Fic: Can't Kill Something That's Already Dead
Title: Can’t Kill Something That’s Already Dead
Author: mummyluvr314
Rating: PG
Fandom: Being Human US
Pairing: One-sided Bishop/Aidan
Summary: Ghosts were interesting things. Some became poltergeists. Some got lonely. Some got angry. Bishop, apparently, got clingy.
A/N: You know those fics that pop into your head and then refuse to leave. This is one of those. Title is from Weighty Ghost by Wintersleep.
Disclaimer: I don’t own the show or the characters. Sad day.
Bishop was in the closet.
He was hunkered down in the same position he’d been in when Aidan had found him the week before: back against the wall, knees pulled to his chest, trying to make himself smaller. He was shaking.
-.-
“Just trust me,” Aidan said. He glanced behind him again to make sure that Charlie was following him. “You need to see this.”
“Are you gonna come with me?” the boy asked as they descended the stairs into the old wing.
“They don’t really like me in there.”
“Then I’m not going in.”
Aidan grinned at the boy’s similarities to Sally. Just as headstrong, just as scared. “It’ll help,” the vampire promised. “Besides, they can’t hurt you.” He rounded the corner into the hall and stopped.
There was a person slumped against the wall outside of the closed doors to the ghostly wing. He wasn’t homeless; he was wearing nice pants and a suit jacket, and his hair was neatly trimmed. He was clean.
He was dead.
“Charlie, why don’t you head on in?”
The little ghost glanced up at him, uncertain, as the man on the floor jumped, startled. “If you’re sure.”
“Go.” He reached out to push the boy closer to the doors, but his hand went right through. Charlie rolled his eyes and disappeared, leaving Aidan alone with someone he never thought he’d see again.
“You came back,” Bishop whispered, staring up at Aidan with something like adoration in his eyes. “She said you would, and you did. You came back for me.”
-.-
“You didn’t tell him you have the day off?” Josh asked. He was gazing out the window at the man who had been sitting on the steps for the better part of an hour.
“Nope,” Aidan replied from the couch.
“You know,” Sally said, “he’s actually kinda cute. Like a little lost puppy that follows you around.” She glanced at Josh. “No offense.”
-.-
Aidan hated exorcisms. He really did. They were nasty, cruel things full of uncertainty and pain. But they were useful in a pinch.
The psychic’s name was Ilana, and she came highly recommended by Sally, who had been on the receiving end of the ritual before. The moment the woman walked through the door, she knew what they were. She also knew what they were dealing with.
“There’s an energy here,” she said, walking through the living room and shuddering. “It’s so…”
“Creepy?”
“Angry?”
“Evil?”
“Lonely.” Ilana said. Bishop glared at her.
-.-
“If you don’t want me in the house,” he said, “I could just stay out here. We could walk to work together everyday, and then I could wait by the benches for you, and when your shift is over, we can go home together, and I’ll wait outside and we can do it all over again the next day. I miss you, Aidan.”
Aidan groaned. Death had a way of changing people. Vampires became vicious by nature, but ghosts could go many ways. Some went crazy. Some became poltergeists. Some got lonely. Some got angry. Bishop, apparently, got clingy.
-.-
“He was always so clever,” she said, gazing at the double doors that led out of the hallway.
Aidan fidgeted, uncomfortable with all the spirits milling around. “What happened to him?”
The woman turned to him and smiled. “The same thing that would happen to you if I gave the cue. Ghosts are very protective of their own. When I pointed out my killer, they jumped to defend me.” The doors opened with a quiet creak and they turned to see Bishop sticking his head in. “Would you like to see?”
He was pretty sure he wouldn’t, but Aidan nodded anyway.
The ghost - Jane, she’d said - held out a hand and smiled warmly. “It’s ok, James,” she called. “I told them. I told them that you didn’t mean it. Besides, Aidan’s here now. He won’t let anything bad happen.”
Bishop slid into the hallway, his eyes darting nervously around at the other spirits. “Will it hurt?” he asked.
“Of course not,” Jane said. “They know now.”
He smiled, walking toward the pair and coming to a stop between them. “She said you’d come back,” Bishop said. “She said you’d come back for me.”
Aidan nodded. He didn’t see the first spirit until it had already grabbed Bishop’s arm and pulled, ripping his jacket sleeve. He did see the others, a mob of restless ghosts descending on someone he’d once called a friend. They clawed and ripped and bit until Bishop screamed and disappeared in a cold blast of light that sent shockwaves through the hall.
Jane grinned.
-.-
“How long ago did you say he died?” Ilana asked.
“A month,” Josh answered. He was staring at the space over Aidan’s shoulder, his eyes wide with fear. They had been standing in the final room of the house to be cleansed for half an hour, but the ritual wouldn’t take.
The vampire could hear wheezing behind him now that the screams had died down. He almost missed the taunts and claims that something that had once been as powerful as Bishop could not be exorcized.
“Something’s holding him here,” Ilana said. “Something strong.”
Aidan felt his name being breathed across the back of his neck and shuddered.
-.-
“He used to be so clever,” Jane said again. “But I’m clever, too. Death ruined him.” She turned to look up at Aidan with a smug grin on her face. “35 years I’ve been working on him. 15 to rebuild whatever we had before he killed me, and 20 to coax him in here and rip him apart. Every day. Sometimes more than once. He’s persistent, I’ll give him that.”
At the end of the hall, the doors opened again.
“It’s ok,” Jane called. “They understand now, James. You can come in.”
-.-
He was standing by the wall, staring with blank eyes. A rash of burns and blisters covered his face. He hadn’t moved for three days.
Aidan was sick of it.
“What?” he asked, jumping out of bed and staring the ghost down inches from his ruined face. “What are you doing here? Why are you doing this?”
Bishop’s mouth opened. He blinked for the first time in days. “Why don’t you want me?”
-.-
It took three hours to coax him out of the closet. Three hours of Aidan sitting on the edge of his bed and holding out a hand, promising it wouldn’t hurt.
It had been nearly a week since Josh had blown up over Aidan bringing him home again. Five days since he’d given an ultimatum - “him or me” - and Bishop had blinked out of existence in their kitchen, leaving Aidan without a choice.
He’d been curled up in that closet for five days.
-.-
“Get out!”
“I just wanted to make sure you were ok. You didn’t go to work this morning.”
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe I wanted a day to myself, without you constantly tagging along at my heels like some pathetic dog? Did you ever stop to think that the reason I killed you in the first place was so I could get away? What could possibly make you think I want you here?”
Bishop disappeared.
-.-
“Unfinished business.”
Bishop blinked at him. “Ok?”
“You have unfinished business. That’s what’s keeping you here.”
The ghost shifted in his chair, turning appraising eyes up to the vampire. “And what might that be?”
Aidan shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought you might.”
-.-
“I don’t want to go back,” Bishop whispered. He’d finally made it to the bed and sat hunched over, fingers tangling in the blankets. “I like it here.” He blinked and glanced down at his hands, smoothing the fabric. “I remember this.”
“You do?” Aidan asked when he lapsed into silence.
Bishop nodded. “’S warm. Happy.” The corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. “I like it.”
-.-
He grabbed Bishop and ran before Jane could get him too far down the hallway for the third time. He didn’t even acknowledge the fact that he was able to hold onto the ghost until they were out on the street.
“My door was in there,” Bishop muttered, pulling away from the vampire and frowning at him. “She said my door was in there, around the corner.” He blinked, tilting his head. “You want me to stay here?”
-.-
Aidan was calling bullshit. There was no way in Hell Bishop was being serious. It was a joke. Payback for the exorcism attempt. That had to be it.
“I always wanted to be in love.”
-.-
“He loved you.”
Jane scoffed. “He loved you. I was the consolation prize, until you professed your undying affection.”
“What?”
“You didn’t wonder why he bothered to kill me when he could’ve just left? You were jealous.”
“I wasn’t -“
“He thought you were jealous.”
-.-
It was familiar, a remnant of cold nights on the countryside, every failed attempt to leave the family. Lying on his side with warm arms around him, holding him tight, pulling him close.
A nose bumped against his shoulder, nuzzling the fabric of his shirt as a contented sigh ghosted across his back. “I love you.”
Aidan shuddered.
-.-
There was one rule: Josh couldn’t know. The werewolf was getting older, and it would only take another big scare or two to stop his heart.
So when he heard Josh scream, he knew something had gone south. He rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen to find his roommate leaning aggressively on the table and glaring at the ghost sitting on the other side.
“You said he left,” Josh growled, turning his eyes to the vampire.
“He did,” Aidan lied.
“Really? Because the lights have been going crazy for a week, and I keep thinking I hear voices when no one’s around, and that hasn’t happened since Sally found her door. Tell me the truth.”
“I couldn’t kick him out.”
“Why not?”
Aidan sighed. “I just couldn’t, ok? They messed him up. I can’t send him back there.”
“I told you to choose,” Josh said. “So who is it?”
“He loves me,” Bishop supplied helpfully.
-.-
“I don’t want him in the house.”
Aidan rolled his eyes. “Come on.”
“No,” Josh said. “Maybe you can forget everything he’s done, but I can’t.”
“I’m with Josh,” Sally said. “I mean, he can actually hurt me. And what he’s doing to you is just creepy.” She shook her head. “I don’t think he can stay.”
-.-
“Forever’s a long time.”
“Yeah, it is.”
Bishop slid something across the table. It was a small, golden ring. He smiled.
“You can’t stay here,” Aidan said.
-.-
They went for a walk.
“I don’t know this way,” Bishop commented as they started out, turning away from the usual path Aidan had taken to the hospital.
“It’s ok,” he assured. “I do.”
-.-
“I heard he tried to take over Boston. Is that true?”
“He did take over Boston,” Aidan corrected. “It was the world I wouldn’t let him have.”
“So clever.”
“You’ve mentioned that.”
She smiled. “It’s almost sad. He’ll believe anything you tell him now, without question.
-.-
They’d taken the long way to the park, doubling back and around on the off-chance that something would spark a memory.
“Looks like rain,” Aidan commented, gazing up at the cloudless sky.
Bishop nodded.
“Tell you what? I’m going to go back to the house really quick and grab an umbrella, ok?” He sat the ghost down on a bright green bench and smiled. “You stay here. I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”
-.-
“What would you do if I told you I loved you and your door appeared?”
“I’d stay.”
“Why?”
Bishop shrugged. “It hurts when you love people and they go away. I don’t want you to hurt. Not ever.”
Aidan sighed, staring down at his hands. 35 years. 35 years of torture and something that had once seemed so strong had come out so broken.
“Do you?”
The vampire jumped, turning to find himself nose-to-nose with the ghost. “What?”
“Love me. Do you love me now?”
“Yeah, Bishop. I love you.”
-.-
Josh stopped dead when he saw him. The ghost. Sitting on a park bench in broad daylight, looking as if he was waiting for something. He caught Josh’s eye and waved him over.
“Did you find him?” the ghost asked.
“Who?”
“Aidan. I think he’s lost. He said we needed an umbrella and I should wait for him here, but he hasn’t come back. I think he got lost.”
Josh swallowed. “That was three weeks ago. You’ve been sitting here for three weeks?”
“He said to wait here. Is he ok?”
“He’s fine.”
“Oh. He said he loved me.”
“That’s nice.”
Bishop nodded, then furrowed his brow. He frowned, tilting his head to appraise the werewolf with sharp eyes. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.”
“Ok. Good. You’ll tell him to come get me, right? I miss him.”
Josh couldn’t think of anything to say to that, so he just stared. He could remember a time, decades ago, when he’d been scared of the broken thing in front of him. When he’d had nightmares, when he’d obsessed about turning a corner and finding him, about getting killed for daring to touch the vampire’s golden child.
“I bet he misses me, too,” Bishop said. “He loves me, you know.”
“Yeah, you told me.”
“Aidan’s nice. He doesn’t hurt me. He’s careful when he touches.” He paused, thinking. “You’ll tell him? I don’t want him to have to be alone anymore.”
“Tell you what,” Josh said, making a decision he’d probably regret later and holding out a hand to the ghost. “You come with me, and we’ll tell him together.”
Bishop stared at his hand as if it was dangerous. “Will it hurt?”
-.-
The stake was still in his hand and the ashes were still clinging to his shirt as Aidan opened the door and stepped into the house with a smile on his face. Josh and Sally trailed behind him, chattering excitedly about their joint victory.
They all froze when they saw the man sitting on their couch.
Bishop looked over at them and grinned. “About time you got home,” the ghost said. “I was worried.”
Author: mummyluvr314
Rating: PG
Fandom: Being Human US
Pairing: One-sided Bishop/Aidan
Summary: Ghosts were interesting things. Some became poltergeists. Some got lonely. Some got angry. Bishop, apparently, got clingy.
A/N: You know those fics that pop into your head and then refuse to leave. This is one of those. Title is from Weighty Ghost by Wintersleep.
Disclaimer: I don’t own the show or the characters. Sad day.
Bishop was in the closet.
He was hunkered down in the same position he’d been in when Aidan had found him the week before: back against the wall, knees pulled to his chest, trying to make himself smaller. He was shaking.
-.-
“Just trust me,” Aidan said. He glanced behind him again to make sure that Charlie was following him. “You need to see this.”
“Are you gonna come with me?” the boy asked as they descended the stairs into the old wing.
“They don’t really like me in there.”
“Then I’m not going in.”
Aidan grinned at the boy’s similarities to Sally. Just as headstrong, just as scared. “It’ll help,” the vampire promised. “Besides, they can’t hurt you.” He rounded the corner into the hall and stopped.
There was a person slumped against the wall outside of the closed doors to the ghostly wing. He wasn’t homeless; he was wearing nice pants and a suit jacket, and his hair was neatly trimmed. He was clean.
He was dead.
“Charlie, why don’t you head on in?”
The little ghost glanced up at him, uncertain, as the man on the floor jumped, startled. “If you’re sure.”
“Go.” He reached out to push the boy closer to the doors, but his hand went right through. Charlie rolled his eyes and disappeared, leaving Aidan alone with someone he never thought he’d see again.
“You came back,” Bishop whispered, staring up at Aidan with something like adoration in his eyes. “She said you would, and you did. You came back for me.”
-.-
“You didn’t tell him you have the day off?” Josh asked. He was gazing out the window at the man who had been sitting on the steps for the better part of an hour.
“Nope,” Aidan replied from the couch.
“You know,” Sally said, “he’s actually kinda cute. Like a little lost puppy that follows you around.” She glanced at Josh. “No offense.”
-.-
Aidan hated exorcisms. He really did. They were nasty, cruel things full of uncertainty and pain. But they were useful in a pinch.
The psychic’s name was Ilana, and she came highly recommended by Sally, who had been on the receiving end of the ritual before. The moment the woman walked through the door, she knew what they were. She also knew what they were dealing with.
“There’s an energy here,” she said, walking through the living room and shuddering. “It’s so…”
“Creepy?”
“Angry?”
“Evil?”
“Lonely.” Ilana said. Bishop glared at her.
-.-
“If you don’t want me in the house,” he said, “I could just stay out here. We could walk to work together everyday, and then I could wait by the benches for you, and when your shift is over, we can go home together, and I’ll wait outside and we can do it all over again the next day. I miss you, Aidan.”
Aidan groaned. Death had a way of changing people. Vampires became vicious by nature, but ghosts could go many ways. Some went crazy. Some became poltergeists. Some got lonely. Some got angry. Bishop, apparently, got clingy.
-.-
“He was always so clever,” she said, gazing at the double doors that led out of the hallway.
Aidan fidgeted, uncomfortable with all the spirits milling around. “What happened to him?”
The woman turned to him and smiled. “The same thing that would happen to you if I gave the cue. Ghosts are very protective of their own. When I pointed out my killer, they jumped to defend me.” The doors opened with a quiet creak and they turned to see Bishop sticking his head in. “Would you like to see?”
He was pretty sure he wouldn’t, but Aidan nodded anyway.
The ghost - Jane, she’d said - held out a hand and smiled warmly. “It’s ok, James,” she called. “I told them. I told them that you didn’t mean it. Besides, Aidan’s here now. He won’t let anything bad happen.”
Bishop slid into the hallway, his eyes darting nervously around at the other spirits. “Will it hurt?” he asked.
“Of course not,” Jane said. “They know now.”
He smiled, walking toward the pair and coming to a stop between them. “She said you’d come back,” Bishop said. “She said you’d come back for me.”
Aidan nodded. He didn’t see the first spirit until it had already grabbed Bishop’s arm and pulled, ripping his jacket sleeve. He did see the others, a mob of restless ghosts descending on someone he’d once called a friend. They clawed and ripped and bit until Bishop screamed and disappeared in a cold blast of light that sent shockwaves through the hall.
Jane grinned.
-.-
“How long ago did you say he died?” Ilana asked.
“A month,” Josh answered. He was staring at the space over Aidan’s shoulder, his eyes wide with fear. They had been standing in the final room of the house to be cleansed for half an hour, but the ritual wouldn’t take.
The vampire could hear wheezing behind him now that the screams had died down. He almost missed the taunts and claims that something that had once been as powerful as Bishop could not be exorcized.
“Something’s holding him here,” Ilana said. “Something strong.”
Aidan felt his name being breathed across the back of his neck and shuddered.
-.-
“He used to be so clever,” Jane said again. “But I’m clever, too. Death ruined him.” She turned to look up at Aidan with a smug grin on her face. “35 years I’ve been working on him. 15 to rebuild whatever we had before he killed me, and 20 to coax him in here and rip him apart. Every day. Sometimes more than once. He’s persistent, I’ll give him that.”
At the end of the hall, the doors opened again.
“It’s ok,” Jane called. “They understand now, James. You can come in.”
-.-
He was standing by the wall, staring with blank eyes. A rash of burns and blisters covered his face. He hadn’t moved for three days.
Aidan was sick of it.
“What?” he asked, jumping out of bed and staring the ghost down inches from his ruined face. “What are you doing here? Why are you doing this?”
Bishop’s mouth opened. He blinked for the first time in days. “Why don’t you want me?”
-.-
It took three hours to coax him out of the closet. Three hours of Aidan sitting on the edge of his bed and holding out a hand, promising it wouldn’t hurt.
It had been nearly a week since Josh had blown up over Aidan bringing him home again. Five days since he’d given an ultimatum - “him or me” - and Bishop had blinked out of existence in their kitchen, leaving Aidan without a choice.
He’d been curled up in that closet for five days.
-.-
“Get out!”
“I just wanted to make sure you were ok. You didn’t go to work this morning.”
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe I wanted a day to myself, without you constantly tagging along at my heels like some pathetic dog? Did you ever stop to think that the reason I killed you in the first place was so I could get away? What could possibly make you think I want you here?”
Bishop disappeared.
-.-
“Unfinished business.”
Bishop blinked at him. “Ok?”
“You have unfinished business. That’s what’s keeping you here.”
The ghost shifted in his chair, turning appraising eyes up to the vampire. “And what might that be?”
Aidan shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought you might.”
-.-
“I don’t want to go back,” Bishop whispered. He’d finally made it to the bed and sat hunched over, fingers tangling in the blankets. “I like it here.” He blinked and glanced down at his hands, smoothing the fabric. “I remember this.”
“You do?” Aidan asked when he lapsed into silence.
Bishop nodded. “’S warm. Happy.” The corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. “I like it.”
-.-
He grabbed Bishop and ran before Jane could get him too far down the hallway for the third time. He didn’t even acknowledge the fact that he was able to hold onto the ghost until they were out on the street.
“My door was in there,” Bishop muttered, pulling away from the vampire and frowning at him. “She said my door was in there, around the corner.” He blinked, tilting his head. “You want me to stay here?”
-.-
Aidan was calling bullshit. There was no way in Hell Bishop was being serious. It was a joke. Payback for the exorcism attempt. That had to be it.
“I always wanted to be in love.”
-.-
“He loved you.”
Jane scoffed. “He loved you. I was the consolation prize, until you professed your undying affection.”
“What?”
“You didn’t wonder why he bothered to kill me when he could’ve just left? You were jealous.”
“I wasn’t -“
“He thought you were jealous.”
-.-
It was familiar, a remnant of cold nights on the countryside, every failed attempt to leave the family. Lying on his side with warm arms around him, holding him tight, pulling him close.
A nose bumped against his shoulder, nuzzling the fabric of his shirt as a contented sigh ghosted across his back. “I love you.”
Aidan shuddered.
-.-
There was one rule: Josh couldn’t know. The werewolf was getting older, and it would only take another big scare or two to stop his heart.
So when he heard Josh scream, he knew something had gone south. He rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen to find his roommate leaning aggressively on the table and glaring at the ghost sitting on the other side.
“You said he left,” Josh growled, turning his eyes to the vampire.
“He did,” Aidan lied.
“Really? Because the lights have been going crazy for a week, and I keep thinking I hear voices when no one’s around, and that hasn’t happened since Sally found her door. Tell me the truth.”
“I couldn’t kick him out.”
“Why not?”
Aidan sighed. “I just couldn’t, ok? They messed him up. I can’t send him back there.”
“I told you to choose,” Josh said. “So who is it?”
“He loves me,” Bishop supplied helpfully.
-.-
“I don’t want him in the house.”
Aidan rolled his eyes. “Come on.”
“No,” Josh said. “Maybe you can forget everything he’s done, but I can’t.”
“I’m with Josh,” Sally said. “I mean, he can actually hurt me. And what he’s doing to you is just creepy.” She shook her head. “I don’t think he can stay.”
-.-
“Forever’s a long time.”
“Yeah, it is.”
Bishop slid something across the table. It was a small, golden ring. He smiled.
“You can’t stay here,” Aidan said.
-.-
They went for a walk.
“I don’t know this way,” Bishop commented as they started out, turning away from the usual path Aidan had taken to the hospital.
“It’s ok,” he assured. “I do.”
-.-
“I heard he tried to take over Boston. Is that true?”
“He did take over Boston,” Aidan corrected. “It was the world I wouldn’t let him have.”
“So clever.”
“You’ve mentioned that.”
She smiled. “It’s almost sad. He’ll believe anything you tell him now, without question.
-.-
They’d taken the long way to the park, doubling back and around on the off-chance that something would spark a memory.
“Looks like rain,” Aidan commented, gazing up at the cloudless sky.
Bishop nodded.
“Tell you what? I’m going to go back to the house really quick and grab an umbrella, ok?” He sat the ghost down on a bright green bench and smiled. “You stay here. I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”
-.-
“What would you do if I told you I loved you and your door appeared?”
“I’d stay.”
“Why?”
Bishop shrugged. “It hurts when you love people and they go away. I don’t want you to hurt. Not ever.”
Aidan sighed, staring down at his hands. 35 years. 35 years of torture and something that had once seemed so strong had come out so broken.
“Do you?”
The vampire jumped, turning to find himself nose-to-nose with the ghost. “What?”
“Love me. Do you love me now?”
“Yeah, Bishop. I love you.”
-.-
Josh stopped dead when he saw him. The ghost. Sitting on a park bench in broad daylight, looking as if he was waiting for something. He caught Josh’s eye and waved him over.
“Did you find him?” the ghost asked.
“Who?”
“Aidan. I think he’s lost. He said we needed an umbrella and I should wait for him here, but he hasn’t come back. I think he got lost.”
Josh swallowed. “That was three weeks ago. You’ve been sitting here for three weeks?”
“He said to wait here. Is he ok?”
“He’s fine.”
“Oh. He said he loved me.”
“That’s nice.”
Bishop nodded, then furrowed his brow. He frowned, tilting his head to appraise the werewolf with sharp eyes. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.”
“Ok. Good. You’ll tell him to come get me, right? I miss him.”
Josh couldn’t think of anything to say to that, so he just stared. He could remember a time, decades ago, when he’d been scared of the broken thing in front of him. When he’d had nightmares, when he’d obsessed about turning a corner and finding him, about getting killed for daring to touch the vampire’s golden child.
“I bet he misses me, too,” Bishop said. “He loves me, you know.”
“Yeah, you told me.”
“Aidan’s nice. He doesn’t hurt me. He’s careful when he touches.” He paused, thinking. “You’ll tell him? I don’t want him to have to be alone anymore.”
“Tell you what,” Josh said, making a decision he’d probably regret later and holding out a hand to the ghost. “You come with me, and we’ll tell him together.”
Bishop stared at his hand as if it was dangerous. “Will it hurt?”
-.-
The stake was still in his hand and the ashes were still clinging to his shirt as Aidan opened the door and stepped into the house with a smile on his face. Josh and Sally trailed behind him, chattering excitedly about their joint victory.
They all froze when they saw the man sitting on their couch.
Bishop looked over at them and grinned. “About time you got home,” the ghost said. “I was worried.”