Victor had struggled to get to the top of the mountain. It wasn’t like he wanted to be here, but hey peer pressure was a hell of a thing. The worst thing was wishes weren’t kept secret. Specifically for the reason of keeping record of all wishes used.

Of course Victor did not make the journey alone. He came with a group of his peers. That group included, Misty, R.J, Bailey and Simon. All of them having recently turned 18. Though they had decided to wait to go so they could all make wishes together.

Misty was going first.

“I wish to be given just enough money from all the billionaires in the world that they won’t notice it’s missing.”

“Your wish is my command!” The genie replied, no one had asked that before.

Misty stepped aside as she checked her mobile banking app.

R.J was second.

“I wish to marry someone famous.”

“That wish cannot be granted at this time.”

“Damn it.” R.J muttered as he sulked away.

Bailey was third.

“I wish for my cat, Tumbleweed to be immortal.”

“Your wish is my command!”

“I knew being specific would work!” Bailey fist pumped with excitement as they bounced out of the way.

Simon was fourth.

“I wish my friendships will never end.”

“Your wish can not be granted at this time.” The genie replied. “I have only had one other person ask for never ending friendships. You must really love your friends. I am sorry i couldn’t grant your wish.”

“I do love my friends. It’s okay” Simon mumbled before sliding out of the way.

And finally, Victor was last.

Victor took a deep breath, before he opened his mouth only to close it.

“What is your wish, boy?” The genie asked.

“I don’t think it matters.”

“Why don’t you think it matters?”

“I’m sure a million people have asked for it.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I just feel like there are a lot of in my situation.”

“Ask your wish.”

Victor sighed.

“Please, if you do not ask, I can not grant it.”

“I wish my soulmate gets switched so I don’t have one.”

The genie looked at Victor. Seemingly speechless.

“What?”

“Are… you certain?”

“Yes.”

“Your wish is my-“ The genie couldn’t finish its sentence.

“Genie?”

“I can not grant you that wish.”

“You almost said my wish is your command though?”

“I can not leave you soulmateless.”

“Why?”

“It’s a rule. Everyone on earth has a designated soulmate, platonic for aromantic or romantic for those who want romance.”

“What happens if someone dies, are they given a new soulmate?”

“Yes, as soon as one is available, usually it’s a quick turn around.”

“So why can’t my wish be granted?”

“You can not roam this earth without a soulmate.”

“I am not roaming for long.”

“You are wrong about that.”

“I am dying.” Victor muttered to himself mostly.

“No you are not. You are ill. Not dying. Death does not beckon you.”

Victor blinked. “How do you know?”

“I know a lot of things. NEXT!”

Victor frowned as he was made to walk away. He would have to contact a lawyer since there are a few who specialize in genie wishes.

“They couldn’t have picked another day…” The soft spoken dishwasher spoke to herself as if it was just another unruly customer, yet it was much more than that.

The scene unfolded before the dishwasher, as she peered over the counter after she heard the chanting. She saw a large demon come out of the portal one of her coworkers had made on a table. It, the demon, had large fangs dripping with what could only be described as lava. The lava spit was catching things on fire, and that had made the sprinklers go off.

Once the sprinklers were set off the boss came out of his office in the back.

“Who the fuck is burning shit now? Lulu did you leave one of the dish rags near the fire again?” He screamed as he walked out into the kitchen. When he saw LuLu watching the front of the store with her other coworkers it looked like smoke would come out of him. “WHAT ARE YOU LOLLYGAGGERS DOING? GET BACK TO WORK.”

“But… Sir there’s… a demon…” One of LuLu’s coworkers, Timmy, pointed out.

LuLu just shook her head at Timmy to shut up.

“What kind of idiot do you think I am?” He growled before looking towards what Timmy was pointing to. When he saw the demon. He laughed. “Is this some sort of Halloween prank? Nice special effects makeup.”

“Sir, it’s February…” Timmy muttered.

“Fine, I’ll go deal with this. JUST GET BACK TO WORK.” The boss rolled his eyes. As he walked out of the kitchen area to the dining area. He stood in front of the demon. His arms crossed.

The demon roared loudly at him. The sprinklers seemed to have snuffed most of the hell fire out.

“Look, I don’t know who sent you, but you’re going have to pay for this. The fire, everything. So cough it up!”

The demon did in fact cough something up. A human skull. After it flew out of his mouth it bounced on the floor due to the lavay slime spit it was covered in.

The boss didn’t even flinch. “You know that is not what I meant. Nice magic trick though. Where did you get a fake skull?” The boss stepped on the skull, expecting to crush it with his foot, when he didn’t he froze for a moment, before screaming and trying to run.

It was too late the demon had grabbed him. Holding him up by the back of his shirt. The demon’s long tongue licked his face, cause the boss to scream even more before the demon started to lower him into his mouth.

“Should we do anything?” Timmy whispered to Tripp another coworker.

“What do you want us to do against a demon?” They practically yelled back, smacking Timmy with a cleaning rag.

“What do you think LuLu?” Timmy hesitantly asked.

“It is our boss… but maybe we should see how it plays out..?”

“Oh that’s crazy. We need to get out of here.” Tripp stood up, deciding to make a run for it.

LuLu stood up as well. Deciding to walk back to her locker. She unlocked her locker, rather quickly. Once it was opened she pulled out her backpack, throwing it on. As she did she heard another scream from her boss. This time she couldn’t just ignore it. She had to do something. So she ran into the dining room standing in front of the demon.

The demon was now holding Tripp up in the air, while it munched on what LuLu could only assume was her old boss.

“Unhand them!” LuLu yelled. “And let everyone in this establishment go. NOW”

The demon simply tilted it’s head at LuLu.

“You’re really going to make me do this…” LuLu took a deep breath. “Okay, fine.”

LuLu threw her backpack off, and quickly pulled out what a normal person would assume was a folding cane. With the flick of her wrist the cane became a staff. Raising the staff above her head she began to chant.

Once the demon heard the language she was chanting in, it let go of Tripp. It’s attention was focused on her. Moving towards her with caution.

Unsurprisingly as LuLu was chanting, everyone in the building evacuated, well almost everyone. LuLu opened one eye, noticing Timmy had grabbed a bag of salt, making a circle around both LuLu and the demon. She continued chanting, not wanting to lose the demon's attention. Once her chant was completed, she had 5 seconds to yell.

“TIMMY LEAVE.” LuLu spat out.

Once the 5 seconds were up, there was a large puff of smoke. Where LuLu was once standing there was an Eldritch adjacent monster girl that was growing in size. She looked vaguely human but with two red devilish eyes and six tentacles attached to the sides of her head, with two more sprouting from her forehead almost like horns. The rest of her body from the neck down was covered by a magical girl outfit, even as she grew the outfit grew with her.

When she had stopped growing she had to crouch to be inside of the building. The two tentacles from her forehead wrapped around the demon's throat, as tight as they could. The rest of her tentacles began to try to shove the demon back into the portal from where it came. The demon was scratching and clawing at the tentacles that were holding onto it. This caused LuLu to scream and hiss in pain, before yelling at the demon in its native tongue. Eventually the demon was shoved back into the portal.

Causing LuLu to sigh in relief. She wiped her brow with one of the tentacles from her forehead. It took a moment before the monster began to shrink back down to human size. The monster began to mumble once it got its tentacles on the staff. Once the chanting was done, another puff of smoke happened. LuLu stood there, bruised and bloody. She looked around as she leaned on one of the tables, to see Timmy staring at her with wide eyes.

“What Kid, you haven’t seen a magical girl before?” LuLu laughed, trying to find the humor in it all.

“Not… one like… you looked like you could be related to a squid…” Timmy stammered.

“Well you’re close. Cthulhu is my father.. Well, by human standards.”

(Never in my life did I think I would be writing a cthulhu adjacent magical girl story but here I am...)

As the woman started towards her front door, she heard the deadbolt unlock. She looked over her shoulder, wondering if she could catch a glimpse of the ghost again but she had no such luck. Shaking her head softly she grabbed her keys from the hook on the door.

“Are you coming with me?” She laughed, asking the question as a complete joke.

There was no audible answer. This didn’t bother Melody at all. She figured the ghost couldn’t follow her if she left the necklace behind. As she slipped her keys onto one of her fingers, so she could use her hand to unclasp the necklace. The moment her fingers touched the clasp the metal was hot and she yelped.

“Ouch! Okay listen here you mother fucker!” Melody turned away from the front door, hopeful the ghost was there. “I thank you for the rent but you really don’t have to come with me.”

The next thing Melody knew was the picture of her and her ex on the entrance table was on the floor. The glass had shattered completely. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Melody sighed heavily.

“You are being unreasonable… I can’t even see you! Fine, you can come with me. This is stupid.” Melody gave up. She would let the ghost have its way. It was easier than arguing with someone who couldn’t really communicate with her. “Let’s go.”

Melody turned back to the front door, her hand reaching out for the doorknob. At first she hesitated, perhaps she could wait to go to the antique store. She didn’t understand why a sudden rush of anxiety had overtaken her but she had to get over it. Taking a deep breath she opened the door, quickly grabbing her purse before she shut the door behind her. Turning around to lock the door there was a knock coming from within.

“You can’t be serious… Can’t you go through walls?” Melody asked exasperated.

Yet she still opened the door, waiting an ample amount of time for the ghost to walk out. She even tapped her foot while waiting. Hopeful to get this over with quickly. Once she was absolutely certain that the ghost was with her, she headed towards the stairs. Bounding down them rather quickly. Melody was a woman on a mission. Mostly to figure out what the silver platter was worth. She didn’t really need to find out who her ghostly roommate was just yet.

At the bottom of the stairs, Melody looked over her shoulder, as if to see if the ghost had kept up with her. Not that she could even see them. Melody rubbed her face softly.

“Right, I can’t see you and no one else can. Okay so I just have to pretend you aren’t here.” She muttered, mostly to herself.

It was a rather windy afternoon. Not that Melody minded. Her hair wasn’t exactly styled perfectly, it was in a messy bun afterall. Taking a moment to breath in the fresh air before she would undoubtedly have to deal with the stale air of the subway. It was either take the subway or walk to the only antique store she knew of. It wasn’t a far walk but she would rather take the subway, which was saying a lot.

Melody wasn’t exactly sure if taking a ghost on the subway was allowed, but perhaps it didn’t really matter. She didn’t know the ghost rule of law anyways. Melody had a million questions for the ghost but she didn’t know how to have the ghost communicate with her better. It was as if the ghost read her mind because one of her journals had fallen out of her bag. It was opened on a once blank page.

The page said. “𝕾𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖕𝖊𝖔𝖕𝖑𝖊 𝖈𝖆𝖓 𝖘𝖊𝖊 𝖒𝖊.”

Melody picked up the journal reading what was written in beautiful calligraphy. She tilted her head slightly as she read the sentence again.

“You can write?”

“𝖄𝖊𝖘.” Was written into the journal.

“Okay, so why are you haunting my mom's necklace?”

“𝕴 𝖕𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖋𝖎𝖋𝖙𝖍.”

“You’re dead! You can’t plead the fifth.”

"𝕹𝖔 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙."

“Fine.” Melody sighed as she shoved her hands into her pockets. “Let’s go. It’s not a far walk to the subway station.”

Melody liked living by the subway but at the same time she hated living in the city. The truth was the only real reason she was staying at her shitty apartment was because of the ghost. Otherwise she would have moved back home. She didn’t like admitting the fact that the ghost made her feel less lonely. Sure she could have adopted a pet but Melody could barely keep herself alive, how could she keep a pet alive. Maybe it was some kind of twisted blessing, having the ghost of werewolf haunt her. She felt safe at home because of the ghost anyways.

Now that Melody realized the ghost was haunting her mothers necklace and not her apartment, she had a lot of things to consider. If she went home, and brought the ghost with her, would her mom be okay with it? If the ghost is haunting her mothers necklace, could that mean the ghost knew her mother well? Melody had never invited her mother to her apartment because of the ghost. Now that she knew that the ghost went everywhere with her it seemed her mother wasn’t in danger.

Melody noticed there was more writing in her journal and shook herself out of deep thought to read it.

“𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖘𝖊𝖊𝖒 𝖉𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖉.”

“So?”

"𝖂𝖍𝖞?"

“I have a lot to think about now.”

"𝕬𝖙 𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖙 𝖇𝖊 𝖆𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖘𝖚𝖗𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘."

“I am!” Melody groaned as she put the journal away for a moment so she could get her wallet.

They had made it to the Turnstile. She pulled out her subway card and swiped it so she could get through. Melody expected the ghost to climb over the turnstile, honestly. Though she got a bit nervous because of the whole door thing. So she quickly swiped her card again, so the ghost could get through. Melody put her card back into her wallet and her wallet back into her bag. Pulling out her journal again she saw what was written now.

“𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖉𝖎𝖉𝖓’𝖙 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖘𝖜𝖎𝖕𝖊 𝖎𝖙. 𝕴 𝖜𝖆𝖘 𝖏𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝖋𝖚𝖈𝖐𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖊𝖗. 𝕷𝖔𝖑.”

“You did not just l.o.l me.” Melody hissed softly.

She couldn’t believe this stupid ghost. Why did she even put up with this? She could have called a priest so many times, but no. She was lonely and wanted company. It was really like having a roommate. Melody was still completely surprised that the ghost was willing to pay rent.

​

(Part 2! May continue it more later because I am having fun writing it.)

{All my characters are my own. All my writing is rough and unedited. I am trying to practice to get myself back into writing my novel. Constructive criticism always welcomed.)

Melody crossed her arms as she watched the spirit spell out fuck. She wasn’t going to let it slide again. Now Melody knew that asking for rent wasn’t going to be an easy task. She was sure there would be some pushback from whatever spirit was in her shitty haunted apartment. It was just time to wait now.

Melody looked over at her filthy floor length mirror. At first she looked past her reflection, getting caught up on how messy her room was. Once her own reflection caught her attention she stared at it. Melody had struggled often with her body. Hating it some days. Enjoying it others. Today was a day she was happy to have it. Her soft brown hair was placed in a messy bun.

As she began to look at her pear shaped body she noticed a figure out of the corner of her eye in the mirror. It had quickly ran out of her room. This caused Melody to blink in surprise as she had never experienced seeing a figure in her mirror before. Honestly she thought ghosts didn’t have reflections.

Before she could get too caught up in her thoughts everything went completely silent. This caused her to intently listen because it was too quiet. The only sound she could hear was her own heartbeat. It stayed like this for several moments before a loud clang came from the living room. When things had crashed in the apartment before Melody would get startled but this time was different. Melody simply raised an eyebrow before she quickly headed to the living room, starting to rant as she walked.

“You can’t scare me, mister or miss ghost. I need rent money otherwise I’ll be getting evicted and unless you want a new-“

Melody seemed to freeze when she saw the clang had been the ghost dropping something on her coffee table. It was a large sterling silver platter with intricate details. Hesitating, Melody moved towards it, holding her hand out above it. There was noticeable heat coming off of the silver platter. Upon placing her hand on the platter not caring if she got burnt, she felt the words engraved into it, ‘See you in hell’.

“Is this some kind of a sick joke?” Melody asked, not expecting an answer really.

Though Melody heard what sounded like footsteps shuffling from her bedroom, she didn’t immediately think much of it. Still she decided to turn around to look at the doorway. In the doorway she saw the Ouija board floating towards her. It was facing her so she could read it. As the triangle piece moved she turned pale.

The triangle spelt out. “It was a stupid gift.”

“This was a gift? From who?”

The board spelt out another answer. “A Vampiress.”

“A Vampiress? You expect me to believe in vampires, now?”

The board shook aggressively, spelling out. “You’re talking to a ghost!”

“Okay! Okay. I know I believe in ghosts but vampires? Why weren’t you immortal then?” Melody scoffed at first before rubbing the back of her neck as she asked her questions.

The board’s triangle pieced moved again slowly. “She couldn’t bite me, I was a werewolf it would have been illegal.”

“Hold on. You mean to tell me. You’re a werewolf’s spirit, it’s illegal to turn a werewolf into a vampire, and you were given this gift at your funeral?”

The triangle simply moved to the word “yes.”

“A silver plater? Isn’t that like a mean spiteful gift?”

The triangle stayed on the word “yes.”

“Did you die by like a silver bullet?”

The triangle still remained on “yes.”

“Wait so you’ve lived here before?”

The triangle moved to “no.”

“WHAT? Wait are you haunting me!?”

The triangle stayed on “no.”

“So are you haunting an item?” Melody seemed perplexed with this new found knowledge.

The triangle moved to spell out the word “Technically.”

“Technically?” Melody rubbed her face softly, still extremely confused. “Okay technically haunting an item. What item is it?”

“Your mothers necklace.” The triangle spelt out.

“Why?”

The board simply fell to the floor with a clatter.

“Oh come on! I still don’t know your name ghost. Why are you haunting my mothers necklace? Also how much is this platter worth?”

Melody waited for a response but didn’t receive one. Taking a deep breath in, she stood tall and put the platter under her arm. It had stopped radiating as much heat at least. She knew she would have to go to an antique shop to get the value appraised. That and she needed to call her mother, which could wait till a bit later.

(Part 1, might add a part 2 later.)