Chapter Text
Your mouth fills with the taste of acrid smoke, it collects at the back of your throat before you let it bleed from your open mouth in slow, viny tendrils. Before you sits a suitcase, a big old duffel bag you’ve had for longer than you’ve known me. The kind of bag people buy for tennis rackets or sports gear.
I’ve never seen you play a single sport in your life.
Mini-golf doesn’t count, Dennis.
Beside the bag you’ve laid out a dozen shirts, two sets of jeans, a festival of plain black underwear and matching plain black socks. It’s not exactly fashion week but it’s what you wear.
“Do you think I should pack both pairs of shoes?” You ask me and look down at your literally two pairs of shoes. One are the ratty trainers you wear everywhere and the other pair are an immaculate set of leather slip ons that I’ve seen you polish and clean but never wear. “Just in case we end up at a special occasion?”
“Sure.” I say back. “You never know what sort of things you’ll run into on a road trip.” Which is true. We’ve got precious few details on exactly what the hell Polly and Scott have cooked up. I shouldn’t say it like that but I am suspicious.
“Yeah best be safe.” You pick up the shoes and shove them into the far side of the duffel bag and begin loading it up. There’s a machine quickness to it. Pants and socks beside each other. A layer of shirts and then the trousers double folded over top. Quietly I’m certain you’ve packed this bag several times given how industrially you make use of the space.
I realise, a moment or two later, this is exactly everything you packed when we fled your home three years ago. Have you really bought yourself nothing new? Are these all the same or are they just similar?
An itch at the back of my mind tells me either answer will only depress me a little more. I don’t want to be sad, we’re about to do something incredibly fun.
“We should buy a shirt or two on the road.”
“Oh like souvenirs?” You ask me. “Yeah I mean there's all those weird sights you see on the road, Scott said something about a giant hole out there.”
“A giant hole?” I remember him saying that. “Do you think he means a literal giant hole or is this a Scott thing?”
“I have no idea but the fact Polly didn’t correct him makes me think it might JUST be a giant hole in the middle of nowhere.” You laugh, it’s soft and comes out in little sounds. “Maybe someone wanted to dig for treasure or something.”
“Holes just happen sometimes.” I expand outward from within you, ectomorphic energy leaks from your flesh and forms the membrane of my projected self. “There’s a bunch of weird landmarks back in Scotland. Odd hills, weird old churches in the middle of nowhere and the big horse heads.”
“What?” You look at me like I’m on something. “I mean big heads?”
“Oh yeah. Kelpie heads.” I say. “Huge steel horse heads in the middle of nowhere. Mental things, they light them up at Christmas with fancy lights.”
You shake your head and zip the bag closed. “But that’s a thing people made, surely. Not actual giant horse heads…Right?”
I give you nothing. “Another roadtrip, you can find out.” I say and mess with your hair a little bit. We leave your room, bag over your shoulder and find the witch in the main room. She’s delighted we’re going on this trip, she’s been prancing around the room the whole time.
“You two have my number if you need anything.” She says knowing full well you’d sooner eat yourself alive than call for help. “It’s going to be weird not having you here.”
“I know you might have to get off your arse and make food for yourself.” I say and watch your scarlet eyes compress to tight laser focused dots. “Oh wait, maybe not because Dennis put a lot of stuff in tupperware for you.”
You’re already laughing and I just sigh. “I can’t help it. I like to make sure the food is taken care of. It’s not enough to do for you the full month but at least the first week or two you’ll be eating well.”
“I can take care of myself.” Faith from another world tells us. “I was doing perfectly fine before we became room-mates.”
“Didn’t we find you with a gaping open wound on our doorstep?” I lean on your head and smirk down at her. “I seem to remember that was our introduction to each other.”
“A moment of weakness.” Faith tells us. “The place will still be here when you get back,” she looks at you when she talks, “I might have my own trip upcoming soon.”
“Oh.” You couldn’t be prouder, I feel the joy in your smile without seeing your face. “You have some buddies to pal around with?”
“God, you sound like a proud parent.” Faith cringes, shuddering. “I met some like minded souls and we’re going to a big convention later on.”
“Witches?” I admit I’m interested and your smirk tells me yes. “Oh wow you’re connecting to witches here.”
“I’ve had to make some concessions but I need to be connected to a primal godling to access greater magics. I found a sisterhood willing to accept me as an initiate despite,” she gestured to herself, “the magical issues.”
She fell here from another world. A place that’s like here but not even a little close. A dimension of oddities and dark powers. A place where darkness triumphs over light every time, a comic book nerd's worst nightmare basically. Her magic doesn’t sync up perfectly in our universe, her god is dead and she needs a new one to become her old self.
The things she can do with a fraction of her power are terrifying, her back at full force would be unreal.
“Could you-”
“I’ll ask.” She doesn’t let me finish. “There’s bound to be a breaker at this convention who might know more than I do.”
I want to break the curse on us both. You and me. Be free of this suffocating together that we’re in. I don’t want to lose you but I don’t want you stuck.
I feel your hand rest on mine, a thumb rubbing a small circle around my knuckles. You can tell I’m worried, you want it to be better too.
“Thanks, Faith.” You sigh. “Umm, trying to think if there’s anything else I’ve forgotten.” You look around. “Fridge and food. Bills are paid. Rents paid for this and next month just in case we take longer to get back.”
“Do you assume that it’s going to take longer than a month, this trip?” Faith leans on the kitchen counter, braced on one hand. “Just sounds like a long time.”
“Polly and Scott say they want to see as much as they can this Summer. Polly told me she wants me to see this Veronatone thing and that’s pretty far into their itinerary.” You rub at your chin. “I also just haven’t…Done this in a while.”
“What? A road trip?”
You mean a vacation.
“Oh no I’ve done that. Abby and I drove to Monstropolis from home.” You say this and Faith’s entire face screws up, as if you told her you flew here on a boat.
“This is another dimension.” She tells you and walks over. “I thought you two didn’t know magic.”
“We don’t.” You shrug and I nod. “Well I mean Abby knows the basics but I don’t. We just-”
“It was a dimensional merge.” I tell her. “The undead are drawn to this or universes on a similar wave-length. I didn’t transition over thanks to,” I tug on the jacket’s collar, “but once me and Dennis merged and the curse got a bit confused. It seemed like we were able to find a thin spot in reality and pass through here.”
“Lots of those out there.” Faith mumbles quietly before turning back to the sofa and flopping onto it. “Weird. Reality gets flimsy in certain spots, I read somewhere once that it’s something to do with speed.”
“Speed?” You look to me for any confirmation and all I can do is shrug. I’m not an encyclopaedia “How do you mean?”
“It’s too complicated to explain.” She waves us off. “You have a ride to catch, I’ll write it down and send it to you later.”
“Oh yeah.” You shoulder the bag, give a crisp salute and I wave the girl off as we leave. She smirks as she settles in, queen of the castle for a while. I swear as the door closes I hear a dozen laughing voices all of a sudden as if she’s just conjured a dozen gossipy pals from the aether.
The city at early light, the air feels crisp at the apex of Summer. A time of endless possibilities and opportunities. We look out at the view we have of downtown, scenic it is not. I can see at least three people urinating in public and I’m pretty sure the Chinese place down the street is cooking people into the chow-mein.
You just look up and take a breath. I feel it rattle inside your lungs that I have to make work through an effort of will and concentration. I sluice through your veins, I crawl through your very being, a toxic energy that brings what it touches to pseudo life. It’s like you need to be charged every now and again. I’m a trillion volts and once in a while I poke certain services to life in my haunted house.
It feels good. I can feel your lungs expand, hold the breath for a moment and release.
“Let’s fly.” You take a step forward, foot braced on the railing and you trust me to keep you from turning to pizza. It’s hard to elaborate how this works. So much of me is filtered through you, so much of you needs me. The Ship of Theseus.
Take a ship. Replace it piece by piece and put it back together. Same ship?
Similar idea. We’re a cocktail me and you, mixed and muddled and melded. Different measures and separate preparation give different results. There are finite fluids in the world but endless ways to collaborate them. That’s all I do, I take the thing that is us and I change a few things.
Flight? That’s just taking away what makes you real, physical, present and a slave to gravity. I take all the mass and weight and I replace it with my matter. Your skin becomes colder, your flesh exudes a light ectoplasmic sheen as I emanate from below the surface. I tell the world not to look at you, to forget it ever had you. You’re mine. If I say you can fly.
You soar.
It’s not fast but it beats walking. It’s more like drifting with intent. We angle ourselves toward the school and we just take it nice and slow. Without traffic and other people to worry about, the journey is nice. I feel you all around me, nervous? Your thoughts are right there and I could read them but I do my best not to.
We’re already so close to one another. With old hosts I’d slip in and out of their thoughts, a subliminal shark ready to bite down on the best parts. I’d scrape out the memories and horde them hostage to ensure loyalty. I’d do such terrible things to people.
But…I’m not dragging you with me, we’re in this as a team. So I stay out, I stay out of your head as easy as it would be to just drift into your thoughts. I don’t need to because I can ask;
“Are you excited?”
“Yeah.” Easy as that.
“What makes you feel nervous?” I ask and I feel a little laugh run through us both, I’m not sure which of us laughed. Maybe both of us did. The fact of the matter is we surface in each other sometimes.
“I dunno.” Dennis Doe never does anything simply. “I just feel like I should be. Before you do anything big you should be a little nervous.”
To you, Dennis, a vacation from the world with friends is an immense ordeal. I wonder what that says about you.
“It’s Polly and Scott.” I remind you, not for the first time. “If there existed a more casual pair of people we have not yet met them.”
We land near the school, it sits quietly on the horizon like a primed guillotine. It’s always waiting for its next use and it will always be given fresh victims. Sat in the parking lot was…Well to be frank a fucking gorgeous little red number. I know to you cars are basically boxes with wheels but oh my goodness where did they find this thing?
I leak out just a little more, we’ve got room, the strands of ectomatter that connect us bridge the distance between us. Even apart we’re not apart are we? I squat down and look at myself in the sleek, clean body of the car.
“Oh my god.” I can’t help but say and the response I get is a warm laugh. I peer up to see the grinning face of Scott Howl, massive lad that is. “Scott is this yours?”
“No.” He scratches at his head. “It’s a rental so I don’t think it belongs to anyone for very long.” His tail wags as I stand up and you come closer. He’s almost in a hurry to take your one bag.
“Just one?” He asked and you make a little sound of worry. “It’s cool man, just I’m so used to packing everything.” He walks to the trunk and pops it open, I think we both gasp at once. The back is filled with bags and suitcases and duffels. It looks like we’re smuggling back here…Given Polly we might actually be smuggling unintentionally. There’s not a lot of room but Scott manages to negotiate space for your duffle, not even filled it compacts nicely into one corner.
Alongside a large bag that seems to be…dripping ice cream?
“You got everything there?” I ask and Scott shakes his head sadly.
“I couldn’t find room for my emergency spare bags. So we’re running on only this many bags. But I got my clothes, my spare clothes, my emergency clothes, the emergency ice cream, Polly’s drug stash, Polly’s clothes, Polly’s second stash, Polly’s emergency bail fund, my collection of antique magical rituals, a sack of monkey paw-”
He just keeps going and I don’t think either of us have owned as much as has been crammed into the trunk of this bloody car. I’m thankful when the trunk slams shut because it means that he’s done telling us what is back there.
“Wow, Scott thinks of everything.”
“Coach is talking about me becoming captain of the football team next year, part of being captain is making sure everything is accounted for.” He sighs. “Which is hard cause I’m bad at regular counting. A counting sounds even harder. Did you know some numbers have other numbers after them!”
“Some have letters too, boo.” Polly’s little giggle rings out and I turn to find her leaning on your shoulder. Arms wrapped around your neck in a little squeeze. “Glad you two could make it.”
Polly rubs her cheek on yours and you just laugh, wrapping an around her waist in a firm embrace, before she spins away from you toward me. I get a full on kiss on the cheek from the party ghost and feel her tremble in my arms.
“Nice to see you, spooky. You ready to hit the road?” She grins at me, a thing of wild manic energy.
“Oh beyond ready.” I laugh. “I want to see a sight that isn’t this city for a while.” She winks at me, this was a plan we had. You don’t know about it, you have no idea and that’s fine I have to remind myself. We’re not the same person, we can have secrets from each other.
Besides this secret is a good one, it’s nice.
“Thanks again for inviting us.” You say because going ten seconds without being polite might actually kill you. “It’s been so long since I went on vacation.”
“Yeah!” Scott whooped and clapped, sitting on the closed trunk of the car. “Polly was saying you guys haven’t had a vacation before.”
Polly makes a little noise at him, hands waving. “Scott! You aren’t supposed to say that…But yeah it’s true.” She giggles, over it like that. “I heard you two ain’t had a proper chill session in a long time and no, that won’t do. I got to get you two to the chillest place I know.”
“The chillest place you know being some kind of giant party in the desert?” I’m not trying to be snide, I think it just happens naturally. Polly just rolls her eyes and sighs.
“Duuuuh.” She’s perfect sometimes, I swear. “Trust me, I know a good time when I have one and nothing has come close to this party for a good time.” She leans on the car. “That’s a rule by the way!” She points at you, specifically you. “This is a vacation! No taking up crazy causes, no trying to save the world and just have fun and make memories.”
You shrug. “I don’t do that sort of thing that often.”
You say this to a person you once invaded hell for because she looked a little sad. You say this in the presence of me, a person bound to your immortal soul forever because you offered me your entirety out of charity.
It’s amazing how you can be so transparent and full of shit.
“Uh huh.” I drone out. “For real. This is a vacation. None of the usual crap, we’re chilling, hanging out and having a good time.”
“I promise.” You hold a hand over your heart that doesn’t work and one palm up. “I swear not to take up any lost causes or dramatic rescues. Unless it’s necessary for us to move on.” He can feel the stares we’re giving him.
“That’s rad bro!” Not Scott though, he trusts you and has no idea. It’s a secret from him too. Scott hops off the car and claps his big hands a few times. “Well we should probably get going, not waiting for anyone else are we?”
“You don’t know?” You look around. “A bit tight getting.”
“That’s fine.” Scott said.
“Oh we’re probably gonna pick some people up.” Polly tells us as she slinks over to the passenger side. Doesn’t bother with the door just hops in. “It’s the open road, we’re gonna play it a little by ear out there.”
“We’re going to that gig though.” I must sound angry because I feel you put a hand on my shoulder.
“I’m sure we are.” You laugh. “You’re really up for this gig huh?”
Oh you have no idea how important the two of us getting there really is, Dennis. You have no idea what exactly we’ll find there.
“Love my live music.” I tell you and make sure to fix Polly with a stare, she gives nothing away which could mean it’s all to plan or she’s an idiot and has forgotten everything she promised to help me do this Summer.
I hate that even after all this time I still have no idea how to read her face. She hasn’t let us down yet, I put trust in that. Which I think is you surfacing in me, the cocktail mixes.
“Oh,” Scott points at me, “Abby right, yeah!” He laughs. “You know how to drive right?”
“I…Yeah!” I do know how to drive. “Dennis can’t-”
“Neither can Polly.” He laughs. “Means you and I are gonna have to be the responsible adults on this trip and make sure that we get where we need to go.” He flashes me a big toothy grin. “Means no hiding away cause I’m gonna need to do this in shifts.”
No hiding…Weird way to phrase that. My eyes trail to Polly and she’s doing her best to look at her nails. Your hand on my shoulder, squeezes just a little. Oh my darling haunted house, do you have a secret on this trip too?
Are you still trying to fix things? You’re so bad at vacations you cotton candy headed lamp post.
“You heard him.” You’re as subtle as an atom bomb and twice as bright. “Sorry, Abby. You might have to be a bit more present here and there.”
Our bond for the longest time forced me to hide below your flesh, to sit within the manor of you and watch the world like the world’s grottiest old widow. Trapped inside the haunted manor and keeping it standing out of stubbornness and love. Now the door’s open and sure I can only get so far away but you seem to keep pushing me out the door.
You want me to see the world and the world to see me. I get it, I don’t want to turn into a crazy cat lady. You’d probably hate all the meowing inside your ribs at night.
I’m not scared of people, no, not at all.
“Tell ya what, Scott.” I pace over. “I’ll take the first shift. It’s been a while since I got to drive something so,” I run my hand across the body of the vehicle, “lovely.”
“You drove a cool car before?” Polly asks from the front seat, fixing her glasses. “You own it?”
“I sort of did.” It was a host’s. He was very famous. I spent a lot of his money. “It wasn’t a top down thing though.” I get in the car, adjust the seat a bit and watch you and Scott slide in the back. He’s grinning like a mad man.
“Dennis, have you ever played car games?”
“No.”
“Tha-” Scott stops. “Really?”
“No. Never. I didn’t do that.” You lean on the door. “What kind of car games are there?”
“Oh there’s I Spy, punch buggies-”
“Do not.” I say very quickly and Scott’s tail stands up. “Just…He’s…Fragile.” I go back to the wheel, good job, instantly bite off a head. You’re so good at this. “Umm is this,” it’s a stick shift. Which thank you zombie Jesus.
I turn the keys and the press the clutch to wake her up. The whole car growls and I feel it trace up my spine. A dull distant fuzz of a feeling, being a ghost makes physical sensation so very hard. The fact I felt anything tells me this car is a monster and that just makes me more excited than I have words for. I wring the wheel with one hand and the other on the shifter.
“Are we ready to take off?” I cackle a little. “Feeling how this thing shakes we might be straddling a rocket engine.”
“That’d be weird. I asked for a car.” Scott muttered. “Should we take it back?”
“Not in your life.” Polly shook my arm. “Take us out of this city and out to the open road.”
“Aye, aye co-captain.”
She handles like a dream. I have to put a bit of pressure on the pedals but the shift is smooth as silk. We drive off and the city is still waking up, the roads are mostly clear. A few delivery trucks, a couple busy bodies, a few stumblers who didn’t get home last night and so have to do it this morning.
You stare out as the world goes past, Scott is trying to teach you the rules to I spy as if you’ve never ever played it. You nod along, a soft smile on your face as he explains you see a thing and don’t tell him what it is and let him guess.
He tells you it has to really be there, they added that rule because Polly kept getting high and asking people to spot her hallucinations with her.
“That only happened…Four or five times, Scott!” Polly whined. “Also one time you guys just didn’t notice the lava-shark, that one was real!” She crossed her arms and pouted. “Lava-shark trying to gaslight me in front of my friends.”
“I’m so sure.” I nudge Polly. “Stop being pouty. Stick on some good music, actually good music.”
“Oh but Abby, every band you like sucks ass.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “Like the rest of you, your sense of taste has passed on.”
“If you put on something that mentions ass or twerking in the first three lines you’re walking, Geist.”
She pulls out her phone and plugs it into the aux. I’m assaulted by techno-noise and the bass speakers would reduce my bones to powder if I had any. It takes at least two verses before a bottom is mentioned and from then on it is mentioned constantly.
“Okay it’s not bad.” I tell her and she grins at me, leaning back in the seat. Arms back behind her head as we cruise through the city, an alarm clock on wheels as she cranks the sound and wakes up the world.
We cruise for a bit, get out of the city and the road seems endless before us. It stretches onward into a horizon that we’ll never reach but have to sprint towards as fast as our little legs will carry us.
“I spy with my little eye,” Scott starts, “something that starts with P.” He folds his arms and you purse your lips and stare out at the absolutely blistering amount of nothing around us.
“P.” You repeat and rubbed at your chin as though it requires any thought. It’s Polly. Has to be. “Polly?” You say and Scott shakes his head. “No?”
“No. It-”
The car bounced in the road, the music skipped. “Pot hole!” Scott said and I just started swearing angrily, Polly howled with laughter and Scott just plain howled as you wrapped your arms around my shoulders from the back seat and tried to calm me down.
Let me drive right into the buggering thing! Bloody fur rug in training that you are Scott Howl!
“So, Dennis.” Polly turns around and looks at you over her seat. The lines of energy that bind us flow through the car seats. We’re nowhere near our limit of five feet but you already feel very far away when you’re in that ones sights. Mischief. Mischief.
“Wassup?”
“Any big goals for this vacation? Anything you really wanna make sure gets done?” Polly asks with a sigh and a giggle. “Any long term projects you finally wanna cross off?” She points at him and I know what she means.
“I am right here.” I remind her in case she’s already that high. “Be very careful.”
“You’re invited too.” Polly tells me with a nudge. “I’m just saying I’m totally up for this. You two coming out-”
“Weird phrasing.”
“-as a couple has not diminished the desire to have you both.” She giggles and grinds against the seat. “If anything it’s better!”
“Scott is right here!” You point at him as if that’s going to save you.
“Oh it’s fine, Polly always talks about her fun sex stories with me.” He laughed. “Like that one guy and the watermelon on the boat.”
“He never saw the firecracker coming and given his terrible performance he never saw me coming either.” She sighed through her nose and I swear I can actually feel the raw levels of confusion radiate from you. “Listen, I’m just saying, you want to have a fun time and I wanna give it to you.”
“I don’-”
“I don’t mind.” I tell you and her. “It’s Summer vacation, if you can charm Dennis then by all means.”
“Cause I’ve already charmed you right?” Polly leans over to me and I push her back to her seat. No comment, no comment you gorgeous awful woman whose arse I’d bite like an apple.
It’s been a while. It’s been a long time since I’ve got to…Be intimate. Dennis, I love him, but he’s slow to love. Affection he has down, intimacy he gets but the actual physical act of fucking me through a mattress has NOT yet occurred.
Despite all my hints.
“Oh um,” you got caught off guard there, “I see.” You stumble over your words, her eyes must feel like searchlights and I can’t imagine mine feeling much better. I’m serious, you know, if you want to have fun you can. We’re in an awkward state but maybe with some people we could…Find a medium.
“Just think about it.” Polly snickers and slinks back down. She winks at me as if that was a massive masterstroke. God she would say something about stroking if I bothered to tell her.
I asked her to help me with two things. The first was to make sure this was a genuine Summer for Dennis to remember. For him to have a good Summer and one that’s free of all the nonsense he subscribes to. The second thing…One of Polly’s friends, one of her weirdo chums at this party.
I’ve been told he’s some kind of super ghost. An expert. Born a ghost, if such a thing is possible. He says he’s seen something like us before. Something stuck and merged and trapped. He might be able to help us.
That’s my hope for this Summer, Dennis.
I’m going to get us both out of the haunted house.