Other Worlds Presents: Incorporeal
[Chapters 1-5]
6
Grem Ginny haunts the top floor. The lights tell you how.
I don’t have an issue with Grem, and they repeat me, so that’s how it is.
Grem’s place attracts a cloudy sort; they’re not well. Talks of pollution and mass harvest, rumors of a groundswell.
And none of them seen my older sibling.
7
Grem Ginny repeats this one, Spire. That’s what we call them, and no one says different. Spire’s cloudy for sure, and lean like a cobra. I don’t know what Spire was in the not quite past life, but Spire is a vacuum here. The lights go out and the kids cry. The man in 7 yells at his wife, and the doorman drinks more and more. Spire comes, wellness leaves.
8
Spire is talking, trying to get me to repeat. I can see that. I tell them I don’t repeat. Just don’t, so that’s how it is. Spire doesn’t listen, keeps trying. I float for a while, then drift downstairs.
Spire follows.
I go to room 3 and sit with the old lady there. She misses her wife, so I give her a hug. She can’t feel it much, but she talks like she might, says her name asks if she’s there.
I watch.
She cries and nods, hands on her breastbone, says she knows, she knows she’s still there with her.
9
She lays down.
Spire gloms on her chest.
I watch.
She cries more and more.
There is a tiny bit of force in me. Like a marble. It rolls me over to the bedside, and then it roll across the back of her hand.
She smiles, says her name again, and goes to sleep.
Spire keeps coiling, but it does nothing. They try to get me to repeat, and I say again I don’t repeat. It’s not a thing, so I don’t.
Spire floats away.
I feel something faint. Something I used to have a word for.
