Phantom Limbs: A Spicy Ghost Story

Chapter 4

Johan woke up mid-morning, made himself a pot of coffee, and once again had two piping hot cups in rapid succession.

"Honey, I'm going to the leasing office, now. I'll be back soon and I'll tell you what I find, ok?"

OK

He left and I paced the place. I wasn't sure what I'd learn about myself. The flash memory I'd had that morning was the clearest I'd ever seen myself, and yet, I still couldn't remember much else. In that moment, I couldn't even remember what I'd seen – I just remembered the shock I'd felt upon seeing it. I looked at the fridge for clues.

BLU HAIR ENBY TP SURGRY FT BUTT

IS M

GO ASK

YES

OK

Blu hair enby...toilet paper...surgery...featuring butt? Somehow, despite knowing I'd assembled those letters myself, they made no sense to me mere hours later.

However, for some reason, I did remember that Johan had promised to leave the TV on for me. And yet, he hadn't. Boring.

I wandered around the place, falling back into my ghostly rhythm of pacing. At some point, I caught sight of Johan's bed. The sight of the sheets, all over the place, brought back a memory of lust and I felt like I would've been blushing, smiling, maybe even giggling if I'd been able to.

We did something this morning, I think.

Finally, Johan burst through the front door and into the living room. I closed the door gently behind him as he held up a stack of papers.

"You were right. You killed yourself in here. They were supposed to disclose that to me before I moved in, but they didn't," he said, slamming the papers down onto the table with gusto. "Those bitches are so fucking disorganized, but at least they had this. They had a whole fucking packet of information – in case I asked, I guess? I don't know when they were planning to actually give this to me. Anyway, Ghosty, honey, are you ready to learn your true identity?"

I thought for a moment.

Will this change whatever Johan and I have going on?

I wandered over to the fridge and spelled out:

UNKNOWN

Johan looked over. "Oh, you don't know? I won't tell you, then."

GIVE TIME

"You want me to give you some time to think before I do the big reveal?"

YES

"That's fair. Well, what do you want to do today, then?"

YOUTUBE

"That's right, I told you I'd leave the TV on. Sorry about that, honey."

Johan turned the TV on. A pretty vlogger came on and started talking about living in a van with her eight kids.

I walked over to the fridge and spelled out:

BORING

Johan looked over to the fridge. He and I were definitely connected on some level.

"Boring? Fine, what do you want to watch?"

UNKNOWN

"Alright..."

Johan switched it to a true crime story about a girl who was murdered by her boyfriend. Although the subject matter was depressing, it was still better than a family vlog channel.