GIRLS will be GHOSTS

Chapter 4 | Deep Breath

The door blew open with a gust of cold air blowing out from the interior. Standing before Iris was a girl around the same age as herself, with the instantly recognizable transparent glow of a spirit. She was dressed in a large sweater and long baggy pants, smelling of salty sea water. She was slightly chubby, had wavy hair going down her neck to just before her shoulders and was slightly taller than Iris. "You must be Chell." The girl looked Iris up and down before replying in a cheery tone. "The one and only! So you'll be my new roomie, huh? Come inside!" Chell stepped to the side and allowed her new roommate to enter their shared housing.

The room was an assault to the senses. It smelled of burnt weed, the beach, and bacon. Walls were plastered with posters of various 80s and 90s rock bands such as Metallica, Guns N' Roses, even Weezer. The posters seemed to be worn out as if they had been sitting there for years. The floor had clothes and takeaway food piled up everywhere, making it a complete fire hazard. Iris stepped forward into the room and almost threw up from the smell, if she could throw up. It was freezing cold in the room, air conditioning unit in the corner on full blast. 

The two single beds in the room had been placed together to create a large double bed, full of dirt and food debris. A small gas stove sat in the corner, currently cooking multiple strips of bacon in a frying pan. Moving closer to inspect the damage of the room, Iris could barely see where she was stepping, accidentally pressing down on the cold steel of an M1911, setting it off. The bullet shot directly across the floor, hitting a half empty cup of instant noodles that started leaking onto the floor. Iris turned to apologize, only for Chell to laugh. "Don't worry about it! Those noodles were months old!"

What fresh hell is this? Am I expected to coexist with this ghoul?

"Nice place you got here." Iris said through gritted teeth, attempting a smile. Chell perked up at this comment. "Thanks! I try my best to make it feel like home. Now let's get you set up." Carefully tiptoeing over to the bed, she pulled off the large blanket from one of the beds and pushed it over to the other side of the room with ease. It dragged across the floor, and Iris could swear she saw the legs scrape through a solid puddle of coffee cemented in the ground.

It's like the coffee has become part of the floor boards, intertwined like some fucked up marriage of wood and coffee.

Iris was snapped out of this train of thought as Chell dragged her over to Iris' bed, plopped her down and sat cross legged from her, leaning in closely. "So, how did you die?" It was an unexpected conversation topic so soon into their roommate-ship, but not entirely unexpected. With a long sigh. "The short story is I was working at the grocery store, then some dickhead shot me in the head trying to rob the joint." The sparkle in Chell's eyes was gone. "Shot in the head? Boring! I was stranded at sea for a WEEK before dying of dehydration!" Iris just had to laugh at the simple absurdity of this response. "Sorry, it's not funny." Chell didn't seem to care, she was already infatuated with another point of interest.

"What about the wings, how was that? Can I touch them?" Iris was hesitant, but submitted to the request, nodding her head. She moved in and let Chell touch them, slightly wincing in pain. "It was probably the second worst thing that's happened to me today." Iris attempted a smile. Technically it was. Chell gasped as she saw the open back of her shirt, giving a full view of Iris' cut open back. "We need to get you a new shirt right away!" She jumped up and ran over to a pile of slightly cleaner clothes in the corner. Throwing clothes back at Iris, she eventually stumbled upon a dirty blue jacket with an extra zipper cut into the back and two holes for what could only assumed to be a pair of wings.

"This was owned by my previous partner. Should fit." She chucked the shirt at Iris, who attempted to put it on. Unzipping both sides, the jacket fell apart into two halves, perfect for fitting onto her huge wings. It was a struggle to get it on, but eventually the back zipper was done up, and Iris no longer felt the cold air stinging at her fleshy wound. Try as she might to ignore it, her body was still in an enormous amount of pain, never lessening the terror upon her soul. Strangely, after the jacket was fitted, it was adorned with the same transparent glow as the rest of Iris' body. Chell pulled her off the bed and towards a singular standing mirror on the wall. Looking herself up and down, Iris was not exactly rocking the fit. From top to bottom, she had a weary look upon her face, only accentuated by the growing bags under her eyes. Next was the giant white bird wings attached to her. She still couldn't understand why Cosmo would do this to her. Going further down was the dagger still in her hand. Iris was afraid to even look at it after what she had been told about it. Finally going further down her jeans were entirely untouched, combined with the slightly blemished white sneakers on Iris' feet.