Sympathetic Spirits

"What the Hell is this?" - Miranda yelled, waving a piece of paper in front of my sleepy face. I took it from her and looked closer.

"A receipt" - I replied in the most obvious and useless way and immediately tried to go back to sleep.

"You spent our money on... THIS?!" - she was furious about the unconventional hobby I picked up while she was spending weekends with parents.

Ten minutes into listening to her angry yelling, I got bored and left to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. She followed me, and still was following my footsteps not letting my ears rest for a second as I returned to the main room.

"What's your problem again?" - I asked, eyebrow raised, and sipped.

"You know what my problem is! This is my third time thinking I finally met a decent man, and your filthy..."

"Stop yelling", I interrupted. "You want to discuss it, or what?"

"Discuss?! There is nothing to discuss; I want you to swear, here and now, on your mother's heart, and, if you ever have one, your future daughter's eyes, that you will never go there again, for anything!"

"Or what?" - I took another sip.

"..." she gasped for air and yelled again, "it's over!" I had to rub my temple. I did not quite get if her "it's over" was a statement of fact or answer to my "or what?", and did not care at this point.

"Do you need help packing your stuff? Why am I asking; of course you do."

Within fifteen minutes, I had to interrupt her seven times as she tried to pack in my gadgets, phone chargers, tools, tableware, and utensils among "her things", either forgetting (or lying to have forgotten) that I just allowed her to use them out of being considerate.

I refused to take back any of the gifts I gave her (she stopped shoving them into my hands after I threw the second one out the window), but I generously accepted the remains of this month's allowance back.

"A couple more things", I said and forced her to show me how she deletes my contacts from her phone. "I send my respects to your parents, and wish them everything good, and for you to finally find a job. Now give me the door keys, all of them, and get out of my house."

I refused to call a cab for her, and allowed her to keep the backpack indefinitely. I got myself a new and better one anyway some time ago.

Finally drinking the rest of my coffee, with a happy smirk, I sat next to my table, with a scandalous receipt, my now ex girlfriend's allowance for this and the next month in two packs of cash, and a third, thicker pack that I kept for her gifts.

I understood that now, I could just watch TV series for the rest of the day in blissful silence, with my phone switched off, and take a good generous nap until the sun goes down. After waking up before sunset, taking a shower, shaving, dressing up nicely, and putting some cologne on, I went down to an ATM, put the cash on my debit card, and took a nice relaxed walk. At no point has any thought or memory of Miranda crossed my mind.

"Rent-a-Nite" looked painfully unremarkable. It was a small store that looked like it sold collectable coins and postcards, with even smaller negotiation room (instead of chairs, it had three sofas), and a third, larger room, that definitely sounded lived in even through closed door, with lots of barely heard conversations, giggles, and occasional music. I greeted tonight's evening salesman, Indigo, tall and slim but ugly-faced guy with straight long hair, who looked like an anti-hippie caricature from the last century.

"Can I help you choosing something for the evening, mister Dan?"

"Thank you Indigo, my brother, but no", I said. "I think I'd like to make a permanent purchase. Two, in fact."

"Oh! I would not recommend a permanent purchase without trial periods with at least five options first. We don't exactly just take them back on demand."

Miranda found only the last receipt and did not know that I was visiting "Rent-a-Nite" for more than half a year now, since three months after Miranda decided that she never was in the mood, and have already gone through more than twenty "trial periods", having a taste of at least fifty options (I'm a team player, what can I say). Indigo got this job only one and a half months ago, and met me only two times before (I was glad and flattered that he remembered me at all).

I passed him the receipt from one of my previous visits, not the one found by my ex, but the one and only order that I asked to repeat nine times. It was not the best, not perfect, not the most eventful, but it just felt so right, fulfilling, satisfying, that even after trying alternatives, I kept asking to repeat only this one.

Indigo adjusted his glasses, wrote the numbers from the receipt on another sheet in larger digits with a sharpie, manipulated the rolling storage shelves for a minute, and finally brought two cotton-padded boxes with airtight sealed thick glass capsules holding engraved metal tokens in them, each packed with a small envelope with pictures. "It's already night out there, innit?" he asked himself before taking a broom, moving the blinds to the side, and seeing for himself that the sky was indeed as dark as it gets. "Good".

We went to negotiation room. "I'll go get the manager", Indigo closed the front door, and sneaked into the weird back room that I never saw the insides of. A glimpse into it barely revealed anything but darkness and what looked like a swarm of tiny lights, but someone seemed to notice me and giggle from there for a second. Half a minute later, Indigo returned with the manager and owner, mister Azur. Grey-haired, soft-voiced, some people say that he personally knew those who were on the project from the beginning, when it still was studied for military and investigative usage. He greeted me without a handshake and said I had great taste and made a wonderful choice.

"Thank you, sir", I said. "It would not have been possible without your highest quality of service".

"What made you decide in favor of a permanent purchase?" he asked.

I was not particularly fond of lying.

"My roommate with benefits found out that I really like your establishment and moved out the very same day. This morning, in fact."

"Understandable; what an inconsiderate and short-sighted person. You will have to carefully read the instruction, terms and conditions, and safety manuals before my eyes, sign them, and only then we can start the negotiations proper."

I can't say I learned something useful from safety manuals. Of course, I was not going to intentionally poison, damage, or disassemble the tokens for any purpose and under any circumstances. I did not own industrial sources of sulphate pollution, nor did I store or produce concentrated ozone, fluoroacetic acid, or unshielded sources of ionizing or microwave radiation in my house, and thus, ran no risk of exposing the tokens to them. I did not intend to ever take them out of their cotton-padded boxes, let alone glass capsules, let alone expose them to mechanical stresses exceeding 120 G. Nor was I ever going to leave them for more than 16 months without usage, causing them to fall into hibernation and require a special lengthy and expensive procedure to recharge and reactivate.

"Is this why you have this staff only back room? To do maintenance runs?" - I asked mister Azur.

"Among other things, yes", he said. "It's nice in general to have a place where you can run and check things for yourself and make observations. We have a bigger lab, but it's better not to drive stuff there and back too often. They are not exactly cheap or simple to make."

Twenty minutes later, I was finally done with the papers and questions; Indigo reopened the front door and locked me with the manager, so we don't get distracted if someone else comes. The owner passed me the boxes.

"I hope you understand that there will be no deal without their agreement."

I understood. I brought my activator out of pocket (learned the hard way to have my own), pressed the button, checked the screen, and waved it above the boxes. "Do you mind if I dim the lights a little?" I asked; mister Azur smiled and agreed. Under weaker lights, I could see that the tokens already started glowing inside their glass containers. Just a dozen seconds later, the auras around them grew to a size of particularly colorful large soda bottles and separated, floating towards the manager. Leda "woke up" first, taking shape and theatrically stretching her gorgeous tomboyish emerald body, translucent and glowing, her fake crop top almost revealing too much, and going to mister Azur for a hug.

"Heeey manager! Haven't seen you in a while!"

Shorter and more curvaceous ghost girl of royal blue color with lovely bright yellow eyes, with longer and slightly curly hair, forming a sundress from her matter to cover her almost-corporeal goods, Kara, joined in for a hug. Both ghostly figures took hold of the manager's hands when they finally paid attention to me.

"Dan! Hey, Dan is here! Hi Dan! So nice to see you again!" I smiled and nodded. "We love you Dan!" I covered my face in embarrassment. Mister Azur waved to the sofa, inviting everyone to take a seat. The girls, obviously, sat by both sides from me.

"Ladies, mister Dan would like you to consider moving in with him permanently."

"Hmmm, he has a cozy place!" Kara said cheerfully.

"And really nice lips!" Leda added.

"And a powerful PC!"

"And no pesky pets!"

"And a great view from the window!"

"And a hu-u-u-", Leda made motions with her hands, "...-u-u-uge bed!"

"And.. wait, doesn't Miranda mind?" - the more mature Kara finally remembered this tiny detail. Upon learning of the change in our arrangement, she immediately tried to comfort and cheer me up: "Oooh, you broke up, poor Dan, don't worry; she wasn't good for you anyway. We'll get you someone better! Someo... oh..."

Let's say, smart is not among the strong sides of ghosts of enchanted sympathetic tokens. Leda and Kara, finally understanding what they were offered, looked at each other in shock, and then bumped their heads together over my lap, held each other's hands, and giggled. Finally, both gave me a hug really strong for barely corporeal creatures, and took my hands. I was ready to burst into tears of happiness then and there just from feeling their ethereal fingers on my hands again; I really liked everything about these two.

"Oh, oh, oh, Dan, is it fine if you sometimes bring us back here to meet the staff and friends?" Kara asked.

"We... well, we aren't exactly used to live with someone, and..." Leda continued.

"You will be the first person to take us out of the facility or its chapters for longer than two weeks", Kara informed me honestly. "We've been friends with many others living here for decades. You are absolutely sweet and lovely, Dan, but we don't want to choose between you and our friends."

"If it is fine with mister Azur and mister Indigo, it is fine with me. Also, I just signed the papers saying that I am obliged to bring you back for a night at least every six weeks. And I have no plans of leaving the city".

"Yaaaay!" They pretended to jump, and stayed afloat in the air, covering my face in kisses.

"Dan, you are the best."

"You will be our sweetest cutest landlord!"

"I have so many plans on you!"

"Hey, can we then invite, like, twenty more..." Kara grabbed Leda's face and told her to be silent and not tempt fate, in very rude terms.

After making a payment and a minute of negotiation, we decided that I will be taking a walk with the girls through the streets, but only if they stay invisible (for multitude of reasons, including social ones), and with a disappointed pretentious sigh, they refused, melted into shapeless misty blobs, and soaked back into their tokens that were already in my bag, phasing right through the bag's fabric and protective glass.

Back at my place, I let them take their time and make themselves at home. I put some bedsheets on the kitchen couch for myself. They were confused that I will not be spending the nights with them on the master bed, and I had to explain that while yes, they did not exactly need food, water, electricity, heating, or even air to maintain themselves, and absolutely loved company, only the last part applied to me; and since all of those things cost money, I had to attend work and rest after it if I was to stay strong and sane enough to also entertain and be entertained by them. Also, considering that they just moved out of what was essentially an experimental semi-magical high-tech brothel where they lived decades after being trained for military purposes, I definitely wanted to give them some time to adapt, relax, watch some cat videos, play some games, do whatever they wanted instead of what they thought I want. No matter how painfully thirsty I was for their intoxicating sweetness.

"Good night, girls!", "Girls, use headphones, I need some rest!", "Hey, tone down the moaning there!"

Rather uneventful first night was over - at least, uneventful for me. Gladly, no matter what kind of depravity they engaged in with each other, the token spirits did not leave stains on the bed. In the morning, I woke up too late, when the girls already left. Met them only in the evening, gave hugs and some words of encouragement. Told them not to keep me company in the shower. Promised some fun on the weekend. Couldn't help myself and gave Kara's toes a smooch. Could swear that they became more tangible and corporeal from my touch right as I was giving it.

I woke up as the clock on my night stand indicated 5:40 AM, almost two hours before the alarm. The sky was already getting a bit lighter. Too light, in fact. I looked at my window and understood that it was scrubbed clean. The air seemed fresh; everywhere I looked, I could not spot a single speck of dirt or dust. My nostrils got filled with sweet smell of homemade breakfast. Toasts and black tea (Kara protested against me having too much coffee), and minty scent of enchanted sympathetic energy. Kara was whispering to "no, put it down" and "it's too late"; as Leda, carrying the breakfast tray to me...

Sympathetic magic, as probably the earliest form of metaphysics predating history itself, fascinated human beings presumably even prior to them becoming anatomically modern. The idea that emotion, urge, feeling, intent, thought, imagination, and ritual action were not just glitches of our over-intricate survival instinct, but the distorted reflection of some actually existing and not yet understood phenomenon, or energy, or field, or interaction, that you can actually manipulate if you try hard enough, was routinely tested ever since the discovery of scientific method. And no-one ever managed to discover naturally occurring sympathetic energy.

But one man managed to make an artificial one.

Among multiple reasons why it did not find wide military and civilian applications, was its fundamental instability against solar coronal radio bursts, which, obviously, could not be stopped by simple shutter blinds.

"Look, this is very sweet but it's a bad idea, you shouldn't..." - I did not get to finish, as Leda succumbed to sudden jolt of radio interference from the rising sun, her ghostly body dissolving into sparkly emerald mist, and all the fruits of her breakfast-making labor came phasing through the remnants of her hands and crashing down on the floor, the tea cup smashing into pieces.

In the evening, Leda's resting token reported "unstable". I summoned the girls, and both I and Kara had to hold Leda as tight as was possible for ten minutes, explaining that even if it didn't work, I really appreciate the effort, and she is still the best roommate I could ever dream of, and I was still very thankful that they did the dishes, and cleaned the windows, and the floor, and the bathtub, somehow not even waking me up, and I did rescue the toast in five seconds. She giggled, her body still mushy, wispy, barely tangible; small globules of deep blue mist separated from her eyes like tears and dissolved in the air. From the third try, I rolled her into blanket when she finally stopped phasing through it, and gave a boop to her cute little nose. She smiled and became slightly more opaque. I told them not to go anywhere, brought post-it notes, wrote "Best Roomie" on two, and plastered them on the girls' palms. "Peace? Everyone fine? We can all go to sleep?" Kara responded in affirmation. Leda sort-of nodded.

Seeing night stand clock showing 5:25, I woke up from some strange noises and shimmering from the bedroom. Deciding that the girls would either deal with whatever it was themselves, or I'll investigate a little later, I went to the toilet. Feeling relieved and surprisingly rested, I peeked at the girls and saw none. The blanket was rolled around both their pillows. Without putting much thought into it, I decided they did not want to be corporeal tonight, which was perfectly normal, and I promised mister Azur to treat their preferences and wishes with understanding and respect.

As I was going out of the room to my couch, I felt resistance.

Leda materialized from emerald mist right in front of me, wispy, determined, naked, beautiful, hands on my face, eyes shining, legs crossed on my back, licking her lips, with her perfect breasts crowned by glowing pink nipples, steamy fluorescent droplets forming on them and evaporating. "Daniel", she whispered, her voice echoing, "please touch me." Reaching Leda's breast, my hand got covered in her milk; I licked it quickly.

Magnificent otherworldly taste that I missed so much tipped me over the decision-making horizon. Kara's blue yellow-eyed face emerged out of nothing behind Leda's, surrounded by turbulent wisps like curly hair, and whispered, "See? It was just a cup. I knew he still loves you". In two rapid movements I got rid of my briefs and sat onto the master bed, never letting Leda out of my embrace (easy, since she was weightless). Kara materialized behind me, her breasts right on the sides of my head, floating and caressing my hair. "Danny, we know you wanted everything to be slow, and better, and more proper... but she really needs this. She really got sad with herself yesterday. Give the girl a load of self-esteem". I looked at her with a silent question in my eyes. "You made us spend two nights with the best man we ever knew hiding behind a wall form us". As Kara dissolved, I fell onto my back, my eyes wide open. Leda tried to get me into her without using her hands; after one and a half attempts, she just phased through my penis until I was at the right spot, and materialized back. Shuddering and gasping, she grabbed her small breast, and its nipple spurted a blob that was floating in a hypnotizing way. "Daniel, (gasp) I am so ashamed. I am the one who should have (gasp) paid you for bringing me here on weekends. You always were so (gasp) sweet. And you are now. I (gasp) I don't deserve you."

I was not entirely paying attention anymore. The taste of her milk short-circuited my brain, and the only thing I could think of at that very second was to sit back upright, capture the floating droplet in my mouth, and proceed to her nipple.

I kept sucking, and she kept moving. I was about to cum, and so was she. We were both moaning, and Leda started calling my name, and then a long and melodic "mmmmmm.... Danny, I love you, I love you so much". She was glowing like the moon itself, only slightly transparent but still weightless. I barely managed to swallow her milk before she filled my mouth with more. She growled and moaned through her teeth, desperately wanting to cum, which, as I caught from her rapidly rising firmness, she did not yet. The milk tasted like heaven, and the nipple felt like velvet. Leda moaned, and moved her hips, slowly, savouring the moment. "That's our Danny", Kara said, first materializing behind Leda, licking her ear, and massaging the milk out of her breast, and then melting and reforming behind me, kissing my neck and whispering something lovely that I did not entirely get. A quick glance towards the window reminded me of approaching sunrise; I let go of Leda's nipple, fell on my back again, and moved my hips with speed, ferocity, and constant eye contact, determined to selfishly not miss this orgasm for myself as well. Grabbing by the shoulders, I pulled her towards me, pressing my lips against hers, kissing her passionately. I could feel her breasts pouring onto my chest and poking me pleasantly. I kept moving inside of her. I could feel my orgasm approaching, and Leda's breasts started shaking. Kara floated near the bed and massaged Leda's pussy and my balls, occasionally kissing our hips.