Richard ignored the ghost dangling from an ethereal noose, the rope blending vaguely into the ceiling of his bedroom at the top end. This ceiling was not strong enough to support the weight of a full grown man’s body, even if Richard had cared to hang one, and he hadn’t hanged this one. If only he could convince the ghost of that.
He sat up in bed brusquely, like he did everything. He never needed an alarm. He’d just tell himself, before falling asleep, what time he wanted to wake up, and that would be it. He got up and opened the blinds, letting sunlight splash across the room. As soon as the warm light hit the ghost, it faded out of existence again. On a dark, cloudy day, it might hang around all day, but it didn’t seem able to tolerate sun. Or maybe it was still there, and he just couldn’t see it in the light. He walked through the place the ghost body had been hanging and into the bathroom.
Richard’s plan for the day was to clean out the basement. He thought about that, as he drank his morning coffee, looking out the kitchen window at the bright, spring day. Normally, when Richard made a plan, he stuck to it, but today he felt grumpy and annoyed at the idea. The ghost would accompany him the whole day, he knew. The only place natural light permeated into the downstairs was at the garage entrance. Beyond that was only the illumination cast by a few bulbs and that was not enough to keep the thing away. It wasn’t bound to that spot in the bedroom, or even to the house. It seemed to be bound to him. But the hell of it was, he hadn’t killed the man. He was sure of it. He was pretty sure he remembered everyone he’d killed, and this skinny, old guy was not on the list.
If he stayed out in the sunlight, maybe went hiking or fishing or something, he probably wouldn’t see it all day. No, he decided. He was not going to let the damned thing start running his life. Bad enough that he couldn’t seem to get it to go away. He sure as hell wasn’t going to start letting it get to him.
May be used for any purpose, without attribution.