Voice of the Mind Ch. 14

"Vinnie, Nicole and I attend the same university, so it's not that surprising. We even share a few classes."

"Awesome," Patricia beamed. "I never expected to see you here, even though Vinnie was always talking about you."

"Nothing bad, I hope," Jenny winked, while helping them into her car. "Otherwise he'd still not be finished talking about me."

Vincent didn't need to say much, aside from a few counter remarks to save his hide and aside from Yume, the other girls kept talking to Jenny.

The departure went well, there wasn't much to do but say goodbye and they promised to see each other more often if possible. He saw enough possibilities for that. But today they had plans. Jenny and he had plans to meet up with the guys over at Daniel's while Nicole would head over to Nathalie.

After dropping off Nicole, they headed over to Daniel. Upon entering they saw that everyone had already assembled there and they were greeted with a warm welcome.

* * *

While the others were downstairs, Charissa was back in Vincent's room wondering why she had been doing whatever she had done last night.

Is it because I'm sexually depraved? she wondered.Has it been so long since I have craved anything sexual that I ended up assaulting Vincent's sister? That doesn't sound like me. But then again, I haven't exactlybeen me ever since I've died.

I don't even consider myself attracted to girls, so that's another thing that surprised me. Was it just something I did on a whim, or is there something more about it? I have gotten off with Vincent, so it is not that I needed to do something with someone else. Or perhaps I am conscious about him having Jenny as a girlfriend and am trying not to impose on him? But then why would I start non-consensual sex with his sister?

The thinking frustrated her. No matter what she came up with, she could rebuke the justification of it. She had started pacing around in the room, something she had adopted since she was capable of touching things. The pacing helped her in calming down, getting her thoughts more in order. This time it didn't really help, since the subject of it was uncomfortable. It made her only feel tangled up in her own thoughts.

At some point she threw her hands up in frustration and decided to leave the room. She was home alone after all; she had heard them leave by the front door a few minutes ago.

She walked along the corridor, planning to go downstairs for a bit and see if she could use the tv for a bit of distraction, when she noticed something in the corner of her eye. There was a large mirror standing in Nicole's room, the door a little ajar and she saw something shifting in there.

With a furrowed brow she stepped forward, ready to assault an intruder if she could actually get herself solid enough to hurt that one, and slowly pushed open the door. She looked around the room, but there didn't seem to be anyone.

Just my luck that everyone has just left the house. At times like these I really feel like a scared girl in a haunted house and I really hate horror-movies.

The idea that she could simply make herself ethereal – or that she was generally invisible and untouchable – didn't really enter her mind, as fright slowly won her over.

But the thing I saw was in the mirror ... could it be it was behind the door or so? she whirled around, but saw nothing. She returned her view to the mirror again and moved closer. And once she got close enough, she realized who she'd seen.

She was looking at her own mirror image.

* * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 14.5 – The Christmas spirit

* * * * * * * * * *

When they went home, she and Vincent had picked up Nicole so they could go home together. After dropping the siblings off, Jenny drove off to her own apartment. Vincent felt the house was a lot more empty since their sisters had returned to their parents. But when they stood in the doorway, they realized there was a light on inside.

"Did you forget to turn off a light?" Nicole asked, knowing full well that if anyone would've forgotten, it would be her.

"Not me. I checked everything before we left." Vincent said. "Do you expect visitors? Especially one with a key?"

She shook her head. "Only ones with a key are Jenny and our parents, as far as I know. And the girls said they weren't coming."

Vincent's eyes narrowed. With the recent events he started to question things more than he usually would. He just hoped this wouldn't be another of those unwelcome surprises. Not while they were still in the christmas spirit.

He unlocked the door and entered the hallway. Nicole was peering over his shoulder and they both saw someone in the living room, quickly moving out of sight.

"Close the door," Vincent whispered and Nicole softly let the door click into place. In line they moved further, but when they were in the room they didn't see anyone. Not until they stood in the middle of it. Then a figure rose from behind the couch.

Vincent was startled. Nicole was plain scared. The person standing there was smiling, but also see-through.

"A ghost!" Nicole screamed and Vincent turned around, shocked.

"You cansee her?"

"It's aghost! Inour house!"

"Welcome home Vincent, Nicole!" the ghost exclaimed."And Merry Christmas!"

"Charissa!" he yelled.

Both girls looked at him.

"Oh. Right. She hadn't seen me before." The ghost giggled.

Vincent held his head in both hands, sighing.

"All right. Now that the cat is out of the bag, better get it over with. Nicole, meet Charissa. She's sort of our house-ghost. Charissa, you already know Nicole, my sister."

Charissa moved over – she was actually walking on the floor – and hugged Vincent. Vincent hugged her back. Then she moved over to Nicole and decided that hugging hermight be a little too much for a first contact with a ghost. So she extended a hand.

"Nice to meet you, Nicole. I'm Charissa and I'm a ghost."

"Don't worry, she doesn't bite or possess you. You can shake her hand," Vincent said.

Nicole looked at him like he was insane, then she looked at Charissa and had to decide whether to run away screaming or accept the fact that there was a femaleCasper residing in their house.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and when she opened her eyes again and still saw the apparition in front of her, she smiled – albeit somewhat forced – and took the hand. It was slightly colder than hers and not entirely solid, but it had enough substance tofeel like a hand. She shook it, twice, then she let go.

"Hello Charissa, nice to meet you."

Charissa beamed when she turned to Vincent."See? That went well. Nothing to worry about."

"My ass that went well. You scared the living shit out of her," he said accusingly, before he turned to his sister. "You okay?"

"After the revelation that you can read minds and that there are people who fight you merely through mental means, crippling you and leaving you in a coma – accepting a ghost has become somewhat easier," Nicole smiled weakly. "But I would've prefered if you had warned me about it before."

"Yeah, I should've. Then again, would you've believed me if I said we had a ghost?"

She pondered about that for a bit, then shook her head. "Probably not. But like you said, the cat is out of the bag, so let's ... well, let's get acquainted."

He nodded. "Then, have a seat. And we'll tell you about how we have met."

Vincent and Charissa explained how they met and how Vincent eventually managed to see her, which brought her back more often, resulting in her more or less becoming their own house-ghost. Both Vincent and Charissa conveniently left out how they also had some more sexual meetings, because that was easier to elude, but everything else they told Nicole.

"And recently we have been working on her solidifying, so that she can somewhat interact with our world. If she hangs out here, she should at least be able to read some books or magazines, or watch some tv, for instance," Vincent explained.

"Or browse the Internet," Charissa added."It can grow terribly dull when you're here and you cannot do anything despite it all being within reach."

"Apparently she has also been working on her visibility, seeing how you're now able to see her. That's not my doing, as I was able to see her before that."

"I think it has something to do with the solidifying experiments," she mused."If I can get solid enough to touch a pen, I could also think myself solid. It didn't work exactly how I planned it," she pointed at her see-through self, "but it is better than not being visible to the eye at all. So my apologies if I scared you for being the proverbial ghost."

Nicole laughed. "Don't worry about that. I was startled because you generally don'tsee or evenhave a ghost around you, so I didn't expect one. Are there more ghosts around?"

"So far as I know I haven't seen many. I've seen one or two before, but they don't like to interact with me. And if there are any others, they have eluded me since I've become a ghost. It has been quite a lonesome time since then. So you can probably imagine how happy I was since Vincent could see me."

Nicole smiled, but it was a cooler smile than before.

"I can imagine, yes. And how often have you had sex with him?"

"I don't know, perhaps about three, four if you..." she started before realizing that she was being tricked. She clasped her hand over het mouth and turned to Vincent, who had buried his head in his hands once again.

"I knew it," Nicole said. "Not that I mind, I can understand why you would want to if you're only recently started to become partially solid after all this time. But Vincent, you have agirlfriend."

Charissa answered instead."Jenny – I know. But he's the only one I know who could see me! And besides, we haven't had any actual intercourse yet."

"Yet."

"Slip of the tongue. I'm innocent. And still a virgin." Charissa corrected."Which is more than I can say about you."

"What do you mean?"

"Oo ... something along the lines of 'Fuck your sister, you know you have always wanted to' perhaps?"

Nicole's jaw dropped. "You were there?!"

"It was hot," she admitted."I cametwice when you guys were doing it for the first time."

Vincent didn't know where to look. It had turned into a catfight and he was standing in the middle of it. He didn't want to, but he could be lured over any moment and forced to pick a side. He sighed and decided to cut it short.

"Okay, cut it out, girls. Charissa can't help it that she's spectator of things she shouldn't be watching, but she's a ghost. She wanders. It's not like a closed door or something keeps her out if she wants to go through it. So give her a break already, Nicole.

And Charissa, I think it would be a good idea if you take that into account as well. Since you've applied for residency here, you should also think a little more about our privacy."

Both girls nodded. Vincent knew that Nicole could come across strong, but she was always reasonable. Which didn't mean that they never got angry at each other, but he knew they would always turn around and meet in the middle after a while.

"If you actually live here, I would like you to stay visible if possible. Can you do that?"

"I think I can, but I haven't been able to make myself visible until very recently. Can you give me some time? If possible, I would like to start behaving like an actual human as well. I don't particularlylike going through walls either, so if I can, I want to stick with opening doors."

"I would like that too. I don't mind an extra resident, as long as you don't spook me – pardon the pun. I don't mind if you go through a wall to reach me, but give me a heads up that you do. Just ... give me some time to adjust as well, okay? I haven't had an extra resident for a while, not to mention a ghost."

"I guess that's settled then," Vincent concluded.

"Just one thing, Vincent," Nicole said. "When are you going to tell Jenny about your pet?"

Charissa scowled, but refrained from making a comment.

"I'll figure something out. I have a couple of bombs to drop on her anyway, one more or less wouldn't make much of a difference," he said pessimistically. "So for the time being, please keep Charissa a secret from her."

Nicole agreed, but he realized he couldn't put it off indefinitely. Just like how he couldn't keep it hidden that she was the one being kidnapped. One of these days he would have to tell her, before she would learn it herself when someone had a slip of the tongue.

* * * *Author Note * * * *

Well, fuck me. Apparently I completely forgot that I have made Charissa have intercourse with Vincent all the way back in chapter 7.4 from Part I. That hasn't really been my purpose either, but it looks like I have kept that subchapter up in there because I liked it, not because it fit in story-wise. My bad, people! Please ignore chapter 7.4, it's just fanservice! It's not canon!

I suppose that's what happens when you take two years writing this in non-chronological order and trying to fit it all together after having written this much. You're bound to miss a few things. At times like these I could really appreciate a live hands-on editor looking over my shoulder. Or did I just describe a guardian angel? One that helps me not making a fool of myself. Ahem. Which I'm doing just as well by writing this all, okay ...