FellPoth Short Stories and One-Shots

Haunted Memories: Chapter 4

Chapter Warnings: Swearing

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Lotus trudged up the cement stoop of his apartment building, bidding cool riddance to the cool evening air and the dimming sun as he stepped into the lobby bathed in cheap fluorescent lighting. Glancing at the receptionist to find her nodding off in her chair in a way that seemed appropriate for her old age, the skeleton let out a yawn in solidarity as he headed for the stairs.

"About to conk out already?"

Lotus sighed and kept moving, ignoring Rurik's attempts at conversation. As mundane as the action seemed, the ghost knew it got him weird looks the first time he responded in view of someone else and had begun using it to pester him; it was one of the few ways they could be a nuisance without it falling into 'causing problems' territory and it was easier to simply ignore them until he was behind a closed door.

Shutting said door, Lotus turned and gave the spirit a withering look, "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Nope," Rurik reclined back with a smug grin.

Lotus put on a grin of his own as he jabbed, "Didn't know you were so proud to admit that you wait in the downstairs lobby for me to come home every day like a lost puppy."

He had to hold back a snort as Rurik sputtered, "Wh- I have not been waiting for you! I just knew what time you would get home so I could bug you!"

"Oh, so you've taken enough interest in me to learn my schedule?" the reaper quipped.

"No!" the ghost blurted out, almost sounding childish in his denial, "Why would anyone be interested in you?!" Satisfied that he had tweaked Rurik's bruised ego enough, he took his bag to the bedroom and traded it out for a pair of pajamas. Walking out to find the room silent, Lotus assumed his roommate went to go pout somewhere in the apartment complex again and continued his walk to the bathroom.

Closing the door and scanning the room to make sure Rurik wasn't trying to peek again, Lotus turned on the shower and began undressing. Slipping past the curtain once the water was warm enough, he relaxed as the heat soothed away the aches in his bones, though it didn't quite help his still-aching feet. "Ah, screw it," he grumbled, grabbing his soap and washcloth to sit on the floor of the tub with only his feet under the spray; the relief was nearly instantaneous.

Letting the water soothe away the stress of standing for ten hours, he began to lather up the washcloth and massage the suds into his bones. The convenience store he worked at was clean enough, but some of the more unsavory customers he had to deal with along with the less-than-pleasant commute through the smoggy neighborhood had made nightly showers a necessity for him to actually feel clean; with this, he could go to bed feeling refreshed so he could endure the next day's toil.

Sitting under the spray until the water ran cold, he goaded himself into standing once more to turn the showerhead off and grab his towel. He wasted no time drying himself and throwing on his pajamas in case Rurik got the wise idea to burst in, but his caution turned out to be unfounded even as he stepped out of the bathroom with his wet towel and dirty clothes to find the apartment just as empty as before. "I suppose he's still moping...," Lotus hummed as he stored the clothes away in a mesh laundry bag until he could get it all down to the laundromat.

Knowing he shouldn't go to bed hungry, Lotus opened the fridge and grumbled when he realized what he forgot yesterday, "Shit... I suppose I'm cooking tonight..." Grabbing a package of frozen ground beef and a box of hamburger helper, he set to defrosting the meat while the noodles and sauce heated up in the pan.

As he dumped the defrosted meat into the waiting pan, a voice behind him asked, "What are you making?"

"Food," Lotus yawned as he pushed the sizzling meat and noodles around with his spatula.

"I guessed that much," Rurik growled, "Whatever, it smells burnt."

Lotus glared at the spirit, "The meat hasn't been in the pan damn near long enough to-" he paused as Rurik's words caught up to him, "wait, you can smell things?"

"... Kind of?" the ghost shrugged, "If the scent is strong and it's nearby, I can smell it..."

Lotus mulled over the information, "Huh... I didn't know ghosts still had a sense of smell. I thought they could only retain sight and hearing after death; if that."

"Yeah, well it's a pain in the ass when you can't eat," Rurik huffed, crossing their arms with a sour look.

"Hmm... sorry, there's not much I can do about that," the reaper muttered in apology; he couldn't starve himself just because Rurik couldn't eat what he's cooking.

Rurik cocked his skull in confusion, "Why are you saying sorry? Not like you were the one that decided ghosts can't eat."

Lotus wanted to curse the slip, but instead feigned indifference as he shut off the stove and muttered, "I'm probably just tired after spending the day apologizing for shit that wasn't my fault." Fortunately, Rurik seemed to accept the answer as he began dishing out a portion of the food while storing the leftovers for future meals.

Shoving the plastic container into the fridge and grabbing a fork, he flopped down on the couch and started digging in. "You're not turning the T.V. on?" Rurik whined.

"It's late and I don't want to get caught up in a show," Lotus explained around a mouthful of food.

"Lame," Rurik groused, trying to move a stray pencil into position to activate the remote; watching the ghost was fairly entertaining in its own right, and he took note that their fine control of physical objects was actually starting to get better when he actually managed to exert enough pressure to hit the power button, "Hah, that wasn't so hard."

"Now can you change the channel?" Lotus asked, nearly snorting noodles at the dumbfounded look and subsequent cursing he got in response. Shoveling the rest of his food into his mouth while Rurik tried to repeat the process with the number buttons, he dumped the rinsed plate into the kitchen sink while holding back laughter, "Well you have fun with that. I'm going to bed, so try not to hit the volume button by mistake."

Rurik glared at him through the kitchen's opening wall, "Oh, piss off!"

"Will do," Lotus cackled, heading for the bedroom amid the ghost's ranting. Closing the bedroom door on the noise in the living room, he took a moment to catch his breath and make sure his alarm was set on his phone before turning out the light and crawling into bed.

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Word Count: 1,156