Chapter Text
Summary: Selling the orphanage your father was fond of in order to pay your mother’s crumbling business looked like the obvious choice for any broke college student. Unfortunately for Glimmer, the ghost that haunted said orphanage named Catra didn’t feel the same way.
It’s Free Real Estate
01 - If you’re going then go
There was a sense of cruel irony, incredibly cruel, that Glimmer was broke. Now, Glimmer wasn’t dirt poor, the kind of poor that people had to work triple jobs and practically beg for money in advance to picky family member digging their path to hell.
But Glimmer was, compared to what had always been her lifestyle, broke. It was easy to roll your eyes and play off Glimmer as “a spoiled rich brat”- she would have done the same in another life. Except the bills were accumulating, her family’s businesses were flopping, her bank account was nearing the negatives, and her million dollar inheritance was nowhere to be found.
It had gotten to the point where the once richest family in all of Brightmoon had to sell their hard earned properties. That’s how desperate the whole ordeal had gotten, selling the family home her father had loved and built with his own hands. (And by properties, she meant eleven rooms, four bathrooms, two pools, a movie theater, three floors, and an elevator type of homes. Yeah, embarrassing .)
Glimmer had always been active in her role as the next heir to, well, what everyone deemed the kingdom of Brightmoon. It was not a kingdom, they were a democracy (probably) and the name only stemmed from rumors of Angella’s “queen” status. Of course, they were just rumors, yet Glimmer wouldn’t have put it past her angelic mother to have actually been connected to the Queen of England herself.
Anywho, years of business studies, internships at the best companies and even her closeness to obtaining a spot at a prominent law school failed to prepare Glimmer for the grim reaper of bankruptcy. It was almost infruitating, how one day she was with her mother in the heart of Italy, dining at only the best restaurants, and how the next she was mourning the loss of her mother (and the loss of her money). She guessed that was it- her life had crumbled in the blink of an eye and Glimmer was done for.
Instead of dancing in the center of Athens and shopping in a European country, Glimmer was up at three a.m. in her mother’s house- the only place she could find comfort in. And even then she was about to sell it. There was a half-finished pizza next to a Macbook and opened soda cans and pints of ice cream on the table in front of her. There were dark bags under her eyes and a pen wrapped in her curls, forgotten by time.
She wasn’t alone, her best friend of childhood sitting across from her and actually enjoying their meal. The boy was seemingly ignoring the fact that he had a four hour History class to go to tomorrow, a fact that Glimmer was both academically terrified but selfishly glad. Bow had been with her in every step of the way and now was not an exception.
Coming from a wealthy family of his own (not like Glimmer’s, but definitely in the spectrum), Bow had always been a member of Glimmer’s life. They met at a boarding school and chose to stay together for the rest of their life. They vacationed, partied, existed and practically shared the same breath. When Angella had died, he and his family had helped Glimmer stay afloat.
She would always, always, always be grateful for that.
“Alright, so if we sell the East Dawn apartment complex, we can safely transfer residents without harming them and manage to make a decent profit. That could help pay off at least 23% of the business investors your mom worked with.” Bow clicked his tongue, scribbling away in his notepad. “I can start drawing up the contracts with the lawyers and looking for sellers first thing tomorrow.”
“You mean, first thing in the morning.” The young woman yawned, rubbing her eyes. “Gosh, I need ice cream and coffee or both.”
Spending the night in her mom’s home nestled with junk food wasn’t her typical Thursday activity. Bow had class in the morning and Glimmer had dedicated Thursdays to studying for the next week.
Bow blinked, shifting his chocolate brown eyes towards pints of ice cream in front of them. He reached for one labeled COFFEE and handed it to her with a soft smile. “I was looking through your mom’s properties and wow! I think we can make a pretty penny selling the vacation houses in Italy.”
Glimmer notably pouted. The homes in Florence had been the gem of her father’s crown. There were so many memories bundled in the line of brick houses. Her father had started there, in a rash attempt to not fail and keep something he had lost in Asia alive.
“Bow, I don’t know about that .”
No, she didn’t whine because she wanted to ride motorcycles in Florence. She didn’t want the gelato or the pastas. She didn’t want the flowy dresses or the puffy skirts. She wanted her father’s memory, the kindness in his eyes and a heart full of dreams that were never accomplished preserved within the walls of Italy’s houses.
Glimmer felt like she was failing miserably at keeping her father’s memory alive.
“Well....” They had printed out photos of the properties- ten apartment complexes, three hotels, several mobile parks, various houses and homes, many small businesses, and four buildings left untouched. Most of the parks and homes had been sold in less than two weeks after her mother’s death. Glimmer was working on the details of the hotel’s, but that alone would not help cover the expenses.
Glimmer cursed the set age of her inheritance under her breathe. Yeah, her mother’s extensive skincare routine was at fault. No one thought she would die at the age of forty with the skin of a twenty year old.
Each property had a file, pictures with stories hidden within. They had color-coded each, looking for options to sell and others to invest money in for future use. Glimmer squinted her eyes, ignoring the soothing indie music playing from Bow’s phone. She touched file after another, before settling on the second to last. Skimping through its contents, Glimmer smirked and waved the file at her friend.
“This is a cheap buck.”
“The Horde” — ORPHANAGE IN “FRIGHT ZONE” EST. 1967.
Glimmer looked through the file beforehand and in summary was a haunted orphanage. A daily thing, nothing out of the ordinary. There was nothing better to do with it since her mom had no prewritten ideas of what the place could become.
And so Glimmer decided to sell the somehow still standing, unused orphanage building for a quick couple thousands. Smiling in satisfaction, she took a spoonful of ice cream and savored it.
“Okay, let’s keep going.”
✰
Glimmer didn’t like the Fright Zone. Bow was fond of it because of the little shops that the ex-heiress found too metallic and bland. Transportation to the Fright Zone was also a factor that made the trip more distasteful- sitting in a cramped bus with military hopefuls and people who were up to no good for an hour and a half.
The young woman subconsciously held on to her bag tighter, her lips forming a straight line as she straightened her back. The boy next to her was busy fiddling with a gaming device, making the occasional comment about weekend plans or whatever was on the news.
Sighing, she turned her phone on and gazed at her lockscreen. It was a photo of her mother holding a newborn Glimmer, the seemingly angelic being smiling widely and looking down to her daughter with such love and adoration. Her mother hadn’t aged one bit, apart from the occasional wrinkle time could not prevent. She still had her signature fluffy strawberry blonde hair and those alluring eyes of hers.
“It’ll be okay.” She weakly smiled. “I’ll fix this somehow, mom.”
Arriving to the outskirts of the Fright Zone took two hours instead of the schedule ninety minutes. Upon arrival, they had to search their way through the woods, stopping locals occasionally to ask for directions. Finding the orphanage took less than half an hour, something Glimmer was relieved about.
A typical Friday afternoon would have been spent in Brightmoon’s crowned university. Bow liked going bowling, Glimmer liked shopping. Bow liked food and Glimmer liked coffee. They often spent Fridays at the mall or crashing someone else’s plans.
Now she was wasting her Friday on a haunted location in hope for some quick cash.
There were two slash two and a half facts everyone should know about Glimmer.
One, Glimmer had her own money. Everyone knew that. The girl had bought her first piggy bank at the age of five and insisted on depositing the loose hundred bills her mom gave her inside. Once she learned what a bank account was, it was over for everyone.
Although it was easy to guess that Angella was the type of mom to simply hand her daughter a check every morning in place of lunch sack, the truth was that Glimmer always smart with her money. By the age of fifteen, she had invested in a couple of social marketing companies and had earned over 15k in profit. She bought one apartment building and even made a merch line for “vloggers”. Over the years, her empire somewhat grew and Glimmer was proud.
So how on Earth did she get hit so hard by her mother’s death?
The autumn air filled the room, a fireplace lit in the chimney of what had once been the infamous Horde orphanage.
The second thing to know about Glimmer was that Glimmer believed in fate. She believed, somehow, that this was the path for her. Sure, it was an agonizing, despairing path that the higher ups had set for her, but there had to be something at the end of the road! Glimmer wasn’t always much of an optimist (and she still was not)- Bow’s mentality had rubbed on her just a bit. And she was okay with it.
Glimmer didn’t know much about the Horde’s orphanage, she only know what google could tell her and what she had heard in the news years ago when she was fifteen. There were cases of child abuse and military training (as expected, she guessed) and had been shut down as the kids got older. Oh, and her father would later on buy the building within months of the events, feeling terrible for its history and hoping to reinvent the orphanage as a “legit academic garden of wonders”. Glimmer wondered if he would have achieved it, since he would only die four months after buying it.
He probably would have, knowing him.
Aunt Castapella had called the building cursed and haunted. Aunt Castapella also kind of danced around the truth to censor herself, but she figured there was some truth in her aunt’s words. It was one of the last properties her father had gotten- a place with so much sadness and death and grief.
Glimmer hadn’t done much research.
She didn’t want to.
Kicking a broken piece of glass, the short girl hummed quietly as Bow paced around, occasionally poking at the remains of the orphanage. They both came to the conclusion that the Horde must have been a marvel at its time, but had aged horribly throughout the decades.
The Horde was impressive at first glance- a tall, five floor building built of maroon bricks. The windows were covered in growing ivy, although most were shattered. A single sign on the front of the gated orphanage read, “The Horde. Home of the children.” The C had fallen and the other letters were also on the verge of falling. It was a shock the sign was even up.
Graffiti was spray painted across some walls, the inside left empty from years of robbers and teenagers both hoping to find something worthy inside. Glimmer cringed internally as she ventured throughout the first floor, white walls peeling off color and revealing wood.
“I read in the files that your mom tried to sell this place, but it was plagued by too many ghost stories.” Bow started.
The second and a half thing to know about Glimmer fell in her beliefs. Glimmer did not, much to her best friend’s dismay, believe in ghosts. Sure, she loved a good haunt. Who didn’t? But her pride bit her tongue and she refused to believe any ideas of a life after death.
And if ghosts did exist, why couldn’t her mom just come in, give her some much needed financial advice and then move on to whatever came next? Okay, that was selfish.
She read something about the hauntings in her mother’s business journals. The journals described how Angella ran her business and all that good stuff, and the entry on the Horde had been signed as a waste of resources thanks to its infamousness. There were too many “spooky stories” as Angella had noted and too many “local legends” in the Fright Zone to come up with something profitable. Stories of locals hearing children running up and down the stairs, laughter and screams emerging from the halls and even sightings of a girl with a blood soaked gown wandering through the third floor and banging on the windows at night. The last one sounded exaggerated to her. Bow believed it 100% somehow.
“I know. I saw that too.”
She wondered why her mom didn’t think of investing the Horde as a haunted attraction. Or a revamped hotel! That would have sold fast, especially for vloggers slash social media influencers!
Glimmer silently jotted that to her list of ideas as Bow drew up the floor plans of the Horde. Laid in front of them, they both examined the structure. The first floor had been a welcoming slash living room and kitchen for the kids. The second was the academic center with a library and a mini gym. The third and fourth were dorms and the fifth was only for the staff.
She figured they hadn’t followed that set-up- it wouldn’t be the first time she saw plans change. In the last couple of years in the Horde, they had become overpopulated with kids. That’s also when the abuse cases emerged into light.
The ex-heiress shuddered, closing her eyes for a faint second as she inhaled. Accounts of what were later dubbed as the night boxes dawned in her mind. She always imagined them the same way- tall, thin, wooden boxes in the nearby forest purposely spread apart with thick, rusty chains. The kids that misbehaved were forced to stay in throughout the night, and some even spent days forgotten in the boxes.
There were other stories, too. Her mind wandered to the dreadful military training the children were accustomed to. She thought of the constant emotional abuse and the amount of inhumane torture that went inside the building. On second thought, she wouldn’t be surprised if someone had actually died in the orphanage.
“You know, I came here thinking we could just come in, see the first flood, slap a price tag and sell this and call it a day.” Glimmer admitted, gesturing to the stairway. “But I wanna see more.”
Sensation-seeking and craving cheap thrills ran through her veins, something age hid well but was never quite got out of her system. Being impulsive for Glimmer often meant running out of hotels in Tokyo and dancing in the rain or that one time Bow and her bought wine with a fake ID. There was something about the abandoned building that called to her. She suspected it was her father, because she would be lying if she said she didn’t want to know what her father saw in a disaster.
She wanted to make sense of what her dad saw- how a man dubbed as the King of real estate found beauty in the remnants of a hurricane. Could he really turn this place into a garden of wonders? Could she ever be as good as he had been?
The duo started up the stairs, the floorboards creaking underneath their every step. Glimmer heaved, the thin jean jacket she had slipped in a rush not doing much to defend her from the gnawing cold. She eyed her friend, wondering how Bow was able to wear a crop-top in this type of weather.
“It has sleeves! It’s meant for warmth!” Bow claimed, his voice cracking like it did when he was fifteen.
The second floor was in better condition than the previous floor. It still reeked, had traces of property damage and the like but was tolerable. There were also large windows, some broken and others sealed shut. Sunlight from the dying sun poured in, and Bow turned off his flashlight. They walked through the red hallways, eyeing occasional signs and making note of price ranges. Bow had tried getting into the library, though the door was locked and they both decided after minutes of trying to move on.
Instead, they found themselves standing in the middle of the gymnasium. It was grand at some point, bringing in memories of high school that a once socially awkward Glimmer loathed. There were brown bleachers and even basketball hoops and goals still standing, regardless of time. Torn, muddy banners with faint, unreadable words remained on the walls.
“We don’t have to sell it, you know.” Bow began, making long steps throughout the gym. He enjoyed the sound of squeaking. “I’m sure we could invest a decent amount of money and rent it- I mean, living in haunted places is kinda trendy now.”
Glimmer snickered at the idea of advertising a contest, much like the ones where you could gain over 100k by using a flip phone for an entire year. Her and Bow shared smiles, him nodding to the exit.
“Ghosts don’t exist, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” He mused as they parted ways from the gym. “Let’s see the third floor then.”
“What was the story of the girl on the third floor?” Glimmer decided to entertain her friend. She was not scared, just curious.
The thing about Bow was that although he was terrified of ghosts, he loved ghost stories. She remembered spending hours listening to Bow go on about stories of ghosts and haunted buildings and homes. They spent hours during their teenage years laughing and eating while watching horror movies. They even often went to haunted houses- attractions, of course.
As if on cue, Bow turned to face her, smirking with his hands raised in an attempt to mimic a spirit.
“Well, after the rumors of abuse and even organ trafficking-”
Glimmer raised an eyebrow, completely forgetting that tale. It should stay forgotten.
“There was a massive raid and all the orphans were rescued and saved. Except child protection officials never knew about the boxes in the woods, so they literally left kids there to rot. When staff and the kids were interviewed, they found the existence and tried to release them, but it was too late. They had died of starvation and all that.”
Bow turned back and began walking up the set of stairs, continuing to explain. “One of them was this teenager- I think she was about to turn eighteen and was literally on the verge of leaving in less than a week. They found her body soaked in blood, though no one really knew why.”
“Yeahh, not buying that one. How would she get to the third floor, then?” Glimmer questioned, shoving her hands into her pockets. “And I thought the boxes were for smaller kids, not someone about to turn eighteen.”
“Of course, no one confirmed this. There was probably no one at the boxes- if they exist. People that actually were involved with the orphanage, either kids themselves or officials, refuse to talk about this kind of thing, even when people that live in the Fright Zone claim they knew the girl. They said six kids died in total.” The boy in the orange top began to hum. “Kinda crazy to think something like this could have happened.”
“And people are milking it.” She replied plainly. “Has anyone actually talked to any of the orphans?”
He shrugged. “Claims existed but they were often debunked. My bet is that they were given new identities- a fresh start of sorts. It makes you think, though.”
“About?”
“The timeline.” He explained quietly as they reached the third floor. “We were fifteen, it’s been five years and the oldest kids were seventeen. So today they’d be around twenty-two or twenty-three.”
The thing Glimmer noticed about the orphanage was how many never-ending hallways there were and the amount of paintings on the walls. The third floor was for teenagers, she had guessed. The rooms were divided by gender, and they found themselves walking down the girls’ dorms. Windows lined alongside the paintings depicting magazine covers and scenery. Like the second floor, they were weirdly either sealed or broken.
The pink-haired girl wrinkled her nose, coughing. Dust was everywhere and she hadn’t come prepared to walk throughout the entire property. If she had been, she would have come earlier with more people and in better clothes. That and her mood had begun to shift, something that she was confused by.
“Glimmer! Look!” Bow exclaimed.
He had been prying, pushing, and rattling door knobs the entire time, hoping to find one opened to go into. She wasn’t sure why he was so curious about the dorms themselves. In retrospect, she was starting to grow tired and aggravated and wanted to call it a day. There was something that made her want to stay, a feeling deep within her that cried and wailed and pleaded with her to keep venturing.
She came to a halt in her path, eyes wide at the realization that one of the rooms had actually been open. Bow was beaming, reminding her of a boy that finally got the bike he had asked for the entire year on Christmas morning. Effortlessly, he pushed the door opened and he looked at his best friend, smiling.
“Want to take a look?” And with that, he went into the shadows.
Glimmer groaned internally. She didn’t want to be outside on her own (not because she was scared) so she followed into the room.
It was an awfully small and cramped space. There were bunk beds and a small dresser. There was no closet, and Bow had been pacing around and found a bathroom. The door was somehow also easily opened, and he had taken it upon himself to go inside without her.
There was a strange feeling kicking in- one of fear. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the ghosts or because there had been an overwhelming amount of stress she was trying to ignore. Her mother had just died, their family business was gone at this point and all the properties her father had acquired during his life were about to perish too. She had always wanted to be the boss, too. But she had a plan, a plan built after her father’s death consisting of a mom that aged gracefully and her with a career in law under her belt and years of experience.
Instead, she was a broke-college student who had yet to graduate in a godawful building with a godawful history that only got worse with every floor. And yet! There was something here, something telling her to stay and look. It was like she was in a car without a driver speeding through a freeway. She was frozen, panicking and unable to shut her eyes and look away.
Yeah, no. She wanted to leave and just sell the Horde. What else would she need it for? She needed the money!
She was lying on the bunk bed now, pushing the thought that there was probably blood or cat piss or mice on the mattress away. She sighed, exasperated. Her hands pressed to her face for a second.
“Bow!” She slid her eyes open lazily. “We should go, I have a paper to turn in. Oh and we have to see the girl renting the apartment- I think her name started with an A-”
Glimmer was about to slide off the bed when her blood ran cold, lilac eyes widening and her lips parting open in horror. On the top bunk, a face looked down at her with interest. A blue eye and a golden one were narrowed, a grin of mischief dancing in the darkness.
There was a faint hiss and Glimmer had no idea how she mustered the courage to scoff. Pride bit back her initial fear and she made a face of disgust at the figure.
“Oh, and you’ve been living here without paying rent? How is that any fair-”
✰
In the years she had ventured throughout the afterlife, Catra couldn’t help but ache for a change in career choice. Okay, fine. She hadn’t chosen to be a lingering spirit haunting some damn orphanage like a boring cliché, but she never learned where she could request an application to be something else. She didn’t know what, but something like a guardian angel worked fine!
She toyed with that idea for a while until she realized she would probably end up doing more bad than good in someone’s life. So then Catra came up with the illusion of becoming a celebrity, or a ghost celeb, or something of that sort! She wanted to become the talk of the town. Then the realization that she couldn’t leave the damn building hit like a thousand bricks at once and that dream shattered.
Catra then thought of becoming a spirit that helped others move on. The problem was that she couldn’t leave this place and that nobody else was around.
Over the years, she settled on becoming an urban legend. Well, she became one by accident the night she got so frustrated and started banging on the windows and somehow someone saw and took a video. It was never intentional- that she swore! It just happened by accident and suddenly teenagers came in groups huddled together looking for a quick spook.
At first, the ghost would hide on the fifth floor, because no one dared walk up the stairs. Catra wasn’t shy, but she enjoyed her peace and just didn’t want to be bothered. She had dealt with so much bullshit in her life she didn’t need to be someone’s entertainment in her death.
Oh, and there was that tidbit of her life: she could not, in the years she was dead, remember a thing about her past life. She woke up one day in an undisclosed location and realized she was a ghost when she ran through a wall without troubles.
Overtime, she had gained details on what had happened from horny couples looking for privacy (the disgust!) and tourists during halloween. She came to the conclusion that most people came to: she had been an orphan in the Horde and had died before she could be saved.
It was bittersweet, but Catra swallowed the pill and chose to move on. What good did thinking do? She was just here, existing and forgotten in a void for eternity.
Sometimes she liked to scare people. Who could blame her, she was bored! It differed- some days she would take the form of children and giggle and run through the halls. Other times she’d become invisible and break windows or mirrors. She even touched people, gently squeezing someone’s shoulder or hand.
It was a good laugh. Seeing someone’s face turn a deadly shade of white and hearing screams always brightened her day.
When no one was around, because those periods of solitude did exist, Catra roamed the library. She had done plenty of exploring. There was always something to do at the library- with plenty of leftover books and movies and art supplies. In her spare time, she worked on word search puzzles in the gymnasium or read books in the dorms. Catra had also become a bit of an artist, preferring to sketch what little she could see from the inside.
Today was actually a day in one of those time periods.
Catra woke up that day in one of the rooms on the third floor with a start, which was odd because Catra didn’t dream. It should be noted that Catra was dead and therefore did not need sleep. However, she reasoned she had an eternity to do whatever, so sleeping wouldn’t harm anyone.
She stretched and brushed her black and gray curls, yawning and rubbing her eyes. She ventured through the halls and visited the library, like she usually did first thing in the morning.
The spirit trudged through the nonfiction section of the books and began to pull some titles out. This had also become a habit, she had all the time to read and the library was huge and full and so she did. Afterwards, she liked to go to the gym and chill on the bleachers, reading and drawing and doing whatever for most of the day.
There was an office inside the gym. She had collected what seemed to be yearbooks and photographs of the orphanage. Catra studied them when she first discovered she was dead, writing down notes and theories in a leather notebook. As time went by the little office has turned into her own space. Paintings and drawing ornamented thin walls, alongside photographs of people.
Putting down the pile of books, Catra glanced uneasily at one of the photos. It was a picture of a group of teens, including her, she assumed. That photo always made her feel awful, although she never could tell if it was due to her inability to remember her past life or because of the unknown blonde with a huge smile and an arm around her.
The haunt rested her chin on her palm, lazily flipping the page of the book. She hummed to herself, stuck in a trance until she became distracted by the sound of footsteps and voices.
“Oh, great.” She groaned. “Vacation’s over.”
She slammed her book shut and stood up, following the sound of footsteps.
“We don’t have to sell it, you know.” A male voice rang through the gymnasium. It was followed by something else, but Catra had scrunched up her face and thought about what the hell these people were selling.
“Ghosts don’t exist, remember?”
There was a short girl in the middle of the gym. She wore a small smile, lilac eyes observing the space around her. The girl wore a denim jacket with a black top and leggings. Catra noticed the huge black bags underneath her eyes and the way she walked, almost as if on the brink of collapsing. The poor girl was exhausted.
There was a taller boy in a...crop top? Yeah, a boy probably around the other girl’s age. The boy wore an orange crop-top and paint splattered jeans. Catra wondered if it was a fashion statement or if he was a painter.
“Let’s see the third floor.”
Part of Catra wanted to go back to her office and lay on the floor and read. Why would she bother with a nonbeliever? Those were always the worst.
Catra grimaced, recalling the time a boy taunted her to come out and face him. She made sure to give him nightmares for the rest of his life.
Another part of Catra was curious as to what the boy meant by selling. They were newcomers and somehow the girl seemed familiar all at once. Sighing, Catra headed behind them, careful not to be seen.
“What was the story of the girl on the third floor?”
“I have one breakdown and no one can let that go.” Catra mentally facepalmed as she followed the duo. “I wonder what version they have.”
“Well, after the rumors of abuse and even organ trafficking-”
The rumors of what now?
“There was a massive raid and all the orphans were rescued and saved-”
Catra zoned out. These strangers said just what the locals clamored (except the organ part- that she had never heard before). There was nothing new to listen to, so Catra decided to give the strangers nicknames while they finished chatting.
The girl was Twinkle Toes or Sparkles because of the sequins on her jean jacket. The boy was dubbed Cupid because he had a heart-shaped pendant and she was too lazy and unmotivated to come up with something else.
“Glimmer, look!”
Huh! Sparkles was close to her name!
One of the rooms was opened and the boy had slipped inside. She noticed the hesitation on Glimmer’s end and frowned.
Maybe she should do her thing and scare them.
Just for laughs.
That and she was bored.
The two were walking around, peeking at the bed and empty drawer. Cupid had found the bathroom and was inside (probably playing one of those stupid mirror chanting games, gosh Catra loathed those “vloggers”) while Sparkles had jumped on the bottom bunk bed.
Sparkles reeked of stress. It was radiating from her in such strong waves even Catra felt her head start to pulse. The ghost had made herself visible and was watching from the top bunk as Sparkles rubbed her eyes and sighed and groaned.
Catra waited like a predator about to pounce on her meal. She had done this millions of times and it never got old.
Finally after what seemed forever, Sparkles spoke out.
“Bow!” Her eyes opened slowly.
Catra smirked. Well, a cupid has a bow so she was close!
“We should go, I have a paper to turn in. Oh and we have to go see the girl renting the apartment- I think her name started with an A-”
Lilac met blue and yellow. A look of sheer terror met one of mischief. The ghost hissed as she watched the blood run from Sparkles’ face. Catra swore her stuff had worked, except when she heard Sparkles scoff and crossed her arms over her chest. She narrowed her eyes, glaring at the ghoul.
“Oh, and you’ve been living here without paying rent? How is that any fair-”
Catra blinked, unable to hide the confusion from registering on her face. Glimmer had just seen a ghost when she believes they didn’t exist and her only concern was why Catra didn’t pay her rent?
Huh, maybe this one would take a bit longer to scare than the others.