Ghostly Hope

Participants:

anna_icon.gif samara_icon.gif

Scene Title Ghostly Hope
Synopsis Anna wakes up to an unexpected visitor who isn't exactly what she expected.
Date November 12, 2010

Anna's Room


November twelth, middle of the morning. The sun is shining, and the stench off the riots still haven't left the city entirely. Nor has the impact of the riots left Anna's mind… that'll likely take far longer than the riot stench to disappear.

Anna lies in her bed, her eyes moving rapidly, which makes it a reasonable estimate that she might be dreaming. She's not laying still, further adding to that idea. In fact, she's about to wake up… less than pleasantly.

A loud scream accompanies the fact that Anna wakes up, and she sits up, panting heavily. Quite heavily. "Fuck." The teenager says softly, "Again.

The wind had blown Samara, the friendly ghost, away from the rooftop near the Verb nearly four days ago. She'd resigned to its shifting nature, thanks to her extreme fatigue, allowing herself to be carried away by it in its changing drift. Such that she fell asleep. She'd woke up more than once in different places, but had shortly thereafter fallen asleep again. She had pushed herself far too hard. There was little to be done except to sleep off the fatigue. Fortunately, being invisible has the happy side effect of no one noticing when you wake up in weird places.

The scream has the auburn-haired ghost's eyes opening widely while her entire body tightens beneath the stress of it. She sits up with a start, that familiar where am I? feeling permeating her being. The carpet had been soft to sleep upon, not that Sami could really feel it. Her head turns to examine the room in which she finds herself, her own breath ragged in hr throat; not that her breathing can be heard. Everything about Samara is intangible… everything other than her reflection in the floor length mirror on Anna's floor. ReflectionGirl looks panicked within its frame; if only because she has no idea where she is.

At first, Anna doesn't even seem to be aware of Samara's presence, just seemingly calming herself down as she straightens and gets up from her bed, looking at the clock she mutters "Might as well get up." to herself.

And it's about that moment in time when Anna turns to the mirror, and notices Samara… which means, that yes Anna is screaming in fear again. It's probably good that Anna is home alone, or she'd be drawing a lot of attention from her foster family. An awful lot.

The teenager scans around, looking at the place where Samara should be, but… isn't. "Fuck." Is her first response, "I'm turning insane, aren't I?"

At the second scream, Samara's hands cup tightly over her ears while her eyes squeeze tightly shut, the noise is beyond what she's used to. Although, once the scream quiets, the hands are lowered as she watches the teen with curious caution. Her lips press together as she holds out her hands — she means no harm, she has no weapon, she's just a ghost who happened to drift into the teen's room during a REM cycle. Her head tilts with concern and then finally shakes at the question.

Despite nearly every one of her alive friends (of which she has exactly three), at least two thought they were insane when they first saw her. Fortunately, she'd managed to convince Rue of her ghost whisperer talents, and Aaron seemed okay with being crazy-crazy, so…

There's a simple shrug of shoulders as she steps towards the mirror and holds out her finger to write upon it, only to stop moments later, maybe she should just leave? A cursory glance is given to the door.

As Samara moves around, Anna comes to an interesting conclusion. She points an accusing finger at her mirror, and says coldly, "You're one of them, aren't you?!" Pause, "One of them Evos." Her tone is almost like a whisper, but there's something threatening to it.. like a madwoman's whisper.

"You people ruined my life!" She shouts, angry, still pointing at the mirror. "Took everything from me, my parents, my home, my friends, everything!" So she's racist.

"Get out of my room, inhuman monster!" She calls out, "Or I'll call the cops, and I'll have them take you out somehow, you hear that? Get the fuck out of my room!"

Samara rolls her eyes and shakes her head, she's not evolved, although again, Anna is given a sympathetic shrug of her Sam's and frown. Her lips twitch into a semi-comforting smile before she floats an inch into the air. Again she reaches out a finger and writes on the mirror, tracing letters in girlish cutesy writing using the oils from her fingers (funny how that still works post-mortem). Even though the markings can only be revealed with the hot breath of the warm-blooded alive types, if Anna was watching, she can make out the words, "Ghost. I died in the 2006 explosion." She shrugs a little before floating away from the mirror.

Her eyebrows knit together as she watches the teen, but moments later she's back at the mirror, scribbling another couple of words, "Sorry to scare you." She frowns before floating towards the door.

As Anna reads that message, she calms down. If only a little. "Wait!" She calls out to Samara as the ghost starts to leave. "You died in the Bomb?!" Curiosity exceeding fear… she's careful, but she needs to know.

"My parents died in that explosion…." Anna starts, panting a little as she thinks, "Does that mean they're still around somewhere as well?!" Hope is a wondrous thing… "Have you seen any other ghosts since the explosion… have you seen my parents?!" Anna points at a photograph on her desk, showing a married couple and a younger version of Anna…

Anna walks to her bed, and sits down, she pinches herself in the arm, "Ow. Okay… still not sure whether this is a dream, but I … I kind of hope it isn't!"

Samara stops moving just in front of the door. If she's honest, she's never seen another ghost, it seems most people that die don't have unfinished business, but she doesn't indicate this immediately, instead she floats over to the picture and take a good look at it, studying the faces contained within. A glance is given to the mirror, ensuring she's visible before shaking her head, she hasn't seen them before, but that doesn't mean they aren't traveling around in some disembodied form like herself.

Her lips twitch into a very small slightly reassuring smile and another shrug of her shoulders. There's always hope — in a world of turmoil, that's all a person can ask for, right?

Noting the pinch, she extends her pointer finger to the mirror again, "I am real." She knows she's real; it's one of the few things she's certain of, she's thinks, therefore she exists.

Anna sighs at the shake of that head. Drat, there went a shimmering of hope. Still… assuming she's sane, and assuming this isn't a dream… Anna has soooo many questions she wants to ask. After all… meeting a ghost in the insubstantial flesh isn't exactly a regular occurence.

So there comes question number one. "What.. what's it like to die?" She asks, forcing herself to smile… "I imagine that it'd be painful, but … I've never died, and you have, right?"

Anna moves closer to the mirror, so she will have more success reading the messages written on it, "I'll have to remember to clean the mirror after you're gone… it'd be weird for someone else to see all those messages on it without context." A hollow laugh, "They might think I'm insane."

The question actually has Sami shooting the teen a flash of white teeth — her grin has a reminiscent quality to it, it was a question she'd always wanted to know. She reaches towards the mirror again and scrawls over it, "It was okay. Didn't hurt. Just felt like moving from one thing to another." Samara had always thought it would hurt, she'd been convinced of it.

As the teen closes the distance and notes that she'll need to clean the mirror, Sami stifles a laugh. With a small chuckle she shrugs her shoulders, ghosts tend to make people assume they're schizophrenic or delusional, or something.

"Oh.. that's good, I guess.." Anna responds, "I .. hope my parents weren't in pain either…" She sounds reassured, however, that her parents were not in pain at the moment of their death… however much that's worth.

"I'm Anna… do you have a name?" She asks, looking back to the mirror and shooting a grin. "You know… for a ghost, you're a pretty talkative type… even if you talk through writing on my mirror."

Samara shoots Anna a dimpled grin, a slight roll of her eyes, and a shrug of her shoulders. Chatty in life keeps you chatty in death; even if you can't technically talk. Four years with little human contact (none aside from Lanny) has the twenty year old starved to share what she knows; what it's like to die like that.

She tilts her head before she's scribbling her name on the mirror. "Samara or Sami." In a way, she'd prefer to be called Sami, it's what her family had called her — what Rue still calls her. She takes in a deep breath, hoping that Anna pronounces it correctly rather than by Brian's nickname for her: Sam-Eye.

"Sa…mi.." Anna starts, "Like the Finnish people?" The girl tries, placing stress on the first syllable. "Shake your head if I pronounce it wrong, it's a weird name!" The teenager grins, pulling her desk chair over to sit while she looks at the mirror.

"So, if you don't mind another question…" She starts, smiling, "Is there a lot of stuff to do once you're dead, or is it boring?" A pause, "I bet it would have to be rather boring… hence why you're so chatty!"

Samara wrinkles her nose and then writes out her name as other people spell it, the way that always looked more masculine to her — she's always preferred i's to y's: "Sammy." She shoots the other girl a smile and yet another shrug, that's her name, plain and simple.

Absently she bites her bottom lip and considers it carefully. Another shrug before she's writing over the mirror, "Sometimes boring." Quickly, she holds out a single finger to indicate 'one moment' before raising her arms in the air like some acrobat girl in the circus and then walking through the mirror. Seconds later she walks back. The exciting thing is she can go anywhere she pleases. The bad thing? She goes mostly unnoticed. Again she reaches out to the mirror, "Trying to finish unfinished business." That keeps her busy a lot; that bucket list.

"So that's how you got in!" Anna exclaims, "So, Sami… you got a lot of unfinished business, then? Must suck… I mean…" A pause, "Will you move on when all that is done… will you stop being a ghost, then?!"

The teenager chews on her lower lip for a few moments, "You know… if you need any help finishing that business… maybe I could help?" She smiles, "I mean, I dunno how I'd help… I'm just a regular girl… but if there's anything I can do to help… feel free to ask, okay?!"

Sami nods emphatically although she fails to mention that she drifts randomly when she sleeps; that's just plain as day embarrassing. In fact, she bets that someday she'll meet another ghost who doesn't and make her feel like an inferior spectre. She does, however, nod at the first question, that's the idea. Hopefully if she finishes whatever she needs to then she will be able to crossover; every ghoul's goal.

Her eyes light up at the offer though. With Rue and Anna's help, she'll be able to cross over WAY faster. While she'd been enthusiastic and emphatic before, it doubles now. In fact, the ReflectionGirl does a little cheer in the mirror — a very acrobatic cheer, she used to dance in her former life (like fourteen years of lessons and performing).

"Okay… let's see…" Anna starts, going over to her desk to get out her notebook. "I'll make my notes in here, okay? So I won't forget this stuff after I've cleaned my mirror." And also to make sure that this isn't a dream, but Anna doesn't mention that.

"You're a good dancer, you know? I wish I could dance that well…" She grins. "But maybe it's easier to dance when you're a ghost… I wouldn't know.. is it easier to dance when you're a ghost?"

In order to be able to see the answer, Anna sits back into her chair near the mirror, making notes while she looks at that thing. "I suppose you can't really talk anymore, and that's why you have to resort to writing on mirrors, right?"

Samara hmmms and glances at the notebook with a small nod. That makes sense, hard to read a mirror full of random finger oils. Still weird that she can do that, but she doesn't question what she can and can't do, she just lives them out everyday. She does, however, grin at the notion of being a good dancer, but she can't remember if it was easier or harder to dance while living, just different. It had been hard when she first died, but now it's a piece of cake. She tilts her head in response, indicating she just doesn't know.

She nods at the other question though. That's why she writes, she can't talk to anyone except Rue — because Rue is a ghost whisperer, but she can't tell that to an evo-hater.

She glances at Anna's clock before her eyes widen; Samara has no idea what day it is. With a small frown she perks and tenses within the reflection while pointing to her watchless wrist. She's out of time. With a small waggle of fingers as a wave and a blown kiss, Sami walks through the mirror again, this time destined to find Rue.


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