Moving On

"No, I don't think I am," I responded.

"That's good. I can feel that you are very sad, so I don't think you should make any decisions right now." she said. "My grandma always said that a ghost's emotions are a serious matter."

With that she turned and started walking away into the mall.

"Hey, wait!" Her abrupt departure surprised me in how much it scared me. I must have been more desperate for someone to talk to than I realized. "Where are you going?"

"Home," she said simply.

"Can... I come with you?" I asked.

She took a moment to think before giving me a quick nod. "Sure."

I followed her as she exited the mall and found her car. She entered a silver Volkswagen beetle and began driving home. I floated along with her as she navigated traffic. We soon made our way to the college campus where she parked outside of the dormitory buildings. A short walk into one of the buildings and through the maze of halls led us to her room. It appeared she didn't have any roommates. It was a simple square unit only big enough for the essentials of college life.

Once inside she quickly removed her sweater and revealed a tank top she had been wearing underneath. It was black of course. Obviously she lived a gothic lifestyle of some sort. Her room was decorated with posters of punk rock bands and anime characters. I thought it was an odd combination, but to each their own. She sat down on her bed and turned her focus back to me.

"So, what do you want to do?" she asked. She almost seemed to be excited. Maybe a bit nervous too.

"Oh, well, I was just hoping to talk to you some more," I said. "I haven't been able to talk to anyone since I died."

"Oh. Ok." She must not be much of a conversationalist. There were so many questions I had for her about ghosts and psychics and the afterlife. I was hopeful that she would have the answers I was after. I decided to start with introductions.

"My name is Brad by the way. I used to go to school here too."

"It's nice to meet you Brad. I'm Mina," she said.

"Nice to meet you too Mina," I replied. I couldn't stop myself from smiling. Never had a simple conversation felt so good before.

"So I was hoping you could tell me what you know about ghosts," I said.

"Hmm, not much. Only what my grandma told me," she said.

"But I thought you have talked to ghosts before?"

"I've seen them before, but this is the longest I have ever actually talked to one."

That seemed odd. "Are there not many ghosts around?"

"No. It has been a while since I saw one."

"That doesn't make sense. People die all the time. They should be everywhere," I said. We just started talking and I was already confused.

"Not everyone that dies becomes a ghost," Mina explained. "Grandma said that when people die, they are supposed to go on to the afterlife. But sometimes a person will refuse to move on. When that happens, their soul remains here on earth, stuck between worlds."

"I guess that means I'm in some sort of limbo," I muttered. "Do you know what the afterlife is like?"

She shook her head. "No. I don't think there is any way for a living person to know."

That figured. There were countless religions, all with their own version of life after death. If it were possible for humans to know what happened after death, we would know it by now. The mystery of what waited for me when I let go remained.

"Can I ask you something?" Mina said quietly.

"Yeah, go ahead."

"How did you die?"

"Oh." Yeah, I reckon that would be what you would ask a ghost. "I was driving home from work this summer when I got hit by a truck that ran a red light. My car ended up rolled over in the ditch, and I was killed. This was going to be my senior year."

"I'm sorry." Mina looked like she was about to cry. It was a sad story for me, but I was a stranger to her. I guess she did say that she picked up others' emotions. Maybe she was experiencing how I felt recalling the events.

"Thanks," I said. "I've been watching over my family and girlfriend since then."

"Why did you not move on?" she asked.

That was a good question. I had been under the impression that everyone became ghosts when they died until Mina told me otherwise. So why did I not move on immediately? I didn't want to leave my loved ones, especially Sharon. She was the reason I fought so hard. After a while I think I was just unsatisfied with how things ended. I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone, and when I saw the devastation and sadness I left behind for my loved ones, I didn't feel it was right to just abandon them. Not to mention I was scared of the unknown on the other side, but I felt that was secondary.

"While I was dying in my car, the only thing I could think of was not now. I was on my way to a special date with my girlfriend. I was trying so hard to not give into death because I needed to see her again. I think that was why I didn't move on immediately."

"You must have really loved her," Mina said.

"More than anything," I said. "I was never happier than when I was with her."

"She was a lucky girl."

"I was the lucky one. She was the best thing that ever happened to me."

Memories of our happiest times together played over in my mind. It felt great to relive the good times until my latest memory of her pushed its way to the surface. In a flash, my positive feelings went negative. What I had witnessed in her living room had shaken me to my core. I could only imagine what the two of them did behind her bedroom's closed door.

I was the one that should have been making love to her. If only I could be with her one more time! I could see that perfect body of hers in my arms again. I'd be the one sucking on her full breasts, and she would moan my name. And that tight round ass of hers! Nothing beat the view of her ass shaking as I took her pussy from behind. I'd fuck her in every way possible and give her body everything it cried and ached for. I'd give anything to have her squirming beneath me again.

The last time we had sex was the night before she left for her vacation. We went at it all night and I took her in every way possible. We even did anal, which was something she was rarely up for. It was a great night and a memory I revisited often. If only I could go back and relive that night forever, never leaving her and fucking her nonstop. I played the scene over in my head.

"Oh!" Mina squeaked.

I had gotten lost in my daydream and forgotten about where I was. I was about to apologize, but I was stopped short when I saw what she was doing. Mina was laying on her bed with her right hand down the front of her skirt. Her left hand was squeezing her breast and playing with her nipple. She was masturbating right in front of me. She let out a low moan and looked up at me watching her.

"I can't help it! I could feel your lust and I got so turned on!" she cried.

"I'm sorry!"

"Oh my God!" she squealed. "I've never felt it so strongly before. It must be because you are a ghost!"

She pulled the covers from her bed over herself to hide from my eyes. I could still see her hands working as she tried to find some relief.

Mina started removing her clothes beneath the blanket, leaving herself nude from the waist down with only her tank top on. It gave her better access to her pussy I imagined, and I could tell she was picking up the pace. If my lust was becoming hers, then seeing that definitely didn't help settle things down.

She squirmed all around the bed as she pleasured herself. Her moans were getting louder and louder, and it was clear she was racing quickly towards her climax. I was worried about the noise. I felt sure that if she got any louder her neighbors would hear.

"Oh, Oh, Oh! I'm cumming!" She barely was able to get it out before she exploded. Just as her body started to quiver and shake all over, Mina grabbed her nearby pillow and shoved her face into it. She let loose a loud howl of pleasure into the pillow to muffle it and keep some of her privacy intact. Her body jerked a few times with the aftershocks of her colossal orgasm before she collapsed onto the bed. It was one of the hottest things I had ever seen.

"So good," she whispered. She rolled over onto her side facing away from me and didn't move. She stayed like that for long enough that I got a little worried. I suspected she might have dozed off, but I wasn't sure. The whole event had been so sudden and unexpected, I had no idea what to think.

"Mina? Are you ok?" I asked. I slowly approached her and instinctively reached out my hand to touch her shoulder. When I made contact with her body, my hand did not pass through it. Instead it seemed to disappear inside of her. There was an odd sensation in her body. It felt very warm and inviting. It was almost as if it was pulling me in. Without thinking, I pushed in further and further until I found all of myself falling into her.

The warm sensation completely enveloped me inside of Mina. It moved all around me and in me. I could feel my soul become one with the warmth. It felt very pleasant and somehow familiar. I felt my consciousness expand and fill up with the wonderful warm feeling completely. I felt myself becoming heavier as the movement around me settled down and became still. Somehow I knew something was different. I couldn't see anything until suddenly my eyes opened and I was lying in a bed. I sat up and looked around. I was still in Mina's dorm room, but something had definitely changed. I looked down and was shocked to see I had a living body again. But not just any body. It was Mina's.

"Oh my God," I said. "What is happening?" It was Mina's voice I spoke with, much more feminine than my voice had ever been. I stood up and hurried over to her door where she had a full length mirror hanging. Looking back at me in the mirror was the petite gothic body of Mina. I waved my hands around and watched with wide eyes as I confirmed I was indeed in control of a body once again.

All I had on was that black tank top. I slowly reached for it and began to draw it up and off of my body. When it was thrown into a puddle on the ground, I was left standing completely nude in front of the mirror. I looked good. I reached up to cup my new breasts. They weren't big, barely a handful, but they still looked amazing on my slim figure. My eyes trailed down my stomach to my new shaved vagina. It was a bit jarring to look down and not see a penis where there had always been one before.

"Is this for real?"

I slowly brought my hand down over my stomach and tentatively reached for my newly acquired pussy. I used a couple fingers to spread it open for a good look. It was dripping wet and sensitive. Tingling sensations shot throughout my body as I handled it for the first time. When I made contact with my clit, an intense pleasure of epic proportions hit me like a thunderbolt.

"Holy shit," I said. That felt incredible. I looked back up at the mirror and looked myself in the eye. But it wasn't really me was it? It was Mina. I had taken over her body for real. I didn't even mean too. It wasn't right. It was actually kind of creepy. Suddenly I started to panic. If I was inside of Mina's body, where was she? Was she alright? Oh please tell me I didn't hurt her! I started to hyperventilate as the reality of what was happening finally hit me. I didn't want to steal anyone's body! Mina had been so nice to me, and this was how I repay her!? I wanted out!

Just like that, the warmth of Mina's body left me and I was thrown out into the middle of the room. I was once again in my ghost form, bodiless and floating. Mina was standing in front of the mirror where I had left her. She shook her head a couple times before turning to look at me with a wide eyed expression.

"I'm so sorry Mina, I didn't even know I could do that," I apologized profusely. I was relieved that things seemed to have returned to normal. I also felt terrible about what I had done to her. She just continued to look at me in silence.

"I'll leave," I said. I figured she wouldn't want a body stealing ghost around her any longer.

"You don't have to," she said. Looking at her more closely, she didn't appear to be angry.

"You aren't mad?"

"No. It was an accident, and I can tell how bad you feel about it. So don't worry, I'm not upset. It was actually kind of... cool."

"Really?"

She simply nodded shyly in response.

Well that was a relief. The last thing I needed was to lose the only friend I had. I couldn't help myself as my eyes dropped from her face to look over her body again. She was still completely nude. She followed my eyes and turned a bright shade of red. I guess she had forgotten about losing her clothes. She made a mad dash around the room to collect her clothes and put them on again. I couldn't help but laugh at how shy she was acting when just a little while ago she was masturbating in front of me. Mina was an interesting girl, and I had a feeling there was a lot more to learn about her still.

*****

Mina told me that spontaneous masturbation sessions weren't all that rare of an occurrence for her. Apparently every now and then the lust she felt from others simply overwhelmed her to the point that she had to get off. She told me that when I was daydreaming about sex with Sharon that it felt as strong as ten normal people. We theorized that maybe the human body acted as a sort of filter for emotions and since I didn't have one my emotions were just left out in the open, raw and unchecked. Whatever the reason, I made sure not to let my mind wander any more while I was in her presence.

Most of the night was spent discussing possession though. She also hadn't been aware that possession was possible before that night. She said her grandmother did warn her that some ghosts could be dangerous, but she never went into much detail about why. It was a good thing I wasn't one of those bad ghosts. The trouble I could cause someone by taking control of their body was no laughing matter.

I was hesitant to try it again, but Mina wouldn't shut up about it. It turns out she wasn't lying when she said she thought it was cool. It didn't take her long to start begging me to try it again. I eventually gave in and agreed to experiment with it a bit. All I had to do was make contact with her body and that warm feeling would return and I could slide right inside her. Even if it weirded me out at first, I had to admit that being in her body felt wonderful.

Over the next couple weeks the two of us learned a lot about possession. I confirmed that I couldn't possess other people, only Mina. It had to be due to the fact that she was a psychic. She told me that she saw everything and experienced everything like normal, just that she couldn't control what she did. We also discovered that we could communicate with each other while I was in her body. If I concentrated hard enough while I possessed her I could hear her voice in the back of my mind. This made it a lot easier to know where the boundaries were and greatly put my mind at ease. I was always worried about forcing her to do something she wasn't comfortable with.

We had a lot of fun together once we worked out all the kinks. I got to experience a lot of the things I missed about being alive, and she seemed happy to help me do so. Eating was my favorite. The first time she let me eat in her body, I went a little overboard. The stomach pains she had to deal with the rest of the day nearly cost me all of my future eating privileges. Luckily she forgave me and allowed me to eat again after I promised to keep it light. She never ate with friends, so it wasn't an issue for me to enjoy a few bites here and there.

I found ways to pay her back when I wasn't in her body. Mina was doing much better in all of her classes after I started feeding her all the answers to her tests. I would float around the room and yell the answers to her from the other kids' papers. I could yell as loudly as I wanted, and the only one who could hear me was her. She always sat alone, so we had no problems talking to each other during class. I also often would mock the professors while they lectured, shadowing them and making jokes out of their lessons. Mina tried her best not to, but I almost always got her to laugh.

We shared a lot about ourselves with each other. She told me about her family and about all of her hobbies. She even got me to watch a few anime series with her. I had actually become a fan and it became a regular thing for us to watch them together. I told her about my life before I died and about the things I used to love to do. Mina seemed particularly interested in my time with Sharon, however. She asked more than once why I didn't spend time with my girlfriend anymore. The memory of what I had seen the last time I was with her still stung too much for me to think about, so I always steered the conversation to something else. I'm sure Mina could feel my sadness surrounding the subject and I think she meant well by asking. I was grateful she never pushed too hard about it.

One day when we were returning to her room from class, we turned a corner and nearly collided with a big football player. He started to apologize before he froze midsentence with a look of terror on his face. His eyes darted between me and Mina as he started to slowly back away from us. I was about to say something to him when he turned around and sprinted away screaming. We both blinked at each other for a moment before bursting out laughing. I suppose that was a reasonable reaction to seeing a ghost. Something about him seemed familiar to me though. I thought about it for a few seconds before it clicked.

"Hey!" I yelled, startling Mina. "That guy was there when I died. I forgot, but he totally saw me back then too. I just thought he was freaked out by the wreck. I hadn't even realized I was a ghost yet." I laughed again as I remembered how he ran away that time too. He must really not like ghosts.

"I guess you aren't the only psychic on campus huh?"

"Guess not," Mina said.

"You should talk to him. I'm sure he would be glad to know he isn't alone."

"I doubt it," she said. "Come on, let's get back to the room."

It was hard not to notice Mina's lack of friends. She hardly talked to anyone at all except for her occasional calls home to her parents. At first I was worried that I was the reason she wasn't going out and having fun. I told her she didn't have to stay with me every night, but she insisted she didn't have anything better to do. After that I started watching the other students when Mina was out on campus. Some would actively avoid her and pretend she didn't exist. Others would shoot her dirty looks, or make fun of her to their friends. It really confused me. Maybe she dressed a little differently than most, but she was a very sweet girl. Attractive too. It just didn't add up.

My suggestion for her to go talk to that football player was not my first attempt to get her to socialize. I had been nudging her towards finding a friend at every opportunity that presented itself. She always brushed it off. I knew it wasn't my place to tell her how to live her life, but sometimes she just seemed so lonely. I only wanted to help. As we approached her room, I noticed a flyer for a Halloween party tacked to the floor's bulletin board. Seeing it as another opportunity to help Mina, I pointed it out.

"Hold up. Look, a Halloween party! I bet that would be fun," I said.

The flyer indicated that the party was being thrown by one of the fraternities on campus at their frat house. It was a costume party and would no doubt have lots of alcohol. I had been to one of these parties with Sharon before. It was a good time, and I had fun with my girlfriend, but I suspected it was even better for the single people there. The party was always full of people looking to hook up, and lots of them did.