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She started for the door.

He lifted his hand up.

An invisible force left him, slamming into her and myself, but a protective pocket went around me. A similar protective force went around my body as well, stopping her. Her eyes got so big, terrified. “No!” He had complete control over her, and as he cupped his hand, lifting her in the air, bringing my body slowly back to him.

She was struggling, shrieking. “No! You can’t do this. I’m in a human body. You have no control over humans.”

“I have control over you.”

She continued fighting, but she couldn’t do anything. “No! It’s not—he said you couldn’t do anything to me if I was in a human’s body.”

“Who?”

Noah blanched, starting to back away.

Her eyes went to Noah. “Him.”

Lee turned his gaze too.

Noah held his hands in the air. Surrendering. “I didn’t know she was planning on taking over your girlfriend’s body.”

“You lied to me?” Sabine screeched.

“Well. Yeah. You were asking a lot of stupid questions. It didn’t take a genius to figure out you were going to do something moronic.”

“You can set fires! You’re not normal. Of course I was asking you questions. You can do things.”

Noah started laughing before he pointed at Lee. “I can set fires because of him. Because he brought me back to the afterlife.” The laughter evaporated real quick, turning serious. “You were trying to bring me back, but you couldn’t bring me all the way back. You failed. Again. You failed at killing me and you failed at saving me.”

“I didn’t kill you,” Lee snapped, grinding his teeth.

“You did⁠—”

“You did it, Noah!” Lee exploded, dropping his hand.

Sabine/my body fell back to the ground.

Lee was focused on Noah. “You have continually called me a killer in front of my face when you knew the whole time that you set the fire. You burned the building down. You did it.”

A hard expression came over Noah. His eyes grew empty. It was as if nothing was there anymore. “You didn’t want your girlfriend to know the truth about you. How you’re a monster. How you’re not right. How you’re an abomination. You’re a monstrosity.”

“Enough.” The words came out of me in a whisper. I cleared my throat, the vibrations echoing weirdly in whatever I was. “Stop.” It still sounded so weak.

Lee winced, his hands flinching at his side.

Sabine/my body was inching out of the room. She was a foot from the door.

Noah was laughing again, cruelly. A darkness gleaming out of him. “Whose fault was that? I was dead, Lee. You couldn’t handle that I was gone.”

“I didn’t know!” Lee blew back at him. “I didn’t know what you were going to do. I didn’t⁠—”

“I was dead!”

“I know!”

“Then why didn’t you let me be? I was at peace.”

“Because I couldn’t—I wasn’t. I wasn’t at peace.”