Seeing the Light (A Marie Jenner Mystery Book 1) by E. C. Bell

glow. It was weak, no doubt about it, and just around the edges of her torso and the hair on her head, making her look like she was standing in front of a high powered spotlight. She wasn’t standing in front of any light, though. The light was coming from her.
    “Sally, look at me. Focus on me.” I stood in front of the ghost and stared into her eyes. “What you do next is up to you. Entirely up to you.”
    I remembered Mom speaking those words. Sally was so close to the end. So close. I felt my strength running to her through the connection our eyes made. Oddly, it made me feel stronger, more alive.
    “What do you mean?” she asked.
    “What would you like to do? If you could choose anything, what would you like to do?”
    I half-expected her to say, “Get high.” Lots of drug overdoses said that, at first. She didn’t.
    “I would like to stop.” Her eyes closed briefly, and tears, glowing eerily in the half-light of the room, hung on her lashes. “I’ve had enough. It’s enough.” Her eyes opened, and I was surprised at their startling green. I’d never noticed the colour before. “Is that okay? If I just—stop being?”
    “Yes. If that’s what you want.”
    “I wish you could hold my hand. I’m scared.”
    So was I, but I didn’t let her know that. I stepped closer, so she could feel my heart. I remembered Mom doing that. I could see it calmed the ghost. She was glowing brilliantly. She was almost ready.
    “Don’t be afraid,” I said. “It’s nearly over. Can you see the light?”
    “Get outta here!” Sally grinned at me, briefly regaining some substance. Her glow was bright white, flecked through with red and black. “I’m actually going to walk toward a white light?”
    “No, that’s not the way it works. The light comes from you. Can you see it?”
    Sally glanced down at her hands, then held them up in wonder. “Yes, I can.” She smiled. “I look kinda pretty. What are the flecks? The black and the red?”
    “It’s your life—what you’ve experienced. You take it with you wherever you go.”
    “And if I stop being?”
    “Then this light stops too.”
    “That’s probably for the best.” Sally began to cry, gently. “I’m really tired, you know?”
    “I know.” Her weariness hit me in waves, and I tried to stay strong for her. She needed it, and I gave as much as I could.
    Sally’s glow cast my run down furniture in a stark, flat light. The only place the light took on life was within Sally. It began to swirl around her, through her, and the red and black flecks slowly drowned in the white. Her eyes glowed, ever brighter, as she made her final decision.
    The white light, which glowed through her translucent skin, brightened until all I could see were her eyes, brilliant green. Then the green drowned in the white, and the light folded in on itself, until it finally was one point, tiny, floating in front of me until it too disappeared. With it went her fear, her weariness, everything that had been Sally. I was finally, truly alone in my apartment.
    “Good-bye,” I whispered. Then I tottered to the phone, carefully staying away from the last place Sally had inhabited, and dialed Mom’s number. I felt about 100 years old.
    “Hi Mom,” I said, and burst into tears. “I moved Sally on.” I couldn’t stop crying. Didn’t want to. “What do I do now?”
    Mom explained what would happen to me in the next few hours. Sleep was not in the mix. I listened carefully to her, and promised I’d do everything exactly as she said.
    But I didn’t tell her about Farley. Not a word.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Farley: What Nightmares Are Like When You’re Dead
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    I don’t know what happened, but it was horrible.
    I was having a nightmare, like nothing I’d ever had before. I was used to the snake dream, and the falling from a high place dream, and that nasty series of screamers I had when the wife left me and I was really alone for the first time