THE AFTERMATH | BEING HUMAN (UK)

SMALL WORLD

"George."

Ignored.

"George..."

Again, nothing.

"George!"

Annie yelled right in his ear, causing the werewolf to drop his book and jump out of his chair. He looked at her, bewildered. "What?! What do you want?!"

"We have a guest coming in an hour. Just thought you should know." She said with her arms folded behind her back. "She wants to talk to us about the extra room."

George laughed. Annie did not. His smile faded. "Annie... what?"

"You heard me."

"Um, no. I didn't. Because I thought you just mentioned some stranger coming to see about our extra room." George said. "But that would be insane because, well, we don't have one. We have Mitchell's old room, we have the nursery, and we have the creepy murder attic that happens to have a bed in it."

She smiled. "Yeah, that last one!"

"What? No!" The werewolf paced the living room floor. "Who even is this person? How did you manage to contact them? Did you rope Nina into this, because Annie, I swear if you-"

"Nope! Nina has no idea. And I talked to her!" The ghost giddily sat down on the couch. "Get this. I was taking a stroll around town when I saw this girl, pretty young, not even twenty, carrying some groceries, and I thought out loud, 'I wish I could help with that.' And she heard me!"

He stared at her for a while. "I don't see how-"

"Anyway, she turned around, said she wouldn't turn down the help, and I walked her home with one of her bags. And the whole time, I'm thinking about what she could be, y'know? She definitely wasn't a ghost cause then why and how would she be buying food. So, vampire, or werewolf? But it really seemed like she had no idea that I was even dead in the first place!"

"Okay?"

"And then! It turns out she'd been living in a cheap hotel across town, so I thought I'd offer her our spare attic room!"

George pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head, sighing. "Annie, you can't just invite random people to come live with us."

"But she needed it! And she said she could pay rent as soon as she got her book published!"

"Right, but she's human, Annie!"

"Wrong. She's not. She saw me! She talked to me! She's just, y'know, a little... clueless! But that's perfectly fine, because we can help her."

George was about to protest until he heard a knock on the door. He looked at the ghost, panicked. "What? I thought you said an hour!"

"Oh crap. I think I read the time wrong." She said with a wince. "But please, just give her a chance."

When Annie looked at anyone with those pleading puppydog eyes, it was hard to say no.  It was even harder to say no when whoever was at the door kept knocking incessantly.  The werewolf groaned, then walked to the door, opening it with a smile. "Hi! You must be..."

"Amanda." The young redhead said. "I'm here about the room?"

"Right, step right in." George stepped aside and Amanda walked in. She really did look young, like she should've been living in a dorm building, not a retired Bed and Breakfast in Barry Island, Wales. "Sorry if the place is a mess, Annie didn't give me too much notice..."

"Oh no it's fine." She said. "Trust me, I've seen worse."

"Great! I mean, not great. I mean... good?"

"...I guess."

Nearly an  hour later, after the full tour, minus the scratched up basement, Amanda and George reached the attic room. There was a bed there, stripped of the sheets and pillow cases, and all the furniture had been neatly stacked in the corners.

"Well, this is the room." George said, shifting his weight between his two feet while Amanda walked around. "I know it's not-"

"It's amazing." She turned around with a genuine smile on her face. "I just know it's gonna be the perfect place to write. Ugh, and the sunlight coming through the window, it's just so picturesque."

He looked at her skeptically, then realized that she had no idea what had gone down in this room just a month prior. "Well then... welcome to the house."

"Oh my god... really?" Her smile got wider and suddenly she was tackling him in a hug. When Amanda realized that George was not hugging back, she stepped back. "I'm so sorry, it's just... it's been really hard lately. I lost my job, I just got out of the hospital, and whatnot. I appreciate this, I really do."

George nodded. "I understand. I've been there. Rock bottom is a frequent vacation spot for me." He paused. "Um, so sorry. No offence. I didn't mean to imply that-"

"No, it's okay. You'd be right." She said with an easy smile.

There was an awkward silence.

"Well, do you need help moving, or..."

"Nope." She dropped her backpack onto the floor. "All done."

Nina was suspiciously unbothered to hear that a stranger had moved into the attic when she got back from the pediatrician's office. George tread carefully around her. Though, holding Eve in her arms, Nina welcomed the young adult over drinks. "Amanda... where did you say you lived before Wales?"

"Well, I've been hopping around for a few months now, but my last long term residence was in Bristol." She said.

Annie and George shared a look. Nina just smiled. "What a small world! We used to live in Bristol too!"

"Oh, no way!" Amanda said, matching the smile. Though in reality she would have rather been talking about anything else. "How long ago? We might've overlapped." She said with a fake, though extremely convincing laugh.

"Oh we moved a few months ago too." Nina said. George narrowed his eyes at her and then realized the truth. She wasn't giving the girl a nice, motherly welcome. She was giving her a direct background check. "Can I ask why you left?"

Amanda did the best she could to keep images of that night out of her mind. She maintained her strained smile. "Um... it's kind of just... personal. If you don't mind."

"Oh, of course not..." Nina nodded sympathetically, subtly giving Amanda a mental shake down. Finally, her eyes zeroed in on a scar on her neck. Two puncture wounds. This did not go unnoticed as Amanda pulled the collar of her button up shirt closer to her.

George cleared his throat, looking at Nina. Nina gave him a look and he was pretty sure he knew exactly what he meant. Do you see what I see?

Of course he did. But he didn't entertain the thought. Whatever happened was Amanda's business. No one else's.

"Well!" Annie finally broke the silence. "It's so nice having another person around." She said lightly. "It's just felt a bit empty here ever since-" The ghost broke off and shook her head, still smiling. "Well, never mind. I just mean that we're glad to have another person helping with the rent."

There was a silence. Amanda thought about asking since what? But she didn't want to be rude. Judging by the solemn looks from Nina and George, the topic was not a welcome one.

Annie cleared her throat and spoke again. "So, um... what sort of stuff do you write?"

Again, Amanda put on a fake smile. Only the best eyes in the world could have noticed her small flinch at the question. "Oh just... stuff."