Ghosts in heaven

[Alex's POV]

Once again, Alex felt as if he'd been sleeping forever. Funny enough, the sensation brought forth a completely different set of emotions than it had last time.

Did he time-leap again? Well, at least he wasn't suffering from amnesia this time. He could clearly remember the devastating pain he'd felt during his little portal-recharging-experiment. It had freaking nearly killed him!

So he opened his eyes and heaved a sigh of disappointment when he saw yet another white ceiling he didn't recognise.

Or well, not really anyway. One glance around the room and he knew he'd made the leap to The Field of Reeds. How he knew that? Well, easy; because he recognised it from Amon's memories. Even though, the place looked more weathered than in Amon's memories. Not aged, but bleak and covered under a thick layer of dust.

"Dad! You've finally woken up!" someone said, as a pair of hands grabbed his arm excitedly. The person Alex found when he looked up, looked like the male version of Neferet. This observation caused a set of memories from a life long passed to rush into his mind.

"Yahya?" he asked doubtfully. Apparently, the son of Amon and Neferet was sitting next to him. The same boy that had caused her to die during child-birth.

The pain and despair he felt at the memory shot right trough his already tortured heart. Yet, something felt very wrong about this flashback-leap.

The boy he remembered as a sixteen year old at most now looked more like a twenty year old. And Amon's body didn't feel as buff as he remembered.

"This isn't a flashback-leap, is it?" he thought to himself. That meant he'd succeeded to recharge the portal and had made it into the afterlife with his own physical form?! As Alex, not as Amon.

"Yeah, it's me dad," Yahya said with tears in his eyes, his hands squeezing Alex's arm gently. "I can't believe you came back for me. After all these years."

Only now Alex realised that he'd made a mistake. He shouldn't have mentioned to the person himself that he knew him from a previous life. Now Yahya had projected all the hopes and expectations he had for Amon onto him.

To bad for Yahya, but he was feeling too physically tortured at the moment to act compassionate.

"Look, I'm gonna be honest with you here," he said, forcibly swatting Yahya's hands away. "I'm not your father and I didn't come here to save you."

Yahya flinched away, visibly hurt. Alex felt his heart clench for hurting him, but a little voice in the back of his mind whispered; "Why is he so surprised? Amon never was the cuddly type."

"But you knew my name. And you look an awful lot like him. I'd recognised you immediately," Yahya defended his case energetically, but pressed his lips in a taut line when he noticed that there was nothing he could say to change Alex's mind.

"I do not look like him," Alex said indifferently. "You just think that because you recognise the soul within. Think about it, I'm younger than you. How could I possibly be your father?"

Yahya considers his words for an instant.

"You're probably right," he said. "Then what should I call you, stranger."

"Alex is fine. How long have I been out?" he asked after slowly sitting up straight in the bed. A painful stab shot through his chest while he did.

Honestly, Alex wasn't too certain that he'd be able to save anyone anymore, even if he wanted too.

The flow of energy he'd become so familiar with, now seemed to repel away from his body. He could still see the energy flow all around him, but he couldn't grasp it anymore.

He felt blocked. As if someone had turned off the tab to the water hose. He remembered that Amon had encountered a similar problem on first arriving here, but he hadn't had much trouble with figuring a way around it.

"You've arrived here the night before yesterday. I brought you here and you've been unconscious ever since," Yahya explained, but it sounded detached and void of emotion. "It is almost noon now."

Crap, that meant he'd slept for nearly two days! And also that Otto hadn't been home for two days straight. How was he going to explain this one to her parents? He had to find her. Fast!

"Did a beautiful girl with long blond hair and blue eyes appear here?" Alex asked.

"Lots of them," Yahya said with the hint of a grin playing around his lips. "Any more specifications?"

It took Alex a few seconds to realise what it was that Yahya was actually getting at.

"Alive ones!" he growled in frustration. This time Yahya allowed himself a chuckle before his brow furrowed in thought.

"There are no alive creatures here," he said. It rolled off his tongue as if it was a line he'd repeated many, many times before. "Well, except for me of course. And you."

Alex stared at him doubtfully. There was something in the way he'd said it that made him think; "you liar" but he couldn't pinpoint why he'd thought so.

"Are you lying to me, young man?" he asked, and realised only after he'd said it, that he'd echoed the words straight out of one of Amon's memories.

"I'm older than you, remember?" Yahya said glaring angrily. It was his way to warn Alex not to play around with his feelings after he'd rejected the offered father-and-son-bond himself.

"Sorry," Alex laughed Yahya's hostility away, feeling a little sheepish for making yet another mistake. "I guess that means I'll have to find her the old-fashioned way."

"And that is?" Yahya asked.

"Search for her, of course."

"You mean by foot? Do you even know your way around here?"

"I do," Alex said. "I'll be fine."

"What makes you so certain?" Yahya was frowning again. Alex gave him a questioning glance. This time it was a lot easier to read him.

"Why don't you come along if you're that worried about me?"

Yahya's face flushed bright red, as if Alex had discovered his greatest secret.

"I'm not!" he yelled offended. He probably hadn't even realised he'd raised his voice. "You can go and die in a ditch for all I care! I have better things to do than babysit you anyway!"

With those words he stood from his seat by Alex's bed and walked out with stomping feet. Alex knew that he should feel hurt, but he couldn't help but chuckle. Yahya might have physically grown, but he sure still acted as the teen Amon used to know.

"Now, for the search," Alex mumbled as he stood from the bed and dared to stretch. He walked to the enormous window in his room, just in time to see Yahya storm out of the front-door and walk down the path to disappear into the forest.

Alex watched him and realised only now that Yahya had successfully diverted his attention when he'd asked him if he was lying or not. Maybe he shouldn't look at Yahya as a little boy anymore. It had been a long time after all.

Alex let his gaze glide over the beautiful landscape, only to notice a strange reflection in the window. It almost looked as if someone was standing next to him. But that couldn't be... right?

Alex looked up and recoiled.

There was indeed a shadowy person standing next to him. Alex could look straight through him. Was it a ghost? But that was absurd!

Ghosts only manifested when the soul was left with a grudge. But you couldn't enter the field of reeds with grudges. This ghost was a paradox!

Alex stared at the ghost, as it slowly turned its attention towards him. A bald head, strong jaw, ash coloured skin and two big shadows where his eyes were supposed to be, added up to a very skeletal appearance, even though it still was a human in the flesh. Well, sort of.

The ghost turned its head to look at Alex, but before their eyes met he vanished, just as mysteriously as he'd appeared.