I swear my brain shorts out, and I drop to the floor, my legs giving out from under me. “Great, I’m hallucinating. I think I preferred you as a crazy, stalker, pervert.” Weird barks of laughter escape me; the sound of a person losing their mind. “Honestly, I should be more shocked it took me this long to finally crack.”
The boy sits cross legged in front of me, hands loose in his lap, and a frown marring his cute, boy-next-door face. His body is toned and long limbed, his red Star Wars shirt molding his firm chest and biceps. Medium brown hair falls into his eyes, and he has a strange, golden glow to his skin.
At least my hallucinations are nice to look at.
“You’re not crazy,” he assures me, his warm gaze oddly comforting. “I know it’s hard to believe. I didn’t believe it at first, and I had Kaleb to explain it to me. I promise you, I’m real.”
“Says the hallucination,” I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Who’s Kaleb? Is he also a ghost?”That’s right. I’m so lonely; I’m humoring figments of my imagination.
“No, he’s a neph-- I mean, he’s a real, flesh and blood person. He can touch things and everything.” He chuckles. “That sounded vaguely dirty.”
He swallows, then rubs the back of his neck. “I’m Felix, by the way,” he adds, looking up at me with his chin pointing towards his chest. He has those long lashes boys seem to always be gifted with.
“Callie,” I reply automatically. I drop my hand to my pant leg and trace my fingers along the rough denim, focusing on the texture against my skin.
“It’s nice to meet you, Callie. I’d shake your hand, but it would go right through.” The smirk returns to his face. It looks natural there, as if he’s always moments away from smiling.
“So, you’re a ghost,” I say carefully, stretching out the words. With my crazy, mutant healing, I’m practically a walking, talking X-23 without the claws; the world is a weird place, and a ghost is so much better than me losing my mind. “And you, what, haunt my house now? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t on the listing.”
He laughs, the sweet timbre rolling over me like a warm blanket. Felix is surprisingly upbeat for a dead guy.
“Yes and no.” He rocks his head side to side. “I can go where I have strong emotional attachments, which luckily means I get to haunt my friends. Kaleb says it has something to do with emotional attachments acting as anchors within the mortal plane.” He scrunches up his face. His straight brows, upturned nose, and pointed chin give him an elfish quality. “Kaleb explains it better.”
“Kaleb, the flesh and blood friend that I’ll meet and who is definitely real,” I tease. Tucking my legs to the side, I prop myself up on one hand and attempt a more comfortable position than short-circuited flop.
“Yeah, that one.” He grins. “I’ll introduce you to all the guys. They’re totally going to get a kick out of you. Can’t wait for Kaleb to explain this.”
He leans back on his hands, his shirt riding up and exposing the waistband of his jeans and a sliver of firm belly. Strange how everything moves on him as if he’s flesh and blood, yet he goes right through everything else.
I blink and look up, realizing I’m staring.
“So you can come here without your friends because this was your old home, which makes it one of these emotional anchors?” I guess.
He winces.
“It’s more because my whole family and I were brutally murdered here,” he says quickly, the words slamming together and pitching into a question at the end.
“You died here!” I exclaim then mutter, “No wonder this house was so cheap.”
“She jokes!” Felix chuckles.
His appreciation of my unique brand of humor is nice; then again, who would appreciate morbid humor better than a dead person?
“Yep. Well, I diedaroundhere, but I don’t actually remember how I died. Just waking up standing outside a bonfire that apparently was… uh, never mind.” He looks into my eyes and grimaces. “The grisly details aren’t important. Point is, here I am, and you can see me!”
His smile is infectious, and I can’t help returning it. I’ve never met anyone like Felix, which okay, isn’t really saying much, but there’s something about him that reaches into the cold, dark parts inside me and shines light. It makes me wish I knew him when he was alive. Whether ghost or hallucination, Felix is a gift; the potential for a friend. There’s relief that I might not have to be alone, even if the only friend I make is someone no one else can see.I’m already weird; what’s an invisible friend going to hurt?
“I’m totally calling you Casper!” I laugh. It’s a foreign sound since it isn’t dripping in cynicism and disdain.
Felix sighs dramatically. “It’s a small price to pay to talk to a pretty girl.”
I duck my head and blush, heat crawling up my neck and into my cheeks.Huh, I didn’t know I could blush anymore.Before I can come up with what to say next, there’s a knock on my door.
I give Felix a wide-eyed look, before answering, “Come in.”
Mildred pokes her head in around the door, then frowns when she sees me on the floor. Subtle crow’s feet tug at the corners of her eyes. “I thought I heard you talking to someone.”
Felix winks at me.
