It all started when Seth and Edwin moved to Sunset Valley, bought a haunted house that wasn't a trailer at all, and the stove caught fire as soon as they walked in.

That should have been an omen on how things would play out.

Seth was fast with the fire extinguisher, Edwin and a strange ghost lady freaking out and being generally unhelpful, and the fire went out. The stove was a charred hunk of metal and the carpet was burnt but that was okay. The stove was easily taken away and replaced.

When that little panic was over, everyone stood silently. The ghost lady, Penny Flood, eventually floated off somewhere.
Seth wandered over to the bedroom and rested on the creaky, uncomfortable bed. He already claimed it so Edwin would have to scavenge for a place to sleep.

Seth suddenly got the great urge to go swimming in the pool (what pool? this place didn't come with a pool) but the thought quickly burned away. He would wander about the house and cook sometimes, or take an evil shower. There was some idle thought wondering where Edwin had gone for so long, but it didn't matter. The mac-and-cheese was slightly burnt!

As he stood stationary in the middle of the living room, Seth felt a great pain spread throughout his body. Edwin had died, he was sure of it. He tried to go outside, but the door was gone.
That was all right, there was still a fridge and a stove.

When Seth turned back around the stove and fridge were gone.

With nothing left to do, except cry and exclaim that his friend was dead, Seth crawling into his bed.

He wouldn't have known, but Edwin's bloated, drowned ghost made the couch rattle around that night.

The days passed by slowly for Seth. He had nothing to do but scream and cry about his dead friend, and his craving for social interaction grew more and more. His brain begged for entertainment, but he couldn't do anything.
Eventually, his stomach started begging too. He had the double pain of grief and a feeling of his stomach being gnawed at.

He would have gladly eaten anything, even raw vegetables. Or the cake coyly offered by a Cow Plant, but that would result in his demise.
When it felt like he was going to be paid a visit by the Grim Reaper, some deity took pity on him and put in a door.
He was then told to go to the food eating contest.

This deity had a sick sense of humor.

Seth ate his fill and won the food eating contest. He got some extra change out of it but he was just glad some of the pain was gone.
He tried to pick a fight with a lady trying to go into the bistro and she ignored him. It was in Seth's nature to be horrible to others and he looked around for another person to fight with.

He instead found a lady that was interested in what he had to say. He quickly learned her name was Zelda Mae and with each Romantic gesture they became closer.
By the time the clock turned to eleven, the two were love interests. Zelda had to leave but utterly charmed Seth.

He went home happier than he had been in days. He was also able to pick up Edwin's grave and bring it to the graveyard to properly rest.

At two a.m. Seth and Zelda met in the park and continued their rendezvous. Seth invited her over and the two went to his not-trailer home.
Everything was a blur but what Seth woke up to the next day was Zelda as his wife and a room with no roof adjacent to the bedroom. That room was filled with baby things.

And the fridge and stove were back.

Zelda gave birth to a boy a few days later. The parents named him "Crooked Man" for whatever reason. They brought him home to a room with no roof because whatever heartless deity that controlled them was also an idiot who didn't know how roofs worked.

Crooked Man still lived a hard babyhood and didn't get a good trait when he grew up into a toddler. Seth was determined to make his child's next stage of life wonderful. No matter what happened.

But for now Seth had a strange urge to go into a walled in structure on the lot. There was a cheap stove and fridge there and he was told to make some dinner. He did so and right when he put the meal on the stove he was told to do something else. There was a book in his inventory and he read it in a corner.
The meal burned and the stove burst into flames. Seth couldn't do anything but flail around and be consumed by the relentless fire.
He tried pleading with the Grim Reaper for his life but the spirit was merciless.

When Seth died he was in a stasis. He was resting in the afterlife when all of a sudden he was pulled from it. He could see code running all around him, and he didn't want to touch it. He had already been hurt too much.
But he was brought back into a science lab, and the scientist said the procedure was a fluke. It clearly wasn't, as he was right here, the product of an experiment.
Zelda brought him home, and their relationship was not longer spouse. Zelda didn't even want to touch him, but that was all right. He would see his son again and they could be a family. A ghost dad and his human family.

But Zelda kissed a strange man in the living room and declared him her husband.
Seth was filled with anger. He declared both of them his enemies, though the new husband looked bewildered at this strange ghost, and Seth wanted to go back to the afterlife.
He passed by his baby's roofless room and decided to keep his promise.

Seth gave up his creaky bed in favor of the couch.

Over time, Seth had to take care of his son more and more. The other inhabitants of the house were out making money to move into a better house. Seth didn't mind them being gone. Crooked Man didn't seem to like his mother or stepfather at all.
Crooked Man learned all of the essentials of being a kid and was walking and babbling in short sentences.

Eventually, the household was able to move to a nice house. And Seth wouldn't have to sleep on that couch anymore.

When Crooked Man grew up into an adult, he was surrounded by family and friends of his family. Seth didn't know any of them but he didn't care.
There was sugary cake passed around and eventually the house was quiet. The cake was put away and the plates were washed up.

Seth sat outside near the pond and pondered his life and life after death. It was difficult and he hated all but two people. And one was dead and unable to join the household. Seth tried, but the grave just wouldn't budge.

But if Seth was able to see Crooked Man grow up, then everything was okay. It made everything worth it.

Seth looked into his urn and returned to the afterlife.

A/N: Originally posted on Ao3 on November 4th 2016.

So when I finally bought Sims 3 off Steam (after having not played the Sims for YEARS as my cousins had Sims 2 and I probably wouldn't have been able to convince my parents to buy me a T rated game) and began playing I was an absolutely terrible person. But I felt like there was story potential so here it is.