The Haunted Companionship (nerdfuck x Rauk)

The smell of abandonment filled the senses as Lucas turned the doorknob, and entered his new home. Looking around the parlor, he closed his eyes and smiled, daydreaming of the peace and quiet he longed for. The front door creaked as he shut it behind him, and he removed his brown leather jacket, hanging it on a nearby coat rack. He had already completely moved into the home, and had spent most of the day around town exploring, and talking to the locals.

"Ah... Finally, I can start over. It's a good thing I got this place for the price I did... The previous owners must be nuts! Anyway, it's getting late, and I'm already talking to myself." Chuckling to himself, the tall man ventured through the halls, and to the master bedroom. Lucas sat down on the edge of the bed, and pulled his button-up white dress shirt over his head. He crudely folded it, and threw it onto the floor, before stepping out of his black slacks, and depositing them in the same manner. He stretched his averagely toned body out on the bed, on top of the sheets as he yawned, resting the back of his head on his hands.

Those kids at the library today, kept talking about some haunted mansion in town. Could they be talking about this place? It's the only one here that fits the description, being such a small town. It's pretty amazing how many people still believe in ghosts.

Lucas slowly closed his eyes as he drifted off to sleep after a few moments of thinking to himself. Unfortunately for him, he had just gotten through a rather painful divorce where his wife cheated on him with his boss. Luckily, he had no children with her, and he was still only in his late 20's. Having a high sex-drive, Lucas was used to making love at least once a day, back during his marriage. However, it's been about 6 months since the separation, and his pent up frustration tends to get the better of him at times, interfering with his ability to concentrate when working on his novel.

Indeed, the smell of abandonment was strong in the house... but Afton only noticed that smell half of the time. The other half of the time it just smelled like... home. Her mother's cooking on the stove, the sound of children playing outside, the smell of a kindling fire warming the home. It was odd how, after death, her reality seemed to alter. Sometimes she felt like she was still alive, still young with her whole life ahead of her. Yet others she became all too aware of how dark, quiet, and alone she was. It drew depression upon her, rage, yet sometimes peace. It was as if the pieces of her that still lived were only a fraction of what she once was...

The living complicated things. Yes, this house had several owners. They never stayed too very long. She didn't quite blame them, but it seemed the activity in the house was amplified when a real, living source was in the area. It frightened her, she wanted the living gone, yet at the same time she wished nothing more than to befriend them. Perhaps have someone to talk to. When was the last time she had a real conversation...? It was hard to say considering she wasn't aware how long she had been dead, or that she even was dead half the time.

The new human had been causing quite a fuss. He seemingly moved his things in over night. Of course, for a while, the activity in the house had been fairly limited as the spirits watched and observed, but that silence was only temporary and for Afton, curiosity set in. She wanted to know of the man, learn about him. She wanted to play with his things as she oh so longed to be part of the living yet again! This particular night the weary visage of Afton appeared in what was Lucas' new kitchen. It was the first time she had become visible since he moved in, signifying a degree of comfort and calmness though she wasn't as visible as she could will herself to be. She wasn't that comfortable.

The vision of the girl was black and white, grey at best. By appearance she had long black hair that was only mildly curly. Her face was young and innocent, it was difficult to gather what her age might have been. The girl wore a long, white cotton dress and was barefoot and otherwise bare. Although her vision was pale and colorless, it was strong and unmistakable. Her presence was powerful, as she was a spirit of age.

What brought Afton to his kitchen this night? Glasses... a set of whiskey, shot, and drinking glasses that had been packed in a box that sat on the kitchen counter, still unpacked. Afton stood eerily by the box, dark eyes watching it closely, ample chest noticeably lacking breath. It was honestly quite eerie to witness. Her hand slowly lifted and slid through the box, the sound of crinkling obvious as she pulled one of his glasses out through the side of the box with ease. It took great power to interact with the living world and Afton didn't appear to have a lack of it.

A small smile found her lips as she held the glass in her hand and observed it. It was... beautiful. She loved glass. Excited, Afton set the glass on the counter by the box and reached through it again to pull out a second glass, a regular drinking glass but this one with color. Her eyes widened slightly to see the color, oh it was so pretty! Again, she set the glass on the counter and reached in for another one... She loved glass, it was so beautiful.

Afton was not exactly an evil spirit.

Lucas slept for a few hours, dreaming of his recent past. He could still hear the moans of his wife, from the night he walked in on them. That horrible scene that scarred him mentally. Since those awful events, he had developed a difficulty in trusting anyone and had no interest in romance, fearing another heartbreak of that caliber may be the end of him.

Cool beams of moonlight shined through the curtains of the bedroom window, as Lucas' tossing and turning prevented him from achieving a full night's sleep. He awoke in a cold sweat, feeling restless, and with a dry throat. His dark blue eyes adjusted in the low light, to peer over to the nightstand.

"Ugh. 3:00am." Yawning, and stretching, he decided to step out of bed and make his way down the hallway to the kitchen for a drink. As he stepped out of the bedroom, and wandered off, he heard the roaring boom of thunder rolling off in the distance. There was a storm brewing, and in just a short moment the clouds were bleeding with hard rain and the crashes of lightning illuminated the town.

He could have sworn he heard the clanging of glasswear in the kitchen, as if someone were there. Though, being the skeptic he is, he wrote it off to the storm playing tricks on him. Maybe the thunder rattled some loose glasses inside one of the boxes on the counter that he had still yet to unpack.

Huh, I know I heard something that time... I hope it's not one of those damned kids breaking in on a dare from his friends or something. The thought that he could already be dealing with trickster children wanting to tour the house because of some haunted legend angered him. He was a firm believer that there were no such thing as ghosts, and that the spiritual real was nothing but fantasy and folklore. Lucas ran his fingers through his short brown hair as he was only three steps away from the entrance to the kitchen, ready to confront whomever it was that had broken in, hoping it was only a mischievous child. The stealthy man completely ignored the fact that he wore only a tight pair of black boxer-briefs, with his rather impressive bulge protruding outward from being semi-hard during his sleep. His muscles tensed up, as he wasn't 100% sure what he may find rustling around in his kitchen. He thought it was just his luck, that on his first night, he wouldn't be able to at least find some peace and quiet.

Afton, being dead, had no real sense of time. How long had she been admiring the new man's glasses? She wasn't all too sure, but she knew she was having a good time. She found many glasses with the same color, and many glasses that were the same shade. She found some glasses that were far too small to really hold much liquid in it and she was perplexed regarding their practical use. By the time Lucas started to the kitchen Afton had unpacked half of his box, his glasses now set upright on various parts of the counter.

Being a ghost, her abilities were worldly, of course, but she had been so distracted with his glasses that somehow Lucas had managed to 'sneak up' on her. She held a small, skinny glass in her hand when the light flicked on. What happened next happened so quickly that it was almost impossible to keep up with it in real-time. The light flicked on and Afton turned quickly with a sharp gasp. The tiny shot glass she held in her hand fell to the floor, shattered into tiny pieces, and at the same time Afton dissipated all together. She was nowhere to be seen and the kitchen light began to flicker profusely until finally busting altogether. As the kitchen fell into darkness, only the light of the lightening lit the kitchen and now Lucas had a broken bulb to repair and the uneasy reality that he was certainly not alone in this house.

Shivers went down his spine, as Lucas gasped at the glassware scattered all over the counter top. The sporadic flashes of lightning lit up the area just enough for him to see that the box had been emptied out as if someone had been there going through his belongings. Many questions arose in his mind. How could someone have gotten in the house? Was it an animal? One of those trouble maker kids? The gloom set in, as he wasn't able to explain the situation he had just experienced. He was positive there had to be an intruder somewhere in the house, so Lucas grabbed a kitchen knife out of the drawer, one of the few he had already unpacked, and slowly crept around the nearby rooms looking for whomever may be there.

Several minutes went by, as the storm and rain beat down on the roof. Flashes of lightning made for an eerie atmosphere inside the old house, as Lucas finished his search with no sign of anyone or anything that could have possibly done this. He was sure there had to be a scientific explanation for what had happened. Maybe he was just dreaming? At any rate, the nearly naked man placed the knife back into it's container, and headed back to the bedroom. It was his plan to clean the mess up and replace the bulb in the morning. He laid back down, and drifted off to sleep.

The lonely man awoke to the warmth of sunlight shining through his bedroom window. Birds were chirping, as he yawned and lay there in bed for a few moments, comfortably. He contemplated whether or not the previous night's experience was simply a dream, or if it were real. Regardless, he was sure it was real and was preparing himself to rise, and begin the day. Looking over to the clock, which read 7:29am, Lucas rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"Way too early to be waking up on a Saturday... Oh well, I guess I should get a start on the day..." Stretching once more, he sat up in the bed, and stood.

After her disappearance, Afton later reappeared in the attack of the house. Her gray, ghostly figure stood at the tiny window that overlooked the back yard. The rain beat down on the earth, the lightening lit up the sky, but she was thankful that the storm did not bring what it usually did... she was thankful to be the only one active in the house. How long she stood there she couldn't say, she had truly reached a state of zen (or a state of unconscious). All she knew was that as the rain finally dissipated her ghostly figure faded out of view with little bravado.

As the morning sun's rays stretched into the house from the windows Afton reappeared yet again in the kitchen by the glasses that had previously captured her attention. They were unceremoniously re-packed into the box, all but two of the glasses that simply disappeared. A colored glass, and a small odd-shaped shot glass. The sound of movement upstairs drove her away, but her mess had been cleaned so she was satisfied. You know, except for the broken glass and the busted bulb, but she didn't think like that.

Afton had no real appearance in the house until a few hours later, when the sound of a bath being drawn sounded in the air. Afton sat in the tub, completely nude. Her skin was gray and pale, but the womanly curves of her body and large, shapely breasts were obvious. Steam filled the room as the water that ran and slowly filled up the tub was only hot water. It would scold a normal person and while she was dead and felt no pain, tears still filled her eyes.

A residual ghostly apparition? It was hard to say. But there she sat, silent in scalding hot water which slowly filled the tub to the point of overflowing. One thing was for sure... it was certainly eerie.

Most of the day today, Lucas had spent working on renovations to the downstairs bathroom. After installing a new toilet, and resurfacing the sink that seemed to have not been replaced in many years, he knew that this was just the beginning of his work on this beautiful home. The sun was going down, just as he finished painting, when he heard something strange in the plumbing coming from the pipes going to the upstairs bath.

"Great, you mean I have to re-plumb this place, too? Upon inspection, it looked like everything was okay before I moved in." Lucas scratched his head, as he pondered on what the issue at hand could be. After the experience from the night before, however, he didn't exclude the possibility that it was simply a neighbor's kid playing a prank on him, being the new resident around town.

Deciding after a long day's work, he would take the next couple of hours and rest up. As he headed upstairs, holding onto the railing, the sound of running water suddenly stopped as he neared the top. Steam could be seen in an ethereal mist bellowing out of the hallway, coming from the master bathroom. Did someone actually break into the house last night? And if so, were they taking a bath now? The nerve of some people.

Taking a deep breath, he popped his knuckles out of nervousness, and tip-toed through the hallway, into the bedroom in an attempt to not be heard as he drew closer to the entry to the master bath. He could hear the movement in the tub-water as if someone were indeed taking a bath. Slowly, he peaked through the crack in the doorway into the bathroom, unsure of what he would see.

And there Afton sat, butt naked in the middle of the tub. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, her darkly colored eyes large, pitiful and pleading with an occasional tear here and there. As Lucas nudged open the door she didn't seem to notice and simply sat in the hot bath, motionless, unbothered by the extreme heat. But the longer Lucas stood there the more likely Afton was to notice him, and eventually her head turned to look directly at him. The tears faded from her face, replaced with a much more bland look. "You should go." She advised him darkly before falling into silence.

The ghostly visage stood from her seated position, standing in the steaming tub, nude now in front of him. "You should leave this house, before they do it to you.." She advised again quietly. Her notably deep 'breaths' caused her chest to rise and fall, her womanly figure visible to him, even the little cave between her legs was visible to him. It was hard not to stare, unless you had a sensitivity to the creepy, ghostly scare-fest kind of things.

Lucas stood there, in total shock. What was this strange woman doing in his house? And why would she telling him to leave? Who are 'they,' and... Why was she using his bathtub? From the looks of her, she was probably some escaped mental hospital patient. He worried about her, seeing as how the water had to have been scalding hot.

"Ma'am, I own this house. That means I'm the boss around here. First and foremost, please identify yourself, and tell me what you're doing here please?" Since she was nude, and weaponless, he was not afraid of her being a burglar or anything. He was more concerned, and wanted to help her get back to where she came from.

"Also, who are 'they?' Did you bring friends? This is private property, you know. I'm afraid I can't let you stay." Keeping his distance, and trying terribly hard not to stare at her beautiful figure, Lucas struggled to remain as professional as possible in this situation. He was extraordinarily turned on by what he saw, and fantasied about crawling into the tub with her, if not for the scalding water. However, he did not want to take advantage of her, and knew that she needed help.

"You know, for a minute there, I thought you were a ghost!" Lucas scratched his head as he half-smiled. "Tell you what, I'm going to help you get back to where you came from. My name is Lucas. And you are..?" He motioned toward the fluffy, deep blue bathrobe hanging on the door, as if offering her to cover herself with it.

Afton watched as the human tried to placate her, 'talk sense into her'. Her head tilted ever so slightly as she watched him closely. They were having... a conversation. She was having a conversation with a living, breathing human. This had never happened before. Usually if anyone saw her they ran, but maybe he was different...

She squinted slightly as she looked at him while he tried to figure out who 'they' were. He went on to laugh about thinking she was a ghost, he introduced himself... and then asked her name. She frowned slightly at the question and stepped up out of the bathtub to walk towards him. "A ghost." She confirmed. She was a ghost. She paused in front of him, mere inches away. Her dark eyes looked into his as if she were simply seeing right through him.

"But that's not what you're asking." She acknowledged quietly, seemingly having to drudge up that information from somewhere in her lost memory. "I am... Afton." She smiled just slightly after releasing her name. "Yes, Afton is my name."

"Afton, huh? That's such a pretty name. Not a very popular one anymore. I don't know of anyone with that name in fact." He smiled, while losing himself staring into her cleavage. Every few seconds he caught himself, and quickly made eye contact with her. The curves of her body were mesmerizing to him, and seeing this strange women in his house stirred up a feeling in him he hasn't felt in quite some time. It felt to Lucas as if the room was getting hotter, when in truth, it was he that was getting hot.

"Uh. I hope you don't mind my asking, but where are your clothes? Do you need to borrow some?" For some reason, he didn't want her to leave. He wanted her to stay, and talk to him. It had been a long time since he really had someone to sit down and have a conversation with. She was such a beautiful person, too.

"I'll tell you what... Would you like to stay for dinner?" He asked her with a shy grin as the lonely man was lost once more, mesmerized by her curves.