“I’m sorry for bringing it up,” Steve said, sounding like a kindly grandfather—well, uncle—when the ghost finally looked up. “But there’s something we need to talk to you about.” There was a thump as he set down the one chair Loren had brought to the apartment. It was a plastic monobloc, since he hadn’t been expecting visitors so soon, and it had been cheap… Steve gestured towards it. “Would you like to sit down?” There was a glow around the chair now, more spiritform that Steve had anchored to the plastic. “I think you’d be more comfortable.”
The ghost looked at the chair with wary hope, and hesitantly poked it with a finger. She seemed surprised as she made contact with the spiritform, an almost starving expression on her face as she ran her hand over the chair. From what Loren could see, the spiritform seem rough and uneven instead of smooth and conforming to the chair’s contours, but given how the ghost was practically vibrating as she ran a hand over the chair, that might have been intentional. He’d never really considered what it was like to be a ghost—besides being dead, obviously—but it was becoming obvious that the ghost had been deprived of sensory stimulation for a long time. Clearly she could hear and see, but…
The incense gave her something to smell. The mooncake gave her something to taste. And the now the chair… something to touch, giving her something to stimulate senses that had probably been untouched for months. Giving her a sense of normality, of being almost… alive.
…
Oh, right, that was in the flowchart, wasn’t it? Maybe he should have listened better to the parts that didn’t involve him after all.
The ghost hesitantly sat down, rubbing her back against the chair as she tried to feel as much of it on as much of her as she could, one hand gripping the chair under her. Malory picked up the ghost candle and moved it so that it’s light would shine on the ghost’s face. Loren go to see that face from behind, and was mildly disturbed to notice that he was still able to make out her expressions through where the hair on the back of her head was still invisible. It made him feel like she was looking right at the mirror he was looking at, and he had to glance around Harmony and out the door to reassure himself that the ghost was facing Steve.
The spiritualist knelt down in front of the ghost, forcing him to look up at her slightly. It definitely increased his impression of a kindly uncle. “Sara… someone asked us to speak to you on their behalf. Last week, a young man moved into this apartment. Do you remember him?”
The ghost—Sara—nodded hesitantly. “Y-yes,” she said abruptly. “Yes, I remember him. He was so… warm… but he ran away. Then he came back, but…” She seemed to curl up on herself. “…there was a monster with him…”
Even from behind, Loren saw Harmony flinch.
“…took his phone and bag… then he left again…”
Steve nodded, looking sympathetic as the ghost glanced away to the side. “Well, that young man wants to come back to live in his apartment, and he can’t do that the way things are. So he asked us to come speak with you.”
The inverted mask of her face look lost and despairing as the ghost said, “Are you here to kill me?”
“No, Sara, we’re not here to do anything to you,” Steve said gently. “We’re here to ask you if you’d be willing to talk to our client. You see, he’d like to live here. And since you are haunting this apartment, he can’t exactly ask you to leave. Would you be willing to talk to him so the two of you can work something out?”
Loren had hoped that they would just take care of negotiating with the ghost and he could move back in. However, Harmony had made clear that he needed to be part of the actual negotiating, and he’d seen her point. He couldn’t just nod politely every time they passed each other, and otherwise stay out of each other’s business. That sort of distance and apathy, he had been assured, would lead to things being flung about to get his attention, or worse.
“He… wants to come back?” The ghost sounded mildly distressed at the notion.
“Will that be a problem?” Steve asked patiently.
“N-no! He really wants to come back? Even though…” the ghost glanced aside, almost turning around completely. Loren stepped back and out of the view of the mirror, hoping that ghosts couldn’t see through walls or people.
“Yes,” he heard Steve say. “If you’re willing, we could ask him to come here and the two of you can talk. Would that be all right?”
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For a moment, there was silence.
“All right…” the ghost said quietly. Loren took a deep breath as Harmony finally turned to look back at him, getting to his feet and cautiously walking out of the bathroom. He moved quietly, some part of him still not wanting to draw the ghost’s attention to him. Fortunately for him, the ghost was still sitting facing away from him, and Steve seemed to be trying to distract her by waving some incense smoke in her direction. As Loren stepped out of the bathroom, Harmony quietly stepped past him and opened the front door of the apartment.
He realized what she was doing in time to move towards her as she opened the door. The sound drew the ghost’s attention as he acted like he’d just stepped inside instead of, say, lurking in the bathroom through the whole conversation.
Because of the angle of the ghost candle, he only saw the left half of her face. Her eye had no definition, existing only as pure white, but they were wide in surprise. Clearly she had expected them to leave and come back later, not have him suddenly appear like some sort of surprise guest on a talk show.
It was the clearest view of the ghost he’d yet seen, and for once he was in a state of mind to comprehend what he saw. Despite being all in shades of white because of the ghost candle, the ghost he saw was pretty, but in that strangely generic way that had seemingly become standardized among women who’d been watching all the same young actresses with the same style and look. Her hair fell straight down around her face, but instead of bangs or being pulled back, her hair parted in the middle like she was looking though the word from behind a pair of curtains.
As Harmony closed the door behind him like he’d actually stepped through it, Loren found himself waving a hand lamely. “Uh, hi.”
“Sara, this is our client, Loren Abo. He’s this apartment’s current lease holder,” Steve said, smoothly taking charge. “Loren, this is Sara Dalisay. She’s expressed a willingness to speak with you about your situation.”
For the second time, their eyes m—the ghost tore her gaze away, her body floating away from the chair as if taking a step back. Loren, for his part, froze at the sudden movement, hand still raised in greeting.
Smoothly, Steve picked up the discarded chair and carried it behind the ghost and gently moved it until it seemed to touch the back of her legs. The ghost jerked, looking behind her to see the chair—and granting Loren the sight of her head and neck twisting farther than it should before the rest of her body getting pulled into place like it was made of rubber. The sight of it actually made Malory wince, one of her tentacles reaching up to rub her neck before she hastily regained her composure, her tentacles returning to a relaxed position draped over her shoulder.
Slowly, her body language showing her nervousness, the ghost settled back down on the chair. While she initially sat on the edge of the chair, the ghost slowly leaned back after Steve picked up the incense stand and moved it onto Loren’s plastic storage container full of clothes behind her, as if she was trying to follow the smell. It had the subtlety and smoothness of a move the spiritualist had done before, and a part of Loren couldn’t help but admire it.
His admiration didn’t last long, as he didn’t have a chair to sit on. Fortunately, he remembered this part of the flowchart. Slowly, he moved to sit on the corner of his bed. He had to sit a bit sideways to face the ghost, who had also turned slightly in the chair to look at him, idly crossing one leg. Her shirt was long enough to preserve her modesty, although given Loren could only see half of her, that probably wasn’t really an issue. It was with mixed feelings that he tried to smile, though it felt so sickly it should have been coughing tis lungs out.
A part of him felt relieved when the ghost nervously smiled back, looking almost as awkward as he felt. That… was good, right? It was strangely comforting, to know the ghost was as discomfited about this as he was. “Uh, hi,” he said. “I’m Loren. And… I was hoping you would be willing to share this apartment with me.”
“S-share?” the ghost seemed surprised. “You… really want to come back? Here?” She looked behind her—once more there was a strange rubberiness to her neck before the rest of her turned to match where she was oriented—looking at the storage container of clothes behind her. “Y-you want to stay?” Her voice quavered a bit at the end, and Loren checked the ghost candle in case it was running out. But no, it was still tall, the Flame he was feeding to it letting the candle burn without really consuming the imbued wax.
He turned back to her and nodded. “Yeah. I…” he tried to think of a delicate way of putting it, couldn’t think of any, and so decided to go with blunt. “I signed a six-month lease on this place, and if I cancel, I still need to pay the full amount. I can’t afford that.”
Something that could have been sympathy flickered across the ghost’s face, and the nod she gave seemed almost unconscious. “Y-you want to stay for that long?”
Loren hesitated. “Actually, I was hoping I could stay for longer if they’d let me renew my lease.”
The ghost looked disbelieving. “You’re not going to try to make me go away? The ones before tried to pray me away…”
“No,” Loren said, even as he made a note of what she’d said. Harmony hadn’t mentioned there’d been previous tenants. Or maybe she was talking about the building administration and the ones who’d painted the room? “I’m not going to make you go away.” He glanced towards Steve, who made a ‘keep going’ gesture. Taking a deep breath, he summoned Flame to his hand, just under his skin. The air around it began to shimmer with a heat haze as he held it out to the ghost. “I think we can help each other… if you want. We could be roommates.”
The ghost stared at his hand, her own hand rising a bit before hesitating.
“I can buy incense,” Loren added.
A cold wind enfolded his fingers, and he felt the slightest bit of pressure around it as a pale hand wrapped around his.