Humanity

“Explain to me again why you think this is a good idea?” Henry Packard, a handsome twenty-something-year-old, inquired of his friend. They were standing across the street from a hole in the wall bar that had been shut down two years ago. It was a dilapidated place; the slightest breeze would probably knock it over. The front windows were covered in a thick layer of dust, the door was scraped and chipped, and the apartment above it didn’t look appealing either. “This place looks awful.”

“It’s a fixer-upper, but nothing we can’t handle,” Zac Archer, a debonair young gentleman, replied with a small smile. He wore dark sunglasses to block out the afternoon sun pouring down on them. The fall air rustled past him and he turned to look at Henry, who had a disappointed scowl on his face. “Come on, that’s the owner’s car.” Zac pointed to the rust bucket truck parked out front.

Henry scrunched up his nose and could see why the bar looked like a mess. He sighed dejectedly and followed Zac across the road to the front door. They stood under the awning and looked through the dust covered windows that were littered with spider and fly corpses. Henry was shaking his head; he didn’t even want to think what the inside looked like. He looked over at Zac, who walked to the large wooden door that was once painted dark red. It was peeled and chipped now and looked like it had been salvaged from the city dump.

Zac pulled the door open and it let out an eerie screech followed by some dust and debris falling on them. The man with the short brunette hair, dusted off his black leather jacket and stepped inside calling to the owner. As he walked further in, Henry looked down at Zac’s feet and saw the layer of dust. It was so dense that as Zac was walking in, he was leaving behind a trail of footprints as if he were walking in snow. Henry flicked a piece of wood from his shoulder and walked inside after Zac.

“I don’t want to live here,” Henry voiced out, but Zac shushed him firmly.

“Mr. O’Dair?” Zac called out. “It’s Zac Archer! We spoke on the phone.” The brunette moved further into the bar, reaching the dark wooden counter. There weren’t many tables or chairs; it was mostly an empty room. It felt cold though, but it wasn’t a temperature kind of thing. Zac pulled his sunglasses off and pushed them onto his head.

“Okay, he’s not here. Let’s go,” Henry said, turning on his heels. Just as he was about to start walking, he heard the stairs on the far right side of the room creak and moan. He pursed his lips and looked at the stairs, seeing a young man coming down.

“Sorry, I was just cleaning up,” the man said with a smile as he stood at the bottom of the stairs. He looked at Henry and turned his attention to Zac.

“Cleaning up, he says,” Henry snorted.

“Stop,” Zac scolded, glaring to his friend before smiling weakly at Pete O’Dair. “You’ll have to excuse Henry, he’s...oh who am I kidding, he’s just rude.”

The handsome dark haired, man sputtered at Zac’s comment while Pete simply chuckled and waved the matter off. “It’s all right, it’s a mess. I understand his dislike towards the place,” Pete explained, giving Henry a nod. “It’s been abandoned for a year and a half now.” He looked around the dusty place and pressed his lips together in a firm line.

“Why? It’s so charming,” Henry commented sarcastically, earning an elbow in the ribs from Zac. He rolled his blue eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “How much is this place anyway?”

“Because of its condition, I’m charging twelve hundred,” Pete explained, looking at both of the young gentlemen. “I just had the electricity fixed and the plumbing can be a bit finicky at times, but I can fix that up over time.” He shrugged his shoulders and shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Seems like a prime location,” Zac said, looking back out the front window that viewed a fairly busy intersection a block down. “Why hasn’t it been sold yet?”

Pete licked his lips and looked down at the dusty wood floor. “People say it’s haunted...cold and lifeless,” he answered, rubbing the back of his neck. Pete cleared his throat and looked at Zac, who was staring at him curiously with bright amber eyes.

“The rumor is someone died here,” Zac said and Henry looked at him in surprise.

“What?” Henry yipped, but Zac shushed him. “Why don’t you tell me these things?” the dark haired man grumbled, rubbing the little bit of stubble on his jaw.

Pete bit the inside of his cheek and nodded stiffly. “Yeah, someone did.”

“Who?” Zac asked as he turned around and walked towards the bar. He walked behind the wooden counter and ran his fingers over the glass shelves. When he pulled his hand off the glass, he saw his fingertips were dusted with gray powder. Behind the glass shelves was a shattered mirror, which he stared into for a few moments.

“A young woman,” Pete said.

Zac nodded his head, waiting for him to go on. His amber eyes narrowed when he saw a reflection in the shattered mirror. He smirked and turned around, spotting a young woman in a cream colored dress and cowboy boots walking across the room just behind Henry and Pete.

“A woman? Did you know her?” Henry asked.

Pete nodded his head stiffly.

Zac wasn’t listening anymore, he just watched the girl in the dress. She didn’t even realize he could see her as she walked around the room. She was staring at Pete, a look of longing and sadness. When she sighed and looked down at the ground, she vanished into thin air. Zac looked away and turned his attention to Pete, who seemed to be struggling to tell the story of the young woman that had died in the bar.

“Her name was Winnie,” Pete said sadly. “She was beautiful and lively and just amazing.”

“You knew her personally?” Henry inquired.

“Yes.” Pete nodded solemnly. “She was my fiancee.”

Henry softened a bit and apologized for his loss. Pete told him that it was okay and looked around the bar. He explained that their dream was to open up the bar and have a lot of crowds in. Unfortunately, Winnie had passed before that could ever happen. Pete continued to explain that the bar was going to open about a month after Winnie’s death. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it though, not without Winnie.

“What did she look like?” Zac asked, locking eyes with Pete.

“Dirty blonde ringlet curls, the greenest eyes, flawless skin, petite, and the most charming smile. I can’t believe she’s gone most days,” Pete said softly and rubbed the back of his neck. Zac looked over to Henry, who frowned and walked over to the stairs.

“How did she die? If you don’t mind me asking,” Zac questioned, turning his attention back to Pete. That feeling was there again, the cold feeling. It made Zac’s skin crawl, it was just as previous prospective tenants had told Pete. The place was without a doubt haunted, but Zac knew that it wasn’t the evil kind of haunting...it was the sad kind.

“She fell,” Pete explained and pointed to the stairs. “She tripped over some wires and fell down the stairs. There was nothing we could do.” He lowered his hand and shook his head, trying to shake the images of his fiancee lying dead on the floor.

“I see,” Zac replied gently. “We’ll take it.”

“What!” Henry yelped disapprovingly.

“You will?” Pete asked, surprised but happy as well.

“We haven’t even checked upstairs yet,” Henry pointed out. “What if there’s asbestos in the ceiling?”

“I promise there isn’t,” Pete said with a smile and looked back at Zac. “I have the lease agreement in the truck.” He walked out of the bar and the moment the front door closed, Zac looked over at Henry.

“You’re kidding right?” Henry asked hopefully. The place was a complete dump it would take a week just to get all the dust out. What was even more crazy is that it came with a bar. Henry couldn’t even begin to think about what Zac was planning to do with it. “Why do you want this place?” Henry snorted with an eye roll.

“She’s still here,” Zac said.

“Who?” Henry asked completely confused.

“Winnie,” he replied and Henry snickered. “You don’t sense her?”

“I’m not laughing about that, I’m laughing because you are getting this place because of a kindred spirit?” Henry grumbled in annoyance. He couldn’t believe that they left Chicago to come to some small town in eastern Connecticut. “Why did we come here, Zac?” Henry asked with a raised brow. He had been asking since they arrived in Connecticut two weeks ago. Not once had Zac given him any kind of answer, not even a grunt or shrug.

“It was just time to go,” Zac explained quietly, but Henry sputtered at his words. He was about to give a better explanation when the door came open and Pete came in with a manila folder.

Pete walked over to the counter and placed the folder down. He flipped it open and laid out the lease agreement. When he turned around, Zac was walking up and looked down at the papers. His amber eyes scanned over it as Pete briefly went over the different things. Zac wasn’t really paying any mind though, he’d only read over dozens and dozens of lease agreements. Pete was now talking to Henry, who was asking about painting the walls and redoing the flooring. As they were talking about that, Zac looked towards the swinging door that led to the small kitchen in the back.

His eyes fell upon the woman standing in the circular window. He looked away and grabbed the pen that had been resting in the folder. As he signed his name on the several pages, he glanced back to the circular window and saw she had vanished again. He shook his head and finished signing before calling Henry over to sign the lease agreement as well.

After all the papers had been signed, Pete looked over everything. He nodded his head and put the papers down. When he put the papers back into the folder, he smiled at both Henry and Zac, shaking both their hands. He thanked them and welcomed them to the neighborhood, telling them they were free to move in. Pete reached into the pocket of his army green trench coat and pulled out two keys.

“Here are the keys,” Pete said, handing them over to Zac. When he let them go, he let out a breath and ran his fingers through his dusty brown hair. “Take care of it, yeah. If you ever need anything, just let me know.” With those words, Pete said his goodbyes and left the two gentlemen alone in the bar.

“This seems like a terrible idea,” Henry said bitterly.

“It’ll be fine,” Zac assured his friend with a weak smile. It was quite possible that it wouldn’t be fine, that it would be a complete disaster. “Let’s start cleaning this place up.”

“You start cleaning this place up, I have a job interview in an hour,” Henry told him, jabbing a thumb into his chest. Zac nodded his head, surprised that Henry had already went and found himself some work. “I’ll see you later, I’m taking the car.” He jingled the keys to the car and walked out of the bar, leaving Zac alone.

Zac pulled off his leather jacket and walked over to the counter. He dusted the top off before turning around and hoisting himself onto it. As he sat in silence, he looked around the bar. He closed his eyes and cleared his mind, trying to locate Winifred Delacroix. She hadn’t gone far, in fact he doubted that she ever left the building at all. He opened up his eyes and looked dead center in the room. She was standing there with her back to him, staring out the window. He smiled weakly as she silently walked over to the window and watched people walking by.

Her hair was long and in beautiful ringlet curls and her frame was petite and slender. She put her hand on the glass and sighed sadly. When she turned around to look at him, Zac acted as though he couldn’t see her at all. He almost laughed though when she waved her arms up and down, trying to see if he could see her. He managed to play it off though, which seemed to only depress her more.

“Well,” she muttered as she walked over to him. Her boots didn’t make a sound, she was weightless. “At least you’re handsome. Now, how am I going to get you and your boyfriend to leave?” she wondered aloud as she stood in front of him. Her green eyes examined him closely, from his black boots to his dark washed jeans to his taut black t-shirt.

Zac found it odd that she couldn’t sense that he wasn’t human, he was supernatural. She tilted her head as she stared at him and clicked her tongue. Winnie brought her finger up to her chin and tapped it several times before snapping her fingers. She disappeared and Zac raised a brow, glancing around slightly to see where she had vanished too. Not even a second later he heard a crashing sound in the kitchen.

“Poltergeist,” he said under his breath as he scooted off the wooden countertop. He made his way to the kitchen and pursed his lips. He looked down at the tile floor and saw the glass that Winnie had knocked over. Zac knelt down before it and started picking up the big chunks. He felt her presence again and stood up.

“I’m going to scare you out of here,” she said, but Zac didn’t find it threatening at all. She was so small and fragile looking, plus he’d seen demons and devils before. Winnie didn’t even hold a candle to them; she was really just a ghost throwing a tantrum. “Let’s see how you like this,” she said with a smirk.

Zac wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to let her make a fool of herself, although he was curious to see what lengths she would go to. It was getting a bit funny though and while he was normally good at keeping his composure, Winnie was just too cute for him to take seriously. The lights began to flicker and Zac looked up just as one of the bulbs burst. He furrowed his brows and shook his head, he had to say something now before she did serious damage.

“That’s not very nice, your fiancee just fixed all the electrical wiring,” Zac said, looking pointedly at Winnie. “And I’m assuming from your last tantrum.”

She looked completely and utterly shocked.

“Yeah, I can see you,” Zac told her with a smile. “I’m a vampire, after all.”