Living in the basement isn't exactly the best idea... But I suppose it's the only way... and technically I wasn't living. My body was hidden behind one of the back walls, completely untouched. However, my soul could move anywhere. I decided to stay in my house. I hoped that eventually I would scare everyone so badly they'd give up on me: They've already tried three exorcisms.
After I'd finally gotten the last family out (a couple with an annoying and greedy little boy), I started to feel lonely... Immortality isn't exactly fun if you have no one to spend it with. I stalked the corridors of my house for days, trying to find pleasure in ANYTHING. It was impossible.
When the realtors came to put up signs, I wanted to mess with them to help pass the time. A very thin woman in a pencil skirt and tight blouse started dusting and bringing show-furniture in. I made myself invisible and turned all the faucets on. She gasped when she came into the kitchen, shaking her head. She turned the faucets off and continued preparing the house.
Later, she started dusting the bathroom, the one with no windows. I made the lights flicker and go out. She just gasped again, and tried to turn the lights back on. I slammed the door. She was hyperventilating by that time and I laughed audibly, giving my voice an echo. She kept trying to turn the doorknob but I held it in place. Finally, I showed myself to her, altering my appearance so I looked like a woman who’d been stabbed repeatedly in the chest, and was bleeding. I made the lights flicker as I approached her. She was screaming. I laughed at her once more, and let her turn the lights back on, vanishing. She opened the door and ran out screaming. I laughed down in the basement until the loneliness swept over me again.....
chapter II
About a week later, a man came to look at his house. Actually, I could tell he was just sixteen or seventeen, but to others he looked in his early twenties. He was my age when I became a ghost…
One rainy day, after just talking to one of the reactors, the place was his. They took out the show furniture and he moved in, all within a week (mostly at night). I was amazed as they brought his stuff in. Soon the whole house had been converted. I watched invisibly as he put in different furniture, picking out rooms. Of all the furniture I never saw a bed. I was completely confused. He made the basement into his bedroom (which I resented). He put up dark red curtains in every room, matching the furniture. He never brought in a TV or computer, but thousands upon thousands of books. The entire house was a library when he was done. The last thing he brought in after dark -the thing that confused me the most- was a coffin down in the basement. He put it against the wall that my body, unmoving and frozen, lay behind.
He paid the men that had helped him move in and returned to the basement. He lay down in his coffin and closed the lid. Morning had just begun and he slept peacefully until dusk. I was shaking my head at him by then.
I returned to behind the wall to see my body. A young woman at age sixteen lay on the floor, her curly ash-brown hair spread around her face. Her skin was pale, brushed with a few freckles. She looked exactly the way she did when she lay down there: When I lay down there. If her eyes were to open, her eyes would be brown. She had given her human life up to be an immortal ghost by casting a spell. She could return to her body to be the same age as before, but that would mean aging as a human again, but with a shorter life. She had cancer. And who would want to do that when they could be immortal?
I ignored the pull toward my body and left to see what he’d done with the whole house. The bathrooms were untouched, as was the kitchen. Three rooms were filled with bookcases filled to the brim with books. I decided to look at all his books.
Most of them were classics: Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Dickinson… everything from poetry, to plays, to novels. Thousands of books hundreds of years old. I wished desperately that I could smell the leather binding, the dust and old paper. It used to be my favorite smell as a human. But I was just a ghost. Couldn’t feel, couldn’t smell or taste, couldn’t age. But that was the good part, I supposed. And I had telekinesis, could make myself invisible, walk through walls, as well as make people hallucinate. Life should be a dream, right?
Okay, I admit it. I was lonely and miserable. But I was more afraid of aging and… death.
When the red afternoon sun had sunk behind the trees, the man downstairs woke up. I traveled through the floor to watch him. His dark brown hair was a mess now, as if he had tossed and turned in his sleep. His grey eyes were sad and tired. He looked lonely, too. As lonely as I was. It was probably his loneliness that made me do it. I spoke, as a human would.
“Hello,” I said, quickly covering my mouth. He spun around towards me. I was invisible though.
“Who is there?” He said. He had a light British accent that made me smile. I allowed myself to become visible, taking my human form.
“I am,” I smiled weakly. He looked confused.
“What are you?”
“A ghost… nothing but a ghost.” He stood up and stepped out of his coffin. He looked me over.
“You don’t look like it…” he said as he approached me. He held out his hand to see what would happen: It went right through me. He gasped.
“Never met a ghost before?” I asked. He shook his head. “I probably shouldn’t be one. It’s sad and lonely to be immortal and unfeeling.” His eyes widened. “What?”
“Immortal and unfeeling…” He trailed off. He looked up into my eyes. “Immortality is horrible.”
“How would you know?” I asked. I looked him over. He sure as hell wasn’t a ghost.
“I am a vampire… I am immortal too.” I looked at him, puzzled.
“Vampires exist? You just look… human.” He laughed with the slightest amount of mirth.
“You do too, and of course they exist. Vampires exist just as much as ghosts…” He breathed in. “We’re not alone. I smell a human down here. Her heart is pounding in my head-”
“That’s me.” I swear, every time he looked at me, he looked more confused. I giggled. “My actual body is-” I stopped myself. He was a vampire. If he killed me in my body, I’d be stuck as a ghost forever. “Under the ground. I am still alive… it’s a spell that separates my soul from my body. I’m immortal that way.”
“Why don’t you just go back to your body if you are so lonely?” I shook my head.
“I’m more afraid of death than anything.” I looked down. He just looked angry. “What?”
“You can live… be normal and you chose not to? You choose to be miserable? What the hell is wrong with you!?”
“I just- I can’t- I don’t want to die. My body has cancer and… all the pain is unbearable.” He ground his teeth, and clenched his fists.
“It is better than being numb.” I shook my head.
“You’re lucky. You can feel things as an immortal-”
“But I have to kill for it! I have to murder innocent people every night, taking their blood just so I can live longer.”
“But at least-”
“Never mind! Just know that you aren’t the only one who suffered once.” He stalked off upstairs and I didn’t follow him. I stayed downstairs and thought about what happened, and what he said. ‘Pain is better than being numb…’
When he returned, it was nearly dawn. His skin was flushed, and I could sense the death around him. He’d killed somebody…
“What are you doing here?” He asked, exhausted. I only then realized I was visible.
“Oh- I, uh… nowhere else to go…” He sighed.
“Just-” He groaned and gave up, running a hand through his hair. He sighed again and shook his head at me. “Can I have my privacy?” I nodded and floated upstairs. I went to look at all of his books again.
While looking through the titles, I heard a soft sound from the basement. It was heart-breaking but beautiful, this soft sound. He was… sobbing? No, it was too lovely to be that. He was singing to himself. If I could cry, I would have. I felt something new, something I hadn’t felt since I was human. It was in my core, and sent shivers through me. It was remorse for another creature. The pull toward my body grew stronger, but I fought it. I lay down on one of his couches and waited for the sun to rise. My eyes were closing, and I was as close to sleep as I could be.
chapter III
When I grew bored of thinking to myself, it was night again. I hadn’t realized it, but he (I was shocked that I hadn’t yet asked his name) was coming up the stairs. I flew over to see him, making myself visible again as I moved.
“Good evening,” I said as pleasantly as I could manage. He just nodded. “Hey, um… I forgot to ask what your name was.”
“Lance,” he said without emotion, “and what would yours be?”
“Eliza.” He nodded again and headed toward the door. Warming up to his company (actually feeling kind of giddy, I should add), I kept trying to strike up a conversation.
“How did you sleep?” He rolled his eyes at me, which I ignored.
“Fine, considering I was being watched all night.”
“I wasn’t watching you, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked. I would’ve known.”
“Well, then.” He started toward the door again. I stepped in his way.
“Why are you so depressed all the time?” He groaned.
“Just go away. I’m tired of this.”
“Just give me a straight answer.”
“I am lonely and undead. Why shouldn’t I be depressed?”
“Because you can feel things.” He glared at me.
“This again? Seriously, get a life.”
“No thanks.”
“Ugh! Get out of my way. You are irritating and ignorant.”
“You’re a jerk.” He reached for the doorknob, right through me. I held the doorknob so it wouldn’t move.
“Let me leave!”
“Can’t we just talk for a while-”
“NO!” He broke down the door and turned toward me. “I WANT YOU OUT OF MY HOUSE BY THE TIME I GET BACK OR I WILL FIND YOUR BODY AND DRAIN IT!”
“Sorry-” He groaned and slammed the door back onto it’s hinges, muttering to himself down the steps. I sat on the couch, holding myself. I heard his already almost inaudible steps get fainter.
If I stayed, he’d kill me, but if I left I’d die slowly and painfully of cancer…
I decided to stay, but return to my body when he came back. He’d have to kill me then, and it would be quick, painless. I sighed. I still feared death though…
I sat by my body until I heard him come through the door. Something wasn’t right. He was panting, and there were louder footsteps behind him. He raced down the stairs and hid, something I never expected a vampire to do… Of course when I actually saw him, I realized that he was going to pounce on the one following him.
Another man in his early twenties came down the steps. I could hear his heartbeat. His blond hair was messy and his blue eyes were wild. He held a wooden stake in his right hand. He was much larger -muscle-wise- than Lance. Lance was going to die…
As the man came down the stairs, Lance readied himself to attack. I saw his fangs glinting in the dim light. The man came closer, reaching the bottom of the stairs. He was almost to where Lance was-
Lance leap at him.
In less than a minute of struggling, biting, clawing, punching, and kicking, the man had Lance pinned down. He raised the stake to give it force when he plunged it into his chest. Lance smiled and closed his eyes, looking peaceful… I wasn’t concentrated on that. I was concentrating on the man. As the stake came down, I threw him against the wall with my mind. I raised him up, choking him. I made the lights flicker and shatter. I altered the way I looked, like the same woman from before. His eyes were wide with fear. I made him see blood pouring in from the pipes, spiders coming in from the ceiling, and Lance killing those he loved. I suddenly released him from everything, dropping him on his knees. He looked up at me, terrified.
“Boo.” I’d never seen a man run faster or scream louder than he did as he ran out of my house. I couldn’t help but laugh as he ran out, screaming like a girl. I turned toward Lance. His eyebrows were raised. He didn’t look scared, he looked… impressed.
“Wow… you just… kind of…”
“Saved your ass? You bet I did.” I smiled at him… He smiled back. If I were in my body, my heart would’ve leap.
“Thank you.”
“No problem. Sorry about the lights, though.”
“It’s fine. I’m used to the dark.”
“I’m sorry about… earlier, too. I just feel so alone… There’s no one I can talk to, and if I can talk to them, they either run away or try to exorcise my house.” He chuckled.
“I guess I understand, so I forgive you. Just don’t get in my way if I want to leave.” I nodded. He stepped over to his coffin and opened the lid. Stepping carefully inside, he lay down.
“Um… Goodnight.”
“Actually it’s morning-”
“Whatever!” He laughed and closed the lid, leaving me in darkness and silence. For some reason, now my heart- my core- ached.
