now? Why are you asking me if you can do it? Why don’t you just do it, you’ll get a

whole second life.” I subconciously sneer a bit as I ask my last question. I can’t really be angry with Kylie, she

was not in a postion to help me, or Ashley. She still isn’t, but there was a small amount of joy in her eyes at

the prospect of living again. She holds her down and ponders my questions before responding, “She..her

soul..was absorbed by that woman. She isn’t gone, but she is a part of her now. Once a soul exits it’s body, it

can’t return to it. Others however, can enter the vacated body. I am asking you because it is my fault that

Ashley is..dead. I didn’t think it was right for me to just..do it. Also, if I do it, I’ll be bound to Ashley’s body

forever. When her body dies, so does my own spirit. No moving on. Ever.”

I take a minute to absorb this information. *So, the price of a second life..is the forfeit of paradise.* I make up

my mind. My voice returns to it’s normal tone and I tell her, “Do it. If Ashley’s spirit is still in this world. The

least I can do is find a way for her to move on. With this situation, I won’t be suspected of and probably going

to jail for murder. I wanted to help you, but she fucked it up. Do it. Become Ashley, and help me find her. Help

me help Ashley. Help me destroy that woman.” She smiles gingerly and her body begins to glow. This glow is

different from earlier though, she does not turn into mist; She turns into the comic book representation of a

soul. A glowing white ball with a firey shape at the top.

The ball travels to Ashley’s naked body and stops at her back. She waits there, and I assume the fact that

she can’t enter from the back for some reason. I walk over to Ashley’s body and proceed to flip it over. Her

body is so cold that I almost want to cry again. When I get Ashley on her back, Kylie floats over her chest,

where her heart is, and I watch as she slowly lowers into ashley’s body; The ball fading into her skin with each

micro inch that it takes until it is completely in.

Ashley’s body glows a bright blue and I jump back a step as she sits up. I am not so naive as to think it’s

really Ashley. “Kylie?” I ask tentatively.

“Yes. It’s me..” She replies, before getting up to gather Ashley’s clothes. I realize that I’ve been naked myself

for a while now and will most certainly catch a cold if not neumonia unless I put my clothes back on. Her eyes

and skin are no longer glowing. She is Ashley now, for all intents and purposes.

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