Alter Ego

Part 3

Walking up to the apartment door Gio wagged his tail, "Man, I'm exhausted."
Blue pulled out her phone to check the time. It was 1 o'clock in the morning. Harper had begged them to stay so she could hear TJ's latest beats. While Harper was blissfully listening, Blue had been stuck to deal with Gio's complaining and GG's stand offishness.
Gio headed through the doggy door as she watched GG struggle to get her keys out of her pocket (she has pockets somehow. Its a ghost thing. Don't question it).
The two girls have been Blue's next-door neighbors for sometime now. They had had multiple conversations about knocking down the wall that divided their apartments. They even pitched the idea to the landlord, with no such luck.
Harper gave GG a concerned look. "Let me help you." she reached for the keys.
"I can do it myself!" she snapped.
Blue and Harper exchange glances of surprise. GG wasn't one to act hostile. She had been acting different ever since she reappeared from the bathroom.
"Did something happen?" Harper asked.
"When?" GG replied.
"At the club."
GG breathe heavily, finally getting her keys free, "Of course not."
"Then what's up with you?" Blue questioned. "You aren't acting like yourself. Something obviously happened."
Everyone stood silently listening to the lock of the door unlatch. GG cracked the door open, her back facing them. "This just shows that you don't really know me."
"Then let us get to know you. We're your friends. You can tell us anything." Harper whispered.
"It's not that I don't trust you. It's just that I think you'd be better off not knowing. It's my burden to bear and if anything happened to you because of me..." she trailed off.
Blue shoved her hands into the pockets of her red jacket and looked out into the night sky, "Everyone has skeletons in their closet. We won't judge you."
Harper looked down, averting her eyes.
She stood there thinking. She didn't want to get them involved. To tell you the truth, she was scared. Terrified of how they would react about what she was doing before she met them. She was scared that they would leave her. Her biggest fear is being alone. That's how she woke up into this new world. Completely and utterly alone. "Follow me. I'm going to show you something."
The two girls followed her inside as the door closed behind them. GG lead them past the well decorated living room and down a small hallway. Reaching the first door, she phased through it. Blue tried the door handle, only to realize it was locked.
"Her door is always locked." Harper quietly told her.
GG unlocked the door and opened it from the inside. The girls entered into the dark room, stumbling over something hard.
"Sorry about the mess." she said, turning on the lights. "I didn't have anywhere else to put all the books."
Papers and books were scattered all over the floor. With the sound of crushed paper beneath her feet, Blue walked over to the small desk. A book laid open. Symbols scattered across the pages.
"What's that?" Harper asked.
They all turned to look at the large collage on her wall. There were pictures of people. Some X'd out with a red marker. There were strings of all colors connecting different images, people and places. News articles seemed to be posted up at random.
The large symbol, a wing with eyes decorating it, caught Blues attention. She turned to face GG, "What is all this? What's going on?"
Her face twisted up trying to figure out where to begin. "I'm a ghost. I'm dead, right?"
Harper nodded her head.
"You see, I must've been alive at one point in time. I just can't remember."
"What's the last thing you remember?" Blue asked.
"I opened my eyes and saw snow. I realized I was laying on the floor, face down. When I sat up I saw that I was in the middle of the road. There was nothing around me. I sat there trying to remember why I was there. Thats when I realized something was off. The snow. It was snowing but I wasn't cold. I couldn't feel anything. I put my hand on my chest. I couldn't feel a heartbeat. My hands and arms were white and my legs had disappeared. I was dead.
For some reason, I wasn't surprised. Maybe I had known all along. As I was about to stand up I noticed something laying next to me. A matchbox. This matchbox." she tossed the box to Blue.
Blue looked at it, noticing the same winged logo, before handing it to Harper.
"To the left of me I saw a red patch of snow. I immediately knew what it was. I followed the path of bloodied snow until I reached an incline. Climbing the hill, I froze when I saw what laid behind it. There was a pile of organs. A liver, intestines, lungs and a heart. The strangest part was that the heart had a bite taken out of it. I could see the teeth marks."
Harper looked at her in fear. "When was it that I met you?"
"A few months after. I had been working for certain informational group. They told me that if I helped them out they would get me info on that symbol. I only had three jobs left to take care of when you found me hiding from the cops."
"What?" Blue was surprised. "You said you met GG from one of your college classes."
Harper fidgeted with her shirt. "I lied. I wanted to keep her safe. Sorry."
GG faced Blue, "Harper hid me at her place. I'd explained why I was hiding and she took it well."
Blue eyed Harper.
"It's nothing important. It wasn't that bad. You don't need to worry about it."
Blue reluctantly dropped the subject, "Do you have any leads?"
"Yes. I got information at the club."
"Thats where you snuck off to?"Blue asked. "You didn't actually go to the bathroom?"
"Sorry I lied."
"Answer me one question then. Do ghosts go to the bathroom? I've been thinking about it all night." she questioned, a puzzled look on her face.
"What? No. Of course not. Theres no reason for us to use the bathroom."
Blue nodded her head, happy for the clarification.
"So, about that info you received.." Harper started, trying to help the author get the story back on track.
"Right. After a long search my intel finally found the symbol. Its on a door at the back of the Couture Hotel."
"Should we head over there tomorrow and check it out?" Blue asked.
"You don't have to come with me."
Harper grabbed GG's hands, "Of course we do. We're in this together now and we won't stop until we find out what happened to you."