In a warm bed, a ray of sunlight found a crack in the thick curtain to illuminate the sleeping eye of a drowsy young woman.

She gently opened her blue eye, yawned, stretched and got up to open the curtain.

It was already 10 o'clock and as she opened the window she felt the cold wind coming in.

"Oooh, how glad I am that I don't have to go out today..." she said with a shudder.

She then went to the shower and came out with a big white bathrobe.

Her apartment was small, big enough for her needs but too cramped for her dreams.

She was divided between a feeling of comfort which made her want to go back to bed and a boredom which pushed her to act.

She rubbed her hair with a towel and sat at her desk.

Then looked at a letter on it and got lost reading it, even though she already knew every word of it.

Suddenly her phone started ringing.

Surprised, she looked at the number, but didn’t know who that could be, but she chose to answer anyway.

"Yes, hello?"

"Yes, hello Hannah. It's Lug, we met yesterday, I'm the cemetery janitor."

She had forgotten giving him her number.

"Oh yes, yes I remember. How are you?"

"Good, I have some information about your grandmother."

"GREAT grandmother… Okay don't tell me anything over the phone, I'll be there in two hours at the latest."

Lug didn't have time to say anything as Hannah had already hung up.

He was sitting at his table, next to Gavan who was watching him from the corner of his eye.

"Uuuuh, she is coming... That was unexpected." said Lug a bit lost.

"Yes, but that's what you wanted, right?"

"I'm not sure, I don't really like change and unexpected things."

Gavan rolled his eyes.

"You'll have plenty of time to hate change when you're a ghost!"

This time it was Lug who blurted out, he had no intention of arguing, not today and not on this subject.

He put on his coat and shoes, left the house and walked towards the frozen fountain where he sat, his back resting against its gray cinder blocks.

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He thought back to the conversation he had had with Eno the day before.

"Do ghosts die? What are you talking about?" Lug was puzzled.

"I'm just saying. I'm not sure how it works." replied Eno.

"You mean ghosts have a lifespan?"

"Maybe, I don't know. The army stationed in front of the cemetery has been there for over a thousand years and I know some of Valmont's ghosts that disappeared after a few years." said Eno, scratching his head.

"And how does that disappearance work?"

"I've never seen it happen with my own eyes, but I've seen ghosts before they disappeared, some looked normal but others spoke less and less and barely moved, it almost felt logical that it would happen to them."

Lug looked thoughtful, he had seen ghosts being completely listless when he was at the city supermarket.

"They could have just left though." he then replied.

"No no no, come on… Just imagine a neighbor with whom you got along well, you shared a few meals and talked about the world together, and then overnight he disappears. Do you think this is normal?"

"I mean… Ghosts are different beings, I wouldn’t be surprised they have a kind of mid-death crisis and just go do crazy stuff at the Las Vegas of ghosts. »

Eno rolled his eyes.

« Lug… You are right on one thing, we are different than the living : we hate change. There is absolutely no way anyone from this cemetery would just go on holidays. No way. »

Lug understood the point Eno was making.

He was right, ghosts are not the type to move a lot.

"Do you have any other things that come to mind about this?" asked Lug without expecting much more.

Eno looked impatient, this was a sensitive subject and it was his TV day.

"There are plenty of empty graves in the south, less in the north. It’s the only thing that comes to mind."

Lug didn’t pay much attention to that information as his mind was already full.

He thanked Eno, who went back to putting his head in his box as soon as Lug walked away.

That new mystery felt like a thorn in Lug’s side.

He had been living with ghosts for months and had never been aware of that problem, it almost felt like he had failed in his role as janitor.

He had always assumed that the empty graves belonged to ghosts who had stayed with their families or in a place that was dear to them.

He thought ghosts were eternal.

His thoughts had carried him so far in his mind that he almost didn't hear the little tap behind him.

He turned around and saw the old lady throwing small pieces of bread into the fountain.

She didn't make a sound when she moved, to the great displeasure of Lug who had often been close to a heart attack when she appeared out of nowhere.

She was trying to feed the goldfish that Lug had placed in the fountain at the request of Malda's children.

But the water surface was frozen and the breadcrumbs could not find a mouth, to the frustration of the fish who would have to wait for warmer days to eat them, if the birds did not take care of this feast before that.

"Are you doing this because you like to move your arm or is it because you feed on the frustration of these poor fish?" said Lug cynically.

He had developed an annoyance for this old woman who was slipping into the cemetery by who knows what magic, no gate or wall seemed to stop that witch.

"Ohohoh, you're always so prickly! But you're right, the water is frozen I hadn't been paying attention, ohohohoho."

She took a step back, rolled up her sleeve and punched the ice with all her might. It cracked open with great noise.

Thick pieces of ice flew in all directions.

Lug jumped to his feet, surprised by what he had just seen.

After this feat, she sat down on the edge of the fountain and began throwing small pieces of bread into the newly appeared hole.

He looked at his watch, tapping it.

"I'll leave you to it, I have a guest who should be here any minute," he said, sweating and confused by what had just happened.

Lug rationalized this event by telling himself that the ice was thin or that a rush of adrenaline can give superhuman strength, even to a decrepit old woman.

But whatever he thought, he felt it :

« This woman is definitely not normal. »