Ghost - in the arms of Death

Chapter 11

I brush my hair back as the water of the shower hits my face. The showers at Vincent's gym always fail to get hot enough. I used to complain a lot about it until it became somewhat of a running gag.

Leo would wait for me to finish up and once he spotted me he would ask how my shower was and I would answer that it was too cold. We talked extra loud, just to annoy our uncle. At some point, he even joined our little skit. Having an unnecessary loud conversation about water temperature.

I smile at the memory, but the smile fades quickly as my heart breaks a little at the thought of my brother. I hate that I feel that way. I hate that I still miss him.

I never thought it would be that hard to lose someone you love. I always rolled my eyes at people who wouldn’t move on and always wail about their loss. Now I am one of them.

I take a deep breath and divert my attention to my body. I didn’t go to the AMB gym tonight. I didn’t want to run into Alex, yet I kept thinking about him a lot last night.

What if I had said yes to him? It would have been inappropriate and unprofessional, but if I hadn't been so offended by him, I wonder how things could have turned out.

I groan and rub my hands over my face. Vincent made me do a few warmup rounds, he made me jump the rope to work on my footwork and he had me do a round of shadow boxing. My muscles are burning but in a good way. I missed this. I missed training with him at his studio.

He always says I have to go into shadow boxing with a plan. Visualize my opponent. Today I imagine fighting Leo. We used to spar together. I knew his moves like the back of my hand. Just as he knew mine. Which made matches between us interesting. One had to outsmart the other.

I turn off the lukewarm water and get ready to go home. As I leave the locker room I run into Josh.

“Sorry,” he mutters and quickly brushes past me. I hesitate for a moment before I follow him into the men’s locker room.

“Come on,” he groans, “I know your uncle owns this place, but does that mean you can do whatever you want?”

“Probably not, but you keep avoiding me.”

“I’m just busy,” he turns away and takes off his sweaty shirt. I think he likes doing that, just to show off his abs.

“I think you’re avoiding me because you’re afraid to answer my questions,” I say, crossing my arms in front of my chest. I refuse to let him off the hook.

“I don’t owe you anything,” he says shaking his head and grabbing one of the gym's washed-out blue towels before he heads to the showers. This time I don’t give a s**t. I follow him.

“Seriously?” he says with raised brows. I shrug daringly. He holds my gaze with his own dare before he takes off his shorts and turns his back to me. “Enjoy the show,” he mutters and turns on the water. He does have a nice butt. A girl can’t deny that.

I chuckle at myself and lean against the doorframe.

“What are you afraid of?” I ask. The air fills with the scent of his body wash. His hands move quickly to lather his skin, but he doesn’t answer my question.

“You know where to find them, don’t you?”

“Who?”

“Come on, don’t play dumb! I need to know. It’s not like I’m looking for trouble or anything. I’m not looking to get you into any trouble.”

“What are you looking for then?” he asks running his hands through his short hair to rinse off the lather from his shampoo. This is probably one of the weirdest conversations I’ve had in a long time, but I need to know. I need some answers. Just a hint on where to start looking. That’s not asking too much, is it?

“Just a little help,” I tell him, “my brother died and I am almost sure that it wasn’t an accident! They told us he must have been in a random fistfight. If you know anything about him, you know that he wouldn’t just get into a fight like that. He would defend himself and he would leave without a scratch. But he died. He was knocked out and left to die in a ditch.”

Josh stays silent and shakes his head at me, before he turns off the water and dries himself off, wrapping the towel around his hips.

“Don’t tell me you can’t understand why I don’t believe his death was an accident,” I continue.

He sighs and shrugs heavily, “I don’t!” he finally admits.

“Yo, Josh!” someone yells from the locker room. His friend stops when he spots me in the shower with him. “Oh-kay?! What’s going on here? Got lost, sweetheart?”

“Not at all,” I say without looking at the guy smirking at me. I keep my eyes on Josh.

“Should I leave you to it?” his friend chuckles.

“Just shut up for a second,” Josh groans and frowns at me, “I don’t know enough!” he tells me.

“Well, what do you know?”

“Maybe we should do this later?” he sighs.

“Right now is fine by me,” I say stubbornly.

“Fine,” he groans, “can I at least get dressed?”

“Fine!” I mutter, turn around and leave the locker room. But I won’t let him leave without giving me at least a few answers.

“What are you doing in the men's locker room?” Vincent asks me with a suspicious look on his aging face.

“Harassing Josh,” I smile innocently.

“Josh?! Mh-,” he hums, “nice kid. Are you two dating?”

“No,” I say shaking my head, “I was just asking him some questions. When did he start working out here?” I ask, “I have never seen him around before.”

“He came in occasionally at first. More frequently about half a year ago. Why?”

“Just wondering,” I say with a shrug, “he said he knew Leo.”

“Maybe,” Vincent shrugs and takes a step closer to me, “are you still looking for this mysterious fight club?”

“Yes,” I say holding his gaze.

“And you think Josh knows something? Why would he? He’s talented, but he’s not a professional like Leo was. I doubt he’s into fight clubs.”

“Maybe,” I say, “I still have Lex looking into it. Just in case.”

“I don’t like this, Liah!”

“I know. I promise I’ll be careful.”

“I’m not sure that’ll be enough. Just think about what’s at stake before you make any decisions. We don’t want to lose you too!”

I lower my gaze in shame and nod slowly, “you won’t,” I promise softly and before I know it, he pulls me into a tight hug.

“I miss him too,“ he says softly.

“Me too,” I sigh, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. I rarely cry anymore. I spilled so many tears, I don’t think there are any left to shed. “I’m sorry you lost him,” I add in a whisper, knowing that I’m not the only one who lost Leo. My whole family did. I sometimes forget that.

“I am sorry too,” he says, his voice cracking. “Now,” he coughs and holds me back an arm's length, “let’s not get emotional, shall we?”

I manage a weak smile and nod. Vincent places a gentle kiss on my forehead before he lets go of me and with one last warning look, leaves me alone. I know he wants me to be okay, but I don’t know any other way. I can’t spend the rest of my life wondering how Leo died and what I could have done to get him justice. I just can’t do it.

When I turn around, I find Josh, watching me from a safe distance. He had changed from his sweat-drenched workout gear into a pair of blue jeans and a nicely fitted black t-shirt. His shoulders rise and fall with a heavy sigh as he heads toward me.

“Ready?” he asks.

“Where are we going?” I ask and he shrugs casually.

“I don’t know. Somewhere else. Somewhere quiet,” he says and glances around the gym, almost as if he’s afraid someone might overhear our conversation, “my place?” he offers.

“Fine,” I nod, hearing my brother's soft warning in my head that I shouldn’t trust people that easily, but what the hell? I have nothing left to lose!

AN// I hope you're having fun with this so far and I hope that you're hooked and maybe feel like Ghost (meaning me) deserves a little something for the work I've been doing. So, this is my weird way to announce that Ghost will soon go on PRT. I hope I'll still see you around and read all of your amazing comments.