Monthly Bonus #5 - Li-Sar (f) Autumn Scenario Special - "Ghost Tour" (Patreon)

There are things I know about Verda. Many things.

Like how he loves croquet but for some reason won’t admit it.

How he can’t handle lactose.

How he can’t resist buying anything with a cute otter on it.

The way he chops food into tiny pieces before eating it.

They are reliable traits. Things I have come to expect because, above all things, he is predictable.

So, when he does something out of character, it makes me tense.

I am currently tense.

“Why are you doing that?” I demand, frowning at Verda.

He looks to me, bouncing slightly on the spot, his hands shoved into the pockets of his thick coat. “Doing what?”

“Fidgeting,” I reply.

“I’m not allowed to fidget?” he asks.

“You never fidget,” I insist.

He arches a brow and turns to face me with a deadpan stare. “I have never been alone in a graveyard past midnight before either.”

“You’re not alone,” I announce, spreading my arms out and making the mist blossoming in the night air swirl. “I’m here with you.”

He sighs. “I’m suddenly brimming with confidence.”

My arms drop back to my sides. “Oh, come on. This is fun!”

“I am up hours past my bedtime, and the girls have school tomorrow. How is that fun?”

I roll my eyes, leaning back against something until I realise it’s a headstone and quickly push myself back up. “You’re such an adult.”

“I hate to remind you of this fact, but so are you,” he replies, doing a bad job of hiding a smile.

I chuckle, shaking my head. “The tour guide said they’d be here soon. They’re running late.”

“Did the ghosts hold them up?” he scoffs.

“You never know,” I say enigmatically and wiggle my fingers, gaining a small laugh from him.

After a quiet minute, he begins to fidget again.

“What is wrong?” I demand again.

He eyes me before sliding his gaze away. “…I forgot to use the bathroom before I left.”

I groan. “There’s one at the entrance.”

“I’ll be five minutes at most,” he insists, shuffling away down the tarmac path.

“You better be!” I call before glancing around the shadowed graveyard with a shudder. “I don’t want to be alone long here.”

As I wait, I’m sure the mist thickens, curling around my ankles like tangles of foggy rope. I’m so entranced by the dance of hazy mist that I don’t notice when a shadow forms nearby.

“All alone?” a voice breaks through the darkness, making me flinch.

Turning, I grasp a hand to my chest where my heart had almost broken out of it. “Shit. I didn’t see you there.”

“That’s a shame. I do like to be seen,” the shadowed figure responds, and I see a white line of teeth as she smiles. Light suddenly flickers on from the lamps hanging from the mausoleum nearby.

I blink at the influx of brightness and shake my head. I didn’t know they put electric lamps there now.

Looking back at the sound of movement, the woman who had been only shadow steps into the pool of stark white light, and I can’t stop my jaw from going slack.

Long legs lead up to a toned torso, all clothed in rich navy fabrics embroidered with silver embellishments. Her dark waves of hair ombre down into static-bright blue, and she’s wearing contacts that make her eyes look like pools of lighting-white.

She’s achingly beautiful. And dressed perfectly for Halloween.

She tilts her head and smirks, noticing my ogling.

I drag my gaze up to her eyes. “Are you, uh, here for the tour?”

“Tour?” she asks.

I spread a hand towards to the graveyard. “The Halloween tour around the graveyard. It was supposed to start an hour ago, so you’re not late even if you were, you know…late.”

Please stop talking, I beg myself, hiding my thought behind a smile.

She steps closer, and energy buzzes through my system.

 Is this what they talk about when there’s a spark between people? ‘Cause I’m definitely sparking.

The woman lets her gaze slide slowly over me, and I don’t comment on it. It’s only what I’d done to her.

She sucks in a breath, as though drawing in a scent. “I’m not here for a tour.”

“Oh,” I expel. “Then…why are you here? In a graveyard? After midnight?”

She circles a hand in the air, looking up in thought. “I was here for inspiration.” Her gaze drops back to meet mine with a thin smile. “And I think I may have found it.”

There’s a part of me that screams that I should be afraid. To put up my defences.

But I don’t.

Instead, I step closer. “That sounds exciting. What’s the inspiration for?”

She moves to close the gap. The same buzz trickles across my skin and draws a light gasp from me.

Her focus flickers over my face. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

“I’m back!” Verda’s call cuts through the shiver of electricity that had been bouncing between the stranger and I.

I swing around, blinking, as though adjusting to reality again.

“Feel better?” I ask as Verda approaches.

He nods. “Much. And look who I found.”

The tour guide is running up the path behind Verda, panting as their breaths plume against the cold night. “I’m so sorry. I got stuck behind in my last tour.”

“It’s fine.” I turn back to the stranger, hoping she’ll stick around. “Did you want to join us…?”

But she’s gone.

Verda and the tour guide peer around me into the darkness. The light from the lamps has also extinguished.

“Are you alright?” Verda asks.

I blink before shaking my head. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Then let us get started,” the tour guide says, the words expelled between heaved breaths. “This part of the graveyard was…”

As the tour guide begins, we follow on behind.

…

…

From the darkness at the edge of the cemetery, a crackle of lightning breaks the shadow.

A rumble of laughter echoes from within it.