It's about midnight when it happens. At first, it's just a light gust of wind that Jace attributes to the broken air conditioning. He sets out to ignore it, but when the cold doesn't go away, he decides to turn the air conditioning off.

He flips on the light and crawls out of bed to find the AC controls, only to find that the air conditioning was never in to begin with. He shrugs and makes his way back to his room, where he digs around for an extra blanket. He sits back on his bd and reaches to turn the light off again, but before can, the light turns off on its own. Jace groans in frustration. Great, now the bulb it dead. How much worse is this day going to get?

He flicks the light switch off anyway and lies down, but before he can close his eyes, the lights flicker on and off quickly.

What's wrong with his bulb? Jace reaches up to screw it on tighter, and it begins to burn brightly and steadily again. Much better.

Jace flicks the lights switch off — except it's already off. The light switch is off, but the light it burning as bright as ever. Almost as if he light heard him think that, it flickers and turns off.

Jace bolts upright in his bed. What's going on? This is not normal — not at all. He's lived in a lot of crappy apartments, but never anyplace like this.

If there's one thing Jace has a lot of, it's his pride, but he throws all that away when he whispers, "Is anybody there?" like a child.

The light turns on for a moment, and then turns off again.

"Was that a yes?" he asks quietly, earning the same response. "Okay, um... Hi. I'm Jace. I'm your new roommate — but I'm sure you knew that anyway." He pauses, allowing room for response, not nothing happens, so he continues speaking anyway. "Are you controlling my light?"

The light flickers again.

"Okay." Jace swallows hard, attempting to gather the courage to continue talking to the actual freaking ghost in his room. "If I ask you a question, can you turn the light on once for yes and twice for no?"

"Or," an unfamiliar woman's voice suggests, "I could just talk to you."

Jace looks around, but he can't see anyone. He doesn't even really know where to look. Her voice sounded like it's coming from everywhere. It's like the world's weirdest surround system.

"Where are you?" he asks.

"I'm everywhere," the voice replies. "It's no use trying to find me. You won't be able to see me; just hear my voice."

"Why?"

"Because," she replies, and he can almost hear a playful smirk in her voice, "it's more fun this way. Well, and, frankly, it's just easier. Less to control. Talking to you isn't easy."

"Then why are you?" he asks.

"Because I heard we're roommates now, aren't we?"

Jace nods slowly. "Uh, yeah, actually." He chuckles awkwardly. "Surprise?"

"You know, I don't like surprises," she says. "And I don't like company. And, most importantly, I don't like you, because you are everything I don't like just wrapped into one."

"I'm sorry?" He says it as more a question than an apology. "Just, quick question. Who are you? I was kinda expecting —"

"A man," she finishes. "I know. Your stupid little friends think they know everything, when they really know nothing. Every time they've come here to find me, they say the same things, and they're always so wrong. 'They died in a duel.' ' They drove a woman insane.' 'They're probably just lonely.' 'I doubt they'd try to hurt anyone on purpose.' 'They can't harm anyone. They're a ghost!'

"But that duel never happened, and that guy they think haunts this house never existed. The girl he supposed drove insane? That's me, and I'm not insane, and I'm not lonely, and I'm not a harmless little Care Bear. In fact, these last few years, I have killed more people than anyone would guess — people no one would miss."

A shape appears in front of him, and he can barely make out the faint outline of a person. He almost feels like he can see through them. What he can't see through would be the shining silver blade in their hand.

"You're next."