The Chwe's car stopped infront of the house. It was, ordinary. A usual house for a four people household. The neighborhood also ordinary, didn't seem like a lot of young people did live here. Mantha didn't really care enough to look around, while they had been preparing the house. She tried to stay at her real home as long as possible. The neighborhood was close to the human world, therefore the houses were a lot cheaper, that's the only thing she really knew.
Mantha's mother got out of the car and immediately talked to the moving gargoyles who were about to lift the couch. Sam, her brother still slept with his check against the window. Her father got the last boxes out of the back.
She sighed. It was official. This move had been the pain of her existence, at least for the last couple of months. She already was in school most of the time but now she wasn't able to see her friends she had to leave at her old town. Mantha got out of the car scanning the house again. She grabbed her backpack as her phone buzzed.
4 new messages:
Ra: Yoo you finally arrived?
Mantha: yes sadly
Ra: i'm still trusting the arson plan if yk what i mean
Mantha: yk I love destroying things but i think this won't help me get my old place back
Ra: You could live under a bridge
Ra: gtg dad's callin ttyl
Mantha smiled, Ra was a good friend, and he helped her a lot to cope with the move, even if it was by learning how to roll the perfect blunt but eh.
3 new messages
Millie: b it's already boring without you, come baaack. I miss youu
Mantha: I miss you too! I hate this town
Millie: Don't befriend another kids here okay?
Mantha: you'll always b my no 1 bestie and yk that
Millie: Ik I just like reassurance. Also Frankie asked me about you. You should text him back.
The zombie rolled her eyes. Frankie and her were broken up for almost six months but he was still trying to fix up some things. She liked him a lot, he was a good buddy but they couldn't work as a couple that's for sure.
2 new messages
Frankie: Hey are you at your new house already??
Mantha: ya
Frankie: it's a shame you keep moving further away
Mantha: yes it's crappy
Frankie: I hope we can still meet up one day
She sighed and just sent a smiley to end the conversation.
1 new message
Casper: How was the family road trip, you finally arrived?
Mantha: yes, and i hate everything about it
Casper: aw come on can't be that bad, bet you can finally turn in your own room without touching a wall.
Mantha: ok I guess that's a plus but still
Casper: give it a chance it'll be easier to look at it with optimism
Mantha: You're right but it's hard
Casper: Ik, feel free to use me as your personal trashcan to write complaints to
Mantha: I will, thanks
Mantha blushed a little. Casper was too sweet. What Ra made in comforting by having fun Casper did by listening and rambling. Listening to Casper explaining the underworlds housing marked but also beeing super understanding about her feelings was a refreshing thing. Most of her friend group was very into brushing things off, not acknowledging the bad but Casper insisted on talking about it. He said it'd be a healthy way to get used to changes.
Mantha was forced to look up from her phone when Sam passed her and kicked her against the leg. „Stop blocking the entrance." he muttered still tired. „Shouldn't you be in college or something." Mantha teased and got flipped off. Her older brother mumbled something before disappearing inside of the house. A last sigh before stepping in.
She took off her shoes in the hallway. It looked like one of these fake rooms in a some furniture shop. Everything was clean and untouched. Very impersonal.
The zombie had picked her room two weeks ago so there was no arguing with Sam which was calming. She scuffed of the stairs. Her room was still empty. The only thing standing was her bedframe. They must have started with the truck that didn't contain her stuff. Great.
Mr Chwe had insisted on painting the walls white but Mantha had convinced him to allow her to paint on them. She'd do that later when she could decide on where to put which furniture. She trew her bag in the middle of the room and then headed down again. Her mother was instructing another gargoyle on where to put the sofa. She glanced at Mantha for a second. „Mantha, why don't you look around the neighborhood for a bit? Your belongings won't be ready until afternoon." she explained while still gesturing the gargoyle instructions.
Her daughter nodded. Mantha decided she had to look around at some point. She could as well do it now. All while walking out of the house and putting her shoes on she started her music and began to look around.
There really were only living old people here. The youngest people must have been 65 or something. Great now she couldn't even listen to music after six in the afternoon without getting complaints.
House, after house, after house and they certainly all looked the same. The only difference was their shape of green. Mantha left her street and was now confronted by a crotch. One way was leading to the main road they had come from. Nothing but more houses and more old people. The other way wasn't tared. There were a few dead trees around it. Seemed good. Maybe a hangout spot?
Well not really it lead to a dead end. Bushes had completely grown over the way. Mantha was thinking about turning around but something called her attention. It was a singh. But not any regular singh like the traffic singh she had in her old room, for reasons. It looked like a town singh, but not like one from the monster world.
As she picked up the singh she remembered, this town had a portal to the human world. That's how it must have gotten here. It was heavily dented and dusty. Sometimes the portals malfunctioned and absorb things in their area. Therefore it was no wonder it was here.
Mantha blew the dust of it. She had to look twice and even a third time. The singh said »Deeztown«.
The monster world is somewhat underneath the human world. They have the same geography, well country whise. The monsterworld is a whole lot bigger tough. The point is, her little town and Deeztown must overlap each other. A nice coincidence.
Anyway. Mantha looked around for the point to activate it. It must be around here somewhere. Ah there. It was a symbol carved into the ground. A step on it and the green portal turned up. Usually she would have at first considered what her parents would say but her mom had given her until afternoon so she could as well pull a little trip to Deeztown to surprise her friend.
Luckily Casper's house wasn't far from the portal it was a five minute walk at best. Probably because Casper's house, though beeing very visible for the townies, it was far away enough to hide some minor happenings, like an zombie hopping out of a portal.
She walked through the garden up to the front door. It felt odd, Mantha usually got into the house through the portal in school, she had never visited Casper while they weren't in school. Now she was oddly nervous. Why? She shook her head and knocked on the door.
A rumbling could have been heared and then silence. Mantha rang the door bell again and then the door opened slowly. She looked inside. It was empty. No one was there. Mantha stepped in looking around. A loud scream from the left. But instead of being scared she bursted into laughter.
Casper was standing there dressed in an apron with flower print, holding a rolling pin as weapon. The ghost was too confused to react. „What's with the outfit?" Mantha laughed. „I'm- I'm making dinner." Casper answered, still confused. „Why are you- How did you- What?" he asked while he sank the rolling pin.
„I told you my new town is linked to the human world." she explained. It felt weird to just stand in his house. Usually they just were there when they needed a shortcut to deeztown to hang out with Jimmy. Casper now narrowed his eyes. „What's your town called again?"
It was obvious that Mantha was struggling to remember, her mom had mentioned it so often but she always forgot it, so she awkwardly changed the subject. „Where are your uncles?" she laughed nervously. The ghost chuckled. „At work."
Then silence. Now both were a bit embarrassed. Usually it was Ra who changed the subject and kept the conversation alive. Especially after each one of them had explained their feelings towards the other to their friend.
The ghost cleared his throat. „Do you want to stay for dinner? We're having pasta." he muttered. „Hell yeah!" She forgot her anxiety for a second. Casper was good at cooking. He had proven that multiple times by now and knowing that her mom wouldn't have the motivation to cook tonight she counted herself lucky.
They walked into the kitchen. Casper had already started. He was cutting vegetables. The ghost always insisted on cooking healthy, since his uncles were living of junk food most of the time and he himself wasn't the biggest fan of meat in general.
„Hope you have no problem with a vegetarian version." he sounded almost concerned. She knew him, this man would drop everything to change the meal if a friend demanded that. „Yeah totally." Mantha said as she threw a piece of red pepper in the air to catch it with her mouth. „Can I help with anything?" she asked. Most of the vegetables were already cut.
Casper needed to think for a second. „You can start preparing the water." he suggested. „Gimme a pot and I'll do it. Should be easy." she laughed. The ghost rumbled trough a shelf with pots and pans. He took a midsize pot and a pan. „You think you can handle that?" he asked jokingly as the zombie grabbed the pot. „I can handle everything." she grinned.
Cooking with Casper was actually very fun. Even though Ra wasn't here to continue any conversations the two had a lot of stuff to talk about. Mantha rambled about Frankie while Casper had to tell her everything about the new movie he had watched. After overcoming the awkward silence nothing could stop the two from talking, discussing, joking and sometimes gossiping. Casper was a smart guy with a lot of knowledge but unlike most smart people he wouldn't shove his intelligence into your face, or would talk down on you. He also was one of the most understanding people, they often differed in opinion but he accepted hers as well as she would accept his. (To be fair that was mostly on non political stuff, My Chemistry Nightmare is objectively better than Van Hellsing!)
While Mantha was draining the spaghetti, Casper was finishing the sauce. Ten minutes later both sat at the table, both with a plate infront of them. „What about you uncles?" Mantha asked while shoving another fork into her mouth. „They texted me. They'll get home later than planned." The ghost shrugged. Mantha narrowed her eyes. That wasn't the first time this happened, Casper was often alone at home during breaks. Jimmy was at a Soccercamp or something so there weren't really many options left.
„What are you even doing the whole day?" Mantha asked rather bluntly. He had to think about it. „Well Uhm, I clean and cook, oh sometimes I do laundry." „And apart that? You know for yourself?" she continued. „Oh I read and watch movies, oh and I listen to music." he stretched every word in it pronounciation so his sentence would sound a bit longer. She pouted. „Boring." she teased. „I never said my life was interesting ma'am." he chuckled. „You think between the movies and the reading you can squeeze in your pal over here." she pointed at herself. „My door's always open for my friends so of course, but next time you probably should announce your visit." he joked.
Mantha snorted. „What were you so scared of anyway? I thought you're a pacifist." the zombie giggled. „ Girl Scouts." he shivered. Now she bursted out into laughter. „What?!" she wheezed. „They have a hatred towards us because we didn't want to buy their cookies. They even demolished our mailbox. These four year old are scarier than the entirety of Scare School." he huffed while Mantha was trying to stop herself from laughing. „Stoop." her friend whined. „That's not funny, I'm scared as fuck." he added, which only really made it worse. He knew how stupid he must have sounded because he started chuckling as well.
Mantha put the last plate back into the shelf after drying it. „It was delicious, Thanks."
„Always." he smiled. She blushed a little. He was too sweet. The zombie looked around a bit. „I've never been this long at your house." she figured. „We never hang out here." Casper shrugged while cleaning the sink. „It's a shame it's big and your uncles aren't really at home." she said while looking around again. „Like I've never been upstairs. The only thing I ever saw was this part." she pointed from the spot in front of the stairs to he main entrance." She explained. „Like where do you sleep?" she asked. „You want to see my room?" Casper offered. His friend nodded heavily.
She was always interested how someone like Casper lived. A room says a lot about it's occupant, but with the eight-bed dorms in Scare School it was a little bit harder to figure that out. She had seen Ra's room in a few videos but never Casper's.
He opened the door for her. It was a rather big room and very light. The only room that seemed (somewhat) freshly painted. It was quite empty. With only a bed, a small nightstand, a closet and a desk. She was impressed by the fire place though. But it seemed so as if it hadn't been used in a while.
The walls were empty except for the one next to Casper's bed. It had three photos stuck to it. One of Jimmy, a family picture with him and his uncles and the one the three had taken in a photobooth in Dis once. It had been terribly over priced, like everything in Dis was. The photo looked so chaotic. Mantha sat in the middle, Casper was pressed against the booth's wall and Ra had to shove his head into the focus while at the same time trying to not fall off the small bench. Neither Casper nor Mantha were shot very well, Ra on the other hand looked good, he was just photogenic.
„You hung that up?" she asked slightly blushing. „Uh yeah, it's the only photo we have." he explained seemingly nervous. Mantha smiled, Casper was a softie after all. They had three copies of that picture actually. Mantha had put it into a frame, with a lot of other pictures with her and her friends from home. She still didn't know where to put it though.
They sat down on the bed. „First time a girl's in your bed?" Mantha teased. „You'd wonder." Casper grinned. They both giggled and Mantha let herself fall back. His bed was comfortable. „You need some of those glow in the dark stars." she laughed. She flinched as Casper fell back as well. „You think? Isn't that a bit too cheesy?" he asked. „You're the king of cheese." she joked. „Which one, you can't just trow all kinds of cheese in a pot and pretend they're the same." he huffed playfully offened. „Gouda." She answered like she had been prepared for that question.
The ghost blinked before turning his head in her direction. „Why Gouda?" he asked confused. „I don't know, fits your additude." she explained as she turned her head to him as well.
Their eyes met. It was silent for a moment but this wasn't embarrassing silence. It was kind of nice. Casper's eyes studied her's and she did the same. His eyes were very light, she had never seen this color in eyes before but it was nice. His eyes spoke a lot, he was easy to read which was actually pretty good. Made it easier to understand his true feelings. She smiled, his eyes showed that he seemed to enjoy the moment.
The silence broke by Casper's laughing. „What kind of additude fits gouda?" he giggled Mantha had to join in. „I don't know your's?" she chuckled. She liked Casper's smile. He smiled a lot, in a calming way. His smile, much like his eyes said a lot. He wasn't like Ra who always smiled because of his personal optimism, it seemed like he would smile for others to make them feel better. That sounded sadder than it was meant to be.
It was silent again the two were looking at each other, well they hadn't stopped looking at each other before. Mantha's heart was pounding. This felt oddly romantic, even though she knew Casper wasn't big on romance. They were too good buddies for him to fall for her. She wasn't his type anyway. Casper needed a sweet girl who wouldn't try to break into the lab to steal Professor Burns' test. But away from that. The mood was just different, as it usually was when she was with him. It felt nice to just lay there and enjoy each other's presence.
Mantha knew their hands were close to each other. Bold of you to assume she didn't think about taking it already. She was so nervous tough. What if he wouldn't like that? Well some people don't consider holding hands as romantic. She also could blame it on her arm malfunctioning again. Well- Here goes nothing. She slowly tried to move her finger as the loud screaming of Nigel Nightmare cut the mood.
Both sat up more of shock than really because the wanted to. A phone call. Who in the- „Mom?" she asked, trying to hide the frustration in her voice. „What? Already? You said- Oh my god calm down! I'm on my way- yeah yeah in a few minutes." she sighed as she ended the phone call. „I'm ready to move my old shit into my new room." she smiled. „Oh, I'll take you to the door."
Mantha truned around again before leaving the house. „Thanks for everything, yk the food n stuff." she expressed. „Thanks for coming over, and uhm when you're free again, hit me up." he muttered the last part. She nodded. She definitely would.
Maybe the new place wasn't that bad after all.