Monday Mashup | Paranormal

Post-Mortem Blues

It’s rough being dead.

Had he really been dead for two months? Hard to believe. Niall didn’t think it had been all that long since a werewolf turned him into hamburger meat, but it had been summer when he’d died, and now they were well into fall. It got dark earlier, the air was cooler, and leaves crunched under people’s feet as they walked by.

At first it had been hard to wrap his head around the fact that he was well and truly dead. While he’d been laying there bleeding out on the concrete, he’d held out a small hope that Rosalie could do something. Maybe she, Elena, and her other friend Taline could bring him back to life. Magic was good for stuff like that, right?

He’d wanted to console Lucy while she sobbed over his mangled body, let her know that everything would be fine, but she couldn’t see or hear him. Rosalie had gently draped an arm over her shoulder and led her away. Even then he wasn’t too worried; maybe she’d come back with the two of them to fix him up. Lucy could yell at him for being stupid once he was breathing again, and he’d be sure to be more careful from then on.

Except no revival happened.

His funeral did.

At that point, it became very clear he wasn’t coming back. His earthly remains were now interred in a grave only slightly smaller than the apartment he’d occupied in life.

Niall wandered aimlessly for a bit, knowing full well he was supposed to head off to whatever the hereafter had in store for him, but finding himself unable to. Unable or unwilling, he wasn’t really sure, but something was holding him here. It wasn’t as if he was afraid of anything, no. He had a reason to stay that he couldn’t quite figure out.

It became clear when Lucy and Rosalie went to kill the Eye Collector. Sure, the guy had an indirect hand in his death, but avenging himself wasn’t the reason he stuck around. He didn’t know anything about the vampire in question, but anyone called the Eye Collector was bound to be bad news, and the last thing he wanted was for Lucy’s eyes to be gouged out of her skull. If there was any way he could help her out even as a ghost, he was damn well going to try.

Back then he couldn’t manage much more than reassuring her a little, yanking her out of harm’s way once and tripping the old bastard up so Rosalie could shackle him, but it had been enough. The two of them made it out of there alive and in one piece.

Now though? Oh, he had this ghost thing down.

One thing he wished he could do was change his appearance. Specifically, to look like he did before a werewolf tore his throat and guts out. Unfortunately for him, ghosts always looked the way they did when they died. Peaceful deaths meant you’d appear the same way you did in life, but violent ones? He just had to get used to having eight fingers, one eye, a ragged throat and a gaping hole in his belly.

For the most part he used his spectral powers to help out Lucy on her hunts, protecting and assisting her however he could. That didn’t mean he didn’t use them for other, less-serious reasons when they weren’t hunting though.

Being dead was also terribly lonely. Sure, Lucy, Rosalie and Taline could see him, and Elena could hear him, but that was all. If none of them were around, he was pretty much cut off from the rest of the world, able to do little more than watch. Could he really be blamed for wanting to find ways to take his mind off of it?

No. Definitely not.

With a grin, Niall flipped open the cardboard box he’d found in the basement. He’d possessed objects before, and this’d be no different than anything else.

A skeleton clattered down the hall, arms stretched out in front of it like a zombie. Truth be told it was just a Halloween decoration and not a real skeleton, but it looked and felt a lot more like bone than plastic. Surely Lucy wouldn’t mind him borrowing it for a bit. Just for this.

From the sound of it, the two of them were in the living room. He could hear the clacking of computer keys, and some kind of movie on in the background. Somehow he doubted that someone was actually hacking their way through an army of zombies with a chainsaw in there; that’d be a bit much even for Lucy’s family.

A quick peek around the corner confirmed that Lucy was working on the computer while her cousin sat on the couch, half-watching a horror movie while idly scrolling through her phone. Elena was there too, but less watching and more listening to the movie for obvious reasons.

“Think that guy learned his lesson?” she asked Rosalie.

“I’m sure the itching will set him straight. The spell only lasts a day, so he won’t have to deal with it too long.”

All of them were distracted. None of them noticed as Niall slowly, carefully snuck up to Lucy, bony hands curled into claws like a cartoon monster. She didn’t even react as he loomed behind her, still typing away like nothing was there.

“Om-nom-nom,” he went, resin teeth clattering by her neck.

“Hey, could either one of you…?” she asked without ever taking her eyes off the monitor.

Elena lifted a finger and traced a circle in the air. All Niall’s ‘bones’ pattered to the ground, the skeleton dismantled. Looked like she’d undone all the metal bits that held it together. They could probably be fixed just as easily, but right now all there was was a ghost floating there, looking sheepish.

“Hi…?”

“Hi Niall,” Elena said. “Having fun?”

“I mean I was until you guys just stopped me cold,” he said, flopping down on the couch next to her. Sitting on things and not passing through them was a bit of a trick, and he was proud of himself for figuring it out as quickly as he did.

“Doing what, anyway? Being a spooky scary skeleton?”

“Sure didn’t send shivers down my spine,” Lucy quipped, getting a snicker from Rosalie. Niall just rolled his eyes, not that anyone would ever notice since being a ghost meant those were all black.

“Very funny. Anyway,” he went on, “Can you really blame me? Not much to do when you’re dead. I mean yeah, you guys are aware of me but nobody else is.”

Lucy made a sympathetic noise, looking speculatively from him to the bones and back again. “You know, Halloween’s coming up soon. Why don’t you pull that little trick again? We can drape a black robe over the skeleton to make it look more like a costume. It’s something at least.”

“And it’s a simple enough spell to make you audible to other people, so you’ll be able to interact, even if it’s just passing out candy to the kids.” Elena added.

Niall brightened at that. For a little while he’d be able to interact with other people. Even if it really was just handing out candy, it was better than just being unseen and unheard by everyone.

“Yeah, that’d be great! We should definitely do that. On a side-note,” he cocked his head, “What was that about itching when I came in?”

“You don’t wanna know.”

Thanks to Jonathon Sawyer for the prompt, and also for challenging me!

Points Time!
Main theme (2 pts)
Prompt #1, Ghostly Protagonist. Niall is very much a ghost. 

Constraints (1 pt each)
An animated skeleton (1 pt) Niall's possessing it.
A scary creature says "Om-nom-nom" (1 pt) The skeleton while possessed. 
Three witches (1 pt) Rosalie, Elena and Taline are all witches. 
The sound of crunching leaves (1 pt) I mean, it is fall. 

Hardcore Constraint (2 pts)
Someone gets cursed with something mundane.(2 pts) So. Much. ITCHING.

Tally Box: 1 pt

That's 9 points for me!

But wait, there’s more with this group! Hell, Niall even gets to be alive in two of them! (I took that privilege away real fast).