3 | If Luck Be a Lady...

Loi (and Maya)'s house, after school. Kenta was staring, wide-eyed. Maya, who noticed his entrance, looked back, equally surprised. "Gho...ghost?! It's real?!" he voiced, simultaneously steeling himself mentally. Maya stared blankly as if a simulated question mark was being formed above her head.

"But..." Kenta trailed off suddenly, glaring at Loi and grasping him in a headlock.

"Damn you, lucky bastard! You get to live under the same roof as THIS cute of a ghost?!" he sneered, annoyed. "Can't breathe..." Loi puttered. Maya paused. 'I'm cute?' she mused to herself, curiously. Kenta fixed his eyes ahead of him in determination. "Look, I don't care if you're cute, I need to do this for the sake of my friend." he sighed, reluctantly.

Maya was thoroughly perplexed. With a thousand-metre stare adhered to her, she crossed her arms and patiently waited for what would happen next. Kenta and Loi both wore strong expressions belaying the deep anxiety they were experiencing. "Prepare yourself, ghost!" Kenta yelled, "By this garlic necklace, I will purify you! Now, begone, ghost!"

Maya was absolutely, positively befuddled. Kenta lowered his voice and drew nearer, as not to hint Loi unto his conversation. "Wear this...I made it." he mewled, sheepishly. "Ok...?" Maya complied with the request, seeming proud of her willingness to remain civil after being affronted by yet ANOTHER strange boy in her home. "Well," she began, with a slight smile.

"How do I look?" faint halos forming around her, as if to highlight her innocence. Kenta's face resembled that of a delighted primate as he delivered his mute approval via a thumbs up. Maya cinched her eyes and dropped her head to the side cutely. Loi leered at Kenta, seeing his moronic, drooling grin and sensing something was amiss.

Kenta's smile broke and he directed an equally disinterested look at his friend. "What?" he piped, irked by the many daggers behind the offending eyes. Jaja, who was just out of sight, now joined in. "Alright, it's my turn..." her face twisted into a dire frown. "But first, let me remind you that's she's a GHOST, and garlic is for Vampires." she breathed out, scarcely holding back her derision.

Jaja and Maya were in a staring match, a palpable sense of an impending storm swirled through the house. Lightning coursed through the air, papillary cells and pores in full view, their crossed paths ignited with fearsome fury. Jaja drove the first blow. "Hey, you... Why did you hurt my friend?" she demanded, curtly. Maya stood still before nestling herself into an embarrassed concealment.

"He...deserved it." she squeaked, blushing into her sleeves. "He did something indecent to me~ He let me watch some X-Rated thingy...!" she twittered on, imagining the video icon and the cascade of emotions she went through after being virtually assaulted by the onslaught of eroticism. Jaja was struck dumb by her explanation. "Huh? What do you mean?" she requested. Something didn't add up.

Maya exploded in a barrage of rouge, now fully engaged in her mental recollection. "That guy destroyed my purity!" she sniffed, weakly. Maya was overcome with lacrimations streaming into her ears and mouth. A complete and utter performance act. Loi knew there was going to be a misunderstanding.

Kenta's eyes glazed over with a petrifying dismay, he turned to his friend again. "Loi, I don't know what to say..." he quipped. Jaja was not so taken aback as she was furious. "Loi?!" she drilled, piercingly. Loi tacitly gestured to his friend with a steady implicating open palm.

"Kenta asked me to download it." he said, plainly. Kenta was gobsmacked. "Loi, you traitor!" he wailed. Jaja directed her honed eyes on the pair. "You guys are disgusting..." she spat, with weighty judgement, before rushing over to embrace the quiet and tearful Maya.

"Poor girl, don't worry...from now on, we're going to be friends and I'll protect you." she cooed, consoling the misplaced phantom. "By the way, I'm Jaja~" she added, smilingly. Maya was awash with gaiety. "I'm Maya!" she shouted back, brimming with excitement. Loi smiled, too.

***

Maya and Loi sat on the couch, watching a dim image on the television screen. A old brick well lie within the frame, the camera tied to this point. "This is so boring..." Loi commented. Maya soured. "I bet you're just scared." she hissed, unfazed. "I'm a ghost and love horror movies, so just shut up and watch~" Her eyes lowered, deviously.

'This is a part of my plan...I'm sure that he's now trembling in fear because of the horror movie... Then, finally, he will leave this house! Hehehe...' She glanced over, expecting fear and was instead met with Loi's indifference. "Ah~ There she is..." Maya glossed. "Eh? Where did she go?" A black, withered and slovenly form flew from the well and jumped toward the camera with a carnivorous toothy maw.

Loi stretched, entirely unamused. "That's it? That wasn't scary at all..." he sighed. He peered over his shoulder, stuck by Maya's obvious departure. "Huh? Where are you going?" Maya stopped dead. "I thought you liked to watch horror movies..." Loi said, matter-of-factly. Maya tried to hide her face again.

"I'm sorry~! I don't want to watch horror movies again, it's way too scary!" she declared. "WHY DID WE WATCH IT IN THE FIRST PLACE, THEN?!" Loi yelled. "And to think...you call yourself a ghost?!" his expression was a mixture of disappointment and offense. Loi had learned something, however.

***

"I'm thirsty..." Maya whispered to herself. The kitchen was quiet, enveloped in a blanket of caliginous effluence. Cutting through the umbra, a single glass of water was sat on the table somewhere in the visual maze. Maya didn't move. "I want to drink water, but I'm scared of the dark..." she whined, softly. "Because of that stupid horror movie..." her mouth curled disconcertingly. 'Ugh, Water!' her thoughts pleaded, incessantly.

"Uhm, what are you doing, Maya?" a voice drifted in from beside her. Maya jumped into the air with a start. She forced a cool expression. "I'm haunting~? Yeah, right...I'm haunting~!" she dribbled out hastily. "It doesn't look like you're haunting." Loi dismissed. Maya whistled and turned her eyes to the side. Loi paused. "Are you STILL scared because of that horror movie?" he jabbed. Maya was mute, blushing and ruminating. She wouldn't concede that easily.

Loi flashed a smug grin. "Heh, pathetic." he coughed. Maya reared up and pulled her sleeves taut to her sides. "I will tell Jaja that you're bullying me!" she threatened. Loi was foolhardy, but not that foolish. "Okay! I'm sorry! Please don't tell Jaja about this..." he capitulated, seeing the doom otherwise. 'I don't wanna die yet...' he wilted. Maya sunk. "Turn on the light for me because I'm too scared."

Right around the corner in the darkened kitchen lay the lightswitch. Maya held up her arms. "Ah...she actually admitted it," Loi parsed to himself in slight surprise. "Hurry up~! I'm thirsty!" Maya yipped. "Thirsty? But aren't you a ghost?" he chided her, bluntly. "Who cares!" Maya complained. Loi lingered at the lightswitch. "How can you even haunt if you're afraid of the dark?" he said, shaking his head. "Just shut up and turn on the light!" came Maya's retort.

FLICK~ On went the lights, without even so much as a moment to spare. Maya edged into the room. 'Water! This is my chance!' she triumphed. CLICK~ The lights fell away without indication. Maya jerked. The lights began to flicker, accompanied by the active sounds of the switch being used. "Wow, this is fun." Loi guffawed. Maya was frantic now, jumping in front.

"Please! I just want to drink water..." she moaned. Loi became timid. "Hey Maya...? You're a little too close." The two blushed after gauging their relative distance to be in kissing proximity. Maya was temporarily carried away by him just as Loi had been when he noticed. "S-sorry....my bad." Maya eked. "Be careful next time." Loi fizzled out of his mouth slowly.

After an understated silence, the two turned away from each other. He kneaded his shoulder. "Geez... I'm going to sleep now." he huffed. Maya shot him a desperate plea with her eyes. "Wait!" she chimed. "I'm scared." Loi looked at her. "So what?" Maya diverted her eyes and flushed. "Can I...sleep... with you?"

Loi was caught entirely unawares. "Eh? Ghosts can sleep?" he said, faintly. The two of them lay apart from one another in bed thereafter. "One sheep, Two sheep, Three sheep..." Maya counted, quietly. "Four sheep, Five sheep..." she added. "Six sheep, Seven sheep..." Loi, half awake, tensed. "Eight sheep, Nine sheep..." Maya tallied. "Ten sheep, Eleven sheep...ugh, useless sheep...I can't sleep." she finished.

"Hey, I'M trying to sleep here, could you please be quiet?" Loi grated. "You interrupted my counting... Where did I stop, ten sheep?" Maya asked. "Who cares about the sheep, just go to sleep already..." Loi fumed. Maya sat up straight away and winced.

"Ahh~! I can't sleep! Is this what they call insomnia?!" she fretted. "You're. a. ghost." Loi prodded. "You don't need sleep..." Maya spun and howled. "I can't sleep! Loi?" "I'm still awake..." he sighed. "Loi?" she peeped. "How can I sleep if you keep asking me like every three other seconds?" he pressed.

Morning. Loi lay there drained as Maya nestled the pillow next to him, breathing calmly. 'I didn't sleep well.' he thought. This fact was agonizingly apparent and written all over his churlish look. 'Look at her...she's having a good sleep...so unfair.' Maya sprawled out in resplendent bliss. 'Hmmm...If you look closer, she's actually cute... She looks like a doll...' Loi meditated on this point in particular.

A vivid recollection of their kiss wafted into his mind again and he grew flighty. "I feel guilty..." he lightly considered, his eyes drifting down her neckline. Maya's full breasts drew themselves into view and caught Loi's eye in bewilderment. Maya murmured sleepily, stretching a single arm wide.

"What time is it? I need to haunt you..." she yawned out. "Are you okay?" she asked, oblivious. Loi was silent, spun around and became reserved. "'Yup! Don't mind me!" he spouted, nervously. 'I didn't know that she had a figure... She's not flat at all!' he yiped in his head.