Harmony

I could not have been any more exhausted in my entire life...

The bar was so damn busy, why did people drink so much?

What was so great about Friday that made everyone want to come to my bar and get wasted and nearly kill each other until I kicked them out and called the police.

It was beyond me.

"Home sweet home!" I cried with relief, slamming my front door behind me.

Offering a heavy sigh to the empty space I plopped down on my couch, sprawling out my arms and legs and just not really giving a fuck how crazy I looked.

I needed some interaction with someone who was actually smart and contemplative, but Morro had been gone from my home for weeks, almost two months now.

I didn't know what his deal was but I was sure ghosts had stuff to do just like the living.

Still, his extended absence was starting to bother me. Did he get hurt? No...ghosts can't get hurt...

Exorcised?

I hoped not, he was a cool guy, and kinda nice.

It was rare when a guy would make me blush, not just the presence of them but the thought of them, just mention of their name.

I was not one to want a guy to lean on, and of course the one guy who catches my attention just so happens to be dead.

Thanks a lot social needs.

Anyway I had a serious case of the munchies, non-drug induced I promise, so I went to my tiny boring kitchen and snagged a single serve bag of chips. It wouldn't satiate my hunger, but it would hold me over long enough for me to be able to fall asleep before I felt the pangs again.

And since I was so broke from college they weren't even the good chips...

I missed Morro. He needed to come back before I died from boredom and became a ghost too.

"Please lord..." I muttered to myself, nonchalantly tossing my empty bag aside as I shuffled toward my bedroom. "Please let me survive this..."

The bed was the biggest relief of my day. The soft springy texture of the mattress and the plushness of the pillows and my quilt.

I groaned loudly into the tufty greatness and passed quickly into a wonderful sleep.

X.X.X

Who turned on the fucking TV? Damnit...

I reached up into the darkness, grabbing a hold of my dresser and blindly pulling myself upright.

Grudgingly I opened my eyes, all that surrounded me bleary and dark.

"Who the fuck TURNED OFF MY LIGHTS!?"

I scrambled across the room, moving to turn the switch on, but when I did I remembered...

I lived alone.

No one could have turned off the lights...

No one except...

At that moment my thoughts were interrupted by a bizarre string of events, not to mention brutally terrifying.

The entire house started to shake with what could have been the fury of the First Master himself, and the walls started to ebb and crack, pictures falling from the walls and shattering on my floor.

The TV picture fizzled to raging static, and every other bit of equipment I had whined with white noise and electrical feedback that was deafening.

But that wasn't even the worst part...

The worst part was the agonized screams of children, young children, but they all sounded like the same person somehow.

A boy.

It hurt my ears and my heart.

"HEY!" I shouted, still groggy from sleep but wide awake. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

The noises did not cease but began to diminish, the wailing of the machines slowly whirring down I a stop, and the inflicted cries fading to a soft, whispery weeping.

I shook mortified in my boots, unable to remain standing. I collapsed, bracing myself with my arms so I didn't fall backwards. I ground my teeth together, trying not to blubber violently in my terror, and then shakily, I stood, leaning against a wall for support.

"H-hello...?" I called weakly, hoarse from sleep. I needed some water.

"H-hey...?"

I cleared my throat and moved slowly forward, my dragging along the wall sounding ominous, like the way dragging dead bodies sounds in the movies.

I was losing my composure as the crying grew louder and louder.

I was nearing the end of the hallway, nearing the coat closet that I had never used myself.

The closer I got the more I noticed the wavering of the haunting voice, and I also noticed the deep chill that crept into the air.

I reached out a hand, touching the doorknob that felt like ice, and turning it, revealing a dark figure lying on its side, very small, and with the front of its body turned away from my view. It's shoulders shook so weakly.

"H...hello?" I didn't want to turn the figure over, I didn't want to see the face, as I expected the worst to come of it. I expected it to be horrible and frightening, but when I did make the figure face me, it was scary, but not as much as I had anticipated.

The figure was a minuscule young boy, one who was so cold and appeared to be starving. His eyes were as black as his hair and cloak, welled with clearish-grey fluid, and one telltale trait gave me ability to identify this stranger.

The green tuft of hair just off of the right side of his head.

"Morro..."

The breaths we both expelled were snowy white and barely translucent, but I knew I had to be warmer than his tiny ghost form.

"Come here..." I stammered, scooping up his frail body in my arms and hugging him to give him warmth. He didn't even acknowledge that I was there, he just continued weeping, the cries echoing through the building softly and imbedding the morosity in its foundations.

"It's-s-s cold..." He whispered. "M-mommy..."

I didn't know what to say. What was the matter with him? Was this just some awful joke?

No.

His humor was morbid, but not like this.

I cradled the child tightly, trying desperately to stop the shivering.

"Shhhhh." I hushed gently, shivering myself to be honest. "It's okay, it's okay, I'm here."

He whimpered. "M...my stomach hurts...mommy...h-help me..."

The thick grey liquid kept seeing from his eyes and it dripped onto my clothes, his eyes widened and he exhaled one final time. Then, his body began to fade, the cracks in the walls mending themselves with a silvery film of black residue trailing along them all.

Morro was gone and my house appeared untouched as it was before, and now I was just so confused and my heart ached.

A gust of wind hit my back and I turned. There Morro stood, all grown and eyes cast ominously down.

"You weren't...supposed to be home..."

"Morro...?" I asked, standing and moving to him. "What was that."

His amber eyes flared with anger. "Stay away from me!"

"Tell me. What just happened?"

I advanced further.

"No! Stay away! I'm warning you!"

I was just writhing reach of him, so despite his angered protests I leaned to him, wrapping his now normally proportioned bodice.

He breathes heavily through his teeth, seething for a few minutes, but then he stopped, putting his arms around me in defeat.

"I shouldn't need you like this..." He whispered. "I shouldn't need you to keep me sane...but I do..."

He moved back just far enough so we could clearly see eye to eye.

"What you saw...it was a loop...I always get stuck in it...every year...its...today was the day that I died..."

"Are...you gonna tell me about it...?"

He sighed, pulling out of my arms.

"I'll tell you, but it's a long story, you may want to sit down."