{My ghost, where did you go?

[myheadisaprison]

PSL with channellings

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☈ you can't wake up, this is not a dream

[ghostlings]

It's been a month and some time since Ben's death. Klaus figured he'd have gotten over the shock by now with the initialness of it having come and gone week after week, but every time he wakes up, his immediate need to fill the ragged, gaping hole that the loss of Ben has caused becomes all too apparent. He doesn't want to study or play music or train— nothing, aside from talking to his brother, which he can't very well do anymore.

Crammed against the headboard into the nearest corner, his thumbnail scratches lightly at chipping paint, flaking away more pieces before he remembers: the sharpie he'd snuck back a little while ago. He clambers off the bed, strides toward his nightstand and hunts the marker down, returning to the wall with renewed excitement—

But the moment he's moving up on the mattress again, there's an abrupt ringing in his ears that bleeds into a high-pitched shriek. Like hitting a brick wall, he rocks back so hard, the pressure between his ears suddenly too much then everything pushes out. Beneath his knees, the bed rattles and Klaus drops down, clutching sheets, yanking the comforter aside so he's able to climb underneath. After he reaches over to flick his fairylights on, though.

You're okay, he tells himself, scrubbing his hands over his face before ultimately drawing the blankets down. He has to be alright because there's no drugs left, anyway. “L-Listen, whatever I did to piss you off, I'm sorry, okay?” And while he sounds frightened, he also just sounds. Really tired.

[screamingdahl]

Time doesn't move the same here. Dahlia isn't convinced time moves at all. Or maybe it's just that it never stops. Whatever it is, she has no clue how long she's been here. It feels like hours sometimes; others it feels like years. And she's been trying. Trying trying trying. To get in contact with someone. Anyone. Lydia never hears her, and she doesn't understand why. But it doesn't have to be Lydia. It could be anyone, just someone out there in the world that can hear her would be better than nothing. And then.... someone does hear her. And she can hear them, too. It's a high elation suddenly coursing through her, a smile cracking across her face. "Yes. Yes, oh my god, finally." She's so happy she could nearly cry, and it's evident in the sound of her voice. She addresses the boy-- boy, how is it a boy, banshees aren't boys, what is he?-- directly, finally. "I'm not mad at you. I've just been trying to find someone for so long. You can hear me, though, right?" God, she hopes he can, and it's not just the scream breaking through the veil.

[ghostlings]

When her voice comes through, the relief is immediately noticeable. Klaus blinks once, twice, swallows hard and spares a glance around at his surroundings. Well, he... can't see anything? Although, that doesn't always mean nothing's there. Deep breath in, hold a few seconds then let out, it's fine, he's got this—

“Uh. Yeah, I can hear you? Mostly...” It's quiet, like a hardly audible whisper, yet if he concentrates hard enough, her words are intelligible. She sounds. Almost around his age, even? Which is intensely sad to think about, imagining the owner of this voice being a teenager. Spirits have been known to play cruel pranks on people before, though.

The desperate, watery tone's unmistakable in his opinion. How could anyone harmful come off so sincere? “That scream, uh, sure was something. How did you do that?” Typical, easily distracted by something happening rather than the important thing here: he's hearing voices again. At least he's perking up somewhat, thanks to the affable company.

[screamingdahl]

"Okay, good. That's good. Um- what's your name? I'm Dahlia." At this point, she just wants to keep talking to him. She hasn't found anyone that could hear her and it's a desperate scramble to not let him go now. If he can hear her, maybe he can find her, if he can find her, maybe he can get her out and-- She's getting ahead of herself. She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. She sits down, folding her legs under herself and tires to steady herself. "Oh, it- it's a thing I can do. I'm a banshee." She hesitates and then decides not to mince any words, here. She needs as much information as quickly as possible, because who knows if this connection will even last. "What are you, that you can hear the dead? Because boys can't be banshees, and I've never heard of a male equivalent."

[ghostlings]

“Klaus,” he answers without hesitation, straightening up a bit more, still thoroughly confused by the fact he can hear her, but can't see whoever this spirit is. Not like it's a first; Klaus's experienced so many different ghosts already and he's not even halfway through adulthood. “Nice to meet you, Dahlia.”

Offhandedly, he wonders: how difficult would it be to actually get sober enough to see her, too? Of course, the following thought is why would he want to do such a thing? He's learning there are a lot of unexplainable things he's pondered after getting a ‘handle’ on his powers.

“A banshee?” Yeah, he's never heard the term before. “Me? I'm a medium. Like, yanno, Haley Joel Osment in the Sixth Sense? ‘I see dead people,’ and all that shit.” Will she get that reference? He doesn't know, but it makes him smile somewhat, nevertheless.

[screamingdahl]

Her eyes widen and she reaches out to wave a hand in front of his face. "Wait, you can see me?" How could she have gotten so lucky, out of nowhere? Getting home sounds so much easier suddenly than it had all this time. She doesn't know he can't actually see her, it's just her voice, and her wave will mean nothing in the middle of the room that's empty, besides Klaus.

"A medium... wow," she sounds half-breathlessly amazed at the idea. "I didn't think they were real... I can't believe Nana Lorraine never knew one..." she mumbles half under her breath, more to herself than to him.

[ghostlings]

Which has no effect on him, despite the fact he's likely staring at her, anyway. He can follow the sound of her voice, it's not all that difficult, but it's quite obvious he's focusing on something behind her rather than how she's sitting right in front of him. “Not exactly. I'm probably still too high right now, but once the drugs wear off... Shouldn't be hard to conjure you.”

Regardless of Dahlia speaking more to herself, he's perking slightly, chest-puffing with pride, an obvious sign he feels somewhat proud. “I've never heard of anyone else with this ability before,” a beat then he adds through a laugh, “Except for those clairvoyants that scam people outta their money. Did your Nana know one of those?”

[screamingdahl]

She deflates a little when it's obvious he can't see her. But at least he can hear her, that's a step closer than she's been in-- well. She's not sure how long it's been, actually. "You really think you could?" She sounds so hopeful, even if he'd rather not, it might be hard to deny her the attempt on that alone.

She shakes her head, even if he can't see her, it would feel odd not reacting in the way she would in a normal conversation all the same. "No, not that I know of. I think frauds would have angered her more than anything. Ruined her data in research." That doesn't sound like a familiar phrase at all, does it, Klaus?

[ghostlings]

Yeah, she doesn't need to sound any more convincing, to be honest. Klaus was already sold by how kind her voice is after the abrupt bed-rattling he'd gotten earlier. (His heart is still racing a little though, no doubt about that!) “If I can hear you, then we're already halfway there.”

He wrinkles his nose at the next remark, something between disgust and exhaustion. Totally not familiar, nope. “Research,” he sighs emphatically. “Sounds like the stupid kind of stuff Dad's always talking about.”

[screamingdahl]

"True." She says with a slight smile that he can't see, but can probably still hear all the same in the bright note in her voice. "Can I ask you something?"

"She meant well. She did a lot of good work... she just... got carried away. It's- how I ended up like this. Sort of. Not that it was my Nana's fault. Her research partners, they-- got overzealous." She shakes her head to dispel the thoughts surrounding her death. "Doesn't matter, though. Not if you can bring me back. I need to find a way back. My Lyddie Bird needs me."

[ghostlings]

The question causes him to blink, almost confusedly because why couldn't she ask him? She's here, isn't she? “Uh, yeah, of course.” And it's not like he isn't listening.

Wow, that's... a lot of info to take in all at once, even though Klaus is pretty sure he understands what she's getting at. “Fair enough, I guess. Shitty that you're stuck this way because of it, but...” he trails off, shrugs a little feebly. Hold up. “Bring you back? How exactly am I supposed to do that? No offense or anything, I've never necromanced anyone back to life though, y'know?”

[screamingdahl]

"How new are you at this?" She asks it rather bluntly and she can't help it, because she needs to know. "I just mean--" She huffs softly. She knows her initial question sounded really rude and that wasn't her intention. "I need help, I need to know where your skills lie." "I'm between the veils, if you can hear me, and you think you could possibly see me at some point-- it's just a matter of figuring out the how." She smiles a little, scared and hopeful and god he can't see it anyway. "We can do it together... maybe."

[ghostlings]

“New? I've been seeing and hearing dead people since I was five or six,” he laughs, a mirthless, pained-sounding thing. “None of this is new to me.” Klaus takes an abrupt breath, sighs it back out then softens somewhat, “It's okay, I know what I'm doing.” For the most part, anyway.

And maybe he can't see her smiling, it isn't a difficult thing to sort of hear, her hopefulness. “I've got no idea how we can make it work but hey, I'm open to trying whatever if it helps.”