Dark Blue - 深蓝の魂 by 珊

Chapter 5

Li Ann froze in her place too shocked and frightened to move. A cold swift air passed through her body as she continued to stare at Mike. He walked over closer to her.

“Now do you believe me?” he asked coming close.

She stumbled backwards.

“Don’t touch me! Yo...you’re a....gh-ghost?” she asked.

Her face was the color of white as she shook.

“Don’t be scared, I won’t hurt you, I can’t do no harm, I just need your help okay?”“No, this can’t be. You...you’re not...leave me alone,” Li Ann stuttered as she scurried away from Mike.

He continued to chase her down the dark empty street that led to her neighborhood. Li Ann felt so relieved when she saw her house, beaming with the lights on full. She almost wanted to cry. So many things had happened that day that she desperately needed to see her brother.

“Dongwan!” her scream echoed throughout the house as she flung the door open.

Her purse dropped to the floor as she desperately looked around for him.

“Li Ann?” Dongwan asked coming out from the kitchen with a blue apron around his waist wiping his hands on a white towel.

“Dongwan!” Li Ann cried as she wrapped her arms around her brother and hugged him tightly. Dongwan pulled back and looked at her worried.

“What’s wrong? Who took you here? Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost...” he asked concerned.

“I did! Oppa! I’m so scared! Close the door!” Li Ann panicked as she rushed to the open door and slammed it shut, unaware that Mike was already inside.

“Whoa! Lili, calm down, let’s have a seat,” Dongwan said grasping her shoulders. He forced her to sit in the nearest chair.

Li Ann’s dry throat tried to talk, but she was shaken, still not believing what she had saw.

“Okay, what happened?” Dongwan said as he pulled a nearby chair under him. Li Ann took a deep panicking breath as she spoke quickly to Dongwan.

“Oh my God oppa, today was the worst day of my life. First I had three utterly boring patients, then I was so hungry that my brain wanted to explode.

I left a message in your stupid answering machine but you never picked me up, so I walked home and got mugged by this one bum, and then a guy saved me, but he is a ghost!

And he wants me to help him with some corporation crap, and now he’s following me!” Dongwan stared back at her blankly, trying to digest what he was being told. He looked at Li Ann as if she was crazy or had gone psychopathic.

“Okay...I heard something about boring, muggy, and crap,” Dongwan replied with a blink.

“Oppa! This is not the time to be fooling around! I am serious!” Li Ann yelled.

Dongwan started laughing. Li Ann pouted and stared at him as he got up and walked back into the kitchen. A short minute afterwards, Dongwan came back out with a bowl of hot soup.

“Here, I think you should eat, shower, and go to sleep. Maybe you’ve overworked yourself,” he assured her.

“I am not crazy,” Li Ann mumbled under her breath as she took the soup.

Dongwan happily walked back into the kitchen, leaving Li Ann alone in the dining room. Taking deep breath, she concluded that maybe she was just crazy and overworked like Dongwan had said. She calmed down and forgot about why she was frightened.

She was about to sip the taste of the warm soup, but with one glance up, she slammed the bowl of soup down and stood up immediately, bumping into the counter behind her. Mike smiled at her from across the table where she sat to drink her soup.

“Stop following me! Leave me alone!” Li Ann shouted with her fists balled at her sides.

Mike shrugged and leaned back, enjoying himself. She closed her eyes, but quickly opened them again, hoping that Mike would disappear. Unfortunately, he didn’t.

“I just want you to help me, that’s all,” he replied.

“No,”

“Then I won’t leave, I’ll stay here, I’ll live with you and haunt you,” Mike smirked devilishly.

He was beginning to like this whole ghost ideal.

“Go to hell,” Li Ann muttered.

“I can’t, I can’t go to Heaven, I can’t go to hell, I don’t know where to go. So I guess I’ll just stay here with you,” Mike stated as he stared off into the distance.

“Your brother’s a real cool guy.” Li Ann calmed down a bit and took a deep breath.

She looked up again, and Mike was still there, sitting in that chair across from her.

“Who are you?” Li Ann asked quietly.

She stood as stiff as a board, not even blinking.

“Relax woman, I’m not going to eat you. My name’s Mike, Lee Mike?” Mike replied with a half smile.

Li Ann recalled quickly of Lindsey and Amy’s conversation, about the young man that had an accident.

“So you’re Mike,” Li Ann repeated.

Mike nodded understandably. The whole town knew about his death.

Everybody talked about it. News like that was hard to miss, especially for a well known man like himself.

“Tomorrow’s your funeral...”

“It is? I don’t know...I haven’t been around my wife much since I died,” Mike replied.

“What do you want from me?” Li Ann asked. Her voice was slightly trembling as she tried to regain herself to talk to unbelievably a ghost.

“I’m not asking much, I just need your help,” Mike asked quietly with pleading sorrowful eyes. No matter how much Li Ann wanted to believe that she was only hallucinating, that she was just overworked and crazy, she couldn’t.

But then she suddenly felt sorry for Mike. He had everything to live for. Everything. Just like her parents that died in a house fire when she was fifteen.

Remembering her parents, she wondered if they were ghosts just walking around like Mike.

“I...I don’t know how to help you, I mean...wait!” Li Ann stuttered trying to regain and collect her thoughts.

“I can’t help you. You’re not real! This can’t be happening. I’m sick, yes, that’s it, I am ill, I need to go to the doctor.

I’m crazy, I am going to a mental home.”

“Okay, now you’re really crazy,” Mike rolled his eyes.

“You’re not a ghost! You...you can’t be! I mean, I don’t believe in such things!” she pronounced.

“Well, believe it. I’m a ghost and I’m going to bug you until you agree to help me!” Mike teased.

“Dongwan!” Li Ann screamed. She heard a loud cuss and her brother mumbled something as he walked back out of the kitchen into the living room.

“What is it?!” Dongwan asked holding his finger in his hand.

“What happened?” Li Ann asked turning to Dongwan to inspect his finger.

“Will you stop screaming like that?! I burned my finger,” Dongwan said as he looked at his now red finger.

Mike smiled as he saw the siblings acting so funny. He chuckled.

“What are you laughing at?” Li Ann glared at Mike.

“I’m not laughing,” Dongwan replied.

Li Ann suddenly remembered that Dongwan probably can’t see Mike. She looked up at Dongwan’s face terrified and shook his shoulders.

“Oppa! There he is! The ghost!” Li Ann said as she tried to get her brother to believe her.

“Aish, stop with all this nonsense. I’m going to finish cooking, Calida’s coming over tonight. Do you want to join us?” Li Ann took a moment to think.

“No...” she mumbled.

“I’m going to bed.” With that, she went to find her purse and stomped upstairs to her room. Li Ann slammed her door and locked it tightly.

She walked over to her drawer and started digging out something.

“Hey,” Mike said from behind. She jumped up startled and turned around. She stuck a cross in his face. Mike started laughing.

“Die you evil thing!” Li Ann shouted as her trembling fingers held the cross in front of Mike. “Stop it, you’re killing me,” Mike laughed at her.

“What’s so funny? Argh!” Li Ann shouted in frustration as she threw the useless cross on her bed. She crossed her arms and stood in her corner, just looking at the ghost in front of her.

“####, I’m a ghost, not a vampire,” he chuckled.

Li Ann didn’t reply. Mike was getting on her very last nerve.

“Get out,” she demanded.

He stopped laughing and looked at her. He crossed his arms and replied, “No.”

“Get out!” she raised her voice.

He stood still. She was still too frightened to move, so she stood still, just looking back at him. It was like a staring contest.

“Um...I have to go to sleep, can you come back tomorrow?” Li Ann asked innocently.

Mike had a suspicious look on his face.

“Please? I have to change,” Li Ann asked nicely.

“Fine, I’ll let you think about it. You’re still going to help me nonetheless,” Mike replied as he walked out her door, not even opening it.

Mike smiled proudly as he thought he had conquered his ghost antics and could use them however he wished, if only somebody would just tell him what he was supposed to do.

If he’s just going to continue on like this, will he always be like this?

A helpless soul with no place to go?

[To be Cont]