James could only blink in bewilderment as she confessed to everything that happened after his... death. Sara had killed all of them, all of the people who had made their lives a living hell for the past several years. And her mother, too. Searching his own soul for any sort of emotional response, all he could find was a savage satisfaction. Revenge. Revenge had been served! True, it had taken his death for it to come about, but what was done was done! James still wasn't quite sure how he felt about having been killed himself, although he sensed a rising bitterness about the whole thing that further enflamed the savage acceptance of all those deaths. A hundred and fifty-some students, a handful of teachers and chaperones that failed to protect James and Sara and her witch of a mother?

"Good," he finally said distantly. Then with a great deal more force, "Good!"

He knelt down before her on the mattress (how had he gotten there?) and tried to look into her eyes again. "Anna? Listen to me. It's good that they're dead. D'you understand? Can you think of anyone who deserved to die more?! How many years did they... did they hate us? How many times did they beat us and tease us and put us down like we were less than human? And what did we ever do to them, huh?! What did you and I ever do to deserve [i]that[/i]?! And the ones who didn't bully us? They were just as fucking guilty. They could have stepped in at any time to help us out, but no! No, they just shook their heads and looked the other way. Sometimes they laughed, too, I saw them. I'm glad you killed them! Not just for us, but for society as well! Can you imagine them out in the real world? How many people's lives and spirits they would have crushed and broken over the years? Maybe you didn't plan it, but it sure as fuck couldn't have happened to more deserving assholes."

"And your mother?" James snorted hatefully. "What love did she ever show you? Cramming you into that God forsaken closet all the time? And you know how much of the Bible she twisted? Seriously? Shit, my father thought the Bible was only good for hitting me with, but even I know your mother used it to keep you afraid and weak. She was a manipulative hag who was nothing but ignorant and deranged. She was sick, Anna. Sick in the head and sick in the heart, and you should be glad to be fucking rid of her. I only wish you had offed my old man in the bargain!"

James shook his head violently, ghostly jaw firmly clenched in anger and a frightful snarl on his face. "If you need to be Anna, then be Anna. I love you whatever you call yourself, and that's not going to change. But don't feel bad about what you did. You didn't kill people. You put down a bunch of animals that would have just spread their fucking poison around even more after graduation."

Reaching up, he tried to take her in his arms to give what comfort he could then. To his horror, James found that his hands passed right through her as though she wasn't there at all. He blinked again in surprise as he drew back to stare at the offending limbs. She had touched him, kissed him. He had felt it! It had been a mix of love, tenderness and a sweet, sweet warmth that had briefly staved off the freezing blight that both surrounded and filled his core at the same time. "I can't touch you," he murmured sadly, "You can touch me... but I can't touch you..."

He only let that self pity last for a moment. It was a nightmare of a realization that not only was he dead, but that he couldn't touch the woman he loved anymore. It was... so unfair! James shook it off for now, focusing instead on Anna's needs.

"I'm dead. Fine." He held out his arms for her to take them if she wished. "But I'm still here, Anna, with you. I don't know how or why or if this was supposed to happen, but we're still together. I still love you and I won't leave you."

"Ever."