"HE LOVES ME, HE loves me not."

The blue petals rained down like tears as she plucked them away, one by one. There were some perks to being a ghost of a woman and the most important one was that she could seem to get away with anything. When she had passed the flowershop and grabbed a handful of forget-me-nots without slowing down, no one had even bothered to look at her. Even now she was leaving a trail of them, all their eyes focused on were the flowers, never her.

Her stomach turned as the last petal fell to the floor, the nausea that had started somewhere when she had started living with a serial killer still unable to leave her. She didn't grieve her broken heart this time though. No, it was fine, all of it. All these years she had spent questioning herself hadn't made her any happier, so why should she change herself anymore? She was done pleasing people. Now it was time to absolutely terrify them instead.

"You know I'll find you easier like this, right?" Nathan said, glancing at the path of blue behind her.

"I know," she replied to him, the image flickering every time she blinked," but I want you to be real again. I've been sad, I've been lonely, but now all I want to be is with you."

"Yet you keep walking," he remarked.

"Yet I keep walking," she said," I suppose I unconsciously want you to chase. Besides, I've always been self-destructive, even in my wishes, even in my actions."

"Do you think you love me?" he asked," a real love, not an obsession formed simply by forced proximity and warped minds?"

"I'll explain that when I see you again," she smiled, letting the flower go. "Until soon, my darling."

He was gone when she turned the corner and she kept walking, no other figments of her imagination coming to talk to her this time. This time, she truly was left alone with her thoughts. They whirled through her head quickly, one after the other, but none of them frightened her anymore. She had come to a realization a while ago, one she hadn't dared to speak out loud quite yet. Perhaps he'd be the first one she would tell. Perhaps she'd die with the words in her mouth.

Two kids ran past her then, both dressed up as witches as their laughter resounded warmly through the streets. When she looked closely at the people around her, she suddenly noticed most of them were wearing costumes as well, even the shops decorated with spiderwebs and pumpkins. Was it Halloween?

A smile curled up on her lips as she stopped walking, hands grazing past her rosebud earrings. Slowly she took them out, placing them neatly in front of the store before she entered. Though she didn't know if there was a tracker in them or not, she did wish for there to be. At this point she was both running from and in his arms. She didn't look back as she closed the door of the shop behind her, the tinkle of the bell announcing her entrance.

A costume shop, she noticed as she glanced around. Racks of clothing and masks surrounded her, black spiderwebs drawn across the floor and eery laughter playing from the speakers. In the middle of the shop stood a guy behind the counter, gaze trained on his phone screen as he yawned. He couldn't be more than sixteen years old and he looked bored out of his mind. A pair of devil horns were placed on his messy hair, hand tapping on the counter absentmindedly. When she passed him, he didn't even bother to look up.

She almost was about to walk away from him, up the stairway to the second floor, when suddenly she halted. For some reason she walked straight towards him, even though she knew it would be better to turn away. The cashier looked up at her, almost annoyed at the fact that she had disturbed him. Still, somehow that made her feel glad. Her first human contact after escaping who didn't treat her like she was crazy or non-existent. How strange it was.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said," I'm hoping you can. Do you sell an outfit of death, here?"

"Yeah," the guy said," we have everything. The Grim Reaper, corpse brides, whatever you like."

"Thank you," she smiled, leaning forward over the counter," can I ask something else?"

His gaze, which had been flicking back from his phone to her, lingered on her face then. A faint blush tinted his cheeks as he took a step back, as if only now registering how she looked. Beauty was a weapon, her mother once had said, and she had been right. It was the one gift the woman had given her. Perhaps it was finally time to use it.

"O-Of course," he stammered, immediately placing down his phone," whatever you want, Miss."

"It's the 31st today, right?" Helene asked, not breaking eyecontact with him," I have a party, but I'm unsure how much time I have left to prepare."

"No, that was yesterday," he replied," everyone's still enjoying the last hours before they have to return to normal attire again though, so we're still open. All the clothes are on sale right now, Miss, so you've come at the perfect time."

August, it had been when she had disappeared. Two months, was that how long she had been locked away for? Two whole months. The thought was chilling, but she didn't linger on it too long. She supposed she had expected it to be around that long as well, though any perception of time she had lost a while ago.

"It seems so," she said, gaze flicking briefly to the dressed up people outside," I saw a lot of fun costumes on my way. My roommate wanted to go as Nathan Parker, crazy as she is, so I'm hoping to find better recommendations here."

"Nathan Parker," the boy whistled," I thought that trend died down a while ago. I still remember how everyone got that prison outfit of his with the blood smeared upon their cheeks. How many did he kill again? Or better said, was there even anyone he had left alive in that prison?"

"His psychiatrist, I heard," she replied, tapping her nails against her lips in thought," what was her name again? Helena?"

"Helene!" the boy exclaimed, clapping his hands as if he won a quiz," wow, people actually grieved about her. Something about how much she still could've done for the world, being such a prodigy and all."

"Grieved?" Helene asked, voice turning softer.

"Yeah," the cashier said," you know, because she died. No one survived Parker's escape from prison. It was horrendous really, how much blood was spilled that day, when he escaped a year ago."

Her world started spinning, but her smile didn't waver, despite the vertigo causing her stomach to turn.

"A year?" she said," are you sure?"

"Maybe more," he shrugged," they say that whole prison is haunted now, no one comes near it anymore. Parker killed everyone and then completely disappeared off the surface of the Earth. Though, there was one bodyguard as well who lived, I remember now. I don't know his name anymore, but he kept insisting that psychiatrist was alive. He too vanished swiftly after. It was all spooky, really."

"An eery tale indeed," Helene replied quietly.

"There's a documentary of it up somewhere," the cashier said," we can watch it together sometime?"

"I'd love to," she said," but I'm afraid I'm going to be gone soon."

"Where to?" he asked, eager to prolong the conversation even just a second more.

"I don't know yet," she said," but I'm hoping to find out here."

She left him with a smile, heading straight towards the stairway. Her mind was a whirlwind of memories as she started to count the days she had spent with Nathan. Three hundred and sixty-five days she'd been locked away from the world. Everything seemed to have become a blur so quickly that she had already guessed it would be longer than she'd thought, but a revelation like this? She didn't know what she was feeling quite yet.

She didn't grieve for the days she had lost, because it didn't feel like that with Nathan. Any time she had spent with him and herself in that house had turned her into the person she was right now. A person so cold she knew the old her would've been stunned, but then again, perhaps she might've been proud. At least now she finally was choosing herself first, even if that ended in her ruination.

The second floor was as abandoned as the first had been, no one interested in shopping for Halloween clothes anymore, it seemed. Helene's gaze immediately flicked past the colorful clothes to a mannequin in the back, a certain warmth flickering in her heart. The Grim Reaper never had looked kind to her and he didn't today either, hand on his scythe and big cloak around him. Still, she felt more at ease now, as if the presence of death alone would be enough for him to join her soon enough. Beside the doll his outfit hung on a rack, a picture on top of the plastic around the cloaks of a happy man holding the scythe up in the air.

"NOW YOU CAN FINALLY EXPERIENCE A DANCE WITH DEATH!" it proclaimed.

Her hand reached out towards the veil on the mannequin beside it, a woman clad in a white wedding dress which was decorated with red splatters. The veil was the same, the lace dyed crimson at the end, as if soaked in blood. Someone reached out from behind her then, taking the veil and placing it gently on her head.

When she turned around, she felt relief at the sight of the person in front of her. That, more than anything, already told her everything about herself she needed to know.

"Helene," Nathan smiled warmly," I've found you."

"You have," she replied softly.

He grabbed one of the toy scythes hanging on the side, throwing it up in the air and catching it with his other hand, the silver gleaming as he flashed her a wide smile.

"Now I just never have to let go again."