Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Journey's End ❯ Chapter 3

Journey's End... Part Three

Nicole finished getting all the furniture arranged to her liking by the evening, the sweat soaking her body. Occasionally she would get that sensation of being watched, but after their very short talk back in the bedroom the ghost wasn't making her presence known.

"There," Nicole said as she finished the room she considered the most important, her office. A comfortable office chair, the old desk, her much more recent computer and printer were all set up. The bookshelves on one side were still bare, the books stowed away in boxes, but she could start with loading them up tomorrow.

Nicole took a seat, letting her weight settle down on the chair. "Not bad," she murmured, taking in the view of the sea outside her window. Once she put up some blinds she could block out that view when she needed to concentrate, but for now she just enjoyed the sight.

Getting up Nicole groaned, feeling her aching muscles pull. Moving the furniture around had not been fun, not at all. She stumbled to her bedroom to grab a change of clothes and a robe, then walked to the bathroom. The perfectly modern shower was warm on her bare skin, scrubbing all the sweat of her labors away.

"Oh," a soft voice sounded surprised.

"Aaah!" Nicole whirled around to see the stunned looking Laura gazing at her in honest surprise. The turn of the century young woman looked almost shocked at Nicole did, actually. Getting her rapid heartbeat under control she managed to joke, "I usually don't share the shower with a girl until after the second date."

Her eyes as big as saucers as Linda took a step back, thankfully passing through the glass door to the shower and out of sight. "I'm sorry," the soft voice came, and even the blurred image of Linda in the glass disappeared.

Scrubbing herself off as quickly as possible Nicole climbed out of the shower, drying herself off with a handy towel. It was odd, she didn't really feel angry about it, just kind of bemused. 'I wonder if she didn't realize what a shower is for?' she thought, belting the long robe around her and wrapping her hair up in a towel.

Walking through the upper floor she didn't feel the ghost around, so she headed down to the main floor. Walking through the living room and parlor she still didn't find her, so with a soft sigh she went into the kitchen. The little place had a warm, homey feel, especially after she had unpacked some of the boxes of utensils and stuff. She opened up the kitchen cupboards, then the fridge and sighed.

"Nothing to eat," Nicole groaned. She hadn't done any shopping on her way up here, and what was stored away wasn't too appetizing to her right now. With a weary sigh she went back upstairs, dressing quickly before heading down to the front hall. In jeans, T-shirt and jacket she slipped her shoes on and was gone, unaware she was being watched.

Laura stood in the hallway a moment, lost in her thoughts. 'Will she go away?' she wondered. This place was her home, though over the years many others had tried to dwell here beside her. But after a time they would leave, leaving her here all alone once again. This woman, though, she seemed different somehow.

A faint blush appeared on the pale cheeks as she thought about what she had done. Laura hadn't quite realized what Nicole was doing when she walked in on the redhead earlier, the woman's bare body beneath the cascade of water. She had frozen, admiring that slim form unashamedly, until Nicole's words had jerked her back to awareness.

"I hope she stays," Laura finally murmured softly, fading out once more.

The car bounced down the road from the house towards the town, and Nicole had to grit her teeth when she hit a pothole. "I really need to get someone to fix that," she muttered as she slid from the long lane onto paved roads. Thankfully the trip down to town was fast after that, and she found the supermarket in a few moments.

Searching the market she found some decent looking frozen pizzas for dinner, and picked up a few other essentials before heading up to the checkouts. She passed by the bookshelves and had to smile slightly, seeing the romance paperbacks and spotting her name among them. 'As a kid I never thought that the words 'by Nicole Richards' would be on romance novels,' she mused. Still, the royalties paid well and she had always found it easy work.

"At least until recently," Nicole muttered to herself aloud.

"Eh?" a woman's voice inquired.

Nicole nearly jumped out of her skin. The black haired young lady was giving her an amused look, a slight smile on her pretty face. "I'm sorry," Nicole managed to get out, "I didn't realize that I was talking aloud."

"It's all right," the lady laughed softly, "I do that occasionally myself." She offered her hand, "My name's Jane."

"Nicole," and she intentionally left her last name off. Standing here by the paperback racks, it would be pretty funny if she got identified as the writer of trashy romances.

"I haven't seen you around," Jane said curiously as they moved to the front of the store towards the checkout counters, "did you just move here?"

"Bought the house a few weeks ago," Nicole admitted as she unloaded her cart at the checkout, "but I only just finished unpacking."

Jane waited behind her, holding a small basket of groceries. "I hadn't heard of any vacancies in town," she commented leadingly.

Nicole noticed with some amusement that the young cashier was also listening intently to the conversation. He packed away the groceries, but at least some of his attention was on them. "That's because I didn't move into the town itself," she said, "I have a little place on the edge of town."

"Oh?" Jane encouraged.

"It's a nice little place," Nicole was curious to see their reactions as she continued on, "I think it's called Journey's End."

The cashier nearly dropped one of the pizzas, only Nicole's reflexes keeping the disk from hitting the floor. "Sorry," he blushed, grabbing it from Nicole. He gave her an odd look, "The guy who sold it to you, he told you everything about it?"

"Oh, yes," Nicole said cheerfully.

Jane looked at her worriedly, "Did he.." she started, then she gulped. A breath and she continued, "Did he tell you about the ghost, too?"

Nicole paid, then she picked up her bags of groceries. With a cheerful smile she told them, "Yes, he did. I considered it a bonus, more or less." With that she offered them a cheerful, "Have a nice day!" At a steady pace she walked out to her car, only then breaking into a case of the giggles.

"The looks on their faces," Nicole laughed softly as she loaded the groceries into the trunk. She rather suspected that she was going to be the main topic of gossip in this little town for the next several days, but she thought that she could live with that. She went around to climb behind the wheel, started up the car and was off.

The trip up to the house wasn't quite as bad as the trip down. Of course, that was mostly because she was getting used to it, and had learned to avoid some of the larger potholes. She pulled in front of the house and unloaded the trunk, only pausing to gaze up at the old house a moment. There was a flicker of movement in an upper window, then it was gone.

The door opened up under Nicole's hand, and she blinked in surprise as the door swung wide open. She didn't see anything in the hallway, but she could hear a soft voice say, "It looked like you had your hands full."

"Ah, thank you," Nicole managed, using her foot to push the door shut behind her. She carried the bags of food into the kitchen, her eyes searching for any sign of the ghost. It took a few moments of putting food away before she felt the presence once again.

Laura was looking down at one of the frozen pizzas, an inquisitive look on the transparent blonde's face. "Most interesting," she murmured softly. She looked up to give Nicole a tentative smile, "I had not intended to interrupt your washing, before."

Nicole actually had to fight back a smile. "In all honesty," she looked over at the ghost thoughtfully, "I think you were more embarrassed than I was."

Laura looked startled, then she laughed softly, "You could be right." She turned, her long gown flowing around her body. For a moment she looked so normal, then she walked right through a chair as she examined the other groceries on the table.

'I could get used to this,' Nicole had to smile as she packed food away, the ghost watching curiously all the while.

"You're not afraid, are you?" Laura finally asked

Nicole turned from the fridge, meeting her eyes. "No, I'm not. I guess you just don't seem frightening to me," she shrugged.

"Good," Laura said, then she simply faded away.

To be continued....