[#] Haunted
Posted: 22 Oct 2016, 09:27
Haunted: You are haunted by the ghost or a wraith of a dead human or vampire, who appears almost constantly, or speaks as a voice in your head. As a result, you are most likely insane.
She hates him for it.
Hates him for what he’s done to himself.
Days pass before she shows herself again. Jack catches her out the corner of his eye, and for a fraction of a second he swears it’s all been a bad dream and she’s truly there. His stomach twists uncomfortably as he remembers it all happened. Everything. He doesn’t touch his morning coffee after that, abandoning it on the kitchen countertop. When he returns from work that evening, the mug is no longer there. Instead, it’s spread across the hardwood floor in a dozen pieces. The coffee stain is permanent.
It was his favourite mug, and she had only allowed him to keep it because she knew how much it meant to him. As he picks up the pieces and throws them into the trash, he speaks to the wall: “Is this how it’s going to be now?”
There’s no answer.
The next morning, Jack grabs a cup of joe from the coffee shop across from work.
Within the days that follow the incident, he’s earned a loyalty card from the shop. Soon enough, getting his morning fix from the café across the street is no longer an act of rebellion, but a genuine high point of his day. The baristas now know him by name, and with a little trouble he starts to learn their names too. He is socialising again.
Throughout these passing weeks she taunts him with her absence. There’s no way to explain how he knows this, but he knows she’s come and gone whenever he steps through the door. The air is colder than it should be somehow. Perhaps the magical power imparted to him by the branded runes at his back explain his heightened perception. Jack doesn’t talk to the walls, nor does he seek to summon her with magic gadgetry.
Hates him for what he’s done to himself.
Days pass before she shows herself again. Jack catches her out the corner of his eye, and for a fraction of a second he swears it’s all been a bad dream and she’s truly there. His stomach twists uncomfortably as he remembers it all happened. Everything. He doesn’t touch his morning coffee after that, abandoning it on the kitchen countertop. When he returns from work that evening, the mug is no longer there. Instead, it’s spread across the hardwood floor in a dozen pieces. The coffee stain is permanent.
It was his favourite mug, and she had only allowed him to keep it because she knew how much it meant to him. As he picks up the pieces and throws them into the trash, he speaks to the wall: “Is this how it’s going to be now?”
There’s no answer.
The next morning, Jack grabs a cup of joe from the coffee shop across from work.
Within the days that follow the incident, he’s earned a loyalty card from the shop. Soon enough, getting his morning fix from the café across the street is no longer an act of rebellion, but a genuine high point of his day. The baristas now know him by name, and with a little trouble he starts to learn their names too. He is socialising again.
Throughout these passing weeks she taunts him with her absence. There’s no way to explain how he knows this, but he knows she’s come and gone whenever he steps through the door. The air is colder than it should be somehow. Perhaps the magical power imparted to him by the branded runes at his back explain his heightened perception. Jack doesn’t talk to the walls, nor does he seek to summon her with magic gadgetry.