A/N: I'm sorry for the wait. I've been working on an extra special something I wanted to finish first, but I realized it wouldn't get done very fast. I've redone it a few times now and I think it's coming along well. It's not done yet, so I finished this chapter for everyone to read until it is. Thank you for your patience.
I didn't want to make everyone wait much longer, so I still need to give this a proper proof-read later.
WARNING: Cursing, violence, and minor gore descriptions
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The previous night had been surprisingly peaceful. No one had stopped by for a late night chat like Formaggio had when Illuso was keeping watch and, to the best of your knowledge, Formaggio had left you be the whole night. You were feeling well rested, which felt like a good sign. It wasn't the weekend anymore and starting the work week tired wouldn't have been fun.
Breakfast was the first thing on the agenda today before work. Hopefully you wouldn't have too many deliveries today. You're not sure if you'd be able to bear it with the addition of Formaggio talking your ears off. Speaking of which...
'Where is he?' You wondered. He wasn't in your room when you woke up and he isn't in your living room either. Maybe he'd wander back from wherever he is when you start making noise in the kitchen.
"AGHHHHH! DAMN IT!"
You stopped in your tracks. 'What the fuck was that?' The sound of someone shouting in rage was coming from somewhere outside the front of your house. Your curiosity getting the better of you, you decide to creep over to your window and take a peek through the curtains. You almost instantly regretted it.
It took you a second to recognize him, but without a doubt it was the blue-haired guy from your first encounter with Prosciutto. Your whole body shuddered at the memory of him jumping in to take over for Prosciutto to torture that ghost woman so he could follow you home. He was currently headed down your street, ranting his head off about something so loudly you could hear it from inside.
Not wanting to get caught looking out of the curtains, you quickly moved back from the window. 'Oh great...' you frowned, 'It's Monday all right. This is going to be one shitty day.' You had hoped you wouldn't ever encounter Ghiaccio again after that horrible night, but it looks like the universe had other plans.
You silently wished that Formaggio would show up again, if not to take over for the blue-haired menace, then to at least distract him so none of that rage would be focused in on you. So much for a quieter day. He hadn't even set foot in your house yet and he was already your least favorite on account of his anger.
At least you were already in the kitchen making breakfast when he decided to barge into your house. If he'd been able to interact with your door, he probably would have slammed it open.
"That bastard! Why couldn't he give better directions!? I'm fucking late because of him! Is this even the right place?!" To say he was loud would be an understatement. You carefully picked up the cup you knocked over when his sudden outburst startled you.
He was a loud walker too. You could tell when he was coming into the kitchen, especially when he decided to open his mouth again. "Right house." He must have spotted you.
'Why'd he say that with so much disgust!?' You seethed. Had he been some random person, you liked to think you might have shot back with something witty, but as it stood you wouldn't dare. If shouting could kill, you'd probably would have died before he even set foot inside.
He was quiet right now, and that unnerved you. You didn't notice him move out of the corner of your eye either, so your best guess was that he was staring at you. Probably looking for something to complain about when it came to your physical appearance.
You sat down with your food, only for him to make his decision. That decision being that you were shit at making food and that even "Formaggio could pull something better out of his rat's ass!"
You winced from the volume of his complaints. 'Jeez, he's an even bigger asshole than Illuso was.' Today was going to be long and unbearable...
He was closer than he was that night in the warehouse, and when he wasn't looking, you had a little peek. You wondered how he could even manage to yell, let alone speak. His death marks were bad too. Especially the one on his throat. Whatever it was, something had gone in one end and out the other, leaving a messy hole that was oozing blood. You didn't want to look into that hole, part of the inside of his throat already visible from here. The idea of looking through one end and out the other made what little breakfast you had seem less appetizing.
Getting ready was difficult. If he wasn't complaining about how you were doing something, it was about something else. At this point you had tuned most of it out. You didn't care about the time Formaggio threw one of his dirty socks at him, or the time one of his teammates walked in on him while he was showering and refused to leave... and you most certainly didn't care that your room was a little bit untidy. It wasn't that bad, and had certainly been worse in the past.
"Who the fuck puts pillows UNDER the blankets when they make up a bed?! They go ON TOP!"
You deadpanned, making your way to leave. 'I could use some kind of miracle right about now...'
But the universe is never that kind. So with a huff, you close your front door behind you and head to work, not even bothering to check if Ghiaccio was following you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If the walk to work was anything to go by, this will be the worst Monday you've ever had. Almost everything on the way pissed Ghiaccio off. Whether he decided passerbys were chatting too loudly, a restaurant you passed being awful from his experience, or he spotted some tourist wandering around. For better or worse, at least you were at work. The sooner you finished your deliveries the sooner you could move on with your day and get home. The sooner Ghiaccio would leave... based on the fact each of them only stayed for about a day.
"Good morning Mr. Rossi," you greeted your boss with the best smile you could muster.
"Ah," the man set down a box, "good morning (y/n). I wondered if you'd make it in okay."
You could almost feel Ghiaccio's presence behind you.
"What do you mean?" You questioned your boss.
"You haven't heard?" He asked back. "There's been a murder. It's all over the news now."
Your eyes widened.
He began to place smaller packages into a large bag. "Happened on Thursday apparently. Sometime after you left. I know you came in on Friday, but I was worried you might not have made it home alright since the culprit is still out there."
"O-oh," you adjusted your shirt. "Thank you for your concern sir. I'm all in one piece. See?" You tried to give him a reassuring smile. 'In one piece' might be a stretch though.
"Is that why you gave me that small bonus Friday?" You hesitantly asked him.
"No, no," he assured you with a wave of his hands. "You've been doing an amazing job and I appreciate the help."
He passed you the bag. "That being said, if you'd like a few days off, I'd be more than happy to give you some. You've been working hard."
"No need, really." You assured him. "I need the money and I don't mind making deliveries for you. You're a very good boss to work for." This was really awkward. You didn't like making small talk like this. Thankfully Ghiaccio wasn't shouting his head off. Speaking of which... he wasn't beside you anymore.
It was hard to miss his bright blue head. He was checking out the store your boss owned, no doubt looking for something suspicious. There was honestly nothing weird to be found. Mr. Rossi ran a sort of stationary store. It sold a lot of things for letter writing, including envelopes and pre-made cards, some of which were apparently hand made by his daughter. There were even a few things for calligraphy like ink and wax to make seals.
You had no idea how his business was staying afloat since most people would rather make calls than write letters, but a lot of your deliveries were to older people, so you guessed that was his main clientele. You only handled the deliveries though and the occasional straightening of things on the shelves.
You adjusted the heavy bag hanging off your shoulder. "I'm heading out sir!" You call to him.
"Okay. Be careful now! There are criminals afoot." He called back as you stepped out the door.
'Yeah, he has no idea...' You rolled your eyes as you began to head to the first place he listed on your delivery route.
Of course the murder was already all over the news, but to think that you had been there to see the aftermath yourself. Part of you regretted anonymously calling it in. Hell, you regretted going to investigate altogether.
That's when it hit you.
It was nearly enough to stop you in your tracks. You had seen a dead body. You had been so preoccupied with Prosciutto, Ghiaccio, and what they were doing to that woman that you hadn't fully processed that you had been in the same room as a freshly killed corpse.
The memory of that night was freshly assaulting your mind. The woman crying over her lifeless body, the sickening red blood pooling on the floor... and the knowledge that you had a close brush with someone with a gun.
'What was I thinking that night!?' If seeing Prosciutto ahead of you hadn't made you hesitate, you would have run directly into whoever committed the crime.
You would have died too that night.
Tears began to prickle the corners of your eyes as all of the fear you had previously been trying to fight off returned, along with the sense of hopelessness about your situation. Maybe you could give this volatile man the slip long enough to just let everything out. Find a nice quiet place away from any prying eyes to cry. You definitely didn't want him witnessing it, especially since you were out of your house and didn't have a good way to cover it up.
Luckily you were still walking, or else he probably would have taken note of you stopping in the middle of the sidewalk while deep in thought. You had to keep on your toes. Thinking of what your every action might look like to them, what they might do next, and even what might make them leave you alone for good. Despite your best efforts so far, going about your normal life didn't seem like it was enough. You considered, and finally settled on, that you would probably have to convince each individual ghost of your innocence in whatever they were looking for.
'That could take forever though. So many of them have showed up already and who knows how many of them are left,' your mood dropped even lower, 'it'll probably take multiple days with each of them.' By this point, you were certain you wouldn't be able to get out of this by convincing just one of them. Whatever reason they decided to keep a close eye on you, they were going to be thorough about it. You had made them suspicious, and whatever they were searching for, they were desperate and determined to get it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not a single delivery so far was peaceful with Ghiaccio close behind. You could usually push through and get all of your deliveries done in one go, but you needed a break. So you headed to the closest cafe you knew of to get something to drink. Ghiaccio's newest development was trying to hit things the two of you passed by, only to complain that nothing broke when one of his fists connected with it and he couldn't interact with anything around him.
Sitting down with your drink, he takes the closest chair to you with a scowl on his face. He was hunched over a bit with his arms crossed, clearly still brooding over something but at least being quiet about it for now.
As you sat and relished in the silence, enjoying the chatter of other customers and your drink, you started to notice something. You shivered and looked toward the door.
'The door hasn't been opened. Why is it getting so chilly?'
You then looked at the cafe's heater. Sure enough, it was on and running at a high temperature. No one else seemed to be bothered in here. Was it just you then? You were plenty warm before. That was unnerving and you felt like you should go. If you still felt like that after you left and got moving again, something was definitely wrong with you. 'Hopefully I'm not getting sick,' you thought.
You left with your drink, having already paid when you bought it, deciding you'd throw it away somewhere when you were done. As you got up to leave, the chilly feeling began to fade away, to your relief.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unsurprisingly, the rest of the deliveries went about the same. More than once you had to explain to a customer you were handing a delivery to that you were jumpy and acting a bit weird because you were 'socially awkward' and not because a blue-haired ghost with anger issues suddenly started shouting next to you.
Since most of these deliveries were old folks that couldn't often make trips to the shop, they were very nice to you and understanding, thanking you for going to the trouble to carry all of the things they ordered to them.
You thought it was already bad enough, but little did you know, it was about to hit worse. You found your way to the next address on the list. One you hadn't delivered to before.
A sweet looking old lady opened the door, eyes squinting at you, with a big smile on her face. She greeted you kindly as you dug her order out of your bag while telling her you were here to deliver it to her.
You notice some movement from behind her. An old man peaked around behind her. 'Probably her husband,' you thought. It took you a second.
He was see-through. Definitely a ghost. That saddened you, but in a lot of ways it was really sweet. He was dead but he was lingering to watch over her. You hoped that when the old lady died, they'd reunite and move on together. The old ghost looked from her to you with a gentle smile. The two of you briefly made eye contact on accident. 'Oops-'
"The FUCK are you looking at you shiveled ugly rasin!" Ghiaccio screamed from his position behind you. The old ghost's eyes widened in shock and he took a step back in fear from the intimidating man.
'Oh shit!' Ghiaccio had spent the whole day yelling at ghosts that got too close to him, and by proximity, you as well.
What you didn't expect was for Ghiaccio to rush forward and grab the old ghost by his collar, pulling him forward and out from the doorway of the old woman's home.
You were panicking. You had to do something or else the old man would get hurt. You didn't want another ghost to get hurt by any of the men who kept following you. That thought gave you an idea.
'Since he's supposed to follow me everywhere I go...'
"Bye ma'am, have a nice day! I've got a lot of deliveries to finish today!" You blurt out, turning on your heels as you begin to run off, giving her a small wave as you do.
You didn't break into a full sprint, but it wasn't quite a jog either. You had to get away from that house as quick as possible, but you didn't want him to lose sight of you or for it to look too unnatural for someone rushing to do the rest of their work.
Hopefully you caught his attention, but you weren't about to turn around and check. Once you got a decent distance away, you slowed back down to a walk. If the cursing getting louder behind you was anything to go off of, your plan had worked.
You lied about having a lot of deliveries left, there being only a couple more, but you didn't regret rushing off if it meant the old ghost man would be fine. Lucky for you, there weren't any problems during the last deliveries. You returned the empty bag to your boss and you headed out, having nothing else he needed done.
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As much as you wanted to go home, you still had one more important thing you had to do. Grocery shopping. You dreaded that too, and that feeling settled in you as you grabbed your cart. You couldn't put it off anymore, but it was just your luck it had to be with him.
'I've gotta be quick. Just in and out.' You took a deep breath and told yourself, but grocery shopping is never that easy, least of all with a problematic ghost. There were quite a few people shopping today too and plenty of things you needed to get while you were there. You knew Ghiaccio would have a few things to say about at least some of them.
This time, it was the people not paying attention, not staying on the correct side of the isle, moving too slow. Or the lighting and how shitty it was and how 'best by' dates didn't make much sense. He wasn't shouting anymore though. It was actually at a more normal volume and less of a full-on rant. It was much more welcome. Earlier he would go from ranting loudly, to quietly grumbling, and then to just straight up screaming in frustration. Now, it was just plain old complaining, and it was almost blissful.
You sighed. 'I hope all of his ranting today has finally tired him out.' Your eyes drooped and you let out a small yawn. You were ready to go to bed, absolutely exhausted from being around him.
Before you left though, you decided to get yourself one more thing. Today was awful and you still hadn't used any of the bonus your boss had given you last week. You didn't have the time with the whole ghost problem. Why shouldn't you get yourself a little treat?
'A little bit of chocolate couldn't hurt,' you thought, reaching to grab one you were familiar with off the shelf.
As you did so, a quiet grumble came from beside you. "That kind sucks. The one to the right is much better..." You almost didn't hear it from how quiet he was. You didn't even know he could get that quiet.
You hesitate for a moment after you put your chocolate into the cart, before you turn back and grab a random bar along with the one Ghiaccio had pointed out. You throw both of them into the cart and go to pay.
What could you say? He made you curious about how good it really was. Out of all the things he'd claimed were worse than something else, this was one of the few things you could test out yourself without arousing too much suspicion. You might as well get one positive thing from him today, but if it turned out it sucked, you had at least bought another one you knew you liked.
You hoped your little stunt was discrete enough. You had grabbed a random bar just in case and you didn't even look at what it was beforehand. Hopefully, both were good so you didn't just waste some of your bonus money buying three chocolate bars when you only meant to get one.
The trip home was interesting. As it turned out, Ghiaccio still had a bit of fire left in him. 'I guess he just needed a little break to rest his voice...'
You were currently crossing over a bridge, having to walk for a bit to get onto public transport that would be able to bring you closer to home. You'd normally be fine with walking because it would also save you money, and you didn't have a car or bike, but you really didn't think you could carry all of your groceries home like that.
You found it a little funny. Ghiaccio was shouting at a living couple on the bridge. They were making out fairly hard-core and he was going on about how disgusting it was to do that in public. It was funny because you realized he kind of screams like an angry goat, and the image of a blue-haired goat with glasses almost had you in hysterics.
You thought to yourself with a little chuckle, 'They disrespect your bridge goatman.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After a long and terrible day, you were finally home. Your groceries were put away and the only thing on your mind was to make dinner and get ready for bed.
You jokingly considered having cereal for dinner. 'Maybe I should even pour in the milk first,' smiling as you remembered Formaggio's story.
"This place is fucking shit." You heard Ghiaccio comment to himself from the other room.
'... Actually maybe not.' Your smile was now a nervous one. You once again reminded yourself that he was violent and you needed to stay serious.
Cursing yourself for already forgetting that these ghosts were all criminals. Something that stuck with them, even in death. This was the second time today alone you had to remind yourself of this.
Yet here you were, making jokes to yourself and getting upset enough to want to confront some of them as if they were regular, living, and completely harmless people. You reminded yourself again and again, yet you still kept getting dangerously close to revealing yourself on accident.
With that, you resolved to start tomorrow fresh, with a new attitude and absolutely no positive thoughts about them or thoughts of confronting any of these men. If you let your guard down and any of them found out what you're hiding from them, innocent or not...
They without a doubt will make you suffer.