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Kchan: Strange chapter that ends it all. Very strange in my opinion, what with... ...ah well. You'll see. Thank you to Miss-Nina, Dreamer-in-the-Shadows, Nikufei Ronda, and Ca2longoria! Thanks especially to the first three for being such faithful reviewers, even though I'm not most of the time. Love to all of you and hope you enjoy the last chapter of Without Flowers!
Chapter 4
Go For It!
.:What does it mean to live without flowers?:.
Daniel walked into the office late at night, having just finished several small cases involving a group of ghosts who had insisted upon living in random people’s attics for the sheer pleasure of scaring the living daylights out of the owners of the homes they inhabited. Daniel hadn’t really sent them off to the afterlife. They had been too stubborn. Instead, he convinced them to occupy a rather deserted home and that was the end of that, or at least he hoped.
The dark-haired man looked around and caught the faint scent of a familiar flower. He looked around to see small pots of forget-me-nots around the office this week, obviously put there by Erin. He stared around with a kind of shock. Kale was there to remind him of his deeds all the time, even when she wasn’t there apparently.
The blond man grinned at the look on Daniel’s face, mistaking it for a good surprised look rather than the disgusted surprise that Daniel felt. “Aren’t they pretty? I really liked the blue on these flowers, so that’s why I picked them. You like them?” He asked, beaming.
Daniel continued to look around the room at his dead fiancée’s favorite flower. A constant reminder. Why did she keep torturing him like this? Erin frowned, finally sensing the unease of his taller partner. “You okay? What’s wrong…you don’t like them?”
Daniel held his forehead and walked over to his desk, staring down at a cheerful yellow pot with those little blue flowers with their white centres staring back up at him. He fancied that they were mocking him for some reason and he felt a chill run down his spine. He shook his head and looked back at Erin. “No. They’re fine. I like them” he lied, “Just pollen allergies or something”
Erin gave him a look that said he didn’t quiet believe that, but would accept it for the time being. “Well, as long as you’re alright I’m happy” he said quietly.
“Ehhhh?” . Daniel gave the blond man a skeptical look. “I don’t need to hear that from a man, no matter how pretty he is. It makes me depressed” he joked lightly, trying to get the conversation away from forget-me-nots and himself. He glanced back at Erin again and noticed something odd about his reflection in the dark glass of the window behind him. He blinked and whatever it had been was gone. He shrugged this off and figured that it was simply his mind playing tricks on himself. That happened sometimes when he worked too many cases with little sleep.
He flopped down in his chair behind his desk. The poor old chair creaked under his weight, threatening to break any minute. Daniel wouldn’t be surprised if the damned thing collapsed one night while he was doing paperwork, which was exactly what he had to do that night. He sighed and took a sheet off a stack of papers and began filling in the blank spaces. The usual. The same. The routine.
Erin was still standing in the middle of the office, almost swaying on his heels like a drunk. Daniel glowered at him and shook his head. “What? Been having a little ‘Irish Coffee’ lately? I would suggest using a little weaker liquor, you look like you’re about to pass out”. This much was true. The blonde man was still swaying, was very pale in the face, and his eyes were starting to roll to the back of his head.
“Oh shit!” Daniel yelped, leaping up from his chair and running towards Erin, “Don’t tell me you’re about to have a seizure or something!”. Before he could reach him, the blond had fallen to a crumpled heap on the floor, and for no apparent reason. Daniel looked around his office frantically, as if something would magically appear to fix the situation. He knelt next to Erin not sure what to do except check his breathing and pulse. All that was normal, but something still wasn’t right. It wasn’t a seizure either, for he lay perfectly still except for the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.
“You can’t do this to me, you stupid cross-dresser!” Daniel yelled frantically, not even sure what he was saying anymore, “If you die or something I’ll track down your spirit and send you straight to Hell! You here me!”
Slowly, Erin’s bright green eyes opened with a filmy, hazy look to them. He looked up at Daniel, dazed. “What happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell me” Daniel frowned and rapped on Erin’s forehead, “You just about scared the living daylights out of me”
Erin tilted his head to the side as he sat up and continued to look at the dark-haired man with confusion. “You were worried about me?”
Daniel snorted, “Only because I’d have to do your stack of paperwork if anything happened to you”. He stood up and offered a hand to help the other man up. Erin smiled and took the hand gingerly, letting Daniel help pull him up.
“I’m fine now” Erin assured, “Dunno what happened, but its over now. Although, while I was out, I could have sworn I saw some woman. Like she was smiling at me, except not in a friendly way”. He shrugged and walked towards his desk. Or started to was more like it, since Daniel roughly grabbed his arm and jerked him backwards.
“A woman? What did she look like?”
Erin blinked, “Uhh…pale…dark hair I guess. I think she was Asian. Or a least part, like you. Why? Is there a problem?”
“No. Just get to work and tell me if you see her again” Daniel growled, letting go of Erin’s arm. Kale was probably attacking Erin for some reason. He watched the blond rub his arm and, mutter about how easily his skin bruises, and walk over to his mountain of paperwork. Daniel stood in place for a while before heading to his desk. As he was about to sit down, he heard Erin giggle. He’d heard Erin giggle or laugh girlishly, but this was different. It was a little eerie.
“Erin?” he asked, turning to the blond.
Erin looked up from his work, and Daniel’s breath caught in his throat when he saw the man’s face. A strange grin played on his lips, that twisted the whole face. And his stunning green eyes had darkened to pitch black. “What is it, Love?” he asked. Even his voice was different. It sounded more like…
“Kale…” Daniel whispered.
“That’s right!” she answered from within Erin’s body, “I decided to possess this man. Very pretty, I even thought he was a woman for a long while!”
Daniel looked away. He didn’t want to see this. He didn’t know which was worse, seeing his partner’s face twisted eerily like that, or just the fact that it was his fiancée behind the face. He didn’t know. “Kale, why are you doing this?” Daniel asked, looking off to one side and down at the floor to avoid that black stare, “Why Erin?”
Carefully manicured nails traced a slim face, before suddenly digging into the soft flesh beneath the chin. Red blood welled up beneath those nails and trailed down a white throat, down, down, down…staining a pure white shirt with a rose on it. Kale laughed, “Why, my dearest? Because he is a nuisance. It annoys me that he takes up so much of your attention that you don’t see me anymore. When you worked alone, I had you all to myself. No one to interrupt my playtime”
“’Playtime’ she calls it” Daniel thought sadly. It was all a mind game what she did to him, slowly trying to push him over the edge.
She took a step foreward, drawing out the small handgun Erin kept tucked away under his shirt and pointing it at Daniel’s chest. “I want to make you suffer, Danny. I want to see you bleed, cry, and fall into despair. I want you to be humiliated and shamed. Only then will I die happy. Its only what you deserve”
“You wouldn’t” Daniel said, rather than asked. His dark eyes flicked down at the gun and then back up again into Erin’s, or shall we say Kale’s, black eyes. She simply undid the safety catch with her thumb, still pointing the gun levelly at Daniel’s chest. A non-verbal answer that got its point across quite clearly. Should she feel the need, or the want, Daniel would be no more. He, however, seemed calm about the situation, if a little saddened.
“What can I do to make you happy then?” he asked. In truth, he would have done anything she’d ask, or at least so he thought. If she’d asked him to drop on all fours and beg like a dog for forgiveness, he would have done it. Even if she’d asked him to kill himself, to but a bullet in his own brain, he would have done it, if it made her happy. Anything, but what she was really about to ask him.
She handed him the gun, the barrel pointed back at Erin. “Kill this man, if that’s what you can even call him” she spat, distorting Erin’s face even more as she talked, “Kill him, and prove to me that you love only me. Get rid of him”
Daniel stared down at the gun in his hand. He closed his eyes. When he did that, he could pretend he was talking directly to Kale, instead of talking to her through Erin’s body. He couldn’t shoot that way. It would be like killing Kale all over again. He opened his eyes, and despite all the distortion, he saw only Erin. Could he really kill him just to satisfy Kale’s endless rage?
He had to admit, there were times he couldn’t stand Erin, but that wouldn’t justify killing him, would it? But what would Kale do if he didn’t? Would she just kill off Erin anyways, and then go after Daniel? Was it Erin’s fate to be killed anyways?
Kale took Daniel’s hand that held the gun and raised it up. Only then did he realize his hand had been shaking, and that his grip on the gun had been so hard that his hand was hurting. Kale placed the barrel of the gun on Erin’s jaw line, almost directly under the chin. “What’s the matter, Danny? Do it. All you have to do now is pull the trigger. Is that so hard to do?” she taunted.
He stared at the gun, hand trembling violently. His index finger rested on the trigger, but stood stone still. He couldn’t do it.
“Is it really so hard to do?” Kale snarled, taking the gun out of Daniel’s hand and pointing it at him once again. “It wasn’t hard for you back then when I was possessed by a demon! Oh no! You just went up and shot me in the head and then talked to some bimbo on the phone about a job in this filthy place!” she screamed and smacked Daniel across the face with her free hand. He stumbled backwards slightly and came in contact with his desk, where a lone vase stood.
Daniel handed Kale a single, small flower from the vase. Little blue petals surrounded yellow centers; the flowers that Erin had bought to decorate the office. Kale held it for a time, looking strangely at it. Erin’s body started to slump foreward, his eyes turning from Kale’s black ones to his normal bright green ones. He fell face-first to the ground, leaving the ghost of Kale standing there. She looked like a normal, living person then. Somehow, the mess of her hair had straightened out, like when she was alive. Perfectly straight and a lovely shade of black that seemed to shine with every colour in the light, like a raven’s feather.
She held the flower close and sobbed quietly, thick tears rolling down her ghostly cheeks. “I just didn’t want you to forget me. You know, like our special flowers”
Daniel walked over to her to put a hand on her shoulder, but found that his hand went right through her. Some ghosts actually retained a little bit of tangibility, but she’d been dead for too long now. It was a wonder that she could even hold that little flower. He instead, shook his head and said softly, “I could never forget you Kale”.
She smiled at him and brushed away her tears, which fell to the floor and disappeared. “We were going to have a nice wedding, weren’t we?” she asked.
He smiled down at her, “Yeah…with lot’s of Forget-Me-Not’s” he answered.
Kale looked up at him sadly, “I caused you so much pain over these last few years. I guess you couldn’t help it. You did the best thing you knew how to do. But that doesn’t really justify what I’ve done, does it?” she asked. Daniel didn’t answer; he wasn’t sure how to answer that. Kale took note of this and looked down at Erin. “And I got him involved. He seems like a nice guy, if a little different. You shouldn’t treat him so harshly. I think you’ll like him if you really talk to him. He just seems like that kind of person. Who knows?”
She looked upwards, not at the ceiling, but something beyond that. Something even beyond the sky. She looked back at Daniel sadly and said softly, “I should be going now. Before I do, I’d like to show you something”
The scenery changed from the office to a large field that seemed to go on forever. There were no trees in sight. The sky was a dull gray. But the field itself was alive with colour. It was covered in a carpet of green grass and blue Forget-Me-Nots. Daisies and sunflowers were abundant too, and little speckles of red roses could be seen every here and there.
“This is were souls go before they really die. It projects an image of their soul, so they see what they want to see as well as what lies dormant within them. Almost like Limbo; its not the world of the Living or the Dead,” she explained while Daniel looked around with amazement. In his years as a detective, he’d never seen where souls go after death. He just assumed either Heaven or Hell and that was it.
“This is also…” Kale continued, “…where we say our final goodbye’s”
Daniel turned back to her and asked hesitantly, “You have to?”
She nodded. “I’ll probably see you again in the world of the Living, if reincarnation is still an option for me. But I wouldn’t really know it. I’d probably just be some girl on the street who wouldn’t even know you. Or I might just end up in Hell and stay there for eternity. Who knows? Just promise me you won’t dwell on me after we part. I want you to live without anymore regrets”
He stared at her at this comment, not sure what to say once again.
“What I mean is, if there’s anyone that you can love, even after all this, by all means go for it. I know it might seem strange that I’m basically telling you to cheat on me, but I’ll be dead and gone. A dead woman can’t keep you warm at night”
“But-“
She glared at him, her lower lip sticking out in a pout, “I’m serious Daniel! I’m not just saying that”. She started dancing like she used to, laughing. “I think you’d better go now. I should be too”. She started to run across the field, away from Daniel.
“I love you, Kale!” he called.
She just turned around in mid-run and smiled at him, shaking her head before finally disappearing along with the field. Before he knew it, Daniel was back in his office with his stacks of paperwork and Erin lying on the floor, just waking up, and wondering what he’d happened. He would always tell Daniel that he’d had some weird dream about a woman possessing him and telling Daniel to kill him. Daniel would just tell him to shut up and get back to work at times like these.
.:--:.
A few years later, Daniel was walking down the street with Erin hanging on his arm while he flipped through pages of a file. A new case no doubt. He wasn’t really watching where he was going and was simply relying on Erin to be his ‘seeing eye dog’ as he put it, with an emphasis on ‘dog’. He finally looked up from his files and glared down at the blond man, who was once again wearing a skirt.
“Get off me, you fruitcake. You might infect me with you stupid or something” he growled.
Erin laughed at this, “Oh c’mon, love! You know you like it. Besides, don’t you think I’m positively adorable?”
“Yeah, adorably fruity. Adorably and fucking man,” Daniel snapped, voice seething with sarcasm, “Stop hanging on me or people will get the wrong idea”
“Or maybe they’ll get the right idea” Erin said slyly, but letting go of the dark-haired man’s arm just the same. “Who cares anyways? I look like I woman, so it’s not like people would think you’re gay anyways”
“Are you saying I am gay?!” Daniel fumed, “Who says I want a man hanging all over me, even if he did look like a woman? Huh?! I had a fiancée at one time you know! I can’t be gay!”
Erin grinned wickedly up at Daniel, “That just means you’re bisexual, love. Its only a matter of time before you give into my irresistible feminine-like charms”. He winked, stood on tiptoe to kiss Daniel on the nose, and tore off down the street before the other man could catch him.
“What is wrong with you, you freak of nature?!” Daniel roared, startling several people on the street. He rubbed his nose several times with his sleeve to get the feeling of another man’s lips off it. “How old are you anyways? You act like a damn child, or some kind of tittering schoolgirl, dammit!”
“Go for it” he heard a small voice say excitedly.
Daniel looked down to see a little Asian girl holding a bunch of random flowers in her hand. Some sunflowers and daisies and, oddly enough, little blue flowers with yellow centers. He wondered where she found them all. The girl smiled up at him and repeated, “Go for it” and pointed at Erin, “He seems like a nice guy, if a little different. You shouldn’t treat him so harshly. I think you’ll like him if you really talk to him. He just seems like that kind of person. Who knows?”
Daniel stared in amazement at the girl. It was the exact same words Kale had said about Erin before she really ‘died’ (though she had already been dead for a while, Daniel couldn’t really come up with a better word to describe it). “What is your name?” he asked hurriedly, and then pointed at himself, “Do you know who I am?”
She giggled and sniffed at the flowers in her arms, “Who knows? You look familiar, but I really don’t know you. Mommy always says to never talk to strangers”. A woman in the distance started calling something and the girl turned her head to look for her. She looked back at Daniel, “Sorry, mister, but I have to go. Plus, I’m not allowed to talk to people I don’t know anyways”
“O-okay…”
“Just don’t tell my mommy, okay?” she asked, running off down the street. She waved back at him and called, “And remember, go for it!”. She kept running and finally disappeared out of sight. He watched her go, still waving for some reason.
Maybe the flowers in her never really died out. Maybe they were just gone for the winter. Her soul bloomed again and the sunflowers and daisies were visible. A whole field of them, just for Kale. Dotted around the field were blood red roses, like the one’s that rested on her grave, still there as a gentle reminder. But gone was the life without flowers.
.:Kyande:.