Love In The Wrong Dimension (Romantic Ghost Story)

by Darbyshire, Anette

  “Goodbye, Mother,” said Tom, watching her from the window.”

  “Wow, who would have thought that your ashes were here all along,” said Susie. They had gone back into the kitchen, leaving Max alone in his dark corner.

  “I can’t believe that Max knew all this time and never said anything,” said Jemma, feeling another surge of anger.

  “Forget about it,” said Tom. “He really isn’t worth it. Do you mind if I disappear for a while? I’d like to follow Mother home and spend some time with her.”

  “Of course not. I was thinking of paying Claire a visit anyway.”

  “And I’ve got an appointment with Tracy Beaker next door, so I’ll see you later,” piped Susie, before disappearing through the wall.

  Tom put his arms around Jemma and held her close, “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for being such a persistent busybody and not listening to me. This is all because of you, you know. I love you so much.”

  “I love you too. Now go after your mother, I’ll see you later.”

  When she was finally alone, Jemma found herself reflecting on Grace’s visit. She was thrilled for Tom that her plan had worked, but Tom’s reaction to her arrival had left her thinking about her own mum, and she suddenly felt a strong urge to be near her, so, instead of going to find Claire, she decided to visit her mum’s grave. But first though, she thought she might try and ask Max if he could tell her what he knew about wormholes. The sooner she had the information she needed, the sooner they could start to make plans.

  Returning to the living room, a surge of what felt like adrenalin rushed through her as she thought about what she was going to say. She had seen the way Max had backed down with Tom just before, so maybe he wasn’t as scary as she had first thought.

  “Max?” She tried to make her voice sound friendly.

  “Get lost.”

  Standing face to face with him, she suddenly wondered if he really was as dangerous as Susie had made him out to be. With a new found confidence, she said, “You wouldn’t really hurt Tom, would you?” His lips curled into a smile, and Jemma smiled back, feeling that she had finally made some sort of breakthrough with him. Once this was all cleared up, they could get on with their discussion about wormholes and everything would be fine. But then his smile turned into a laugh, something which didn’t sound at all natural, coming from Max.

  “What do you think?” he sneered.

  “I don’t think you would harm him, actually. In fact, I don’t think you can.” Shit, had she really just said that?

  “What?”

  “I think if you really wanted to hurt Tom, you would have done so a long time ago, so you either don’t really mean it, or you can’t actually hurt him at all.” Jemma wasn’t sure if she was being brave or stupid by confronting him like that, but she couldn’t help herself; as usual, she spoke before she thought. She stared defiantly at Max, waiting for his response, but he remained silent. Suddenly though, he vanished from his chair and reappeared in front of her, towering threateningly over her. His eyes were now filled with fury, and she recoiled, suddenly feeling frightened. Then she felt herself being lifted up into the air by some sort of invisible force, and thrown violently across the room, landing on the floor by the window. She was stunned, the force which had thrown her was more powerful than anything she had ever felt before, and she was now so scared that she couldn’t move.

  “So you don’t think I can hurt him? Well, we’ll see about that.” He laughed again, the sound taunting her and reminding her of the power he had just shown against her. “I know that Tom thinks I’m just a harmless old spook, so don’t bother warning him because he won’t believe you. I’ve been waiting a long time for my moment, and it seems that it has finally come. I will get him, you can be sure of that, and if you get in my way, I’ll destroy you as well. Now, GET OUT!” He nodded his head at her and she felt the same force pushing her towards the wall, until she was back in the kitchen, where she collapsed on the floor. At first, she was so shocked that she didn’t move, and then, gradually, the implications of her impulsiveness became clearer, and she buried her head in her hands and started crying.

  “Oh god, what have I done?” She knew that she had pushed Max too far this time. She also knew now, that Max was more than capable of hurting Tom, and her, and if he did harm Tom before he was able to leave, then it would be her fault. Suddenly, she looked up nervously, convinced she had seen a movement across the kitchen, but the room was empty. That brought on another wave of panic; what if Max followed her and attacked her again? She was alone in the house with him, and he could come through that wall any minute. She didn’t know what to do, should she go to Grace’s house and find Tom? No, she didn’t want to spoil his time with his mum, but she needed to get away. In desperation, she decided she would go to the flat. Alice was out and she would be completely alone there, which was what she really needed.

  A moment later, she was sitting on her old bed and, feeling safe at last, she burst into tears again.

  ‘You stupid, stupid cow,’ she cursed herself. She kept reliving her ordeal over and over in her mind; the fury in Max’s eyes, the feeling of complete helplessness as she was thrown across the room and the deadly threat in his words. She vowed never to be alone in the house with him again. The next time Tom and Susie went out, she would go out too, anywhere, as long as it was as far away from Max as possible. She shuddered as she remembered crashing onto the floor, and then a thought occurred to her; even though she had been thrown with such force, she hadn’t actually hurt herself. She moved her arms and legs as if to prove it to herself, and sure enough, she was fine. Did that mean that although Max had the power to move her, he couldn’t actually physically hurt her? There was slight comfort in that thought, and she felt herself calm down slightly. Then another thought hit her, she had been about to ask for Max’s help with finding a wormhole. There was no way he was going to help her now and she certainly wasn’t going to ask, anyway.

  She stayed in the quiet safety of her old room until she finally felt calm again, and then remembered that she had been about to visit her mum’s grave. So she decided to put Max to the back of her mind, for now at least, closed her eyes and transported herself to the graveyard in Stenhurst.

  “Hi Mum,” she said, softly, as she approached the grave and sat down. Aunt Tess had left a huge red Poinsettia at the head of the grave and it looked beautiful against the black marble backdrop of the gravestone. A quick glance to the left showed her that Aunt Tess had also left one on her grave. “I’ve fallen in love, Mum,” she said, out loud. “His name’s Tom and he’s the most amazing person I’ve ever met in my life.” She smiled to herself at the irony of using the words ‘my life’ before continuing. “He’ll be leaving soon though, and I don’t know what I’m going to do when he’s gone.” Her voice trembled, the pain of what was to come almost too unbearable to contemplate. It was at times like this, she thought, that mothers would put their arms around their daughters and hug them tightly, comforting them with words of love and wisdom. That was what she needed now so badly. She ran her finger along the marble as if she expected her mum’s face to smile at her in the shiny reflection, but the gravestone stared coldly and silently back.

  She remained by the grave until it was dark, deep in thought and losing all sense of her own reality. Her mind was flooded with memories, good and bad; memories of idyllic picnics, happy, tender moments, and then there were the angry arguments, rows about homework, bedtime and the length of her skirts. They were all as fresh as they were back then, and painful too, because now they were just memories, nothing more.

  Much later, Jemma felt a hand gently touch her on the shoulder and she slowly started to come out of her nostalgic daydream. She knew instinctively that it was Tom’s hand, and put her own hand up to meet his. “Hi,” she said, quietly.

  “I was worried about you.” He sat down beside her and drew her close.

  “I’m fine. How did you know where I was?”
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  “It wasn’t too hard to work out where you’d gone. You know, with all this stuff about my mother.....” he trailed off.

  “I’ve been telling my mum all about you. I wish she could have met you, she would have liked you.” They sat in silence for a while, each of them giving the other quiet reassurance.

  “Tom?” Jemma, eventually broke the silence. “What do you think will happen to you when you leave?”

  “I don’t know,” he sighed. “I suppose, if it works, I’ll become a free spirit, my energy will become part of the universe.”

  “I’ll miss you so much.”

  “I’m going to miss you too. When you’ve gone back yourself, you won’t miss me, because you won’t remember me. I’ll be able to watch you though, keep an eye on you.”

  ‘But I won’t be going back’ she nearly said. Instead, she said quietly, “I hate the fact that I’ll have forgotten all about you, that I won’t ever know you’re there.”

  “I know,” his voice was heavy with emotion, “but I promise you, Jemma, I’ll never forget you and I’ll always be there with you. I’ll never leave you.”

  “When are you going to do it?”

  “Well, providing I don’t have any problems finding a wormhole, it could be any time. I do know though, that it’s no use trying to create a wormhole, it’s far too difficult and dangerous, we’ll need to find an existing one.”

  “Oh!”

  “But I’ll need some help. I’ve no idea what to do with it even if I do find one. I was going to ask Max, but after today I’m not so sure.”

  “No!” said Jemma, sharply, “Not Max, no way. I know you don’t think Max is dangerous, but I do, and I’m afraid of what he might do if he knows you’re going to leave. I’ll talk to Claire, she may be able to help, although the fact that she’s become friends with the miserable old sod does complicate things a bit.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she might feel obliged to tell him that you’re leaving. We must tell her it’s just for me. Promise me that you won’t tell her it’s for you. Please, she must think I’m the only one leaving, it’s the only way we can be sure that Max won’t find out.”

  “Okay,” he shrugged, “but one thing’s for sure, I’m not doing anything until after Christmas.”

  “Why? At least Susie would be able to spend Christmas with her family again.”

  “No way, Jemma,” said Tom, fiercely. “There’s no way I’m leaving before Christmas. Both you and Susie will be going back in time to your lives and will have all your Christmases before you. One more Christmas here won’t hurt Susie, so let’s enjoy the time we’ve got left together. You and me are going to have the best Christmas ever. We won’t be sad, we won’t talk about what’s to come, we’re going to spend Christmas Day together, somewhere really special, just you and me.”

  “That sounds wonderful, but what about Susie? We can’t leave her on her own on Christmas Day.”

  “Susie always goes to be with her parents on Christmas Day. She prefers it that way. I’m the one who’s normally alone. Let’s enjoy the day and then I can start looking on Boxing Day.”

  “So when are you going to tell Susie that you’ve decided to go?”

  Tom shrugged, “I don’t think we should say anything until the last minute. You know what she’s like, she’ll blab to Max.”

  “Yes, I agree. How long does it take? To find a wormhole and use it?” asked Jemma, hoping he would say it would take days, maybe even weeks, before he would be ready to leave.

  “Once we locate it, I’ll have to use it immediately, otherwise it’ll collapse and we’ll have to start searching again. If we find one straight away and it works, I could be gone on Boxing Day.”

  Jemma’s heart sank, Boxing Day was only four days away. With a renewed sense of dread, she knew that it was only a matter of time, very little time, before Tom and Susie were gone, and she would be left on her own with Max’s wrath. She knew she could leave as well, but she couldn’t face going back to her previous empty life, where she would have no memories of Tom. How things change, she thought ironically. A couple of months ago she would have done anything to get back.

  “So, when’s your mum going to scatter your ashes?” asked Jemma.

  “Tomorrow. She rang Luke when she got back from Jack’s and he’s driving down tonight. It’ll just be the two of them. Will you come?”

  “Of course I will. And Susie. We’ll both be there for you.”

  There was a mist moving slowly across the dark and silent graveyard, making it look like an image from a horror film. Jemma imagined a vampire rising out of one of the gravestones, searching hungrily for his next victim, and she shuddered slightly. She had always been a bit scared of the idea of vampires, although she had always insisted that she didn’t believe in all that rubbish. The only movement though, was the odd ghost wandering aimlessly across the graves, each with their own tragic reason for being there. A living person might have caught a glimpse of them, their energy barely visible as a faint transparent light in the form of a blurry figure. She felt that if she had walked through this graveyard on her own, in the dead of night while she had been alive, she would have been terrified, but she felt oddly at ease, somehow comforted by the fact that she was a part of this special supernatural scene.

  They stayed by the grave for the rest of the night, occasionally talking, but mostly enjoying each other’s company in the privacy of the quiet graveyard.

  Eventually, Tom asked if she wanted to go home.

  “Yes,” she replied. “You’ve got a big day ahead, one that you’ve waited over twenty years for, and I’m going to make sure you enjoy it.”

  There was an air of anticipation, almost excitement, the following morning as a small crowd gathered around Adam Cresswell’s grave. To a living person, it would have looked rather sad, just two people shivering in the freezing cold, but in Jemma’s world there was quite a decent crowd in attendance. Apart from Tom and herself, Susie and Claire had come along, as well as a couple of other ghosts that Tom had become friends with along the years. Max was absent of course, but that was just as well.

  “I can’t believe that Luke came,” said Tom, sounding touched. “He’s always so busy.” Tom had told her that he and his brother had been close when they were growing up, but as they’d left home to go to university, and then gone on to build their respective careers, they had drifted apart and only saw each other on special occasions, like Christmas. He said there had been a quiet rivalry between them, borne out of the need to seek their parents’ approval, but it had never stopped them getting along when they did see each other.

  “Hey, Tom?” said Susie, “Do you think your dad is here? Not in the grave there. I mean here, watching with us now?”

  “I really don’t know,” said Tom. “It would be nice to think that he is.”

  “Well, if he’s a free spirit then it’s very likely that he is here, watching and possibly even listening to us now,” said Claire, thoughtfully.

  “Wow,” cried Susie,” a whole family reunited across different dimensions. How cool is that?”

  Tom laughed, “Thanks for coming, Susie. I know you don’t like graveyards.”

  “Yeah well, you’ve waited a long time for this.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’re here,” he said, giving her a hug.

  They watched as Grace slowly unscrewed the lid of the urn and cleared her throat, ready to speak.

  “Tom, I know you’re here. I can feel you,” she said, with a shiver. “This is for you, my dear, I know this was what you wanted and I’m sorry, so very sorry, that it’s taken me so long to honour your wish. I also want to say how sorry I am for the way I treated you. It was unforgivable and it grieves me greatly that you died believing that I didn’t love you. But Tom, I do love you. I’ve always loved you, and I want you to know that I do believe you about what happened. I should never have doubted you, and I’ll never forgive myself for that, all I can do now is hope and pray tha
t moving you here will go some way towards making things right...” her voice broke into a sob at that point, and Luke put a comforting arm around her.

  She tipped the urn and slowly emptied the contents over her dead husband’s grave, and then she and Luke bent their heads to say a quiet prayer.

  “Do you think he’s here, Luke?” she asked.

  “I know he is,” Luke replied, gently. “Come on, Mother, let’s get you home before you catch your death. It’s freezing.”

  “Goodbye, Mother,” said Tom, as he watched Grace and Luke walk away, with Grace still clutching the, now empty, urn. “Thank you.”

  Jemma reached out and took Tom’s hand. “There’s nothing stopping you from leaving now,” she said.

  “Except you,” he replied, softly.

  *****

  Alice sat alone in the kitchen, sipping tea and listening to the radio. Jack had left early to attend a press conference for some major band who were splitting up, and she was due to be at Glitz at eleven o’clock to help set up for lunch. She felt bad now about being so snappy with Jack on Saturday night, and for not telling him what Dean had said about the boy possibly being an angel. She had been about to tell him yesterday, but then that poor old lady had turned up asking for her son’s ashes. She should have trusted Jack, she thought, of all people he would be the last person not to believe her. He had seemed a bit cool towards her yesterday though, but she couldn’t really blame him. Tonight, she decided, she would tell him and ask him what he thought. Maybe they could look up information about angels on the internet together. Casper, who was sitting contentedly on her lap, gently nudged her arm with his nose, and she snapped out of her thoughts and glanced up at the clock.