"A penny for your thoughts," Gina said.
"I'm just..." Dana cleared her throat, slowly emerging out of the dense mist of pondering. "I've just been thinking about the other night."
"Makes sense," Gina nodded in perfect understanding.
"No, I'm not talking about..." she sighed heavily. "Okay, yes, also about that. But," her voice turned sterner, "mostly, about the whole situation, how we can..."
"Yeah?" Gina anxiously asked, after a long pause.
"Whether we can turn it to our advantage."
"Come again?!" Gina sat rigidly up, her expression abruptly changing.
"Look," Dana leaned on her elbows, staring at her friend intensely, "what happened the other night was...incredible, in one way, but, at the same time, it was also extremely dangerous.
"We could have...been hurt."
"But, we weren't."
"No, but, Tony had to go to the hospital."
"He shouldn't have been there in the first place."
"Be that as it may, we still..."
"You don't have to go back, you know."
"That's the problem! I feel, deep inside of me, that I have to!"
"It's quite amazing, isn't it?" Gina smirked.
"I'm not sure that's the word I'd use, but...yes, sure. Let's go with amazing. At any rate..." Dana paused again, unable properly to formulate her thoughts.
"What is it?" Gina pushed her impatiently.
"I told you, I'm just thinking of ways to turn this whole situation, what we know and what we experienced, to our advantage."
"You told me that. It's the how you're not telling!"
"It's quite simple, actually..." Dana drew a deep breath.
* * * *
"You're alright, man?" Fred asked.
"I'm bored as hell, but, other than that, no, I'm not good, at all," Tony replied coldly.
"They won't let you do anything, huh?" Fred chuckled dryly, trying to evade the heated topic looming over their heads.
"Yeah," Tony nodded. "All I've done these past few days is lying here idle, unable to watch TV, work on my computer...hell, I'd even read a book, just to kill some time!
"I'm just lying here...thinking; remembering."
"Let's try to forget that, okay? Maybe, it was just...a bad dream, or something."
"You really believe that?"
"No," Fred admitted heavyhearted. "But, I'd much rather..."
"You know what pisses me off the most?" Tony interrupted him. "That I've got some solid proof that ghosts exist—and can even give you a fucking concussion—and can't feel any trace of joy about it!"
"Have you talked with Dana, by the way?"
"No!" Tony shot up from the pillow and immediately reached for his forehead. "No," he repeated after falling back on the soft pillow. "What is there to say?"
"I don't know...ask her about that night? About what really happened?"
"I think we both know what happened...and," he coughed hoarsely, "I'm trying hard here not to remember what you did during..." he stopped, rubbed his closed eyelids.
"I told you," Fred apologized in a heavy voice, "I don't know why, or...something overcame me; it felt as if I was looking at myself, from high above doing...yes, and couldn't stop myself, despite knowing fully well how wrong it was!
"I can't explain why I...you know."
"I do want to believe you, trust me," Tony said, his throbbing eyes still tightly shut, "it's just...I don't know."
"I think it's the mansion, man," Fred said after a long period of silence between them. "There's something in there; and I don't mean just the ghost, or whatever the fuck that thing was!"
"I did tell you the mansion was haunted, didn't I? And you called me stupid!"
"I did, yes...can you blame me? I couldn't...but, now, I've seen it with my own two eyes! It's...different. And, most importantly, we need to do something, man."
"We should burn the fucking thing to the ground!" Tony snapped his fingers. "Man, you saw Dana and Gina losing their minds there, right? They barely even acknowledged our presence; hell, Dana didn't even care for my getting hurt.
"It's the whole mansion that drives them crazy, man; not just the ghost. If we don't destroy it, and quick, I'll lose Dana, forever."
"I know you're right," Fred finally whispered, after quite some time of inner pondering, "it's just...it feels wrong, man."
* * * *
"We can't do that!" Gina protested vividly. "It'd be wrong, it'd be..."
"You're falling in love with that ghost, aren't you?" Dana said, half-mockingly.
"No!" Gina raised her voice, then, abruptly, lowered her glance. "I don't know; it just feels wrong to...use the ghost in that way."
"Why?" Dana shrugged. "If you think about it, we'd be doing it a favor; bringing to it even more...offerings? I don't know how to call them."
"But, charging for it?"
"Why the hell not?" Dana said calmly. "We'll be offering a highly unique thrill; an actual haunted house, with the benefits of extreme sexual pleasure. I'm not denying that the orgasms I experienced there were otherworldly; I just don't see a reason why we should keep it to ourselves."