Chapter 4 - Can’t Stop Falling

 

Once she calmed down from her unreasonable tirade, we sat next to each other on the bed. Looking serious, it’s obviously she’s mentally preparing to say something.

 

“If you can see me, this must mean we are destined for each other,” she starts normally and ends excitedly, her eyes sparkling.

 

As I’m about to retort to that statement, I sense impending death and hold onto my retort. My survival instinct.

 

She continues uninterrupted, becomes even more excited, gets up from the bed and points at me confidently. “Or it could be that you have the remarkable potential to be a spirit detecti….” 

“Please stop, I don’t want to be sued,” I interrupt. ¹

 

She commences an onslaught of questions, “Well, have you ever seen spirits before?”

“Uh, no. You’re my fir....”

“Have you ever experienced anything paranormal?”

“No, the most I ha…”

“So, this is your first time?”

“Yes, but if you’d just le…” 

“Do you think I’m pretty?”

“Obviously, but …”

            “Wait a second, what was that last one again?” I inquire, wondering if I heard her correctly.

 

“So, this is your first time?” she faux innocently says.

 

Is this girl for real? I have totally gotten swept into her pace.

 

“Look, I probably know less than you do about all of this. Heck, I don’t even know who you are,” I frustratedly admit.

This back and forth got to me. Near death experiences and all of that. I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster. An awesome one, but a rollercoaster, nonetheless.

 She slowly droops down like a marionette. To the point where I can’t see her face. Is she alright? I pause. I can’t help but think that maybe she’s entering her final form, and I may need to get out of here. Contrary to my traitorous thoughts, a sniffle sounds out from her. Oh, no. I hope I didn’t hurt her feelings. Even if she is a bit weird, she’s not a bad person. I’m a bit confused about this whole situation. And also, in a scary room with a doll facing the corner. Where did the pillow go? I shift my focus back to her, nevertheless.

 

“I’m sorry, are you okay?” I ask her softly. My hand on the bed unconsciously moves closer to her.

 

She shakes a little. Shoot. Did I say something wrong? I really wish I was better at this; I don’t know how to help or even what to say.

 

“Hey, I’m sorry if what I said hurt you. I’m confused by all of this” I softly explain, while inching closer. This is the best I can think of.

 

Her head slowly rises, and she smiles while crying. Hmm, maybe it’s a secret final form. I gently sneak backwards.

 

“That’s not it,” she chuckles wryly.

 

The way she says it makes me stop and look at her seriously. It sounds like she is experiencing painful happiness,

 

“I’m not an it, right? I’m a she.” she states, still smiling.

 

“Yeah. That’s kind of established” I gesture to her being a woman. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t call you an…”

 

Oh.

 

I finally get it. Her smile naturally widens, and I realize that if she appeared as a monster, then I would have called her an it. Since I was able to see her as a woman, it never occurred to me not to reference her as a person. Even with all the tomfoolery, this has been a relatively normal conversation. Relatively. That means she’s probably a normal person. It must have been tough on her, being alone for however long she’s been here. Maddening even.

 

She’s probably gone through significant mental pain all this time. Going from being a person, to being treated like a monster. That would’ve messed with anyone’s mind. I remember one of the first requests she made of me, “Just talk to me, and I’ll let you go.” Well, except for the indecipherable screaming.

 

            I look at her sympathetically and climb off the bed toward her. “Hey, you’re not alone anymore and you aren’t a mon…” I move a tiny bit closer to her.

 

 

And it is at that moment in time, that I trip on my own feet.

 

Why? Why God? Is this my fate? To be the joke character that constantly trips?

 

However, my position while falling would have put me in the “harem protagonist” marshmallow hell.² However, she is a ghost. I fall flat on my face through her body.

 

Everything goes dark. This is complete bullshit. This time I managed to brace my fall like a normal person, so the darkness was just me closing my eyes.

 

As I lay on the ground, wallowing in my misfortune, I hear a brief snort of laughter and the continued muffled giggles behind me. With my face burning hot with embarrassment, I hurriedly sit up and face her.

 

Her face is now totally emotionless. “Your cheeks are still wet, you know” I intone.

 

She quickly pats her cheeks in a panic. You can’t trick me; you know what you did. Sighing, I take a seat on the bed again.  Her face relaxes, and she smiles at me. I scowl back, and she busts out laughing again. Hearing her laugh does makes me crack a smile, though.

 She manages to ask, “So, what’s your name?”

I look at her seriously and consider the question. “You can call me Dominik. How about yours?”

 

“Ruby. I originally had red hair.” she says and follows quickly. I look at her skeptically.

 

“Ruby” I repeat with a deadpan look. “That’s my name” she says, obviously insecure about the change in color. I noticeably glance at her silver hair, but choose not to comment further. “It changed to this color when I became a ghost!” she says defensively.

 

 “I didn’t say anything.” I casually respond. “My parents saw red hair and decided it was a great name” she follows. I say nothing and smile at her, slightly attempting that “glint in eye” thing. Success.

 

She pouts, realizing I’m teasing her and continues with her original questioning “So what do you do?”

 

“Well, I work in the….” I start as thunder crackles in the sky and I hear the rain outside. “Oh no, my stuff! It’s sitting outside the house!” I yell, jumping up from the bed.

 

The rain becomes progressively louder as I begin to sprint for the door. I bust out the door, and everything appears extremely far with the surrounding forest barely visible. There is a small trail of items leading into the path out of the area. “Damnit! They must have run away from the house and left before fully unloading.  I run for the farthest item. It’s my bags containing the initial food for staying at the house, as well as some casual clothes. I reach it and hear an immense thunderclap behind me, deafeningly shaking the ground. Once again, I get the unnatural urge to turn around.

 

Unfortunately, I have a feeling this is not a situation where I can get away with standing still. I turn around, and the entire house is covered in a purple hue. A circle covered in arcane, magic symbols extends from behind the house and stops near the front of the house. Purple electricity crackling over the mist-like hue and circle overtakes my stuff but doesn’t damage it.  This is the time to run away. Until, I barely hear and see something that makes me freeze in place.

 

Ruby, screaming and pounding at the door of the house. The door is open, but she is blocked by an invisible wall. In the span of a moment, the world slows down. The crackling gets brighter and brighter. I lock eyes with Ruby, her eyes widen, and she continues pounding. I realize it’s me she’s desperately pointing at and is trying to mouth something important. Unfortunately, I cannot read lips. I follow her hand, and I see what she was trying to warn me about. Outside of the circle, there is a void the width of a soccer field circling the perimeter.

 

I’m standing in that void.

 

 I’m falling, and as I look up, I see the circle, house, and self shimmer out of existence. Once again, darkness overtakes my eyes. Only this time, it wasn’t my fault.

 

I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

¹ This is in reference to the 1990 Japanese anime “Yu Yu Hakusho”, about a high school student who becomes a “spirit detective” and gains the ability to communicate with the spirit world.

 

² In stereotypical Japanese slice-of-life romance tropes, the main character will typically be clumsy and fall into romantically compromising situations. In this trope, “Marshmallow hell” represents falling into the female lead’s breasts and thus being immediately ostracized/punished for this action. In this context, this is meant to be a double subverted parody to that trope