2 Half (1/2)
He had slept a full eighteen hours and no longer looked that sleep deprived, he took a shower, had a coffee, ordered a take-out and then the ghost tackled him.
Yet rather than her passing through him, she had actually made him fall to her own shock.
”Oh dear, I'm so sorry!!” She flailed her hands. ”I didn't think I…”
He sighed. ”Did you think my writing talent was something a human should be capable of?”
”...Yeah?” She asked, confused.
”Fine, just get off, I don't enjoy laying on the floor.” He looked irritated.
”Oh, that was a joke!” Gears clicked in her head as she got up.
He groaned. ”Don't rub it in.” But he could now get up as well. He rubbed his hip, but let it be a few moments later.
”Okay, so, my name is Mandy! What's yours?” The girl started the introductions. He had said he would talk with her and she had also waited for him to get a shower, coffee and… she thought he would need breakfast and calling the take-out answered that. She wasn't so insensitive that she would keep someone from taking basic care of themselves.
Yet rather than replying to that, he said. ”Five questions. I will answer only five, so ask carefully.”
”Uh--” The girl squinted her eyes like she had been cheated.
”I have another deadline coming up soon.” He explained. ”After eating I'll get to work.”
She reluctantly nodded. ”What's your name?” She didn't feel like it was right to call him by the name on the book without asking.
”August,” he confirmed that the name on the book had been indeed his real one.
Well, it was a wasted question then, but Mandy hadn't wished to guess with something as important as a name. ”August, why did you ignore me for three days?”
”I had no time to waste on conversations,” he replied.
Her eyes squinted dangerously and her hands raised up ominously, so August felt like he had to keep speaking.
”Most humans don't see ghosts and I look human enough, so unless you were too fresh as a ghost you wouldn't have known I could see you, so no damage done?”
Mandy sighed. He had a point. ”What are you then?”
”Half-human, half-ghost,” August replied.
Mandy thought a bit, confusion written over her features. ”How is that possible?”
”If one of your parents is a ghost, other is human, you get something like that.”
”I mean - how? Humans can't touch or see us normally, except...”
August put up fingers and listed: ”All hallows, winter solstice, anytime when someone holds walpurgis,” he lowered his fingers, ”and there are certain places in the world where that isn't a problem. In eastern europe, there's a whole month where dead and living can intermingle and there are also cursed forests and whatnot, so you just have to travel a lot.”
”Oh,” Mandy nodded. ”So they met like that?”
”No.”
”How did they meet then?” Mandy leaned closer.
”Aren't you out of questions already?” August peered at her.
”Don't be that stingy, it counts as a reply to the previous one. 'Yes/No' isn't a proper answer.” Mandy narrowed her eyes at August.
”Fine,” he sighed. His breakfast hadn't arrived yet, so he told her the story as pieced together from bits and pieces told by his parents.
”It happened twenty eight years ago...”
~~~
Inside a luxurious looking mansion, second floor,behind high rococo styled doors at the very end of a long hall was a pastel colored bedroom. Furnished with white, elegant furniture, landscape paintings by the walls. Inside the room were two figures - an old man in the bed and a younger one standing beside it.
”I'll have you stay here for the night,” the old man said, he was wrinkled and seemed to be close to seventy.
The young man nodded, no surprise on his features. If his eyes weren't moss green and his stance wasn't so firm, giving a sense of good health and strength, you might have mixed him up with the sleep deprived writer of the present. He wore a classic casual outfit reminding of someone well off, the only slightly odd detail was him wearing silk-like black gloves.
”I'll turn off the lights then,” the younger man said, this time it was the turn of the old man to nod.
The younger man went to a wall nearby and pressed a switch. With a faint click the lights went off and the man returned to the bedside of the old man, leaning by a wall.
They didn't converse and while the old man did cast glimpses at the young man for a while, soon he closed his eyes and his breathing slowed down.
The young man, however, kept a careful watch of the whole room. He remained still and silent for half an hour at least, till a faint glow appeared by the ceiling.
A beautiful girl floated down from above - dark gold hair and dark brown eyes. She was wearing a white sundress and a hay hat, but rather than seeming as outdoorsy as her clothes might hint at she looked similarly sleep deprived to one certain writer, like she hadn't seen much sun. She was beautiful in spite of her visibly bad sleeping habits and unhealthy paleness.
Even if the young man had put on something reminding of a fighting stance upon spotting the glow, that had loosened, as he was caught by surprise.
As the ghost reached out for the old man, the young man took her hand, pulling her towards him. Despite what one would expect, his hand did not pass through her and she was equally shocked about it.
”Wha--”
”Shh.” The man gestured, pointing at the sleeping man.
The whole situation was so utterly shocking to the ghost that she closed her mouth and let herself be pulled away from the bed.
The old man shifted a little bit in his sleep, but didn't wake up.
The young man, in the meantime, had reached the balcony doors and carefully opened them, going out, pulling the ghost along with him. She kept looking at him, then back at the bed, back and forth, too confused to resist. The sounds of a fountain met them and so did a scenery of a rose garden illuminated by the moonlight below them.