By the time Rosalina stepped out of the house, the sudden wave of heat hit her and the blonde found herself being forced to take off her jacket. She really didn't know what was worse: the unbearable heat of the outside or the freezing atmosphere of Nana's room.

Probably Nana's room. Yes.

"Hey, miss," someone called out not too far away from her. "Does he bite?"

Rosalina turned around and saw a rather muscular black-haired young man standing a couple of feet away from her, pointing at Mr. Peepers, who currently sat on the floor to scratch his long black ears. Judging by his sporty clothes and sweaty face, it was safe to say had been jogging for quite some time.

Oh, right, there were living beings in this neighborhood that weren't her and her dog too. Rosalina forgot about that for a moment.

"N-No, he doesn't. You can pet him, he's a nice dog," she said.

"Okay, cool," he grinned and then crouched to scratch Mr'. Peeper's ears. "He's really cute, y'know? I mean, it's a he, right?"

"It's a he..."

Rosalina distractly looked back at the house behind her, not paying attention to Mr. Peepers or the young man petting him. She wondered if she could see Nana from the window of the upper floor, but with the windows' curtains covering most of the room's view, she highly doubted she could see clearly if the girl was still there, observing her as she left.

Apparently, the man noticed her gaze, because he stopped whatever he was doing to follow her gaze. "You interested in this house?" he asked.

As if by magic, her attention was brought back to Earth. "What was that? I'm sorry, I was distracted," she apologized, now looking him in the eyes.

"Don't sweat it, you're not the first one to get like this near this place," he laughed.

"What was your name again?"

"Call me Mac," he said with a grin. "You are...?"

"Rosalina. Tell me, Mac, what do you know about this house?"

"Oh, you mean the haunted house of the Climbers?"

"Haunted, you say?" she asked in the most casual tone possible.

"Yeah, haunted. With ghosts and stuff. Everyone around here knows about it and just stays away from the house."

"And you know why it is said to be haunted? Surely this rumour couldn't have appeared out of thin air."

"Ah, no, it's not a rumour! 'Tis true, I'm telling ya," Mac exclaimed. "I know, 'cos I have already entered this house and felt the ghost's presence."

"Oh, you did?" Rosalina hid a rare smirk. "And what did you feel?"

"First things first, that house is always cold, no matter which season we're in. If you enter this house now, you'll see what I mean. But I don't recommend you doin' it."

It was a little too late to recommend that.

"But why is it haunted? Did some family die in there?"

"Uh, well, not the whole family," Mac scratched his head. "From what I remember hearing, the Climbers were a couple with two kids. But some stuff happened and the girl died. Then they just kind of moved away to another neighborhood and left the place like that."

"And nobody tried selling it? This house looks that it's still in good condition. If someone just bought it..."

"Nah, they never tried sellin'. Nobody wanted to. Every time someone would enter the house they would complain about something. The cold, the strange noises and doors opening and closing at random, the way they felt depressed the more they stood there. They couldn't even get into the girl's bedroom without having something thrown at them," the man shrugged his shoulders. "They gave up before putting the house for sale."

"So you think it is the ghost of the girl's fault?"

"Of course it's the ghost of the girl! One hundred percent sure! Didn't I just tell ya? People had stuff thrown at them out of nowhere."

Oh, Nana, she really wasn't feeling like letting go of the house. "Hey, Mac, how did this girl die?" she asked.

"Man, you sure are interested in this, uh?"

"I have always liked a good ghost story."

"Sorry, Rosalina, I have no idea what happened to her. I just live around here, and that's as much as I know."

Rosalina cursed internally, though she knew she couldn't blame Mac for not knowing something that did not concern him. To think she was having it easy when getting answers. Too bad one of the most important of them was one of those he didn't know.

So once she bid her farewells to him, wishing the obligatory "happy holidays", the first thing she did once she got home was dive into a very exhausting research on the internet, consisting of just browsing Nana's name and hoping her answers would appear on the first page. But the internet would just not collaborate with her at all and all her hardworking search, consisting of typing and clicking through links, was useless. Nothing. There was nothing about Nana. Only a couple of deactivated links to social media accounts, which made Rosalina wonder if it was anyone from her family who deactivated when she passed away.

Oh, if only she had asked for her parents names, she could enter in contact with them. But what could she say to them?

Hi, so I met the ghost of your daughter in your former house, and she's going through some emotional turmoil that might be the reason why she hasn't ascended to another plane and I want help her and-

And then they would think she was a madwoman. No, that wouldn't do it.

Did it really matter at all to know what happened to her? Couldn't she just resolve her current issues? Would Nana even like to talk about them?

Rosalina needed to rest her eyes for a while. Or that was what she wanted to do, until she heard the phone ring from the other side of the room. Usually she would just let Palutena answer it, but since she was not home yet, Rosalina begrudgingly answered it. "Hello?" she asked.

"Rosalina, I'm already here at the mall," the other voice spoke, making Rosalina's blood freeze on the spot. "Where are you?"

"Oh, Peach, I'm so sorry," Rosalina apologized, almost tripping over the carpet as she clumsily grabbed her mary janes fromt the floor. "I completely forgot I had to meet you."

"Get your head off from space for a change, will you? You're lucky your apartment is so near to the mall," Peach grumbled. "I'll be waiting at the entrace. See you soon."

She would have to ask Nana personally. It couldn't be that bad. As far as Rosalina could tell, she seemed to be aware of her "powers". If Nana acknowledged them, that was another story, though. Rosalina just had to be really careful when asking.


Okay, so maybe deciding to go straight to the point was a lot more difficult than Rosalina thought. And really, she had no idea why she suddenly got so shy when she approached Nana. She parked her car, she got out of it, she walked with confident steps towards the abandoned house, all while repeating her question in her head over and over again. She even had the correct tone of voice all figured it out and all sorts of comebacks in case Nana decided to go full arctic mode on her again.

One look at the girl's enthusiastic dark eyes and Rosalina's determination went down the drain. The two ended up talking about the most trivial things ever, without giving much opportunity for Rosalina to get to the subject that she wanted to talk about. It was almost as if the girl knew what she had in ming, so she kept talking about anything that wasn't related to herself.

But not all hope was lost. She could still win that battle. Instead of asking straight up just what happened to her and how she could help her, Rosalina simply asked:

"So, what happened to Popo? You said he would return yesterday?"

"I did?" she feigned innocence. "I guess I meant it today."

"Are you sure he is coming back?" she asked while sitting on the same chair from yesterday.

"He has to! We always spend Christmas together."

"Nana, how long have you been waiting for him?"

"Have you forgotten already?" she put her hands on her hips. "He's been away for only a week."

And a few dozens others, apparently. "Must have been a pretty long week, right?" Rosalina asked casually.

"Ah, well, a little."

"You said you wanted to celebrate Christmas with him, yet I don't see any Christmas decorations laying around. Actually, I don't see any furniture around here except from your room," she continued on, making Nana visibly uncomfortable.

Nana turned her back to her and kept pacing back and forth, never once looking Rosalina in the eye. She wasn't even walking, she was just floating in circles. How can somone not be aware that your feet don't touch the ground?

"Say, why didn't you bring Mr. Peepers with you today?" Nana asked, putting on that melancholic smile on her face again. "I like to play with him."

She would not change subjects. Rosalina had already tiptoed around what she wanted to say long enough. "Nana," she said as gently as she could. "You know Popo's not coming home, right?"

"I think it's time for you to go."

"What happened to you?"

"I'll see you later."

"Nana..."

"Leave."

"How did you die?"

Rosalina closed her eyes and braced herself for another sudden drop of the temperature (and maybe even being thrown off the chair), but none of that happened. Instead, once she opened her eyes, Nana had already vanished. Maybe that wasn't the best choice of words, now that she stopped to think about it. She needed to be a lot more cautious.

But it was also so infuriating! She knew it. Nana knew that she was dead all along. She knew everything that's been happening to her, yet she pushed Rosalina away, despite her making it clear that she wanted to help. Okay, so maybe she wasn't clear enough, but seeing Nana being so stubborn to tell her what was her problem was frustrating her to no end.

"Nana, where are you?" she called out for her. "I just want to help. Talk to me, please."

She searched the house up and down, getting more nervous as the seconds passed by. Nana wouldn't appear for nothing. She tried calling her name a few more times, but there was no sign of her being nearby anywhere. Where could she be?

Why did she care? She had better things to do than chase after a delusional ghost girl. Christmas was just around the corner and she still had so much to do and help her cousin Peach to receive their family on her house.

"Fine, if that's how you want it to be," she hissed and stormed of the house, unaware of the same girl she has been chasing, who was staring her with tearful eyes.


"You're home late today," Palutena said as she saw Rosalina entering their apartment. "Usually you're the one waiting for me."

"Sometimes I like to break my routines," she answered dryly.

"What bug bit you today? You sound cranky," the green haired woman asked, putting aside the book she was reading.

"It's nothing. I'm just tired, that's all. I have been following Peach through stores and markets all day."

"I thought she only wanted you to help on finding gifts for Mario and Luigi?"

"That was yesterday," she dropped her purse on the couch and took off her shoes, heading straight to her room. "I'm just itred. Goodnight."

"G-Goodnight..."

Palutena sighed as she heard her friend slam her room's door and went back to reading her book. It was obvious Rosalina was having issues, but she learned from long ago that it was useless to pressure her into telling her what was wrong. Rosalina was a master in the art of isolating herself sometimes. Palutena just wished she knew knew how to help her friend sometimes.

She turned her head to look at Mr. Peepers, who kept on chewing on his worn out duck doll on the carpet, not minding his surroundings. "Hey, you," she said, making him turn his eyes to her. "Your owner is sad. I'm pretty sure needs to cuddle you."

Mr. Peepers tilted his head to the side and continued on chewing his doll. Palutena glared at him and closed her book.

"Oh, well..."

She didn't know what was up with her friend and she knew it was useless to try to get an answer out of her. But she could always be there for her.


Didn't like that ending that much, but I'm going to stick with it anyway. I originally thought I would have this story finished in three chapters, but I was wrong again. I'm kind of afraid I won't finish this in time, but deadlines are always good motivations to write faster.