(Untitled)

[ghostinthecity]

It was a nice day.

For the most part it was always a nice day here. Of course, it still rained but unlike the rain back home that seemed to drag its feet both coming and going this rain fell quick and warm. That was nice too. It reminded Annie just enough of home to keep her from being too homesick, but was different enough to still be exciting

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[stayastranger]

"Spring cleaning?" Sarah hadn't seen just what had been thrown or why, beyond a bit of a glint when it caught the light, but the smile on the woman's face suggested it was a matter of good riddance. Unsurprising here, she supposed, where so much turned up unwanted. It was amazing how much stuff there was, out in the middle of nowhere like this.

[ghostinthecity]

It took Annie a moment to realise that she was the one being talked to. It was a bit silly, really given that she was the only one around. Turning her head slightly, she nodded putting her hands into the pocket of her jumper in a show of nerves.

"Yeah, I suppose so. More like early summer cleaning with less mopping but it is almost exactly that."

[stayastranger]

Sarah grinned, brow jumping a bit as she nodded, more up than down, glancing skyward. "Hard to tell the difference around here anyway," she said. "Not that I'm complaining, it's gorgeous, but if it weren't for birthdays and anniversaries, I'd barely notice when it was."

Not quite true. Sarah kept track of the time. She kept track, as best she could, of everything.

[ghostinthecity]

"I don't think I would. It all sort of blurs together, one pretty day after the next."

Annie liked to take a look at the calendar, to know how much time had passed and to be able to look forward to things. When she had been dead, time hadn't been an issue. She hadn't aged, hadn't had much to look forward so it had been a bit of a waste to think about that.

"I sort of like it. I think, I haven't been here that all actually."

[stayastranger]

"Oh," Sarah said, "well, good thing you like it so far then. It took me forever to adjust, but... it's pretty great."

She had a decent idea of the population here, though it was hard to keep up with the constant changes sometimes, so that this one was new was unsurprising. She didn't seem like a threat, but then, Sarah hoped, neither did she. Stepping forward, she smiled and offered her hand. "Sarah Walker. Welcome to the neighborhood, I guess."

[ghostinthecity]

"Oh well, I can imagine that. It isn't like there are very many bank holidays around here to let us know when the post is going to be slow?" Annie offered with a small laugh and shrug of her shoulders. It was an attempt at levity that probably wouldn't work half as well as she might like it to, but she was going to try.

"Annie Sawyer and thank you. Everyone's..." A good half-dozen descriptors flit through her head before she found one that fit in the best way. "Nice."

[stayastranger]

"They are," Sarah said, nodding, genuine in her praise. This place was dull as anything, but she couldn't complain about the people, and if she was bored, she was also, largely, content. "I don't think I've ever lived anywhere quite as... welcoming. You know, from the minute you show up. Everyone's just so helpful. It's nothing like L.A."

[ghostinthecity]

Having spent the last few years in some sort of very dodgy horror film Annie was very grateful to be living in a place where there was almost none of that sort of thing. Not to mention the part about living, which was nice in and of itself.

"I've never been to Los Angeles. Are there really film stars everywhere and is everyone really as thin as they are in the movies?" It might be a silly question but she had to know if Hello! had been lying to her for years.

[stayastranger]

Sarah laughed, not unkindly, shaking her head. "There are some," she said, a higher note in her voice like she was offering hope, "and you hear about it sometimes, but I never really ran into any and not everyone's that thin. But then, I worked at a frozen yogurt shop, so the odds of celebrity encounters were pretty slim."

[ghostinthecity]

"I suppose they wouldn't exactly be up for eating ice cream and the like if they want to keep slim," Annie conceded with a nod, a touch happy at the fact that it hadn't been all lies. Not that she had believed all of them for starters. It had started to seem that the absurd tabloids with bat boys and alien encounters might have more truth to it.

"I used to work in a pub. Guess not everyone is something wild and glamourous before they came here, eh?"

[stayastranger]

"Nope," Sarah said, grinning, "though sometimes it seems like it's everyone but you, and they were all off, I don't know, exploring the world or acting or having superpowers or something exciting like that."

She longed for her own days of adventure, her nights attending parties where she was only present to sneak into some safe, having to crack codes and pick locks and connive and charm her way through everything. She'd lived by the skin of her teeth and that seemed entirely like someone else now.

[ghostinthecity]

"Blowing things up, hanging about with Tom Cruise that sort of thing," Annie nodded waving her arms slightly at the idea of living such a luxurious and wild life. She had never wanted any other than what she had had back in Bristol, except to maybe still be alive.

Then there was a whole lot of other things that went with that which she wished she could still have.

[stayastranger]

"Exactly," Sarah said and laughed. "Possibly all of it at once. And then they're like, oh, what did you do? I... sold yogurt." She shrugged, hands raising to fall to her sides. Admittedly, some of these residents put even her best true stories to shame, so varied were their own exploits. "This has to be the biggest adventure I've ever been on."

[ghostinthecity]

"Me too. Or well, at least the nicest."

Going to the afterlife and running away from it or fighting hoards of vampires was a pretty sizable adventure but she had never left the confines of Bristol. When compared to big wide, globe trotting previous jobs that others held, that seemed rather dim.

[stayastranger]

"Yeah?" It wasn't entirely surprising that Annie agreed, but the qualifier left her curious. She wasn't going to pry too far just yet, though, still sizing her up. "Well, I'm glad this is better than... whatever. If you have to be stuck somewhere, I guess there are worse places you could wind up. Places without an ocean view."

[ghostinthecity]

"Like dodgy motels in the middle of cornfields, something like that. It could be one of those slasher films, which seems all nice but it isn't." There was still a chance that it could be like that, but Annie was fairly certain that if it was she would have heard the screams or seen people running by now.

"Not that I hope for that sort of thing, but no one really does, do they?"