Giving Up the Ghost

by Stella Price

  She passed the door that went to the downstairs room and made a right into the next open door. She stopped dead as she flipped on the light switch, sure that her eyes weren’t seeing what they were seeing.

  The bathroom in front of her was typical in size, complete with sink, toilet and a tub and shower combo, and decorated in rubber ducky couture. The shower curtain pattern was rubber ducky’s in various hats, some in ten gallon hats, others in turbans, tiaras, top hats, cloche’s and sombreros. The toilet seat cover was a ducky, as was the bathmat, and the towels on the rack.

  She looked over to the counter and shook her head. The hand soap dispenser, soap dish, tooth brush holder and the several washcloths were all done in the same avian motif as the rest of the accessories, but what really got her was the giant pile of rubber ducky’s sitting there.

  Saffron picked through them, surprised at the haul. Traditional ones, some dressed up like unicorns, an entire set of the Noir crime drama ones, a few in suits of armor, Some dressed as dragons, some stuck in the seventies, complete with afro’s, one with a guitar, and a set of mallards that looked like little vinyl decoys.

  What the hell was this all about? She turned and found Rhys standing against the wall with a smirk on his face.

  “I remembered what this place looked like and figured I would come and see the horror on your face first hand.”

  Saffron cocked her head. “I assume there’s an explanation for this? You’re not luring children here are you? Do I have to call that ‘to catch a predator’ guy?”

  Rhys laughed. “Not even close. Though the fact that you think I’m even capable of something that horrible…”

  “Grown men don’t have rubber ducky themed bathrooms Rhys.”

  “This one does. Rubber ducky’s are my thing, always have been. Some people collect Horror movies, some dog statues, I collect rubber duckies.”

  “Oh it’s a collection alright. Where the hell did you find these?”

  Rhys shrugged. “Some family got me, others are presents from the band, The Noir set there, that was from Xxieda after we spent a weekend watching Bogart at her place when we were both sick making the record. Sort of a commemoration of us becoming besties.” He winked.

  “Your bedroom isn’t like this is it? Cuz I gotta tell ya, there are limits…”

  Rhys gave her sexy smirk. “No I fuck in relative splendor.” He motioned to the far door. “Have a look.”

  Saffron, now apprehensive about what lay beyond the closed door sidled past Rhys in the narrow space and opened the door before her. She stopped short as the door swung open and closed her eyes as the blood rushed through her body due to her heart working over time.

  The room was right out of her dream. Thick black carpet, large bed dominating the room, long sheer red curtains that blew with the incoming breeze off the balcony.

  Her breath caught as she stopped short just inside the door. Rhys walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He bent his head and nuzzled her neck.

  “You like?” he asked between kisses of her exposed flesh.”

  “No…” she whispered, which caused him to stop his ministrations.

  “Pardon?”

  “I…” she moved out of the circle of his arms and turned to him. “I gotta go.”

  Rhys frowned and cocked an eyebrow in confusion. “Um… did I miss something? I could have sworn there was no issue just thirty seconds ago.”

  Saffron sighed. The dream came screaming back and she shook her head, desperate for the cobwebs of the memory to fall away.

  “I know who you are. You know you’re not the other woman darling, your just another whore right?”

  Saffron was taken aback. “Pardon?”

  “He can never love you, not really. Trust me when I tell you it won’t ever happen.”

  “Saff? Baby what is wrong?”

  The walls around her seemed to close in, and his voice, normally a timber that made her shiver at all the right moments, started to sound like a grown up from the Peanuts cartoons. Every syllable ran together, and the room darkened. Saffron gasped and pushed past him towards the refuge of the hallway.

  She coughed; the room spinning. Fuck really! She hadn’t had a panic attack in years, yet here she was in his hallway, blood pounding in her ears, chest heaving and eyes closed from the onslaught of color blurs. She slid to her knees and focused on her breathing, on getting it under control. It wouldn’t do to pass out.

  “Saff? Shit saff…”

  “Rhys?” she croaked out as her vision started to clear and her heart slowled. Shit that was now good.

  “Baby what the hell happened?”He asked as he pulled her to him. She sighed and relaxed into his embrace, feeling better.

  “I… Rhys, I don’t think tonight is a good idea.”

  “Okay, that’s obvious. I gotta tell you I haven’t ever had a chick go into full on panic when entering my bedroom, its kinda hot.”

  “No, it’s not. Look I think we need to cool out. I had a great time today and…” she shook her head and pulled away from him, that creepy feeling starting to wash over her again. “We just can’t ok? This doesn’t feel right. I should go.”

  Flabbergasted, Rhys watched with large unblinking eyes as she hauled herself off the floor and staggered towards the door. She left without another word, making it to the street below quickly. As she hit the sidewalk she started to feel better, less confined, and more in control. She hailed a cab and settled in as she gave them the address to the hotel and frowned as she looked up to the balcony. The dream was too much, the reality of being there off the charts, and every little fear she had about them bombarded her at once.

  After the day she had with his family, the things she learned… This really was the best course of action, to get some distance between them so she could examine what it was she was feeling, without the specter of his lost love hanging over her.

  Especially in that bedroom. Lord knew how many nights they had spent together there, and she didn’t want to be the trigger that brought that all back. Neither of them would be able to handle it, not when she knew she was already operating in the shadow of a dead women.

  Things will be better in the morning… then you can talk to him, figure it out, she said to herself as the cab pulled up to the hotel and she paid the driver. Just get through tonight, figure it all out.

  ***

  Rhys didn’t know what to do. He was still sitting on the floor of his hallway, his eyes still trained on the door that Saffron had walked out of just minutes before. Everything had happened so fast, it didn’t really make any sense.

  He got up off the floor and walked back into the bedroom to see his ghost cat, Renfield, lying on the middle of his bed. No, it couldn’t have been that, Saffron was nowhere close to being sensitive enough to see the little grey and black cat that was having a little ghost snooze on his comforter. He walked closer and sat at the edge of the bed and the cat woke up.

  He smiled at it, and wiggled his fingers, and the cat, in true cat fashion, watched him closely, then stretched, arching its little back up as it did and then dove towards his waiting hand.

  Which of course, he dove right through. The cat rolled on its ghostly back and pawed at his fingers, and even though he couldn’t touch then, Rhys kept them outta reach, as not to spoil the game. The cat got tired soon after though and jumped off the bed and meowed at him, an echo-y, grating sound, and Rhys shook his head.

  “Yeah, you haven’t been able to eat a single thing since I found you sleeping in this room Ren. Best to let the comforts of the living stay where they are. Though I will leave you some food on Halloween, deal?”

  The cat twitched its tail at him and then turned, sauntering out of the room with indignance. Rhys sighed and walked toward the balcony, shaking his head. There was no reason why Saffron would react this way to the room, if anything he thought she would like it, and help him break it in properly. The entire bedroom was new, as was his flat, bought after the a
ccident, as a way to start fresh. Maybe… maybe she thought this was the place he lived with Phae?

  Kid, you look cross.

  Rhys turned to Reemus and shook his head. “She like had an attack and left. I don’t have one clue why. You think she thought this was where me and Phae..?”

  Reemus shrugged. It’s not like you told her this place is brand spanking new, and you have never actually stayed here.

  “She didn’t give me a chance to.”

  Copout. That girl was just inundated with our entire clan, and Twyla’s hateful bullshit. And then you bring her home… hell I’m surprised she walked through the door.

  “So this is my fault is it?”

  Obviously. My advice to you, Kid? Let it go. Stay here tonight, play with Renfield, take a shower in that horrible bathroom you love so much and get a good night’s sleep. Talk to her in the morning.

  “Maybe your right.”

  I’m always right Kid. And listen to your mother, light that goddamn candle.

  Rhys went to answer his guide and then shook his head as he realized he was alone in the room once more. Reemus was right, right now was not the time to go running after her. No, it would be easier in the morning to talk about everything and set the record straight. With everything she was probably feeling, he didn’t realize she would be overwhelmed with it all. In all seriousness, he had issues hanging out with the family on a regular basis. Normal people gave it a bit of time to get a relationship going before they introduced to the family…

  Well Rhys knew he wasn’t anything close to normal. If he was honest with himself, he was eager to introduce her to his family because he was feeling that familiar old feeling that had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with relationships. Oh hello old chap… I thought you had left for good.

  It had given him hope that he wasn’t completely dead inside, lost to the woman that was six underground. So yeah, he had jumped the gun, and he had no one to blame but himself.

  He liked himself more in a relationship, and the funk and despair he was in since Phaedra had died was getting so old he couldn’t bring himself to remember the scant times he wasn’t blacked out. Yes, he made mistakes, yes, most of them involved women, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t go back from it. Learning from your mistakes was what one did wasn’t it?

  This was going to be better than anything he had with Phaedra, because he was more ready for it. He had loved, loved hard and long, and lost, and it was time to change his fortunes. He walked out of the bedroom, stripping as he went guess not everything was changed, he thought as he thumbed his pants open and stepped into the bathroom.

  And he was going to have to talk to X about everything. No doubt the word got out Rhys was off the market already if Belle has done what he expected her to do. He was surprised X hadn’t called him yet to bitch, but them again she might be giving him a day or so to just deal with home. If nothing else, she was sympathetic, and no doubt she didn’t want him relapsing, though the chance of that was slim and none.

  He showered quickly and then walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist, something he had made a habit of especially when he was alone someplace because he never knew who was going to just pop in and say hello.

  Shit, it’s already two? He thought and shook his head. He grabbed the remote and turned off the television, the din of the volume cutting off suddenly so he noticed the silence in the apartment. As they grave. Well so be it. He sighed and hit the lights and then padded towards his bedroom to see Renfield sitting at the door licking a ghostly paw. He smirked.

  “You sleeping with me buddy?”

  The cat, in answer turned and then disappeared to reappear at the foot of the bed. He pawed at the bedclothes and then lay down. Rhys took that as a yes. He shrugged and dropped the towel and slipped under the covers, careful not to disturb the cat. Even though it was a ghost, he didn’t wanna hear the hissing, which was more distorted then the meowing, almost to the point of static.

  Sleep claimed him quickly, but then it often did when he was in New Orleans. Something about the supernatural haze the city lived in, it was the perfect sleeping weather for those that could talk to the dead, provided they were warded. It was when he opened his eyes with a start that he knew he wasn’t alone in the room, and it had nothing to do with Renfield.

  “Okay look I know I’m not alone so wherever you are can you just step forward so we can get this over with?”

  He rubbed his eyes and looked over to the clock and frowned. Three am? Seriously? What forty five minutes of sleep? Shit this better be good.

  He looked up blinked. A tall woman, with blond hair stood before the bed with a small smile on her face. He turned on the light quickly, swearing hard.

  Phaedra. Finally.

  She looked down at him in the bed and licked her bottom lip. “Hi baby.”

  Rhys blinked again. She was a specter, just the wrong side of corporeal, but with enough mass to give her the illusion that she was there. Tricks like that were hard, but it seemed his ex fiancée was strong as a ghost. She was dressed in what looked like a dress, the band of the frock just under her generous breasts. In this state it looks white, the band pink, and was nothing like what she was buried in.

  “What… why now?” he asked and frowned.

  Phaedra cocked her head. “I’m sorry my love. I’m so sorry. I missed you so much.”

  Rhys shook his head. “What took you so long?”

  Phaedra sighed and wrung her hands together. “I wasn’t… I wasn’t strong enough till now. I didn’t want to torture you my love, didn’t want to torture myself.”

  Rhys sat up further. “What are you talking about?”

  Phaedra shook her head and knelt on the bed, which gave slightly under her almost corporeal mass. She moved her other knee up onto the bed, and then crawled forward, till she was just over his knees, straddling them.

  Rhys frowned. “So are we going to talk? You know you haven’t answered my question.”

  The woman he had been so deeply in love with smiled again and leaned closer, her lips touching his. The spark was instant, and she moaned, her body going solid, the weight more than the previous feeling on the bed. She scooted closer, her rump settling on his thighs, her arms on either side of his waist.

  Rhys pulled back and looked into the eyes he had prayed to see for so long. Green and hazel, bright and vibrant and more importantly, there. He started and went to scramble back into the pillows, but she settled more firmly on his legs and smiled.

  “How… how the fuck did this happen?”

  Phaedra reached up and touched his cheek. “I’m warm, and here, I miss you baby. Missed this…” she went to kiss him again and he stayed her.

  “How Phaedra? This is not possible.”

  She shrugged. “Normally no, but your warded. No other spirits can pull from you. You have a lot of pent up energy. The kiss brought me back. To be with you.”

  “Brought you back? Like…”

  She shook her head. “No, just for now. So long as we touch in some way, I’m here. Kiss me Rhys. Haven’t you missed me as much as I missed you? I need you baby…” she looked down and blushed. “It’s been a long time…”

  Rhys shook his head. “I can’t. Phae you can’t just…”

  Phaedra sighed and slipped the spaghetti straps off her shoulders slowly, and then reached around her back. He heard the light strains of a small zipper, and watched as the material covering her breasts slid down, revealing the creamy globes and perfect pink nipples to his view.

  His mouth went dry. If there was one thing physically he loved about Phaedra, it was her stunning breasts, and what was worse, she knew it. She slid her hands down her sides, pulling the dress down further, exposing herself fully to him and bit her bottom lip.

  “Make love to me Rhys. I need to feel you… It’s been too long.” She shook her long blonde hair out around her shoulders, the tendrils catching around her, curling sweetly. She leaned in again and kissed h
im, her hands going to his chest, her fingers finding purchase just above his heart.

  “So I still reside here? Please baby…”

  Her hands traveled under then blankets to his waist and lower, and she pulled away from the kiss with a smirk as she gripped his hard on.

  “Mmm…” She intoned and licked his upper lip with a quick swipe. She squeezed his length, just like he liked, exactly like he liked. He closed his eyes and groaned. Sweet night she was here…

  He reached up and palmed her cheek, pulling her closer and kissed her, hard and long, his tongue slipping into her mouth. He tasted nothing, not the sweetness of the cherry candies she favored or the tartness of the toothpaste she used. She was empty, an echo of the woman she once was, but she was here, touching him, needing him, begging him. Everything he had wanted.

  His head screamed several things at once, memories assailed him. Phaedra, Saffron, Phaedra, Saffron… He wasn’t a saint, damn it, and Saffron deserved a saint.

  Phaedra pulled out of the kiss and moved her mouth to his ear. “Where are you baby? You need to be here with me. If I don’t get you inside me soon I’m going to fly apart… please, show me how much you missed me Rhys…” she pulled away and caressed his face with her hand and smiled as something dragged on his cheek.

  He took the hand and almost choked. Her ring, the one she was buried with glittered on her left ring finger.

  “I’m yours forever Rhys, We can start over… We can be together… take me.”

  He growled and pulled her close, throwing caution to the wind. Here she was, his Phaedra, the love of his life…. He would be stupid…

  They kissed, and he positioned her. With one quick thrust up and wrench down, they were joined, his cock inside her willing, if oddly despondent, body.

  She threw her head back and purred, and he started his favorite trail down her body. Kisses started just under her ear, nips and licks followed as he moved down to her collar bone and lower, as she arched just like he liked with her, serving her breasts up to him like an offering. He lipped a nipple, surrounded it, and sucked, lost in the odd sensation. She wasn’t completely supple like she was before, the skin a shade less real, but she was tight and pearling under his ministrations.