was the only one who could hear me anyway.
“I can feel you.” He reached out. His hand weighed heavily on my shoulder. I pulled away.
“Well, you’re the only one.”
“Because you won’t see if there’s anyone else.”
I turned and stomped down the stairs, making as much noise as I could to annoy Paul Michael. “I’m done. I’m going back to the white world. Let the spirits take me.”
I spread my arms wide in our living room, waiting for white fog to creep through the windows and consume me.
Nothing happened.
Paul Michael leaned against the wall of the stairwell. “Is the temper tantrum over?”
I let obscenities fly at him.
“The spirits won’t let you back in if you’re this angry. You’ll be stuck here if you can’t calm down. They sent you here to find peace, remember?”
All my energy drained out of me. I would be stuck here forever. I slumped down to the floor.
I heard Paul Michael’s sweaty feet come towards me as they peeled themselves off the hard wood floor of the living room with each sticky step. Two arms slipped underneath mine. I was dragged back up to my feet. He gripped me by the shoulders. My head hung low, looking at the ground between us. He refused to let me go until I looked up.
When I met his gaze, his eyes crinkled in the corners. “Talking to Laura will help.”
The mention of Laura’s name should have terrified me. It should have filled me with such panic and dread that I became paralyzed. But I was so numb now that I nodded limply, my head falling back down to my chest. Paul Michael took my hand and led me upstairs to have the conversation that had occupied my thoughts for the entirety of my afterlife.