2 Half

He had slept a full eighteen hours and no longer looked that sleep deprived, he took a shower, had a coffee, ordered a take-out and then the ghost tackled him.

Yet rather than her passing through him, she had actually made him fall to her own shock.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry!!" She flailed her hands. "I didn't think I…"

He sighed. "Did you think my writing talent was something a human should be capable of?"

"...Yeah?" She asked, confused.

"Fine, just get off, I don't enjoy laying on the floor." He looked irritated.

"Oh, that was a joke!" Gears clicked in her head as she got up.

He groaned. "Don't rub it in." But he could now get up as well. He rubbed his hip, but let it be a few moments later.

"Okay, so, my name is Mandy! What's yours?" The girl started the introductions. He had said he would talk with her and she had also waited for him to get a shower, coffee and… she thought he would need breakfast and calling the take-out answered that. She wasn't so insensitive that she would keep someone from taking basic care of themselves.

Yet rather than replying to that, he said. "Five questions. I will answer only five, so ask carefully."

"Uh--" The girl squinted her eyes like she had been cheated.

"I have another deadline coming up soon." He explained. "After eating I'll get to work."

She reluctantly nodded. "What's your name?" She didn't feel like it was right to call him by the name on the book without asking.

"August," he confirmed that the name on the book had been indeed his real one.

Well, it was a wasted question then, but Mandy hadn't wished to guess with something as important as a name. "August, why did you ignore me for three days?"

"I had no time to waste on conversations," he replied.

Her eyes squinted dangerously and her hands raised up ominously, so August felt like he had to keep speaking.

"Most humans don't see ghosts and I look human enough, so unless you were too fresh as a ghost you wouldn't have known I could see you, so no damage done?"

Mandy sighed. He had a point. "What are you then?"

"Half-human, half-ghost," August replied.

Mandy thought a bit, confusion written over her features. "How is that possible?"

"If one of your parents is a ghost, other is human, you get something like that."

"I mean - how? Humans can't touch or see us normally, except..."

August put up fingers and listed: "All hallows, winter solstice, anytime when someone holds walpurgis," he lowered his fingers, "and there are certain places in the world where that isn't a problem. In eastern europe, there's a whole month where dead and living can intermingle and there are also cursed forests and whatnot, so you just have to travel a lot."

"Oh," Mandy nodded. "So they met like that?"

"No."

"How did they meet then?" Mandy leaned closer.

"Aren't you out of questions already?" August peered at her.

"Don't be that stingy, it counts as a reply to the previous one. 'Yes/No' isn't a proper answer." Mandy narrowed her eyes at August.

"Fine," he sighed. His breakfast hadn't arrived yet, so he told her the story as pieced together from bits and pieces told by his parents.

"It happened twenty eight years ago..."

~~~

Inside a luxurious looking mansion, second floor, behind high rococo styled doors at the very end of a long hall was a pastel colored bedroom. Furnished with white, elegant furniture, landscape paintings by the walls. Inside the room were two figures - an old man in the bed and a younger one standing beside it.

"I'll have you stay here for the night," the old man said, he was wrinkled and seemed to be close to seventy.

The young man nodded, no surprise on his features. If his eyes weren't moss green and his stance wasn't so firm, giving a sense of good health and strength, you might have mixed him up with the sleep deprived writer of the present. He wore a classic casual outfit reminding of someone well off, the only slightly odd detail was him wearing silk-like black gloves.

"I'll turn off the lights then," the younger man said, this time it was the turn of the old man to nod.

The younger man went to a wall nearby and pressed a switch. With a faint click the lights went off and the man returned to the bedside of the old man, leaning by a wall.

They didn't converse and while the old man did cast glimpses at the young man for a while, soon he closed his eyes and his breathing slowed down.

The young man, however, kept a careful watch of the whole room. He remained still and silent for half an hour at least, till a faint glow appeared by the ceiling.

A beautiful girl floated down from above - dark gold hair and dark brown eyes. She was wearing a white sundress and a hay hat, but rather than seeming as outdoorsy as her clothes might hint at she looked similarly sleep deprived to one certain writer, like she hadn't seen much sun. She was beautiful in spite of her visibly bad sleeping habits and unhealthy paleness.

Even if the young man had put on something reminding of a fighting stance upon spotting the glow, that had loosened, as he was caught by surprise.

As the ghost reached out for the old man, the young man took her hand, pulling her towards him. Despite what one would expect, his hand did not pass through her and she was equally shocked about it.

"Wha--"

"Shh." The man gestured, pointing at the sleeping man.

The whole situation was so utterly shocking to the ghost that she closed her mouth and let herself be pulled away from the bed.

The old man shifted a little bit in his sleep, but didn't wake up.

The young man, in the meantime, had reached the balcony doors and carefully opened them, going out, pulling the ghost along with him. She kept looking at him, then back at the bed, back and forth, too confused to resist. The sounds of a fountain met them and so did a scenery of a rose garden illuminated by the moonlight below them.

The girl's expression changed from bewildered to suspicious to just confused by the time the man had closed the doors behind him.

"Are you the only ghost haunting him?" The man asked with a soft smile.

"...in this house, probably," the girl replied.

A trace of relief passed the young man's features. "You know, he's already married and old…"

Her jaw dropped. "What-- are-- you s-s-s-saying, I-I-I-- "

He laughed.

She pouted. "Listen here… "

"Raegan," he dropped his name.

"Reagan. I'm not interested in that old man in--" She was clearly embarrassed. "...that way."

"Oh, that's a relief," Reagan said, his eyes were smiling, even if he tried to fake a relieved expression. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Hilary," the girl replied. "Don't say it - I know it doesn't fit…" She added.

"Pleased to meet, you, Hilary." Raegan kept smiling but this time without any fake expressions overlaid on top.

"Likewise," the girl slightly bowed her head, her hand shifted a little and it seemed like she might have curtsied, had her hands been free.

"Since you've made it clear that you don't see the old man in "that way", does that mean I might have a chance?" Reagan asked.

She pursed her lips, then glanced away. "Stop joking around," the girl said, pouting again and looking at her hand that was being firmly held.

"I'm not." he said all that with a straight and open face. "I'd be open to be haunted by you anytime~" He winked.

"Pff" She laughed.

"Ah, don't laugh about my feelings," he replied with an amused expression, yet there was a serious tint in there.

"It almost sounds like love at first sight," She said, tilting her head lightly. "For a ghost at that." She felt unsure, her eyes seeking for any trace of deceit.

"What if it is?" He asked, no trace of deceit present.

Her eyes flickered as she looked up at him. She had a hard time believing him, this was too sudden, yet he didn't seem to be lying either. It didn't help that they were amongst a beautiful scenery, under the moonlight and that his face was very much to her liking.

It took a moment before she could part her lips and say… "I can't leave this house. I have tried but…"

He raised up his other hand and put a strand of her hair behind her ear. She trembled a bit at the touch, but relaxed as he retracted his hand.

He was smiling still. "As long as you wish to follow me more than stay here, you will be able to go."

Her eyes widened first, then she finally smiled as well. Those words that sounded so much like a beautiful lie - she couldn't help but believe them.

~~~

With that the writer finished his tale. His pride as a writer had him retell the story it in this manner. And seeing the story told in this manner Mandy refrained from interrupting him even if she had a lot of questions.

"That is so-- romantic," the ghost in the present day turned around in the air. "What happened after?"

"You are out of questions," the writer said.

"That's unfair!" she thrashed in midair, but the writer did not budge.

A bell at the door rang and the writer got up. "Finally."

He had ordered some pizzas for breakfast. Not the healthiest choice, but there wasn't anything about August that would scream 'health concerned'. Mandy, of course, poked him. "At least answer some bits about the story you told!"

"Why was your dad in that old man's house?"

"Work."

Mandy squinted her eyes again.

"He's an exorcist." Other replies among the munching included:

"Dad could always see ghosts and other astrals, family lineage has some other astral creatures mixed in, so most of my relatives can see."

"Astrals are spirits, monsters, gods, what have you - not humans."

"What do you mean - of course they exist - if ghosts are real shouldn't other oddities be real too?"

"I've never heard of Easter bunny being real, no,"

(To that Mandy seemed sad)

"His gloves are widow silk: stuff both physical and astral things can touch, woven by a spider monster with female upper half."

"I have no idea how he got them."

"Mother hated the old man, so she gave him nightmares and had him pee his bed all the time." (To which Mandy laughed)

"Yes, you can haunt humans rather than houses, but you need to really like the human for that. Hatred doesn't do the trick."

August finished eating and went to work. Mandy made him coffee and in exchange got more books to read. These weren't by August, however.

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