Transparent ✖️

1 - Ghostly Visitor

The sun had infiltrated your living room, waking you up with pain as it hit your opening eyes. Like a reflex, you sat up on the couch, searching around yourself and found your phone. You took it and saw multiple missed messages. Some were from Nik, but most of them were from your mother. Sighing, you closed the screen and stretched.

A huge yawn escaped your mouth, and you were going to get up before seeing something- someone sitting at your feet.

"H-Huh...?" You rubbed your eyes multiple times, but nothing changed.
"..." The man at your feet kept silent, looking at you.
"Um... Hello?" You said awkwardly.
"..!" His expression changed into one of surprise. "You.. see me? Can you hear and see me?"
You nodded slowly, still tired. Were you half-awake, still dreaming or even hallucinating?
"Hah.. That's... That's a relief." You heard him say to himself.

Instead of getting up, you changed your position on the couch to one where you were on your hands and knees, and you went closer to him. You saw him bring his arm up, like to protect himself. It didn't do anything, since you took your index finger and poked his cheek. Except, you went through him completely.

He quickly got up, and you sat back on your knees.
"I'm sorry; that scared me." He gazed around, trying to look elsewhere. It was faint, but you saw him blush.
"Are you a ghost?" You asked a little bit too casually.
"'A ghost'... I suppose so? I'm not exactly sure what I am... It's the first time someone saw me in this state."
"'In this state'? You weren't a ghost from the beginning?"
"I actually was a Servant; a Neutral. I lived here before I got...." he trailed off.
"...? You got what?" You looked at him confused.
"... I'm not sure. I knew what I was talking about but, it feels like I forgot everything I wanted to say."

A silence broke in, and during that silence, your slowly waking mind and logic started to roll. He's a ghost, but was a Servant before. There is nothing that said Servants can become ghosts. Logically, he died since now he's a ghost. But the questions were 'how' and 'why'.
You also took your time to see how he looked like. Black hair with a lock in the middle of his face, golden eyes, spot under his right eye, well built, kind of your type. However, he seemed very anxious and kept his hand close to his spot under his eye.

"What's your name?" You asked.
"Diarmuid. Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. Lancer class." He said, bowing down.
"Ah, the famous Diarmuid of the Love Spot." 'That's why he keeps his hand close to his spot. Is he scared I'll get charmed?' You said to yourself.
He blushed. "Y-Yes. I'm sorry for my impoliteness. I should've said who I was at the beginning." He bowed lower.
"It's fine. I'm [y/n] [l/n]." You finally got up and took the fallen blanket from the ground, laying it on the couch.
"Nice to meet you, Miss [l/n].—"
"[y/n]. My first name is fine."
"A-Ah! Alright, my bad."

You hated it when people talked to you with respectful names such as 'Miss' or 'Madam'. Just [y/n] was fine, and you liked it simple.

"So, how long were you here?" You questioned, walking towards the kitchen to make yourself a bowl of cereal.
"Here in this house? I'm not exactly sure. I've lost count of time. Being alone here has felt like an eternity..."
"You're telling me I'm the first person you interacted with for a while? What about the others that were in this house before me?" Your brows furrowed in confusion and slight anger. The fact he said he was alone for so long so casually broke a part of your heart.
"Yes. The others before you didn't see me. You're the first... actually, the only living person who can see and hear me."

Although his eyes had such a bright golden color, you saw the obvious shadow of sadness looming within them.
"I'm sorry."
He gazed at you with confusion. "What for?"
"I feel bad for you. I don't know how you did it, being and feeling alone for so long." Your head looked down to the bowl with milk-less Fruit Loops, sudden sadness filling your being.
He appeared beside you in an instant, basically teleporting from in front of the counter facing you to beside you. You looked at him, and he forced a smile as he crouched down to meet your eyes. "Hey, it's okay. I couldn't do anything about it. Please don't feel such negative feelings because of me."

Before you could answer him, the doorbell started ringing loudly throughout the house.
"Who the hell is that?" You said to yourself in annoyance.
The doorbell rang multiple times and you felt veins popping out of your head.

"Who is it?" You said as calmly as possible beside the door.
"A deeeemoooonnnn!" A familiar voice said, trying to be scary.
Opening the door, Nik was in front of you. "SURPRISE!!"
"What in the fuck are yo—"
"Where's my bed?" He barged in.
"Oi, Nik, what are you doing here?"
"Visiting. Duh. What else."
"You're supposed to come in a couple of months. Not fucking hours."
His brows furrowed. "Someone's not happy."
"I'm tired..." you rubbed your eyes to prove your point.
Nik went to the kitchen, and you saw Diarmuid moving out of the way. He went to your fridge and opened it. His mouth dropped. "Dude, where's the good shit?"
"What...?" You looked at him.
"The good shit. Food. All I see is milk and eggs."
Diarmuid stared at him, a mix of confusion and anger in his face. He gazed at you, trying to get answers, and you simply smiled. He instantly relaxed, and you saw him sigh.
"Since I am an amazing friend, and basically your not related big brother, let me go buy us- I mean you some food. I'll come back soon!" Nik grabbed his wallet and ran out the house.

"He's..."
"Yeah, he's special." You softly giggled.
"Heh." He scoffed with joy.
"Don't mind him. He's just looking out for me." You said as you grabbed the milk from the fridge, and finished making your bowl of Fruit Loops.

Nik had always been there for you ever since you were young. He was a year older than you, and liked to call himself your 'not related big brother'. You always kept things to yourself, having trouble to communicate with others and never bothered to do something that wasn't absolutely essentiel. Without him, you would've stayed in place for many years, and never had grown like you are now. Your social skills had improved, but still not the best.

Diarmuid had easily noticed that about you, even though you met each other barely an hour ago.

"Hey, Diarmuid?"
Hearing you talking to him, he went out of the small daze he was in and looked at you. "Yes?"
"So not even Nik saw you?"
"... ... No."

You took a spoonful of your cereal, ate it and gazed at his ghostly self.

"It might be a burden for me, since I'll have to act like you don't exist, but maybe Nik'll understand. He always understood me. He most probably will you."
The soft smile that naturally came to your face made him blush...

... and he genuinely smiled back.
"Thank you, [y/n]."