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 Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 4:45 pm
"Thank you," Michael said, and he smiled sweetly. "I understand not wanting them to be here. I do. Unfortunately, I'm not authorized to stay here alone." He paused then, walking with her in silence for a few moments.
"Lissie, may I ask why you only make men ill?" he asked then, turning to look to her with some sadness in his eyes. "And if only men, why not me?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 4:58 pm
Lissie didn't answer Michael's question right away. Her eyes were bright when she looked at him. Almost wet. "They never keep their promises," she said. "My fiancée stopped coming, when he learned I was sick. We'd just gotten engaged. He didn't care."
She was quiet again, then, "I can tell you're different."
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 5:14 pm
Michael's brow furrowed deeply. There was a sane, clear anger in his eyes. It was a sad sort, but it was certainly unhappy. A man's word was important, especially when it came to his family. Clearly, Lissie's fiancee had been a b*****d in the modern sense of the word. No wonder she had turned away from the light!
"I'm so sorry," he said, "No one should have to die alone." He would have sworn that he'd never break his word, but even if it was true, what could would it do? Her trust in men was already shattered. "Have you ever considered crossing over? Moving on from this pain?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 5:18 pm
Lissie's eyes immediately narrowed into angry slits. "I have no desire to journey onto the damnation that would be the ever present company of my family," she moved away from him, crossing her arms.
"I won't go."
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 5:22 pm
"I'm not convinced that the people who've wronged you end up in heaven," Michael said, his eyes drifting away and his head cocking slightly as he stopped. His eyes returned to Lissieshortly. "I've certainly never seen someone I didn't want to see. My mentor is somewhere else entirely, I'm certain." Of course he wouldn't have greeted him at the stairs anyway, but everyone else had been there. "I've seen several others cross, and not once did they seem unhappy. There's no need to be angry, Lissie. I'm not here to force you into anything."
He had never forced a person through the light, although he had forced a crazed ghoul or two. Once their humanity fled, they were barely people. Throwing them through the light was a mercy at that point.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 5:28 pm
Lissie paused. She was still frowning, and seemed to take a calming breath. "Right. Good. I'm not going," she said. She moved closer to him, arms crossed.
"I saw my light," she said. "I saw it. I saw it, and I knew I was dead. I didn't want to go."
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 5:32 pm
"I only barely saw my own," Michael continued, offering Lissie his elbow again. "I was only angry. I saw my mentor, and I saw my own body, and I was lost. I improved with help, but I only recently saw my light open again. When I held my nephew, it lit in the middle of the room. It was different." He smiled. "I chose to turn away this time, though I know that I could open it again, should I wish to."
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 5:46 pm
Lissie took Michael's arm. "Let's continue the tour," she invited. "I can show you the dining room, how it used to be."It had been beautiful, once. With crown molding on the ceiling. She led him down the hall. "I didn't want to die," she said.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 5:56 pm
"Nor did I," Michael said with a little chuckle. At this point, death was something they had both gone through. It was still serious, but there was no avoiding it. "I don't think that most people do. I'm afraid that my death was..." Hm. How to be delicate about it? "Not the most gentle."
As they entered the dining room, he smiled and looked around again. "This really is a wonderful house."
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:12 pm
"I'm sorry it happened," whatever had happened, it must have been terrible. She smiled at him then. "I wish it was real, what I do with the house," she said. "It's not the same. I pretend it's real, and it's easier sometimes. Sometimes it just makes it worse."
She sighed. "I didn't attack you because I thought you were different."
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:18 pm
"I appreciate that," Michael said with a nod. His smile fled slightly when Lissie mourned the loss of her home. "I create illusion in my room too. It is comforting, and sometimes it is only sad." Some days, reality was better, even if it was depressing.
"I like to think that I'm different. I try very hard to be a good man."
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:48 am
The day had not gone especially badly, though the bright mood when it had begun was altered by discussion of death and crossing over. Which it might have been a bit sad, it did open them up to talk about more than just what life had once been, and for that Michael was grateful. There was very little progress to be made in helping Lissie over, but now that they had begun a relationship it would be easier to imply and press here and there. Rational spirits were often more difficult to convince than the insane. Real logic was needed, not just appeals to emotion. These missions took longer than the others.
By morning, Lori and Maia had both gone home with all but one camera and most of the equipment. Dari and Toby were still camping in the entryway, but Toby was feeling much better. He'd given Michael a knowing smile and thanked Lissie for her kindness, though he found quickly that it had nothing to do with him. Still, he was grateful, and resolved to stay out of her way and let Michael work.
It was still morning when Michael was wandering the house again. He felt a little guilty for ruining their happy mood the day before, but it had been necessary. Why did his heart revolt against his working mind? He wasn't here to enjoy himself or to entertain Lissie, but to help her over and call it a job well done. It was something about this place and the nature of the dead young woman that called to him. In the end, he decided that some friendly interaction might better endear him to Lissie, and might help the job. Besides, he rarely got to enjoy himself like that. What was a little selfishness if it helped in the end?
The ghost had gone out to the ground and conjured a beautiful image. For him and for Lissie, the roses were blooming again, colored by Lissie's explanations and his own intuition, which Michael knew was good but not always perfect. Hopefully she wouldn't mind some tea blossoms rather than red or yellow that may have existed before. Not every bush spoke to him. Birds and butterflies flitted around the warm garden, and Michael had simply taken a seat at a conjured, wrought-iron table for two and waited, tea and cakes with strawberries and cream before him. Their basis in imagination and memory meant that they would never cool nor melt.
He was content to wait to be noticed rather than call attention to himself, and he read a physical volume that he had ordered online and brought from home, one of his knees crossed over the other and half-reclining.
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 10:59 am
It took a while for Lissie to notice the garden's change. She'd stopped looking out her window to see the garden. It was only in going to her vanity that she noticed it, and paused. How had that happened? It was...it was like it'd had been before she'd died. Like it had been the day she'd tried so hard to get out of bed, to get out to her flowers, and had fallen to the floor.
She left her room and wandered down to the garden. "How did you do this?" She asked, in wonder. "It's like I can smell them, even." Her eyes were wet, in joy this time. If it'd been proper to hug, she would have.
"Thank you, Michael."
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 11:03 am
When Michael saw the woman coming, he set his book down and stood to greet her with an enormous smile on his face. She seemed pleased. Good.
"With practice," he said, though that wasn't entirely true. He had honed his skills over the years, but wouldn't have been able to maintain something of quite this magnitude before his whitelighting. He only consciously remembered what roses smelled like for his recent adventures with Maia.
"You're very welcome," he said with a bow, and then went to pull out the opposite chair for her. "Would you like to join me?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 11:21 am
Lissie took the seat, wiping at her eyes and smiling at him. "This means so much to me," she said, looking around. No one had ever done anything like this before. No one had ever shown such care for her likes and dislikes, for how she felt.
She wiped at her eyes again, and gave him a smile. Color seemed to come into her face. She didn't look so sickly anymore.
"You're so talented," she said. "And you did all of this for me."
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