Jared hated the scent of alcohol, especially hard liquor.

The strong smell brought by the new guest of his lair, he didn't really mind. It made her funny, which was a good distraction from eternal boredom. He was lucky she didn't sleep upstairs in her bed, so he got dibs on the ghost story. Kai couldn't interfere as he always did, showing up in the bedroom. If there was a place where people felt vulnerable, it was in their bed, tucked away in their pajamas. Showing up there, Kai had the strategic advantage.

Jared 'woke up' at the same hour every day, 9:47 PM, in front of the living room window, looking out. Exactly where he stood some hours and change before his death. And would disappear at the time of his death, exactly 3:23 AM, wherever he was.

Invisible to humans unless he wanted to, Jared got bored in under ten iterations of his last night on Earth, especially since he couldn't leave a house that wasn't his. So he started being audible. Which was fun for a while. Then people moved out and he realized he'd rather listen to someone else's boring dinner talk than spending another day surrounded by empty walls.

So the new owner, a brown-eyed blonde -- whose hair flopped in a top knot, obviously unwashed for days -- was a fun distraction, completely immune to his ghost antics. Redness flushed her cheeks, like on old drinkers, it was unlike anything Jared had seen. Not even in college did women drink like that. The only time any of her muscles moved was when she tensed her arm to pour precious fuel directly from the huge bottle into her mouth, using just one hand. It helped how lighter the bottle got, each time.

Jared made himself visible. The woman didn't even flinch, faced with a tall man appearing out of nowhere. She just drank from her bottle again.

"Well hello there," she said, amused eyes staring at him as if he'd just normally walked in. "Let me guess, you got three wishes for me. Not sure how you got my first," she winked, obviously mocking him. "Quite the dramatic entrance."

"I don't grant wishes, sorry. My first would be to get out of this horrible house. Or at least to have it less populated. Maybe you leave and leave the books?" he went for Annoying Ghost.

"You can have the books, but I'm not going," she wasn't impressed. "When I die -- cause it's the only way you're getting me out of the house -- you can keep them."

Jared frowned at her.

"And you don't mind me... living here with you?" he tried reasoning.

"You're blocking X Factor," she swiped left with her entire body to see the TV.

Jared rarely got rejected by women, while alive or dead, and, as his encounters with the previous owners of the house showed, men also found him attractive. He rarely had to work to get someone's attention. The doe-eyed alcoholic could do worse, so he didn't understand her lack of curiosity.

He sat on the couch, next to her, enjoying how scared her eyes got when the mattress dove under his weight. She did not expect him to be able to interact physically with objects. Seeing his smile, she immediately stiffened in her seat, spread under a neon green plushy robe covering her like a deformed blanket. Everything smelled of vodka.

"Aren't you gonna ask me how I died?" Jared had to break the silence, admitting defeat, but only to himself. "Jared," he stretched out his hand, to test her if she was calm enough to touch him.

The small woman shook his hand with confidence, "Elfie, but I'd rather we didn't... you know, interact." She returned to the TV.

Although unusual, it was a relief to have someone by his side who wouldn't bother him with questions he didn't want to answer. Unphased by death.

"I thought someone would cancel this, " he said, after a while. She was already asleep, eyes closed under old mascara. A lot younger than when frowning at him, tense as if he was going to attack her. Relaxed in what looked like a dreamless sleep, exactly what she'd wanted to obtain. Jared unglued the bottle out of her hand and placed it on the floor, then changed the channel.

The new guest was quite tolerable.