Ghost of You

Eighteen

Vanessa stood in front of Stevie, her gaze dropping to the floor. "I know it sounds crazy but what I felt with Fletcher...it didn't feel wrong" she began.

"I know. When it's true love, it never feels wrong, no matter the circumstances."

"I was in the attic, weeks passing after my Fletcher had..." The beautiful wraith stopped, tears in her eyes. "I wondered what would come of me. The implications a woman like me would have to endure..."

"Unwed"

"Yes, and expecting, especially once everyone knew the father of my child, I would be an outcast, but none of that mattered to me much then. I was writing letters to the child growing in my womb, wanting to document the experience for myself as well as when they grew older. My sister flew up to my room like a banshee in the night and saw me writing at my desk. She threw wild accusations at me, as if I lured men for sport..." Vanessa turned to her mirror, a scene coming into view. Stevie moved closer, paying as much attention as she could, so she had something to report to Fletcher.

"Josephine!" Vanessa exclaimed.

"You harlot! How dare you go after a woman's husband, especially your own sister! Do you have no decency?!" Josephine's soft ginger hair flew wild about her face. She was in mourning, yes, but prone to sweeping fits of rage.

"Sister, I--" Vanessa stood up from the desk, pressing herself toward the corner of the room. She placed a protective hand over her stomach and her sister gasped.

"Do not tell me you've got a bastard in there?!" She shouted, suddenly rushing towards Vanessa and wrapping a hand around her throat

"Josephine, I am so sorry, but Fletcher and I are in love...we made this baby out of love."

"How can you stand there and feel no shame whatsoever?"

"Because I love him! And he loves us!"

Josephine shuffled them over to the large push open window, leaning her sister against it, Vanessa crying when she felt it moving under her back

"Mother always told me you were the bad one, the one without morals and Daddy, he always protected you, treated you like a princess!"

"No, please!"

"I hate you! I hate you for what you've done!" Josephine's eyes went from angry to blank, black holes and Vanessa became even more terrified. What had possessed her sister? With one final push, Vanessa was out the window, falling to her death below in the garden among the roses her mother had planted that spring. Josephine panicked, looking about the room. She heard loud footsteps, most likely their father Reginald, a former general in the United States Army. A lamp sat next to Vanessa's desk and she picked it up, smashing it against the wall, setting the curtains ablaze. She went toward the door, smoke filling the room and bumped directly into her father on the stairs. Tears came to her eyes and her father grabbed her shoulders.

"I heard shouting" he said.

"Oh, daddy, it's Nessie! She's done something terrible! She's...she's thrown herself out the window!"

"No..." he said, passing her and shoving himself through the door of Vanessa's bedroom, coughing and gasping. "Oh, sweet girl!" her father cried and Josephine smiled, wiping her tears.

The mirror faded, back to black, Stevie was in tears, covering her face as she cried

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry that you were murdered!"

"Please, I beg you, tell Fletcher what happened! I couldn't spend the rest of eternity knowing he thought I killed myself with our child..."

Stevie was about to speak when she thought about her pains "Oh my god...you didn't die straight away did you...?"