Today's #flashfiction #HauntingIsFirstComeFirstServed

“Be a good neighbor.”

Dick Dastardly*

       The birthday party at my friend's house was really fun and she liked the gift I gave her. But here's something fun. I realized that there is another birthday to be celebrated today if I read my post history right. Today is the birthday of Langdon's Flash Fictions! It's one year old! Yeah, I've been keeping these up. I've had some days where I couldn't post and one time earlier the sever that hosted the email I log into the blog crashed so I don't have quite 365 stories to celebrate the year that's past. I've got about 340 though nonetheless. Hopefully this next year I can get a full 365 and you'll be here to enjoy them all. Anyway onto the flash fiction!

Haunting is a First Come First Served

     “Dibs!” shouted the ghost in front of me. Well there went the museum.

     “Dibs!” The next one dashed right by me. For the love of...why am I so slow in the after life? I ran track while I was alive!

     “Dibs!” yelled another ghost. No, no, no! That was a dorm! A dorm! I missed a dorm! Twenty ghosts are allowed in a dorm and I missed it. All the action is in dorms. You get to mess with students and hang around parties. And I missed it. I hate this ethereal body.

       Ah, unlife as a ghost. Swim in the ether till you run across a place to haunt for a year then you replaced by another. It's ghostly shifts really. Why do we do our job? Sheer boredom. Finding out how you can influence things is rough though. You just eavesdrop though. If you get a place that nobody visits that often you usually try to use your otherworldly powers to practically tear the walls down to get attention and visitors. Company. Though company is really one way. I've met ghosts that try to make it sound like their conversations are both ways. Pretend their names are common nouns so they feel like people are addressing them. Will I do that? How long will I be Gary.

     “Dibs!” shouted a ghost that flew past me. Well shoot, there went a hotel. I'd say it was because I wasn't paying attention, but I'm too slow anyways. Looking around all I saw left was an empty mansion with way too many bedrooms in it, even for a mansion. My haunting term was a year. It's up for sale/rent but who's going to use that in this economy? It has too many rooms to make sense. Guess I'm going to be alone for awhile and maybe spook a misguided burglar or two.

       Yet a week into my haunting of the place a short man came into the building. He scouting with much scrutiny. He didn't talk much to the real estate agent but mumbled to himself plenty. Even floating right next to him I couldn't catch what he was saying.

    After a few hours he turned to the real estate agent and said, “With the mansions we scouted this is the perfect one. It's large number of bedrooms for a mansion will fit all the contestants.”

I floated around the short man confused the real estate agent looked baffled as well.

     “You needed this many bedrooms?” The agent asked.

     “Yes, my show The World's Next Perfect Super Model will have many contestants. And looking at the rest of the house I think all the girls will fit fine. There will be plenty of places for drama.”

     I yelled “Dibs!” as I forgotten to when I first arrived.