Halloween

1935

Marie shut the front door behind her and turned to head into her kitchen. Flinching at the man standing in her doorway, she sighed.
“Edward, could you try not to scare me like that?” she sighed.
“Apologies, my dear,” he said as he moved to the side so she could walk past.

Hearing a rumbling in her stomach, she realised she hadn’t eaten in a few hours.
“I hope you don’t mind if I make myself some food,” she said as she searched through the cupboards.
“Not at all,” he said.

Edward stayed relatively quiet as she made herself a sandwich.
“I noticed there’s no child.”
Marie looked down and took a deep breath. “I lost them,” she said quietly. “The doctor I saw said it might have been stress.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” he said. Marie wasn’t sure he was, she remembered his odd phrasing from before. She had the feeling he knew what would happen.

“I guess,” she said before taking a bite of her sandwich. “I just feel sort of bad about it, sort of guilty.”
“Why’s that?” he asked.
Marie shrugged. “I never wanted the child and just as I was coming to terms with it, I lost it. And I was stressing myself out over money and how I would work and if they would be a freak and that might have caused the miscarriage. Either that or it was deformed and couldn’t form properly. That’s what the doctor said, at least.”

It didn’t take long for her to finish eating the sandwich, especially since she hadn’t eaten for a while.
“Edward, why do you visit me? I can’t die,” she asked quietly. Edward took a step towards her.
“I enjoy talking to you, and I figure an immortal could do with some company,” he said as he reached out and held her hand.
“You like talking to me?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. Edward nodded. “Does it have anything to say about it?”
“Nothing more than it’s usual horrific thoughts, my dear.”

“I wish you didn’t hear them, imagine what you could have been,” she said, looking into his blue eyes.
“A rich lord who would have never met so many interesting people such as yourself,” he said, smiling at her. Marie couldn’t help but smile back. “Sometimes you summon me yourself, even when money isn’t needed.”
“Strangely enough, a ghost appearing on Halloween almost every year is one of the most consistent things in my life.”

“One of the most?” he repeated with raised eyebrows.
“Well, people being generally bad is also rather consistent, as well as the dislike of me for being a freak,” she said. “And I know that some of them are just scared because they don’t understand, but…”
“But it doesn’t hurt any less.” Marie looked up at him and shook her head.
“No, it doesn’t.”

Marie noticed how close they were standing together and looked at his lips. Knowing she would likely regret it, she stood on his tip-toes and kissed him. He froze and then kissed back.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she pulled away and took a step back.
“Don’t be,” he said softly. “It is not you tonight, I should probably go.”
“I wish you didn’t have to,” she said honestly.
“I know, my dear,” he said as he lifted her hand to his mouth and placed a kiss there. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Edward.”

She still stood there, long after he had disappeared.