And She Died Again ¦✔

~12~Ghost

Dedicated to Harunolary; she's totally amazing

My body sinks to the bottom
You were the last one to know
Never needed a home
but had nowhere else to go
Now I'm drifting to pieces

Time is slipping away  

~Tilian Pearson "Ghost"

Soft pelts of heavy rain drummed the high topped ceiling in pedestrian noise, adverse to the flurry of silence that had suddenly struck its dark claws into the room Ana Perla was currently in. She tuned her mind to the light sounds made by the incessant rain, hoping to make an unseeming escape from the entire conversation she was having with the sob raked ghost. She dreaded situations like this; she was duly known for her unsuccessful attempts at delivering bad news. That wasn't her field and she knew nature was right when it gave her no talent in that aspect.

"What do you mean by that?" Alicia stood abruptly from where she was hunched over, fiddling with the ends of her tattered ragged dress. The last dress she had walked the surface of the earth in, the last dress she had been herself in, the last dress she had been the happiest in. It didn't matter anymore since her exuberance the day she wore that dress was short lived.

"What do I mean by what?" Ana Perla asked feigning ignorance.

"Ana you just told me I'll cease to exist after a few days, which by my count is exactly ten days. I've ten days left Ana, I can't do anything in ten days." Alicia dipped her head in disbelief. "I can't afford to leave in ten days, do you even know what is at stake here?"

"Alicia dear, ghosts have a certain order they must follow."

"But Peter is also a ghost, and he has been around for about five years,"

"Who is Peter?" Ana Perla asked.

"One of my little ghost friends," Alicia answered in a cheery tone, but her face spoke volumes of how exasperated she was.

"Hmm that's quite interesting. Well then, I'm pretty sure your little ghost friend didn't tell you a lot about himself," Ana observed, lost in her thoughts.

"I know a great deal about Peter Marlowe. He told me how he used to help his dad run his bar upstate."

"Marlowe? That name sounds awfully familiar. Does it have anything to with Rudolph Marlowe,"

"Yeah I think that's name of his father. We didn't talk much about his family, I was more interested in his charming personality. He was quite a company and I must admit I not once but twice forgot I was a ghost at a point," Alicia intoned.

"Oh my goodness Alicia he was a crook when he was alive. Did he tell you much about the bar he and his father ran?"

"He doesn't look like a crook, he's an impeccably fine gentleman."

"Well I'm sorry to destroy the gentlemanly image of Peter, but he was the villain most stories elaborate on- when he was alive. The bar he run with his father was nothing less than a strip club. The Marlowes have many strip clubs splattered all over the globe. I heard a lot of telltales about them abducting girls and succumbing them into prostitution. You're lucky he was only but a ghost when you met him otherwise you would currently be stuck on a head-lighted stage playing strip tease with a bunch of peeves." Ana Perla trained her eyes on Alicia who looked numb, she would have probably lost her breath if she didn't already have one.

"I'm lost for words," Alicia muttered against her lips. She was partly surprised and annoyed. She couldn't believe she had spent most of her hours left on earth with someone as objectionable as Peter. "I'm surprised you know all this,"