Narcissistic Cannibal

“There's someone I want you to meet,” Tate spoke, standing in the doorway of the vacant room Sophia had taken up on the third floor. It was modest sized, compared to the rest of the house, but it had very miniscule furniture in it, only an old chest from possibly the sixties or seventies that Sophia used as a dresser of sorts to hold her to bags, and an old dinner table set covered with ancient white sheets. She hadn't left the room Tate had showed her since the first night to steal some throw pillows and decorative blankets from the first floor to use as a makeshift bed on the cold, hard floor of the room.

She felt upset and depressed since then, remaining in the room by herself, wondering if anyone but Tate knew where she was hiding in the house. For an agonizingly long week, Sophia hid away in the room, Tate coming to see her every now and then, sometimes more than once a day, sometimes in the dead of night.

“Tate, I don't feel like leaving,” Sophia protested Tate's request.

“You haven't left the room since I showed it to you,” Tate pointed out. “You can't just lay there for weeks.”

“I'm already doing it,” Sophia pointed out before Tate walked into the room, closing the door behind himself. He moved in front of Sophia before kneeling down to slightly better level himself with her.

“Sophie,” he spoke, their eyes meeting as she sat up from laying on the floor. “You're depressing,” he stated simply, balancing his weight on his feet as he wrapped his arms around his legs, crouching in front of her.

Sophia shook her head in response, though she knew that he spoke the truth. “And you're persistent.”

“Only because I'm the only one who cares about what happens to you,” Tate pointed out, a softness settling across his features.

“Why do you?” Sophia asked, leaning her back against the wall, blowing her messy black hair out of her face.

“Because your one of the few who... 'tolerates' me,” he spoke, letting go of his knees to use his hands as air quotes.

“You helped me out at my parents house, kept me from not coming back,” Sophia pointed out.

“Only because Vivien and Moira were stupid enough to let you just run out of the house without explaining to you about Halloween. Plus I could tell you weren't going to come back on your own, and you'd ruin your parent's sanity,” Tate pointed out one thing after the next.

“You were there when they brought me back into the house after they found me in the gazebo?” Sophia asked, pretty shocked since she had seen Tate vanish.

“Yeah. I never left you after that, I just didn't let you see me,” Tate spoke, his eyes shining with truth.

“You... you can just go invisible?” Sophia asked, her light green eyes growing wide.

“All ghosts can when they don't want to be seen.”

“Why didn't you want to be seen?” Sophia asked, beginning to feel like a little kid who had too many questions about everything.

“Vivien and Moira are two of the ghosts I try to avoid,” Tate shrugged, standing up in order to suddenly avoid eye contact. “Come on,” he extended his hands down instead, to help Sophia stand up. She began to chew her bottom lip, still not wanting to leave her room, but wanting to do something for Tate after what he had done for her.

She reached up, taking his hands before standing up, the height difference much worse when they were standing so close. She watched his hand move up to her hair, at first thinking he was going to mess it up but soon realized he was attempting to fix it.

“There's no fixing this hair,” Sophia stated as a warning. “Not without a brush and some products.”

“I don't understand it,” Tate spoke and she looked up to him, totally confused by her random and choppy layers, the longest of which barely reached her shoulders.

“It's fashion,” she spoke, moving her own fingers up to her hair to remove a few tangles and part her hair to the side.

“It's ridiculous. If I did that to my sister though,” he mentioned about trying to fix her hair, “She'd murder me.”

“Well she can't really murder you if you're dead,” Sophia pointed out, willingly leaving her room with Tate.

“When we were both alive, I mean,” Tate clarified, slowly loosing his happiness.

“Oh...is she in this house?” Sophia asked, Tate wrapping one of his arms around her waist as they walked downstairs.

“No,” he spoke and Sophia immediately shut up, realizing she needed to stop asking questions, no matter how tolerable Tate was being. She let Tate lead her down to the first floor, before they turned and she suddenly realized that Tate was heading down to the basement.

“Tate, no,” Sophia struggled against Tate's arm to stop him from walking her down there. “Not down there,” she spoke, genuinely looking scared.

“What?” Tate asked, turning around, his hand gripping at the fabric of Sophia's tank top so she would stay in place and not try to leave. “Why?”

“I've already seen what's down there,” Sophia shook her head, taking baby steps backwards from the basement entrance while Tate still held onto her shirt.

He was forced to let go of the fabric, but he moved with Sophia, grabbing ahold of her arms now instead. “Hey, stop,” he spoke, realizing the fear radiating from her body.

“I don't want to go down there again,” Sophia shook her head harder this time as Tate held her up against the wall.

“What happened?” he asked, looking from her to the open basement door. Sophia was silent to him, not wanting to speak therefore causing herself to remember. “Nothing's gonna happen down there with me around,” he promised her, hugging her before tears had a chance to spring forth from her eyes. “I just want you to meet someone special to me,” he continued, letting go of his embrace around Sophia.

“Okay,” she said hesitantly, shocked she could trust Tate so easily. He smiled brightly, before grabbing her again and leading her down to the basement. Being down there was enough to give her chills and she untied the faded black hoodie from around her waist and pulled it over her head, before quickly grabbing and hanging onto Tate's arm.

He looked back to her quickly before continuing on through the dark, much to Sophia's dismay he was leading her into the room she had decided to hide in from Moira and Vivien. They walked through the door-less threshold and Sophia gasped quietly, letting got of Tate to cover her mouth, seeing that same blonde woman from before,sitting in a chair facing away from them and crying.
She was shaking herself, remembering the woman telling her to get out of her house before some unseen force began chasing her though the basement.

“Nora,” he spoke, making sure Sophia stayed put before walking around the woman and kneeling before her.

Sophia heard the woman sniff back tears as she asked, “Who are you?” Sophia's eyes locked on the woman, she slowly began to move around the room towards Tate, quietly shuffling her way along the outer wall.

“You remember me, Nora,” he spoke, as if he were speaking to a confused person. Sophia didn't doubt that the woman was actually confused, since half her brain had been blown out the back of her skull.

The woman was silent, her hands reaching out to touch Tate's face before she spoke, “Tate. Oh Tate.” she sounded overjoyed now. “You look so happy.”

“I brought someone to see you,” he said, taking her hands in his, removing them from his cheeks before he stood up, holding onto the woman's hands still. Sophia stopped moving when Tate looked over to her, a smile on his face. The blonde woman, Nora, followed his gaze to where Sophia stood stiff as a board from fear.

“Oh, we've met,” Nora spoke, though she stayed in the same odd emotion, instead of getting angry with Sophia again. She stood up, her hands slipping from Tate's as she moved forward towards Sophia. Tate made sure to take his place next to Sophia. “You came down here before...” she spoke as if trying to recall the last encounter they had. “You look scared to death, little lamb,” she stated suddenly, bringing a hand up to wipe a stray tear from Sophia's cheek. “Did Thaddeus scare you?”
Sophia didn't know how to respond, thinking that at any minute this woman's face would tear apart and reveal hellish monsters, like that scene in Beetlejuice.

“Nora, this is Sophia,” Tate spoke when he realized she wasn't going to introduce herself. Sophia appreciated Tate using her full name for the introduction, and not Sophie as she had let him call her.

“Sophia... you make him happy,” she stated, with a smile of her own, two huge tears rolling down her face from her blue eyes.

“Nora is like a mother figure to me,” Tate said, his smile still going strong on his face. “I wanted you to meet her, that's all,” Tate explained, before looking back to Nora.

“It's nice to meet you,” Sophia forced herself to say, trying not to sound afraid of the woman.

“Just remember to tell Thaddeus to go away if he bothers you,” Nora smiled again, before walking back to her chair, seemingly forgetting about Tate and Sophia.

“C'mon, lets go,” Tate said, placing his arm around Sophia again before leading her out of the basement, feeling her relax beneath his touch.

“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice called out from another part of the basement, as Tate and Sophia walked towards the stairs. “If the poet didn't get himself a classy' new girlfriend,” the woman spoke, walking towards them from out of the shadows.

“Shut up Hayden,” Tate spoke, the smile gone from his face in an instant and being replaced with a deep scowl.

“You're only mad because I'm speaking the truth. Finally got over that Nightingale bitch,” Hayden spoke, folding her arms over her chest as she smirked at Tate.

“I'm telling you to shut up,” Tate stepped closer to her, warning in his voice as it grew slightly deeper.

“Make me-” Hayden said, enjoying how pissed she was able to make Tate.

“Babe, what are you – oh.” A man appeared out of the darkness behind her, completely nude say for a shirt he was using to hold against his crotch. Sophia recognized his long hair, beard, and spacy expressions instantly. She had ended up tripping over this man while he slept during her first visit to the mansion's basement. “Hey,” he spoke, as if he hadn't just walked out with only a shirt keeping his man parts hidden.

“I can see you're busy,” Tate spoke, now it being his turn to smirk.

“Fuck off,” Hayden told him, before turning around to the man, whom it was painfully obvious she was fucking, telling him to follow her.

“Hey, um,” Sophia quickly spoke up before the two could get far. Hayden obviously tuned back around expecting Sophia to say something to her, but instead Sophia's eyes were on the man she was with. “Sorry I tripped over you the other day,” she spoke, and the man squinted at her, before realizing what she meant and who she was.

“Oh, hey,” he greeted Sophia, before walking back over, despite the glare he was receiving from Hayden. “It's no biggie. Word of advice though, don't run down here, it's too crowded.” His very words made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

“Good advice,” Sophia smiled none-the-less, loving the look in Hayden's face.

“I'm Travis, by the way,” he added after a second of nearly awkward and tense silence.

“Sophia,” she replied to him, hesitantly shaking the unoccupied hand he extended for her to shake. Tate let go of her waist then, watching the odd exchange happen before him as Sophia succeeded in pissing off Hayden.

“Nice, always good to meet fresh meat,” Travis joked, obviously about being ghosts. A simple joke for a seemingly simple minded man, though just for Hayden's sake, Sophia decided to take his joke a completely different way.

“Oh, no. I'm only seventeen,” Sophia smiled, shocking Tate and confusing Travis, though Hayden understood exactly what Sophia meant.

“What?” Travis asked, though it felt more directed towards himself before making the connection through what Sophia had said. “Oh, no. I didn't mean it like that,” he spoke, the smile now gone from his face.

Sophia just continued to smile at him, saying, “Okay. See you around, Travis,” she said before walking the two steps to the stairs so she could descend back into the mansion.

“Do me a favor and don't piss Hayden off,” Tate spoke, following Sophia to the first floor.

“Why not?” Sophia asked, stopping and turning around to face Tate, who didn't look as happy as she felt.

“Unless you're planning to spend every second of your time with me, she's probably going to find ways to fuck with you,” Tate warned.

“What's so special about you that she won't bother you?” Sophia asked, back stepping until she reached the staircase go go back to her room, Tate walking behind her.

“Look at me, I'm terrifying,” Tate spoke with a straight face and sounded completely serious. The only hint she got that he was joking was the small light in his dark eyes.

“Yeah, totally spooky,” Sophia laughed, turning around so she could climb up the stairs with him.

“You'd believe it if you saw it,” Tate smiled, grabbing onto Sophia's waist again, surprising her as they stopped off on the second floor, instead of continuing to got to the third.

“Where are we going?” Sophia asked, letting Tate lead her with no worries at all.

“I've got one more person you need to meet. I sort of promised him that I'd bring you around sooner or later,” Tate explained.

“Well at least hes not in the basement,” Sophia joked as they stopped at a closed bedroom door.

“Yeah, he's not in the basement,” Tate repeated, though he seemed to slowly be loosing his nerve as he knocked on the closed door.

“What's up?” Sophia noticed, until the door opened before her and the man who answered gained her full attention. Though he did look slightly confused to see her, he was nowhere as bad as Nora was.

“What?” the man asked, obviously hearing her question mentioned for Tate. He, on the other hand, had let go of Sophia's waist and was silent next to her. Sophia looked back before nearly jumping at the empty space next to her.

“Tate?” she asked, looking on the other side of her but he had vanished, leaving her alone with this strange man. She looked back to the man, utterly shocked now, and unsure of what to say or do.

“You must be Sophia,” the man spoke, looking less confused now, and more sad. “I'm Ben. Come on in,” he opened the door wider, and invited Sophia into the room, as if inviting her into his home.

“I'm sorry,” she stated, still shaken from being so suddenly abandoned. “I was just with a guy...”

“Tate, I know. He knows better than to show his face on this side of the house, whether I asked him to come or not,” Ben spoke, still holding the door open for Sophia.

Sophia didn't know how to take these words from him, what he meant by Tate new better than to show his face, and if Sophia should be dead. She tried to convince herself that she no longer had anything to fear, simply because she was already dead, but it brought her no comfort as she walked into the strange room, Ben closing the door behind her.

“My wife has been worried about you,” Ben stated, walking over to Sophia and offering her a seat on the large bed in the room.

“Who's your wife?” Sophia asked, Ben walking in front of her, with his arms crossed and leaning against the wall in front of her.

“You've met her before,” he spoke, though the only ghosts she had actually met were Hayden, Travis, Tate and Nora. And she doubted that this man Ben would be involved with either of the crazy women.

Sophia was silent to that fact however, folding her hands in her lap as she sat in front of Ben. There was something about him, some sort of authority that made her feel as if she were called to the principals office, even if Ben was very mild mannered.

“So... I see you've taken to Tate quite fast,” Ben changed the subject after noticing Sophia's silence. He pushed off of the wall, keeping his arms folded over his chest as he moved to look out the window in the room.

“He was really the first ghost I met,” Sophia shortly explained, no longer feeling the need to keep her eyes on Ben, and cast them down to the floor in front of her.

“You came back with him on Halloween,” Ben stated, rather than asked. The fact that he knew even this much about her was a bit unsettling. “Judging by your age and how long he's been dead, you didn't know him before that day.”

“No... he followed me to my parent's house,” Sophia admitted to Ben's back.

“My wife said you'd be lucky if it wasn't Hayden,” Ben shook his head before turning around to face Sophia again.

“Why would Hayden have followed me?” Sophia asked, her green eyes on Ben's.

“Since she died she's been pretty... out of hand. Vengeful, I could say. Since she had woken you up, my wife figured that she was the one who went after you on Halloween. There wasn't very many other choices of ghosts to chase after you.”

“I noticed a lot of you – us – coming back that morning,” Sophia corrected herself quickly, making Ben smile. “Sorry I haven't quite learned the politics of this house yet,” Sophia spoke, wringing her hands together in her lap.

“You're a smart girl,” Ben smiled, “You'll get the hang of it soon.”

“Thanks. The only advice I've gotten so far is don't run in the basement and don't piss Hayden off,” Sophia smiled.

“That's good advice,” Ben nodded, “Tate tell you that?”

“Only about Hayden. Travis told me not to run in the basement.”

“You've met Travis?” Ben asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, just now. Tate took me down to the basement–” Sophia watched Ben's face fall slightly at the statement, “ –to meet Nora.”

“He didn't scare you, did he?” Ben asked.

Sophia began to shake her head at the ridiculous question before the bedroom door opened suddenly, revealing one of the ghosts, the blonde woman, who had chased her around the house on Halloween. Sophia felt her stomach sink, though reminded herself that this woman wasn't a psycho kidnapper.

“Oh good,” she spoke, sounding slightly out of breath. “I've been worried about you Sophia.”

“This is my wife Vivien,” Ben spoke, a small smile creeping onto his face, though a confused expression. “I was just about to go get you.”

“I thought you just did?” Vivien asked, her jaw slightly slacked. Sophia was confused at the couple, as well as Ben being confused at his wife before his fists visibly tightened with his arms at his side. Something, unsaid and unknown to Sophia, had suddenly angered him.

“It was just knocking, Ben,” Vivien spoke, quickly closing the door behind herself. “You told me you'd come get me.”

Sophia wasn't sure what the couple was suddenly arguing calmly about, but Sophia felt odd just sitting there witnessing it.

“And you somehow knew exactly what knocking meant?”

“I guessed. Can I talk to her alone before she feels any more awkward?” Vivien asked, though being mentioned alone in the argument made Sophia feel ten times more out of place.

“As long as you don't say what you did the first time you spoke with her,” Ben said, before looking back to Sophia. “It was good to finally meet you.” He left after one more look to his wife, unreadable to Sophia but Vivien obviously understood.

“Well,” Vivien turned to face Sophia, who still sat on the bed. “Sorry about that. I imagine arguing couples isn't exactly what you need right now,” Vivien sat down on the bed next to Sophia, forcing a motherly smile upon her face.

“Why did you want to talk to me?” Sophia asked, unsure of what else to say to Vivien.

“Well...” Vivien said, looking over to make sure the door was shut and there were no shadows coming from beneath that would indicate someone eavesdropping. “I wanted to talk to you about Tate,” she spoke, turning back to face Sophia, her smile faltering horribly when saying Tate's name.

“What about him?” Sophia asked, adjusting her position on the bed so she could fully face Vivien without having to turn her head.

“It's a bit tough to say. I guess... I'm just worried about you hanging around him all the time,” Vivien said, and Sophia couldn't tell what she was trying to sugarcoat about Tate. She couldn't imagine him being too horrible. “I'm trying to say that I don't want you to feel like he's the only one you have in this house,” Vivien added, though her face deceived her. That's not what she intended to say at all.

“Okay...” Sophia spoke, pretending not to notice.

“I'd rather you come to myself, or my husband Ben. There's a lot of spirits trapped in this house, and there aren't very many I can see that would be willing to help you out. I don't want you to only trust Tate.”

“You want me to trust you also?” Sophia clarified for herself, feeling that Vivien might start talking in circles if she had not.

“Yes. You'll be in this house for a very long time,” Vivien nodded sadly, and Sophia felt her chest tighten, as it always did when she was faced with the fact that she'd be trapped in this house forever. “I'd appreciate it actually, if you sought out myself or Ben for anything you might need before you go to Tate.”

“Okay,” Sophia agreed though she couldn't think of using Vivien and Ben, the slightly unhappy couple, as friends,especially with the age difference. However, that thought was cleared up entirely with Vivien's next statement.

“Also, Ben and I have a teenage daughter in this house. You haven't got to meet her yet. She wanted to, but we had no idea where you were in the house.” Sophia couldn't stop the smile spreading over her lips and cheeks at Vivien's words. The idea of another teenager, this one female, was a bit of an exciting relief. She liked Tate and all, but she usually got along better with members of her same gender when it came to long term friendship.

“Really?” Sophia asked, suddenly trying not to look so awkwardly happy.

“Yeah. I'll go introduce you to right now if you want,” Vivien smiled as well, truthfully this time. She looked very relieved of something now, after noticing Sophia's reaction.

“Okay,” Sophia stood up from the bed, feeling the happiest she has in this house since she had died. Since before the party even.

Vivien led Sophia out of the bedroom, walking through the hallways of the house for a few minutes before ending up at another closed bedroom door with Sophia. Vivien knocked at the door, and Sophia felt some sort of mixture of anxiety and excitement twisting around the organs of her abdomen.

“What?” she heard a girl call form the other side of the door.

“Violet, I want you to meet someone,” Vivien called from the other side of the door, before it was suddenly swung open. She looked fairly indifferent about meeting Sophia, but Sophia knew better. She had put up that very same defense when the door opened, so in any case that the two didn't actually get along, she could pretend that she never really was interested in the first place.

“Hey,” Violet spoke before her mother introduced Sophia.

“This is Sophia,” Vivien continued anyways. “And this is my daughter Violet.”

“Hey,” Sophia said back, raising her hand in a small wave. Violet smiled quickly before her defenses went back up.

She looked back to her mom saying, “Thanks mom,” before Vivien turned and left the two girls alone. “Come on in,” Violet opened the door wider, leaning against the door frame as she pushed her door open, letting Sophia into her dark room.

“So,” Violet began, shutting the door so that the only light coming into her room was filtered through a few windows with half closed curtains. “You're the one who died at the crazy party?”

“Devil's night, yeah,” Sophia clarified, looking around the typical teenagers room, though it was kept much more tidy than Sophia had kept her own.

“Oh. Then it's no big shocker that some asshole tried to burn the house down,” Violet shrugged, moving over to her bed and sitting in the middle of it.

“Really?” Sophia asked, continuing to look around, since Violet hadn't yet stopped her or offered her a seat.

“You've seen The Crow,” Violet stated, as if it were simple knowledge, before realizing she didn't know that for sure. “You have right?”

“Eric Draven's my husband,” Sophia smiled, though her back was facing Violet at the time, her smile still shone brightly though the tone of her voice.

Violet laughed from her bed, Yeah, there's just something sexy about a ghost in face paint murdering bad guys,” Violet stated, making Sophia turn around, her smile widening.

“You seem familiar, you know,” Sophia spoke, pushing the sleeves of her hoodie up to her elbows.

“We probably went to school together. Westfield High?” Violet asked and Sophia nodded. “I'd be in class 2012.”

“2014,” Sophia smiled herself, realizing that they definitely would have been at school at the same time, though Sophia was only a freshman when Violet died.

“Nice,” Violet said, sitting cross legged on her bed, resting her elbows on her knees while sitting with typical horrible teenage posture. “You're a senior now then?”

“I was, yeah,” Sophia spoke, walking over to Violet's bed and sat down herself, not being invited to do so but she felt comfortable enough to take the chance.

“Lucky. I was a junior when I died,” Violet stated.

“How did you? If I can ask... I never really got into deaths at school.”

“I took one too many happy pills...” Violet spoke, looking down. “I don't think I understood that I didn't actually want to die. It was n accident, if that makes sense.”

“It does,” Sophia nodded. “I used to think about dying a lot when I was younger. I though about killing myself, not because I was suicidal but because I was curious,” Sophia admitted. “I never ended up cutting or anything though. I mean fuck, If I could, id go back and slap myself, tell myself to do better in school, treat my parents better, and not party so much. Then I'd not even be in this situation,” Sophia thought as well, a mutual sorrow falling amongst them like a blanket.

“You know, my dad tried to scare everyone off when he noticed the fire had started in the kitchen,” Violet spoke after a long silence. She looked back up to Sophia, sadness masking her pretty features. “He thought he got everyone out until he came back upstairs, and my mom showed him that a firefighter had dragged one more kid out of the house after it had been on fire for a while. He was so upset he broke his hand punching a wall when you weren't revived.”

Sophia's eyebrows pushed together slightly. “It didn't look broken,” she pointed out to Violet.

“We heal fast. We're dead, remember? Someone could chop us into pieces and we'd be fine in an hour,” Violet explained

“Oh,” Sophia spoke, slightly surprised hearing that fact.

“He left on Halloween as soon as he could too, taking my bay brother with him. Mom. Moira, and I waited around that morning for you to wake up in the house but she eventually convinced me to leave. Sorry they sort of freaked you out.”

“I don't think I would have been calm about dying no matter what. But mostly, it was Hayden's fault. She made me think I was being kidnapped or something when she said I couldn't leave.”

“You did leave though,” Violet pointed out. “You were gone when I got back around three a.m.”

“Yeah, I left after your mom explained that I could leave, but she made me promise to come back. Hey,” Sophia spoke, wanting to get off the subject of her death, since it was slowly depressing her. “You like candy?”

Sophia watched a smile spread over Violet's face as she answered, “Yeah. You have candy with you?”

“I grabbed a ton of it from my parent's house when I went to grab some of my stuff,” Sophia spoke. “Its upstairs in my room. Wanna go grab some?” She stood up then, not quite waiting for Violet's answer.

“Sure,” Violet said, quickly getting up from her bed and followed Sophia out of her room. Sophia led her up one flight of stairs and walked quickly to the room she had claimed as her own.

“You chose this room?” Violet asked, feeling slightly sorry for her new buddy, seeing the nearly unlivable room as Sophia walked in. Violet shut the door behind her as Sophia went to the chest I the room, pulling out a completely overstuffed messenger bag and retrieving a handful of candy from within.

“It was vacant and far away from the basement. Though I swear I can hear chains rattling above in the attic sometimes. Creeps the shit out of me,” Sophia spoke, walking over to her sad makeshift bed on the floor and sitting down, Violet sitting next to her.

“Yeah, the basement's pretty creepy, full of a bunch of losers too. I don't go down there much anymore. But the chains rattling is Beau. He's not bad actually, I'll introduce you sometime if you want,” Violet offered.

“Thanks but... Maybe later,” Sophia spoke, a bit afraid of what might be chained up there, and the reasons for why. She dumped her handful of candy in a spot between them on her tangle of pillows and decorative throws. Violet quickly picked u a package of bottle caps and popped one into her mouth, while Sophia went after a skittles package.

“Thanks for the candy Sophia,” Violet asked, unable to stop smiling at the simple pleasure in front of her.

“No problem, you can call me Sophie if you want,” She smiled at her new friend.

“Sweet. You can call me Vi then, I guess,” Violet responded, feeling genuinely happy that she had someone to talk to again besides her family.

Both girls however, were unaware of the third ghost in the room, who had been waiting patiently for Sophia to return. Tate, awkwardly, was stuck in the room, sitting in the farthest corner possible from the girls, unable to show himself because of violet, and unable to leave because the door had been closed. He truly wanted to leave, a heavy weight over his shoulders as he watched them converse happily. He knew he couldn't be a part of it, and it hurt him deeply, nearing the point of anger in him.