Romeo, no!

Author’s note: this is repost from another site, where promptsforthestrugglingauthor suggested this prompt:

“Being full to the brim of plans, hopes, and dreams was admittedly a far less exciting thing when you were already dead.”

Warning: some light physical violence.

'Huh,' she thought.

'I see why ghosts haunt now.'

She'd never quite understood it before. Life seemed so plain and boring that she couldn't imagine not wanting to move on.

Now she's dead, and she finally has a boyfriend, and all she can do is watch as he--waIT--

Annnd he's dead. Motherfucker Romeo'd himself.

She slaps him. She didn't know if it would actually connect, she's just so angry.

He puts a hand to his cheek for a moment before realizing that, although the slap did, in fact, connect, his ghostly form feels no pain.

"What was that for?!" His face tells her that he hadn't expected this, which sends her further into rage.

"You know goddamn well how I feel about suicide pacts and that godawful play that you just decided to fuckin re-enact. What could have possibly made you think this was a good idea?!"

Fortunately, it seems that she can no longer run out of breath. Which would have seemed obvious, if not for the rage thing.

His eyes widen, and he somehow looks like he's about to cry, which raises even more questions ghosts and incorporeal bodies and remembered physical activities.

"I thought--I thought you didn't want to leave me! I just... I wanted to be with you."

It turns out that, although ghosts cannot produce tears, they can in fact sob.

This also seems obvious in retrospect. Haunting noises and all that.

If she could think straight--which she will, later-- she would find it understandable. He just lost the love of life, and when he got to the afterlife to see her she slap him. Must be a shock.

She is not, however, thinking clearly, which is something that she finds far more understandable in that moment.

"Did you stop to think, for even on fucking second, to, I don't know, call an ambulance?!"

Can humans still hear her? She doesn't have anyone to practice on. The only one still here is her boyfriend.

Her stupid, foolish, reckless boyfriend. How many other red flags did she miss? Were they things that he'd been hiding, or traits that she just hadn't discovered yet?

Or had she simply been too caught up in the relief of finally, finally finding someone to notice?

He's confused enough by her question to stop sobbing a bit.

"But... you're dead. The ambulance wouldn't help. You're just gone, and there was nothing I could do, and--"

She briefly wonders how her ghostly form can shake without adrenaline.

"People can come back!!!" If she were still alive, her throat would be raw. She's almost glad she doesn't have to worry about that now.

They'd never fought like this before. She'd wondered if it was coming, or if they were just incredibly fortunate--or well-suited for each other.

Apparently he'd just been too easygoing to tell her that he'd never considered a crisis situation in his life.

(This is a thought she will amend later. Semantics, you know.)

He looks like the tears are going to start up again, and it takes every ounce of her willpower to not walk away. She's too full up on emotion right now, she can't handle another's.

"Not like this! Not from that..." he gestures helplessly to the ground, where her body lies broken from being smashed on several boulders.

She can't take it anymore. It's too much. She doesn't know what comes over her--no adrenaline, and all that--but although she was already experiencing the greatest rage of her life, a sudden blaze of fury overtakes her and she leaps to grab his arm.

"They can if they want to!" she screams, and she hurtles him down towards his body while diving straight for hers.

It works.

She's in the most pain she's ever felt, but she's alive.

Her head is bleeding. She can barely move. She feels for her phone, glad she has the movements memorized, glad the keypad is standard, glad she knows exactly how to dial the emergency number.

She hopes it's enough. Hopes that turning on the speaker will alert her dumbass boyfriend--ex? She'll figure that out later--to the idea that help might be on the way. Hopes that he can have the wherewithal to do the same. Hopes he hasn't lost too much blood. Hopes she hasn't lost too much blood.

She's back, but for how long?

As the operator distantly asks the requisite questions, she struggles to not drift off. Head injury. Don't sleep. Don't...

She smiles as she loses consciousness.

She did it. She came back.