Author's Note : Last chapter the sensitivity of Rape was called into question. Be advised that the subject remains a tender issue going forward. In a world where you're the only survivor judgment can be nulled. While the main character is a good soul at heart some readers might think of it as bad choices. Read if you can handle it, if not I'll understand. This is a Last Man on Earth story so if I inevitably end up as the last reader/ writer I guess that's how the world ends. All I ask is for you folks to read the series as a Syfy with fault. Griffin Folklore lives for the day.
_________________________________________________
"Don't touch! Don't touch!"
Dancing about the lobby of the Brooklyn Towers, a 20 story hotel where Griffin Folklore decided to hole up for the night he discovered the side effects of what he referred to as the Rapture. Whether it truly was the end times remained to be seen. For now he was dodging and weaving and trying to be respectful. When you have nude ghosts roaming the halls and some not so beautiful to look at, it became a challenge to avoid staring. Even worse when he found ghosts more appealing.
"Whoa! Supermodel at 3:00!" He used a support pillar to hide behind in order to check out the body of a resident. It was easy enough to tell she had implants which made him wonder if clothing got lost in their vanishing acts why did she have silicone? He noticed a gold tooth on the floorboard of a car during his travels, even dentures, so why something as unnatural as a boob job got passed through? Not that he complained. With his girlfriend Jade now a fond memory he was free to check girls out even if it was only in looking. It wasn't as if he could touch anyone they being ghosts. Right? So tempted!
"Not yet! My luck I'd be sucked right in to the spirit world. Hell, who knows maybe I'm the one on the other side. I'm not even going to try and figure out the logic in all this." With the woman prowling about he realized that she must be the hotel Manager by the way her poise carried her. It was almost as if the inhabitants were moving on with their every day lives, personality and all. Courtesy when nearly running into one another, waves of friendship, sly unheard whistles of men checking women out in passing. You name it!
"This is just soooo bizarre. I think maybe I should just go to my room and wait it out until morning. If they're still here it must mean everyone in the world is like this, right? Streets would be crazy overrun with ghosts...if that's what they are...strange they look more like negatives than what I've always interpreted as ghosts. No chill in the air or anything." He exhales into his hand on impulse to see if a cloud of warm air showed itself. "Nope! So nothing atmospheric." Picking up a tiny vase he looks around for the closest ethereal body. "Quick experiment!"
Gently throwing it via underhand toward a man sitting in a lobby chair reading a paper that was once in his possession, but now lay fanned out on the carpet. The vase passed through him as he acted as if turning pages like a Mime and bounced off the chair fabric and lay there where he sat. The only thing it did was make him lower his paper, look around, shrug, then resume reading what was no longer there. "He felt something by my doing that. Maybe on the other side it was like him being nudged. Weird!"
Relocating the hot Manager he followed her like a stalker for a bit just to amuse himself. It wasn't like he was ever going to get her, she being elsewhere. Fearing physical touch he instead rolled up a magazine from a lobby end table and moved behind the beautiful ghost. Taking the magazine he swatted her on the ass with it. Like the man with the paper she reacted as if something touched her, looked around, directly at him even, but not as if recognizing he was there. Rubbing her butt she shrugged and went on her way.
"She felt the magazine swat her. Interesting!" Fidgeting as to what to do next he decided his pervy act was not right and went up to the woman facing her and waving, "Hi! I'm the guy that just slapped your ass. Just wanted to say sorry, couldn't resist." Her reaction was a warm smile and a wave over him toward someone other than he. Stepping aside he looked back to see a tall male negative of a man waving back. "Boss! I can tell."
Giving up he went to the elevator and pushed the button waiting on it to arrive. "With no one here that can physically push a button besides me I wonder why it went up again? Guess maybe it's set up that way." A shiver expressed it was more the idea that he might not be alone amid all these negatives that spooked him. While he worried he might be the only living breathing human left of whatever happened here, the odds were he couldn't possibly be the sole survivor...could he?
With the elevator arriving the door hissed open. Within it he found two passengers an older man and a girl Griffin's age. Instead of leaving the elevator they stood idle but seemed almost flirty with their eyes. Swallowing, Griffin stepped in but after pushing the highest level button hugged a corner. Watching them as the door shut the naked ghosts turned to one another and she jumped up into his arms kissing him with ferocity. "Nice!" He fidgeted, "Don't make me miss Jade!" He tried to turn away but the guys hands on the girls ass was too alluring. He knew when this situation actually happened they were dressed because their clothing was at their feet on the elevator floor.
Seeing her purse Griffin carefully used his foot to drag it toward him. Once in his possession he sifted through it finding and confiscating a pack of chewing gum then snuck a look at her ID. Being nosey he discovered her name. "Kaycee Lance!" Looking over at them he said aloud, "Hey Kaycee? Bet I have a bigger dick than he does." It wasn't like she heard him.
Their kiss pausing the man lowered her back to the floor and they behaved. Obviously their original destination concluded but did not have time to disembark before the effect must have hit. Sighing as Griffin held the door he turned to the girl, "I'm in the penthouse if you get tired of Romeo there. We should party." With no obvious recognition Griffin released the door and moved on. A housekeeper was the only other ghost prowling the halls. Nothing special to look at as she walked about, leaving her cart behind unable to no longer push it. Watching her closely she simply looked confused that she could not open doors and went from one room to the next before repeating her routine.
"Damn! That would suck!"
Curious he found her master key lanyard on top of her uniform by the cart. Taking the key he unlocked a few doors and propped them open to see if she would go inside. It was as if she still could not enter. "I tried Conchita!" He had noticed her name tag on the floor with her uniform. With the maid unable to enter the rooms he took it upon himself to explore them. All but one were empty. On a last door he spotted the Do Not Disturb sign and chuckled. Unlocking the door he was discouraged by an interior deadbolt. "Well fuck!" Indeed! If he could have gotten in he would have seen a gangbang in progress between a hot girl and four guys. Just his luck!
Keeping her key for future use Griffin went to the penthouse elevator and headed up. Reaching it he stepped in, a sensor light turning on at his crossing a certain threshold. "Cool feature!" From there he grabbed a beer from the fridge and tossed the cap into a waste basket. "One good thing if I moved in here...I'd never have to take the garbage out I could just toss it off the balcony. 20 floors down I'd never have to deal with it piling up too high."
Out on the balcony with the rain stopped he took a hard look about the streets to see ghosts everywhere he looked. "If the effect happened early morning I just don't get why foot traffic is so horrible. Unless people from cars abandoned them and are just lost. Fuck this is going to take awhile to get used to. Mom still hasn't answered me back, I can only assume the worse. God I hate the idea of not having her babying me. No more chicken enchiladas with candles on my birthday."
A moment of depression guiding him he headed inside and turned on the big screen TV, settling into a slouch on the sofa, remote poised for multiple selections. "Ooooo! Streaming services. As long as the power doesn't go out I can at least have plenty to watch for a few years. D +, HBOmix, Amazin' Prime, woohoo!" Excited for all of two minutes he shuts the TV off. "Who am I kidding...I'll be bored in a week. With nobody to talk to, cuddle with, eat dinner alongside, fuck..." Jade on his thoughts made him weep and down his beer quickly as an intervention. "Nightmare Avenue!"
A door buzzer going off made him jump out of his skin. "What the heck? Where did that come from? How for that matter?" Leaving the sofa he went to a tiny monitor keypad next to the door. Pushing a response button led to a camera feed outside the penthouse elevator. Before his eyes he saw the negative ghostlike spirit of the housemaid Conchita. Beside her stood the elevator girl in all of her hotness. Both spirits extended their hands as if wanting him to put something in them.
"What is going on? Are they trying to communicate with me?" The buzzing continued even without either ghost touching the button. Pondering the possibilities Griffin lifted the lanyard around his neck and looked at it. "Do they want their stuff back?" The gum he swiped from the hot blond Legative in his pocket is drawn out and pondered over. "They must be holding on to what they left behind. When something gets taken from them or moved they try and get it back."
