The estate agent frowned as he looked at the next house on his list –there was no way he was ever going to be able to sell it. Not when the ghost of a sixteen year old girl had taken up permanent residence there.

16th November, 1996

“I hate my life,” Jade Langdon had written in her online diary. “It would be so easy to end it, but I’ve never found the courage to do it. Today I have.”

The entry had been saved at 4:15, and at approximately 5:30, her sister had walked into the house and found Jade dangling from the banisters, suspended in mid-air by the black leather belt she’d bought two days before.

Now, in October 2006, it looked like the house would remain vacant until the owners gave up and demolished it. The first family who had moved in, barely a year after Jade’s death, had left after two months, insisting that there was a feeling of something “not quite right” in the house. After that, the house had been empty for almost two years.

The next family had had more concrete accusations against the house. They spoke of music being heard throughout the house, of sounds of sobbing and breaking glass coming from the room that had been Jade’s and of a mysterious shadow appearing, silhouetted against the banisters.

Four years later, a family with four teenagers had moved in. Against their will, Jade’s room had had to be used due to a lack of space. Though he highly doubted the “ghost” of Jade Langdon had contributed much to the events that had driven them out, the fact remained that the house was once again on the market.

The couple he was supposed to be showing around the house was already there –uh oh. He just couldn’t justify showing the house to them. The only reason they might buy it was the alarmingly low asking price, always assuming that he didn’t tell them about the ghost. Strictly speaking, he didn’t have to…and well, every house sold boosted up the commission he’d get…

As they went round the house, there seemed to be nothing untoward about it, except for a slight sense of neglect, but you’d expect that from a house which had been empty for three months, wouldn’t you?

“I’ll be honest with you,” Simon Hawthorne said, turning towards him. “Nora and I are very interested in this house… but what can you tell us about the rumours that there’s a ghost hanging round here?”

Busted. Might as well be honest now.

“It’s true that a suicide was committed here, but that does not necessarily make the house haunted?”

“Has anyone ever actually seen Jade Langdon here?” Nora asked.

“The only person who can answer that is actually in the nearest psychiatry ward…” he muttered.

“I’m not crazy!” Sophie sobbed as the door opened. “Jade is just as real as you or me, she spoke to me, she helped me, she…”

“I believe you,” a soft voice answered. Nora walked into the pristine white room and sat down.

“You do?”

“Yes. Jade would have hated to be forgotten, and I’d guess that she’d spend her afterlife trying to help people out of messes like the one she found herself in.”

Ten minutes later, Sophie and Nora were discussing Jade as though she were a real person, who just didn’t happen to be in the room at the time.

“When she first spoke to me, I thought I was cracking up –but then I became so grateful for her presence,” Sophie explained.

“Did she tell you anything about herself?”

“Everything. It’s impossible to believe that what she told me happened ten years ago.”

“To her it’s probably still 1996,” Nora shrugged. “I don’t know how time moves in the spirit world.”

“She knows it’s 2006,” Sophie protested. “She just can’t break away from this earth.”

“What else did she say?”

“She misses her friends, she wishes she can turn back time.”

“Final question: does she know she’s dead?”

“Of course!”

When Nora was leaving, Sophie called her back.

“Why are you so interested in Jade?”

“My fiancé and I are buying the house only if Jade’s ghost comes with it. She used to be our best friend, until she freaked out and decided to top herself.”

Simon pushed the door open softly. It was the first time he and Nora had been alone in the house.

“Jade?”

“Jade, it’s us…”

Nothing.

“Nora? Simon?” The light voice they remembered so well called back to them. Materialising in front of them was a slender figure, one they hadn’t seen for ten years.

The long black curls, dark blue eyes, serious expression.

“That top!” Nora grinned, recognizing the black sweater Jade wore.

“It’s just like the top James had, only a more feminine version,” Simon observed.

“I know. I decided I wanted one… and there it was!”

“Jade, why?” Nora asked.

“Why what?” Jade asked innocently.

“Why did you kill yourself? You should have been at college with us, graduating with us, everything! You should be a twenty six year old with a bright future ahead of you, not trapped as a sixteen year old for the past ten years!”

“Nora, your psychology skills won’t work here. This is what I am, I can’t change it.”

“But why?” Simon broke in. “One day you were with us, laughing and joking –the next, you were gone.”

“I couldn’t face it any more. Once James and Alexia got back together, it was like my whole world crashed to an end. They made a sweet couple, but it hurt so badly to accept that he couldn’t be mine. What’s happened to them now?”

“They got married.”

“Speaking of marriage…” Jade began. “Is there any chance you could have your wedding here? I so want to watch it!”

In a reflex he’d thought he’d long forgotten, Simon launched himself at her –

“Forget it!” Jade laughed, floating to the ceiling. “I’m a ghost, remember?”

I’ll continue this if people want the next chapter… if reviewers are content to leave it like this, then so be it.