Jody pulled up to a stop by the house of her girlfriend Kara. She threw open the car door and headed for the porch at a run.

"This is insane, this is something from the Twilight Zone, I know it is. This is absolutely in--" she stopped at the door and looked through the small window to see her blonde girlfriend kissing a beautiful woman with long dark hair.

The kiss was obviously a passionate one, and Jody gritted her teeth in anger. It wasn't the kiss, however, that made her hand pause on the door knob. Instead, it was the fact that she had no problem seeing Kara in the mirror -- but the woman with her was not reflected at all.

Insane or not, she knew for certain that Kara had been telling her the truth. Crystal, her rival for Kara's affections, was a ghost.

Or something worse.

That thought made her shove her all fear aside, and she twisted the handle and pushed open the door.

The two women broke apart at Jody's entrance, Kara looking up in shock and surprise.

"Jody? What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? What is she doing here?" Jody pointed at Crystal. "And why were you kissing her?"

"I--" Kara stopped and swallowed.

Crystal put an arm around her. "She's mine, Jody, haven't you gotten that by now?" A smile played along the red lips. "She chose me, and you're not getting rid of me."

Jody clenched her fists together. "You're not even real, Crystal. You're just a ghost, and you can't do anything, to either of us."

"Oh, but I can." Crystal's smile was pure evil. "I can do many things." She turned Kara toward her and kissed her again. The blonde woman moaned, thrashing slightly, and trembling.

It took Jody a moment to realize that her girlfriend was in the middle of an orgasm.

An orgasm from one kiss.

How the hell do I fight that? she thought.

Crystal released Kara, letting her slide into the easy chair next to the sofa. "Now. You were saying something?" The ghost was smiling again.

Kara looked slightly dazed, and she shook her head to clear it. "Oh, gods."

Panic fueled Jody's rush to her side. "Kara? Baby?" She stroked the blonde hair. "Are you all right?"

"Huh? Oh." Kara nodded absently. "I'm um, good. Fine. Um." She licked her lips. "Wow."

Jody looked up to find Crystal lying on the couch, one arm along the back while she calmly examined the nails on her hand.

The ghost looked absolutely at home, and Jody knew exactly what she had to do. Anger and fear warred in her, but she finally pulled herself together and stood.

"You don't belong here, Crystal."

Crystal frowned, looking annoyed. "Are you still here? Go away, Jody, before I decide to do something really nasty." She wiggled a finger and a candlestick flew off the mantle, crashing into the wall after zooming past Jody's head.

Jody clenched her teeth, but held her ground. "No. You go away, you bitch. You don't belong here, you're just a ghost, and you can't have Kara. She's mine."

The ghost laughed, her dark hair thrown back, her red lips standing out against her pale skin. "And what are you going to do? Fight me?"

Her rival crossed her arms. "Yes."

That seemed to take Crystal by surprise. She stopped laughing and looked at the woman standing next to Kara. "You're serious."

Jody nodded. "I'm serious." She brushed a hand through her red hair. "I have no idea what I can do against you, but I'm not going to let you just seduce my girlfriend away from me and take her to -- where ever it is you ghosts take people."

"We don't take people," Crystal said simply. "We take their souls."

The red head's eyes opened wide, and she glanced at Kara -- shocked to find the blonde merely watching the ghost, a smile on her face.

"Kara, did you hear her?" Kara nodded. "Do you understand what that means? It means she's going to kill you."

"Um. Yeah." Another nod. "I think she is."

"Don't you care about that?"

Kara shrugged. "No. Should I?" Her eyes glittered, and Jody wondered if it was the after effects of the orgasm or if the ghost was using drugs on her victim.

"Yes, you should."

"Why? No one else does. My family's dead, or not speaking to me because I'm gay, and you know I've never had a lot of friends. So -- no, it doesn't bother me when a tall beautiful woman tells me she wants to take me away from all this." Kara waved a hand around the room. "This is all I have. This house, my job. That's it."

Jody dropped to her knees again next to her girlfriend. "But it's not all, baby. You have me. I'm here."

"You?" For a moment there was a flicker in Kara's eyes.

"You?" Crystal repeated the word with a snort of laughter. "You don't even love her."

"I do too!"

"Do not."

"Do too!" Jody glared at the dark haired ghost and turned back to her lover. "Kara, baby, please. I need you. Don't leave me."

The flicker was there, and Kara reached out a hand to touch Jody's cheek -- and then it was gone, and the hand fell to the blonde's lap.

Crystal laughed again. "Come, Kara." She stood. "It's time to go."

"Wait!" Jody's arm prevented Kara from standing. "Damn you, just wait!"

"For what? So she can hear again how much you need her and how much you like her?" Crystal sneered. "Oh, that's right, you were going to fight me for her." She raised her hands. "Well, go ahead. Do something. Won't matter. All I need to do is kiss her once more, and she's mine forever."

Jody kept a hand on Kara's arm, but she stood up slowly to face the ghost. "You want me to do something?"

"Yeah." Crystal folded her arms again and waited. "Go ahead."

Nodding, Jody looked down at Kara and smiled. "Hang on, baby. Don't move, okay?" Releasing her hold on her girlfriend, she felt in the pocket of her jacket, pulling out the sheet of paper she'd stuffed there while in the library. Kara just watched her, the slight smile never wavering.

Crystal didn't move, just continued to smirk at Jody while the red head pulled out a small white candle and lit it. "Great. White magic? This should be fun."

Pulling out another tiny sheet of paper, Jody took a deep breath and gathered herself. Holding the smaller piece of paper, which contained only Kara's name, she passed it over the flame of the candle once, twice, and then a third time. Then she turned toward Kara and began reading from her notes.

"By Athena's silvery light, protect this one now in my sight.
Nasty critters, heed these words, fly far away, fly like a bird.
Hear me well; I now command,
you leave this place, this sacred land.
Away I say, I order you!
And may Athena's might bring peace to you."

After saying the last words, Jody put the paper with the Kara's name on it into the flame and let it burn. When there was only a tiny corner left to singe her fingers, she through it up in the air and blew at it, scattering the few ashes onto Kara.

She looked up to see Crystal with a horrified look on her face. The ghost was paler now, less solid, and even as Jody watched, she began to fade more.

Kara looked up from her chair. "Jody?" The dazed look was gone from her eyes, and she stood up carefully. "Jody? What just happened?"

"Shh, it's all right, love." Jody slid an arm around Kara. "It's all right."

Crystal looked furious, but she was fading fast. "No! Damn you, Jody!" She flung her arm at the red head, but nothing happened. "Damn you!" The brunette snarled once more, then smiled nastily. "Fine. You may have banished me, but I won't go alone!" Lunging forward, Crystal stabbed a hand at Kara, and Jody cried out as she tried to turn both of them.

In horror, she saw Crystal's fingers enter her love's chest, right above her heart. Then the ghost faded completely, and Kara fainted in her arms.

"Kara!" Jody was shocked, unable to comprehend what had just happened. "Kara, no!" She held two fingers to the blonde's pale throat and groaned. "Noo." A hand to Kara's mouth and nose got the same result, and set Jody into motion.

"Kara! Come back!" Turning the woman on her back, Jody began to pump rhythmically on her chest, stopping every five beats to blow into Kara's mouth. All the while, she was calling out to Kara, begging her not to let Crystal win. "Kara, fight her, baby, please. I love you, don't leave me!"

She thought she felt a slight tremor as she checked for a pulse, and she kept going with even more determination. "Kara, I love you, baby, come back to me!"

And then Kara was coughing and wheezing, struggling to pull in a breath. Jody hauled the shaking body up into a sitting position, holding tight to the trembling body. "That's it, baby, breathe. Come on, love." She started rocking Kara, letting the tears run down her face. "I love you, baby. Thank you. Oh, gods, thank you."

Kara coughed a few more times and smiled, relaxing in her lover's arms.

They stayed like that for a long while, until Jody realized the darkness had set in for the evening, and she was stiffening from sitting on the floor. Carefully, she roused Kara and helped her to move to the couch, where they sat together, arms around each other.

"Kara, I'm sorry, I should never have let her touch you."

"It's okay, baby, you tried your best." Kara sighed. "How did you know what to do?"

"I've known CPR for years; I have to know it to be a life guard you--"

"No, I mean the spell. Where did you find that?"

"Oh." Jody shifted a little, pulling Kara closer to her. "I found it in a book in the library. I never thought I'd actually have to use it."

"I'm glad you did." Kara smiled at her. "You were wonderful, baby. You fought for me, and you brought me back. Only --" she stiffened a little. "Did you mean it?"

"Mean what?"

"That -- that you love me. Or was that just to try and bring me back?"

Jody sat for a moment. She realized she'd never before said the words to Kara before. She'd always said Kara was her lover, or her partner, or her girlfriend, but that was to everyone else. She'd never, before that day, told Kara that she loved her.

She always assumed she knew, but maybe that wasn't the case.

"Yes. I love you, Kara." She kissed the woman's soft cheek and stroked blonde hair. "I love you very much."

"I love you, too, Jody."

They were quiet for several minutes before Kara blinked sleepily at her lover. "Come to bed with me?"

"What about dinner/"

"We can always eat later. Right now . . . " She smiled at Jody. "I want to hear you call my name again."

Jody smiled and nodded, letting Kara lead her into the bedroom.

***

Kara rolled over and rubbed a hand over the arm that was holding her. She smiled again, remembering Jody's voice as she said she loved her, proclaiming it over and over as the two of them made love.

It was real, and she knew it beyond a shadow of doubt.

Speaking of shadows . . .

A glow from the hall way made her smile even wider as she realized she had another guest. Making sure Jody was completely asleep, she leaned over and kissed the woman, smoothing the red hair before leaving the bed and padding silently to the living room on bare feet.

"Well? Was it really good, hot, heavy, mind-blowing sex?"

Kara chuckled and took the glass that Crystal held out to her. "As a matter of fact, it was." She sipped the brandy. "Mm. Nice."

"As good as my kiss?"

Grinning, Kara nodded, remembering the faked orgasm that she and Crystal had planned out and executed. "Even better."

Taking a seat on the couch next to the ghost, she let her mind wander back to the previous Halloween, when she had been bored and surfing the internet. Having found a website called hauntedhouse.com, she'd played along with what seemed to her a nice practical joke -- downloading a ghost to haunt her house. She'd expected nothing, but had found -- Crystal.

Crystal had become friend, occasional lover, and confidante, staying with her constantly for the first month, then leaving, only to show up at various times usually when Kara needed her for something.

When Kara had fallen for Jody, Crystal couldn't have been happier for her. But when the relationship seemed to snag, with Jody's inability to say the 'L' word, Crystal had searched for an answer to Kara's despondence, coming up with a plan to force Jody to face her fear of the word, as well as her undeniable feelings for the blonde.

"I'm glad you came back. I was worried that spell might have actually done something."

The ghost laughed. "Right. Sorry, don't think so. You invited me in, and only you could banish me, Kara."

"And I would never do that, Crystal." She smiled at her ghostly friend. "Hey, how did you do that thing, with the stopping the heart and everything? Jody thought you took my soul or something. I made up this story about how you were pulling me to go with you, but her fighting kept me from leaving."

The ghost looked smug. "I did take your soul -- kind of. I just yanked you from your body for a minute, watched as she struggled to revive you, then stuck you back in at the right time."

"And the right time was?"

Crystal smiled. "After she admitted she loved you, of course."

"Of course." They grinned at each other.

"Crystal? Does that mean if she hadn't said it --"

"No." Crystal shook her head forcefully. "Absolutely not, Kara. I wasn't going to let you die."

Sipping slowly from the glass, Kara sighed. "Thank you. I didn't think so, but thank you." She bit her lip. "Does this mean you'll be leaving for good?"

"Um. No. Sorry."

"No?"

Crystal shook her head. "No. You chose me, you get to keep me." She winked. "I'm yours for life."

Kara was both relieved and worried. "But --"

"No, don't worry. I'll be careful not to make a nuisance. And Jody won't find out about me until you're ready to tell her."

"What if I'm never ready?"

"Then she'll never know." Kara nodded, and Crystal brushed her hand across the soft cheek. "But, no, Kara, I won't be popping in every night. You don't need me for that anymore. I'll check on you every now and then, and you know you can always call me if you need me."

"Yeah. What was the website again? Ghosts-R-Your-Friends-dot-com, wasn't it?"

Crystal nodded. "Just go there, enter my name, and I'll be here before you know it."

"Ain't computers wonderful?"

The two of them grinned and clinked their glasses together.
 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!