Chapter Text
When Phil awoke the next morning, she had absolutely no time to think about the previous night’s events. Running on less than four hours of consecutive sleep, she did her best to style her fringe into well something and make herself some coffee. She was just about to leave the kitchen after grabbing a chocolate bar for breakfast (sue her, she didn’t have time) when she stopped in her tracks.
Realistically, her interaction with Dani the ghost last night had probably been nothing but a dream. A psychotic break. Or something equally in need of getting checked by a shrink.
But- she couldn’t stop thinking about her. It had seemed real. She had seemed real. And more importantly, she had seemed bored. Otherwise, she probably wouldn’t have agreed to let Phil stay in her apartment in exchange of playing Mario Kart.
A quick glance at the clock on her wall told her she had about fifty-seconds before she needed to leave to realistically catch the Tube.
“Fuck it.” She muttered and sprinted back into her room to retrieve her laptop. She typed in her password as quickly as humanly possible, pressed play on the last YouTube video she’d watched to keep it turned on and dumped it on the kitchen island before running out the door.
She had to sprint to catch the Tube but she made it. Thank fuck. And hey, maybe she had made a difference today. Or something.
Phil liked her job. She really did. Getting hired by the BBC wasn’t something she thought would actually happen. For the first time in her life, she was making real money. She had colleagues and a regular lunch break, which she was more often than not forced to spend with said colleagues because she didn’t know how to say no to their invites.
The actual work was pretty boring, though. Her expertise lay more in the field of video-editing, so most of the tech-stuff went over her head, and she was usually in charge of researching the news stories, creating playlists, and making sure the individual shows went over smoothly.
It was nice. Sure, sometimes she missed the creative freedom that making videos on her own had given her, but it simply hadn’t been sustainable long-term. And, to be quite honest, she had gotten rather lonely after a couple years.
Sure, she had a couple YouTube friends and acquaintances that she had occasionally collabed with, but it wasn’t like she had anyone to actually share her ideas with. Someone she felt comfortable enough with to discuss all her ideas and possibly even expand them.
So, traditional entertainment it was.
Luckily, if any of her coworkers noticed that she was a bit out of it today, they didn’t mention it. They probably thought it had more to do with her massive eyebags than any paranormal encounters.
But Phil couldn’t stop thinking about Dani. Not just because she was a ghost. Sure, meeting a ghost was rather unheard of, but Phil hadn’t lied when she said she expected it would happen sooner or later. She had always attracted strange things.
Oh, she should probably tell her grandma. Maybe she would do her a reading.
But no, something else about Dani had drawn her in. Not only was she gorgeous, with her doe-like brown eyes and long brown hair, her fringe perfectly styled, frozen in time, but there was something else. She had seemed lonely.
Not the typical loneliness that everyone experienced once in a while. But a chilling, bone-deep loneliness that she knew all too well.
It was already past six when Phil finally made it back to her apartment. Her last meeting had gone longer than anticipated, and she had needed to pick up dinner before going home. She was pretty sure her freezer was empty, and there was just no-way she was cooking tonight. Or any night really, not that it mattered.
She had briefly considered getting Dani something as well before immediately tossing the thought. After all, there was no guarantee Dani would be there again. Also, ghosts probably didn’t eat. At least no human food.
As stupid as it sounded, she was strangely nervous when she put the key into her front door. She wasn’t even sure if she hoped that Dani would be there or that she wouldn’t. Maybe this would be easier if last night had been nothing but a strange dream.
Nope. Scratch that. She really, really hoped Dani would be there again.
The apartment was dark when she came in. Just like always. Phil sighed. Of course it was.
Quickly, she pulled off her shoes and jacket and walked towards the kitchen when she suddenly heard something. The sound was very faint, not at all like the music that had kept her up before, and it sounded like keys.
Phil couldn’t help the smile that started to spread across her face.
She walked the last couple meters to her kitchen, and yep, there she was. Sitting somewhere between the high-chair that belonged to her kitchen island and the table (she wasn’t really touching either) was Dani.
Not only did she look beautiful in the dark with nothing but the light from the streetlamps outside to illuminate her, Phil was also pretty sure she hadn’t noticed her yet. Instead, she was engrossed into whatever she was looking at on the computer. Her point of view was rather limited, but she would bet her ass it was Tumblr.
“Boo.”
A shrill scream, much louder than Phil would have expected, rang through the apartment, followed by a very clear “What the fuck.” To add insult to injury, Dani turned around so fast; her movement caused the high-chair to fall over, which, in turn, just scared her more.
Phil could barely contain herself. It was just too funny.
She was still laughing when Dani caught herself again. “What was that for?” She asked, still looking rather flustered.
“Sorry,” Phil managed to get out between laughs, “the opportunity was just too good. Consider it payback for yesterday.”
“Yesterday? I didn’t do anything. You got scared all on your own. And even if I’m a ghost, it’s like my job to scare people.” Dani protested, but thankfully she didn’t actually look mad.
“Wait, really?”
“I don’t know, actually. Didn’t get a handbook or anything.”
“Right,” Phil responded, feeling a bit awkward. She’d spent all day thinking about Dani, but somehow none of that time had been dedicated to figuring out what to say to her once she saw her again.
“Is that Indian?” Dani suddenly asked, looking very excited.
“What? Oh, yes. Sorry, I didn’t get you any. I wasn’t sure if you can eat. Or if you’d still be here today.”
“I can’t,” Dani replied, looking genuinely devastated, “but I like the smell.”
A couple minutes later they sat across from each other at Phil’s kitchen island. She’d put the chair back up again, not that Dani really needed it, but she got the impression Dani liked to at least pretend to use the furniture.
“So, you’ve been enjoying my computer?” She asked, pointing her fork in the direction of the still open laptop on the island before scooping up another bite of her curry.
To her surprise, Dani looked rather embarrassed once she mentioned it. “I wasn’t going to,” she started, “but life in this flat can be pretty boring. And you left it on. I couldn’t help myself. I wanna say I didn’t snoop, but I think we both know that’d be a lie.”
Phil smiled, “Don’t worry about it. I left it out for you. I figured ghost life might be boring you after how eager you were to play Mario Kart last night.”
“Oh, that’s- that’s really nice.” Dani didn’t blush, but Phil got the impression that her cheeks would be red by now if she was still alive.
“So, like what you found?” She asked, grinning.
The laptop was relatively new, and most of the truly old and embarrassing stuff was on her old hard-drive anyway.
“Well, your Tumblr is seriously chaotic. No rhyme or reason to any of it. No color scheme, no aesthetic, nothing.”
“Hey, I left you my laptop. Why are you roasting me?”
“But,” Dani continued, “you do have good taste. In basically everything. Music, films, games, even memes. Even I hadn’t seen some of those. Then again, I haven’t been online in like two years.”
Suddenly, Phil was very glad that she, too, didn’t blush easily. Otherwise, her face would probably resemble a tomato by now.
“I found your videos too.”
“What?” Phil squawked, just a little bit too high. Those shouldn’t even be on the laptop.
“On YouTube?” Dani continued, “Are there others that would warrant that reaction?” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“What? No. I just thought you meant the unedited footage. That stuff is seriously terrible.”
“I don’t believe that.” Dani remarked, maybe a bit too quickly.
“No, trust me. It’s so boring.”
“Well, if it’s anything like your videos, I don’t believe that for a second.”
“You liked my videos?” Phil asked. She didn’t mean to come out so incredulous, but she couldn’t help it. She liked her videos, she really did. In fact, she was proud of them. She just also knew that they tended to be weird in a way not everyone could truly understand sometimes.
“Are you kidding? They’re amazing. I watched basically all of them. The ‘Interactive Space Adventure’ you did was incredible. I clicked through every path. I’m pretty sure I found videos no-one else has seen yet. You have got to tell me how you did that.” Her eyes lit up while talking about the different paths, and suddenly she seemed much more alive than she had before.
The rest of dinner flew by. Dani kept on talking about Phil’s videos, and Phil tried her best to give as much background info as possible. Eventually, they moved onto films and movies and games, and Dani had been right. They had so much in common; they might be the same person.
By the time they were done talking, Phil’s leftovers had long since gone cold, and the clock on the wall showed it was well past ten.
The smart decision would be to go to bed. If you had asked Phil before coming back home if she wanted to go to bed, she would have agreed instantly. But now, now she felt more alive than she had all day. And she didn’t want to leave Dani yet. Or ever.
“Are you up for playing on the Switch again?” she asked, while putting away her leftovers and dumping her one used fork into the sink to the rest of her dishes. She’d get to them later.
“Absolutely.”
“I don’t get it,” Phil said when they sat down on the couch. “Can you or can you not touch things?”
“Oh,” Dani responded, she was currently half-holding and half-resting the controller on the couch. “It’s not always the same, I think. Like if I try hard enough, I can usually touch things and exert small amounts of pressure. Like pressing the keys on your laptop or turning a light switch. But I can’t make my body physical. Not really. Which is why I end up floating above furniture often.”
“Makes sense, but hey, you kicked that chair over today.”
“What? Oh, right. I don’t know. I haven’t done something like that before.”
“Maybe it’s because I startled you.” Phil theorized. Dani just rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Come on, let’s play unless you’re scared you’ll lose again.”
“Yeah, right. I was just tired last night.”
As it turned out, Dani was a better gamer than her. Not that she would admit it, but she was. Especially for someone who hadn’t played in a while. But that didn’t mean Phil didn’t have some aces but her sleeves as well.
Furthermore, Dani was genuinely fun to play with. Especially, because she seemed to have a real temper problem when it came to gaming. Some people might have found it annoying, but Phil couldn’t stop laughing while watching her curse out another player floating midair.
They played until well after midnight and only stopped because the controllers were empty.
“I might have to go to bed,” Phil admitted. “I do have work in the morning.” She really wished she hadn't, but she knew that she wouldn’t survive the next day on four hours of sleep again.
“Okay,” Dani responded, but she looked rather sad.
“What will you do?”
“Huh?”
“At night. I mean. Do you sleep? Do you go somewhere?” She had tried not to bombard Dani with too many questions about her state of being, but she was just too curious.
“Not really. Not like when I was human, I mean. It’s more of a trance. I just sort of exist. It’s hard to explain.”
“No, I think I get it.” Phil responded, “Like you’re floating in water. Trapped between two completely different elements.”
“Sort of.” Dani replied, “And as for your second question, no. I don’t go anywhere. I can’t, actually. So, if you’re hoping to get rid of me, you’ll have to move.” Her voice came out soft and quiet, a complete three-sixty from before.
“Get rid of you? Why would I want that?” Phil sat back down next to her. For the first time, she realized how unfortunate it was that she couldn’t touch Dani.
Dani rolled her eyes. “Must be annoying. Getting an additional roommate that doesn’t pay rent.”
“Bullshit. I had more fun with you in the last like twenty-four hours than I had with any of my roommates ever. And you might not pay rent, but you also don’t block the bathroom or eat my food, so in my books you’re good.”
“So, you won’t try to get rid of me with cheap magic?” Dani asked when she finally looked up at Phil again, and it struck Phil how young she looked. She could barely be past twenty, way too young to be dead.
“Of course not.” Phil reiterated, “Unless you want me to leave,” she added, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious herself. But before she could even begin to explain herself, Dani cut her off.
“No. Stay. Please.”
Phil smiled, “Okay, it’s settled then. We’re both staying.”