Ghost

Chapter Thirty One

                      
                                  Spencer's POV

   I burned all of it. The mask, the clothes, old burners, anything and everything I could find or think of that made the Ghost real. It's all in ashes now. I guess blown away by the wind to other destinations.

   It was weird, watching it all burn. It was my life for so long. Something I hid behind, pretending I was doing shit. It was a limb that I cut off and now I have to figure out how to live without it; how to function without its existence.

   Because it was more than symbolic: I burnt the Ghost, too. They're gone. For good. I let the location of where the ghost was taking shelter slip up. Yes, another lovely nugget of info for the avengers. Remember that empty warehouse I was holing up in? Yup. That's the one.

   I stayed a safe distance away. And as I sat on another high building, feet dangling off the edge as I munched on a peach, I watched the avengers rush to find any source of life left in the now burnt to a crisp building.

     All they found were some bones, maybe some half burnt clothing that would lead them nowhere, and whatever the hell else would be left from a building that was lit on fire.

     To anyone else, it looks like someone got to the Ghost first; some unknown person trying to get revenge and they got it. Making the Ghost really nonexistent and burning the building they were in to the ground.

     The avengers didn't seem to say much. They just kind of looked around at what was left, not looking at the burnt corpse for too long. They saw what I wanted them to see; the death of the ghost.

     Now, I know the corpse was planted, struck the match to burn this place to smithereens myself.  Made sure all my stuff was there and that it seemed a believable death. Kind of thought I'd go out in more of a blades of glory style than this but I'm still  actually alive so. It wasn't much but it worked. Took a bit to get all the details planned out. Not going to lie, it wasn't all pretty. Had to remove the teeth from the skull. Nastiest shit I've ever had to do. (And also the weirdest.)

   Relax! I didn't kill anybody, jeepers. I wasn't going to start my new life by murdering someone to do it. I know a guy at a morgue. Not every corpse gets claimed and he owed me.

   Planning my death was weird. I had to make sure the avengers knew and that they would believe the information they received. Had to plant all the evidence. Had to make sure they would come, not that they had to be here as the final pieces were burning; that was just poetic justice at work.

   And the body. You know how people talk about dead weight? Yeah, well it wasn't fun nor easy lugging that around.

   This was my final masterpiece; the last thing I'll compose as the ghost the world knows and feared. Yeah, they won't know it was me that did it, but it was pulled off flawlessly *insert chefs kiss*.

   To sum it all up; I killed off my alter ego.

   The Ghost is dead.

   The world keeps turning.

———————

   Yes, Yelena knows. After staying at the safe house for a day, I went right back to our place after dropping off the package in hopes she'd be there so I could just divulge of those past couple of weeks events. She wasn't there until two days later, letting me to stew and start freaking out without her.

      Once she was caught up to speed on what I had done and why, she had hugged me. For a really long time, tears streaking both of our faces.