Once Upon a Bathroom Stall

epilogue

"You better not be leading me somewhere to get sacrificed, Parker. I'm serious. I will haunt your ass forever," Mina murmurs, pinching her nose as she squeezes Parker's hand, the only thing that's been guiding her through the darkness. The blindfold feels heavy on her face, and she constantly feels as if she's two seconds away from walking into something, but when Parker squeezes back, she lets her troubles trickle out in a sigh. Arguing has already proved to be pointless, anyways.

She'd been a little wary when Parker arrived on her doorstep, cheeky grin and bright red handkerchief in hand. Even more so when he'd demanded she turn around, clearly uninterested in anything she had to say, and blinded her. Still she finds herself taking a deep breath, concentrating on his fingers laced between hers, his skin flush against her own.

"That's really sweet that you're still so devoted to me after death."

"Wonder how sweet I'll be when I'm using my ghost powers to kill you. In all of the ways. Ghost Mina has a ridiculous amount of ghost resources."

He laughs. "Well if Ghost Mina is anything like Alive Mina, she'd still be a ten out of ten, so I'd be all right with it. Maybe minus a point or two every time you try to murder me, so maybe keep that to a minimum."

She can almost hear the smile in his voice, and she can't stop the heat that sparks on her cheeks, hopefully hidden underneath the crimson cloth. Somehow without the distance between them and the warmth of his palm makes his words hit a little harder, no longer just disembodied syllables over a telephone wire. He's there, in front of her, touching her. Real.

They step through a doorway and she can hear the buzz of people around her, a soft rock song playing idly in the background, the lightning crack of billiards at the other end of the room. Her brow furrows unconsciously in confusion, but she's already asked somewhere near a billion times where they're going, and Parker seems less than willing to surrender that type of information.

"You're so weird."

"Babe, that's part of the charm. And you're the one wearing the blindfold, so between the two of us, who's the weird one now? If you wanted to get kinky you could've just asked, you know."

She snorts. "The blindfold was your idea, dumbass."

"But you agreed to it. That counts for something."

"That your delusion is contagious?"

"Shh! We're almost there!"

She chuckles under her breath, wondering how every time he opens his mouth he never ceases to surprise her. Constantly on her tip-toes. And then they're going through another door way, a quieter room, and Mina's curiosity sparks to new heights.

"Hey, dude, let's go, this room is under private use at the moment."

"Are you guys gonna-"

"Private use, sir! With private reasons! Please leave!"

Mina's brow crinkles. "Parker, what are you-"

"Two seconds, just, one sec, come here, watch your step, okay, come in here, all right, okay, show time," he says, turning Mina by her shoulders and fiddling with the blindfold.

As it falls from her eyes, she's welcomed by the flickering, fluorescent glare from above and the chipping blue paints of a bathroom stall. Bewilderment stirs inside her, and as she opens her mouth to berate Parker for whatever weird fantasies he's trying to make happen, her eyes fall specifically on the writing scrawled across the wall, and her pulse trips.