A/N: Woo to me for updating at one in the morning! Also, sorry for all the cliffies, but I couldn't resist. ;)
A black mist seeps into a small, dingy room on the edge of Amity Park. Leaking from the very walls, the mist sinks to the ground and snakes to the center of the room, collecting into a single location and forming a semi-humanoid shape crumpled on the cold, hard floor.
Autumn begins to materialize from the mist, and once she fully forms, more mist leaks out of her mouth. The new mist is red, and rises instead of sinks. It morphs into a large, slender shape, and takes the form of a thin, grey ghost with red eyes, shining fangs, and long, white, wispy hair. Lengthy, pointed fingers reach up in the air, and the creature's mouth opens to reveal a tapered pale tongue. It stretches and yawns, its ghostly tail flicking back and forth contentedly.
"Euuargh! Jeez, how do you live in that cramped thing you call a body? Ugh, it gives me the willies just being in there. Whew."
The ghost's comments go unheard of by the girl, who's began to cough, sob, and retch. She crawls, staggering, over to the bathroom of the small apartment and leans on the toilet, vomiting into the white porcelain. The ghost meanders over and takes a seat (if you could call it that) next to her, rubbing their back and making soothing cooing noises all the while.
"There, there, that's a common reaction for your first killing, but you start to lose that feeling over time. I hate to say that you get used to it, but… well… you get used to it!"
Autumn finishes gagging and harshly slaps the ghost's hand away, backing into the corner of the bathroom. The ghost simply smiles eerily at her, its red/black eyes wide and childish.
It disgusts her.
"Stay away! This isn't what I wanted! You're a- a horrible creature!" She wipes her mouth, and looks down at her arms which are absolutely covered in dried blood. She starts to hyperventilate, and rubs madly at the red stains all over her body.
"Technically child, I'm a ghost, not a creature. Different states of matter and all that." It floats up and moves closer to her, flipping onto its back. "Different levels of being." It pauses. "Not that you would know that!" It giggles.
"I don't care!" She stands up to put some distance between the two of them and starts the shower, ripping the curtain open and standing in the ice-cold water, clothes, shoes, and all. She takes the bar of soap and rubs it vigorously over her skin. Autumn starts to shiver violently, but she needs to get it off, send it away. The ghost floats up to her, right outside the shower, and watches quietly.
She starts to rub at her clothes as well as her skin. Even though they're black, she can still feel the sticky, crusty mess clinging to them. She rubs on her stomach and feels something in her hoodie's pocket. Thinking it's her phone, she reaches in and-
"Agh!"
She pulls her hand out holding the item and looks at it, the paring knife, the weapon. Her hand now sports a thin slice down its palm where it cut her.
Her eyes widen and she screams, throwing the knife across the room and simultaneously slipping in the tub, coming down hard on her rear. The knife drifts harmlessly through the ghost and clinks across the tile, coming to a stop in the corner Autumn was just crouched in. Pink tinged water drips off of it, collecting in a small pool beneath it. She pants, keeping her eyes locked on the damning thing.
Tears, the only warmth she's felt since Star's blood flowed across her hands, drip down her face. She whimpers, and then curls into a ball, her eyes pressing into her knees.
The ghost looks between her and the knife, its smile falling. It silently floats over and picks up the blade, phasing off the water and rubbing the majority of the blood off with its long fingers. It comes back to the shower and sits in the tub with Autumn. The ghost is unfazed by the temperature of the water, but it turns the handle to hot and washes the remainder of the blood off of the knife.
"You know, you'll want to keep this."
Autumn glances up from her knees, and feels the water slowly grow warmer. She just stares at the ghost, who looks at the knife with an emotion she can't particularly discern. She doesn't respond.
It continues, regardless.
"Daggers, muskets, swords, weapons-" It holds the knife up to the light. "they represent power, they represent strength, and self-sufficiency, just like any other tool. As a tailor earns his keep with scissors and a needle, a sellsword earns his with a blade and a shield." It brings the knife back down and rubs it with its thumb.
"What we did tonight was take the first step in giving you power, rather than you and I being the ones to relinquish it to someone else. We steered our own fates today, and however much you might hate me, or this situation, that is a step in the right direction."
"I didn't steer anything." Her voice drips with venom. "You controlled me. You controlled everything."
"Ah, but girl-" it leans in, reducing its voice to hardly a whisper. "I can only do things if you have the desire. It's in our contract, after all."
Autumn softens a bit, but her voice is still harsh. "I thought that you didn't have to do things the way I want them done. Tonight proved that."
"A simplification." It says, idly turning the knife over in its hand. "The end goal has to be desired, for example with killing someone, you have to want to kill them, or someone, but I can use any method; burning, strangulation, stabbing, etcetera."
She pulls her body closer to herself, and more tears gather at her eyes. "I don't believe you." she says quietly. "I couldn't- didn't."
The ghost sets the knife down on the edge of the tub and leans even closer to her. She backs away from the chill. "Just because you regret something doesn't mean you didn't want it at the time." It rubs her head. "And, in any case, I don't lie to you. I can't. I wouldn't even try, because I don't want to."
Autumn shakes her head to remove its hand from it. "If you… 'care' so much, then why don't you listen to me? Why didn't you stop when I said so? Listen when I proposed an- an alternative?"
"Because this is what you needed." It removes its hand from her head and rises. "As I said before, this is a first step. In order to gain power, there must be sacrifice, in one way or another. For me, it was my family's lives, for Phantom, it was his own, for you… you're the lucky one." It looks at her, and she meets its eyes. "You only have to sacrifice the lives of those who you care nothing for."
"I don't have anyone to care for anymore. Everyone I ever loved is gone, they either died or left me to rot in this godforsaken apartment." A pause.
"And nobody cares about me anymore either." she quietly adds.
The ghost looks at her sullenly, peering down with eyes that look so understanding to Autumn, it hurts.
"You're wrong, Autumn." It says.
It turns around and turns off the shower. The water, which has since gone cold, ceases, and she removes her hand from one of her shins to move her wet hair out of her face. The ghost leans down and wraps itself around her, tail and all, and despite Autumn's previous protests, she leans into the gentle contact- the first she's had in years.
"I do care. It might not seem it, but I want what's best for you. I saw what happened, I know you want- no- deserve retribution for what they all did for you. You want to feel in control again, you want to show them the hurt that they gave to you, and you want to feel safe."
It presses its forehead to hers. "I can give you all that and more. I just need you to trust me."
Autumn closes her eyes and relaxes, letting the ghost support the weight of her body.
She recalls the last time she truly trusted someone, and the hurt she felt when they betrayed her.
She doesn't want to feel that again, but this ghost… if it really was telling the truth, it can't do the same thing. It can't hurt her.
But was she willing to take that risk?
She exhales a shaky breath and stands up. The ghost floats up to the same height and gingerly takes her hand. She allows it, and it turns Autumn intangible, drying her. She takes a glance down at herself and notices she's clean. Clean of the blood, the sweat, the fear. She looks back up and makes a decision.
It's not like she had any other options, anyway.