[spoil]
The Family Ghost
Max glanced around the small room. Actually, it was the only room. The apartment was small, and Max doubted that two people could comfortably live in it.
Noticing she had resumed talking, he turned to the woman trying to lease the apartment and focused on his sense of hearing. He was old, and his ears had gotten continually worse as years progressed.
"...Well, it's a little small, but I'm sure you'll like it. It has a shower, a clean toilet," she said, stressing the clean. "And it comes with its own bed!"
Do apartments usually include beds? Max thought. He couldn't remember.
"We'll take it," said Reg, jolting Max out of his thoughts.
"Are you sure?" asked Reg's young wife, Molly.
"It'll be fine. Great! Cheap--"
Max laughed to himself. The monthly rent was twenty dollars.
"Clean--"
Max glanced at a mousetrap across the hallway through the open door.
"And perfect for a family just starting out!"
"Just starting out..." And going to be ending quickly, Max mused. The young couple had hardly known each other before they got married, and Max didn't think the marriage would last long. In his opinion, they had started dating simply because everyone else did it and they wanted to fit in. They were very different in interests and such.
Max hoped the marriage would end soon. He wasn't being spiteful; both members of the matrimony were dull people, and he was growing bored with their mouldy jokes, plastic cheerfulness, and...what was it called? Indolence? Innocence? No, those didn't seem like the right terms.
Well, he'd think of the word later. If there was one thing he had enough of-and it wasn't hair-it was time.
Time, and more time. He didn't have a job, he didn't have responsibilities, he wasn't interested in talking with people, and people weren't interested in talking with him-unless they were selling funeral plans.
He wanted to sleep. Sleep, and escape the monotony. But try as he might, he could never devise a way to lure drowsiness upon him. The last time he slept was...when? He couldn't remember. The days blurred by for him. The last thing of importance he remembered was Reg and Molly's wedding. He knew there were others, though...
Was it normal for old people to forget things? There was a disease, he remembered. It started with E...or was it O? It caused people to forget their entire lives every few minutes. Was that his problem?
No! his mind screamed at him. He was fine. He wasn't-couldn't be slipping...He was too young to be over the hill! He was only eighty something!
He struggled to remember something before the wedding. Their dating! How could he have forgotten that? He'd just been thinking about it a few minutes ago!
Further back! Ray's birth, awaited by dread for his parents. He had been an unwanted baby.
What else? He searched his mind.
Then he remembered. Remembered everything. All the way back to his death. He had died, then regained conscience a few hours later. Since then, he followed his first-born descendants and watching over them.
He found himself surprised by this fact. But of course, it was his decision. To watch over...to watch over...
Panic rose in his chest. He couldn't forget again! Not now! Why couldn't he remember things?
But then his ectoplasmic heart slowed, and his ethereal pituitary gland stopped releasing insubstantial panic hormones. He knew he would not forget his vow to himself, he would not forget his duty. Even if he lost himself, even if he forgot who he was, he would watch over his descendants to the end of time.[/spoil]
This is my first story I've ever written, so it probably won't be that good. And sorry for the delay.
I apologize for the cheezy ending.