To Love A Ghost || ONC 2023 Shortlist
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- Parts 10
Prompt #23: They were not real, everyone told me they were not real. But why are they here? Why are they trying to talk to me? Why are they calling me the ONE? Why are they staring at me like that?
***
When bored corporate 9 to 5'er Jace Palmer inherits his great-aunt Lorraine's flower shop in tiny River Bend, Wisconsin, nothing will stop him from realizing his lifelong dream of owning his own coffeehouse and bookstore. No matter what he must sacrifice to achieve it...his life savings...his marriage...and, as strange things begin happening in the shop and the apartment above it, his sanity.
Jace is certain he's going crazy, but then one day the apparition of a young man appears before Jace's very wide-awake eyes, looking and speaking like an ordinary human. Except no human can vanish and reappear. No human can walk through walls and closed doors. And no human-not even his ex-wife-has ever stirred the feelings in Jace that he has for the ghost of Daniel Walsh.
*To Love a Ghost is a paranormal small-town M/M romance explicitly written for ONC 2023. This story contains adult language, themes, and depictions of 1930's era as well as modern-day attempts at gay conversion therapy (which some readers may find uncomfortable or disturbing) and a rather unconventional HEA.*
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Carson's POV "I'm about to go confront this dude. He's seriously pissing me off." Jace said, staring out the window. 3 months ago we got a new neighbor across the street and everyday he is always staring directly at our house. It's actually starting to piss me off to. Its got Tyler on edge and Jace is probably more pissed off then I am but that isn't exactly new. Tyler walked over to the window and looked out it. He sighed. "Maybe this is what I have been feeling." "What do you mean." "When I seen Darren's body there was something off about him. I honestly don't feel like that was Darren laying there. Plus Darren wasn't that light of a brown. He was dark wolf almost black." "Why are you just now saying this." "Because I wanted it to be over with. I didn't want to have to look behind me everytime I went to the store because I was craving food. We are probably freaking out over nothing." "I doubt it. I'm going to go over there if this doesn't stop."
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