Spirit in the House

Chapter 2

Bucky groaned in pain as he slowly peeled his eyes open. His temples throbbed from the alcohol he had consumed the night before, but there was something else. He pressed his hand to the side of his head and winced in pain when he felt a tender lump.

Memories of the previous night rushed back to him and he became very aware that he was lying on the cold kitchen floor.

"What the-" He saw you sitting on the threshold of the kitchen. You were hugging your knees to your chest, arms wrapped around your legs. He tried to sit up, but his body refused to cooperate.

"You fainted," you explained in a monotonous voice. "I walked through the table and you fainted."

Carefully, he threw a glance your way. You looked completely unfazed by the night's events. Your eyes were cast on the floor, the expression on your face was a mixture of fear and confusion as you worried your bottom lip between your teeth.

"A-Are you, uh, a ghost?" Bucky felt stupid for asking. Ghosts are not real, these things don't exist.

"I'm not dead!" you snapped your head up to glare at him.

"Well..." He scrunched his nose up as he spoke. "You walked through the table."

You groaned loudly and pushed yourself off the ground. He watched you walk towards the sofa before you simply evaporated like a wisp of fog. He flinched and froze for a moment not sure if it really happened. Glancing suspiciously around him, he decided to call it a night. He collapsed face first onto the mattress and fell asleep almost immediately.

When he woke up, you were sitting at the foot of the bed.

"You have to leave," you kept repeating like a broken record. "This is my apartment. I am not dead and you have to leave."

For the first few hours, he tried to argue with you. When he understood that you were not going to back down, he decided to just ignore you. It was really difficult, you were always there. And two weeks later, you were still there.

You sat on the closed toilet lid while he took a shower, forcing him to shower in his boxers. You stood in front of the TV, purposely blocking his view. You hid in unusual places like the fridge and tried to scare the shit out of him.

"Leave me alone!" he shouted, practically running to the bedroom.

"Don't you have a job?" You trailed after him and saw him eating in bed. "You're gonna leave crumbs everywhere!"

"I don't mind." He shrugged.

"But I do!"

He shrugged again, the corner of his mouth curling up in a smirk. "You can't even touch the crumbs."

You crossed your arms and glared at him. With a victorious smile, he lay down in bed and put his head on the pillow. His features relaxed, a sign he was about to fall asleep, and that's when you started singing at the top of your voice.

"SHUT UP!" he screamed, throwing a pillow at you, which simply passed through you as if you were not there.

"I'm gonna keep singing until you get out of my apartment," you continued singing louder.

Bucky sat up in bed. "Okay, fine. I've tried to be civilized but you leave me no other choice."

He jumped out of bed and walked past you. You heard him mutter something to himself as he grabbed the phone and dialed the number written on a piece of paper next to the console. He mumbled your address, a 'thank you' and ended the call.