your already the voice inside my head [AARON]

[delilah megan cohen]

Delilah erased the last line written on her homework for what felt like the thousandth time. Sure, that was probably an overstatement, but the paper was starting wear thin where she had written and erased over and over. Sighing, Delilah pushed away her notebook on her desk, and propped her arms up on the desk and leaned her head against them. She sat like that, with her eyes closed for a few minutes.

Delilah couldn't focus. Sure, it was pushing midnight, but it really wasn't that late. At least not in the life of a college student on a weekend. Opening her eyes, Delilah's eyes locked on a photo on her desk. Although a lot of her troubles with her homework came simply from the fact that she was tired, Delilah wanted to blame the photo.

Maybe if Delilah wasn't so tired, she'd be flying through whatever it was she was working on. Maybe if it wasn't so late. Delilah was fine in her room during the day, but at night her room always took on a differently personality. A more gloomy one. This probably attributed to the photos, like the one on her desk, that still remained scattered around the room. Plenty of times her friends, and even her parents tried to convince Delilah that having photos of her and Aaron wasn't good, and that she should take them down and throw them in a box in her closet. Though Delilah agreed with what they were saying, she knew that the only thing worse than still having the photos up would be taking them down. Then he'd truly be gone.

[aaron joseph davies]

It'd had been two years, but does one really get used to being dead? Aaron didn't think so. He was still amazed that he could walk through solid objects, the the weather didn't have an effect on him, and that he wouldn't have to eat anything ever again. Add that onto the fact that he would never age, that he'd look eighteen forever, and Aaron always had to convince himself that this was real now: he was dead. Aaron held his breath (though, he really didn't need to breathe anymore; it was just a habit). He hated thinking about it, about all the people that he couldn't be with anymore, especially her.

He knew what he was doing was a creeper thing to do, but it made him feel better. Every night, Aaron would watch Delilah, the girl he was dating when he died, from the tree outside of her bedroom window. If he was still alive, someone could see him and report him to the police for trespassing or stalking, but since he wasn't, he could blend it. Right now he was a lovely shade of pine needle green, with his lower half a complementary color of bark brown. No one could see him even if they were looking for him. Thinking that, Aaron got sad again. No one would look for him, since technically his body was six feet under in the Memorial Creek Cemetery. No one even knew he was a ghost.

Pushing the sad depressing thoughts out of his head, Aaron focused back on Delilah. He studied her: how her style had changed in the past two years, how she was wearing her hair, and what she did in her free time now that she didn't spend practically ever moment at him. After studying the obvious, Aaron would watch the finer things: the way she acted when she was alone, the way she looked when she was contemplating something, and the way her eyes got dark and sad whenever she was thinking about him. It took him a while to figure out what that look meant; she was good about keeping up the strong girlfriend appearance, but one day she slipped and lined up all of the pictures she had of them in a row, and cried for hours. Her eyes were dark and sad right before the tears came, and Aaron knew she wasn't as strong as she appeared.

Like now. Delilah was looking at the picture of them taken at the party that was held after the Ravens won the district championship football game. Neither of them particularly enjoyed football, but they did like social events so they could show each other off to people. It was one of the happiest times they had spent together, but it made Delilah depressed looking at it. Aaron watched her study the picture, her face becoming sadder with each passing second. Aaron's heart felt a tug (well, his spiritual heart), and even though he knew he should do it, he leaned forward, closer to the window. However, just as he'd moved, he lost his balance and tumbled out of the tree, crashing to the ground below with quite a bit a noise. Apparently being a ghost didn't make you graceful. "Shit,"

[/color] he said as pine needles and branches fell down around him. He only hoped that Delilah was too absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't hear him. If so, it wasn't going to be pretty.

{FFA824}[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify]

[delilah megan cohen]

Leaning against her arms, Delilah watched the photo on her desk like it was about to jump off the table and run away. Thinking of that night, Delilah could recall everything. The discussions about the football game that the two nodded along to, how everyone said that they should of went to the game, the moments just before the photo was taken. One of the last good photos that the two would take.

Delilah shifted in her seat, pulling her legs up into the chair and wrapping her arms around them. She thought about moving to her bed to fall asleep. The idea sounded good, peaceful, since she knew that once the "Aaron door" was open, the feelings wouldn't go away until she fell asleep, until the sun was high in the sky. She had gone through these sorts of nights all to often that she knew exactly how they would end, and sitting awake looking at the photos wouldn't help. But getting up and moving to her bed took too much effort that she didn't have right now. At least sitting here in her desk chair only allowed one photo to be in her eyesight; if she moved to her bed, she'd have to deal with seeing another photo on her bedstand. Leaning her head against her legs, Delilah decided that she'd stay put for a while longer.

Maybe everybody was right. Maybe she should of taken the photos down a year ago. Six months ago. But now, Delilah didn't know if she could do it. Putting the photos in a box, to be sealed away in the bottom of her closet only hurt more. When other people went thought the stages of grief (there were stages of grief right?) it seemed so much simpler. Even on TV. She didn't know why she was having such a hard time. It's almost been two years, for god's sake. Maybe it was worse because she only broke down in her room at night. Maybe if she hadn't tried to stay strong around others she'd of gotten past all of this by now.

A tear fell from Delilah's eye. Normally after the first tear fell Delilah prepared for the worst. One tear, meant two tears, which meant a whole bucket full. But not tonight, because as that first tear fell, she heard something come from outside her window. Standing up, Delilah hurried over to her window and opened it enough to peek her head out into the cold. "What the hell..." She muttered to herself, looking at the mess of branches.

[aaron joseph davies]

Sitting up and rubbing his head, Aaron prayed that Delilah was too distracted to hear the commotion he'd caused. Technically, he wasn't supposed to be near her, or any other human, but he couldn't help himself. He'd left Delilah so suddenly, his family too, that he wasn't ready to say good-bye. He probably wasn't ever going to be ready. He looked around, knowing that he should get a move on or else he'd be spotted, and that would mean a whole mess of explaining if he wanted everyone to forget they'd seen him.

Being a ghost, for the most part, kind of sucked. When Aaron died, his soul was given the choice of remaining on Earth forever or moving on to the afterlife. The decision had to be made quickly, and since Aaron was feeling selfish, he chose to stay behind. He was told that he was not allowed to have human interaction, that no human could know that he stayed behind, and that his decision was final. Aaron accepted, and from then on had to learn the ways of being a ghost. For the first six months, he'd stayed completely isolated, learning what it really meant to not have a body. After learning that he was practically invisible, except when he wanted to be seen, he became more adventurous. He started going out, watching people, doing things. Then, he decided it was finally time to see what Delilah was doing with her life, to see if she had moved on.

The first time he ever watched her had been an emotional experience, for both of them. Aaron could hardly keep quiet when he saw her for the first time. She looked the same, only a tad bit older, and he contributed that to the fact that she had been through a very traumatic experience: his death. However, at first, it seemed as if she had moved on. She was talking on her cellphone, laughing away, and Aaron figured she was talking to Emma*, her best friend since forever. Aaron grew sad and was about to leave her when she hung up the phone, and started crying. He watched her pick up a picture of the two of them, and that's when he knew that she wasn't over him, or what had happened to him.

And so Aaron continued to come watch her every night, after he got done watching his family after they got home from work and school. She was usually in her room by ten, and Aaron would watch her until she fell asleep, but tonight would have to be different. Picking himself up off the ground, Aaron took one last look at Delilah's window, freezing as peeked her head out the window. "Oh, double shit."

[/color] he muttered, trying not to move, but it was hard when she was starting right at him.

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[delilah megan cohen]

Delilah stared at the ground for a moment, before looking back up to the tree. It took a minute for her to process what was happening, probably because it was so late. Had someone been watching her? "Is… is somewhere out there?" she called out, not knowing why she did. If there was still anyone out there like hell that they'd answer. Nobody in their right mind would want to be caught creeping. Then again, Delilah doubted that anyone would call out to their creeper.

While watching the tree, the ground where the branches had fallen, and the yard, Delilah pulled down on the sleeves on her sweater. Not being able to tear herself from the window. She was glad that she had put a sweater on earlier. Delilah knew that standing here would do no good. The only thing that show may get from standing there would be a cold. But she couldn't pull away.

She looked at the ground again. This wasn't the first time that she had seen branches and pine needles on the ground. Delilah normally thought nothing of it though. She'd blame the wind, the wind that could get so strong and cause the tree to bend and scratch against the house. The wind had been doing that for as long as she could remember. And before then, before the wind was the cause of the branches falling, it was Aaron's fault.

Nights when either of them couldn't sleep, like the last night he said he would, Aaron would come over and climb into her room using the tree as his ladder. Of course the wind was still to blame for the pine needles, but she was sure that with Aaron climbing up and down it, it caused more to fall.

Delilah decided to do one more look around before closing the window. Who knew, maybe the creep stayed around. Starting with the tree, her eyes moved from there, then to the yard, and then down at the branches on the ground. Delilah only let her eyes stay on the ground for a few seconds before she jumped back away from her window.

"Holy shit," She muttered to herself, now standing at least a foot back from her window. Delilah stood there, trying to get her head around who she just saw. Aaron was standing among the fallen branches and pine needles. "No," She told herself outloud, trying to rationalize what she had just saw. "No. I was just thinking about this. I'm seeing what I want to see."

Even if there was a small piece of her that actually wanted him to be down there, Delilah knew it wasn't real. It couldn't be. It was her mind playing tricks. Aaron was dead. She had been thinking about how Aaron used to climb into her room late at night. That's all it was. It was her mind showing her want she wanted. Taking a deep breath, calming herself from that trick her mind decided to play, Delilah stepped forward, moving back to the window.

[aaron joseph davies]

Standing as still as a statue, Aaron watched the range of emotions that played across Delilah's face when she noticed him outside. First was shock, which he understood. If he was in her place, Aaron would be shocked too to find his ex, who had been dead for two years, standing in his front yard. After shock came the look of confusion. Aaron understood this one too. She must not understand why she was seeing a dead person. The last look, and the one that hurt Aaron the most, was the look of denial. She must of convinced herself that he wasn't out there, that she was just seeing things. Aaron knew that'd he would of probably done the same thing too if he was in her position, but that didn't make him feel any better as he stared at the empty window.

Sitting in the dark for just a few more seconds, Aaron finally moved, surveying the damage around him. Well, it could of been worse. He'd managed to knock down a rather large branch, but he figured no one would notice since it used to face toward the house and was blocked by other branches. Aaron assumed that Delilah would blame it on the wind. He was about to clean his mess up when he realized that it would actually make it look like someone was there, and ghosts were supposed to leave no trace.

However, Aaron didn't want to leave, not know when he knew that Delilah had seen him, even though she tried to convince herself that she was just imaging things. Aaron pictured himself going back up the tree and continuing to watch her, maybe even gaining up enough courage to talk to her, even though he really wasn't supposed to. Before he could sway himself out of it, he found himself shimming up the tree again and facing her bedroom window, which happened to be slightly cracked. He could hear music gently playing, and when he finally settled down on a branch more closer to the window then the one on the ground had been, he saw Delilah back at her desk, looking at the picture again.

The expression on her face, this time, showed how much mental pain she was in. Aaron figured that she was mad at herself for seeing something she didn't want to be there, but also angry that she had to convince herself it wasn't true. "I wish you wouldn't do this to yourself,"

[/color] he whispered, hating that he could see her in so much pain but he couldn't do anything about it.

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[delilah megan cohen]

When Delilah stepped back towards her window, she didn't look out it, but closed it leaving only a crack open for fresh air to enter her room, which was growing a bit stuffy. Sitting back down at her desk, Delilah kept her eyes fixed on the window for a few moments longer. As much as she wanted to look out it again, she knew she shouldn't. That wasn't him down there. He was dead. Six feet under the ground, not standing at the front of her house. Turning away from the window, Delilah whipped open her laptop and pressed the power button a bit too forcefully.

She was angry. Mainly at herself for numerous stupid reasons. One, her mind let her see Aaron down there. Delilah didn't need to go picturing him in her front lawn, or anywhere for that matter. Because this lead to the second reason why she was angry, because she hated that she just had to convince herself that it wasn't him. Knowing that Aaron was dead was painful enough. But having to tell herself that to fight images of seeing him? That was sheer agony.

Leaving her thoughts again, Delilah opened iTunes, and started listening to the last album she had had playing. Though she didn't care what it was, Delilah would of probably changed it if it had been Death Cab, she was glad just to have something on quietly in the background. It helped distract her from her thoughts. The thoughts that came at night, that made her room depressing until the sun came up.

As 'the cave' played in the background, Delilah, not paying much attention to the song itself, picked up the photo that sat next to her computer. The photo from the post-football-game party. The emotions of anger still raged though her, along with the feeling of sadness that Delilah began to know so well.

Holding the photo in her hand, Delilah didn't study it as intensely as she had been moments ago. She was angry and upset enough, she didn't need to go over that night once again and grow only more upset with everything. Hearing a voice come from what Delilah figured to outside, she didn't bother to turn to her head to look at the window. Even after the two years, Delilah still knew the voice belonged Aaron.

Great. This was all bloody great. Now not only was Delilah seeing him, she was also hearing him. "No," She said quietly shaking her head. Delilah could feel the tears begin to swell in her eyes. "I know you're not real." She didn't want to look at the window and, more than likely, see what was not really him. Most of all, she hated that she had to convince herself of every word she spoke. "You're dead."

[aaron joseph davies]

Don't do this too me, Aaron thought as Delilah rejected the thought of him being dead, even though he knew she had too. It was better that way, for both of them, even if it meant a lot of heartache down the road. But Aaron wasn't ready to give up and walk out of her life forever. He'd had a hell of a time just trying to be a part of it, and he wasn't going to throw that all away now.

Back when they were in middle school, Aaron developed a crush on Delilah, but the feelings weren't mutual at the time. Delilah was in her boy crazy phase, like all girls that age, and she couldn't settle on just one boy. She was in multiple relationships (though they lasted about the length of a class, but that was pretty typical of all middle school relationships). School let out for summer, and Aaron went a few months without seeing her. When school started back up for their freshman year, it was like Delilah had become a new person. That's when Aaron fell for her, hard, and he did whatever he could to make her notice him. It took about a year and a half, but finally Delilah agreed to go on a date with him after he asked her for what seemed like the millionth time. They were inseparable ever since.

Until the day that Aaron died, that is. Aaron remembered the day perfectly, and he had to since it was his last living memory. It was like any other day: Aaron would pick Delilah up for school, they'd eat lunch together, and he'd drive her home. Except that day she had a dentist appointment, so her mom came and signed her out of school early. Aaron didn't have anyone to drive home, so he went and hung out at the local music store, looking at all the new artists and debating on buying the album from Mumford and Sons. Twenty minutes later he left the store, new music in hand, and headed to his car. However, he never made it. He was hit from behind by a car (he assumed) and was thrown twenty feet, landing on his neck, breaking it. He died quickly, but not before thinking that he'd never see Delilah's face ever again.

Moments after that, he became a ghost, but that process he didn't remember too well, besides having the choice of having his soul left behind. Aaron agreed, because he'd been thinking of Delilah at the time, and also because he wanted to know who had killed him. Unfortunately, he never found out. Whoever had been driving had drove off, and Aaron's death was still a mystery to this day.

Pulling himself back to the present, Aaron found himself suddenly inside Delilah's room, but he ddin't remember how he got in there. He found himself holding his hand out to her, speaking. "I am dead. But I'm right here. Please, just look at me,"

[/color] he said, knowing that this was going to turn out badly. He wasn't supposed to interact with humans, no ghosts were, but he knew that some of them did anyway. However, he didn't want to be the one to get caught. Who knew what would happen to his soul then.

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[delilah megan cohen]

Delilah hated that she was doing this to herself. Although it was true that she had gone through things like before, these sad moods that came and went, but nothing to this extent. Delilah had never seen him before, nor had she ever heard him. It was too late for her, or anyone, to have to deal with something like this. Maybe that's what it was. Could this be something as simple as being tired? Delilah hoped so.

But she couldn't sleep right now. There was no way she could fall asleep right now. With her luck, Delilah would start having dreams of her and Aaron; the time they skipped class and just sat outside all day, that night at the post-football game party, that last morning he would pick her up and drive her to school. Delilah thought about that last day too often than she would rather, about things she would of done differently. And even the days leading up to it she thought of, especially the ways she could of gotten out of that dentist appointment. No matter how good of an excuse she'd think up, it didn't matter. As she was told, there were no second chances in the game of life.

Placing the photo back on the desk and pulling her legs up onto the chair, Delilah was startled when she heard Aaron's voice again, this time much closer than the last. Putting her face in her hands, Delilah almost fought against the voice. As much as she knew she should, and wanted to block it out, she couldn't. It was one of those weird little things that she would only end up regretting it later.

As she removed her hands from her face, revealing her dampened eyes, Delilah turned in her seat. She didn't know why, but she listened to the instructions that the voice was giving her. Delilah didn't understand why the voice, that she figured her mind created, was telling her to come around. It was only going to be disappointment when she saw the air behind her, wasn't it?

"Aaron…" Delilah said taken aback. Although she was still angry and upset, she could also add confused to the list of emotions she was feeling. So much for seeing nothing but air. Trying to string together something else, Delilah gave up on being able to speak. She only left herself looking stupid, opening and closing her mouth several times. Instead, she was sure that the look on her face, a look for many emotions, spoke for itself.