Romance Anthology

Spirited Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Her heart dropped at the sight of her fresh coffee puddled all over the hardwood floor. She didn’t know what to address first, the mess or the woman standing in the apartment.

The intruder stood staring wide eyed at the mess she had caused. Her eyes lifted from the puddle to meet her gaze. They were both standing as still as statues looking at each other. How had she gotten in when the locks had just been changed?

“Who the hell are you?”

“Excuse me?”

It wasn’t the other woman that had answered, however. This voice had come from behind her and was from a man. She had forgotten all about the footsteps she had heard in the hall. Turning to face the still open door, she could see the stranger frozen mid-step right across the open door. It was unclear if he had stopped due to her initial scream or if he had thought she had been speaking to him.

“Sorry, I wasn’t talking to you.”

It was better to clear up that misunderstanding, so he didn’t get the wrong idea. Quirking his eyebrow at her, he looked down the hall in both directions. Was he blind? She had clearly been questioning the woman that was standing in the apartment. She looked over her shoulder into the living room. Nope, she was still there. In full view of the doorway. Turning back to him, she quirked her eyebrow at him in return.

“Who were you talking to if not me? There’s no one else here.”

She opened her mouth to tell him to mind his own business. If he hadn’t been looking at her with confusion, she might have blasted away at him. She hitched her thumb over her shoulder to point at the person behind her. What said person spoke next stopped her in her tracks.

“He can’t see me. No one ever has. At least until you!”

Either the two of them were both in on whatever was going on, possible, or the woman was telling the truth. From the cold hitting her backside as if she was standing in front of an open fridge, she was beginning to suspect all was not what it seemed.

“Never mind. Have a nice night.”

“Wait! You can’t just yell at me and then brush me off. At least introduce yourself first.”

What was wrong with this guy? She wanted to disappear right then. Obviously, not an option. How to get the man to go away?

“OH, he is rather nice looking, isn’t he? Perhaps he would like to come inside. You should invite him in.”

That was not going to happen. Not just because the woman sounded like she wanted to devour him like a bowl of chocolate pudding either. Though that was a valid enough reason to get him to go away as quickly as possible. Was she a succubus maybe? Would that put him in danger? Did she care?

“I’ll go first. Hi, I’m Cole Hill. Your neighbor.”

He approached her with his hand out in a friendly handshake. She couldn’t ignore him now. He seemed like a nice guy and his shirt proclaimed him a firefighter. Shoot. She couldn’t let him get eaten by some random demoness creature. She shook his hand limply while pulling up a brittle smile.

“I’m Rose Barns. Nice to meet you?”

His laugh was a rich, deep sound. She was too used to the fake titers of people trying to impress others that his genuine laughter threw her off. Pulling her hand back, she took hold of the door. Introductions were made. She played nice and now she was done. Besides, she had bigger problems to tackle than trying to be polite to others.

“Whether you think so or not, it was nice meeting you, Rose. If you need anything, I’m just down the hall.”

She nodded in response before closing the door. She could hear his laughter as it echoed off down the walls of the hallway. She had no idea what impression he had of her, and she didn’t really care. Turning, she faced off with the woman behind her. She wasn’t buying the mild-mannered act. Though the antique clothing could fool anyone into thinking she was harmless.

“Who are you? Scratch that, what are you?” The woman smiled at her while performing a curtsey.

“My name is Polly. Miss Polly Wright, to be exact. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Did demonesses have such plain names? Polly was not the name of a succubus. Although, to be fair, she had never met one before. Until five minutes ago she would have jeered at anyone who said they were real.

“How did you get into my apartment?”

“I didn’t mean to intrude on you, but this is where I died, you see. I’m stuck to this structure until I can move on.”

“Died? As in you’re a ghost?”

She didn’t believe it. Maybe her mother was trying to teach her a lesson for taking all those crystals down. There wasn’t a better explanation at the moment.

Walking over to the young woman, she pushed her hand forward. There was no better way to disprove a lie except with fact. Unfortunately, her hand passed right through the stomach of the woman. Stunned, she stood there staring at her arm that was now cold as ice. The visage of Polly wavered and scattered away from her appendage like two ends of a magnet repelling each other.

“Excuse me. Don’t you think that’s a little rude of you?”

Snatching her hand back, she stepped away from the ghost. She couldn’t deny that Polly was exactly what she had proclaimed to be. What was she supposed to do with a dead girl haunting her new home anyway?

“Why are you here?”

“Because I haven’t moved on as of yet.”

“Yes, I got that. I mean why are you in my home? Isn’t there somewhere else you can haunt? Like a graveyard. Isn’t that where ghosts are supposed to hang out?”

Polly looked at her in confusion. Was she not making sense? She thought it sounded right, but who was she to know?

“Why would I go to such a dreary place? That’s nowhere to spend the afterlife if you ask me. Even if I wanted to, it’s impossible, so it doesn’t really matter.”

“Why not? There are so many other places to see than staying here.”

If she could just get her to pick one. Who did she call in a case like this? It’s not like there were exterminators for ghosts. Not that she knew of. The circumstances might warrant a call to her mother after all.

“I can’t leave the building. I have tried several times since the night I perished. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t go outside.”

That put a damper on her plans to trick Polly into going somewhere else. Though she said she was only stuck inside the building, not the apartment. Perhaps she couldn’t haunt someone else instead.

“That’s unfortunate. I don’t know what to say to that.”

“We should probably clean that up before it stains the floor.”

The statement threw her train of thought for a moment until she remembered the coffee that she had dropped when Polly scared her. Sighing, she retrieved a towel from the kitchen. She doubted that a ghost would be much help in cleaning up the spill.

“Help me understand what to do here. I’ve never met a ghost before and I’m not sure where to go from here. Do you have unfinished business or something?”

“Unfinished business?”

“Something you have to do before you can move on or whatever.”

“Oh that. I do in fact have something I wish to experience.”

Well, that was easy enough. Help the ghost with her last wish and the apartment will no longer be haunted. That was doable. Though hopefully, it won’t take too long. Taking one day off was one thing, but she had no plans to take a vacation. Who had the time for that?

“So, what is it you want?”

“Love.”

Well, that was it then. She was going to be haunted for the rest of her life.