Disclaimer! All fictional entities featured/ mentioned in this segment belong to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata; with the exception of Erin Blogger (to WhiteLadyDragon) and Acey and Jaime (to smearedliner).

00-4

Such a great myriad of thoughts, feelings, body aches plagued Erin in that one moment, she couldn't respond to any of them except let them exist as she gaped at the paranormal trio, like a doe in front of three monster trucks.

After maybe a minute more, she—somewhat unconsciously—decided to play 'possum, an old habit that she could've sworn she'd outgrown before that point.

Acey's hazel eyes widened when her guest collapsed. She could've sworn her heart stopped in her throat. For one horrible second, she thought she was still working on the Kira Case, and that'd he'd discovered them somehow. Kira was as good as gone, but he'd left an everlasting impression.

"Oh, it seems I've overwhelmed her," Acey said as she carefully maneuvered Erin's head in her lap. "Erin? Erin, honey, can you hear me?"

Jaime rolled his eyes, suddenly remembering why he'd been so annoyed with Erin in the first place. "You see, m'lady, this is what I'm talking about. You are just like him. You say things and then expect people to just roll with them." Turning away from the girls, Jaime headed to the kitchen only to reappear moments later, a glass of water in hand. "Here, this should wake her up."

Acey swiftly grabbed the cup away from Jaime, knowing he'd enjoy dumping it on her far too much. "Sorry about this, babe." Once she'd whispered her apology, Acey proceeded to dump the contents of the glass on Erin's flushed face. A concerned Wicked only had seconds to dash out of the way as she sputtered and gagged back to animation.

Her fist balling up the fabric of her blouse over her chest, Erin blinked frantically to wipe the watery haze off the room and everyone present. Upon seeing Acey's face hovering over hers, she remained still for a moment or so to feel her heartbeat flutter against her knuckes and to collect whatever bearings she could reach before coughing up a mildly coherent response, "Wh-what happened? A…Acey? That you? How'd you get all the way up there?"

"You had a temporary loss of consciousness due to decreased blood flow to your brain," Acey explained, smiling gently at her. "In short, you fainted."

Jaime snorted into his hand, "You are doing it again, m'lady," he said, waving a towel above Wicked's head for him to paw at and play with.

"Hush, Jaime," Acey scolded. She brushed a few wet strands of hair out of Erin's face. "Are you all right?"

"I…think so," Erin groaned in reply, her knuckles rubbing away the sting of the light and the nip of the water that had revived her. "Nothing broken…except maybe my pride. But then, I've broken that so many times, it almost never even feels broken when it is, anymore. At any rate, correct me if I'm wrong, but just a while ago, I thought I just heard you say something about wanting to take me back to your place. Willy's, I think…no, Wammy's, that's it. I must've heard you wrong, that time. I must've."

"I did."

"And Wicked and I can attest to it," said Jaime.

…

"Okay, I was gonna ask you to help me up, but don't bother. I'm just gonna faint, again," Erin deadpanned, after a long, uncomfortable pause. But she couldn't keep that tone for long, for she wasn't the deadpan-type, and now anxiety was starting to hold her by the collar of her blouse, once more, perhaps even panic. Oh, the madness!

"But…you can't be serious, kid. I mean, we just met and all, and even with all the soap opera stuff we've just been through, there's no way you'd trust me that much to go see the place where you grew up!"

…

"Do you? And Near—you gotta refresh my memory, here, I'm sorry—he would actually allow that? Either you guys really are trying to kidnap me after all, or…ugh." She couldn't finish her sentence with anything more coherent. Her head was unscrewing itself off of her shoulders.

Acey pinched the bridge of her nose, frustrated and a little hurt. All the information I've confided in her, and she still doesn't trust me.

She bit her lower lip before she spoke, "That's the thing. I do trust you that much. I knew I could trust you when you chose not to leave when I gave you a means to. I sincerely want you to come back to Wammy's House with me. I want to show you the only place I could ever call home. The closest place that L could call home.

"…And besides, if L could trust you, so can I."

Crouching down next to Erin, Jaime thought it was time to add his two cents. "Lady Erin, this is the first time I've ever seen m'lady react like this to someone. It took a long time for her to trust L. It also took her a long time to trust Near, and he is her betrothed, for Christ's sake," Jaime explained, reaching out to poke Erin in the forehead, who was rattled to full consciousness at the chilling contact.

Betrothed? She and Near are ENGAGED? But…she's just a kid. And so is Near, most likely. Somehow, the idea of an engagement between these two reminded Erin of two kids playing an innocent game of house; it killed her. Though she dared not say it out loud. After all, perhaps this was part of the Wammy's culture?

"I did say that Near was waiting for you. He has an offer for you, one that will benefit all of us. The fact that you didn't leak anything to the media about L or about the Kira Case proves your trustworthiness enough," Jaime continued, handing Erin the towel to clean what water had seeped into her clothes.

Hmph. Even if I wanted to leak any information, I wouldn't be believed, anyway, thought Erin with a slight twinge of bitterness that came about almost entirely on its own. Like the faint throb that came with prodding an old wound. She simply couldn't wrap her mind around the idea that these people would trust her so much, in so little time. It made her brain stretch as far as a rubber band.

Acey gazed down at Erin imploringly. "I promise you that there is no malicious intent of any kind behind my asking you to come back to Wammy's House with me. Have I given you a reason not to trust me, Erin?"

Just seeing the look on the girl's face made Erin feel like shrinking. She didn't want any more crying from either of them. They'd indulged in too many tears, already. "No. N-no, you haven't. I guess if you guys really wanted to hurt me, you'd have done it, by now. Especially when I—well, this is just so sudden. It's not every day that a girl gets wrapped up in stuff like this, you know? It hasn't been my experience, anyway."

I…get to see where you grew up, L? I get to meet your…family?

In a way, Erin wished that Jaime would poke her again. Maybe his touch would keep her from passing out, again? To be honest, she didn't know what to think of any of this. She felt so many things at once, she could hardly process any of them, much less vocalize.

Except, perhaps, the realization that even if she refused, she would still have to do it. Near's word—the word of the current L—commanded her to. She had been put on the spot.

She feebly twiddled her fingers on her stomach: an idle motion to keep herself anchored. "But if this Near wants to see me too, and he's L's stand-in like you said he is, then I guess I don't really have a choice but to go with you, do I?" she chuckled anxiously. "If experience has taught me anything, it's that resistance to authority is futile. Especially if it's L."

What could Near possibly want with me? What is he even like? Is he like you, L?

By that point, Erin had recuperated just enough to lift her head off of Acey's lap and prop herself up by the elbow. "But what am I going to tell my folks? I can't just drop everything and fly with you to—wherever the heck this place is, right this very second."

Acey's face lit up like a kid' on Christmas morning. "Aw, yay!" she cheered, hugging Erin. "I promise you won't regret it."

She furrowed her eyebrows upon breaking the embrace. Presenting an excuse of absence to parents was a foreign concept to her. Considering what her father's line of work had been, she'd rarely ever seen him to begin with, and telling her mother where she would be was the last thing she'd wanted to do.

"Hmm…I've never been in this situation before. Gimme a second to think," she replied, tapping her lower lip as she thought.

That only helped to make Erin feel all the sorrier for her. Hearing Acey admit that reminded her of the time when L had confided in her that he'd had no family to write home to. And she seemed so happy to have heard her consent to traveling with her, Erin couldn't find it in her to take it back. Perhaps she was—once again—getting in over her head, but since the wheels had really started spinning, there was no stopping them, now.

"How about this: you can say you're going to Winchester, England with a colleague. You're visiting the British Museum to 'get the scoop' on the debate concerning the return of their Parthenon statues to their native homeland in Greece. Would that work?" Acey asked, raising an eyebrow in question at Erin.

She watched the tiniest bead of sweat roll down the bridge of her nose before dangling on the tip before mumbling, "I…I guess so." If only lying was a vice that could be totally avoided, but such wasn't the way of the world. Then again, she would have had a far bigger problem with it if the lies didn't sound so much more credible than the truth.

"As for where you are getting the money for this, I'll pay for everything. I have the money to spare, trust me," Acey added as she got to her feet, even before the question had had the chance to cross Erin's mind. She yawned, suddenly feeling exhausted.

"Jaime, keep her company while I make a few calls. If she wishes to go home and pack some necessities before we leave tomorrow night, you are to escort her. Is that understood?"

"Yes, m'lady," Jaime mumbled to her back.

"Him? Escort me?" Erin sputtered, jabbing an incredulous finger in his direction. "What a hot one! Dude's a ghost, for crying out loud! My folks aren't exactly used to seeing your type around our neighborhood."

"Er, excuse me!" Jaime exclaimed, rolling his eyes as he reached out to poke Erin in the forehead again. "Nobody will be able to see me except for you. Sheesh, is your brain not working or something?" he said, speaking in a tone that suggested Erin had just said pigs could fly. "Just think of it as a date, though I doubt you even know what that is," he added, sneaking a glance at Acey outside.

She'd chew me out if she hears me talking to her like this.

Dizzy beyond belief, Erin rested her face in her hands, mostly to keep her blush to herself. She didn't really even know why she was blushing; out of embarrassment, most likely. "A date, he says! A date with a ghost? God, what a day this turned out to be! You're almost as bad as he was," she chortled, suddenly remembering the "double-date" she and L had once gone on with poor Light and Misa.

She stopped to hope that Misa was doing well enough for herself, wherever she was.

When she gathered just enough courage, she looked the ghost square in the eye…or at least, at the wall behind him. "PS: I could get a date, if I wanted to! I just…don't want to."

"Look, I didn't mean what I just said," Jaime continued, nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot. Really, he didn't mean it, because honestly, he thought Erin was kind of pretty. "Lady Acey is a very prominent figure in the underworld, so my escorting you is just a precaution. I don't like it any more than you do, but what she says goes."

Once he finds out Lady Acey has made a new friend, I have no doubts that he'll come around wanting to see what's up, especially when he finds out that she was connected to L. He may be dead, but he could still pose as a threat. And Lady Acey will kill me if anything happens to Erin on my watch.

Mewling loudly, Wicked rubbed his face against Erin's knees, and pawed gently at her thigh, begging to be picked up.

"So, are you going home first, or what?"

"Of course, I'm going home, first," snorted Erin, complying to Wicked's demand and lightly messaging the back of his right ear, earning a satisfied purr from the cat. "All my stuff's there."

Retrieving her cell phone from her back pocket, Acey slid the door open to the balcony connected to the room. Sighing softly, she lifted her face into the cool breeze of the night.

Somehow, I can help but think that Erin and I meeting like this was somehow arranged by someone. Someone who was very concerned for the both of us.

…

After the girls had exchanged hugs and farewells for the evening, Erin was soon waiting at the front of the suite for a taxi, counting out her money to pay for the fare under the garish orange glow of the streetlight.

Oh brother. What a day. Shinigami, killer notebooks, now ghosts? Not to mention, the whole Wammy's House thing. What next: vampires that sparkle in the sunlight?

She couldn't even begin to describe how peculiar it felt to have a ghost waiting alongside her, a companion whom only she could see out of everyone wandering the streets. She'd realized long ago that had a knack of seeing what no one else would, in her own way.

It's times like these that make me wish Matsuda were here. He was a lot more fun. And alive.

…

Huh. Wonder what he and the others are up to? Do they even know about Near's position as the current L? Probably. We're pretty much the only ones who know what happened to L-L. But maybe they wouldn't personally know Near…

Realizing that these questions would not uncover their answers anytime soon—and perhaps neither later—she turned to her otherworldly escort and lowered her voice to a whisper as her mind switched to a more urgent worry: "You think I should pay the driver for two people? I mean, you're a ghost and all, but…it doesn't seem right to pay them for just one person. It feels like we'd be cheaping them out."

She paused upon realizing something else. "Why do you gotta go home with me, anyway? What about Acey? She's younger than me, for Christ's sake. Aren't you her chaperone?"

"You can pay my way as a tip to him, I guess," Jaime shrugged. When a cab pulled to a stop in front of them, Jaime reached to open the door for her before he knew what he was doing. "Sorry, I would open the door for you, but, well, you know. I was raised to be a gentleman, believe it or not."

Jaime slid into the cab before Erin did, offering her his hand to help her into the cab. "You are right, she is my ward. But like I said before, my escorting is only a form of precaution, Lady Erin."

Precaution against what, exactly? If I got mugged somewhere, it's not like he could fight the guy off…

Then again, all Rem had to do was write in her notebook to protect Misa. She was a shinigami.

"I can already tell that m'lady is going to be protective of you. She's a good person to have on your side. She's fiercely loyal to the ones she treasures most in her life, and will do anything for them."

Had they not had an unsuspecting driver sitting just in front of them, Erin would've replied. Instead, she gave him the address of her parents' place. Until she had an income stable enough for a place of her own, she had had yet to fully detach herself from their resources, both in terms of finance and emotional support.

It killed her to hear that, all the same. The ones she treasures most, huh? We just met for an interview, and she already thinks that highly of me? Wonder what the rest of her gang is like…what the rest of L's gang is like, I should say.

Jaime turned to look out the cab window. Rain began to dot the glass, and gentle growls of thunder could be heard in the distance. Bright forks of lightning started to comb across the sky.

Turning to Erin, Jaime flashed her a smile that complimented his handsome face. "You've made Lady Acey really happy by agreeing to go back to Wammy's with her. I haven't seen her smile like that in a long time. I really appreciate it, Lady Erin. Nothing makes me more happy than to see her happy. As long as she is, then that's all that matters to me."

He was a ghost. Nothing else could matter to him.

"It would also make her happy if you came back to the hotel tonight after you finished packing. Lady Acey never really had a girlfriend to spend time with, so to speak. Most of the girls at Wammy's House avoided her. In their eyes, she was a dangerous freak of nature. L, Near, Matt and Mello were all she had for a long time."

Mello and Matt…more protégés of yours, L?

Erin clung to her seat belt strap like a lifeline. She could feel her senses tingling, no, flaring. Just how far over her head had she dove in?

Really, though, that was too bad. Once one got past the ghost thing and the other eccentricities, Acey seemed like an otherwise good person. Erin's nature wouldn't allow her to leave her in that suite on her lonesome.

Guess I'll make something else up to Mom and Dad, then, huh?

She made sure to leave the cab driver a hearty tip of twenty dollars along with the money for the fare when he dropped them off in front. She would need all the good karma she could get. Pulling her hat over her eyes to shield her face from the rain, she paused before opening the door.

"If I'm gonna stay with you guys, do you have a computer I can use? I still have an article to turn in tomorrow."

Normally, Jaime would've offered his jacket to Erin. Before he realized what he was doing, he actually started to take off his jacket. He couldn't stress enough that old human habits die hard after you died. Shrugging his jacket back onto his shoulder, Jaime turned to Erin and nodded.

"Yes. Lady Acey carries two laptops with her: one for work and one for leisure. She would be more than happy to lend you the one she uses for leisure. It should have the appropriate word processing program for you to type your article. If you don't mind, m'lady, I'd like to read the article when you are finished with it."

Erin's fingers had barely brushed the knob when she became flushed. Oh, wow. Now he's calling ME 'm'lady?'

Jaime was silent for a moment. There was a soft expression on his face as he regarded her. He let out a heavy sigh. "Hold on a minute, Lady Erin," He said, putting a hand on her shoulder. When she looked over her shoulder at him, Jaime continued: "I want to apologize for my rude behavior from earlier," he paused, bowing respectfully.

"Uh…no, it's fine. You didn't know me, I didn't know you. It was kinda inevitable. But now that we do know each other, let's just put that behind us."

"I wasn't sure that I could trust you with Lady Acey, yet. But after watching you with her this evening, I now know that I can indeed trust you with her."

A shy smile suddenly tugged at the corners of his mouth; were he still alive, a slight blush might've appeared in his cheeks. "You shouldn't sell yourself short either, m'lady. Forgive me if I come off a little too forward with my next statement, but if I were alive, I would surely ask you out to dinner and dancing."

She could barely help the shiver that danced down her backbone, and perhaps it wasn't simply because of Jaime's inhumanly cold touch. After all, it wasn't every day that a supernatural being came up to a girl and told her that. Somehow, it made her reminisce of the time when she'd asked L how much he actually liked her—Halloween, she could still remember—and how he'd answered with "Two percent."

L had been very fond of percentages. They were so easy to lie about.

Adjusting her hat, she only had this to say for the sake of keeping things friendly as she diverted her attention back to the door: "O…kay. Thanks, I guess."

Despite herself, Erin had to wonder when she crossed the threshold into her home if either Misa or Light ever felt this way when they'd been owners of Death Notes: having a supernatural being tag closely behind that only the person being followed was aware of. It made standing with mixed company—namely, her parents—horribly uncomfortable, especially when it clashed with her social instinct to introduce new friends.

With an arm wrapped around her, her mother cheered, "So honey, how did it go?"

Erin felt so out of it, she almost didn't know what she was asking. "How did what go?" she mumbled, trying so hard not to glance even once in Jaime's direction and feeling bad about it, all the same.

"Why, the interview, of course!" said her mother as they walked together into the kitchen where her father was hastily placing the milk back in the fridge before he could be caught drinking out of it.

"Oh, yeah. That. It was certainly an interesting interview, Mom."

I met a girl who talks to spirits and comes from a place called Wammy's House and is a protégé of old L's and she and her friend Near who is the current L want to see me and have you met Jaime here he's her ghost-friend who wanted to take me home—

"I would go into details, but I'd much rather write about it than just talk about it. That's my job, after all. You'll see my incredible story on the front page with everyone else in the city. Possibly the whole state. Maybe even the whole country."

She isn't really exaggerating that, either, Jaime thought as he lazily followed Erin into the kitchen.

"Are you okay, Erin?" her father asked, his thumbs twiddling in almost the same way his daughter did. "You look a little spaced out."

You have no idea.

"Pfft. I'm okay, Dad. I'm just trying to visualize my story in my head so I'll know what to put down as soon as I find a computer. Ah, that reminds me: I got handed another opportunity, today. A whopper."

It was times like these that made Erin wonder if she really ought to write for the cheesiest tabloid in New York. That way, she could say whatever she wanted, even if no one in their right mind would believe an ounce of it. The only thing holding her back from that plan, however, was her code of honor.

As Erin chatted with her parents, Jaime idly observed the activity going on around him. The air surrounding the Bloggers' household was warm and inviting, a stark contrast to what life had been like in Acey's household before she'd been liberated to Wammy's House.

The only atmosphere that had resided there had been one of pure terror.

The image of Acey hunkered down on the bathroom floor in a pool of her own blood, trying to swallow her sobs of pain as she pulled out the thick pieces of glass protruding from her arms was not an easy image to forget. He remembered how, despite the fact that he'd be standing guard outside the door, being ready to a lock it a moment's notice, she would scream in fright at the slightest noise, imagining her mother returning for her twice in the same night.

"Wow, Erin! The British Museum?" her mother exclaimed.

"You're not planning to pull an international heist, are you?"

"Aw, Dad, quit it! We're just gonna look into the debate over the Parthenon sculptures, is all. We're not doing anything dishonest," Erin giggled, inwardly cringing at the word "dishonest."

"But Erin, this all sounds so short-notice," said her mother. Perhaps she was worried about letting her daughter travel abroad again, considering what had happened on her first trip…or at least, what Erin had told her had happened. "I mean, England? That's a whole ocean away."

"So is Japan, Mom." Erin reached into the fridge to pull out the milk, while her other hand groped the inside of the cupboard for a glass. "I'll admit, I was a little taken by surprise, too. Amie had intended to go with another colleague of hers, but she pulled out at the last minute. I didn't want to leave poor Amie hanging. Besides, my passport's still good and Amie knows people over there. I'll be okay. And for the cherry on top, they speak English."

Had her brother Farley still been home, he might've butted in with something along the lines of, "How insightful, Captain Obvious."

Jaime snorted when he heard Erin's alias for Acey. She would definitely have wrinkled her nose at it.

Erin frowned upon pouring the pasteurized cow-squirt into her glass. "Dad, are you drinking out of the carton, again?"

"Of course not!" Mr. Blogger replied hastily, in a way that Erin couldn't decide was a joke or an honest asspull of an excuse. "It's probably that danged cat of yours. He's nowhere to be found. I personally find that a little suspicious. Just about everything about him is suspicious, really." Lawliet liked to hide in the secret nooks and crannies of the house, most likely to escape the constant racket that was the Blogger family.

Well, I didn't name him Lawliet strictly on a whim.

Mrs. Blogger, on the other hand, pressed a doubtful finger up to her temple. "I don't know, Erin: just how long are you going to be gone?" she asked, something that Erin had admittedly not seen coming in all of the excitement.

She had barely lifted the glass to her lips when she paused. "How long're we gonna be gone? Is that what you said?"

"I'm not senile yet, honey. Yes, that's what I said."

"Uh…"

She remained face-to-face with the fridge, unwilling to let either of her parents see her roll her eyes to find Jaime anywhere in the kitchen. Acey hadn't made any mentions about the duration of their jaunt to Wammy's. None that she recalled, at least.

Jaime swooped in to rescue her like a supernatural knight riding a white horse. It was so typical of Lady Acey to make plans without constructing a time frame.

Walking up to stand beside her next to the fridge, the tall phantom leaned down to whisper in her ear: "Would two and a half weeks suffice, Lady Erin? It would be completely up to you how long you want to stay at Wammy's, but what about two and a half weeks?"

In the company of her parents, she couldn't afford to shake her head in refusal. But two and a half weeks sounded kind of long for her, especially since she was about to travel to a place she had no solid knowledge of—nor did anyone on the outside, for that matter. If the place was an absolute madhouse—or even if it wasn't, she could never be sure—she wouldn't want to stay longer than necessary.

So Erin pursed her lips in response as her mind scrambled for a smaller figure. "A week," she surfaced with. "Just a week. Oh yeah, there's something else, too: Amie wants me to spend the night over at her place. So I gotta go pack."

Mr. Blogger perked up in very mild dismay. "Huh? Right now? But Erin, you just got home. And…what about your story?"

Erin took a much-needed gulp of her milk and wiped away the white mustache the clung to her upper lip with her sleeve. "Amie wants to go over the plans she's laid out for the trip, and also to save the effort of coming over to pick me up. Nutty girl reserved a flight for first thing in the morning; she's really hot about this. And I can't help but empathize with her sentiment. And don't worry about the article; I'll just work on it over at her place and E-mail it to Mr. Inkling. He said that was okay."

For some reason, her mouth felt as though it required mouthwash. Tubs and tubs of mouthwash. I'm such a goddamn liar, I could make L or Light look like Honest Abe.

She turned her head and grinned at them both as she rinsed the glass in the sink. "Really, Mom, Dad, it's okay. I've got everything all worked out. All you have to worry about is Lawliet. I mean, just for the week, and I don't think he'll be too burdensome with me gone."

Mrs. Blogger's gaze seemed to darken from her point of view, as if to say, "Well, maybe you shouldn't have gotten a cat if you're going to be too busy to take care of him. We're not grandparents that you can just drop him on when it's convenient for you." But not terribly dark. The Bloggers were incapable of holding on to dark feelings for very long.

Ultimately, she sighed. After all, besides the current living arrangements, Erin was otherwise an emancipated adult. "Well, honey, if you've honestly got everything worked out, and you're absolutely sure about this, then I guess we can trust you not to get into any trouble."

"But we'll have the President's envoy on speed-dial, just in case," said Mr. Blogger.

"Dad!"

"And be sure to call whenever you can, if you do have a problem. And even if you don't." Erin's parents still loved to act as though she couldn't take care of herself. Not that she could actually blame them.

Besides, at least she had parents that cared. She knew people who hadn't even been aware of such a blessing.

As soon as she and her companion stalked down the hallway, she peered out of the corner of her eye to see Jaime smirking suggestively at her. "So, can I see your room?"

Only when she deemed it safe, did she grumble, "I thought you were a gentleman, dude. Please, I'm not in the mood." Horseplay was only enjoyable when one felt in the mood for it. She just wanted to get everything together and be out the door as soon as possible, though not without saying good-bye to Lawliet. If he'd allow her to find him, that is.

For that matter, Erin hadn't thought that ghosts were capable of enjoying horseplay. Though, she supposed, if shinigami liked to do it, what wouldn't, then?

…

Jaime's presence had been replaced by another entity. He sat perched on the couch, knees drawn to his chest, observing with a sinister smirk at how utterly vulnerable L's precious medium was, in a deep sleep with her head resting on her arm. She'd nodded off in front of her laptop, leaving him the chance to leave Acey a dead, bleeding mess before her party returned.

Still, he would have to pass up the delicious opportunity for the sake of curiosity.

Instead, the phantom decided to shake things up a little. With ambidextrous fingers, he unwound the gauze from around Acey's hand. Smirking wider, he dug his cruel fingers into the crescent-shaped wounds until fresh blood pooled from the tender scabs for him to dab onto his fingertips.

Hoping off the couch, he stroked his hand across the coffee table, smearing blood on its polished wood surface. Before he left, he decided to add one final touch. Dipping his fingers into the growing pool of blood in her palm like an artist dipping his brush in a palette, he smeared blood down Acey's neck and on her chest.

When he heard the footsteps and murmurs of Acey's lapdog and the object of his curiosity approaching the room, the phantom paused to admire his work for a moment before disappearing.