𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓯𝓲𝓿𝓮
— 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚎 —

𝓐𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓫𝓻𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻'𝓼 long-awaited arrival, Briar debated telling him of her newfound companion— sort of. For the remaining moments between Clayton's departure and the instance in which Marshall stepped through the doorway, Casper had enticed Briar with the story of his being; it consisted of his favorite memories, such as baking with his mother and sitting by as his father created marvelous inventions that he was sure would be helpful one day. But one thing the young ghost forgot to mention was his death, and the girl wondered with curiosity.  But the mere thought of admitting to herself that Casper was dead would send her into a new frenzy all together . . . she could see dead people.

A person, to be more precise.

"Did you explore while I was gone?" Marshall questions his sister, scanning the tray of cookies that she silently retrieves from the oven. "Or did you decide to bake the time away?"

"Cookies seemed more sufficient than venturing through cobwebs and piles of dust," Briar chuckles, shaking her head. "Maybe I'll be productive another time, but for now I'd like to stick to the basics."

Removing his jacket, Marshall pulls a hot cookie from the pan, and shoves it into his mouth. "Do basics include sweeping the dust from the floors and removing the cobwebs you were talking about?"

"Precisely," Briar nods, glancing over her brother's shoulder for any sign of Casper's existence. It was odd that he could disappear as he pleased— but in the same sense, the girl was glad that he had the capability. If Marshall were to see him, she was sure they would no longer be staying in the manor.

"Would you be interested in helping me clean?" He asks hopefully, averting her attention from the empty space behind him. "I'll go up to the attic, and you can start with the ballroom. Hopefully we can have this place looking less ancient if we mop the floors and dust off the statues."

"Sure," she shrugs, "I have nothing better to do."

As Marshall disappeared in an attempt to search for cleaning supplies, Briar began her short-lived search for cloths that would be useful while cleaning ceramics. Casper appeared by her side, while still leaving space because of his understanding for her hesitance, and pointed to a drawer to the left of the sink. "There's a supply closet just past the staircase," he informs her.

"Marshall will find it eventually," Briar tells him, satisfied with the thought of Marshall endlessly searching the home while she finished what he suggested. "A little amusement is exactly what I need."

The ghost leads the blonde into the ballroom, taking a cloth from her hand as he, too, takes on chores of his own. "With my help, you can cut your cleaning time in half. There's something I want to show you while your brother is occupied."

"Is there a trap door somewhere in here?" Briar questions, brightening a dirty sculpture. "I wouldn't be surprised, this place is nearly four times the size of the house I used to live in."

Casper pauses, unsure of his next words as he brushes at the stained glass ceiling. "Why, exactly, did you and your brother move here? I have to admit, although it's vast, the renovations for this house wouldn't be considered worth it to most."

Halting in her footsteps, Briar closes her eyes. Collecting herself, she focuses on her breathing, and releases a soft breath as a means to calm herself. "My parents," she begins, her eyes finding the ghost as she stops. "Marshall had to drop everything to take care of me after they were gone, and the easiest way for him to cope was an inexpensive place. We were lucky to find the manor . . . I just couldn't stay there."

There was a gentle silence that settled over the two teens; whereas Briar continued with her task, Casper had completely stopped. If his heart still beated, it would have halted for a moment. Beyond his thoughts of Briar, he had suddenly began to find the similarities between them. She was young and lonely, broken even, and knew nothing of the future of her being. He found himself in the same position— and yet his fate would last for all eternity. The girl below him was bound by destiny to achieve greatness, and to blossom from the shell of herself that currently resides. He couldn't help but think that the boy, Clayton, would be the very soul to take her away from the pain that she was enduring every measured second of every day. But while Casper understood everything she was going through, Clayton could only do well to empathize.

Casper wanted to be the one to help her.

And although his state would never truly guarantee an enticing outcome for him, he would still have the opportunity to gift a new outlook to Briar; a loving one that offered a world without grief, pain, or surrounding destruction. He had been living in that state for so long that he had almost forgotten how beautiful the real world could be— up until the point in which the Harvey family arrived. Not only was he graced with moments to be human again, but he found himself in the heart of Kathrine. With her acceptance and kindness came an entirely new side to him that he never could have captured without her presence. And after her departure, he remained the positive and up-looking self that she had taught him to be, no matter the disappointment he felt and the loneliness that constantly loomed over his head. Life was worth living, even in death, if he could look forward to something he couldn't yet see.

Briar was an unexpected adventure, because although he didn't quite know her story yet, he felt as though he didn't need to. Her eyes told him everything he needed to know: her emotions, dreams, and how she desperately needed to be consoled. But within that was the sole fact that no one could save her . . . she needed to save herself. In all reality, she would never have the opportunity to be rescued by a prince from her curse that would forever follow. Fairytales, as Casper would put it simply, did not exist— instead, one could find comfort in the pieces of one. Instead of a noble prince in search for a damsel, there was a caring ghost who longed for nothing more than a purpose.

Perhaps his new purpose was to assist Briar, and to show her all of the things she still had.

"Tidying up can wait," Casper dismisses the cloths, drifting down to remove Briar's from her grasp. "Follow me, I want to show you something. Believe me, it's worth your time."

Giving him a weak smile, Briar gestures to the sudden clang of unidentified objects from a room in the distance, followed by the yells of her sibling. "I'm okay! But I'm confused, I still haven't found the supply room!"

"Tell him you decided to take him up on the offer of venturing the manor," Casper encourages her, his eyes reflecting his deep-lying insistence. "Please, Briar, I promise you won't be disappointed."

And so she gave in, trailing behind the ghost and ascending the staircase. "I always wondered what life would be like in a house this big."

If Casper knew nothing of her past, he would have told her that it used to be lonely; with no family to share the open space, one's voice would echo endlessly, and the only thing that broke the silence was the occasional rain outside that tapped quietly on the roof and lulled him to sleep. But with Kathrine, that changed— he enjoyed the rain much more when she smiled because of it. And since his outlook had changed, he decided to approach the topic differently, "It's a new adventure every day."

Casper runs his white fingers along the wallpaper upstairs before halting at the bookcase. Pulling the shelves forward, he revealed a completely new space, which consisted of a confined area with a trapdoor in the farthest corner. "A while ago, there was another way to get to the basement. Mr. Harvey made a new way so Kat could get down there easily, so I presume you'd prefer this way too."

Pulling at the handle attached to the stray floorboards, Briar finds a ladder that plunged down nearly fifteen feet before abruptly stopping in a grandly-lit room. Shrugging, she begins to descend, while glancing up at Casper on her way down. "What's in the basement?"

"Because my father was an inventor, he required his own space to work," the ghost explains, gesturing around them, "so he and my mother made a new and secret renovation to the floor plan for his laboratory. I would come down here with him sometimes to watch, and he even let me stash away my prized possessions."

Dropping to the floor, Briar turns to scan her surroundings. "Woah," she whispers under her breath.

It definitely looked like a basement, but beyond that initial factor, there was a brilliance to the creativity inside. A water-filled pit lie in the center of the floor, and around it a fence-like structure and a number of book and paper-filled tables. Never in her time of living had Briar imagined she'd be standing in the laboratory of a scientist, let alone with her new ghost friend by her side.

"There's a machine under the water," Casper explains, taking her warm hand into his cold one and leading her to the pit. "My father designed it after I died . . . to bring me back to life."

"That's possible?" Briar questions, still holding his head as she examines the bubbling waves.

"He only made enough of the serum for one person, and Mr. Harvey was the person to receive it," he continues, hoping it would answer her question.

"James Harvey died?"

With the nod of his head, Casper continues knowingly, "We brought him back before anyone else found out."

Filling in the gaps, Briar frowns. "So you lost your only chance to come back to life."

There were no words that she could possibly say to make Casper's situation better— but she wished she could. Because not only had he, too, lost his parents, he had also faced death on his own account, and had lost every person he cared for. And now, his only chance at having a normal life was given to another.

"How do you manage to stay so hopeful?" Briar asks. "As far as I can tell, things have fallen apart consistently in your path and yet you continue to smile as though you have everything you ever need."

"That's because I do," he smiles to her. "I have unfinished business, or else I would have crossed over by now, and someday . . . someday I'll do what I was sent here to do."

But he didn't think in that moment, or else he would have known that perhaps he already was.

_______

❝ since this is a short story, i was
thinking that maybe two more chapters
with this book and it'll be finished? also,
is anyone actually reading this book right
now or am i talking to myself? lol ❞