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Friendship for Georgie wasn’t such a simple matter. She had an easy time of getting along with people, sure, and she liked the attention, liked feeling normal. But real and true friendship? That just wasn’t her style any longer. Death had changed that, made her wary. Jonathan had managed to slip inside of her defenses, and she loved him. But perhaps that love was not love at all, because they were oddly paired. Still, he was a friend.
Melanie was different. She wasn’t someone who could slip inside of anything, because Melanie was loud and brash and she demanded to be heard. That was what Georgie liked about her when they first met. It was why Georgie had sought her for What the Ghost? in the first place. Someone well known in the ghost community who wasn’t afraid to say this shit was fucking real.
She liked her immediately.
They battered against each other, breaking down walls and boundaries until they laid bare before each other.
Except, not too bare.
Because Georgie wouldn’t tell Mel about Death.
And Mel wouldn’t tell Georgie about what it was that made her end Ghost Hunt UK.
They left it at that, an unanswered (unasked) question. It worked for them.
But then Melanie disappeared. Well, no, that wasn’t quite the word for it, was it? She had gone away, and she had come back different. In the same way that Jon was different. It wasn’t an obvious change, nothing like she picked up a stench or there was a mad gleam in her eyes (but there was, there was, and oh how the sex had been phenomenal that night). And then Jon had been in the hospital.
She was still his emergency contact.
Melanie hadn’t liked that. Hadn’t liked one bit how Georgie kept going to the hospital and talking to the doctors and visiting her ex-boyfriend as he lay like a corpse while she whispered to him that he should come back. She could still vaguely remember what fear tasted like in her mouth, and seeing Jonathan Sims that way had a similar aftertaste.
Melanie disappearing had that aftertaste, too.
Melanie coming back smelled like how fear should smell, a deeply rooted worry that gnawed at her stomach.
Because Georgie had never seen Melanie broken. And she knew broken, had lived it, that empty and hollow feeling that made nothing ever worth it. Oh, how that hurt. She had been so full of vigor and passion and belief, but now she was severed in so many parts. And in her eyes, wide and dark and beautiful, there was something that looked like a taste she used to know. Her hands trembled. She lashed out or she would cry, or both.
“You need help,” Georgie whispered, cupping Mel’s face. Mel leaned into the touch, but she kept her gaze on Georgie.
“I need out,” Melanie countered. Out of the institute, away from Jon and monsters.
Yes, Georgie agreed. But how. How how how. What was the point of being touched by Death and having nothing to show for it other than the ability to not give a fuck about things like monsters on a purely primal human level.
Melanie curled back up against Georgie, her face nuzzling into the soft skin between her neck and shoulder. Georgie held her tightly, two arms. She could still feel worry and pain, though, and those were reserved for her girlfriend.
“We could just torch the place,” Mel said after a bit.
Georgie’s snort was ugly, painfully scraping at the back of her throat. “Yeah, I don’t see jail being a good thing for either of us.”
“Why the fuck not?” A kiss, soft as a breeze, on her neck. “You don’t fear shit, and I am pretty damn good with a knife.”
But she knew that was a lie. Melanie had been brutally honest when she came back. Had told Georgie all she knew about the world of monsters and the one that nestled into her. It didn’t fester any longer; what was left was merely the idea of it all. Because something that Georgina Barker had come to understand about these fears was that once you were seen, you couldn’t become invisible anymore.
What would it be like, she thought, to walk amongst false gods and give them nothing to feed on.
“I’m not going to prison for arson and then taking over.” But she laughed. It felt good to hear Melanie laugh, too. “Sounds boring.”
“Ah, yes, too boring for you, isn’t it?”
“I think, should we escape, that we might be happier living a quieter life.” Georgie shifted so that she could see Melanie’s face again. “I want you to be happy.”
Safe was what she meant, and they both knew it. Melanie wasn’t safe, and Georgie didn’t know how to fix that. It burned hotly in her chest that she couldn’t fix that.
“It would make me feel better if we burned it.”
“Hasn’t your therapy said something to you about quests for revenge?”
“Yeah,” Melanie said. She kissed Georgie on the lips, twirling her hair around her fingers. “Don’t tell her the plan, and don’t get caught.”
“You’re impossible.”