Raincoats | The Umbrella Academy

Apparition

"You need to tell her," Ben insisted.

His brother glanced up, his forehead scrunching. "For once, Benny Boy, I think you've come up with a horrible idea."

The ghost sighed and began to pace the room. Everything was a fight with Klaus, every little thing. God forbid the man do anything good for someone else. "He isn't going to leave her alone and she doesn't even know that he is there, that's torture." He pointed out the obvious.

Klaus's eyes slid to the corner of the room, where the new apparition was desperately trying to pick up a water bottle from the dresser. His hand simply went through the object every time and the ghost was getting fed up with the confusing anomaly.

"Ugg! I'm sick of this! Where are we and what did you do with Charlotte?! What's wrong with me?"

Ben raised a knowing brow at Klaus. The man didn't seem to know that a chunk of his skull was missing. It looked like an exit wound, probably shot close up. It often took a while for the dead to come to terms, or even figure out that they are no longer living.

This ghost was different than the other ones that would show up around Charlotte. They didn't really know why, but this one wasn't just a vengeful spirit.

"We have to tell him," Ben whispered.

"We're in my room," Klaus spoke up, so that the confused ghost could hear. "And Charlotte is... Actually I don't know where she is. She's probably off somewhere making googly eyes at my brother."

In a split second, his face contorted into a kind of displeased scowl. "Who's your brother and why the fuck am I here?"

"He's real friendly," said the Séance said offhandedly to Ben. "Can't wait to see how he'll take being dead."

"You have to tell him. He's just going to attach himself to her and he'll never get closure."

Klaus snorted. "Oh, like how you attached yourself to me? We don't even know who he is to her."

"What are you talking about?" The man snapped, looking more pissed off by the second.

His face was smeared with bloodied hand prints that still looked fresh. He must have died recently. Not all ghosts keep their appearance from the time that they died, but many of the more conflicted ones did.

"What's your name?" Ben finally spoke.

"What's it to you?" He spit, on the defensive already.

Ben took a few steps forward, over a pile of dirty clothes. He was definitely better at handling these situations than his brother. He could do this. "We're just trying to help you. We can get you Charlotte, but we have to know who you are." 

He slowly unfolded his arms as he processed Ben's calm words. "I'm Denis. Charlotte is my- we're close." They noted the way he used 'is', instead of 'was'. He really didn't realize that he was dead.

On the bed, Klaus sat upright. "How close?" He could recall Charlotte using the word 'roommate' to describe the relationship she had with the drug dealer, but he didn't know if there was more to that.

Denis frowned. "Really close. Now could you tell her that I need to talk to her? I really need to... I need to..." His voice trailed off and his eyes found the floor as he tried to regain his train of thought.

Just as confused, Ben and Klaus waited for him to finish, but he didn't.

"I think I need to apologize to her."

"You think?" Klaus echoed. "What happened?"

A few moments of silence passed and Denis squeezed his eyes shut. "I can't fucking remember. I just- she was mad at me and I need her not to be."