Ghosts, Ghouls, and the Inbetweens

Chapter 13: Rain's second act

No head strolled along the sidewalk, it had been weeks since his funeral, and he was tired out of his wits. Physically? Yes. Mentally? Incredibly. Emotionally?

Y'know know it, baby.

New Fawn to the north had quickly lost its 'new' feel, as if it ever had any to Hedrick. Yet, as he became accustomed to the surroundings as he did with the original Hangman's Hell, he felt a bit of loss. Maybe a small part of him was truly excited for this new area, even if it was a walking distance from his resting zone. It was like buying a new car, except the car was a beat-up hand me down that managed to make its way into a car dealership. You hate it at first, but it's still got that new car smell.

That was a weird metaphor- or was it even a metaphor? An idiom? No Head didn't know, either way he was proud at his attempt. Just as he memorized the people of Hangman's Hell, he learned a couple of things about the residents of Northern Hangman.

A barista named Beatrice, her friends called her Bea, but No Head didn't know her well enough to call her that.

Dave, the police officer.

Then there was Liyah, a young girl who wrote stuff in her spare time, she seemed nice.

There were many more, he started making the connection that focusing on memorizing the townsman's names, occupations, etc. was... helping him? It was better than sulking in your own homesickness and depression. Coming to this conclusion, he started memorizing street names, colors of cars that drove by, anything to keep his mind off the negatives. It was like a game, I-spy-with-my-little-eye kind of stuff, and he enjoyed it.

Alas the fun that came with keeping mental note of every regular at the local café lost its new car smell long ago. Wait, when exactly did it lose the excitement? He pondered the thought. He passed by a stand of newspapers, being sold for five cents apiece. Out of curiosity, he snatched a newspaper and started reading, not caring if anyone saw a floating newspaper.

November, 5, 2009

He read the date over and over, how long had it been since he died? It had only been a couple of weeks, right? He pouted, trying to to recall the date. He flipped through some of the pages, reading through the news while he tried to remember. He knew it was some time in October, geez, it's been at least a month.

No Head frowned, he'd been wandering this town for awhile now, sure it did feel like forever, but he didn't expect it to have been that long. He bit his tongue, scanning the paper for anything interesting; A new bakery that had opened up recently, sounds fun. Car crash happened in the area, thankfully no deaths... so far. Killer dressed up in a rabbit suit killing children? No Head scowled, he knew news was fake, but this was a new level of bull-

Drip.

Huh? No Head squinted, wet spots suddenly appeared on the paper.

Drip.

He looked around, sure enough, it was raining. Well, no duh, the drips were revealing enough. The paper instantly got soaked, he rolled his eyes, dropping the paper and letting it blow away in the wind.

He scanned the roads, finding very few people left in the sidewalks. The remaining few were either running for shelter or hiding under their umbrellas. Leaving the ghost nearly alone. He stuck his tongue out, glancing around the area, it was already pouring. He wanted to say he was surprised, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

He went on his way again, even if he wasn't physically affected by the rain, he might as well try to beat it. He started to remember the last rain he'd been in, where he laughed and cried at memories of family. He started to think back to those memories, playing in the rain with mom and dad, hell, he even had memories of messing around with Max while it was raining. Thinking back to it, he admitted the memories brought a certain sadness, but that was to be expected by now, at least in his mind. Yet it also brought a good amount of sweetness, nostalgia just did that to people.

He felt tears build up in his eyes, he shook himself, no, there wasn't gonna be any crying. Happy times! Yeah, happy times.

He started counting the raindrops, of course coming to a solid answer would be impossible, but it took his mind off things. "One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi..." He counted aloud, holding up a finger for every number he listed.

He continued down the beaten path as he counted, "twenty two Mississippi, twenty three Mississippi, twenty four Mississippi," He kept counting, as he did he thought of more memories, each merrier than the last.

Him and his parents splashing around in puddles when he was in second grade, "Twenty eight Mississippi."

He and Max standing at the side of the road, purposefully getting themselves hit with water as cars zoomed by when they were in middle school. "Twenty nine Mississippi."

He and his parents laying in wet grass as he told them about his day, they all got colds, but screw it, it was fun! "Thirty Mississippi- Aw hell!" He suddenly exclaimed, he couldn't hide the enormous smile on his face.

These memories, small instances of his past, they brought him ginormous joy. He was bouncing around the road through the rain, laughing as more memories came to him, he felt... happy. Genuinely happy. For the first time in a month, he felt good about himself and his situation, and god, was it refreshing.

He started to spin, had he had legs, he definitely would've been dancing. He felt like he was in an abnormally upbeat music video, occasionally counting raindrops as he pranced around. He stopped himself once, and only once.

In front of a store window, he still couldn't see his reflection, but he finger-gunned towards the glass.

"We're back in business, baby!"