“H-hi,” Ray stammered. “I just – I sensed – I just –”

“You can hear me,” Susan said. She sounded… impressed? Scornful? It was hard to tell. Her face was stone, dark hair and skin, sharply elegant features, all carved over complete impassivity. “Strange.”

“I’m – I’m a –” They tried to mumble ‘paranormal investigator’. It came out as “pranormvstg”.

“Yes, that would explain it,” Susan said. She leaned in, studying Ray’s face. Ray hoped their expression wasn’t as completely transparent as it probably was. “You’re different than most. I could barely graze the surface of your mind.”

She’d said the same thing about Dare. The next thing she said was new.

“It’s… layered.”

“What?” Ray asked, slightly fearful. On the one hand, they did intend on telling the truth. They hated lying. On the other… they weren’t entirely sure how much truth would be appropriate to tell.

“Your mind…” Susan said. “It’s like… two images superimposed onto one another, but with solid objects instead of two-dimensional projections.” She tilted her head. “Interesting…”

Ray let out a deep breath. Time to explain, finally.

“Okay, I’m… I’m from another world. Another… dimension, I guess? I don’t know. My name is Ray Johnstone, but I somehow got teleported into the body of someone named Darin Heartsong, and – I know it sounds crazy, just –”

They stopped.

How much further could they go? Could they reveal that they knew the future of this place, knew these ghosts better than they knew each other?

No, they decided. Revealing that a complete stranger knew them intimately? It would make them all feel unsafe, and if Ray was going to get a good ending, they needed to befriend them.

“There you have it,” they finished weakly.

Susan nodded. “That certainly is a strange assertion, but it lines up with the configuration of your mind. Does Darin know about this?”

Ray looked down, slightly ashamed. They hadn’t thought about what could’ve happened to Dare. “I don’t… I don’t know. I just blinked and then I was here. I’m sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose, I’d leave if I could –”

“It’s fine.”

They looked up to see Susan giving them an unsmiling but gentle look. “It’s clear to me that you never intended to hurt anyone.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ray took a deep breath. “Thanks.”

“My name is Susan,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you, Ray.” She nodded at them. Ray nodded back. “You know, I was a doctor before I was killed, and I’ve got quite the knack for research. I could try to help you get back home if you’d like.”

And now – that was something Ray hadn’t actually considered.

Did they want to go home?

This new world was strange, and confusing, and full of so much social interaction and so many new things.

But their old life… it was hardly any better.

“I’ll think about it,” Ray said. “But – I mean, Dare is a paranormal investigator. That’s sort of where I got it from. I think I’ve picked up some things from them, and I think I can probably handle it on my own. Oh, and – it’s nice to meet you, too.”

Susan smiled a little. “I suppose you live here now?”

“Y-yeah. I can – I’ll try to stay out of your space if you want –”

“No need,” Susan said. “I can assure you I’ve gotten quite used to having housemates. And it’ll be interesting to interact with a living human again. I almost feel as though I was never alive at all.”

“Oh.” That was… dark. In the game, Susan had struck them as practical, not morbid.

Susan shook her head, dismissing the thought. “Well. I suppose I’ll be seeing you around, then.

“L-likewise.”

Ray walked out of the study and looked down at their hands. Right… the burn. Dare had run into Susan, who had told them supernatural injuries didn’t fade, and then…

“Then they went to Cures and Curses,” Ray mumbled. “To get the burn healed.”

Somehow, the thought of interacting with a living human – especially one as chaotic as Layla – was scarier than their first encounter with Theodore had been. Layla’s route wasn’t required to get most of the True Endings. Plus, she had given Dare burn cream for free and then offered them a job just because she liked them. No way was that going to happen to Ray. And they weren’t even hurt like Ray had been. They weren’t in desperate need of a supernatural cure. Should they just stay here?

No, they decided. Working at Cures and Curses was a major game mechanic. For one thing, Dare – and now Ray – had nothing but expenses and the supernatural gizmos on their back. Getting the Out of Cash bad ending was one thing; slowly starving because they couldn’t afford groceries was a whole lot more painful. And if they were going for any ending in particular, it’d have to be the Everyone Ending, which meant completing all the platonic routes, which meant befriending Layla.

Fuck it, then. Time to go beg for a job.

Suffering. That was all phantoms were and all phantoms created. Suffering.

When she was a child it had seemed beautiful that you could live on forever. She’d always known she had the ability to see into the space phantoms occupied, but since it never came up in conversation, she never thought to mention it.

And then her sister.

From the moment her sister’s hands, solid and real for the last time, had vanished from her own into shimmering light along with the rest of her, she had vowed to destroy the spirit realm. There was no peace. There was no catharsis. There was only suffering.

But now she looked through the window of the cursed house, and she saw… joy.

Dare was surrounded by ghosts – a bulky younger man, a man with little bits of flesh missing from his face, and a hard-faced woman – and they were laughing. Dare and the younger man were laughing together, and the mildly mutilated man was rolling his eyes in feigned annoyance, and the woman was smiling softly to herself.

The ghost of a little girl dragged that of a tall, scrawny person into the room from outside. Dare jumped up to greet them. The girl laughed as she jumped on their shoulders, little bursts of flame boosting her leap.

There was joy in this cursed house.

And it wouldn’t last forever.

But maybe she could let them live their artificial lives tonight.

-Fleeting Lives by Ray Johnstone