Meanwhile, the twins had found me in the park and Christy confronted me once more about my denial. I tried walking back to my apartment but she annoyingly followed me, with Crystal trying to tell her to leave me alone. She always was my favorite. When we got back to my building, wouldn't you know it, we saw Todd heading towards his car.

"Fine! You want me to confront my denial, Christy? Here I go!" I said before walking over to Todd. When he saw me though, he began to run.

"No!" he yelled in fright.

"Todd? What's wrong?" I asked in concern. I mean come on, I'm still a nice person right? I can be concerned over an amoeba like Todd.

"He told me to stay away from his girl!" he yelled opening his door.

"Who did?" I asked as he climbed in.

"He told me to stay away!" he said an octave higher as he started his car and peeled down the road. The twins came to stand beside me.

"What was that about?" Crystal asked in confusion. I said to myself aloud,

"Jack!"

"There she goes with the delusions again!" said Christy as I started to head towards the building. Ten minutes later, focused and fuming, I yelled to my seemingly empty apartment,

"Jack!"

"Sure! Stay in denial Al! Call your imaginary boyfriend! See if he comes to comfort you!" said Christy sarcastically.

"Chris!" warned her sister.

"Jack! I know you're in here!"

"Who's Jack, Alice?" asked Crystal.

"He's a dead pirate from the 17th century Caribbean. He haunts my bed. Jack!" I said searching the rooms.

"He any good?" asked Christy before Crystal shushed her and said,

"How did he die Alice?"

"Some magic ring...JACK!" I said.

"Magic ring? Now this is getting too far!" said Christy throwing up her hands.

"Christy! Aren't psychologist suppose to be a little more considerate when it comes to people with problems?" asked Crystal. Christy sighed.

"You're right! Ok, Jack! Either come out for Alice or let me talk to her ok?" called Christy to the room.

"As you wish Luv!" said Jack appearing to Christy's right. Wide eyed, she squeaked and fainted to the floor, me, Jack and Crystal watching helplessly. Bending over our friend, we tried to wake her, when Jack sighed and picked her up. This caused quite a shock to Crystal, who still couldn't see or hear Jack, but I comforted her as she watched her sister seemingly float upstairs to the bedroom. We soon followed with Crystal asking,

"So it's true? You do have a ghost here in the apartment?"

"Yeah." I nodded not too sure about what to stay in this sort of situation.

"Can I talk to him?" she asked.

"As long as you promise that you aren't going to faint either?" I told her smiling once we had gotten to the room. She stepped forward a little uncertain, but then she said,

"Jack?"

"At your service Milady." said Jack appearing behind her. She jumped but then smiled at him politely.

"Hello."

"Good afternoon Miss Crystal." he said with a nod of his head.

"Thank you for bringing my sister upstairs!" said Crystal.

"You're welcome!" Jack said. Crystal muttered to me,

"Now what?" Jack answered for me,

"Why don't you two lovely ladies discuss the matter at hand, while I attend to the nasty little bump on Miss Christy's head, Savvy?"

"Good idea! Come on Crystal!" I sighed pulling Crystal out of the room.

"It was nice to meet you!" she said.

"Likewise." said Jack. Once out of Jack's hearing, Crystal whispered to me,

"He's cute!" I giggled at this. Fifteen minutes later, I had finished telling Crystal everything about Jack. She was amazed.

"Wow, no wonder you like to stay home!" she said.

"Crystal!" I said.

"Oh, come on Al! I could feel the sparks between you two!" teased Crystal.

"Only problem is, one of those sparks is dead..."I said sadly. That's when we noticed Christy rigidly coming down the stairs.

"I need to get home!"

"You ok sis?" asked Crystal concerned.

"No, it would seem Alice has passed her delusions off to me! I woke up to find a pirate putting an ice pack on my head!" said Christy heading towards the door.

"I saw Jack too Chris! He's real!" said Crystal. Christy paused and whispered,

"It's spreading!" And with a whimper, she went out the door. Frantic to catch her, Crystal said to me,

"Uh...I'll talk to you later Al! I gotta go convince my sister, there really is a pirate ghost named Jack Sparrow!"

"Captain Jack Sparrow!" I corrected. She nodded at me before yelling,

"Bye Captain!"

"Have a pleasant evening Miss Crystal!" Jack called down from the bedroom. With one last smile in my direction, Crystal ran out to find her twin, while I looked towards the bedroom determined to settle some unfinished business with the good Captain. I entered the room, seeing him look out the window,

"Jack..."I started.

"Alice I already know what you are going to say. I shouldn't have scared Todd like I did and I apologize for that."

"The question is...why did you scare Todd?" I asked. He turned and looked at me, smiling sadly.

"I'm leaving Luv." he said.

"What?" I asked in shock. He stepped forward and said,

"I've caused enough problems in your life. You don't need me to have more people think you're insane. Not everyone is like Miss Crystal, you know."

"But Jack..." He shushed me and put a finger to my lips. His eyes only got sadder at the touch when he said,

"It's time I moved on. Who knows? Maybe, hanging on to that last piece of the Pearl is why I haven't left this world. I just wish...I wish I had figured that out...before I began to feel the way I do."

"What do you feel Jack?" I whispered. He only shifted his gaze down and said,

"Goodbye Alice." Then he walked out of the bedroom.

"Jack!" I cried out rushing after him. But when I looked over the railing of the catwalk, I saw nothing but an empty apartment. And I felt as if something strong was missing from the room. Jack was gone. I walked back to my room in a daze. I sat on the bed, and picked up Griffy. I clutched him close to my chest and shuddered. That was when it hit me. I loved Jack. I had fallen in love with a ghost. That's why Todd's kisses weren't as good as Jack's, or why I felt safe with him, or why I laughed more. I loved him. And now he was gone. As the tears started to trail down my cheeks I laid down on the bed and cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this pain away.