Yasmine continued to look around to try and find Monty. But trying to find someone who was invisible was not really an easy task, especially if they didn’t want to be found. She didn’t even know why he left in the first place. All she did was answer the phone.

“Is there some kind of ghost rule about talking on the phone?” She thought, finding the idea rather dumb in her head, so she shook it away and decided to look around to see if he was in one of the rooms.

“Monty!?” Yasmine called out, trying to find him, walking into one room after another. “Monty, this isn’t funny. Where are you?” she said, sounding a little frustrated now. As she continued to look around, she saw no sign of him, nor did she get a response. When she got back into the living room, she frowned deeply and searched the room. Her boxes of things were still a disordered mess. the one she had tripped over had items spilled out all over the floor.

“Why did you leave?” asking herself the only question on her mind. Yeah, she had planned on living alone here, and she hadn’t expected there to be anyone to talk to, but after talking with her former imaginary friend…She felt so alone without him. She still wished she knew how or why she had forgotten him for all these years. Why was it that only the first night stuck with her all these years?

Without any answers to any of her questions, Yasmine let out a heavy sigh and started to clean up the living room and get to unpacking. Unable to handle the silence, she put in a pair of earbuds and turned on some music from her phone. It helped, but wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was all she could do right now.

“What are you doing, you idiot.” Matt chided himself as he sat on the railing outside of the small home, staring out into the sparse surrounding meadow and down the paved road that led to the town. He wasn’t sure why he exactly fled when she started talking on the phone. Something inside told him that she didn’t need his help anymore and he would simply be an unwelcome guest. The fact that she remembered him was a shock already. He just hoped that she wasn’t too upset at getting scared by him earlier.

“She isn’t a little girl anymore…let her live her life. It was a mistake to show myself again.” He whispered, trying not to let his own attachments ruin her life. He could still hear her in the house shouting his name. It took every ounce of willpower he had to not react. To simply let her go.

When he listened to the conversation Yasmine had over the phone, it turned out to be a bit of a wake up call for him. When he heard that someone was obviously interested in her, he knew he would only be in the way. With a faux heavy sigh, Matt sat there, doing his best to ignore the calls for him. Thankfully, they came to a stop eventually, and the sound of boxes being moved and unpacking continued.

More sure than ever that she would be able to move on without him. His eyes closed slowly, and he let the rest of the world fade away as the hours began to pass.

Though Monty was never far from her mind, Yasmine managed to get just about everything unpacked and put in a place that wouldn’t be in the way. Feeling her forehead slick with sweat, she fanned herself a bit. It took a good few hours to get everything done.

“I need a shower.” She complained as she walked into her bedroom and grabbed some PJ’s from where she put them in the antique dresser in the master bedroom. Taking them into the bathroom, she closed the door behind her. As she went to undress, Monty crossed her mind once more. What if he was actually here and just watching her?

The thought really only existed for a few moments before she couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh. Her instincts told her that not only would he never do something like that. He probably still saw her as a kid. After all, from how he spoke, she had to assume the ghost was around her grandpa’s age. Yasmine shook her head with a smile, but she felt a sadness that welled up within her. For a being so cold, Monty always seemed to bring out a warmth in her when she thought of him.

Yasmine proceeded to strip down and take her shower without worry, letting the warm water wash away the day’s stresses. After she was finished, she got into her pajama’s and got ready for bed. It was still early in the evening at this point, but she had to be up early for her new job’s orientation. Crawling into the large bed that creaked and squeeked from the old box spring it was set upon, she pulled out her phone to play on a bit before trying to sleep.

An hour later, Yasmine was simply lying there in bed, staring at the ceiling. No matter what she did, sleep would not come. She almost never had trouble sleeping in the past, aside from when she was a kid. Her mind simply would not shut off. The events of the day kept repeating in her head, from running into Byrant to finding out that Monty was actually a ghost who watched over and played with her as a kid. It was just so much, and not that things were quiet. She felt…alone.

She sat up in bed and brought her knees up to squish her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. It was dark and unfamiliar, the only light from the moon peeking through the curtains. The feeling of unease was unbearable. It felt like she was about to cry, but she refused to let herself. She was twenty two now, damn it, she was way too old to be afraid of the dark. With a deep breath, she steeled herself and quickly wiped away the small amount of moisture that gathered at the corner of her eyes.

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Yasmine was about to try and get some sleep again when the glint of something caught her eye. It looked almost like a thread hanging down in front of her. Confused at first, she looked up, not really seeing anything till the rays of light from the moon hit the thread. She followed it down until she found the creator of the thread. Slowly descending was a tiny spider that was slowly heading for Yasmine’s bed. With a breath of hesitation, she suddenly let out an ear splitting scream and scrambled out of bed.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” she screeched as she moved out of bed so fast she tumbled out and fell on the floor but popped up quickly, placing her hand on her rapidly beating heart.

Matt's trance like state was abruptly broken as the sound of Yasmine's scream echoed through the house and outside. Without a second thought, his protective nature kicked in and he barreled through the house. He flew through the walls to end up in the room, she stayed in as a kid, but quickly realized his mistake and phased through the wall and into the master bedroom where Yasmine was up against the wall, cowering in fear.

“Yasmine! Are you alright? What’s wrong!?” The sound of Monty’s voice suddenly shouted in concern. Yasmine’s heart was beating so fast she didn’t even stop to think about how he was suddenly back. She pointed in abject horror to the bed, shaking badly.

“S-s-spider!” She shouted again, letting out a sound of being completely creeped out.

“A… spider?” Matt said, followed by a stunned silence before he flicked the light on.

“Yes, a spider, now kill it!” Just the thought of it possibly crawling on her while she was asleep made her skin crawl.

“…Pffft hahaha.” The sound of laughter filling the room came from the disembodied voice by the door, but Yasmine did not find it very funny at all.

“It's not funny, Monty. Please!” she begged him as he continued to laugh to himself, trying to calm down.

“Haha, I know, I know, just… just give me a second.” Slowly, the laughter died down, and soon after, a tiny spider, no bigger than Yasmine’s pinky nail, was lifted from the bed on Matt’s invisible finger.

“What are you doing? Kill it!”

“I’m not going to kill it. Spiders are good. They eat harmful pests and keep to themselves.”

“Dropping down in front of my face is not keeping to itself!” She growled as she watched the tiny spider slowly float through the air and over to the window, where it was opened and flicked outside.

“There, now it's far away and you can-” He was interrupted by a fast approaching Yasmine stomping up to him with a scowl on her face. Almost like she knew exactly where he was, she started swinging her arms through his intangable body.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“You stupid idiot, disappearing like that suddenly and not even telling me where you were going. Do you know how worried I was, you friggin’ jerk!” She growled as she flailed through him. He was a bit stunned by what he was hearing.

“I…” He tried to say something, but he was stunned as he watched as a few tears of either frustration or worry fell from her eyes.

“L-let me hit you!” she complained, pulling her arm back for another swing, fully expecting her hand to go right through him again. But instead, the sound of a loud clap filled the room, and her eyes went wide. Looking up at where she made contact, she blinked in confusion.

He had let her smack him across the cheek, the dulled sense of pain quickly vanished as he let his physical manifestation fade. To Yasmine it felt like she had just hit something that was cold and clammy, it was a hard sensation to describe. She wasn’t sure if she had ever really hit anyone seriously before. Her next words came out shaky and confused.

“Monty… W-why did you let me hit you?” She asked, knowing the answer deep down, but she had to ask. Quickly wiping the few tear drops from her face.

“Because… you asked me, " he said with an invisible smile, but she didn’t need to see it, she could feel it. Yasmine felt her heart thump in her chest for a beat, but she quickly remembered that she was still angry at him.

“But why did you leave earlier when I was on the phone? Did you hear me calling for you? Where did you go?” She said, rattling off questions, desperately wanting answers. “Are you going to disappear again?”

Matt sadly looked down at the petite woman. The way she looked genuinely distraught tugged at his dead heartstrings. Letting out a sigh, Matt knew he just needed to tell her the truth and get it over with already and stop keeping things a secret from her. If she ended up being the reason he was forced to move on, then he would leave with no regrets.

“The truth is, Yasmine, that I don’t want to be the reason you can’t live a normal life. I had my time, I lived… well, I think I lived a good, long life. I bet it was my selfish nature that turned me into a ghost. I refused to let go or something.” Truthfully, Matt didn’t remember how he died at all or how he ended up a ghost. He had bits and pieces of memories from when he was alive, but nothing was solid.

Yasmine just stared at the blank space where she was sure Monty was. The look she was trying to give him was one of absolute disbelief.

“You think… I can’t live a normal life?” She was confused, but the last part of what he said was just so outrageous and backward.

“Not with me around. I’m a gosh darn ghost, Yazzie. Do you really think anything can be normal while I’m around?… I would be better if I just stayed out of your way,” He said somberly, knowing it was true, but it had to be said. “I never should have revealed myself to you again.” They both grew silent at this.

Yasmine’s head lowered to look down at the floor, her hands balled into fists. He was being so self sacrificial, trying to give up his own happiness for hers. But him leaving wouldn’t make her happy, the opposite really. She still had so much to ask him, so much to catch up on. Her hands shook slightly in an emotion she didn’t even know was. The only thing she knew was she refused to abandon her friend.

“I don’t want normal… I want you, Monty.” She said, looking up at him, knowing somehow that she was gazing into his eyes this time.