Elfie's night threatened to get too long. Even her liquid sidekick wasn't helping.

It was past 2 AM when she gave up, "I know you're out there. I don't care you killed your friend, I'm just gonna hate you 'cause you disappeared!"

Jared filled a bean bag, the furthest place from her possible. Relaxed, like in an old friend's house.

"Is that what he's saying? In my defense," he didn't wait for an answer, eyes gleaming, "It was his gun."

"Don't care," Elfie pretended, but he didn't buy it, he kept smiling at her like that was ever going to work on her again.

"You care, a little," he said, "At least out of boredom. I understand, it makes one do crazy things," he better settled in his seat.

Like kissing a human. He didn't say that out loud, but it was there.

"You don't care why my best friend pulled a gun on me?" he tempted her, after a while. Elfie had been shuffling channels, so the question annoyed her.

"No offense, but my entertainment choices are between you and the TV, and... out there," she showed the only light source, "They're just better at it. It's kinda their job," she finished. That shut him up, so she amped the volume on a Psych rerun. They watched it in silence.

"I'm going to disappear at 3:23 AM," he said, and Elfie took her phone from the coffee table, covered in leftover wrappers. 3:19 AM.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"It upset you when I vanished, so I'm announcing it. It's every night, same hour. Can't control it," he shrugged. "It's like waking up and falling asleep at the exact same hours.  It takes some getting used to. I... forgot to mention it, last time. Got lost in the moment," he sounded apologetic.

"And then you just didn't show up again," Elfie spelled out her problem with him, not liking being reminded of their last time together.

"You seemed angry, and I'm afraid of angry women," he smiled. He was either mocking her or intentionally driving her crazy, and the worst part about it was how she didn't care.

"I should be afraid of you, you're the killer ghost!" Elfie scoffed, reminding herself, too.

His mouth became a thin line, "Ever wondered what could make someone kill their best friend?"

"A YouTube prank gone wrong?"  Elfie joked, but Jared stayed serious.

It was how she knew it was all about a woman. Men always took their love triangles too seriously. When two women fight over a man, each is aware of her place in his life, that she's 'less than'. When two men are interested in the same woman, they have a way of making her entire history about themselves. Which always leads to two hilariously parallel stories of undying love, respectively. And the third one, the truth, dies with her.

"You shot your best friend over a woman?" she had to ask again.

Elfie did not do competition well. Not that she was a sore loser, but she was a way too happy loser. If failing meant that she didn't even have to try, then it was the way to go. If a man killed someone -- his best friend! -- over a woman, that woman would never be named Elfie. She was the woman men killed, to escape.

"It's that why you think you're going to hell?" she asked.

"I've done way worse things than..." 

He diluted into thin air again. 3:23 AM, said the phone screen. If it'd showed any other time, Elfie would be angry.

Against herself, she went on her phone browser and searched for Kai, Jared, and Clover Lane 34. It was an easy find -- the generic name of the alley and no people names had failed to turn up anything, back when she was investigating to buy the house. To be fair, she didn't try that hard.

The news covered it in some detail, but it was quickly buried under bigger news. A home invasion, the police said. The intruder, shot and killed the owner of the house, before being shot and killed, himself.

She waited for the next night, all information ready to be tested against Jared's honesty.

He appeared, and she checked her phone again. 9:47 PM. He took the remote, beaming.

"It was a fun show," he teased her.

"So you went into your best friend's house, shot him..." Elfie surprised him. "All to get his fiancee?"

His smile went down and Elfie knew she'd been better off not asking.