"Phew, well that was exhausting…" Lulu muttered aloud while collapsing on her bed.
But nobody responded to her muttering.
She was well and truly alone for the first time in a while.
The silence was…strange. Not unwelcome, just strange. No ghost hovering at her shoulder. No fiery side commentary. No constant chattering about the memories they made while alive.
Not wanting to deal with the fallout from her speech, Lulu had slipped out of the funeral hall before the reception began.
Amelia—after watching her cousin sob, her enemies seethe, and her petty truths light the whole place on fire—had turned to Lulu, smiled softly, and whispered, "I'm ready now."
Then, just like that, she was gone.
No dramatic swirl of wind. No flash of light. Just a calm presence fading into nothing, like the ending of a good song.
Lulu had blinked back tears that were welling up for unknown reasons all the way home, ordered a questionable taco from a 24-hour place she should not have trusted, and then crawled under her covers like she'd just run a marathon through a haunted soap opera.
Now, back in the blessed safety of her bed, she felt the full weight of everything settle over her: the lies she'd exposed, the grief she'd witnessed, the absolute chaos that she'd turned the service into.
And, for the first time in what felt like weeks, she let herself relax.
'I did it,' she thought, drifting off. 'It's over. I survived. I might never emotionally recover, but hey...'
She was asleep in seconds.
…Until the phone rang.
Lulu groaned and rolled over, trying to ignore the blaring ringing.
'I never realized how annoying that song was…'
If it was important, they'd call again.
She face-planted back into her pillow.
Ringgggg.
Nope.
Ringgggg.
Absolutely not.
Ringgggg.
The phone began to feel personally offended she hadn't answered it yet.
Muttering every curse she knew under her breath, Lulu grabbed it and answered with a groggy, "What?"
"LULU?! OH MY GOD, LULU—WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?! WAS ALL OF THAT A SKIT? A JOKE? PLEASE TELL ME IT WAS."
Lulu's eyes snapped open. "Who—what? Who is this?"
"IT'S MINDY. YOUR BEST FRIEND?!"
Lulu winced. "Mindy? Why are you yelling at—what time is it?"
"DOESN'T MATTER. You're everywhere."
"What do you mean, I'm everywhere?"
"You're trending on TikTak!"
Lulu blinked. "…Sorry, what?"
"Tik. Tak. You know, the app I keep sending you links from that you never open because you're scared of them stealing your data?"
Lulu sat up, the last dregs of sleep fleeing in a panic. "Why am I trending on TikTak?!"
"Why wouldn't you be…?," Mindy said, "The funeral you were at was livestreamed."
"What?!"
"THE WHOLE THING. And I mean the WHOLE THING. At first apparently it only had like 5 viewers, probably family or friends that couldn't attend in person, when you walked up there it went viral in minutes."
Lulu buried her face in her hands. "Oh my god." Now that she thought of it, she thought she saw a pre-teen girl pointing her camera at the stage.
"You should have seen the donations, Lulu! Please tell me you get a cut of that?"
Lulu paused, "How much did she make?"
"According to the comments? Enough to put down a deposit on a condo."
Lulu sat in stunned silence.
'Damn.' Lulu wanted to cry but was all out of tears. All that little girl had to do was point a camera, but Lulu didn't get a single cent of those donations for being the ghost's emotional support human, PowerPoint producer, and verbal executioner.
"How…nice…for her…," Lulu muttered, slumping back against her pillow.
Mindy paused, then added, "By the way... you looked amazing under that funeral lighting. Seriously. Your cheekbones were doing things."
Lulu groaned again, dramatically pulling her blanket over her head. But after calming down while listening to Mindy chatter she had another thought.
Lulu felt an actual chill run down her spine.
She pulled open the drawer of her nightstand that had her second phone turned off, the one she had registered to her made up 'business' to make her dealings with Amelia seem legit to prying eyes but never truly thought about making her full-time gig.
Ding. Ding. Ding. D-D-D-D-Ding. D-Ding...
Notification after notification came flooding in as Lulu was notified about hundreds of missed calls with area codes from all over the country.
"Oh god…what do I do now?"
"I don't know," Mindy said. And Lulu almost jumped at the reply, forgetting she was still on the call. "But the internet loves you. And they're already asking how they can book Spectral Solutions."
Lulu groaned.