Chapter 6

“Okay, the bastards are coming up through the front gate.” Justin yelled at the top of his lungs to everyone around. The word was passed around to everyone. I watched from the front porch, with Josh, as a last resort if Justin and his friends couldn’t keep the people away.

“Hey, Samual, You and Sampson go up and watch Joey and Chris, they should be in the office. We told them to stay there.”

“Right, will do, come on Sampson.” Samual said and disappeared to the office. I sat in one of the rocking chairs and thought about this whole mess. It was a waste of time. But the house held important information that we needed. Otherwise, I would have said burn it. But Josh probably wouldn’t let me get away with that.

“What are you thinking about, baby?” Josh asked me and took my hand, from the rocking chair beside mine.

“Thinking about the house, and how much it means to you.” I said and smiled, interlocking our fingers together. “Do you realize, Joshua, that we’ve been together for almost two centuries?”

Josh was silent. “Damn, it has been that long, hasn’t it?” A smile stretched across his face slowly and I smiled as well. “One loses track of time when they’re with the one they love. It feels like a month to me.” Joshua said. “I love you all too much, James.” He said.

I looked out to the front yard, where Justin was stalking the mayor of the town. It was a funny sight to see. Justin was acting as a Confederate General, like the one who found us. He was yelling orders and giving directions and trying to hit the mayor with all his might. It wasn’t working of course, because the mayor couldn’t hear him, or feel him.

“I love you too Joshua, forever and ever.” I said as I turned back to Josh. He gave a small chuckle.

“From the pause I would have thought you were thinking about if you still loved me. I was getting scared.” Josh said and sighed. I got up from my seat, with our fingers still locked and got down on my knees in front of him.

“Joshua, never doubt my love for you. I was proud to die beside you, because I knew you loved me, just as much as I love you. I’d never leave you. Not then, nor now, nor ever. You mean too damn much to me.” I stated.

A tear ran down his cheek. “I’m not supposed to cry, I’m dead for heaven’s sake.” He tried to joke, but it wasn’t working. I wiped the tear away and smiled. “Even the dead can have a moment now and then, I think its allowed.”

He ran his fingers through my hair and I smiled again. “That’s better. I like it when you smile.” I got off my knees and kissed him softly on the lips. I tried to pull away, but it didn’t work. He wrapped his fingers around my neck and held me in place. He deepened the kiss and I slid my tongue into his mouth, at his open invitation. He returned my kiss and I pulled away.

“Can’t let the children see the parents kissing. We’d scar them for life.” I said and he let out a huge laugh.

“Damn you, James, you always do that.” Josh said and hit me on the arm.

“What?” I asked innocently. I knew what he was talking about. He pulled himself out of the rocking chair and stood directly in front of me.

“The fact that you always get me turned on and then back away.” Josh said and put his hands on his hips.

“Well, besides the fact that we’re way beyond the sex every five minutes stage of this relationship. I think I’m allowed to pull away if I do so choose.” I said and smirked.

Josh let out a growl and I laughed. “One of these days dear James, one of these days.”

I sat down on the top step of the porch and patted the step in front of me. Josh got the idea and sat between my legs, leaning back against me. I wrapped my arms over his shoulders and leaned forward on him. He rested his arms on my knees and I sighed.


“This is what I miss. Holding you. You always are holding me, but I never get the chance to hold you.” I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling of him in my arms. About an hour past, and Justin was still fighting off the humans. I wanted to check on Joey and Chris, but Sampson had reported about 15 minutes ago that they were practically in the same position as we were. I took that to mean that they were still in the office and in each others arms.

I really liked Joey and Chris. They reminded me of, well, us. Me and Josh. They had been together almost three years, and at Joey’s begging, Chris picked up and moved with Joey here. Just like Joey wanted. It reminded me of Joshua, when he had begged me to stay with him, instead of moving north to freedom.

~Flashback

“James! Please, stay here, I want you here.” Josh practically screamed at me. Two white-servants of Josh’s opened the exiting double doors, and most everyone was leaving. Justin was waiting for me, running his hand over his newly buzzed haircut.

I sighed. I stood in between Justin and Josh. Trying to decide which one would be better.

“Jimmy?” Justin called out softly. I turned my head to look at him. “I don’t care if you stay or go,” He paused as he walked up to me. “I just care that you’re happy. I was happy when you escaped you family to come with me, I was pleased when you found someone that likes you the way you like them. And it’s up to you, don’t go by your head for once, Jimmy boy, you’ll only mess up.”

“Wow, Just, where did you get so smart?” I asked, astounded that Justin had gotten so smart over the past few years.

“I learned most from my edumacted bestest buddy.” Justin slipped back into his southern accent and grinned madly.

I bit my lip, and looked back at Josh. “There has to be a reason to get me to stay. So far, you haven’t given me one.”

Justin started walking toward the doors, and I followed. The room was practically empty. Just the servants, Josh, Justin, and me.

“Please! James, don’t go.” I heard Josh’s voice crack.

“I need a reason Joshua, that’s the only way.” I turned back to him. He had fallen to his knees. I waited for him to say something, but after a few minutes, when nothing was said, I turned back to Justin and continued to walk.

“I love you, James, please don’t leave me.” Josh said in a soft voice. So soft I hardly heard it. But it was enough to stop me in my tracks. Justin turned around and looked at me. I mouthed for him to go, and for the servants to shut the doors. They did and Josh sobbed, thinking I’d left him. I put down my make-shift bag and walked over to him. I crouched down beside him and rubbed his back.

“All you had to do was give me a reason.” I said quietly. He looked up at me, and I bit my lip.

Next thing I knew, I was being tackled to the floor. “How could you do that to me!” Joshua exclaimed. “Making me think you’d left, I ought to hang you!” I laughed and was cut off my Josh’s lips against mine. I moaned against his lips and ran my fingers through his soft brown hair. I ran my tongue across his bottom lip and ran my fingers down his back.

Someone coughed in the background and Joshua pulled away from me.

“Yes, Maria?” Joshua asked. I brought my leg up between his thighs and rubbed my knee against his crotch, making him moan.

“Sir, Mr. Randolf is here to see you, I kept him waiting in the parlor.”

“Thank you, Maria, I’ll be up in a minute, I need to clean up a bit first.” Josh said. I rubbed my leg between his and heard him whimper as Maria left carefully up the stairs.

“And you, James, are in trouble.” Josh stated quietly.

“Oh, really?” I asked, jokingly.

~End Flashback

“Hey, guys, I hate to break this up, but, the humans are leaving.” Justin said. That caught my attention. I lifted my head off of Josh’s and looked around.

“Wow, good work, Justin.” I said. I looked down at Josh, who was watching me, and then back at Justin. Behind Justin were a bunch of ‘returners’. I smiled.

I truly didn’t know what to say, its one of those things where you can just smile and hope they understand what it means to you.

“Aren’t you Chasez?” Someone asked, stepping toward the front of the pack. Josh looked at them and smiled, then nodded. “You might not remember me, but I’m…” Josh cut him off.

“I remember you Steven.” Josh said and the man smiled. “When did they catch you?”

Steven looked nervous. “They caught me up on the way to Virginia. The wagon driver was shot and hidden in the woods and another white man took his place, leading us right into a trap.”

Josh winced, “I’m sorry, if I had heard anything like that was happening, I would have chosen a different route for you.”

“It’s iight, sir, you did more than most did. If there’s anything I can ever do to help you, call on me, and I’ll be there.” Steven tipped his hat and gave a little bow.

“I’m sure, soon, we’ll need all your help again, seeing as they probably won’t give up. I’ll ring the tower bell to give word to you.”

The tower had actually fallen a few months before we had died, but, you know, in spirit, it was still there, and could ‘wake the dead’ when you needed it to. Not many humans could hear it. But I bet Chris could, he had a sixth sense, and that kind of scared me.

Slowly, people started to disappear, seeing as they weren’t needed anymore. Soon, it was just Josh and I on the porch steps. We waited, to make sure everybody had left, and then we found our way to the office, to check on Chris and Joey. We found them curled up in the corner, sleeping. I guess all the fuss was too much for them.

Josh materialized his hand and shook Chris, who was surrounded by Joey. He awoke and then woke Joey, and we all went to the kitchen to talk. I lit the lamps that were placed around the kitchen. The kitchen lit up slowly and I sat down at the table with the others.

“Well, the towns people are gone, thanks to Justin and his friends.” Josh said and I nodded in agreement.</I>

“I saw, there were a lot of people out there, I didn’t know Justin knew that many people.” I said and looked around the table. Joey was staring off into space, and James and Josh were waiting for something else to be said.

“It’s been a long day,” Joey said after a few minutes of silence. “I think we should get to bed and deal with everything else tomorrow, I want to get back to restoring the house.” Joey got up from the table and stood in the door way. “Coming Chris?”

I nodded toward Josh and James, and got up from the table, pushing in my chair and Joey’s chair. I followed Joey up the stairs and got ready to go to bed.

I knew that Josh and James didn’t sleep much, considering the fact that they didn’t need it. But I was tired, and I felt uneasy around Josh and James. And I had no clue why. Maybe it was because of what I saw. Or maybe it was because I was tired and didn’t want them there at this moment in time. They got the hint, and I knew I’d see them in the morning. Where else were they going to go?

And I was right, the next morning I found them in the basement playing chess. Seemed like an odd game at the time, but the more I thought about it, the easier it was to conclude that that was one of the few games they were exposed to during their time on earth.

“Morning,” I said as I came down the steps. They didn’t look up, but nodded their heads, totally involved in the game. I shook my head and went back upstairs, knowing it was useless to get their attention.

“Hey, Chris, I’ve got a question.” Joshua called up as I reached the top step, and was about to enter the kitchen.

“What?” I asked and took a step down.

“Why?” He asked, still watching the chess board.

“Why what?” I asked, confused. I hadn’t done anything to my knowledge.

“You know the question, and I’d like the answer.” Joshua said.

I leaned against the wall, he was reading my thoughts, since I was thinking them so loud. “Because, I want to know what went on, I want to know everything I can about this house, and what went on in it. I don’t care what it takes, just once I’d like to know something that I read in the text books.”

“But why would you want to know about something so gruesome? Why couldn’t you have picked… I don’t know when the French came over?” James said and turned around to face me.

“This interests me, if you want my help, I need to know everything, not the stuff that I saw pictures about, or that I can look up on HGTV.” I said and came all the way down the stairs. James got up and stood in front of me.

“You want to know it all? You can’t, it’s impossible for someone nowadays to have such knowledge.” James was getting mad, and I wasn’t quite sure why.

“What? Like you had a hard time, James? What about it, I’m sure others had an equal amount of bad luck.” I was getting mad myself, and my voice was raising.

“You want to know how bad my life was? Really? Do you truly want to?” James looked almost sad now, and that was making me feel guilty.

“Chris, are you making the ghosts mad again, I thought I told you to quit.” Joey yelled from the kitchen. I didn’t pay attention to Joey, I was too focused on James, who was in front of me.

James reached out suddenly and I fell backward. But I didn’t hit a wall, I kept falling, and James and Joshua were slipping farther away, and I didn’t know why. The walls seemed like Jello, and I was getting scared, not knowing what was going on around me. The room changed and I looked at my skin, it had become pale, and I was wearing an old fashion outfit.

I looked up and into a mirror. Blonde hair, green eyes… wait a minute…

“What the hell is going on?!” I whispered in a deep voice. That wasn’t my voice.


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