Chapter 3:

I'm shaking, my hand feels buzzy. Lamorri looks at me, he is as close to being scared as an apparition can get.

"What the hell Lamorri?" I say, not being able to hide a shake that rattles my voice.

His posture returns to casual, his face again reads cocky. He clears his throat, his mouth opens and he begins to speak.

"What? She was pretty." He shrugs like nothing had just happened. My body stops shaking, I gather my thoughts and put them in order. What had happened when I touched her? As if Lamorri gained the ability to read my mind he says, "told you, more tricks. Well that one isn't new you just didn't know about it" he smiles brightly.

"What happened to her?" I gather my thoughts and meticulously pick the one I determine to be most important.

"She passed on obviously." Lamorri states matter-of-factly, his face showing boredom.

"How?" How have I not known about this ability? I think to myself, I recall everything I know about the ring and find nothing.

"You ask too many questions, why don't you read that?" He points towards the note that has replaced the apparition.

"What is that?" I look at Lamorri, he's bored.

"Just read it and see." He crosses his arms, and his eyes roll. The note shines brightly in the light of my room. I open it up, holding my breath. I peel back the paper, inside is another paper also in gold.

Susan Greedmond: A lonely house wife.

Susan Greedmond grew up in a small town, she lived her life poor and was eventually arranged for marriage. She had two kids and a husband who failed every good husband test. Eventually she found another man; a lover. Although her husband had a lover of his own he found out about the affair and grew angry. Two days later she was found dead, stabbed in the chest, her husband in jail after. She lived her life unfulfilled; wanting.

The note ended there, I closed it slowly Lamorri looked over my shoulder at the note. He read the note, I sensed sorry in his demeanour.

"That explains why she was so mad, she probably thought you were her old husband."

"Maybe" he began to float around as I closed the envelope. After a while the envelope seems to encase itself in a holy white fire. Lamorri smiled, didn't elaborate and eventually the envelope disappeared. After the eventful morning I was reminded that I hadn't eaten. I walk towards the kitchen, passing another shadow person, ignoring them, and looking at the fridge. The iridescent bulb illuminates the dark kitchen, inside nothing.

"I have some shopping to do." I close the fridge disappointed. Lamorri looks over my shoulder, I could tell he was about to say something, he proved me right. "Don't get out much huh?" His face was accompanied by an annoying grin.

"You aren't funny" I rolled my eyes and closed the door.

"I'd say I'm pretty funny," he followed me as I walked out to my car, passed a shadow person and opened the old car's door. I slide into the front seat adjusting myself, my right foot gently hovering over the brake. I put the car into drive and drive to my local grocery store. The store was anything but pretty, there were potholes as I drove into the gravel parking lot. The store's windows were aged and had residue sticker left over.

The car bounced, as I parked the car. Lamorri phased and hovered gracefully from the ground. The floor inside was no better, dips in the muted cement made an uneven surface. The shelves were poorly organized, I turn into the frozen meal isle. Cold, stacked glass containers filled with frozen wings, pizza, and various breakfast foods. Lamorri looked around gazing at the various foods; inspecting them with enlightenment.

"Wow, you guys really got lazy. Can't even make your own food." He laughs to himself, his smile is wide and shoots a bit of annoyance in me. A frozen lasagna grabs my attention, my favorite. The cold air hits me and I grab the frozen meal, then I grab another, then one more. It's my favorite thing to eat, and I don't want to come back.

Before I leave I make sure to grab a 12 pack of energy drinks and go to the cash register. The guy there is just slightly overweight, when he smiles it reveals a missing tooth, and his beard is slightly overgrown.

"How's your morning goin'?" He has a bit of a Southern twang in his voice. I'm suddenly reminded it is morning, and respond coldly.

"Great." I slide the meals and drinks onto the cash register.

"That's good, the computers have been actin' up a bit." Just my luck, he attempts to scan the items but no luck. He does a little cadence which involves him trying to move the barcode back over the scanner then sitting back and adjusting his position. He does this a few more times, I watch my patience being tested.

"Wow this is going great, isn't it." I can almost hear the humor in Lamorri's voice as he hovers around the cashier. I look at him with a cold stare, momentarily forgetting someone else was here. The man looks a little nervous, "sorry about that, I'll grab some paper in the back and do it by hand."

If my state could kill Lamorri it would have ten-fold. "Why do you have to make a comment about everything?"

"I don't, you're just so fun to mess with. I'm not sure why you have no patience, but it's fun either way." He shrugs and closes his eyes, floating around me.

My anger like a candle is blown out, replaced with abyssal darkness, when a loud crash comes from the other side of the store. It is then that I realize no one else is in the store, only me, and the cashier, Lamorri, if we're counting ghosts.

I make my way down the poorly organized isles and uneven floor. I make my way out of an aisle decorated with toilet paper, packs of 6's, packs of 12's, 24's and 36's fly by as me and Lamorri make it to the noise. It's coming from the back of the store.

Everything seems normal except for the big storage shelf in the back is on the floor, boxes littering the ground like waste in the Pacific Garbage Patch. The man is on his back, and that's when I notice his name tag, it says George. He looks like he's fallen, his hair is messier than it already was, his shirt is half way up revealing a hairy stomach, and he's right in the middle of all the mess.

While I have to slowly go through the mess marking a path to myself, Lmaorei has the pleasure of casually gliding above it.

"Are you okay?" Even as I say the words I already know the answer, he's obviously not. Even Lamorri is quiet whenever I touch the man, gently at first and then with a bit more urgency. He doesn't even move, convinced he is dead, I check his pulse, nope still at work.

"What do we do now?" I look up at Lamorri whose face reads boredom.

"Leave?" Lamorri answers my question, although that isn't the answer I wanted to hear.

My hand finds its way in between my hair, going through and thinking. I slowly begin to consider Lamorri's idea although unwanting. A few more minutes and we're on our way out the back and stopped when we're halfway out of the door.

A cool wind blows, the air seems to have another presence added to it. My body has the urge to turn; some animalistic instinct born from my ancestors and passed from my parents possesses me and I turn around. Two things stick out from the image in front of me, the first being a floating overweight man and the second being the floating boxes and trash that accompanies him.

For the second time since Lamorri and I have rejoiced I see the undeniable look of fear plastered on his unnaturally good looking face. We look straight at each other, my face now mimics his. Before we can make up a plan or say a word a beam of air passes right by my head causing my hair to slightly shift to the left.

My head turns to see what just passed by my head, a box broken into pieces is the culprit. Another box hovers at my waist level and I expect this one, barely dodging it as it goes right past me.

"What the hell?" I can't help but yell as I look at Lamorri who is dodging a box of his own. What is going on, why is this guy possessed and by whom? I didn't see any ghost and if Lamorri had seen a ghost that could pose a threat he'd certainly let me know. Why was I being targeted, or was it Lamorri being targeted and I'm just in between it? Many questions are coming to mind but I have to focus on them now, I'll ask Lamorri later or better yet talk to the ghost itself.

Another item this time a box of toothbrushes flies past me, the purple blue and green brushes rain over me as the box passes.

"Lamorri, what do we do?"

"How am I supposed to know? He had just dodged another box.

"You're a ghost aren't you?" I'm running towards the man, I'm not sure why. The urge to take action, to stop our attacker, to get answers fills my bones with the power to get closer.

"I'm a ghost, yes but I don't possess people." He's following behind me now. The ring on my finger begins to shine, giving me hope that it will do something, that I could do something. I try to reach for the man, and my hand reaches its target.

I find myself holding my breath, anxiety fills my body as I wait for the results. Nothing, nothing happens and the rest is a series of flashes, black fills my screen, I'm on the cold concrete floor, the man barely in view above me. I see Lamorri then getting hit by a box himself, it seems to actually touch him, not phase through like everything else.

I see Lamorri get back up, say something to me but nothing comes out. He gets back up to the floating man, does something out of view and everything fades to black.