Who: Melinda May What: Ghost! Where: Iron Pepper Casino When: Thursday Evening Warnings: creepy ghost? Status: Closed/Narrative
Melinda thought it strange to have her own office at the casino. It wasn't anything fancy, just as she liked it. She didn't use it often. She much preferred to be where action was. Even when she requested a desk job after Bahrain, it still was unnatural to her. Being back with a team at home was what she needed to get back to feeling even an inch like herself again. She knew she never would find that person she was before, but she was starting to be okay with who she was now.
She used the office when she had to work on scheduling among other boring employment tasks. The holidays were a time when people asked for time off. She was starting to figure out who'd fill in when needed. Even she planned to take some overtime.
She was fiddling with the tablet on her desk, typing names into spreadsheets, when she started to feel ill at ease. She sensed something was...off. It was only made more apparent when she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. At that point, she reached for a gun she kept in one of the desk drawers. Just because she had a less action packed job and lived in relative safety, she wasn't going to be without a weapon. Plus, she was head of security. This wasn't out of the ordinary for her.
Why didn't you want to be my new mother?
Melinda froze when she heard that voice. It couldn't be...
"No, it's just your imagination," she said to herself after looking around and seeing nothing there. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, she expected more of the same. Instead, she was reliving a nightmare.
Standing right next to her was the one person who was with her always: Katya Belyakova. She never forgot her name or every detail of what she looked like. It was definitely her. Melinda was so startled, she fell right out of her chair, the gun sliding across the floor.
You should have been my new mother since you took mine from me. Then took me away.
It was just like in Bahrain. Katya moved closer, her arm stretched out toward Melinda, as she slid back on the floor. This time, she backed into the wall instead of finding her gun. That was now on the other side of the room. Not that it would do any good against a ghost.
I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I just needed all their pain. But I don't need it anymore.
This was really happening. Melinda was being haunted. This truly was a nightmare scenario.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. She didn't have much of a voice at the moment.
Katya tilted her head ever so slightly, enough to be unnerving. The girl looked pointedly at her then disappeared. Just like that. Melinda finally took a breath, not realizing she'd been holding it. Of all the crazy and chaotic things this town brought forth, this was easily the most disconcerting.
It took a lot to unsettle Melinda. Right now, she couldn't get her hands to stop trembling.