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Summary: When Ashleigh’s best friend dies suddenly, her usual Galentine’s Day plans are thrown through a loop. But when Amy comes back as a ghost things get…. weirder.
Ashleigh stared down at the photograph of her and Amy. “Why’d you have to go and die, you dumbass.” She sniffled and wiped away a tear.
Ashleigh and Amy had been friends for the last twenty odd years. They were twenty-six now. Or Ashleigh was. Amy was six feet under. Ashleigh couldn’t believe it. And this close to their annual Galentine’s Day event. No one else would call it an event, but Ashleigh and Amy made it one. They treated each other to a gift as well as dinner at their favorite French restaurant. They saved up all January to be able to go to Le Gateau Vert. No extra spending besides their gift to each other all month.
Ashleigh held a locket in her hand. She clicked it open and sighed at the photos inside. One side of the heart was a photo of her and Amy, the same one that sat in a scrapbook in front of her, and the other side was a photo of herself. She had intended to give the gift at dinner in a few days, but instead she was going to a damned funeral.
She wasn’t necessarily angry at Amy for dying, but she was angry she was out late on a Tuesday night. What the hell had she been doing? Why was she in the same place as that drunk driver? Nothing made any sense. She didn’t think anything would make sense ever again. Life without Amy was wrong. So wrong.
She sniffled again, but couldn’t stop the sob that followed. “God dammit, Amy,” she cried.
“Stop cryin’ about me.”
“Fuck.” Ashleigh startled.
She wiped her face and looked up to see Amy hovering a few feet off the ground. There was no color to her anymore and she was vaguely transparent. Ashleigh gaped for a moment. How could this be possible? She didn’t believe in… ghosts?
“Stop staring, juh-eez.” Amy crossed her arms and huffed.
“Well, excuuuuse me.” Ashleigh sat up and snapped the locket shut.
“Yes, excuse you.”
They stared at each other. What felt like an eternity ticked by. Ashleigh broke first. She laughed. She laughed and cried, so happy to see her best friend even in this state. Amy laughed and went to wrap her arms around Ashleigh but she went right through.
“Damn,” she whispered as she pulled back.
Ashleigh leaned back and looked up at Amy. “I miss you so much.”
“I’ve only been gone for two days…. I think. Time is weird.”
“It’s been about four days, actually,” Ashleigh said. “No texts, no calls, no DMs.” She sniffled. “It’s been lonely.”
Amy let her feet fall to the floor as she drifted down. “I’m sorry.”
“What were you doing out that late?”
“I was um… I was getting your gift.”
“What the fuck, Amy!?”
“Listen, I didn’t forget. I was searching for something that you would really love. I had to go searching on the marketplace.” She sighed. “I think it was in the car when I got hit…. I don’t know what happened to it afterwards.”
“What was it? What was worth going out there at ass o’clock at night?”
“It was a Creature High doll,” Amy crossed her arms. “The one you’re missing from your collection.”
Ashleigh put her hand to her mouth. “You’re insane, you know that. You went out there for me,” she felt tears burning in her eyes. “You got me something so special…. but now you’re gone.” She sniffed and wiped at her face as tears spilled down her cheeks. “God dammit, Amy.”
“I’m not apologizing for it,” Amy said. “But we have to find that doll. I spent two hundred dollars on it!”
“Well fuck.”
**
They sat there for a few moments trying to decide what their next move was. Ashleigh pulled out her phone and started typing away.
“What are you doing?” Amy asked as she hovered over Ashleigh and the phone.
“Texting your mom.”
“What the hell for?”
“I’m trying to find out what happened to your car.”
“Ohh.”
Ashleigh sighed.
“What? What happened?”
“She said it’s at an impound lot.”
“Crap.”
“I asked her what they are planning on doing with it.”
“Good.” Amy tried to sit on the edge of the bed but fell through. “Dammit.”
Ashleigh sighed again.
“Now what?”
“They aren’t planning on getting it anytime soon or maybe at all. It’s probably going to the junkyard to be turned into scrap after the funeral.”
“What the hell? Why not?”
Ashleigh rubbed the back of her neck. “They don’t want to look at it.”
Amy hovered over the ground. “Is it bad?”
“If the mortician isn’t skilled at reconstruction then it’s going to be a closed casket.”
Amy touched her own face. “Nooo.”
“I know.” Ashleigh put the phone aside. “Listen, we don’t have to find the gift. It was probably destroyed anyway.”
“Don’t say that! We have to go find it!”
“How are we supposed to do that?”
Amy shrugged. “I mean they do it in Hollywood all the time. People break into junkyards and impound lots all the time.”
“You know that’s a lot easier for you to say. You can’t get into trouble for breaking and entering.”
Amy crossed her arms and raised a perfectly manicured brow. “You don’t want the Creature High doll?”
“Shit,” Ashleigh groaned. “Let’s go.”
“Yes!” Amy exclaimed.
“Don’t get too excited. This is going to be dangerous.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “Like you haven’t always wanted to go on some kind of dangerous mission.”
“Maybe when I was sixteen….not thirty-two.”
Beverly Anne Michel 