Ruby's Ghost by Shona Husk

body.
    She bit her lip and he knew the answer without her speaking it. “I don’t recall. I don’t think so.”
    Of course, and he probably wouldn’t remember either if he woke up. This would all be some kind of coma dream. Hell, maybe it wasn’t real anyway and he was imagining everything as his body fought to hold on. This was his mind’s way of coping with trauma. But when he looked at Eloise he wanted her to be real.
    His gaze shifted from her to the computer screen. “What are you doing?”
    Pink crept up her cheeks. “I was doing a quick search to find out who you are—double checking you’re not a vengeful ghost.” The corners of her lips quirked but didn’t make it into a full smile.
    “You could’ve asked.”
    “Yeah, and you’re going to tell me if you’re a serial killer in your spare time, Dexter .”
    “True.” He shrugged. But she had invited a stranger into her house and bedroom, and if he wanted her to trust him, she needed to see who he was. He didn’t know if he’d be so welcoming if the situation were reversed. If he ever saw a ghost after this, he was going to be nice to them. “If you go to Facebook it will be faster.”
    She nodded, did a couple of clicks then typed his name again. “Mechanical engineering?”
    He didn’t answer; he was reading all the posts on his page. Friends wishing him a speedy recovery, messages of support and regrets for his loss. Pictures of him and Ruby together that people had posted. No one knew they’d broken up before the accident. He felt like a fraud accepting their sympathy and yet it still hurt. Ruby smiled back at him from the screen with red lips, her blond hair perfectly styled. She looked so full of life.
    Because a couple of jerks decided to race around the block in the SUV after too many beers she was dead, and he could be following her if he didn’t wake up.
    “Shut it down.” He stepped back and then let himself drop through the floor and out of her room. His legs jarred with the impact, but it wasn’t real pain, only the memory of what it would feel like.
    That was his whole life lately. He knew what loving Ruby felt like yet all he had was the shadow that lingered afterwards. He’d lost it somehow and no matter how hard he’d tried to find it he couldn’t. It had taken months for him to realize it was gone and that no matter what he did or what she did, what they’d had couldn’t be resuscitated.
    The worst part was he didn’t know exactly what had happened or when, only that when he looked at Eloise he’d felt alive again—kind of—that rush of seeing someone, of anticipating seeing her.
    Eloise called his name. He looked up at the ceiling and briefly considered going back. But he couldn’t face her, not with pictures of Ruby gazing at him from the screen. It wasn’t right. Yet all he wanted was to feel alive, to stand in the sun and be warm. That had been missing in his life for too long.
     
    Eloise blinked but he’d vanished again. Just because he was a ghost didn’t give him the right to disappear whenever it suited him. Did ghosts even care about manners? She called his name once and was half tempted to go and find him again, but restrained herself. She didn’t have time to chase him around, and she knew he’d be back when he was ready to talk. There wasn’t anywhere else he could go.
    She bit her lip and glanced at the screen again. The outpouring of emotion there for everyone to see. He was well liked. And so was Ruby. She was also very pretty, in the way that looked like she spent a lot of time on how she looked.
    Feeling rather plain in comparison Eloise pulled the hair elastic out of her hair and tossed it on the desk. She was in yoga pants, a T-shirt and runners. No makeup. None of which would have bothered her since she was staying home studying, but then she hadn’t counted on having a visitor wafting around in his own grief-riddled daze.
    She’d have been freaking by now if she was bodiless and unable