It wouldn't hurt all that much if you were to stay for a little longer. You could probably come up with another excuse anyway if your mom questioned you too much about it.

"Alright why not, I think I can stay for another hour or so..." You say which causes Gwen's attitude to beam back up.

"Great! I still got stuff to ask you, like.....when's your birthday and....what's the worst thing that's ever happened to you!"

The conversation continued on as Gwen asked you random questions on a variety of topics. It seemed as if she was trying to prolong your stay or at least make it in so that you wouldn't get bored while being with her.

It's not like you were anyway when it was your turn to ask questions or talk, everything that she replied with genuinely interested you. Still, there was a strange feeling in the pit of your stomach you would get, and it seemed as if it kept on recurring every time you were to interact with Gwen. You pushed it off to the side though as just random nervousness.

Checking your phone you saw that it was already six.

"Alright, I really got to go now, my mom's going to get pissed if I get back any later." You say, trying to excuse yourself out of the conversation as soon as you saw a good stopping point.

"Yeah, you have been here for quite a while....thanks for deciding to stay a little longer with me though..." Gwen sweetly smiles you.

Don't worry I'll be back every day at least twice, this route is on my way to school after all."

"I know you will, and I'll be waiting."

Those words send a little chill up your spine, though you don't exactly know why. Besides that, you wave Gwen off as you start head back home.

Upon walking into your house, your mom is in the kitchen as she asks you where you've been. You tell her you stayed with some friends to do some stuff after school, and head up to your room before she can try to question you.

You wake up a bit later than usual the next morning and take your time preparing yourself for school. Somehow the day before had drained you, as you were sluggish to leave the house and go on your walk. In fact, you actually had an inner desire to take the bus and catch a nap for a few minutes but decided against it. Not wanting to do that to Gwen.

When you arrive on her street, you catch her looking in your general direction when the two of you make eye contact. You walk at a normal pace until you finally arrive at her boundary.

She's the first one to say something.

"You're later than usual."

She didn't say this jokingly, but with a sort of seriousness and matter-of-factness.

"Yeah....I slept in so I was a little late in getting ready."

As you say this you take out your phone and look at the time.

"Speaking of which I can't stay all that long either because of it, I can't be late again."

As you say this, you see a deep frown start to form on Gwen's face. She's not even attempting to hide the disappointment that came from what you just said, and because of that, you started to feel guilty.

Gwen didn't respond to what you said and just kept on looking at you. Fuck this was really awkward

"Alright, well I'll see you later then..."You mutter as you give a little wave. You walk at a normal pace until you feel that you're out of her eyesight, before quickening your pace.

You don't know why you did this, but you did know you weren't tired anymore. What the hell was that interaction? She was so weird about it that it actually made you genuinely uncomfortable. It wasn't just the guilty feeling, fuck the guilty feeling wasn't the worst part as all. The worst part is that you started having thoughts of just cutting interaction with Gwen, you had ideas why this came to mind, but you didn't know why it came onto you so strong.

You started to worry that Gwen would be like the past ones, the ones who wouldn't let go if they could help it. Did it just take longer for the signs to show with her compared to the others?

As more of these thoughts continued to plague your mind, you were eventually able to get rid of them and start trying to feel some compassion in which it seemed you were lacking. Gwen was alone a lot on that street, so it was only natural that she would get upset if it meant less interaction time with you if you were the only person she interacted with. Your apology for it was pretty shitty too, though at the time you didn't really feel the need to, and a part of you still doesn't now.

Regardless you were to visit her again after school since you weren't ready to just abandon her, much reluctance was in you though as you down that street after school as you were contemplating if you had made the right decision or not.

When you caught sight of Gwen, she was waving heavily at you, which made you quicken your pace a bit expecting something to be wrong.

"Hey! You came back!" Gwen exclaimed, as if you had no intentions of doing so.

"Of course I did, I said I would."

"Listen I'm sorry about how I reacted earlier today, I acted like a little girl and didn't realize you had your own problems to deal with and such, I was putting myself ahead of you and I'm so sorry!"

She was rapid with this apology, and with each word she had taken a step closer to you, causing you to in turn take a few steps back to keep the distance.

"Don't worry about it really....you have nothing to apologize for."

"I....I just don't want you to think I'm like those other ghosts that you left for being clingy or weird. I'm not like that, I'm.....I'm just lonely!" Her face twisted into something saddening as features of decay starting to rapidly show all over her body. It seems as if she wasn't able to hold in her emotions as she falls to the ground and starts sobbing, with her whole body shuddering heavily.

You don't know how to react to this, especially since you're not able to touch ghosts, you can't really comfort her physically. You're still a little shocked with this happening so suddenly, but you get yourself out of it quickly as you try to figure out something to say.

"Hey...I'm not going to leave you. You got it all wrong man, just because I didn't stick around for that long in the morning doesn't mean I don't want to be here or anything..."

You felt that you weren't really good with words, as what you had said didn't really seem to help all that much.

"I know, or at least I hope you're not lying. But still, these feelings just won't stop. I keep being afraid that you'll decide to leave me and I'll be alone again...Do you have any idea how long I've been on this street?"

"Four months?" You say rememberering your conversation.

"No...That was a lie. I've been here for about a year maybe more. You're the only person to have talked to me since then. At first, I didn't even think you were real, just a sign that I was actually losing it for real this time. But when you came back I knew you were real, and when there was the chance that you wouldn't be coming back, I got scared. I know I sound like I'm being clingy, well I am clingy. I don't don't want to lose you and I don't want you to go, ever."



At this point Gwen didn't seem to be holding anything in, as she was letting all her emotions and thoughts out in the rawest form possible. You didn't really know how to feel about this, in one way you felt extreme pity for her, on the other hand a few things in which she admitted made you feel a little dirty. It felt like she was expecting too much from you, there was no way in which you could stay by her side on this street forever, it was heavily impractical. It would have been one thing if it were just a figure of speech, but you knew she was being serious, and that sent chills down your spine.

You can't make that promise

You couldn't make a promise that you couldn't keep, especially one as big as this. Even though Gwen seemed like a nice girl and all, she was expecting too much of a person that she barely met. You wouldn't be able to take the responsibility of keeping her happy and sane every day of the week just so that she wouldn't feel lonely.

There had to be others like you out in the world that had your powers, hell there might even be another one living in this town. It's also not like she would stay here forever, nothing lasts forever.

"I'm sorry, but....I can't make a promise like that. I can try to come whenever I have some spare time. But don't count on me to come every day."

Saying these words made you feel like shit, and her expression that matched the dirty feeling worsened everything.

It felt just like last time, although now you had really made up your mind about the future between the two of you. There would be none.

The two of you didn't exchange any more words after that as you just walked off, not having the slightest desire to look back.

You made a mistake with all of this.

Your days of voluntarily communicating with ghosts were over.