Ghost

Process

"Julie." says a soft masculine voice. She opens her eyes, seeing nothing but a blur towering over her face.

"Dad?" she says in a broken voice.

"Julie, sweetie, are you okay? It's four in the afternoon." he says, caressing her.

"What?" she says, rubbing her face.

"It's four in the afternoon, sweetie."

"Dad, he texted me. Marcus is dead." she says, looking at him.

"What? How do you know?"

"He texted me from Marcus' cell phone. He has my phone too." she says, scratching her head. She leans up from the covers as Mr. Borne puts his arm around her.

"Dad, I saw him in my dreams. When he's not here, he's in my head. I'm not safe anywhere." she says, hugging on her father. He holds her tightly, kissing her head. She gets up and walks to the bathroom, as Mr. Borne walks out of her room down to his office.

She walks down the stairs, looking out of the window and watches the yellow police tape pulse in the wind outside of her driveway. She pauses, closing her eyes, before taking a deep breath and continues to walk down the steps with the tablet in her arms. Opening the fridge, Julie places her tablet on the counter. She rubs her arm through her wet clothes.

Last night must've been intense.

"reese, u busy today?" she types.

"No ma'am, why?" Reese responds. Whenever Julie texted him, he'd always call her ma'am. It was pretty weird, but it was sort of sweet and gentleman-like.

"can you come w me to the library?" "Yes ma'am. What time?"

"idk yet. in an hour?"

"Sure. I'll meet you there." Julie locks her tablet again and rushes to the stairs. She dashes in the bathroom and closes the door. Wearing nothing but flesh, she runs the steamy shower. She steps inside, warm water pelting on her body. She closes her eyes and allows the water to splash on to her face. Hot showers have always been a type of cleanse in superstitions; the warm water opens pores, allowing one to release their impurities into the steam, melting them away in the heat. She turns the knob after ten minutes and grabs a nearby towel, drying herself.

In a pair of jeans and a red shirt, she steps down into the living room, poking her head into her Dad's office.

"Dad. I'm going to the library for a bit with Reese." she says. Mr. Borne takes off his visuals and looks at Julie with a stern face.

"Don't you think you should stay home after what happened?"

"I'm only going to do some research, and I'll head home as fast as possible." He looks at Julie and shakes his head.

"Go on then. Be extremely careful, doll. Please. I don't want anything else to happen to you." he says. She smiles at him and says "I love you."

"I love you." responds her Dad, only it's not his voice. Julie tilts her head in confusion.

"John?"

"What?" her father says.

"Nothing, nothing." Julie says and starts for the door. As she places her foot on the mat, she feels something hard under it. She looks down and finds her cell phone, laying on the mat. She picks it up, looking at it in awe. Her instinct tells her to shove it in her pocket, so she does it and continues to walk to her car.

She continues to think about the cell phone and Dana. What does he want? No, that's not it. The real question is, how does he know where she lives?