Marina walked down the path that led from her small house. A lot has happened over the past month.

No one had any idea where Jack had gone. And Halson had been taken in for questioning by the police of Rorin. Apparently, a fight had happened at the tavern, leaving two Aldarians dead. The news shocked everyone, including her.

Things had been going downhill since Marina discovered Jack had gone. The worst part was, she didn’t know when it happened. After the funeral, she was the only one who checked up on him from time to time, he would never even let her in his house. But she knew what the inside looked like, even before she began moving his things out to be auctioned. A horrid mess of bottles littered the floor of the living room, suggesting that Jack had been drinking. Jack was never a heavy drinker, but people could change fast.

He seemed good for a while, but maybe he had still been in shock, as his mood and life began to deteriorate over the span of a week.

So everyone assumed, naturally, that John had taken his own life. Where? No one knew. Everyone believed that except Marina. The fact the body hadn’t been recovered, gave her hope. But with each passing day since her conclusion she began to lose that small amount of hope.

Those rotten Aldarians ! They didn’t give a damn about him!

It was true. At the funeral, Cadrick, along with other fellow Aldarians, read from a card. They couldn’t even look him in the eyes. A brief five minutes, then they were gone for lunch. Marina knew because Halson told her that he heard from his friends who also owned a restaurant that they had lunch there shortly after leaving. Sure, it was a mistake that the sector Jack lived in was unguarded for such a long period of time, but if you couldn’t even give a man who lost his entire family to your lapse in judgment a sincere one-on-one apology, then you clearly didn't give a shit.

She carried flowers with her. She had forgotten what Sheilas and Helen’s favorite colors were. Her shop had flowers of all sorts of shapes and colors. She had gotten pink roses for both. Personally, pink was Marina’s favorite color.

That reminded her, Jack had something under his bed that was really weird, A small cylinder with symbols on it that she didn’t recognize. At first, she thought that it might have been a decorative item, but it had a lid, so then she decided it must be some sort of container, but when she tried to open it, it simply wouldn’t.

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She had planned to take it to a pawn shop somewhere to see what it was. But her gut instinct told her not to, and for some reason, she obeyed. It was a very weird sensation, the second it crossed her mind to take it to the shop, the idea suddenly didn’t appeal to her.

Now she was at the graveyard, she knew where they were already, since she had been there during the funeral.

She stopped when saw the stones, or rather, what was on them.

Blue bonnets and a sunflower…?

Suddenly, it hit her.

Before Jack met Sheila, she worked at a sunflower farm, thus, her favorite color was yellow. Jack had told her this story a long time ago, and the memory of it resurfaced

And Helen's favorite color was blue.

The flowers hadn't been there the last time she visited, so someone must have put them there.

“Hal?” She said aloud in confusion. It couldn't be him. She was the one who would put the Flowers there. It was decided by both her and Hal. After all, Halson had been taken by the police yesterday and he had not returned since.

But the flowers… Maybe she had put them there before? No. She had been fresh out of Bluebonnets since two days ago, as they could only be found in the plains and she didn't even sell sunflowers at her store.

And all set aside, there was only one other person that knew…

The realization made her almost drop the flowers. Jack was here. He had been here. Just earlier today, and from the looks of it, she just missed him too. She felt her heart weigh down her chest as she took a shuddering breath.

She heard a crack, a crunch of a leaf. She turned around slowly.

She wished she hadn't.

She wanted to tell herself that she didn't see anything. But she did, just for a microsecond, see a figure, only a few feet away from her.

A man in a tattered, bloody cape, stood there for just a blink of an eye. He disappeared.

Her mind flew to fear and she ran, dropping the flowers, as if they were suddenly anchors that could slow her down. Tears flew down her face as she sprinted away from the tombstones.

Marina wasn't one to believe in the more strange paranormal experiences, but what horrified her the most was that she knew deep down what she had just seen was no ghost.

It had been Jack, in the flesh.