Love After Death
Everyone agreed that the house was haunted. It seemed to have a particular grudge against couples who sneaked in to have a bit of relative privacy for kissing - or more.
“And well,” Josephine mused as she wrapped her arms around Annie, their long skirts merging in the gloom, “'everybody' isn't exactly - wrong.”
Annie laughed and leaned back into Josephine. “Just those who don't know their history and would be doomed to repeat it.”
Behind the two women, some of the graffiti stood out.
One said, “Rubber.”
Another read, “Baby Buggy,” complete with illustration.
“Bumper!” exclaimed a third.
Annie and Josephine fell silent as a boy tugged a girl through the broken doorway. He wasn't listening when she turned her face nervously away, only lifted her chin with two fingers and leaned in for a kiss, small sounds echoing softly from the graffitied walls.
Annie tipped her own head back. “Tell me the old, old story. How does it go?”
“Once upon a time,” Josephine whispered, watching as the boy dismissed the girl's concerns and covered his own with bravado, “there was a boy with a charming smile and a girl who fell in love with him.”
Annie picked up the tale, stepping sideways so that she could hold Josephine's hand rather than be held by her. “He said that he loved her, and she believed him, so he took her somewhere private, and they made the beast with two backs.”
The women drifted closer to the couple, their clothing centuries apart, but heart and tale and purpose all identical.
“He only claimed he loved her until she got with child,” Josephine whispered, and no wall echoed her voice.
Only Annie echoed her. “She got with child,” and they both swept forward together, crying, “and then she died of it!”
The couple shuddered at their touch. The boy fled.
The girl watched him go. She didn't turn and look for the women, only said, “Thank you. He didn't want to listen. I won't intrude on your privacy anymore.”
Then she too was gone.
“And then,” Annie finished, “I met my sweet Josephine. May I?”
Josephine laughed and pulled her in for a kiss. “You may, always and forever, love of my death.”
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