you can't wake up {pafp} this is not a dream

[fancypost bgcolor=; border: 2px solid transparent; overflow: auto; height: 220px; width: 300px; margin-top: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; font-family: arial; color: black;]
[font=georgia][size=8][color=white]

I gave him a small smile as I helped him to his feet, though my gaze grew concerned as I watched him close his eyes. I waited for him to be okay again, patiently, keeping my hands in his until he was steady enough to walk. "Wait other than the time the soldier shot you, you'd already been shot?" I raised my eyebrows, eyes widening too at this news. "Worst thing that happened to me was my back was a bit burned from the house fire my mom died in," I commented and then followed along with him as he called out for the girls.
Something wasn't right though, I didn't hear them giggling and playing anymore. So I jogged after him back to the room I sent them too, and peaked over his shoulder, frowning. They werent there at all! The room was gone. Was it really all just an illusion? Aster was freaking out again and I quickly reached out to put my hands on his shoulders. "Hey, calm down. We don't need another episode," I frowned again at the room before looking at him. "I did see them, I did touch them. But it was a little weird, Aster. They were older, and they treated me like I was their mom," I pointed out. "The house, and him are probably really messing with us. Let's look around though, maybe he took them," I also pointed out, not wanting him to completely lose hope, and then I began walking off, looking back to wait for him to follow.

[fancypost bgcolor=; border: 2px solid transparent; overflow: auto; height: 220px; width: 300px; margin-top: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; font-family: arial; color: black;]
[font=georgia][size=8][color=white]

As soon as he headed over I started walking again, checking all the rooms on this floor for the girls. I avoided the kitchen though, not wanting to go back in there and remember all of that again. I glanced at him as he said it was possible that his daughters might still be alive. And the. I was given a whole other part to the story of his daughters. They didnt die, they went into a coma, and had been in a coma last he remembered. I figured Yosakai was his fiance, and I frowned as he explained he held her hand while she died. I tried to understand that these girls might actually be the spirits of the girls, and not hallucinations like I thought. And then he suggested they might be like him, half dead. "You are really making my head hurt. I can't wrap my mind around these ideas, it's so...unnatural," I commented and rubbed my forehead. "I guess the only way we can find out is by you talking to them about it. If we find them," the girls were no where to be found on this floor so I headed for the stairs, reaching out to grab hold of Aster's hand, for comfort and just in case he wasn't completely steady and fell or something. I was just looking out for him.

[fancypost bgcolor=; border: 2px solid transparent; overflow: auto; height: 220px; width: 300px; margin-top: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; font-family: arial; color: black;]
[font=georgia][size=8][color=white]

I shrugged as he said he should have gotten a call if they fied. "You said you didn't get to visit them often. Did you go to the hospital at all after your fiance died? Maybe they just figured....you abandoned them? I pointed out. "I am not saying you did. I just don't know the whole situation," and I wasn't sure I really wanted more of this story. It made me sad, and it made me want to hold him and tell him everything was going to be okay from here on out, his life would be better, much better, he didn't have to live in the sea of pain he seemed to be drowning in daily. I wanted him to be happy too, finally free of all this stuff...but there really wasn't anything I could do and I didn't like it. It was weird how fast my feelings for him had changed to a silly crush to wanting to be the one to make things better.
Anyways, I was glad he didn't pull away from my hand holding, and even tightened his grip. I was probably acting like a little girl who needed to hold someone's hand so she wasn't scared but, I didn't care. His presence was.. almost necessary. I headed down the hallway, calling out the girls names a few times to see if they'd answer and say where they were. "You call for them," I dropped his hands to go open doors, most of them to bedrooms or bathrooms or sitting rooms. Nothing too special. Everything was darker now though, and I noted the sun was going down outside. Things usually picked up at night time, in the dark, and I was most definitely not ready for this. "We should find a way to get the electricity running again..." I mumbled.

[fancypost bgcolor=; border: 2px solid transparent; overflow: auto; height: 220px; width: 300px; margin-top: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; font-family: arial; color: black;]
[font=georgia][size=8][color=white]

I was not at all expecting this loud whistle, so immediately my hands went up to my ears on instinct, and I gave Aster a glare. "A little warning would have been nice! That was a really high pitched whistle too, dang," she rubbed her ears for a moment before they stopped ringing and her hands fell back to her sides. I shrugged when he asked if I saw a generator in the basement. "I only remember a furnace. But...I guess we could look again. Quickly look, turn it on, then get back upstairs," I said with a bit of a shiver. I then put my hands on my hips, waiting for the girls to show up, if they had heard Aster's whistle. Honestly who hadn't heard that? "Maybe this is a game to them? They're playing hide and seek and we need to find them?" she suggested, trying to think like a kid. "Where would be the best place in a house like this to hide, if you were their age?" she asked and glanced up. The attic maybe? No one usually wanted to go check the attic...maybe the girls were there.

[fancypost bgcolor=; border: 2px solid transparent; overflow: auto; height: 220px; width: 300px; margin-top: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; font-family: arial; color: black;]
[font=georgia][size=8][color=white]

I had done that whole glare thing to mess with him as I usually do, wanting to see what smile light up his face. But it seemed he just tried not to. Boo, boring, show your feelings Aster. I didn't think it would matter much if the soldier knew how much Aster cared. I was a goner in the soldiers mind either way, to be honest. So why did it matter if he showed more than I knew he felt?
I nodded in agreement when he said if it was a game, it wasn't funny. "No, nothing about this is funny at all..." she sighed and stared at the ground. "I was thinking the attic as a good hiding place but yeah, maybe there's toys up there," I thought it was interesting we both had the same idea. Guess we were both smart, or our minds were working together or some weird stuff like that. Ha. I think I was starting to go crazy in here....Anyways, I walked around, opening up doors until I found one that had stairs going up into a bit of a dark and dusty looking places. Cobwebs and spider webs along the walls too. "I swear if a spider touches me.. I will murder it," I said and cautiously walked up the steps and into the attic, looking back to make sure Aster was okay and coming with me. Obviously he would be though, I didn't know why I thought for a second he might not follow. I huffed and climbed in, calling out for the girls again.

[fancypost bgcolor=; border: 2px solid transparent; overflow: auto; height: 220px; width: 300px; margin-top: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; font-family: arial; color: black;]
[font=georgia][size=8][color=white]

I shivered when he mentioned the spider bursting with little babies. "Oh god ew ew ew why did you put that thought in my head. Now I'm going to dream about spiders," I made a little squealing noise and shuddered again, staying away from the walls of the staircase and avoiding any webs as I made it into the attic. I did laugh as he said he would have a word with any spiders on me. "Are you a spider whisperer?" I snorted at my lame joke, though I thought it was pretty funny. Anyways, the attic had many more boxes, labeled this time with what was in them all. I didn't see the girls though, and I frowned. Went up here for nothing. Plus it was dark, and extremely stuffy and dusty up here, it couldn't be healthy for me to breathe. "Well there's the box of toys," I pointed to a colorful trunk that had the arm of a teddy bear sticking out. "But no twins..." I sighed. I was almost sad, I wanted to find them too. They made Aster happy and I even liked their enthusiastic presence.

[fancypost bgcolor=; border: 2px solid transparent; overflow: auto; height: 220px; width: 300px; margin-top: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; font-family: arial; color: black;]
[font=georgia][size=8][color=white]

When I heard his laugh I actually brightened up. It was so good to hear that from him. Of course it wasn't the first time I'd heard it, it was just nice compared to the series of sad emotions we had all just experienced recently. Me crying, him crying...now we were joking and laughing and I could have sworn he was flirting with me. I'd been teasing and poking fun and slightly flirting for so long it was weird to have him do it back. But I was not about to overanalyze the situation, I was going to enjoy this brief moment of being carefree before reality set in. "I like killing them. I know they do good eating mosquitos and other bad bugs or whatever but did the world have to make them so ugly and creepy looking?" I made amother shivering motion just picturing a spider."But thank you, your heroic gesture is appreciated," I smiled over at him, before glancing around the attic again, following him out as he suggested we check rooms. Being careful not to fall down the stairs or touch the spiders, I headed down and then shut the attic door behind me. "Lead the way," I said.

[fancypost bgcolor=; border: 2px solid transparent; overflow: auto; height: 220px; width: 300px; margin-top: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; font-family: arial; color: black;]
[font=georgia][size=8][color=white]

I took one side of the hall while he took the other, as we opened doors and looked for the twins. I went in the rooms too if there was furniture to hide behind, but I honestly couldn't find them anywhere. "Such a shame, your chivalry needs to be known," I nudged his arm playfully and eventually grew tired of this searching, endless searching, it was like a neverending house too, so many rooms. I paused though, thinking I saw something in an old bedroom, and I went inside. There was some shuffling in the closest of it and I went over, opening it up, but a furry little creature scurried out and I squealed, jumping back and specifically jumping on the bed so the gross little rat would not crawl over my feet. "I was hoping that was the girls, I was not expecting.. ew," I continued standing on the bed, glancing around to see where it went but it seemed it was gone. "I don't think your daughters are hiding. They're just gone....maybe they'll come back eventually," I shrugged and slowly got off the bed.

[fancypost bgcolor=; border: 2px solid transparent; overflow: auto; height: 220px; width: 300px; margin-top: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; font-family: arial; color: black;]
[font=georgia][size=8][color=white]

I just chuckled and gave him a small smile. "No, you never really are the kind of person who wants attention," I said, wanting to add that however, he always had my attention, but that could sound creepy so perhaps keeping my mouth shut was better. Yes, better. Anyways, I nodded my head as he said theyd come back eventually. "Maybe they are recharging the ghost energy. It probably takes effort to appear right? So they have to rest," I shrugged, thinking I saw that in a movie once or something. "I don't know honestly. Try not to get killed?" a nervous laugh escaped me. "Well, that's me not you. Let's go see if we can turn on the electricity, so it's not dark and scary everywhere. Then I don't know, find a place to sleep for the night? The house has a million rooms," I motioned to the one we were in and then I shuffled out to head back down to the basement. My flashlight was somewhere in the living room, though, I needed that first.

[fancypost bgcolor=; border: 2px solid transparent; overflow: auto; height: 220px; width: 300px; margin-top: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; font-family: arial; color: black;]
[font=georgia][size=8][color=white]

I headed into the living room, looking over by the food for my flashlight, and I found it, picking it up and flicking it on and off for a moment. "It's really the only way I can put it for my brain to make sense of the theory," I said to him. "I mean, if we've learned anything from ghost hunting it's that ghosts use energy to communicate. So...when they use up all that energy, they need to rest for a while," I scratched my head and looked over at him. "It has to happen to you right?" I asked. I mean he wasn't fully ghost, but I remembered the way he flickered, like a light going on and off, before when I was crying and needed his comfort. It was like he was a hologram or something. Anyways, I wandered over to where he was at the basement stairs, and headed down with him into the darkness of the basement. I turned on the flashlight, aiming it around the room. I didn't see a generator, but there was an electrical box hanging on the wall that had a lightning bolt symbol on it. Okay, had to be electricity. It was interesting though that the old house had such a newer electrical system. But whatever. I went over and pried it open, pushing cobwebs and spiderwebs away. I swear to god if a spider touches me....anyways, I kept the flashlight on all the switches trying to figure out what was what. A lot of the labels were faded, so I just flipped on the biggest one. At first, nothing happened, but then after a moment there was some noise, and then a hum of electricity moving through the house. [b]"Aha! I am a genius, where is my award?"[b] I asked, glancing over at Aster.