Lens 3

Through a Lens Darkly

Chapter 3

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It was morning when Alicia shot up in bed, hair a mess of kinky dark curls as she moved to the edge of the mattress and looked down. The black mass was still there, laid out like it had before. Perfect!

Alicia ducked under the bed and pulled out a large bag, taking out the contents, she quickly snapped and twisted pieces together before creeping back to where her visitor was. Carefully aiming her weapon of choice at the creature she held her breath and snapped a picture. There was no movement.

So far so good, she thought.

Slipping off her shoes, Alicia stepped lightly onto the floor and snapped another photo, again she got no reaction and it made her bold. By the time she ran out of film, there was a shot from every angle she could think of even ones she'd had to stand on the bed to take. This made-up little plan might not even work, but at least if something showed up on film she could still prove she wasn't crazy.

Taking her proof into the bathroom, Alicia locked the door, even though she knew it was nothing more then a false sense of security. Squatting on the closed toilet like a stone gargoyle, she put the sink plug in and gathered all her photography chemicals from the cabinet and started mixing them in a place only her toothbrush should have soaked in. She switched out the bare bulb hanging overhead and flooded the small space in red light. It was cramped and made the work more difficult, but Alicia had been in worse dark rooms before.

The dark cloud stirred finally. It wasn't unaware, just too weak to move. And it had no idea how to gain enough strength just to communicate. As the sun rose a weak beam of sunlight crept across the floor steadily. As the light moved, the dark cloud stirred. With a lurch it moved into the band of light.

Alicia had to work some complicated magic with light and timed chemical soaking, but she was pretty sure it would accomplish what she needed. Pinning them up on the clothesline strung back and forth above the sink she just waited for them to dry, the first picture starting to bleed onto the paper as she watched.

The dark cloud stirred, moving closer to the sunlight that was now streaming in through the window.

The negative of her apartment started to come into focus first, bits and pieces she recognized then the distortion at the center of the photograph started to fill in, the fuzzy outline of something within the smoke. She squinted her eyes at it, the bend and length of limbs started to make sense and she found it hard to breath when she made the connection that it resembled a human. Even with the distinction, Alicia was still disappointed that the details were blurred, she couldn't even make out the ghost's gender.

Then something about the photo caught her attention. Switching out the bulbs with the sleeve of her shirt, white light shone on the photograph as she took a battered old spyglass to a section of the figure, her eyes widened. Snatching a close up photo from the line she stared at it, two hard eyes staring back at her from the black swirls of smoke.

Those same two hard eyes stared now at the light coming through the window. The darkness moved further toward it.

The door to the bathroom opened slowly, Alicia scanning what she could through the small crack. She swallowed when her guest was no longer where she'd left him.

"Hey, you still out there?" She called, opening the door a little more to poke her head out and look around. A little unsure now she knew her little experiment hadn't gone unnoticed.

-Yes,- she heard in her head. It seemed stronger now.

Alicia couldn't help but smile a bit, seeing the darkness basking in the sun like a cat. Well, a shapeless cat, but a cat none the less.

"Would it be too late to apologize for what I did this morning?" She asked, coming out of the bathroom with a few developed photos in her hand. "I just wanted to see what was under all that menacing smoke."

-What?- the smoke asked. -What am I?-

Alicia found her surprise dispersed some of the fear, making it easy to approach the smoke with a sympathetic frown. "Well, you're not having much trouble talking today, that's good. But I think you're human, or at least the ghost a one." She said slowly, holding out one of the photographs. "See?"

The eyes swam forward amidst the smoke and regarded the photos. Alicia sensed a distinct wave of relief from the cloud. -Thank you,- it said in her mind.

"Well you're welcome." She said, a little puzzled. "It's sad to think you could forget you were human. Kind of scares me actually."

The cloud didn't answer; it merely moved with the sunlight.

"Is that helping?" She asked.

-Yes. But still tied to you.-

"Sorry, but I don't have any more idea what to about that then you do." She confessed, jamming her hands in the back pockets of her jeans as a thought bounced around in her head. "Can you remember your name?"

The darkness sighed. -Etienne.-

Alicia wrinkled her nose in confusion. "Is that a girl or a boy's name?"

A not very delicate snort was her answer.

Alicia rolled her eyes. "Male."

The cloud, seemingly a lighter color than it had been, didn't answer, merely moving yet again to remain in the sunbeam.

She cocked her head to the side, watching him. "It explains your eyes though. I've never seen a woman with eyes that hard." She mused out loud. "My name's Alicia by the way, Alicia Evans."

-I'd bow. But...-

The idea that a cloud of smoke might bow to her sounded ridiculous but so did the idea of a man. "Etienne, how old are you?" She asked with a little grin.

-What year?- he asked.

"2008." She supplied easily.

-Two hundred twenty six,- Etienne said in her mind.

Alicia furrowed her brow. "Hold on." She said and went to a purse she never used by the door, pulling out a calculator. "So you were, 32 when you died. And that's only if you were laid to rest when the church was just built. Is that right?"

There was a slight hesitation and then a confirmation.

The age was actually more mind boggling to Alicia then the fact that she had a two century old ghost in her apartment. She was strange enough as it was; who was she to debunk ghosts? But this man was from a time when people like her were just gaining their freedom on all fronts after a bloody war. Yet he was being polite to her, whether that was because he had nothing against the color of her skin or because he was resigned because of their present situation was still to be seen.

Alicia wanted to ask more questions but her stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, she wanted to disappear into the floor.

-Food,- he muttered darkly.

She bit her lip. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to go out to do that. All I have here is granola bars and soda." But Alicia had more then one problem when it came to leaving the apartment, and it wasn't her new friend. "Do you have to follow me?"

-Yes. Forgive.-

"Oh, I'm not bothered by it." She said quickly. "You're stuck with me too. I'm just wondering what people are going to think when they see you."

-Will not see,- he promised. The darkness shifted a bit and the black essence that had been there became more translucent. Harder to see, harder to notice.

Alicia smiled. "I'll do you one better." She said and where the young black woman stood was now a young southern gentleman with a button down shirt and dress pants, a copy of the man most people in the building thought was the owner of Alicia's little hole in the wall apartment. "It won't last long, but I can get some quick shopping done before it fades." She said, her own voice coming out of the copy's mouth before she waved Etienne to follow her out.

-Stay in the sun,- was Etienne's only comment as he floated along behind her.

The young man nodded and they left the apartment.

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