Haunted?

[Tibxo]

Jonathon/Fred

I try to struggle back from the darkness that is coming ever closer but Jonathon is too strong, pushing me back further still.

I can feel the lad's emotions swiftly turn to anger at Susanna/Maggie's rejection.

Pushing her hand away, Jonathon steps back and starts dressing, his eyes staring back at them defiantly.

"Have it your way, Susanna. If you wish to throw this chance we have been given then that is your choice. But it is not mine!!"...

 

[intriguess]

Susanna/ Maggie

Her eyes filled with tears as she saw the only man she had ever loved, her husband, now in flesh and spirit slipping away. She bit my lip hard, the pain bringing me closer to her. I found myself thinking of exorcisms and how passionate he must be. "How long do you think you can stay now?" She was like a rag doll tossed into corner as she collected my clothing. I sensed her fear that this action would forever damn his soul as she turned to him once more, torn between doing the right thing and trying to stay with the man she loved.

 

[Tibxo]

Jonathon/Fred

I can feel the darkness starting to pull at me, starting to drag me into its abyss.

By now, he is fully dressed. Turning, he faces his wife. Sees her imploring look. But I can feel his determination.

"So. Are you coming with me?" he asks, ignoring what she has just said...

 

[intriguess]

susanna /maggie

"Where would you go?" a poignant pause, "Home? Our families are long dead. This house was to be ours." I sense her relunctance to leave him and I silently give her permission to stay for longer. "It's not as if you're trained to do anything. I doubt there is much call for antiquated plantation owners today." She stood there wavering between following him and stopping him.

 

[Tibxo]

Jonathon/Fred

I can feel the darkness pulling further and further away from the light. Help me!

"What does it matter?" Jonathon tells his wife. "We can start over. Do something new. Do you not understand, Susanna? We can live, actually live again!"

He can feel the excitement wash through his appropriated body at the prospect, any guilt that he may feel being washed away.

Taking her by the hand, he takes her outside.

"Look at that!" he says, pointing at the clear night sky. "Look at the stars. When was the last time you saw anything so beautiful through human eyes?"

 

[intriguess]

Maggie/ Susanna

"I've spent the last hundred years accepting my fate, not trying to figure a way to return to life. When someone offers you a helping hand you don't drag them down in order to save yourself." I felt her wavering, her shock that this was the man she had married so long ago. "I'm ready to rest and move on, I believe if we are meant to have another chance at life it would be given to us. We would not have to steal it from other human beings."

 

[Tibxo]

Jonathon/Fred

I feel myself falling further and further into the abyss. Then at the possible last moment, a pair of hands grabs me!

"What are you talking about, Susanna?" Jonathon shouts at her, his patience waning. "This is that chance! For God's sake, are you still that naive? Nothing ever gets handed to you on a plate! You have to fight for it. In this case, for ownership of these bodies! It is the survival for the fittest. It always has been!"

He walks out into the night air, raising his arms into the air.

"Surely, you must understand that!"...

 

[intriguess]

Susanna/ Maggie

She does a flying tackle towards him pulling him to ground. "I should have listened to my father. He said you were a no good opportunistic bastard and that you were only marrying me for the money."

I had implanted thought that the more emotional he became the harder it would be to keep control, and she was doing an admirable job of enraging him. I could sense she felt vaguely ill that she had made love to such a creature, willingly and innocently.

 

[Tibxo]

Jonathon

Angrily he gets up.

"What are you doing?" he says, grabbing her by the arms and pulling her to her feet.

"Do you think you can stop me? Do you think you can save him? He's already gone!!!"

He then literally throws her into the air and turns to walk away...

 

[intriguess]

Susanna/ Maggie

"Fred," my voice calls out to him, "I'm pregnant." I gasp at the unexpected truth in the statement and realize that susanna had sensed my desire for a child and in her innocence had given me one.

 

[Tibxo]

Fred

"Fred! I'm pregnant!"

I stand frozen as I hear those words.

But how?

"She knows." I turn to see my wife standing next to me. We are standing in the hall.

"What happened?" I ask her, trying to see what is the commotion outside.

"He has taken your body." She says. "You have to take it back."

"What are you talking about?" I say to her confused, "I am here." I look down and see my arms and legs.

"Look outside." My wife tells me.

I move to the door and look out.....and see myself standing outside.

"What...?" I mumble, not understanding.

"That's your physical body." she tells me, now standing next to me.

"But I am standing here." still not understanding.

"That's your astral body. Your soul."

"Then am I dead?"

"No. Not yet. But you will be if you don't take back what is yours."

I look back out and see Maggie lying in the dirt.

"Maggie!" I shout as I rush to her side...

 

[intriguess]

"Fred," my voice is weak as Jonathan threw me hard, I fear for my newly created child even as I watch Susanna pull away and show herself as a beautiful ghostly woman. She whispers thank you as she drifts towards the aghast jonathan.

 

[Tibxo]

Fred

I try to touch the woman who recently come to mean so much to me but my hand just goes through her. I look at her face as she tries to grab me but gets the same result.

"Fred!"

It's my wife calling me.

Looking round, I see her standing next to a young woman. Susanna?

"Come on, Fred. You have to come with us if you want your life back." she tells me.

I turn and look at Maggie. Though she looks scared, she smiles at me and nods.

Getting up, I join the two women. I can see me glaring at us.

"NO! I won't go back. This body's mine!" he shouts, backing away.

Suddenly, I know what to do. Without looking at the others, I start towards him, knowing that they are at my side.

"No! Keep away!" shouts my body, turning to run. Then he trips and falls, I leap at him and find myself back inside, falling...

 

[intriguess]

Maggie

I watch the struggle seeing his wife, him leaving her, jumping back to his body. Watching the eerie struggle ensue as he falls backwards. I rush over to him feeling a need to connect with and protect the man who is the father of my child. His eyes are rolled back in his head and a single tear drops from my eye onto him. An odd back and forth conversation with one voice shifting from loud to soft as either is in control.

"Fred," I whisper. It was hard to realize how much I had come to rely upon this man for more than sexual needs. But companionship and warmth.

 

[Tibxo]

Fred

Inside, the four of us struggle, three against one.

Then my wife and Susanna have the lad and are dragging him to the abyss.

"No! I don't want to go back! Please don't make me go back!" he screams.

But I can only watch as the two women leap into the darkness, taking Jonathon with them.

*******

Then I find myself staring into Maggie's face.

"Fred..?" she whispers.

Then, unable to stop myself, I grab her and bring her mouth against mine as I kiss her hungrily, glad to be alive...

 

[intriguess]

Maggie

I'm surprised by the kiss still somewhat sure of whom I'm kissing until the tenderness creeps in and I know it's Fred, I begin weeping for no real reason. As I feel rain begining to fall down upon us, making the front yard and us a muddy mess.

 

[Tibxo]

Fred

"Come on! We're getting wet!" I tell her as I scramble up, taking her in my arms and walking her back to the house.

At the entrance, I stop and turn to look outside, in the vain hope of spotting my wife and the young girl...

 

[intriguess]

Maggie

By the time we reach the house we are soaked and I notice his wistfull look back into the rain, "You miss her very much don't you?" I ask leaning my head against his shoulder, soaking up his presence his warmth. Unable to imagine that I asked him to take in Jonathan's spirit and the way it all ended. "If it's a girl, I'd like to name her Susanna." I whisper softly still trying to absorb everything that happened. The lovers final union, my pregnancy, seeing your wife, your fight for your body. It was all jumbled up in my mind.

 

[Tibxo]

Fred

I feel her snuggle up to me.

"Susanna's a nice name." I reply, hardly believing that after all these years, I am finally going to become a father.

I then see my wife and Susanna standing there in the pouring rain but not getting soaked. They are waving.

I turn to Maggie.

"No. Susanna's a lovely name and will be just right for the lovely daughter of an equally lovely mother."

I kiss her, gently.

"I do miss her." answering her question about my wife. "I will always miss her but life goes on."

I kiss her again.

"All I do know is that I want to stay around and get to know you better and help with the baby when it is born."

This time, I take her into my arms and kiss her deeply...

 

[intriguess]

Maggie

I smile and snuggle up against him, there is so much I want to share with him yet it is a tenuous time. I really wanted a shower to sort of rinse the experience off. Even though it created a child I still wanted to distance myself from it. "Are you willing to share a shower?" I speak it softly not wanting to tread on his needs.

 

[Tibxo]

Fred

I pull back and look at ourselves.

"We are a bit dirty, aren't we?" I laugh.

She laughs with me.

"Ladies first." letting Maggie lead the way...

 

[intriguess]

Maggie

I still feel unsure about his answer as I head to my bedroom, stripping the clothes off and tossing them into a hamper. I find myself looking shyly back over my shoulder seeing him paused in hallway looking at me. I wonder if he will join me or not and I flash a shy little smile before heading to the master bathroom.

 

[Tibxo]

Fred

I watch as she strips off, revealing her naked body to me and I imagine what she will look like when she starts to show.

I wait until she goes into her bathroom before I take my own clothes off and follow...

 

[intriguess]

Maggie

I had started the shower and stepped in so didn't hear him follow me, and was startled a bit when he stepped in behind me. His body pressing against my back. I smile and slowly turn my face for a kiss. Our lips meet in a slow mesh of desire and joy. I wanted to ask him many things but right now I merely let myself enjoy how his hands slide from my breasts to my tummy, that would eventually swell with out child.

 

[Tibxo]

Fred

In the running water, I start to explore her body.

It has been so long since I have done this. Been with a woman. I half expected to feel guilty about cheating on my wife even though she has been long dead.

But I do not.

Instead I feel joy, excitement, in being in the shower with this lovely woman.

I slowly move my hands all over her body. From her breasts to her stomach (which contains our baby), to her legs and then onto her back and to her bottom.

All this time, our lips stay connected, gently rotating against each other.

I break our kiss for a moment.

"Tell me if this is all too quick for you." I tell her even as I feel myself starting to swell against her...