He’d worked his whole life for this, pushing aside everything that wasn’t work. Hell, he hadn’t even been on adatesince law school.
And if some old-school apparition thinks it can ruinmycareer, then it’d better think again.
He didn’t care what he had to do – find a priest, an exorcist, whoever orwhatever could deal with this – he’d do it.
Determined, he turned away from the window – and nearly jumped out of his skin before stumbling backwards, sending the chair clattering and his butt colliding painfully with the floor.
“Ow,” he muttered, rubbing at his back – before he remembered why he’d fallen over in the first place, and scrambled back to his feet.
Sure enough, the ghost was standing there placidly, watching him with an unreadable expression on its… well, transparent though it was, it was still aface.
Inside his mind, his pegasusyelped– which he didn’t even know it was capable of doing – and performed the psychic, horse-sized equivalent of cowering beneath the table.
“Do you mind?” he snapped at the ghost. “If you’re going to hang around here ruining my life, the least you could do is warn me before you manifest yourself right in front of me.”
~Sorry,~the ghost said – and then its spectral eyes widened, its hand going to its mouth as if in shock.
Ethan was pretty sure his own eyes were doing the same thing. “Did you… did you justtalkto me?”
Now that his shock had had a moment to wear off, he could feel himself starting to get angry, his eyes narrowing in irritation.
“You’ve been able to talk all along, but you’re only just deciding to actually speaknow? Now,afteryou ruined my presentation?!”
~I… I’m sorry,~the ghost said again, moving its jaw carefully. Its voice was faint and uncertain, and had an airy quality, like a breeze blowing through bare winter trees.~I did not realize that I could talk. In fact, I believe that I had forgotten how. But just now, suddenly, I felt it come back to me.~
Ethan scowled, though he supposed that as far as excuses went, that was a decent one.
On top of that, the ghost’s pants and vest were definitely not from this era. If Ethan had to guess, he’d say that the ghost had been dead for some time – which, he supposed, was a prettygood reason for forgetting how to talk for a while. Not that it was going to keep him from being irritated about it.
“Fine then,” he snapped. “Since you can talk now, maybe you can tell me what it is you even want and why you’re here. Or what I can do to… toassistyou.”
So that you’ll get the hell out of my life, he managed to stop himself from adding.
~I am not sure,~the ghost admitted, and Ethan bit back another sigh.~I felt drawn to your presence, but I cannot say why.~
Inside his head, his pegasus quailed.It is drawn to us! We are doomed!
Oh, calm down,he told it.If the ghost –
The pegasus flinched, and Ethan barely kept from rolling his eyes.Sorry. If theharmless spectral figurewanted to hurt us, don’t you think it would’ve done so by now?
The resulting snort from the pegasus showed what it thought ofthatidea, but it did seem to calm down ever so slightly.
Ethan tried to rein in his annoyance, but it wasn’t easy. Of all the supernatural things that could be troubling him, why did it have to be the one thing that his pegasus had a petrifying fear of?
The ghost was watching him uncertainly, and Ethan took a moment to try to really think this situation through.
As much as he just wanted the ghost to leave him alone so he could get back to his life, the quick internet search he’d done on ghosts – before he’d felt stupid about what he was doing and closed his laptop – had told him that it was probably here because of some issue that needed to be resolved before it could return to its own plane of existence.
At the time, he’d told himself that even if that were true, he didn’t have time to be helping wayward ghosts, and it’d just have to figure it out on its own.
Now,however, thanks to the ghost, he was on indefinite leave. And it was clear that if he wanted his life – and his father’s approval – back, he’d have to start taking it more seriously.
Also, the sooner the ghost was out of his life, the sooner his pegasus would hopefully calm down and revert to its usual snobbish, holier-than-thou self.
“Well, you’re drawn to my presence, but you don’t know why. That’s not exactly helpful,” Ethan said, shaking his head. “You literally can’t tell me anything other than that?”
He was aware he wasn’t being very friendly, but right now, he just wanted this done. He had a planner full of meetings next week. Hopefully he could get the ghost out of his life by the weekend, and be back in the office by Monday. If he could convince his father he was back on his game.
