2

A young woman's furious shout echoed down the street, causing everyone nearby to turn and stare.

They watched as she went from shouting in anger to completely breaking down, squatting on the ground and sobbing uncontrollably.

Some people even took out their phones and started filming.

Luckily, the police station was right nearby, which seemed to put the passersby at ease.

Otherwise, given my unhinged behavior, someone probably would have called an insane asylum.

"Mommy, why is that lady squatting over there and crying?"

A child asked in confusion while looking at me, only to be quickly ushered away by his mother.

This confirmed it. I was the only one who could see Jenna Lowe.

Her body was somewhat transparent, her feet hovering above the ground. She just watched me quietly, a smile on her face.

"Yara Valerius, are you wailing for a funeral? If you don't get a move on, people are going to think you're a total nutjob. You'll be tomorrow's headline!"

'But I *am* mourning,' I thought.

Because Jenna Lowe was already dead.

She had died five years ago on my birthday. She'd said she had just gotten paid and wanted to splurge, so she was going to buy a Black Swan cake and have it delivered by a handsome guy who was over six feet tall.

We never did see the handsome delivery guy. By the time the police called me to identify her body, she'd been hit by a car, her features mangled beyond recognition.

She was still clutching the receipt for the cake order in her hand.

When the officer handed me the receipt, stained dark red with blood, I saw there was a note in the remarks.

"The delivery guy must be super handsome. My sister deserves a feast for the eyes."

I sobbed uncontrollably, cursing Jenna Lowe a hundred times in my head for being such a damn fool.

But seeing her—no, that's not right.

Seeing her ghost again, I was suddenly at a loss for words.

: Five Years

3

The bus was taking forever, so I just hailed a taxi. I scooted over to make room, and the driver gave me a confused look.

"Is someone else joining you?"

I shook my head, closed the door, and gave him the address.

Jenna Lowe sat beside me, gazing out the window in delight.

"We used to have to pool our money just to take a taxi. Now, the two of us can ride and only one of us has to pay. This is great!"

She was beaming, but I couldn't manage a smile.

We had come to the big city by ourselves to build a life, and we'd been through it all—getting manipulated by employers during our job search and scammed by shady rental agents.

It took everything we had, but we finally found a foothold in the city.

On the day we packed up to move into our new place, Jenna Lowe said we should splurge and take a taxi.

We rummaged through everything we owned but still couldn't scrape together the full fare. We had to haggle and plead with the driver until he reluctantly agreed to give us a ride.

He still made us get out with a mile to go, so the two of us had to lug three large suitcases the rest of the way to our new home.

In five years, the city had developed so rapidly that nearly all of our original neighbors had moved away.

Only the old granny who lived across the hall and her grandson were still there.

As we passed their door, Jenna Lowe's eyes went wide.

"Who's that cute boy?"

"Granny Kingsley's grandson, Leo."

"No way. He used to be just a little kid, always pestering me to act out Ultraman scenes with him. Honestly, if Granny Kingsley wasn't such a great cook who was always giving us food, I wouldn't have given him the time of day."

'But the kid who only cared about Ultraman back then was already in high school now.'

'Five years was such a long time.'

I closed the door, my hand tightening on the knob. I finally broke down, crying in front of Jenna Lowe.

"Five years, and you've only come back to see me once! Where the hell did you disappear to?!"