Bittersweet

The light, methodic pacing that kept the old wooden floorboards squeaking was starting to drive Mary to distraction. “Lily, will you please stop that?” an exasperated Mary asked the empty room. The light pacing stopped as Mary let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you. I just need to finish this paper and your pacing is just really distracting.” Living with a ghost, is nothing like they show in the movies, thought Mary.

Living with the living is nothing like they show in the movies, thought Lily. There was no blood dripping from the walls, no late night scaring, it was constantly being in this room. She supposed that she could almost sympathize with her roommate because the situation was a little odd, but still, Lily had been there first. Then again, Lily thought, it’s not like I can move to another room anyways.

Lily quietly began pacing again, hoping that her walking wouldn’t disturb Mary and her typing. She did this almost every night. Pacing. Thinking. Wondering how she ended up being stuck in this room, in this building for so many years. When she was alive, she had always heard what a sin it was to take your own life, but it just didn’t seem fair that she was trapped. It’s not like I just did for the hell of it, Lily thought miserably. After discovering someone, someone you had loved, hanging and swinging to and fro in your closet, who didn’t think about ending it, she questioned.

Mary heard Lily begin her pacing again, but decided not to comment about it. She knew that Lily didn’t mean to be disruptive, she just was doing something that she did every night for years on end. Sides, I’d rather have her occupied and not looking over my shoulder, especially with this paper, she thought as she continued her typing. Mary was writing about the different ghost stories on campus and the validity to them. Since taking on the huge task of writing down all the legends and then tracing them back to when they began, Mary began to have a new respect for the old stories and even for some of the characters in them. She was almost done with the project which was good because the due date for it was closing in on her. While most of the stories had been written down and traced back to their original time periods, Mary was still having trouble with one in particular. Lily’s story. She couldn’t seem to find any one who knew when the story had started every old Alumni of her college that she interviewed always stated when asked that the story had already been in circulation when they had gone there. It seemed almost that Mary was going to have to go directly to the story’s source if she was ever going to get any answers. And even though Mary and Lily had coexisted together for almost two years now, they had never really talked to each other. At first there had been the usual little signs that Mary wasn’t the only one living in the room, even though it was a single. Pictures moved, varying electronics being turned on or off, cold spots in some corners of the room. Mary didn’t want to believe the rumors that she had ended up getting the haunted room in her dorm, but after awhile of explaining away each occurrence, even she couldn’t deny it any longer.

So Mary had started talking to Lily and the weird stuff began to taper off, though Mary never really heard Lily if she ever responded to her talking. Once some kind of peaceful truce had been made, Lily wasn’t as obnoxious and Mary began to understand that being tied to a particular place for forever would make someone a little grumpy. Mary sat back from her computer and raised her arms stretching, glancing at the clock. Holy shit I’m gonna have to go to bed now if I’m ever going to have any hope getting up for my morning class. Mary saved her progress on the computer and shut everything down for the night. After getting into her night shirt, she threw her clothes into the hamper and climbed into bed. “Night Lily” Mary sleepily called out after clicking off her lamp. Lily watched Mary as she closed her eyes and fell fast asleep. Walking over she pulled her roommate’s covers up more so she wouldn’t get cold in the middle of the night. Smoothing a dark strand of Mary’s hair back off her forehead, Lily looked on at her roommate. As much as her living roommate would get on her nerves, Mary did hold a soft spot in Lily’s heart. She reminded Lily a lot of herself when she had been alive, though Lily was often dismayed that Mary didn’t have a beau like she had. Then again, if it weren’t for Edward’s death, maybe I wouldn’t be where I am now Lily thought.

Smiling wistfully Lily sat down at the door to the room and strained to hear Edward begin his nightly climb to the room. Then as if by magic she heard his shoes echoing on the corner stairwell as he began his climb from the first floor all the way up to the third. She waited with bated breath as she heard his footsteps walk down the hall and as she placed her hand gently on the door she heard the footsteps stop as they stopped in front of the door. Hearing a sigh, though she knew she couldn’t really hear anything that was happening on the other side, at least nothing that might come from Edward, Lily whispered back “I love you”.

Almost as if her words had broken the spell, she heard the steps begin again at the first floor. She knew Edward would climb the stairs two more times and then he would be gone till the next night. Lily often wondered what went through his mind as he made this nightly travel from the first floor to her door. She wondered if he thought of her, of what could have been if they both hadn’t died so early in their lives. Thinking about what could have been isn’t going to improve my mood any, sighed Lily. “Good night Mary.” Lily whispered. Even though Lily had no use for sleep, she sank down in what she thought of as her corner, where Mary had thoughtfully placed a bean bag chair and closed her eyes.