fic: deus ex machina
Title: Deus Ex Machina [god in the machine]
Chapter: Two
Author: lifeawakening
Words: 7,929
Rating: R (For future scary images, language, and sexual references)
Summary: Rachel Berry always knew that she was a little bit psychic. In fact, Rachel Berry thought she knew just about everything. That is, until a spirit that refused to die entered her life like a train-wreck. It's only after Rachel's fallen in love that she realizes life doesn't exactly go as planned; and neither does death, for that matter.
One month into school, and the storms in Lima had come to a halt. Rachel tugged up the front of her blue, polka-dot dress as she leaned against Finn's car after school. The football player came trudging up to her five minutes later, dragging his duffle bag in one hand and his helmet in the other.
"Hey, Rach. Sorry, it took a little extra time 'cause Beiste didn't buy my rash story," he remarked as he unlocked his car and tossed his stuff inside.
Rachel smiled softly as she checked her cell phone. "It's okay, Finn. We still have a few hours until dark, anyway. Do you still have my special bag in your car?"
Finn nodded as he was bent over in his backseat. He pulled a pink floral duffle bag from the floorboard of his car and scanned the parking lot before handing it over to Rachel. "What do you have in there, anyway?"
"You will see, Finn. I don't want to open it here in plain sight. I know enough about our peers to know that they will not understand the genius of our plan; therefore, them finding out could jeopardize the plan itself!" Rachel clutched the duffle bag to her chest as she smiled brightly up at Finn. The taller boy nodded slowly as he grabbed his other duffle bag, closed, and locked his car doors.
"Okay, so…" he began, burying his hands in his pockets, "Tell me the plan again?"
Rachel rolled her eyes as the pair began crossing the empty parking lot. "It is of utmost important that you pay attention this time, Finn. Plan G - G for ghost, of course - begins at precisely 7:47 p.m. tonight when the sun goes down. We will have set up all of the "equipment"," Rachel said, air quoting while patting her duffle bag, "in preparation. Then, we begin our investigation."
Finn paused at the top of the McKinley steps, laying his hand on Rachel's arm to stop her. "Are we sure about this? I looked it up online and like… it's illegal to camp out in a high school after it's closed. We could get in a lot of trouble."
Rachel bit her lip as she stared up at Finn. "I used Google as well, so I am aware of the consequences of our actions. If you're afraid of being caught then you don't have to come. You're the one who insisted on coming with me so I wouldn't be alone in the school at night."
Finn shifted his weight and took in a breath, fixing Rachel with a steady look. "I think this is absolutely crazy, but you're my girlfriend, so I'm coming with you. We just better not get caught or my mom's gonna kill me."
Rachel cocked her head to the side as she smiled. "We aren't going to get caught! My plan is foolproof." Rachel paused, looking up at her boyfriend and mulling over her words. "Yeah, no it's definitely foolproof. Now, come on. We have to get to the choir room."
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Rachel crept along the row of lockers, pressing herself as tightly to the cool metal as she could. This was her third sweep of the school, and her fourth time adjusting the black beanie that kept falling onto her forehead. In preparation for her plan, she had made sure to tell Finn to bring a set of black clothes to change into, just as she had. Rachel tugged on her black sweater as she felt her phone vibrate in her skirt pocket.
She hastily answered. "Finn? Are all of the cameras up?" Rachel pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it questionably before talking into it again. "Finn? Is that you?"
She only heard heavy breathing on the other end before Finn finally answered. "Yeah, sorry, Rach. I called to tell you I got the cameras up, but then I saw someone's flashlight so I panicked and ran."
Rachel glanced down at the flashlight in her hand before closing her eyes in exasperation. "Finn, what hallway were you in when you saw the flashlight?"
Rachel trained her flashlight's light on the 300 Hall sign as she listened to Finn confirm her thoughts. "300 halls, why?"
"Nothing, Finn. You know, paranoia could ruin the entire investigation. We're here to try to find out if my spirit resides in McKinley High 24/7, remember? We don't want to butcher this by allowing our fear to cloud our judgment."
Finn grumbled something into the line and Rachel smiled as she shook her head. "There's no one here but us, don't worry. I went through the entire school three times to confirm that. How many cameras did you set up?"
"Four, like you said. See? You needed me 'cause you totally couldn't have reached the spots you wanted on your own."
Rachel scoffed at her cell phone as she flipped it closed. She heard a rustling behind her and tossed her flashlight that direction, seeing nothing. She took a few calming breaths before walking towards the noise. The brunette braced her back against a locker as she realized the sun had completely set. It was almost time to start.
"Spirit… if you're out here," Rachel started, squinting into the darkness, looking for anything, "I want you to know what I'm doing."
Rachel paused, listening for any indication that she had been heard. She continued on nonetheless. "I know that we ended on somewhat of a bad note in my room last we talked… but I'm still here. I'm aware that you told me to leave you alone. I'm not going to do that though. I have a list of reasons why but I won't bore you with them right now."
Rachel felt her phone going off again as she saw the glow from her pocket. She ignored it for the moment though, inwardly cursing Finn's impatience. "I will tell you though, that there are two main reasons why. One being that for some reason, unbeknownst to me, you think that I'm on religious mission to exorcise you. That is incorrect. The second reason why I won't leave you alone, spirit, is that you fascinate me. You see… ever since I was six, I-"
Rachel screamed as she felt a hand grab her from the side. That same hand covered her mouth as it pulled her into a solid body. "Damn it, shush! Someone's going to hear you!"
Rachel yanked herself free from Finn's grasp and brought her hand to her heart, catching her breath. "Finn," she hissed, "you almost gave me a heart attack! What were you thinking?"
Finn threw his hands up and jeered. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe I was thinking that something happened to you since you weren't answering your phone!"
Rachel sighed as she hung her head. "I'm sorry… I was -"
"Talking to her?" Finn added quietly while supplying a small smile. "It's okay, you know. I'm not a big believer in ghosts but… if one was talking to me like she is to you, I'd want to talk back, too. Is she here?"
Rachel reached over and gripped Finn's hand with two hands. "I don't think so, no, which is too bad. I wanted her to understand what we were doing here. But, oh well. Let's go back to base-"
"You mean the choir room?"
"-and get our handhelds."
"You mean the tape recorder things?"
Finn held both flashlights in one hand and Rachel in the other as they made their way through the dark halls. "Finn, you didn't watch Ghost Hunters like I told you to, did you?"
Finn sputtered, "Come on! It was on at the same time that Skins started playing the good movies."
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"Rachel and Finn in the McKinley hallways. There are outside sounds of the heater kicking on and occasional pipes rattling, but that seems to be all. It's 9:04 p.m.," Rachel spoke easily into the handheld audio device.
Finn stopped asking questions long prior, opting to just follow Rachel and let her do her ghostly thing.
"What I'm hoping to achieve with this, Finn, is to catch the ghost's voice on this recorder," Rachel explained.
Finn bit his lip. "I get that, but… why do you need to do that if the ghost is like, willingly speaking directly to you?"
Rachel paused mid-step, shoulders sagging as she looked at the device in her hand. "That's an incredibly valid point."
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Finn held his face up to the thermal camera in Rachel's hand, smiling broadly. "This is so awesome! How did you get one of these?"
Rachel beamed and chuckled as she watched Finn's multi-colored face in the viewfinder of the camcorder. "My fathers wholly supported my ghost hunting attempts when I was a child and got me one of these. It detects heat and the absence of heat, making it the perfect ghost finding object."
Finn took the camera from Rachel and pointed it at her, zooming in on her face. "You're all red! Means you're hot," he added, winking at her over the camera. Rachel couldn't help but laugh as she used her hands to steer the camera down the hallway.
"Let's keep this professional now. I need you to tell me if you see anything out of the ordinary on the viewfinder, okay? A patch of blue when the rest of the screen is red and a patch of red if the screen is blue."
Finn nodded as they began walking down the hallway. He would pan the camera over the hallway as Rachel let loose a string of questions in an attempt to get her spirit to react to them and show herself on camera.
"What is your name, spirit? Are you still mad at me? Is this your home? Did you die here?"
Once the couple had made their way through all of the hallways and come up short, Rachel called for a break.
"Well, it doesn't seem like there's anything going on right now. We can return to base and get you a snack," Rachel stated, fixing the direction that the thermal camera was set in as it sat upon a tripod. "Are you doing okay so far?"
Finn nodded sleepily as he glanced at his cell phone. "Yeah, I'm all right, I ate a few extra protein bars today to keep my strength up. It's only 2:34 anyway, I'm usually still up playing Halo right now, so it's all good."
Rachel laughed. "Good to know." She pressed her face against the camera lens one last time as she blew a kiss to it before turning and walking with Finn back to their base.
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Quinn walked through the doors of McKinley High around three a.m. It wasn't that she was normally there this late, but she'd been having an especially hard time "sleeping" that night, so she came here.
She sighed as she made her way down the main hallway in flannel pajamas and a red McKinley sweatshirt. "Don't they run the heater in here anymore?" Quinn asked herself as she noticed a faint ring of mist around her body.
She was busy looking down at herself as she walked through an object that was definitely not normally in the middle of the hallway. Quinn paused as she sucked in unnecessary air and mumbled, "What the hell?"
She backtracked and raised her eyebrows as she found herself face to face with a video camera. She moved to the back of it and furrowed her brows as she glanced into the viewfinder. "What the hell kind of camera is this?" she questioned, looking at all of the colors on the screen. Hesitantly, Quinn leaned over and waved a hand in front of the camera. The screen flashed blue for a second and Quinn gasped.
"What is this thing?" She held her hand in front of the camera as she stared at a faint, blue outline of her hand in the viewfinder. Quinn glared daggers at the camera as her jaw dropped. "A camera that detects temperature changes, since when do they make these things? Damn."
She stopped her inspection of the camera when she heard voices coming down the hall, towards her. She stepped back into the shadows before rubbing her temples because, seriously? She's a ghost; she doesn't need to hide in the shadows.
"Finn!" Quinn slammed a fist into the lockers behind her. Of course it was Rachel.
"What in the hell is she up to now?" Quinn whispered to herself as her eyes traced the halls, looking for the source of the voice she had heard.
"I cannot believe that you didn't set the camera to record!" Quinn snickered as Rachel and her boyfriend came around the corner, dressed completely in black.
"I thought you were doing that when you were messing with it!"
Quinn heard Rachel groan as the brunette stopped in front of the camera, turning it around on the tripod so she could inspect the back. A few seconds passed in silence as both Finn and Quinn watched Rachel fidget with the camera before she wrung her hands in the air. "It wasn't recording. We didn't catch anything from the last hour."
Finn gingerly placed a hand on Rachel's shoulder while talking soothingly to her. "It's okay, really, it is! You said so yourself that if she was here, she would've talked to you by now."
"Finn, we've been investigating for almost seven hours…" Rachel stated, completely disheartened as she rested her hands on the camera and stared into the lens, "Do… do you think I'm crazy, Finn?"
Quinn raised her head in the shadows and furrowed her brows at the sound of Rachel's voice. She watched Finn squeeze the girls shoulder before biting his lip and looking completely remorseful. "I… don't know, Rach. Maybe you just got a little… carried away. It wouldn't exactly…" Finn trailed off as the body under his hand began shaking with tears. "Oh, no, Rachel, don't cry…"
Quinn stepped closer to the couple and squinted in the dark. The light from Finn's flashlight made Rachel's face sparkle from the tears that were coursing down her cheeks. Quinn looked stricken as her heart went out to this girl that, really, she was supposed to call the enemy. The blond opened her mouth to say something, when Finn cut her off.
"Rachel… listen to me. No sane person could have imagined everything that you said happened to you. Maybe this is just proving your theory, you know? That she doesn't live here, or whatever ghosts do…"
Rachel turned to Finn and patted his chest reassuringly. "It's all right, really." She wiped her face and donned a phony smile. "We still have three hours of our investigation left! I'm sure we'll find something. I'm fine now, really. I'm probably just hungry."
Finn's face lit up as he nodded excitedly. "Yeah! That's probably it. Let's go get you a snack then go search for more of those floating voices."
Quinn watched Rachel follow Finn down the hall, shaking her head in awe towards the football player. "Can't believe he bought that…" Quinn muttered to herself as her gaze moved from the retreating figures to the Rachel's camera. Quinn stepped behind it again and nodded slowly as she saw the blinking "recording!" flashing on the screen. She bit her lip as her gaze moved from the spot Rachel and Finn walked towards, to the camera, and back.
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Rachel flew backwards as Finn crashed into her, hurling them into the lockers. "This is not how we act on an investigation, Finn!"
Finn bolted around Rachel and used her as a shield as he choked out, "What in the hell is that?"
The brunette's glare faded into a smile as she turned to the row of lockers that were opening and closing, seemingly on their own. "That, Finn, is my spirit." She held the camcorder in the direction of the lockers as she hissed over her shoulder, "Finn, check the time!"
The boy tore his wide eyes off the lockers long enough to tell Rachel that it was 4:01 A.M. Rachel was grinning ear to ear as she called out over the noise, "Spirit! Thank you for alerting me of your presence. While I don't know if you're still angry at me or not, I do just have one question for you."
The locker's all simultaneously slammed shut as the hair on Rachel's arms stood up. She shivered and breathed out, seeing her breath swirling in front of her. Finn shifted forward and wrapped an arm around Rachel. "It got cold as hell," he whispered into her ear. She nodded as she took a step back into his embrace.
"I'll make it simple. Do you permanently reside in this school, spirit? Is this your home?"
Rachel silently took it as a good sign when the air still sparked after she'd asked the question. Her ghost was still in the room. "If you don't want to speak to me, then that's all right…Just… slam one locker for yes, and two for no."
Rachel felt Finn's labored breathing behind her as they waited in silence. After the silence stretched on for a couple minutes, Finn let out a breath. "I think she's gone."
Rachel faced forward with the same determined look she had when she asked the question. "She's not gone."
"But, Rachel it's been-"
"She's not gone!" Rachel repeated forcefully, watching her breath swirl in front of her mouth. "Can't you still feel her?"
Finn shrugged behind her. "I don't know… what I'm supposed to be feeling besides cold?"
Rachel's gaze dropped to her arms where the hair was still standing up. Her fingers twitched at her sides as she felt the electricity from the air shoot through her entire body. She furrowed her brow as she wondered how Finn could not possibly feel the entire room shift because of the spirit's presence.
A few minutes later and Finn began shifting his feet back and forth from impatience. Rachel sighed. "Okay… I guess she's not going to-"
She flinched as two lockers simultaneously opened and then slammed shut. Rachel ignored Finn's cursing behind her as she briskly closed the viewfinder on her camcorder, turning it off.
"So, the school isn't your home… noted. Thank you, spirit. I feel that it's only fair that you get to ask me a question in exchange for you answering one of mine."
Finn opened his mouth and sputtered, staring wide-eyed at the spot where the locker's slammed. "Rach, I don't think that's such a good idea."
The brunette brushed him off. "It's fine, really. I want her to know that she can trust me, and trust can only be given when earned. Therefore, if you have a question, I'll answer it. It's only fair."
Rachel handed the camcorder to Finn before smoothing out her black skirt. "Whenever you're ready, spirit."
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Quinn sat with her back pressed against a row of lockers, her knees drawn up to her chest and her chin practically resting on her left shoulder. The only light in the hallway came from the flashlight that Finn had set on his sprawled out legs and the red light from the camcorder on the floor next to the boy. He had fallen asleep after an hour of silence, sitting against the lockers with his legs stretched out in front of him. Rachel mimicked Quinn's position on the floor with her back against the same row of lockers as the ghost.
It wasn't as if Quinn hadn't tried to talk to Rachel when she'd told her to ask questions. It wasn't as if Quinn hadn't already talked to Rachel; she had, even yelled at her once. But the more Quinn had followed Rachel around in her shambled excuse for a paranormal investigation that night, the more Rachel talked to Quinn. The brunette had wandered the hallways of McKinley High with a ten-dollar audio recorder in both hands and a grin on her face as she had simply talked to Quinn.
Quinn had walked beside Rachel as the brunette had asked Quinn her favorite color, what her favorite food had been, if she pulled pranks on people because she was bored, if she ever sang, and how old she was. Quinn hadn't answered any of Rachel's questions because she was actually afraid that Rachel would actually hear her voice again.
As Quinn wrapped her arms around her knees, she continued to watch Rachel's every movement. She absently rubbed her cheek with her shoulder as Rachel absently stared at the lockers across from them.
The sky outside was beginning to lighten up as Saturday morning began creeping around the corner. Quinn closed her eyes tightly as she rested her forehead against her arms. She couldn't bring herself to talk to Rachel again, not in this setting, not in a casual setting. Quinn had been driving herself insane for an entire month with trying to figure out why the hell Rachel wanted to get to know her. Aside from the instinctual curiosity that anyone would have when placed in Rachel's position, Quinn couldn't help but feel like there was something deeper there. That something deeper was what prevented Quinn from talking to Rachel again.
As if she could actually get to know someone, Quinn thought as she silently scoffed; as if anyone would treat Quinn as if she was human. As if she had a soul…
"I don't understand." Quinn's head snapped up as her gaze landed on Rachel, who was in the same position that she'd been sitting in for an hour, just waiting for Quinn to do or say anything. Quinn's brow furrowed as she focused on Rachel's disgruntled face.
"I don't understand why you won't talk to me anymore. It's not as if I can't feel your presence when you're around me. I know you've been with me for hours. Is it that you don't trust me, still?"
Quinn blew out a breath and shook her head. She closed her eyes tightly as she realized Rachel couldn't see the gesture. Regardless, Rachel continued speaking. "I don't know what else I can do to prove to you that I'm not here to hurt you."
Quinn opened her mouth to speak, to ask Rachel why she was there, then. But like every other time she'd tried that night, her mouth snapped shut as her chest tightened. Quinn's terror was too great. She was too afraid of Rachel, of what Rachel meant, and of what Rachel might do. Quinn didn't get human contact, she wasn't allowed that, so why now? There had to be a catch, and Quinn wasn't about to risk her position on earth to figure out what that catch was.
"I just want to know you… that's all. This is the most exciting experience of my life, spirit, and now I feel tied to you. I can't explain why, yet, but if you never speak to me again, I'll never be able to figure it out."
Quinn rested her head against the lockers. This Rachel girl, sitting five feet away from her, was one of the most terrifying things that Quinn had ever been faced with. Quinn's lips parted and air rushed out before she really knew what she was saying. "I can't trust anything, okay?"
Her hazel eyes widened as she quickly glanced over to Rachel, half hoping the brunette hadn't heard her; and if she had, she was making no acknowledgment either way. She continued to stare blankly ahead of her for a minute before nodding. "Fair enough," she said sincerely.
Quinn continued to watch her with a cutting gaze. "Does this mean you'll give up, move on, leave me be?"
Rachel waited a beat before she shook her head in the negative, keeping her gaze forward. "No."
Quinn's jaw dropped as Rachel took her bottom lip between her white teeth. "I don't think you understand, spirit," the brunette said seriously, finally turning towards the direction where Quinn was seated, "I can't give up."
Quinn watched Rachel calmly stand up and smooth out her skirt. She nudged Finn's leg with her small foot and told him it was time to wrap, and that they needed to clean up just in case someone came in to the school.
Quinn didn't have a chance to speak to Rachel again, and for that, she was almost grateful. She paced the halls of McKinley long after Rachel and Finn had left. Hours later, she ended up on the hard plastic chairs of the choir room, her hands on her knees and her toes tucked inwards as she sat in thought. It wasn't that Quinn didn't want a friend; it's that she didn't think she could have a friend. She was a ghost, for God's sake, and one that had been completely shunned from human contact for ten long, tortuous years.
Quinn shook her head as she balled her fists and cussed at herself. How could she even consider letting Rachel into her life? Quinn knew next to nothing about this girl, just that she was a loser with a cute boyfriend and this insane notion that she had a sixth sense. She was a threat to Quinn's plan, and God so help her, Quinn was not about to throw away a plan, that she'd spent eight years on, on a crazy girl who just needed a decent reality check.
She stood up and shook her head again. "I can't go soft just because someone says they want to know me. That's all well and fine for her but, it's not for me. She needs a heavy dose of reality, and I need to get her the hell away from me so she doesn't screw up my plan." Quinn threw her eyes over the choir room as an evil smile spread across her face. Fine, Quinn thought, if Rachel wouldn't give up voluntarily, Quinn would just force her to. She'd make Rachel wish she'd never stuck her big nose into Quinn's business, and once Quinn was rid of her, she could continue with her plan.
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Quinn didn't expect, when she walked into the doors of McKinley that Monday morning, to be greeted with a tiny lamb plushy on a fishing line sitting on the floor in front of her. She paused mid-stride, jamming her hands into her Cheerio's varsity jacket's pockets and tilting her head back. She scanned the hallway, making a full circle, before staring down at the stuffed animal again. What in the hell was this?
The halls were still mostly deserted, so Quinn decided whoever planted the doll was waiting for someone specific, and not just a random kid. Quinn cocked an eyebrow and checked the clock on the wall before deciding she'd follow the line and see what idiot was pulling this prank.
Quinn's white tennis shoes made no noise to the world around her as she jogged down the hall, yet she could hear the noise they made in her mind as she imagined it out of habit. She rounded the lockers in the 100 hall and paused. Her shoulders and face slumped as she saw none other than Finn Hudson sitting there, fishing pole in his hand. She could tell by his face that he felt like an idiot for being in the position that he was in. Finn rolled his shoulders under his varsity athlete's jacket and kept glancing around the hall as if looking for someone.
Quinn sighed as she wondered when Rachel would stop this crap. She decided to start her plan of getting Rachel to leave her the hell alone a little earlier than she planned. The blonde smirked as she bent down behind Finn. Quinn cocked her head as she ghosted her hand over his arm, smiling as the hair rose and the boy froze.
The ghost blew softly into the boy's ear, wondering if it would even have any affect on him. When Finn shot sideways from his crouching position, shoulder-first into the lockers, Quinn smiled.
As Finn began furiously reeling in the fishing line, he began to stutter, "I-I'm hoping that you're here, ghost, and that I'm not just losing my shit. That happens you know, I did get hit in the head in the game last week…" He paused as the lamb came around the corner and Quinn sighed, steeling her shoulders.
"Anyway," Finn continued, gently picking up and cradling the lamb in one hand, "this is Rachel's and she'd kill me if anything happened to it. I was hoping it would lure you in though. I have a question for you."
Quinn cocked an eyebrow and, as if Finn could see that, he hastily added. "Not that you need to answer, that's totally cool. I just… I guess it's more of a favor." He paused, moving his eyes left and right slowly as he tried to place Quinn's position. "I hope I'm not like, looking at your chest or anything. Sorry if I am. I've never talked to a dead dude before."
Quinn's eyes closed as she let out an exhale. She shouldn't be this sensitive about it, she was just being weak. Still, that hurt. Her eyelids slid open as Finn continued. "The thing is… is that I want Rachel back. She's so obsessed with this creepy ghost thing we have going on here… it's all she focuses on. She just wants to help you and I'm like," he pauses, moving his hands in the air in some gesture that Quinn can't discern, "I'm like, babe, you can't help her. If she wanted help she'd come to you. Leave it alone. But she won't listen. I think she's obsessed. So, I was thinking… that you could just go away."
Quinn stared up at Finn with intense eyes as she stood frozen. He finally hit the right spot and she met his eyes, sending him a glare that he felt deep in his bones. "I'm not trying to offend you… I just want my girlfriend back. You were gone or quiet before; can't you just go back to that?"
Quinn's eyes dropped to the ground as she bit her lip. Being asked to leave after she'd just made contact with someone? Maybe this was why she wasn't supposed to talk to anyone. She turned briskly on her heels and ignored the last of Finn's speech as she weaved her way through the students that were just arriving. She didn't even enjoy the fact that Finn was getting weird looks for talking to himself until she saw her.
Quinn paused as Rachel Berry came around the corner. Her brown eyes widened impossibly more as she took in Finn rambling on to himself halfway down the hall. Quinn seemed frozen as she watched Rachel's Mary Janes begin to move towards her. If she continued on this path, Rachel would walk right through Quinn; yet, Quinn couldn't find it in her to move. She cocked her head to the side as she watched Rachel walk towards her with worried eyes. This innocent girl in a black terrier sweater, obsessed with Quinn? Why?
Rachel came to a screeching halt a breath away from Quinn as if she'd just slammed into a brick wall. Their heights allowed Quinn to stare straight down into Rachel's eyes. She imagined, just for that second, that Rachel was staring into hers as well.
The brunette stared wide-eyed as she let out an exhale of air that was visible in front of her. She watched her breath ghost in front of her before moving her eyes back up to Quinn's.
Quinn stood and stared as Rachel's hand lifted up into the air, as if she wanted to rest it on Quinn's cheek. Just as her hand was about to pass through Quinn's cheek region, Rachel pulled it back as if she'd just been burned. The ghost didn't even let herself blink; all of her thoughts were acutely tuned in to the way Rachel's chest rose and fell from the action of breathing, and the way her pink lips slowly curved up into a hesitant smile.
"I didn't want to step through you," Rachel whispered. She pulled her binders in closer to her chest, ducked her head, and made to step to the side of Quinn. Quinn closed her eyes tightly, however, when she felt a blast of something pass through her head and chest.
She opened her eyes as quickly as she shut them as she wondered what the hell went through her. Her mouth dropped open slightly as her eyebrows knit together in sadness as she took in Rachel, still standing in front of her, covered in lime slushy. The brunette's eyes were still closed as a group of Cheerios passed by with empty slushy cups in hand, not even gracing Rachel with a look.
Rachel opened her eyes and smiled again as she said, "They choose the lime because it's impossible to get out of my sweaters." She nodded as if to prove a point before ducking to the right and walking by Quinn and into Finn's arms.
Quinn stared blankly at the slushy stained spot on the white tiles where Rachel once stood. Her gaze lifted to the backs of the Cheerio's who had slushied Rachel, and in the blink of an eye, Quinn was halfway across the school in front of them.
"What is your problem?" Quinn yelled at the tallest blond Cheerio. "Was there any point in that?"
The blond Cheerio turned and opened her locker. Quinn stood just as tall as she did, and if this girl hadn't been such a bitch, she might have even reminded Quinn of herself. "Excuse me? You need to listen to me, sweetie. When I was on the Cheerios, we didn't get to pull crap like that. We didn't attack-"
The blond Cheerio turned and walked through Quinn, shocking her into silence. Quinn watched the three cheerleaders walk off, carefree, as if they hadn't just ruined Rachel's day. It wasn't until they rounded the corner and left Quinn's view did Quinn realize: The cheerleader hadn't heard Quinn. No one had. She did a full circle to see all of the students currently in the hall. None of them had heard Quinn yell.
None of them could hear her, except Rachel.
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Rachel lifted her head off her hand and gazed forward as the hair on the back of her neck lifted. She shifted her legs from under her desk and turned to face her bedroom. "Can I help you?"
The paper she had just been working on lifted slightly as Rachel felt a chill again. Finn looked up from his history book from his spot on her bed. "Hm? I didn't say anything."
Rachel waved him off. "Not you, Finn. She's here."
Finn's textbook dropped into his lap as he swung his legs over the sides of Rachel's bed. "What?" he practically yelled.
Rachel's brow furrowed as she heard her paper move on her desk again. "What is wrong with you, Finn?"
The boy bit his lip as he shook his head. "I just didn't think she still came around."
Rachel cocked her head as her eyes clouded over with suspicion. "It's been a week actually since I last had contact with her. Also since the slushy incident. Why do you sound like you know something about this, Finn?"
Finn rolled his eyes as he ran his hands through his messy hair, dropping his head. "Look, Rach, you've just become really obsessed over this whole stupid ghost thing. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss your like, Broadway rants. I haven't heard anything about a gold star in a month."
Rachel worried her bottom lip between her teeth. Her ears perked up slightly when she heard a soft voice run through her mind. "He's right."
Rachel sighed, shaking her head. "I know he is."
Finn raised his eyes back up to Rachel's. "What?"
Rachel stared, confused, back at Finn until Quinn's voice ran through her mind again. "He can't hear me. No one can, actually, except for you. That aside, he's right. You're obsessed. You need to move on with your life, okay? And…"
Rachel blinked a few times as she stared forward into Finn's confused eyes, trying to keep her composure as she waited for the ghost to continue. Her chestnut eyes shone with terror as the words she was dreading finally hit her. "And just leave me alone."
Rachel's chest rose and fell with the gulp of air that wasn't making it past her throat. Finn was at her side in a flash on his knees on the floor with her small hand clutched in his, asking her why she was crying and what he had said.
She looked past him, however, letting his questions fall on deaf ears. When her head fell and her eyes closed tightly, Rachel focused completely on letting one word run through her mind in hopes that maybe her spirit would hear her. She didn't know how spirit world communication worked, but if she forced the word "no" to run through her mind enough, maybe her ghost would get the hint.
Rachel felt like it wasn't enough, though. With her head still bowed and her eyes still closed and Finn still whispering loving nothings into her ear, Rachel sucked in a deep breath. When the word "no" fell from her lips in a fervent whisper, she opened her eyes and watched her breath from the word in the chilled air swirl in front of her.
She closed her eyes again, sinking into Finn. Her ghost had heard her.
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It had taken Rachel another half hour to convince Finn that she was okay enough for him to let go of her. After that, Finn convinced Rachel that he had nothing to do with the fact that her ghost hadn't visited or been around in a week. Rachel believed him enough to let him go home; but as her flats skimmed the ground underneath her swing, she couldn't shake the look in Finn's eyes when he had heard that they weren't alone in her room.
Rachel shook her head as she pulled her yellow cardigan closer to her body. Despite it being a school night and despite promising Finn that she would be fine after he left, Rachel had left through her bedroom window twenty minutes after he left. No thoughts of fear crossed her mind as she wandered alone through Lima after dark, winding down side streets until she made it to the park she used to play at as a child.
Now, as she swung back and forth on the creaky swing, Rachel thought. She ignored the chilling wind signaling that winter was almost to Lima. She ignored the occasional headlights of cars passing by her. She ignored the heavy guilt of knowing her fathers were lying in bed, asleep, thinking she was completely safe at home.
Rachel's small hands wrapped themselves tightly around the chains of the swing as she focused on the dirt underneath her. She took in a deep breath and allowed her mind to catch up with herself.
There were times when Rachel, admittedly, became obsessed with a goal or a dream. How else could someone make their dreams come true, though? There was no way Rachel could get out of Lima, Ohio and to New York, New York without becoming obsessed with controlling every path that led to her future.
Sure, that led to bullying and taunting from the moronic teenage population of Lima. Rachel shook her head as a small smile graced her face. No, she never cared about that, and that's why she was just that much closer to Julliard.
Her smile dropped from her face, however. Maybe Finn had a point, after all. Rachel's brows furrowed together as she tried to recall the last time she had put up a Myspace video, or the last time she had advertently fought Mercedes or Brittany for a solo in glee club.
Rachel's head snapped up. Glee club! "Oh my goodness," Rachel whispered to herself as she realized how out of it she really had been. Her mouth dropped open when she realized she hadn't even contributed one song to their sectional's set list; she had opted to sit in the back and read her new book on ghost channeling.
Her black flats hit the ground with a dull thud as she stopped her swing from moving. She shook her head in shock as she realized she had almost no recollection of what had been happening in her life those past few weeks. She could, however, think of every time she had felt her ghost and every second of audio that contained a sound that could have potentially been supernatural.
The spirit's words from earlier that night rang through her mind as they tangled with Finn's. Rachel slowly realized, with a hint of humiliation, that she had been so wrapped up in her own world that she had forgotten the real world was still alive. That the people who loved her were still alive.
Yet, the one person she was so focused on, so obsessed with helping and learning about, that person wanted Rachel to leave her alone.
Rachel watched the wind pick up a large pile of leaves and carry them off. She bit the inside of her cheek as she watched the leaves twirl in and out of each other, almost completely interwoven as one. Why did she feel so connected to this spirit? Rachel brought her hand to rest on her stomach as she felt her insides clench. Just the mere thought of forgetting her ghost, moving on, without finding out who she even was, physically hurt Rachel.
Rachel had always been accused of being obsessed with things that would never happen. She was taunted for believing in change and a brighter future while living in a place blinded by grey walls. She shook her head. No, this whole thing wasn't obsession. Was it?
Rachel pulled out her cell phone. She checked the time and gasped. She quickly began walking towards home; she knew that if she didn't start walking soon she'd never make it to bed on time, and then - She stopped. She hadn't done her elliptical routine in at least a week.
She stood in the middle of the park for a minute as this realization hit her. After another beat of silence she mumbled, "What happened to me…?"
Her eyes slid closed as she balled her fists at her side as her inner turmoil continued to escalade. No, there was no way she could just leave her spirit alone. She was connected to her, and far too invested in her at that point to just give up and walk away. She didn't even know who she was, yet.
Rachel opened her eyes again as she gazed at the street in front of her. Or did she? Her eyes slammed shut as the memory of a fire burned a path through her mind, lighting her thoughts on fire. She remembered cars, tears, and firefighters yelling at the bystanders on the sidewalk just twenty feet in front of Rachel. She remembered her daddy was wearing his favorite maroon sweater and Rachel was wearing her new pair of ballet shoes. She remembered that she had pressed her face against the back window of her parent's car as she saw a blond-haired woman fall to her knees and shriek-
Rachel's eyes snapped open, and her brown eyes were clouded with tears. "No," Rachel whispered, shaking her head back and forth. It wasn't the same girl. It couldn't be. It was just a coincidence that Rachel remembered that crash so vividly. What six-year-old child wouldn't remember their first time seeing a fatal car crash?
Rachel sucked in a breath as she spared one final look at the street before turning and heading back towards her home.
The entire walk back, Rachel busied herself with listing everything that she needed to do to get back on track with her life. She wasn't about to give up on her ghost, but she'd be damned if she was going to let her life fall to pieces because of that. Rachel started to regret taking her midnight excursion when she realized that she didn't know the way back to her home during the night as well as she did in the daytime.
However, she buried her worry in the back of her mind by planning how she was going to re-write the sectional's set list to her standards without the glee club necessarily knowing or being able to stop her. Before she knew it, she passed a familiar pink cherry tree at the end of a residential street. That tree was always her signal to know that she was almost home.
When Rachel finally fell asleep that night, the incident with her ghost lingered in the back of her mind, but she was finally able to plan her day without worrying about which areas of the school would be promising for a ghostly encounter.
Chapter: Two
Author: lifeawakening
Words: 7,929
Rating: R (For future scary images, language, and sexual references)
Summary: Rachel Berry always knew that she was a little bit psychic. In fact, Rachel Berry thought she knew just about everything. That is, until a spirit that refused to die entered her life like a train-wreck. It's only after Rachel's fallen in love that she realizes life doesn't exactly go as planned; and neither does death, for that matter.
One month into school, and the storms in Lima had come to a halt. Rachel tugged up the front of her blue, polka-dot dress as she leaned against Finn's car after school. The football player came trudging up to her five minutes later, dragging his duffle bag in one hand and his helmet in the other.
"Hey, Rach. Sorry, it took a little extra time 'cause Beiste didn't buy my rash story," he remarked as he unlocked his car and tossed his stuff inside.
Rachel smiled softly as she checked her cell phone. "It's okay, Finn. We still have a few hours until dark, anyway. Do you still have my special bag in your car?"
Finn nodded as he was bent over in his backseat. He pulled a pink floral duffle bag from the floorboard of his car and scanned the parking lot before handing it over to Rachel. "What do you have in there, anyway?"
"You will see, Finn. I don't want to open it here in plain sight. I know enough about our peers to know that they will not understand the genius of our plan; therefore, them finding out could jeopardize the plan itself!" Rachel clutched the duffle bag to her chest as she smiled brightly up at Finn. The taller boy nodded slowly as he grabbed his other duffle bag, closed, and locked his car doors.
"Okay, so…" he began, burying his hands in his pockets, "Tell me the plan again?"
Rachel rolled her eyes as the pair began crossing the empty parking lot. "It is of utmost important that you pay attention this time, Finn. Plan G - G for ghost, of course - begins at precisely 7:47 p.m. tonight when the sun goes down. We will have set up all of the "equipment"," Rachel said, air quoting while patting her duffle bag, "in preparation. Then, we begin our investigation."
Finn paused at the top of the McKinley steps, laying his hand on Rachel's arm to stop her. "Are we sure about this? I looked it up online and like… it's illegal to camp out in a high school after it's closed. We could get in a lot of trouble."
Rachel bit her lip as she stared up at Finn. "I used Google as well, so I am aware of the consequences of our actions. If you're afraid of being caught then you don't have to come. You're the one who insisted on coming with me so I wouldn't be alone in the school at night."
Finn shifted his weight and took in a breath, fixing Rachel with a steady look. "I think this is absolutely crazy, but you're my girlfriend, so I'm coming with you. We just better not get caught or my mom's gonna kill me."
Rachel cocked her head to the side as she smiled. "We aren't going to get caught! My plan is foolproof." Rachel paused, looking up at her boyfriend and mulling over her words. "Yeah, no it's definitely foolproof. Now, come on. We have to get to the choir room."
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Rachel crept along the row of lockers, pressing herself as tightly to the cool metal as she could. This was her third sweep of the school, and her fourth time adjusting the black beanie that kept falling onto her forehead. In preparation for her plan, she had made sure to tell Finn to bring a set of black clothes to change into, just as she had. Rachel tugged on her black sweater as she felt her phone vibrate in her skirt pocket.
She hastily answered. "Finn? Are all of the cameras up?" Rachel pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it questionably before talking into it again. "Finn? Is that you?"
She only heard heavy breathing on the other end before Finn finally answered. "Yeah, sorry, Rach. I called to tell you I got the cameras up, but then I saw someone's flashlight so I panicked and ran."
Rachel glanced down at the flashlight in her hand before closing her eyes in exasperation. "Finn, what hallway were you in when you saw the flashlight?"
Rachel trained her flashlight's light on the 300 Hall sign as she listened to Finn confirm her thoughts. "300 halls, why?"
"Nothing, Finn. You know, paranoia could ruin the entire investigation. We're here to try to find out if my spirit resides in McKinley High 24/7, remember? We don't want to butcher this by allowing our fear to cloud our judgment."
Finn grumbled something into the line and Rachel smiled as she shook her head. "There's no one here but us, don't worry. I went through the entire school three times to confirm that. How many cameras did you set up?"
"Four, like you said. See? You needed me 'cause you totally couldn't have reached the spots you wanted on your own."
Rachel scoffed at her cell phone as she flipped it closed. She heard a rustling behind her and tossed her flashlight that direction, seeing nothing. She took a few calming breaths before walking towards the noise. The brunette braced her back against a locker as she realized the sun had completely set. It was almost time to start.
"Spirit… if you're out here," Rachel started, squinting into the darkness, looking for anything, "I want you to know what I'm doing."
Rachel paused, listening for any indication that she had been heard. She continued on nonetheless. "I know that we ended on somewhat of a bad note in my room last we talked… but I'm still here. I'm aware that you told me to leave you alone. I'm not going to do that though. I have a list of reasons why but I won't bore you with them right now."
Rachel felt her phone going off again as she saw the glow from her pocket. She ignored it for the moment though, inwardly cursing Finn's impatience. "I will tell you though, that there are two main reasons why. One being that for some reason, unbeknownst to me, you think that I'm on religious mission to exorcise you. That is incorrect. The second reason why I won't leave you alone, spirit, is that you fascinate me. You see… ever since I was six, I-"
Rachel screamed as she felt a hand grab her from the side. That same hand covered her mouth as it pulled her into a solid body. "Damn it, shush! Someone's going to hear you!"
Rachel yanked herself free from Finn's grasp and brought her hand to her heart, catching her breath. "Finn," she hissed, "you almost gave me a heart attack! What were you thinking?"
Finn threw his hands up and jeered. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe I was thinking that something happened to you since you weren't answering your phone!"
Rachel sighed as she hung her head. "I'm sorry… I was -"
"Talking to her?" Finn added quietly while supplying a small smile. "It's okay, you know. I'm not a big believer in ghosts but… if one was talking to me like she is to you, I'd want to talk back, too. Is she here?"
Rachel reached over and gripped Finn's hand with two hands. "I don't think so, no, which is too bad. I wanted her to understand what we were doing here. But, oh well. Let's go back to base-"
"You mean the choir room?"
"-and get our handhelds."
"You mean the tape recorder things?"
Finn held both flashlights in one hand and Rachel in the other as they made their way through the dark halls. "Finn, you didn't watch Ghost Hunters like I told you to, did you?"
Finn sputtered, "Come on! It was on at the same time that Skins started playing the good movies."
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"Rachel and Finn in the McKinley hallways. There are outside sounds of the heater kicking on and occasional pipes rattling, but that seems to be all. It's 9:04 p.m.," Rachel spoke easily into the handheld audio device.
Finn stopped asking questions long prior, opting to just follow Rachel and let her do her ghostly thing.
"What I'm hoping to achieve with this, Finn, is to catch the ghost's voice on this recorder," Rachel explained.
Finn bit his lip. "I get that, but… why do you need to do that if the ghost is like, willingly speaking directly to you?"
Rachel paused mid-step, shoulders sagging as she looked at the device in her hand. "That's an incredibly valid point."
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Finn held his face up to the thermal camera in Rachel's hand, smiling broadly. "This is so awesome! How did you get one of these?"
Rachel beamed and chuckled as she watched Finn's multi-colored face in the viewfinder of the camcorder. "My fathers wholly supported my ghost hunting attempts when I was a child and got me one of these. It detects heat and the absence of heat, making it the perfect ghost finding object."
Finn took the camera from Rachel and pointed it at her, zooming in on her face. "You're all red! Means you're hot," he added, winking at her over the camera. Rachel couldn't help but laugh as she used her hands to steer the camera down the hallway.
"Let's keep this professional now. I need you to tell me if you see anything out of the ordinary on the viewfinder, okay? A patch of blue when the rest of the screen is red and a patch of red if the screen is blue."
Finn nodded as they began walking down the hallway. He would pan the camera over the hallway as Rachel let loose a string of questions in an attempt to get her spirit to react to them and show herself on camera.
"What is your name, spirit? Are you still mad at me? Is this your home? Did you die here?"
Once the couple had made their way through all of the hallways and come up short, Rachel called for a break.
"Well, it doesn't seem like there's anything going on right now. We can return to base and get you a snack," Rachel stated, fixing the direction that the thermal camera was set in as it sat upon a tripod. "Are you doing okay so far?"
Finn nodded sleepily as he glanced at his cell phone. "Yeah, I'm all right, I ate a few extra protein bars today to keep my strength up. It's only 2:34 anyway, I'm usually still up playing Halo right now, so it's all good."
Rachel laughed. "Good to know." She pressed her face against the camera lens one last time as she blew a kiss to it before turning and walking with Finn back to their base.
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Quinn walked through the doors of McKinley High around three a.m. It wasn't that she was normally there this late, but she'd been having an especially hard time "sleeping" that night, so she came here.
She sighed as she made her way down the main hallway in flannel pajamas and a red McKinley sweatshirt. "Don't they run the heater in here anymore?" Quinn asked herself as she noticed a faint ring of mist around her body.
She was busy looking down at herself as she walked through an object that was definitely not normally in the middle of the hallway. Quinn paused as she sucked in unnecessary air and mumbled, "What the hell?"
She backtracked and raised her eyebrows as she found herself face to face with a video camera. She moved to the back of it and furrowed her brows as she glanced into the viewfinder. "What the hell kind of camera is this?" she questioned, looking at all of the colors on the screen. Hesitantly, Quinn leaned over and waved a hand in front of the camera. The screen flashed blue for a second and Quinn gasped.
"What is this thing?" She held her hand in front of the camera as she stared at a faint, blue outline of her hand in the viewfinder. Quinn glared daggers at the camera as her jaw dropped. "A camera that detects temperature changes, since when do they make these things? Damn."
She stopped her inspection of the camera when she heard voices coming down the hall, towards her. She stepped back into the shadows before rubbing her temples because, seriously? She's a ghost; she doesn't need to hide in the shadows.
"Finn!" Quinn slammed a fist into the lockers behind her. Of course it was Rachel.
"What in the hell is she up to now?" Quinn whispered to herself as her eyes traced the halls, looking for the source of the voice she had heard.
"I cannot believe that you didn't set the camera to record!" Quinn snickered as Rachel and her boyfriend came around the corner, dressed completely in black.
"I thought you were doing that when you were messing with it!"
Quinn heard Rachel groan as the brunette stopped in front of the camera, turning it around on the tripod so she could inspect the back. A few seconds passed in silence as both Finn and Quinn watched Rachel fidget with the camera before she wrung her hands in the air. "It wasn't recording. We didn't catch anything from the last hour."
Finn gingerly placed a hand on Rachel's shoulder while talking soothingly to her. "It's okay, really, it is! You said so yourself that if she was here, she would've talked to you by now."
"Finn, we've been investigating for almost seven hours…" Rachel stated, completely disheartened as she rested her hands on the camera and stared into the lens, "Do… do you think I'm crazy, Finn?"
Quinn raised her head in the shadows and furrowed her brows at the sound of Rachel's voice. She watched Finn squeeze the girls shoulder before biting his lip and looking completely remorseful. "I… don't know, Rach. Maybe you just got a little… carried away. It wouldn't exactly…" Finn trailed off as the body under his hand began shaking with tears. "Oh, no, Rachel, don't cry…"
Quinn stepped closer to the couple and squinted in the dark. The light from Finn's flashlight made Rachel's face sparkle from the tears that were coursing down her cheeks. Quinn looked stricken as her heart went out to this girl that, really, she was supposed to call the enemy. The blond opened her mouth to say something, when Finn cut her off.
"Rachel… listen to me. No sane person could have imagined everything that you said happened to you. Maybe this is just proving your theory, you know? That she doesn't live here, or whatever ghosts do…"
Rachel turned to Finn and patted his chest reassuringly. "It's all right, really." She wiped her face and donned a phony smile. "We still have three hours of our investigation left! I'm sure we'll find something. I'm fine now, really. I'm probably just hungry."
Finn's face lit up as he nodded excitedly. "Yeah! That's probably it. Let's go get you a snack then go search for more of those floating voices."
Quinn watched Rachel follow Finn down the hall, shaking her head in awe towards the football player. "Can't believe he bought that…" Quinn muttered to herself as her gaze moved from the retreating figures to the Rachel's camera. Quinn stepped behind it again and nodded slowly as she saw the blinking "recording!" flashing on the screen. She bit her lip as her gaze moved from the spot Rachel and Finn walked towards, to the camera, and back.
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Rachel flew backwards as Finn crashed into her, hurling them into the lockers. "This is not how we act on an investigation, Finn!"
Finn bolted around Rachel and used her as a shield as he choked out, "What in the hell is that?"
The brunette's glare faded into a smile as she turned to the row of lockers that were opening and closing, seemingly on their own. "That, Finn, is my spirit." She held the camcorder in the direction of the lockers as she hissed over her shoulder, "Finn, check the time!"
The boy tore his wide eyes off the lockers long enough to tell Rachel that it was 4:01 A.M. Rachel was grinning ear to ear as she called out over the noise, "Spirit! Thank you for alerting me of your presence. While I don't know if you're still angry at me or not, I do just have one question for you."
The locker's all simultaneously slammed shut as the hair on Rachel's arms stood up. She shivered and breathed out, seeing her breath swirling in front of her. Finn shifted forward and wrapped an arm around Rachel. "It got cold as hell," he whispered into her ear. She nodded as she took a step back into his embrace.
"I'll make it simple. Do you permanently reside in this school, spirit? Is this your home?"
Rachel silently took it as a good sign when the air still sparked after she'd asked the question. Her ghost was still in the room. "If you don't want to speak to me, then that's all right…Just… slam one locker for yes, and two for no."
Rachel felt Finn's labored breathing behind her as they waited in silence. After the silence stretched on for a couple minutes, Finn let out a breath. "I think she's gone."
Rachel faced forward with the same determined look she had when she asked the question. "She's not gone."
"But, Rachel it's been-"
"She's not gone!" Rachel repeated forcefully, watching her breath swirl in front of her mouth. "Can't you still feel her?"
Finn shrugged behind her. "I don't know… what I'm supposed to be feeling besides cold?"
Rachel's gaze dropped to her arms where the hair was still standing up. Her fingers twitched at her sides as she felt the electricity from the air shoot through her entire body. She furrowed her brow as she wondered how Finn could not possibly feel the entire room shift because of the spirit's presence.
A few minutes later and Finn began shifting his feet back and forth from impatience. Rachel sighed. "Okay… I guess she's not going to-"
She flinched as two lockers simultaneously opened and then slammed shut. Rachel ignored Finn's cursing behind her as she briskly closed the viewfinder on her camcorder, turning it off.
"So, the school isn't your home… noted. Thank you, spirit. I feel that it's only fair that you get to ask me a question in exchange for you answering one of mine."
Finn opened his mouth and sputtered, staring wide-eyed at the spot where the locker's slammed. "Rach, I don't think that's such a good idea."
The brunette brushed him off. "It's fine, really. I want her to know that she can trust me, and trust can only be given when earned. Therefore, if you have a question, I'll answer it. It's only fair."
Rachel handed the camcorder to Finn before smoothing out her black skirt. "Whenever you're ready, spirit."
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Quinn sat with her back pressed against a row of lockers, her knees drawn up to her chest and her chin practically resting on her left shoulder. The only light in the hallway came from the flashlight that Finn had set on his sprawled out legs and the red light from the camcorder on the floor next to the boy. He had fallen asleep after an hour of silence, sitting against the lockers with his legs stretched out in front of him. Rachel mimicked Quinn's position on the floor with her back against the same row of lockers as the ghost.
It wasn't as if Quinn hadn't tried to talk to Rachel when she'd told her to ask questions. It wasn't as if Quinn hadn't already talked to Rachel; she had, even yelled at her once. But the more Quinn had followed Rachel around in her shambled excuse for a paranormal investigation that night, the more Rachel talked to Quinn. The brunette had wandered the hallways of McKinley High with a ten-dollar audio recorder in both hands and a grin on her face as she had simply talked to Quinn.
Quinn had walked beside Rachel as the brunette had asked Quinn her favorite color, what her favorite food had been, if she pulled pranks on people because she was bored, if she ever sang, and how old she was. Quinn hadn't answered any of Rachel's questions because she was actually afraid that Rachel would actually hear her voice again.
As Quinn wrapped her arms around her knees, she continued to watch Rachel's every movement. She absently rubbed her cheek with her shoulder as Rachel absently stared at the lockers across from them.
The sky outside was beginning to lighten up as Saturday morning began creeping around the corner. Quinn closed her eyes tightly as she rested her forehead against her arms. She couldn't bring herself to talk to Rachel again, not in this setting, not in a casual setting. Quinn had been driving herself insane for an entire month with trying to figure out why the hell Rachel wanted to get to know her. Aside from the instinctual curiosity that anyone would have when placed in Rachel's position, Quinn couldn't help but feel like there was something deeper there. That something deeper was what prevented Quinn from talking to Rachel again.
As if she could actually get to know someone, Quinn thought as she silently scoffed; as if anyone would treat Quinn as if she was human. As if she had a soul…
"I don't understand." Quinn's head snapped up as her gaze landed on Rachel, who was in the same position that she'd been sitting in for an hour, just waiting for Quinn to do or say anything. Quinn's brow furrowed as she focused on Rachel's disgruntled face.
"I don't understand why you won't talk to me anymore. It's not as if I can't feel your presence when you're around me. I know you've been with me for hours. Is it that you don't trust me, still?"
Quinn blew out a breath and shook her head. She closed her eyes tightly as she realized Rachel couldn't see the gesture. Regardless, Rachel continued speaking. "I don't know what else I can do to prove to you that I'm not here to hurt you."
Quinn opened her mouth to speak, to ask Rachel why she was there, then. But like every other time she'd tried that night, her mouth snapped shut as her chest tightened. Quinn's terror was too great. She was too afraid of Rachel, of what Rachel meant, and of what Rachel might do. Quinn didn't get human contact, she wasn't allowed that, so why now? There had to be a catch, and Quinn wasn't about to risk her position on earth to figure out what that catch was.
"I just want to know you… that's all. This is the most exciting experience of my life, spirit, and now I feel tied to you. I can't explain why, yet, but if you never speak to me again, I'll never be able to figure it out."
Quinn rested her head against the lockers. This Rachel girl, sitting five feet away from her, was one of the most terrifying things that Quinn had ever been faced with. Quinn's lips parted and air rushed out before she really knew what she was saying. "I can't trust anything, okay?"
Her hazel eyes widened as she quickly glanced over to Rachel, half hoping the brunette hadn't heard her; and if she had, she was making no acknowledgment either way. She continued to stare blankly ahead of her for a minute before nodding. "Fair enough," she said sincerely.
Quinn continued to watch her with a cutting gaze. "Does this mean you'll give up, move on, leave me be?"
Rachel waited a beat before she shook her head in the negative, keeping her gaze forward. "No."
Quinn's jaw dropped as Rachel took her bottom lip between her white teeth. "I don't think you understand, spirit," the brunette said seriously, finally turning towards the direction where Quinn was seated, "I can't give up."
Quinn watched Rachel calmly stand up and smooth out her skirt. She nudged Finn's leg with her small foot and told him it was time to wrap, and that they needed to clean up just in case someone came in to the school.
Quinn didn't have a chance to speak to Rachel again, and for that, she was almost grateful. She paced the halls of McKinley long after Rachel and Finn had left. Hours later, she ended up on the hard plastic chairs of the choir room, her hands on her knees and her toes tucked inwards as she sat in thought. It wasn't that Quinn didn't want a friend; it's that she didn't think she could have a friend. She was a ghost, for God's sake, and one that had been completely shunned from human contact for ten long, tortuous years.
Quinn shook her head as she balled her fists and cussed at herself. How could she even consider letting Rachel into her life? Quinn knew next to nothing about this girl, just that she was a loser with a cute boyfriend and this insane notion that she had a sixth sense. She was a threat to Quinn's plan, and God so help her, Quinn was not about to throw away a plan, that she'd spent eight years on, on a crazy girl who just needed a decent reality check.
She stood up and shook her head again. "I can't go soft just because someone says they want to know me. That's all well and fine for her but, it's not for me. She needs a heavy dose of reality, and I need to get her the hell away from me so she doesn't screw up my plan." Quinn threw her eyes over the choir room as an evil smile spread across her face. Fine, Quinn thought, if Rachel wouldn't give up voluntarily, Quinn would just force her to. She'd make Rachel wish she'd never stuck her big nose into Quinn's business, and once Quinn was rid of her, she could continue with her plan.
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Quinn didn't expect, when she walked into the doors of McKinley that Monday morning, to be greeted with a tiny lamb plushy on a fishing line sitting on the floor in front of her. She paused mid-stride, jamming her hands into her Cheerio's varsity jacket's pockets and tilting her head back. She scanned the hallway, making a full circle, before staring down at the stuffed animal again. What in the hell was this?
The halls were still mostly deserted, so Quinn decided whoever planted the doll was waiting for someone specific, and not just a random kid. Quinn cocked an eyebrow and checked the clock on the wall before deciding she'd follow the line and see what idiot was pulling this prank.
Quinn's white tennis shoes made no noise to the world around her as she jogged down the hall, yet she could hear the noise they made in her mind as she imagined it out of habit. She rounded the lockers in the 100 hall and paused. Her shoulders and face slumped as she saw none other than Finn Hudson sitting there, fishing pole in his hand. She could tell by his face that he felt like an idiot for being in the position that he was in. Finn rolled his shoulders under his varsity athlete's jacket and kept glancing around the hall as if looking for someone.
Quinn sighed as she wondered when Rachel would stop this crap. She decided to start her plan of getting Rachel to leave her the hell alone a little earlier than she planned. The blonde smirked as she bent down behind Finn. Quinn cocked her head as she ghosted her hand over his arm, smiling as the hair rose and the boy froze.
The ghost blew softly into the boy's ear, wondering if it would even have any affect on him. When Finn shot sideways from his crouching position, shoulder-first into the lockers, Quinn smiled.
As Finn began furiously reeling in the fishing line, he began to stutter, "I-I'm hoping that you're here, ghost, and that I'm not just losing my shit. That happens you know, I did get hit in the head in the game last week…" He paused as the lamb came around the corner and Quinn sighed, steeling her shoulders.
"Anyway," Finn continued, gently picking up and cradling the lamb in one hand, "this is Rachel's and she'd kill me if anything happened to it. I was hoping it would lure you in though. I have a question for you."
Quinn cocked an eyebrow and, as if Finn could see that, he hastily added. "Not that you need to answer, that's totally cool. I just… I guess it's more of a favor." He paused, moving his eyes left and right slowly as he tried to place Quinn's position. "I hope I'm not like, looking at your chest or anything. Sorry if I am. I've never talked to a dead dude before."
Quinn's eyes closed as she let out an exhale. She shouldn't be this sensitive about it, she was just being weak. Still, that hurt. Her eyelids slid open as Finn continued. "The thing is… is that I want Rachel back. She's so obsessed with this creepy ghost thing we have going on here… it's all she focuses on. She just wants to help you and I'm like," he pauses, moving his hands in the air in some gesture that Quinn can't discern, "I'm like, babe, you can't help her. If she wanted help she'd come to you. Leave it alone. But she won't listen. I think she's obsessed. So, I was thinking… that you could just go away."
Quinn stared up at Finn with intense eyes as she stood frozen. He finally hit the right spot and she met his eyes, sending him a glare that he felt deep in his bones. "I'm not trying to offend you… I just want my girlfriend back. You were gone or quiet before; can't you just go back to that?"
Quinn's eyes dropped to the ground as she bit her lip. Being asked to leave after she'd just made contact with someone? Maybe this was why she wasn't supposed to talk to anyone. She turned briskly on her heels and ignored the last of Finn's speech as she weaved her way through the students that were just arriving. She didn't even enjoy the fact that Finn was getting weird looks for talking to himself until she saw her.
Quinn paused as Rachel Berry came around the corner. Her brown eyes widened impossibly more as she took in Finn rambling on to himself halfway down the hall. Quinn seemed frozen as she watched Rachel's Mary Janes begin to move towards her. If she continued on this path, Rachel would walk right through Quinn; yet, Quinn couldn't find it in her to move. She cocked her head to the side as she watched Rachel walk towards her with worried eyes. This innocent girl in a black terrier sweater, obsessed with Quinn? Why?
Rachel came to a screeching halt a breath away from Quinn as if she'd just slammed into a brick wall. Their heights allowed Quinn to stare straight down into Rachel's eyes. She imagined, just for that second, that Rachel was staring into hers as well.
The brunette stared wide-eyed as she let out an exhale of air that was visible in front of her. She watched her breath ghost in front of her before moving her eyes back up to Quinn's.
Quinn stood and stared as Rachel's hand lifted up into the air, as if she wanted to rest it on Quinn's cheek. Just as her hand was about to pass through Quinn's cheek region, Rachel pulled it back as if she'd just been burned. The ghost didn't even let herself blink; all of her thoughts were acutely tuned in to the way Rachel's chest rose and fell from the action of breathing, and the way her pink lips slowly curved up into a hesitant smile.
"I didn't want to step through you," Rachel whispered. She pulled her binders in closer to her chest, ducked her head, and made to step to the side of Quinn. Quinn closed her eyes tightly, however, when she felt a blast of something pass through her head and chest.
She opened her eyes as quickly as she shut them as she wondered what the hell went through her. Her mouth dropped open slightly as her eyebrows knit together in sadness as she took in Rachel, still standing in front of her, covered in lime slushy. The brunette's eyes were still closed as a group of Cheerios passed by with empty slushy cups in hand, not even gracing Rachel with a look.
Rachel opened her eyes and smiled again as she said, "They choose the lime because it's impossible to get out of my sweaters." She nodded as if to prove a point before ducking to the right and walking by Quinn and into Finn's arms.
Quinn stared blankly at the slushy stained spot on the white tiles where Rachel once stood. Her gaze lifted to the backs of the Cheerio's who had slushied Rachel, and in the blink of an eye, Quinn was halfway across the school in front of them.
"What is your problem?" Quinn yelled at the tallest blond Cheerio. "Was there any point in that?"
The blond Cheerio turned and opened her locker. Quinn stood just as tall as she did, and if this girl hadn't been such a bitch, she might have even reminded Quinn of herself. "Excuse me? You need to listen to me, sweetie. When I was on the Cheerios, we didn't get to pull crap like that. We didn't attack-"
The blond Cheerio turned and walked through Quinn, shocking her into silence. Quinn watched the three cheerleaders walk off, carefree, as if they hadn't just ruined Rachel's day. It wasn't until they rounded the corner and left Quinn's view did Quinn realize: The cheerleader hadn't heard Quinn. No one had. She did a full circle to see all of the students currently in the hall. None of them had heard Quinn yell.
None of them could hear her, except Rachel.
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Rachel lifted her head off her hand and gazed forward as the hair on the back of her neck lifted. She shifted her legs from under her desk and turned to face her bedroom. "Can I help you?"
The paper she had just been working on lifted slightly as Rachel felt a chill again. Finn looked up from his history book from his spot on her bed. "Hm? I didn't say anything."
Rachel waved him off. "Not you, Finn. She's here."
Finn's textbook dropped into his lap as he swung his legs over the sides of Rachel's bed. "What?" he practically yelled.
Rachel's brow furrowed as she heard her paper move on her desk again. "What is wrong with you, Finn?"
The boy bit his lip as he shook his head. "I just didn't think she still came around."
Rachel cocked her head as her eyes clouded over with suspicion. "It's been a week actually since I last had contact with her. Also since the slushy incident. Why do you sound like you know something about this, Finn?"
Finn rolled his eyes as he ran his hands through his messy hair, dropping his head. "Look, Rach, you've just become really obsessed over this whole stupid ghost thing. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss your like, Broadway rants. I haven't heard anything about a gold star in a month."
Rachel worried her bottom lip between her teeth. Her ears perked up slightly when she heard a soft voice run through her mind. "He's right."
Rachel sighed, shaking her head. "I know he is."
Finn raised his eyes back up to Rachel's. "What?"
Rachel stared, confused, back at Finn until Quinn's voice ran through her mind again. "He can't hear me. No one can, actually, except for you. That aside, he's right. You're obsessed. You need to move on with your life, okay? And…"
Rachel blinked a few times as she stared forward into Finn's confused eyes, trying to keep her composure as she waited for the ghost to continue. Her chestnut eyes shone with terror as the words she was dreading finally hit her. "And just leave me alone."
Rachel's chest rose and fell with the gulp of air that wasn't making it past her throat. Finn was at her side in a flash on his knees on the floor with her small hand clutched in his, asking her why she was crying and what he had said.
She looked past him, however, letting his questions fall on deaf ears. When her head fell and her eyes closed tightly, Rachel focused completely on letting one word run through her mind in hopes that maybe her spirit would hear her. She didn't know how spirit world communication worked, but if she forced the word "no" to run through her mind enough, maybe her ghost would get the hint.
Rachel felt like it wasn't enough, though. With her head still bowed and her eyes still closed and Finn still whispering loving nothings into her ear, Rachel sucked in a deep breath. When the word "no" fell from her lips in a fervent whisper, she opened her eyes and watched her breath from the word in the chilled air swirl in front of her.
She closed her eyes again, sinking into Finn. Her ghost had heard her.
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It had taken Rachel another half hour to convince Finn that she was okay enough for him to let go of her. After that, Finn convinced Rachel that he had nothing to do with the fact that her ghost hadn't visited or been around in a week. Rachel believed him enough to let him go home; but as her flats skimmed the ground underneath her swing, she couldn't shake the look in Finn's eyes when he had heard that they weren't alone in her room.
Rachel shook her head as she pulled her yellow cardigan closer to her body. Despite it being a school night and despite promising Finn that she would be fine after he left, Rachel had left through her bedroom window twenty minutes after he left. No thoughts of fear crossed her mind as she wandered alone through Lima after dark, winding down side streets until she made it to the park she used to play at as a child.
Now, as she swung back and forth on the creaky swing, Rachel thought. She ignored the chilling wind signaling that winter was almost to Lima. She ignored the occasional headlights of cars passing by her. She ignored the heavy guilt of knowing her fathers were lying in bed, asleep, thinking she was completely safe at home.
Rachel's small hands wrapped themselves tightly around the chains of the swing as she focused on the dirt underneath her. She took in a deep breath and allowed her mind to catch up with herself.
There were times when Rachel, admittedly, became obsessed with a goal or a dream. How else could someone make their dreams come true, though? There was no way Rachel could get out of Lima, Ohio and to New York, New York without becoming obsessed with controlling every path that led to her future.
Sure, that led to bullying and taunting from the moronic teenage population of Lima. Rachel shook her head as a small smile graced her face. No, she never cared about that, and that's why she was just that much closer to Julliard.
Her smile dropped from her face, however. Maybe Finn had a point, after all. Rachel's brows furrowed together as she tried to recall the last time she had put up a Myspace video, or the last time she had advertently fought Mercedes or Brittany for a solo in glee club.
Rachel's head snapped up. Glee club! "Oh my goodness," Rachel whispered to herself as she realized how out of it she really had been. Her mouth dropped open when she realized she hadn't even contributed one song to their sectional's set list; she had opted to sit in the back and read her new book on ghost channeling.
Her black flats hit the ground with a dull thud as she stopped her swing from moving. She shook her head in shock as she realized she had almost no recollection of what had been happening in her life those past few weeks. She could, however, think of every time she had felt her ghost and every second of audio that contained a sound that could have potentially been supernatural.
The spirit's words from earlier that night rang through her mind as they tangled with Finn's. Rachel slowly realized, with a hint of humiliation, that she had been so wrapped up in her own world that she had forgotten the real world was still alive. That the people who loved her were still alive.
Yet, the one person she was so focused on, so obsessed with helping and learning about, that person wanted Rachel to leave her alone.
Rachel watched the wind pick up a large pile of leaves and carry them off. She bit the inside of her cheek as she watched the leaves twirl in and out of each other, almost completely interwoven as one. Why did she feel so connected to this spirit? Rachel brought her hand to rest on her stomach as she felt her insides clench. Just the mere thought of forgetting her ghost, moving on, without finding out who she even was, physically hurt Rachel.
Rachel had always been accused of being obsessed with things that would never happen. She was taunted for believing in change and a brighter future while living in a place blinded by grey walls. She shook her head. No, this whole thing wasn't obsession. Was it?
Rachel pulled out her cell phone. She checked the time and gasped. She quickly began walking towards home; she knew that if she didn't start walking soon she'd never make it to bed on time, and then - She stopped. She hadn't done her elliptical routine in at least a week.
She stood in the middle of the park for a minute as this realization hit her. After another beat of silence she mumbled, "What happened to me…?"
Her eyes slid closed as she balled her fists at her side as her inner turmoil continued to escalade. No, there was no way she could just leave her spirit alone. She was connected to her, and far too invested in her at that point to just give up and walk away. She didn't even know who she was, yet.
Rachel opened her eyes again as she gazed at the street in front of her. Or did she? Her eyes slammed shut as the memory of a fire burned a path through her mind, lighting her thoughts on fire. She remembered cars, tears, and firefighters yelling at the bystanders on the sidewalk just twenty feet in front of Rachel. She remembered her daddy was wearing his favorite maroon sweater and Rachel was wearing her new pair of ballet shoes. She remembered that she had pressed her face against the back window of her parent's car as she saw a blond-haired woman fall to her knees and shriek-
Rachel's eyes snapped open, and her brown eyes were clouded with tears. "No," Rachel whispered, shaking her head back and forth. It wasn't the same girl. It couldn't be. It was just a coincidence that Rachel remembered that crash so vividly. What six-year-old child wouldn't remember their first time seeing a fatal car crash?
Rachel sucked in a breath as she spared one final look at the street before turning and heading back towards her home.
The entire walk back, Rachel busied herself with listing everything that she needed to do to get back on track with her life. She wasn't about to give up on her ghost, but she'd be damned if she was going to let her life fall to pieces because of that. Rachel started to regret taking her midnight excursion when she realized that she didn't know the way back to her home during the night as well as she did in the daytime.
However, she buried her worry in the back of her mind by planning how she was going to re-write the sectional's set list to her standards without the glee club necessarily knowing or being able to stop her. Before she knew it, she passed a familiar pink cherry tree at the end of a residential street. That tree was always her signal to know that she was almost home.
When Rachel finally fell asleep that night, the incident with her ghost lingered in the back of her mind, but she was finally able to plan her day without worrying about which areas of the school would be promising for a ghostly encounter.