Chapter Text
Life is a lot like a boxing match. You know for a fact that you’re going to get hit at some point, you just don’t ever count on when that will be or quite how hard it could be. You can take guesses and try to course correct but, when you get right down to it. Life likes to throw haymakers. Life plays the game for keeps and it’s never once lost. The worst thing is you can have it all planned out, you can have everything ordered neatly and perfectly in your head and then…One day.
For example,
A car hurtles off a road, down a steep cliff and lands the wrong way up in the ocean. There’s screaming, panic and then the water gets in. The screaming doesn’t stop but the noise it makes changes. Then all at once there’s quiet.
Plans change.
Kimmy Christensen opens her eyes and sighs, a line of frost trails down one cheek and when she lets out a long ragged breath it comes out as mist. She covers her eyes and feels the start of flakes forming in the corners. An old familiar scene and the reason she’s here now in Monsteropolis. She takes a breath, tries to collect herself and it comes out crackly and raw in her throat.
She needs help.
So Young and So Afraid
Dennis wasn’t ready for this, he doesn’t imagine Abby was either but here they were. They'd finished with step one of her great big project to find a way to fix his soul. He’d chugged some honestly heinous brew and somehow that had plugged a leak? Stopped a gap?Gone from Keter to Malkuth- station to station blurs across his mind. He’d changed, he’d been made to change and now things would never be the same.
He’d maybe said that a few too many times in his life but hilariously it always turned out to be true. Things changed at the drop of a hat and you had to be very good at adapting to those changes. You had to be willing to take the brunt of the impact and so when Dennis’ closest friend and partner Abby started to kiss him he responded in kind.
Her hands tangled up in his hair, thumbs moving over the shorn sides of his skull. Thumb nails dragging out a soft scratch of roughness. He has his arms around her back, the jacket she wears dwarfs her and so when he crushes it tight against her she writhes in his embrace. She’s taller than him or you know she feels like she is given that she’s jutting half way out of his chest.
Teeth nip at her bottom lip and she allows him in. She can feel his tongue press against hers, lightly at first until she presses down on it, forcing it against her teeth and teasing it with the stud through her tongue. He tenses, moves and relaxes into it with a loud groan.
That sound is like a cannon going off and both of them freeze. They pull apart, a strand hangs in the air and droops between them.
“Excited!” She speaks first. “I was excited!”
“So was I!” Dennis agrees, confusion reigns on his face. “Were we- should we not?”
“I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry if I-”
“It was good!” Dennis cuts her off quickly. She grins at him, her eyes go narrow and he swallows at that look. “What? I figured a lady as out of practice would want to know that.” Her arm locks around his head and begins to crush his skull against her ribs. “OW OW OW!”
“Out of practice, huh!?” Abby snarls. “You were the one who went,” she makes an attempt at his groan but when she makes the noise she just stifles. “Oh god that sounds so bad.”
“Yeah you wonder why I’m not about YOU making me do that?” Dennis asks and Abby looks at him. “No!” He tries to warn but she throws herself back inside him and they spill to the floor with a thud. Dennis wraps his arms around himself and rubs them up and down as though caressing a lover.
“Let’s play my favourite instrument!” Dennis drones as he runs his arms over his body. His hands explore, they roam, coated in the faint miasma of ghostly energy. His fingertips are changed with an energy that pops and crackles against his skin. His legs kick, his jaw clenches hard as he tries to choke down the rising tide of little purrs and squeaks that want out all at once.
His mouth fastened shut there’s a low whine as fingers tickle up his sides. He shakes his head, kicks with all he’s got and then Abby rises out of his chest and pins his shoulders to the ground.
“Oh this is fun, I can get out a little,” she pushes and when she does Dennis’ eyes roll back, “Okay! NO. This is the amount I can get out.” She amends and Dennis heaves in air. “Shit you good?”
“Yeah, fine. Just like usual.” He shakes his head and she runs a hand across his cheek, he leans into her touch and squeezes her wrist. “I’m fine, Abby.”
Abby is frozen to the spot with him under her, leaning into her touch and smiling up at her. The light shines through her and casts him in a green dreamy haze, his eyes shine in it and…ohhh no. She doesn’t have a heart that can hammer, lungs that can suck down air but she notices it. She notices him and the way he’s looking up at her. She’s not been looked at like that in…
Can you need a cold shower when you’re dead?
“Okay!” She tugs his jacket and sits him up,leaning back so he doesn’t collide with her as she does so. “We got more wiggle room!” She grins, arm slung around his neck.
“We do!” Dennis smiles. “This is…I don’t actually feel different, I thought I might.”
“I mean the soul is still pretty jacked up.” Abby tells him with a hiss through her teeth. “I sort of hoped it’d be a one and done kind of deal but we might need more soul stuff.” She rubs at his chin, scratching at errant hairs. “We might need to work out a way to get more but for now this is proof positive my theories worked.”
“Abby.”
“I always had a pretty solid idea of the nature of the soul as a power-source for the self and the body. A conductive omni-energy that is at once a fuel and a storage medium for the person’s identity and emotive reasoning.”
“Abby…”
“Functionally in ghosts and spirit based life a soul allows us to experience and understand certain stimuli. Most notably the mental ones but it seems in the living it also governs something which you’d assume was a matter of living brain matter and tissue.” She sighs softly. “It’s genuinely fascinating and I wish I gave enough of a shit about academic research to read papers on it.”
“Abby.”
“What?” She asks and she notices she’s been rubbing his chin this whole time. She doesn’t stop. “I do it in your body too! It’s a force of habit now. Don’t make it weird!” She tells him.Oh she hopes that nothing tonight made anything weird. It was just a little thing.
“Nothing weird, just you’re making me think I need a shave.” Dennis tells her, inside his head he’s screaming at the top of his lungs. She stops touching him and her hand moves away, like a magnet he chases it until he notices what he’s doing and snaps back as if struck. Oh no, oh god.
Dennis and Abby are a singular entity at times but are always of two minds. Right now both minds consider the same facts. It’s been a long time since I did that, it’s been a long time since something felt that good and do we do it again?
They smile at each other. They grin. They get up from the floor and Dennis swallows quietly. Then he stares. “Oh! CRAP!” He runs forward and Abby follows with him, dragged along as she hangs out of him. “I forgot about the soup.” He stirs the pot on the stove and winces to himself. “Oh I hope I didn’t burn anything.”
“It’s soup.”
“You can burn soup!”
“Fuck off, you can burn soup!”
“You can!” Dennis insists, shoving at Abby and she just snorts, leaning her arm on his head and resting there. “You comfy up there?”
“Silence smaller man. A girlboss is looming.” She inspects her nails.”Surveying her domain.”
“Does a girlboss want a bowl of soup?”
“YES! OF COURSE.” Abby pumps her fists in the air. “I love the way you make it.”
“Things are starting to look up I think.”
Dennis Dies at Dawn
“I’m really sorry about this.” Alex is waiting for Dennis outside the front of school, loitering by a wall. Sitting up on it are Brian and Oz along with two girls. The four are chatting animatedly about something. As Dennis approaches Alex puts an arm on his shoulder and recoils quickly when he’s zapped.
“No.” Dennis tells him and rubs his knuckles against the shoulder of his jacket. “No.” He shakes his head. The four on the wall look down at him and he gives a wave. Brian salutes, and that girl Amira just smirks at him and raises her eyebrows. The young frankenstein looking student yawns and waves at the same time. Meanwhile Oz seems to be doing his best to make sure Dennis knows he’s NOT waving at him.
Looking to the side, arms folded, his many Phobias all twisting to face away from in a dramatic turning of their backs.
Wow. What did you do?
Abby’s words bleed across his mind as Dennis is led toward the school by Alex.
“Sorry about what?” He asks as the doors to the school burst free and fly towards Dennis. He doesn’t move and the door flies through him and nails the students behind him. He turns back and winces to himself. “Oh god, are you-”
“Look over here FUCK FACE!” Damien Lavey, Prince of the 8th Circle of Hell and possibly the loudest student in the history of this school. “I want to look you in the eyes when I tell you how dead you are.”
Dennis turns to face Damien and nods. “I am a ghost.”
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.” Damien gets up in his face. “I am not laughing.”
“Not now but you were.”
“Shut up with your fucking chess mind games, I’m not falling for that!” He pokes Dennis in the chest and is zapped. He looks at his finger and then Dennis. “You trying to start shit?”
“You threw a door at me. I think the shit race is underway, we’re already three laps into the grand prix of crap.” He rubs at his jacket. “Also don’t touch the jacket, it does that.” He tells the prince of Hell, his lips roll back over a snarl.
“I’ll do what I want.” He grabs a handful of leather and the sparks dance between his fingers, he doesn’t let go and when he talks arcs of energy slide between his teeth. His head seems to glow like a jack-o-lantern set ablaze. “You have been fucking with my shit, ghost dude. You don’t get stabbed, you don’t let me get my soul juice and I find out you BUSTED into my pad last night!”
“I mean your dad’s pad. Dads plural pad.” He blinks. “I don’t know the best possessive to use in this exchange.” Dennis blinks. “You live with your two dads right?”
“That a problem?”
“No it’s a dope ass house, I mean castle?” He offers and Damien leans his head to one side.
“They prefer chateaux.”
“I mean realistically I can understand that. A chateaux is often a converted fortress house in the countryside and they did a good job!”
“The last ruler basically mcmansioned the hell out of it,” Damien tells him and Dennis hisses, “Oh yeah there was like fourteen bathrooms on one floor.” He groans. “We basically took it over by virtue of it being an indefensible shithole.”
“What?”
“Right?” Damien rasps. “Like it’s much nicer now.”
“I thought it looked great, honestly, big props to them.” Dennis nods and Damien grins and shrugs.
“They know what they’re abo- HEY!” HE shakes Dennis. “NO! NONE OF THAT! NONE OF YOUR WEIRD CHARMING DIALOGUE!” He snarls. “No dialogue options are gonna save your ass! You busted in, busted up my guards and stole some shit!” He tells him and Dennis raises a single eyebrow.
Maybe he means that booze he was gonna have with Polly? The soul stuff.
Dennis grimaces. “Listen, Damien, I admit that happened. But there are extenuating circumstances that if you let me explain, I am-” Dennis is lifted from the ground and Damien throws him to the ground. Only…Dennis doesn’t hit the ground; he hangs in the air, upside down over Damien.
“Fuck you! Hit the floor like a man!”
“No. I’ll float like a ghost.” Dennis walks backwards in midair away from Damien. “I’m not going to let you kick my ass Damien.”
“TOO BAD cause your ass is getting kicked! I’m gonna murder your entire ass dude!” Damien notices the crowd around them. “You die at dawn!”
“....So tomorrow?” Dennis asks. “You don’t wanna just,” he gestures with his arms out, rotating back to his feet. “Cause I dunno but you don’t strike me as a dawn type of guy.” He shrugs his shoulders and Damien folds his arms. “It’s cause it sounded cool, right?”
“It does.” Damien mutters sullen.
“No it does! I mean…It does!” He agrees with a nod. “I mean everybody heard it! Sounded cool, right?” He looks at the students around them a murmur goes up. “I mean Dennis Dies at Dawn. Right!?” He goes on and the audience nods a lot more. “Listen, I barely get up in time for school. Maybe we do this in the traditional manner befitting our genre.”
“3PM outside the school?” Damien asks and Dennis nods. “Like the heroes of old.”
“Yes.” Dennis nods and then stops. “No wait. I don’t want to fight you.”
“TOO bad. You agreed!” Damien points at him. “YOU DIE AT 3PM!” He clicks his fingers and a portal opens wide, a legion of hellish troopers file out. “You guys erect a magical barricade around the school to keep him from LEAVING! YOU don’t get off school grounds unless you’re in a body-bag!”
The demonic mages wave burning hands in the air, the smoke trails into the shape of fingers twisting into arcane configurations, the shapes merge and twist together into a chimera of knuckles and nails and joints. Soon a light blooms from the tops of a thousand fingers and rises up to encompass the entire school.
“...That sucks.” Dennis mutters as Damien retreats into the school cackling at the top of his lungs. “I was kinda hoping to not die today.” He rubs at his cheek as a small phalanx of students form around him. “You guys are-”
“Can I have your stuff?”
“Can I have your corpse?”
“Can I have your jacket?”
Dennis' voice changes, a deep angry snarl. “FUCK OFF.” The students run as Abby sinks back down into Dennis.
Sorry.
“Oh no thank you for that.” Dennis jams his hands in his jacket pocket and he feels Abby’s fingers brush against his. He clings on and so does she. He turns his head and there, lurking, are The Coven. All three seen at once, what a treat. He can’t help but feel their eyes all over them. Damien shrieking like that and talking about him busting into his place.
Well that’s you in the bad guy books, huh?
“Maybe they want to ask me to join.” He mutters with a snort. Hands go in pockets and Dennis makes his way into the school. “It won’t matter much. I can’t see this being a big deal.” He mutters.
Kimmy watches Dennis walk past her and takes a breath, looking at her phone. There’s an order from The Coven to tail him. She swallows, nods and follows after him. She tip-toes, she creeps and the tide of students marches around her and nudges her this way and that. Overhead she notices a cadre of ghostly students float over the lot of them. One notices her and offers a hand before another scoffs.
“She doesn’t do that.” They say and there’s a soft laugh that bubbles through the group. The soft laugh of a joke that features a walking punchline, doesn’t matter if they hear.
“Can’t do that.” Another says and the laughter grows while they rise out of view. Kimmy growls something under her breath and marches on.
Dennis gets to his desk and a chair scooches over to him. He looks up and almost at once wishes he hadn’t. A grinning mug, all white with a big red button nose. A large dunce cap sits on this student’s head and they wear a large collar covered in tambourine cymbals.
“Darling Dennis don’t die!” The clown cries. “Dearest Dennis Doe don’t dare die, Damien doesn’t deserve to damn Delight’s dearest dude!” The clown clasps their hands and trembles leaning toward Dennis.
“You used dearest twice and my name twice.”
“The second time I used your surname.” Delight scoffs before flopping back in their seat. “Is it true though!? You’re going to do battle with the prince of hell? Goodness me you got awfully exciting out of nowhere.”
“It’s not what you think, Delight. I’m not gonna fight him.” Dennis slumps down in his seat and the clown mirrors his pose. The two lounge deeper into their seats, the grin on the painted face spreads to Dennis' own face. “What?”
“Did you tell Damien that? I don’t think he’s aware of that fact.” Delight takes a breath, their chest puffing outward. “I ask because we’re…accomplices in this production.” The clown thumps their chest and when they do so a notepad flies out their mouth and onto the desk. “I wanted to ask, buddy to buddy, performer to performer, and painted dandy to painted dandy.”
Dennis wiggles his painted nails and Delight pops their painted face onto his finger, resting a cheek against his nail. “What do you want?”
“Can I place bets on your demise?” Delight asks and Dennis looks down at them, they beam up at him. “Oh no don’t frown, don’t make that face at me.” Delight touches their face. “You look like this.” They pull down their lips into a tight frown. “You gotta put it upside down!” Delight twists their face around with one hand, there’s a sound of fabric ripping and now they are…Smiling upside down. Two eyes stare out of a toothless gummy smile while teeth lurk in the dark behind lidless eyes.
“Oh my god.” Dennis mutters.
GONNA VOM. GONNA VOM. Abby snarls as he feels he recoil from his vision. He really doesn't want her to puke inside of him, please don’t barf inside of me Abby!
“Shee wish ahn uhpshide down frowhn yeah can schmile!” Delight tells Dennis, their tongue pops out an eyehole and does a quick circle. “Sho-whatcha shay?”
“Flip your face around, please!” Dennis closes his eyes and there’s another horrible sound. He opens his eyes and the clown is back to just being an awful clown and not an awful upside down clown person. They bat their big blue eyes at him and smile. Between their teeth is an eyelash.
“I wanna place the first bet.” Dennis tells them and fishes ten bucks out of their pocket.
“Of course! Dearling, the odds will be calculated at a later time, to offset your initial advantage.” Delight smirks and Dennis puts the cash down. “So ten bucks on your mighty victory.”
“Nah ten bucks on Damien.”
“You’re not planning on throwing the fight are you?” Delight leans in. “I have to say I’d be sad to see you go, Mr.Doe. You and I have been embroiled in many enterprises together.”
“Throw a fight.” He shrugs. “Why, Delight. I’d have to be a criminal.”
“Oh yes. You would.” Delight smiles and folds the money into their notebook. They toss it into their mouth and swallow it down. “I’ll remember that. I will be in the stands sir, rooting for you and your victory.” They seize Dennis hand and kiss his knuckles. “Fight on valiant champion, we painted goons need to stick together.”
“Of course.” Dennis smirks a little as Delight scoots backward. “Where are you going?”
“I’m not supposed to be in this class. I followed you.” Delight stands up. “Now if you’ll excuse me. I must keep where the wit is stirring, leave this faction of fools.” They take a step over Kimmy, literally their legs extend outward and then snap back to normal once over her head. “Apologies, miss, attend your studies lest you wind up like myself and the company I keep.”
“I will throw something at you.” Dennis warns and the clown scurries away, jingling as he goes. Kimmy settles into her seat and looks at Dennis, he nods at her.
“How are you doing?”
“I know you’re not a ghost.” She tells him and Dennis sighs, reaching into his jacket. “But you can act like one and do things like one….So you might as well be one.”
“Because I am one.” Dennis pulls out a cigarette and after a moment his hair sparks into a flame, he lights it for himself and puts it in his mouth. “Ergo.”
“But you’re not.” Kimmy goes on. “But I want you to tell me how you’re so good at faking it….So I can do that.” She looks up at him. He looks down at her and his cigarette goes from left to right.
We’re very BUSY today. Abby tries to tell him but you might as well ask the sun not rise. He nods and holds out a hand, Kimmy looks down at it as if it might shoot something at her.
“Done deal.” He tells her. “Shadow me cause apparently I’m gonna get murdered later today. So it’s gonna be a crash course.”
“If you help me…I can help you with Damien.” Kimmy has no idea why she says this, she couldn’t do a thing to Damien if she had an army and a thousand well trained men. IT was nerves that made her say that.
“Don’t worry about it,” Dennis mutters, “I’ve got a plan for Damien.” He exhales a thin nimbus of smoke. “You just follow Dennis and by the end of the day we’ll have your ghost issues sorted out.” He wiggles his hand in the air again and Kimmy shakes her head. “Okay, starting slow.”
Dennis leans back. “You wanna get lunch on the roof?” He asks. “We can talk, it’s usually private unless like the anime kids are up there. In which case we might have to dodge laser blasts or be really quiet during their flashbacks.”
“What?”
“Some of them have really in depth flashbacks and they are important to their struggles so it’s impolite to talk over them.” Dennis says while the teacher at the front of the class struggles to keep eyes on them.
“No I meant…You…You can’t eat. You’re a ghost, at least you say…so…”
“Better make up your mind on if I am or am not a ghost there, Kimmy.” Dennis grins. “Besides…I made myself a treat I was gonna sneak anyway.” Dennis takes a breath and leans back in his chair.
Do we really have time for this? I know you think we do but do we actually, Dennis?
“We have the time we have and will afford as much to the people who need it as possible.” Dennis mutters quietly to himself. “Trust me. We’ll deal with Damien.”
Uh huh. Abby’s voice rattles around. You can try talking to him and if that doesn’t work I reserve the right to punch him in the face. She folds her arms in the dark of him and Dennis considers.
“Deal.” Dennis mutters. “If reason fails and he hits me first. You can fight him.” Dennis leans back with a smirk and Abby makes a quiet noise. He notices Kimmy staring at him. “Ghost rule 1- talk to yourself and be mysterious. People dig it.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Spend some time with me. You’ll see it. But first-”
---
The Roof only had one anime kid up there, they were staring off into the distance, one hand on their hip as the clouds rolled by. Dennis muttered something to Kimmy about this being ‘the end credits part’ so they’d be fine to chat.
“So.” Dennis removes a thermice from inside of his jacket and begins to unscrew the top. “Let’s play the sharing game. I’ll tell you something and if you want you can tell me the same information. That way I can work out how to help you out.”
He squats down before sitting on his ass and watching the clouds roll by, Kimmy does not sit immediately but after leaning down to talk with him she just sits down as well.
“My name is Dennis Doe, I have a middle name but I forgot to put it on the school registry so I never use it.” Dennis tells Kimmy as he unscrews the top of his thermice, a waft of smoke emerges.
“Kimmy Christensen. I don’t have a middle name either.”
Dennis takes a little breath and pours his thermice into the lid. A rich broth fills the little red container. “I tell people it’s booze,” Dennis winks at her, “it’s not booze.” He winks. “It’s a soup.” He sounds giddy to be sharing this information with Kimmy.
“I…Don’t…have a secret soup secret.” Kimmy tells him and Dennis chuckles through his nose. “You realize stuff like this is why I know you’re not a ghost.”
“It’s a liquid. Ghosts can have liquid.” Dennis mutters. He has a little spoon and with it he scoops out some fruits. “Flavoured with ginseng, wolf berries which are a pain in the balls to get fresh this time of year.” He exhales. “Star anise and a little ginger.” He slurps from the spoon. He flashes her a smile. She looks at him, the fact the food doesn’t fall out of his mouth confirms it.
We’re just giving this secret away.
“Why don’t you say hello?” Dennis asks and Kimmy looks around. “Don’t be shy. Clearly she’s alright and you’d get to show off.” He takes a breath and smiles at Kimmy. “This might freak you out, don’t scream.”
“Don’t scre-” Kimmy doesn’t scream because a hand slaps over her mouth as Abby crawls out of Dennis' shoulder, just an arm a little bit of her head. Her eyes are shaking as the ghost emerges from his body.
“Don’t scream.”
“Wow, that's an amazing intro to you.” Dennis chuckles as he moves Abby’s arm. “Kimmy this is my friend.”
“Abby. It remains to be seen if it’s a pleasure or not.” She folds her arms and leans on Dennis’ head. Kimmy stares at the two of them, back and forth. She points at Dennis.
“You’re human.” She tells him.
“Was.” He offers his wrist. “Go on feel. No pulse. Heart thuds once in a while but no pulse.” He nods at his wrist but Kimmy doesn’t bother. “I am in fact dead but I am not entirely a ghost. We’re a two-fer.”
“So she…possesses you?” Kimmy asks and Abby scoffs. “Sorry I don’t know the exact term for lives in a dude rent free.”
“Ha,” Dennis scoffs, nearly spitting out his soup. “Oh she got you.” Abby snarls something and stares at Kimmy. Sparks shoot out as her teeth grind. “Be nice.”
“We’re in a deal.” Abby tells her. “There was an accident and we needed each other to survive it.” She tells her. “Your turn, start sharing something worthy of this big secret.”
“Ummm.” Kimmy falters and stares. What does she have that’s the same as a secret origin story about a guy and a ghost girl being stuck together? She’s mostly stuck on the particulars of all that. Do they shower at the same time? Does only one of them need to do stuff like that? He clearly needs to eat! What the hell are they!?
“I…Died a long time ago, it wasn’t recent. My entire family died at the same time as me.” Kimmy speaks slowly and Dennis looks at her, he swallows his soup and exhales quietly. Even Abby seems to sink deeper into Dennis at that news. “WE spent a long time haunting the spot we died but eventually we…Moved here. To try and do something with our eternity.”
Dennis nods. “You don’t gotta be more specific than that, ghost rule 2 is your death is your business. Make it a joke, make it solemn or don’t make it anything. Up to you.” He pours a little more of his soup into the bowl and a big black chunk of meat falls out.
“Oh my god is that hell soup?” She asks and Dennis smirks.
“Oh yes. Hell soup. This is why I’m fine with fighting Damien, clearly I eat demons for breakfast.” He grins as he holds up the shining black meat. “Delish.”
“It’s silkie chicken.” Abby mutters. “He made chicken soup out of overpriced Chinese ingredients.”
“Hey we need this.” He takes a drink. “Chicken soup is good for the soul.” He slurps loudly and Abby swats the back of his head. He snickers into the bowl in response.
“I suck.” Kimmy tells him and the pair look at her. “I suck at ghost stuff. I can barely turn invisible, floating makes me afraid, I don’t like walking through walls because I’m afraid I’ll fall through the world and into the planet's core!”
“That can happen.” Abby tells her and Dennis snarls something. “IT FUCKING CAN.”
“The ghost zone sucks ass and I hate going, I can’t warp for shit and I don’t even know how to-” She gestures at Dennis. “Do this whole thing that you two are all up and doing inside each other.”
“Woah.” Dennis mutters a little red in the face.
“This is a perfectly innocent consensual possession.”
“We are very much intune with our self separation and identities in here.”
“I have not once peeled apart his mind to take over fully!”
“Sure,” Kimmy holds up her hands, “you two clearly have a super normal thing here and that’s why you HIDE it like a porno mag of the soul.” She grins at the pair and the two look at her. “The point here is, ghost shit sucks and I am tired of other ghosts looking at me like I’m some dumbass. I want to learn to do this crap right and…” She groans. “You clearly have it down pretty good.”
Dennis and Abby look at one another. Kimmy sighs and a thin vapour slides out of her mouth.
“I just want not…” There’s a lot of words she could say. Different, other, outside, alone but she doesn’t get to say any of those.
“I get it.” Dennis nods and tilts his bowl back to finish his soup. “I hear you. It’s too quiet, it’s lonely, it’s just you and your thoughts banging around in the dark of your mind.” He takes a breath. “It’s a ghost thing.” He screws the top back on his thermice and places it in his jacket. Abby sinks back into him.
“Come on.” He slaps his legs and floats to his feet. “I gotta see a few people and then me and you…Ghost tour and cool stuff 101.” He rubs his knuckles on his chest. “Abby taught me. We can teach you.”
“Like I said I’ll…Help with Damien, I -”
“It’s cool.” He tilts his head back. “Ghost rule 3.” He fishes a pair of sunglasses out of his jacket and tosses them to Kimmy, then removes another pair for himself. “Ghost lesson 3- It’s always cool.” He gives her a wolfish grin.
Kimmy’s fouch adds a fine layer of frost across the glasses lenses. “Yeah…Yeah it is.” She mutters and puts the glasses in the front of her cardigan. “Let’s get this over with.”
“That’s the spirit,” he chuckles, “you get it? Cause ghosts?”
Kimmy regrets this already.