Giselle and a Nightly Man-Eating Sorority

Giselle

One night, I woke up to find to my surprise Alec kneeling at my gravesite. Myrtha saw me and nodded, and, keeping with her previous promise, made it so that Alec could see me. "Giselle?" he wondered aloud, as if I were some deity for him to worship. I hastily helped him up. "Don't ever kneel to me. I am still me," I told him. "How can this be?" Alec asked.

I grinned. "I'm still trying to come to terms with all of this myself," I said. "You were not to blame for my death. Hal killed me. Myrtha told me that she made short work of him recently, and I thank her for it." Alec thought to himself for a moment. "Hal O'Keefe...The janitor?" he asked. I nodded.
"One and the same. I forgive you for lying to me." I said, desperately trying to believe my own words as I said them. I was still angry at him, but I wanted to hear him apologize.

Alec clasped my hand and tried to kiss it, only it faded from his touch. "I feared that if you knew I was made principal shortly after our meeting, you wouldn't go out with me. I was selfish, I'll readily admit. Oh Giselle, I miss you so much!" Alec cried. "If only we could have just one more night together!" "I'd love that, but it's not just me you need to ask," I said. "Queen Myrtha's magic is what may work around the spell that ties me to this gravesite." "But you're dead, what can happen to you if you leave?" asked Alec.

"There are more kinds of harm than that of the physical realm, Mr. Dubois," said Myrtha, cutting in. "Please!" I begged Myrtha. "Just give us one more night together, then I swear I'll never see him again!" I knew by now from numerous instances that Myrtha would grant me almost anything I wanted that was in her power, but I practiced the whole argument in my head prior to the conversation in case she refused. I couldn't help milking it.

"I'll do anything, Majesty! Want me to grovel? I'll grovel at your feet for as long as the moon orbits the earth. Just don't. Hurt. Him." After a long pause, Myrtha nodded reluctantly. "As you wish, Zelle. I will leave the boy unharmed. Enjoy your night together. Don't you dare defy me like this again," she said, playfully at the end.

I was ecstatic. "Oh, Myrtha! Thank you, thank you!" I exclaimed. "Don't thank me yet," said Myrtha, begrudgingly allowing a smile to warm up her face. "You won't be sorry, I promise," I said. "We'll see about that," said Myrtha.

Alec grabbed Myrtha's stony hand and smacked a kiss on it. She snatched her hand away and wiped it on her pants. "I don't, however, think that I should let one of my Wilis out unchaperoned with this kind of magic, and with a human man. Like I'm always telling you, Zelle darling. Men are dogs who are capable of any unspeakable horror if left unchecked. I will accompany Giselle on this last date night," said Myrtha. "That is, if you are willing, Zelle..." "Um, sure," I said. Alec nodded in agreement.

Alec and I chose to go to a rustic tavern nearby, somewhere we had frequented when I was living. At the first sight of a crowd, Myrtha tossed her hair and flounced over to an obscure corner of the establishment.

"Myrtha, wait!" I called after her. She looked over her shoulder. The Wili queen had changed into an outfit that was unusual for her, one that resembled something out of a 90's indie fashion print. The tavern firelight shone magnificently over her undead features, rendering them unexpectedly beautiful, albeit in a cold, unearthly way. "I don't care what kind of faithless filth you associate with, Zelle. I give you a night. You'll be bored of him before it's even up," Myrtha said frigidly, and then she stormed off. What's her deal? I thought.

Despite Myrtha's dramatic display, Alec and I strove to have a light-hearted time. He chugged pints of dark beer and got stared at for talking to me; someone no one else but he and Myrtha could see. We tried our hands at arcade games as we staked our supposed love in the same tenuous stakes as the games we played. While our hours were watered in golden laughter, a primal nerve gnawed at me as I felt Myrtha's eyes boring into my ghostly back.

I caught myself stealing glances at her. At first, I did so rarely and secretly, and then more frequently and openly. On one of these glances, I noticed that Myrtha was having a grand old time with sundry bar patrons who were all too eager to buy that gimlet-eyed grunge goddess some drinks.

Amidst a throng of her conquests, Myrtha caught my eye and ran her hand through her plentiful cascade of hair, tracing the velveteen lines of her lips with her merciless tongue. Her sleepy eyes taunted me, which caused me to glumly reconsider the company I had chosen to keep.

"Wild Rose" by Ellem was playing on the tavern jukebox. When the lyrics suddenly seemed too apt for words, I shook my head to shake the noise away along with it. My valuable attention is better employed elsewhere, I thought, even as a feverish tint crept beneath my ghost face. My My valuable time was better employed with Alec, I told myself. Wasn't it?

When the night ended, I was able to tell that Alec had a secret burning within him that he was desperate to share. After some light pressing from me, he eventually told me what was bothering him.
"Giselle, I should tell you something. There's this new principal dancer named Sophia.... She's asked me out multiple times, and every time I turned her down because I was still hung up on you," said Alec.

"I'm glad that I was able to receive and give closure, but I could never date a ghost. My therapist says I should focus more on what the living world has to offer and less on what's already dead and buried."
I blew Alec a kiss. "Of course, you must go out with Sophia," I told him. "I wish you both well." I stifled an easy grin as Alec feigned to catch my kiss and blow me one back. "I will never forget you, Giselle Dumas," said Alec. "You were a beautiful dancer and a beautiful human, and I will regale my future grandchildren with tales about you. I wish you a peaceful rest, and my only hope is that you will smile at me and Sophia."

Dawn was eminently breaking amidst the foreboding foliage of the evergreens and oaks. "Time's up," said Myrtha curtly, her shadow looming over us like that of a scythe-wielding goddess of death. I got the sense that her night and mine were jarringly different.
"I will pray for you!" Alec cried to me, blowing kisses even as he walked away, even as I fell back beneath the earth.