Hover & Sound – Chapter 4 (VJ)

“VJ.” Giani’s voice pierced through VJ’s day dreams.

VJ looked up from his phone. “What?”

Giani came and sat beside him. His body sunk through the couch and he rubbed his head, which was sitting a few inches out of the cushion. “Oops.”

VJ Laughed. “Oops? You just figured out you’re a ghost?”

 “Edvard told you about Riley and Alma, didn’t he?”

VJ nodded. “Ja.”

“The truth is…”

VJ took slow breaths. He’s messing with you. What if he wasn’t?

Giani’s pause for dramatic effect lasted too long. Finally, he said with a sigh. “He was telling the truth. We have word from a school, many arrived all at once, that they killed Riley. She was a teacher, and then she was gone. Culled they say.”

“But she’s in Death.”

“No. She’s never been to Death as far as we can tell. We found her former step-dad and he said Riley killed him. But a long time ago, before she married Edvard.”

VJ looked at Giani, eyes wide, as if his words painted a picture. “That sounds made up, Giani.”

“It’s true. Well, as true as we can tell. There’s more. The kids recognize Alma. Edvard was able to locate her Death body awhile ago, he keeps it in the catacombs, and —”

“Wait. Stop.”

Giani furrowed his thick brow. Sometimes, VJ hated that he looked like (and talked like) a grandparent, or a very refined parent, when he had the body of a kid still. VJ shook that off. “Far keeps the bodies of the living in the catacombs of Death Falkhus?”

“Yes,” Giani said, like it was a simple concept. “He’s collected as many as possible, to ensure they’re home when they pass.”

“That’s so fucking cool,” VJ said with a grin. “I have to tell Eddie. Does Eddie know?”

Giani shrugged. “I’m a ghost not a stalker, VJ, I don’t watch every conversation everyone has. For one, that’s rude. For two, that’s boring.”

VJ laughed again. “Okay. So he has Alma’s body, and Riley’s body, in Death Falkhus’s catacombs, waiting to die, and so you know Riley isn’t dead and you know Alma isn’t dead, but Riley is missing again, kind of like here, she died.”

“Yes,” Giani said. “Alma has children, actually.”

“She does?” Okay, some secrets had to be shared, but maybe some — like Eddie’s baby sister having children weren’t part of that same had to clause. Maybe this one could slide for awhile.

“Yes,” Giani replied again, his foot tapping the floor and his lips tight.

“Okay.”

“Will you let me finish,” Giana groaned. “Please, VJ.”

“Okay. You’re just dropping some heavy news, way more detailed that I got before.”

“That is why I’m here,” Giani pointed out. “Now. This is where it gets even more interesting.”

VJ clamped his lips shut and nodded. “Mmhmm.”

Giani leaned closer, their heads almost touching. “Riley has become pregnant. It’s her baby who gave us the clue, based on gurgles she’s heard. It’s been tricky to decipher them, but a few words came out.”

“Ja?”

“Yes.” Giani grinned again. “Do want to know the most common word she’s heard?”

“I’m desperate to know,” VJ said, indulging Giani.

“Cats.”

VJ laughed. Maybe Riley was a crazy, pregnant, cat lady.

“I thought you’d want to know, about the baby, perhaps warn Eddie.”

“I will. Thank you, Giani.”

Giani ducked his head and vanished back to Death, giving Vj time to figure out if he wanted to tell Eddie now or later.

He decided now and headed outside to find Eddie. Most afternoons he was either playing music or wandering around buzzed.

Today was a buzzed day. He still looked hot, his feet looping slightly as he made sure he didn’t lose his balance, his lips humming something that VJ bet would become a song, his hair a little frizzy like it got at the peak of summer after a rain.

“Eddie.”

Eddie looked up to him, his eyes glassy.

Christ, Eddie. Vj blinked away the judgment. The last thing Eddie needed was to be shamed to feel like shit for feeling like shit.

“We have to talk,” VJ said.

“What is it?”

He was being so tight. VJ always wished Eddie was the kind of guy who got drunk and professed his love. Reality was that Eddie got drunk and got distant.

That’s why VJ suspected Eddie didn’t like him. Now, even, was the stone cold truth that he needed to focus on being Eddie’s family jot confessing a lifetime of love.

“They found a lead on your mor and Alma,” VJ told him.

“Who did?”

“Your far, mostly. Did you know they keep the bodies of the living in catacombs at Death Falkhus?”

  Eddie squinted a little at him. His eyes popped wide. “I have to go. My room. I need to be right back.” Eddie turned away and headed toward Falkhus.

Wait, what?

“What did I say wrong?” VJ asked. He followed him. “Eddie.”

“Nothing. I just. Have—”

“I did something wrong,” VJ insisted. “You wouldn’t be running away if I hadn’t.”

I share everything with you and you’re always hiding.

“No, I want to talk to your far and pack. Those are things I have to do.”

and pack. 

“You don’t want to talk to me,” VJ said. He sighed and stepped back. “Okay.”

“You can’t answer my questions,” Eddie said.

“Ja.” VJ swallowed. There was a line there and as much as VJ wanted to cross it, bridge the gap between them, he knew better. He wasn’t Eddie’s best friend. He wasn’t anything beyond the other guy who saw ghosts, the one who was pestering, the one who couldn’t see him as a brother.

Eddie left.

VJ couldn’t go inside. He wandered aimlessly until he found a spot on the lake, if you could call a shallow stretch of water a lake, and started to skip stones across the surface.

After a few minutes Niels was there. He picked up a stone and tossed it across the water. “Smashing up your reflection?”

“Ja.” VJ chucked a rock where his face was kind of formed looking back at him.

“It is hideous.” Niels skipped one that hopped five times before it sank. Vj missed him when he was gone too. But after the year he would come home and run Falkhus.

“Is there some reason you’re filling up the moat? What if we get attacked?” Niels joked.

Vj laughed lightly. “I think we’d need something bigger than a moat to survive an attack.”

“Nah. I bet they couldn’t even get a bomb past that.”

VJ looked at the lake and tried to imagine a war. There was a war at Falkhus and the lake was undisturbed. It was a war inside VJ. He had to let things go. He had to let Eddie go.

“What would you do if Li broke up with you?” he asked Niels.

Niels laughed hard. “If she broke up with me?”

“Ja. Would you still be her friend?”

“Play guitar a lot, probably. Get a job as a finance officer or something boring to punish myself.”

“A finance officer?” Niels had never said anything about the job he would have if he wasn’t an heir. VJ always guessed he’d become world famous for his guitar, for the way he could weave his heart into songs about anything else. A finance officer? “That would be lame,” VJ informed him.

Niels was never lame. He had a flare for epic.

Niels laughed. “It’s a punishment for messing up with Li. But I mean…we’ve dated for years. So I think going into finance would be a little extreme, for you.”

“What about working at the church. Becoming a whatever they’re called.” He already volunteered and played music. He even worked in the youth area and sang songs to little kids. It would be a way to dedicate himself to a career near Falkhus and Far Edvard.

Niels’ eyes snapped toward him,” You want to be a minister?”

“I don’t know,” VJ backtracked. “I’m just. I wanted to ask someone out, and they said no, and I want to stay near home. I already work there.”

“Do you remember that time you flipped because you wanted to play with me and you showed up and were like, ‘wow the basement cold,’ and then I said maybe you should put on a sweater and you ran upstairs because I didn’t want to play with you?”

VJ groaned.

“This is different. I’m not being dramatic, this time.” I think.

“But did you ask, or did you like…you at them?”

VJ cringed as laughter bubbled out of him. But this was different. A title of being together didn’t matter if you didn’t share yourself with someone. He didn’t need the title as much as he wanted Eddie to include him. He’d run off, alone, and not included him at all.

“When you want to talk about…deep stuff…you know feelings and complex shit. Li is there, right?”

“Ja.”

“So, if you wanted to talk about something really big, like…earth shattering.” Like Riley and Alma being alive. “And she didn’t want to, she wanted to leave and pack and move, would that be no enough?”

“Some…step brothers…have a lot on their plates,” Niels said carefully.

“Hey ! I didn’t say any names!” Was he that obvious? If he was, did Eddie already know? That possibility made everything worse.

“Okay. Well. If I liked someone enough, I would want to know why someone who is usually there decided not to be this time,” Niels said.

If someone was talking to VJ he’d know.

“Because they want to move out and they’re finally old enough,” VJ guessed aloud.

“He’s going to school,” Niels argued. “VJ. You could go to school. I’m sure Mor could get you in.”

“And then he graduates and he isn’t coming back. Plus, I can’t go to school.”

“Why not, VJ? Why do we get sent to suffer every year and you’re Mor’s precious little baby?”

“I have stuff to do here.”

“No. More doesn’t want us here. You’re the one she wants.”

VJ rolled his eyes. That wasn’t true. Was it?

“It’s not that kind of stuff,” VJ argued again. “It’s not about Mor.”

“I bet you anything, it is.” Niels chucked one last giant rock into the lake. It landed with a big flop.

VJ couldn’t keep lying to Niels. He’d spent a lifetime lying. But would he understand? Would he hate them if Far Edvard talked to him and Far Viggo talked to Eddie and no one talked to Niels?

VJ went for it: “Far Edvard might know where Riley and Alma are. How can I go to school if they might have a clue?”

“Is that why? Cause you’re in therapy?”

VJ looked at the sky and groaned. “Ja. It’s cause I like my therapist.”

“Christ, VJ. All this time I’ve thought it was because you were secretly the heir.”

VJ laughed, rolling the tension of Niels rejection the truth off his shoulders. “No way. I just like my therapist. And the kids at church. I play piano for them. I like my job there.”

“Good.”

VJ glanced around. The sun was beginning to set, and the air was getting colder. “Want to race to the barn?” VJ asked.

“Ja. Last one there has to muck,” Niels said as he took off.

VJ flipped him off and ran after him.

He didn’t feel all the way better, but at least he had Niels. Having brothers wasn’t that bad. It was time to make sure Eddie felt like family. Like a brother.