Bite by Deborah Castellano

different. Frowning, she pinched herself. Fuck, that hurt! So she could feel herself, and yet she was sitting not on, but inside her own body, as though she had no physical form.
    Curiouser and curiouser, Caitlyn thought, in true Alice in Wonderland style. Then she decided that sitting around in a coffin wasn’t really a very fun way of spending her afterlife, so she clambered out. She had no idea whether anyone would be able to see her or not, but she was still relieved to note that she was wearing clothes and shoes. Glancing back towards the coffin, she noted they were the same ones she was to be buried in, apparently. Caitlyn figured it could be worse. At least she wasn’t doomed to wander around in a ghastly white nightie, like those old- fashioned ghosts.
    Ghosts. Now the word had entered her conscious thought, Caitlyn took the time to think about it. There was no questioning the fact that that’s exactly what she was, given that she was standing there and her body was stiff and cold in a coffin across the room. Shaking herself, Caitlyn refused to get all maudlin about it. Like she’d already surmised, there was bugger all she could do, so she may as well get on with it. Maybe she’d find out why she was still here.
    Yes, that’s exactly what she’d do. She’d find out why she hadn’t “passed on”, as they say. Caitlyn had watched enough episodes of Supernatural to know that, according to the accepted lore on ghosts, the reason they hung around was because they had unfinished business. Sometimes it was that they wanted to get revenge on their killer. Smiling, Caitlyn decided she’d seen too many episodes of that damn show. In her case, there was no killer.
    Was there? Startled, Caitlyn realised she had absolutely no idea how she’d died. She’d had no illnesses that she’d known of, so why precisely was she dead? Rushing to her body, she examined it for any signs of anything untoward. Aside from the not moving and not breathing, there was nothing.
    Heaving a sigh of relief, Caitlyn fell to thinking about what was keeping her around. Then she had an idea. Perhaps it was her body! She was still around because her remains were. Fucking lore! Now she really wished she didn’t know all this stuff.
    After further pondering, Caitlyn was none the wiser. Just because her cadaver looked OK didn’t mean there had been no foul play, and equally it could just be that her spirit was hanging around until her body was laid to rest.
    With that in mind, Caitlyn made the decision to live every moment as if it were her last. She hadn’t had chance to do that when she was alive, so she was going to take advantage of the opportunity now. Plus, it’d be a good distraction from thinking about what was going to happen. Or might happen.
    In life, Caitlyn had been nothing if not imaginative. In death, she realised the potential of her position. She couldn’t be sure, of course, but she suspected that the fact she’d been sitting inside her body meant she didn’t have a corporeal form. In a roundabout way, that also made her invisible. She’d always thought that being invisible would be a brilliant super power to have because of all the mischief you could get up to, and all the things you wouldn’t normally be able to see. If she could also pass through things, all ghostlike, then she was onto a winner. Well, a winner for a dead chick, anyway. Caitlyn grinned. She knew exactly where she was going to go.
    When she arrived at Jacob’s house, Caitlyn actually felt a little nervous. She had no idea what was going to happen, after all. What if he saw her somehow, and freaked out?
    She knew she’d be able to get in, at least. On leaving the funeral home she’d discovered she could in fact pass through solid objects. There was no such thing as an obstruction for Caitlyn any more. Physically, at least. An emotional obstruction was currently