Desolate Me

All Those Pretty Lights

A/N: Alright. I'll post the same warning I did over on Miss Lit. There is some suggestive content in this chapter. So if you're just now able to see a PG-13 movie without a parent or guardian present, you should stop reading at a certain point. You'll be able to tell when it's going to get steamy because they literally say something to indicate it's going in that direction. 

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“You’re home early.”

The ghost stood out in the drive and he didn’t look very surprised to see us.

“School sucks. I think I’m going to drop out.”

“Oh. Ok. I made cookies.”

“They better be chocolate chip or I swear I’ll banish you from the kitchen.”

He held up his hands in mock surrender.

“Peanut butter chocolate chip. I had a feeling you were going to have a bad day.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

I led the way into the house, taking a deep breath as I passed through the kitchen. I loved the smell of baking cookies. My mother used to fill the house with that smell whenever she “got the feeling” I had a bad day. Apparently my ghost had a few tricks up his sleeves after all.

“I’m going to change. Try not to fight while I’m gone.”

“Can’t promise you anything. He can’t hear me so there would be no fun in it.”

“Hasn’t stopped you two before.”

I jogged upstairs and to my room. It was just how I left it. Not that I was expecting anything else. Alma came to tidy up and start the laundry for me on Thursdays. I grabbed a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom. I changed into a purple boat neck top and a black school girl skirt.

I yelped when I got to my room and stood frozen in the doorway of my bathroom. The room was freezing, I could see my breath in front of me. I didn’t move, afraid that if I did he would notice. And what was with him showing up during the day? Why was I thinking about that right then?

I breathed out slowly.

He looked up me so fast, the whole movement was a blur.

“Cassie…”

“Go away,” I said carefully.

“Family…”

He was sitting at the end of my bed, a picture of my father and I by the front door in his hands. Peter took the picture, bought me the frame…

The perfect representation of my family.

“We were going to be a family…”

Blood dripped out the corner of his mouth and onto the glass. The dot discolored my father’s face.

“We’ll never…”

He was up in a flash, his hand gripping the door frame behind me.

“Your mother…is here…with me…”

I shook my head. “No…”

The equivalent of a ghost snarl came out of him. He moved to grip my throat but my ghost slammed into him, throwing him away from me.

They disappeared through the floor and Darken came over, gripping both sides of my face.

“Are you alright?”

I nodded and let out a breath. I gripped both of his arms and stared into his eyes, breathing in and out, deep breaths.

“I’m ok.”