Wanting to start your questions with something simple and innocent, you tried asking something basic.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Green." She says immediately, her attitude sparking up with that answer.

This causes you to smile a bit.

"How come it's your favorite color?"

"I used to go on trips a lot to the mountains, with my grandpa at his lake house. I loved the trees around there."She says, quite rapidly, and possibly with excitement.

As she's talking about this, you could swear that there areas of her body that were turning from a rotten and decayed color to the light color of tan skin. Even her eye that was bulging seemed to shrink slowly to that of normal size.

"Yeah, that seems like a pretty nice play to go too, always wanted to go to a place like that."

"It really is great! Especially when it snows, it's an experience that you have to be there to truly know how great it feels!" As Gwen says this, her smile starts to fade, and her older decayed features begin to reappear.

"I want to go back..."

You frown at her sudden change in mood, you take a look at your phone again only to see that a half an hour had passed.

Fuck you really couldn't miss more than one period or you're mom would REALLY have your ass, the confidence of staying had left as soon as her mood began to falter again, you would have to come back and talk to her some more when you had the luxury of your own set time.

"Listen, I have to go and get to school. I'm going to come back though O.K? I just really can't miss it."

She lifts her head with a pained expression on her face.

"You promise you'll come back?"

"Promise."

With that being said, she sits back onto the asphalt and covers her head into her knees.

"I'll see you then."

It takes you a moment before you get yourself to move your legs and head down the quiet sidewalk towards your school.


Classes go by fairly slowly for you as you can't stop thinking about Gwen. About what she had told you so far and the time she had spent on that street.

It seemed rather odd how often her mood had changed, from being quiet to being happy and then finally ending with sadness. You couldn't tell if it was something like her being bipolar or just all the events that happened in such a short time span. Either way, you still felt sadness for how you left her, and you immediately had plans to go and visit her again on your walk home.

Though on your walk, you had gotten a call from your mom. She chewed you out a little for being marked absent for first period, and you just gave the excuse that you had to go to the bathroom on the way to school and couldn't hold it. That seemed to work for her as she didn't try to question you all that much afterward.

Gwen's figure had started to come into view as you arrived at her street. She was still sitting down while holding her knees, but as soon as she caught sight of you she instantly picked herself up and waved at you, with a cheery expression on her face.

"You came back!" She beamed with a wide smile.

"Of course I did, I promised you didn't I?"

Her smile got bigger as she tilted her head while her eyes narrowed.

"You're not leaving right away though right?"

"Of course not, I got plenty of time to spare." You assure her.

Her smile returns. "Good, because I've thought of a lot of things to ask you."

You spend around two hours talking to Gwen as she learns about your high school and stuff that happens with you on a daily occurrence. She asks about your powers to see ghosts and you tell her about all the interactions you've had so far. It's when though that you bring up some of them being crazy that her mood seems to dampen a bit.

"I was almost at that point too, had you not come along when you did. It wouldn't have taken long for me to be too far gone..."She told you sullenly.

"Why bother thinking about that when it didn't happen, I met you and that's that."

She smiles again. "Yeah, you're right."

You look at your phone to see that time that had gone by since you had been talking to Gwen.

"I should probably be heading home now, my mom would kill me if I didn't get home by six."

Gwen's expression darkens as she starts twiddling her fingers.

"Could you stay maybe a little longer....?"

You can't

As much as you would have wanted too, you had to make stops in between your conversations, otherwise you wouldn't want it to end.

"Sorry but I can't, I'll be back tomorrow though, same times twice a day.

Even though Gwen's face is sadder then it as before, some happiness seems to be regained to morph her face into that of bitter sweetness.

"Promise?"She asks once again.

"Promise."

She seems assured by that, so you make your way away from the road and begin your walk home. On it though you start to think about Gwen. Not so much of thoughts of interest, but thoughts of worry. With what she just asked for, she seemed incredibly lonely. That was a given though since you were her only source of interaction. In fact her attitude was probably tame in comparison to other spirits who had no other interaction, she wasn't screaming like a maniac compared to the others, so she was more approachable.

You would need to keep your promises though to visit her everyday, at least once. You felt as if you would be super guilty if you tried to avoid her or promised her something that you wouldn't be able to keep.

Though a more pressing matter was limiting your conversations so you wouldn't end up being late to school anymore, because the excuse you had given your mom would only probably work just that one time.

As the sun slowly sank into the horizon, you finally managed to get home, aside from the questioning from your mom nothing else comes up and you get ready for bed.


The next day you quickly wake up from bed and get hurriedly get ready to save as much time as possible. You even bothered to set your alarm for a half hour earlier to buy you enough time to meet Gwen. Getting outside, you managed to find yourself jogging a bit without even noticing at first.

Getting up to the street with Gwen, she's already looking at you by the time she comes into view. Was she waiting for you to get here?

"You're earlier than usual." Gwen notices as she tilts her head.

"Yeah. I managed to leave the house pretty early so I could stay and talk with you more before I have to leave."

Upon hearing this, Gwen avoids eye contact with you as she tilts her head down.

"You didn't have to go that far..."

"Nah I wanted too, I enjoy our little conversations."

Gwen smiles as she nods her head. "I'm glad."

You actually felt pure enjoyment when being around Gwen. You weren't sure at first, but after these meetings with her you could always catch yourself smiling during conversations and could see the same with her.

Two weeks had passed as you continued your visits before and after school. With each interaction, the times that Gwen would become sad or bring up something depressing would start to slowly decrease until they were abnormal occurrences to happen.

You never seemed to run out of things to talk about or bring up, or if you did yourself, Gwen would change the topic to start something new. It would get to the point in which you would actually become sad when your meetings were over, there were even some times you hadn't even noticed the sun had gone down until she herself brought it up, and suggested that you get yourself home.

She didn't usually do this, but there had been occurrences in which passerby's in cars would stop by the curb in which the two of you were and ask you if you were O.K, as people had seen you continuously here each day and were worried that you were lost or sick or something.

You had always given the excuse that you were waiting for someone or you just wanted to loiter like a normal teen, most of them bought the excuse although leaving with a troubled expression on your behalf.

You didn't really care all that much though if you were being judged, as long as you were able to talk to Gwen. Another thing that you had noticed was that all the scars, wounds, and rotten flesh had been starting to disappear with each returning visit, until it got to the point in which you didn't see it at all.

You never would have imagined that you would feel a romantic feeling towards a ghost. Since you always saw them as ugly creatures that plagued this world with the curse of not being able to move on.

You wanted to help Gwen, somehow help her out of that street. On the other hand though you didn't want to lose her, being with her was fun, and even though it hadn't been that long, you couldn't really imagine not being with her.

There had to be a way in which you could help her without letting her go. Somehow to get her off that street, if it was even possible.

You tried to imagine something but nothing came to mind, which frustrated you immensely. It's not like she would know of anything either, she knew just about as much as you did on her condition.

You tried to stop thinking about such depressing matters, until it was brought up in one of your conversions by Gwen unexpectedly.

"Do you think I'll be here forever..." She asked in a shallow voice, after of series of other unrelated questions.

"I doubt it, nothing lasts forever..."

You said this, but when you did you wished you hadn't. You had basically said that you and Gwen would eventually come to a end as well, which may be true but still. You looked at her facial expression to see if she caught up on this, but you couldn't tell with how expressionless it was.

"Yeah, that's true..."

"Who knows what will happen though, it's not like we know for certain what's going to happen to you or which god is going to judge your fate, but I'm sure wherever you're going, it's going to be something enjoyable." You try to comfort her with possibilities.

This causes Gwen to laugh, which catches you off guard a bit.

"You know, before I died. I thought I was turning atheist with all the thoughts that were coming to my head at the time. I didn't really fear death all that much since I thought it would all just be over in a bright flash, and I would be able to sleep forever....now though."

Tears start to well up in Gwen's eyes as she starts wiping them with her palm.

"If only you had seen me the first couple of weeks when I was like this. How hard I screamed, how shitty I felt. Looking back on it even I knew was acting insane. I don't know when it happened, but after awhile I stopped feeling, I stopped caring. I just sat on my ass on that stupid road, hoping that one day one of those cars would actually make contact and end this shitty existence, this hell."

Tears seem to stop flowing, but her eyes are a deep puffy red as she makes eye contact with you, and gives a warm, small smile.

"When I met you, I didn't know how to react at first. I didn't even think you were real, and I had finally gone crazy. When you came back the second time though I knew you were actually there, and I started feeling happy again. I don't even remember the exact time I had been happy before that."

There were a few a moments before she said anything else, while you yourself were quiet as you couldn't think of anything to say to respond to that, though at the very least you wanted her to finish everything she had to say before you were to comfort her.

"I lied to you..."She says, in a quiet voice that you were barely able to make out.

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't die four months ago......I died a year ago or.....I think it's been a year by now."

"Jesus Christ." You blurt out, not being able to stop yourself.

"During the first few months, I was able to walk down the entire avenue, all the way to the next block. I didn't really take advantage of it though since I was still broken during those times, but as each month passed the barrier kept on getting smaller and smaller until it's what it is now. I started getting scared that it would keep on shrinking until I had nothing left but a few feet of walking space. Thankfully it never got to that, but it seemed to stop shrinking around the time that you had arrived. You saved me from getting squished, or whatever happens when the barrier closes on itself, but in a small way.....I wish it had. Then everything would finally come to an end. I could finally sleep."