A Grave Situation -Fletcher-

[katalyie]

It was far too late at night and London had succeeded in doing the one thing she seemed to be good at in this town: getting herself completely and utterly lost. After being accidentally separated frm her charge, she had been unable to find him again in this maze of a town. She'd spent the last two days wandering aimlessly about, searching in a vain for the one person who mattered in her life. This fruitless search had lead her to her current position, which happened to be in front of the cemetery gates. To be honest, she couldn't really think of a single reason that Jordan would be lurking in a cemetery, but a tickling itch at the back of London's mind told her that she should go in, explore a bit. Never one to ignore whims, the angel covered the distance between her currect position and the gates with about two strides. With a deep breath, she pushed against the iron which gave way with a groan.

Inside said gates was another world entirely. Mist clung to the headstones with the fondness of lovers and the shadows cast by the old trees gave the necessary creepy atmosphere. "How quaint," London remarked to no one, a bit of a smirk twisting her lips. She was bent on exploring now that she'd entered, regardless of a new little mental whisper which told her that this might not be the best time to be here all alone. She did still need to find Jordan, after all. He'd been gone much too long, but she couldn't quite bring herself to care.

The angel walked about for a bit, examining headstones and talking to herself every now and again. Once she had tired of both of these activities, London plopped herself down underneath one of the trees and switched on her iPod. The atmosphere required music, she had decided. Attention fully focused on the small glowing screen, she had left herself vulnerable in an exposed position without quite realizing it. Such an easy target...

Bits and pieces of thoughts: There ya go! Hope it's okay. ^^
Who's on your mind? Fletcher
Words? 337

[fletcher]

Fletcher walked almost in a skip towards the cemetery. He didn't know why, but he felt like he should go there. Maybe someone had left some beautiful flowers on someone's newly burried grave. It was always interesting to see new graves with flowers leaning against them. He didn't know why, but it seemed like he was drawn to the cemetery today. He thought that perhaps maybe he would know someone there. He doubted it. Most of all of his friends and family had died almost a hundred years ago. Fletcher had been dead for one hundred and seven years. One hundred and seven years of practical lonliness. He had made a friend or two every now and then, but as they aged, he stayed the same. He never got older, never grew wrinkley. He would watch his friends get older every day. He would sometimes just disappear from them so that they didn't have to go through some kind of grieving process for him.

He floated invisibly to the cemetery. There he saw a woman wandering around the cemetery. He smiled and shook his head, wondering to himself why someone would be aimlessly wondering around a graveyard. Well, he was kind of doing the same thing, so he didn't think too much about it. "You looking for a specific grave?" he asked as he floated beside the red head. "Because I know every single grave in this old place... I'm burried right over there..." he pointed to a grave off in the distance, probably one she wouldn't be able to see. He smiled and made himself solid so that she could see him clearly. "Sorry, forgot to solidify myself for you..." he laughed and began to walk, matching her every step.

[katalyie]

London had been doing just fine until a disembodied voice shocked her. When the voice was accompanied by a solid body she physically jumped, taking a moment to stare. The angel realized belatedly that staring was rude, but she couldn't quite help it. "You.... are a ghost." She muttered stupidly, still staring with wide green eyes. When she did catch herself staring, the angel flushed slightly. Redirecting her eyes to her iPod momentarily, she fought to find something to say that wouldn't sound idiotic. "Oh... No. I'm looking for someone living.".....so she'd failed at saying something smart. Really. Who admitted to looking for someone in a graveyard?! Thoroughly embarrassed, London awkwardly cleared her throat. "I mean, I think he's still living. I'm in really big trouble if he's not. I've sort of lost him, though, so I really have no way of knowing. I mean, i guess I'm still existing so I guess.... Oops. Rambling. Not good. A sign that she was more than a bit freaked out.

"I'm London." God, she was such a freak. Couldn't even think of something smart to say. First time meeting a ghost and she pointed out that he was a ghost and blurted out her name. "I'm also an idiot. Sorry." An awkward little smile took over her features, reaching her eyes to light up her features. Silly girl, so odd.

[fletcher]

Fletcher laughed as she nearly jumped out of her skin. "Sorry again, I didn't mean to frighten you." he said and smiled. He walked next to her, matching her pace easily. "Um, yeah, I'm a ghost." he said with a cheerful burst of laughter. He looked over at her and noticed that she was still looking at him with a shocked expression. "Hey, no need to try and hide your shock or fear, or whatever, I'm used to it by now." Fletcher smiled and looked over again at his grave. "Someone alive? Why would you be looking for someone alive in a cemetery--full of dead people." he grinned and looked around the giant place looking for another sould. "What do you mean still liv--oh! You're a guardian angel? I've never met one before! So you die if the person you're looking after dies... Well that must be a tough job, huh?" he asked, still looking down at the ground. "I can make a quick round of the cemetery. If you want. I fly a lot faster than I walk...?" he looked over at hr with a hoping smile and shrugged not waiting for an answer. He made himself transparent and began to fly around the ghost infested cemetery. The girl probably didn't even know or realize that the cemetery was one of the most haunted places to go seeing as it was where most of the ghosts in Manuka were burried. When he passed by his own grave, he stopped and sighed. There were still a very dead rose laying on the grave next to his that had been there almost a year. He shook his head and returned to where the girl still stood. "Only one other person here, and he looks like he's about fifty. You watching over a fifty year old?" he asked as he slowly made himself solid. "And I'm Fletcher, by the way. And you aren't an idiot." He laughed and nodded over to where the old man stood by a grave.

[/justify]

[katalyie]

The angel took a moment to examined the man in front of her. He had just gone invisible, presumably gone somewhere, come back, and rematerialzed. Yes siree, seemed she had finally met a ghost. Check that one off the 'Things to See' list. Not onl was the guy in front of her a ghost, he was a rather cheerful one at that. For some reason, he had London want to smile and she kinda liked that. She'd been worried about finding Jordan for so long that she had kind of forgotten to smile. Normally, she was such a cheerful person...

"Fletcher.." She said slowly, letting the syllables roll off of her tongue. "Nice name. You're a cheerful kinda guy, huh? I like that. And yeah. I'm a guardian." A bright grin overtook her features for about two seconds. "I'm pretty new at it, though. So I kinda suck. Sue me." After speaking, she laughed. It was a clear sort of sound, ringing through the area in a way that only laughter can. "It's pretty tough as far as I can tell. I mean, I already lost him so that's saying something. My charge is kinda dumb, though. He's cool, but..." The angel sighed and looked around. "An old guy, huh? No, that's not him. He's about my age. His name's Jordan. And to answer your earlier question, I don't know why I was looking for him here. There's no way he'd be here. I guess I felt sort of..... drawn?"

Here, she paused and looked up at Fletcher, green eyes suddenly curious. She had, in the past, been lead toward certain things in her life, people she was supposed to meet and events that were supposed to happen. She had assumed that she was to find Jordan when she felt the urge to come in here, but perhaps that wasn't the case. Perhaps she was lead here just to meet a ghost.

"So... we're both dead, huh? Interesting." She hadn't been dead for very long, so the idea still sort of fascinated her. "Did you say you're buried here?"

[fletcher]

Fletcher nodded when she repeated his name. “Oh, I can’t help but be cheerful! I don’t know why, but even when I was alive, I was always the life of the party! Even without alcohol, I was all jumpy and crazy, but now that I’m a ghost and can’t have my normal nicotine to calm me down, I’m almost always happy like this.” He laughed and walked with almost a skip as he spoke, almost emphasizing his complete energy resource and it’s never ending spasms. He looked at her with a confused look when she said that she sucked at being a guardian angel. “Psh! I highly doubt you could suck at anything, my dear. I’m sure it’s a tough job, but going after one kid can’t be too hard, right? Or did I just jynx you? Sorry if I did.” He laughed and slowed his pace to match hers. Fletcher looked back to where the old guy was standing by what was probably his wife’s grave. “Yeah, an old guy. Bout fifty I think. I think it’s his wife’s grave, too. Which is sad…” he almost stumbled on a rock in the path, but floated over it so that he wouldn’t look like a complete fool. “No way! I felt sort of the same way! I usually hardly ever come to the cemetery, which is so weird that we both felt kind of drawn here at the same time. Maybe that’s a sign?” he laughed and looked over at his grave when she asked him about it. “Yeah, over there.” He said and pointed again to where his grave sat. “You want to see it?” he asked with his eyebrows raised. He couldn’t remember taking someone to his grave last. It was always interesting to see their reactions.

[katalyie]

London couldn't help but laugh when Fletcher mentioned nicotine. That seemed to make sense, but she found it oddly funny. Of course, she didn't know a lot about ghosts, but she did know about being dead. She knew how much not being effected by a lot of things sucked. "I'm glad you're cheerful," She remarked idly. "Me too, usually. Too many people around here are so... morose. And I mean, if dead people like you and me can be cheerful... You'd think more people would be happier, you know?" Despite herself, London grinned. This was all too strange, being here in this cemetery talking to a cheerful ghost who couldn't believe she sucked at her job. "No, really!" She protested. "I'm pretty bad at it. I've only had him for a few days. He's my only friend. And I've lost him. You can't jynx me, though. I've got bad enough luck as it is. It probably is a sign, though. I wonder what it means, yeah?"

There was a pause as London considered his question. She had yet to see a grave since she'd died. There was really no telling how she was going to react. She hadn't even been able to look at her won grave, though she had once observed her father at the gravesite. That had broken her heart, just being that close. She doubted that she'd ever be as comfortab;e with her own grave as Fletcher seemed to be and she respected him for that. Taking the chance, she stifled the fear that suddenly jumped into her chest. "Y-Yeah. I'd like to see it, if you wouldn't mind showing it to me." She was going to be okay. This would be alright.... she hoped.

[fletcher]

Fletcher put his hands in his pockets to keep his hands to keep them from going all over the place. Even speaking of nicotine made him long for it even more. She obviously didn’t know how bad he was addicted to nicotine when he was alive or else she would know that he had smoked three or four packs a day. Yeah, it was that back. He wouldn’t have been surprised if he had gotten lung cancer before he turned fifty. “Cheerful is the only way I know how to be. Unless of course, someone pisses me off. Then I can be ruefully mean. But I can’t see you or really anyone making me mad anytime soon.” He laughed and looked at the redhead beside him. She had said that the boy she was looking after was the only friend she had. “Well, now you have me!” he smiled and thought about what kind of a sign it could be. Maybe he was with a girl or something. Like maybe he was on a date? That’s why she couldn’t find him, because he didn’t want to be found. That was a question he had to ask. “If the person you’re looking after doesn’t want to be found, are they, like, invisible to you or something? Like do they have to want to be found before you can actually be drawn to wherever they are?” she might not even know the answer, but he was curious enough to want to ask.

So she wanted to see his grave. It wouldn’t be too awkward or anything. Why would it? It was just a block of cement in the ground marking where his rotten body was. Once he came to grips with the fact that he would never come back to life, he just saw it as another artifact in the old place. Although he sometimes wished that his grave was facing the other way so he could be an even greater artifact, like the witch’s grave. He had noticed a girl with long brown hair here before. Every time she came, she sat against the witch’s grave and read a different book. It was weird, but interesting nonetheless. He flew over to where his grave was and waited as London followed him. “Well, here it is. It’s not much. And I haven’t had flowers in sixty years. But I don’t really care because I died a hundred and seven years ago. People forgot about me or died. But I haven’t seen any in the afterlife yet.” He looked at London to see how she was reacting to seeing a dead man’s grave when she was talking to said dead man.

[katalyie]

This Fletcher really seemed sweet. He was sitting here talking to a total stranger like a friend, without really knowing anything about her other than her job and her name. How cool was that? Despite herself, London gave Fletcher a smile. He was cool, so cool that he was gonna show her his grave. Oh god.... London panicked just a little, hoping it wasn't showing on her face. Apparently, she was going to deal well with seeing a grave, not when death was so close to her still.

"Y-Your grave... It needs some flowers. I-I'll bring you some flowers." She could feel herself fighting tears, overcome by the sudden loss of her own life. It was still very hard for the angel to believe that she was a dead being now. She couldn't taste or smell or feel.... She was dead. Her body was buried under the ground like Fletcher's. Her name was carved onto a headstone somewhere. The image of her funeral, her father at the gravesite, suddenly popped into London's head and the tears spilled over. Her hands almost instantly came up to wipe them away, but it was still all too obvious. It was right about this time that Fletcher's previous words hit her, making the situation so much worse.

"O-Oh god! I hadn't even t-thought of that! W-What if he doesn't w-want me anymore? What I n-n-never find him again?I'm g-gonna be in so-so-so much t-trouble!" She was such a failure! Couldn't even hold herself together in front of a stranger who was nice enough to speak with her. "I'm..... so sorry. I tod you I was an idiot." Hastily, she swiped at her eyes again with her sleeve, trying to pretend that nothing was wrong. "Y-Your grave is lovely. Nice l-locale..."

[fletcher]

Fletcher looked over at the red head with a smile. it quickly faded, however, when he noticed that she looked like she was going to begin to cry. She said that his grave needed flowers and that she would bring him some. “I don’t need flowers! I haven’t had them for so long and I don’t ever pay any attention to it. Don’t waste your money on me.” He said laughing. He shook his head and put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her, and shrugged his shoulders. He never meant to make her sad. She probably wasn’t even sad for him, but being at someone she now knew’s grave, she was probably thinking of someone else she knew, if not herself. Maybe she was crying becau—oh there it was. He was so stupid. Why did he always have to give in to his damn curiosity and ask so many questions? “Oh I-I don’t think that actually happens! I just thought that maybe… I don’t know, I guess I wasn’t thinking. You’ll find him, don’t worry. I’ll help you find him! We can go look for him now if you want. You aren’t an idiot.” You’re a woman. he thought to himself. Most women would get like this if they had lost the one person they were trying to protect. People didn’t always need protection though. it’s how you learned your lessons in life. Fletcher probably had a guardian angel, though. he must have had one with all of the idiotic things he had done. “Thanks… I guess.” He laughed and gave her a sideways hug to make her feel better. Hugging was always a good way to make him feel better, it was just too bad most people couldn’t hug him. They had to be dead or ghosts to even tough him. It sucked, too, because he liked touching people.

[katalyie]

London sniffled loudly and scrubbed at her eyes with her sleeves. "You really think I'll find him? That's sweet. Thanks." She gasped loudly when Fletcher hugged her, but her tears quickly turned to laughter. "I h-hadn't expected you to hug me! That was even sweeter! Despite herself, she found a shaky smile on her features. He was just too cute, really. This was why she was brought here, the angel was all too sure. She needed someone to tell her that there was still hope for finding her charge.

"Thank you." She said finally. "I really, really appreciate it. And just for that, I'm bringing you flowers anyway. It'll make your grave prettier." She scrubbed at her eyes again, absolutely sure that her eyes were probably all red now. "Sorry about that. I haven't seen a grave since I..... know you.... and then that stuff about Jordan. It was a bit much and I just sort of fell apart. I hope you'll forgive me?" London gave Fletcher a weak smile, which somehow brightened her features back up again. She was just sort of good like that.

After a moment of quiet, London spoke up again. "This is probably an awkward question, but I wanna know. You don't have to answer if you don't want to... How did you die?

[fletcher]

Fletcher nodded to London. “I’m sure you’ll find him. If you don’t I will.” He said laughing quietly as he hugged her. “Well, I’m a sweet guy, I hug people all the time!” it was so true. He did hug people a lot. Or people when he was solid, dead things when he wasn’t so solid. Sometimes being solid was too much for him. it was hard being a ghost in a human’s world sometimes. He shrugged and looked back at his flower-less grave. “Well thanks I guess. But you really don’t have to.” He said with a smile. he didn’t mind that his headstone didn’t ever have flowers. No one he really knew when he was alive was still living and he hadn’t even seen them as ghosts either. He was by himself actually. And if they were ghosts, they hadn’t ever come back home. If they did, he would love to see them. He sometimes missed his crazy friends and all the uproar they made.

Fletcher put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed her comfortingly. “Yeah, it was hard for me, too. But everything will get better. I know you’ll find him. and there’s nothing to be forgiven, you were just worried about your charge and being in a cemetery after dying…how long ago? Would be hard for anyone.”

He thought about her question. Not that he didn’t know how he died, but it was funny how almost everyone asked him the same one. He didn’t mind too much, but it got old telling the same story over and over again, so he just said, “Drunk driver.” Which was true. Except he left the part out where he was also drunk. A drunk driver had run into them, so it was true. He didn’t like to go into detail about his death too much because it just brought back the memory.

[katalyie]

"You are super sweet!" London said sweetly as she returned the hug. She was glad to have wandered into this cemetery looking for Jordan, because it meant that she met Fletcher. "And I'm bringing you flowers no matter what you say now. To repay you for being so very, very sweet."

The red head was thrown off briefly when he asked how long it had been since she died. "Not long.." She admitted softly. "Maybe two, three months?" Her eyes widened significantly, though, when he mentioned his death. "Oh my god! You too? That's unbelievable! Mine totally blew a red light. I didn't even have a chance to blink and boom! I was dead. It was.... ridiculous."

How crazy was that? They both died in the same manner and now they'd found each other in the cemetery where he was buried. "So.. uh... I have another question. Can you leave here? This cemetery, I mean? How far can you get away from your grave?" Weird, but she was curious.

[fletcher]

Fletcher laughed graciously when she called him sweet again. if he could, he would be blushing right now, but because he had no blood flow, he stayed normal colored. He was glad she hugged him back, and squeezed her softly as a gesture of support and affection. He liked London. Even though she had been through possibly losing her charge, she was still nice and polite to him, a stranger, a ghost, too. He grinned at her kindness and nodded in agreement. “Well alright, since you insist.” He said grinning with excitement churning inside. Flowers hadn’t resided on his headstone for over seventy years, and now after one meeting with this girl, that would change. How wonderful!

Wow, only two or three months of life after death. He was still in his depressed stage at that time. He wondered how she did it. How she stayed happy even though she had just died. He nodded his head and widened his eyes a little as well. “What a coincidence!” he said, still holding back a tiny bit of information from her. He didn’t want to get into some kind of lecture about knowing not to drive drunk because look what it had gotten him. He knew all of that, but in all reality, he drove better when he was drunk, so he never saw the problem of it.

He looked around the cemetery and began swinging his arms back and forth, clapping them every time he met the other in front of or behind him. “Oh, yeah, I can go anywhere I want. I don’t really have mobility restrictions. Really the only restrictions I have are that I can’t turn solid for more than a certain amount of time because it wears me out. I can go through sets pretty easily, but that’s because I rest for a couple of days before going on stage since I put all my energy into drumming. But after that’s over, I crash. Usually someone has to carry me back to the apartment I stay at… It’s weird that I stay in an apartment when I’m a ghost, but it’s comfortable. I like it there, and I definitely like my roommates. Well, I kind of have to because they’re also my band mates, so. Oh yeah, I’m the drummer in a band. Forgot to mention that.” He said with a laugh. “You should come see us play at our next show!” he said almost jumping with excitement. “That would be so cool!” he said grinning from ear to ear.

[katalyie]

London was all grins. She rather enjoyed cheering people up and it was more than obvious that Fletcher was excited about the flowers, even though he had denied said excitement by saying he didn't want the flowers. The angel immediately went into planning, trying to decide what type of flowers would look best o Fletcher's grave. Considering the surroundings, considering the season. "Do you have a preference on the flowers? Any favorites, I mean?"

She had skipped right over the comment about the drunk driving. London could tell that Fletcher wasn't telling her something, but if he wanted to keep secrets... Well, that was his choice. She had no right to go and pry in his secrets. So she left the comment alone, skipping over instead to the band talk.

Oh my god! He was in a band? That was so, so, so cool! London was such a music nerd, that any kind of band was super cool. "I cannot even comprehend how cool it is that you're in a band. Oh my gosh! What kind of music is it? And you're the drummer? That's even cooler. I could never do something like that. I would love, love, LOVE to come see a show. I bet you guys rock!" Yeah, she was a little excitable....

[fletcher]

Fletcher hadn’t met someone this absolutely adorably sweet in a while. Other than Becca and Molly, of course, but a lot of the time, he kept to himself while he was out so that he didn’t have to keep solid. It wore him out and made him tired, and he didn’t like being tired all the time. He liked the energy that ran through his body all day, but when he was solid, the energy was sucked out of him. That’s why after playing shows he had to rest for a couple of days to get back into motion with the rest of the band. “Well, I always thought of the daisy as the ‘happy flower’ which id like me. Well, I actually got that from an eighties movie, but I can’t remember which one. But I guess daisies would be pretty. What color do you think would go best with that hideous grey color?” he asked looking at it with a frown.

His smiled brightened even more when she went on about how great it was that he was in a band. He loved it when people found out and did this. It just made him feel so good about himself sometimes. “Really? I love music too! So dang much! I’m so glad you want to come to a show, too! We are a rock band and there’s four other people in the band with me. There’s Robin, the lead singer, he’s a cool guy, eighteen years old and already making a name for himself. Then there’s Faylinn, who is the backup singer, keyboard player, AND violinist, she’s so amazing. Both of their voices are beautiful, and both of them are faeries. Then there’s Raph, the guitarist. He is hilarious. He’s a werewolf and human hybrid. Pretty badass if you ask me. Then, Becca, the bassist is also a faerie.” His eyes shone when he spoke of Becca. He already liked her more and more after meeting her. “She is basically a female me, with ADD and ADHD twice as bad. But it’s okay because she makes me laugh.” He laughed a little and shrugged when he was finally done going on and on about his band.