"The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for"
- Bob Marley
~~~~~~~~~~~

"Come on Lola! What are you doing?" The woman's voice calls.

I'm sat at the top of the stairs and she's stood at the bottom, looking up at me.

I pressed her to ask Niall more questions but she said that he got really upset... Then suddenly he was gone.

It scared her, even at her young age she knows that people shouldn't just disappear into thin air.

I calmed her down and spent the next few hours talking to her, playing games. Children have always adored me. I give them my full attention, humans are always to busy to take the time to make the most of the little miracles that children are. They're the most hilarious, irrational, curious creatures on the planet.

Suddenly her mother pulls her gently from behind.

"What are you staring at?" The woman looks right at me.

"The ma-" Lola starts then stops suddenly as I raise my finger to my lips, winking at her.

Her mother sighs impatiently.

"Put your coat on darling, it's past your bedtime already."

"I don't want to go." Lola pouts.

"Come on." Her mother pulls her to the door and I wave, trying to smile as I push down the lump of emotion in my chest.

Lola gives me one last look as the door closes behind her.

She's sad to go, but it's different for her. I don't know the next time someone will talk to me, make me feel alive again, even if just for a short while.

When she wakes up tomorrow morning she'll remember me. But after a full day of childish woes and little dramas, I'll have dulled in her memory by bedtime.

In years to come, as she comes to understand the world she lives in, she'll look back at the hazy memory of tonight and wonder. She might get drunk one night at a party and talk about how she met a ghost when she was a child, but she'll never fully convince herself it wasn't a dream or childish fantasy. As the years pass and her life becomes a series of loves and losses, the memory of me will cease to matter altogether. I'll become nothing but a hazy childlike dream. Forgotten entirely.

She'll never know that for a few brief hours she made lonely, lost soul happy... And although we'll probably never meet again, I'll treasure the memory of her forever.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Lola's been gone a few hours and I'm pacing in the spare bedroom.

Somehow... Impossibly... My best friend was here, right in this room, just hours ago. I know he was, Niall isn't exactly a name that a five year old would pluck out of thin air.

Maybe he's here right now.

For some reason the idea sends a chill up my spine.

I'm confused though. Has Niall been here since he died? But then why haven't any of the other children who've lived here seen him? Why can't I see him? Surely one ghost should be able to see another?

Maybe it's something to do with my powers increasing, maybe I've brought him back? But then, from what Harry's told me, once you've passed to the other side you don't come back.

Harry.

I'm so angry with him.

He must have known that Niall was here. There's no way that he didn't. It's just impossible. There was a time in the 1800s that I spent 32 years alone in this house before some humans moved in. Harry visited once for just an hour during the whole time.

32 bloody years... That's longer than I actually lived for.

And Niall was here all along.

I want Harry to appear now so that I can demand answers but I know he won't. He'll bloody wait until he has something to tell me off about about before he makes an appearance.

I'm pacing back and forth, ranting to Mr T about what I'll say to Harry when I see him. Mr T is watching me uninterestedly, his tail flicking.

Suddenly the bed in the next room creaks and I hear Adele's light footsteps walking across the room and into the hall. She walks down the stairs and I hear the click of the kitchen light. Her and Derrick went to bed, giggling, an hour ago and I'm surprised she's awake.

I appear next to her in the kitchen, just as she's pouring herself a cup of tea. She sits at the table and I cautiously sit next to her, wondering why she's so restless.

She sighs heavily, looking tired as she glances round the room.

"I can't sleep... And I wanted to talk. You seem like as good as person as any... Well, at least you can't tell anyone." She laughs.

I look round, confused, Mr T isn't in the room.

"I mean, I'm just guessing that you're here. I don't know how it works." She continues and I realise with shock that she's addressing me.

Adele wants to talk to me.

"I just... I just feel so lonely sometimes, you know? I guess you feel the same."

More than you could know

I answer cautiously. It feels odd, sitting across from her, as if this is a normal conversation.

"I mean, Derrick's great. I know he is."

I snort.

"But I can't talk to him like this... I just always feel like there's something more to life. Something that I'm missing."

I lean forward. This is how I always felt when I was alive.

"My problem is that I'm scared. I'm scared of life, being alive. When I was a kid..." She trails off and her eyes fill with unexpected tears. She draws up her legs, balancing the heels of her feet on the chair, resting her chin on knees.

"When I was a kid, I grew up in different care homes. No one ever really wanted me. I remember when my best friend, Claire, was adopted. I remember thinking I'd be next... But it just didn't happen."

I feel an ache in my chest, imagining Adele like Lola, but with no one to care about her, to give her the love she so willingly wanted to give.

"Even now, the girls at work hate me. It's like people can sense that there's something unloveable about me." She draws a shaky hand across her cheeks to catch the tears.

It's breaking me, hearing her talk about herself like this. I wish I could hold her in my arms and kiss away her tears. I'd keep her safe.

"That's why I'm lucky to have Derrick. Sometimes he pulls me down, but it's my fault.... I just have to try harder." She mutters.

That's not true Adele. You're perfect as you are

"Sometimes though, I just get stuck thinking about the past. Like tonight, it plays in my mind and I just can't sleep." Her full pink lips pull into a tired smile. "The thing is, it made me kind of reclusive, I shied away from people because I didn't want to be rejected I suppose. If people didn't notice me then they couldn't push me away."

She shakes the glossy curtain of her dark hair until it covers her face. It's a familiar gesture that makes my chest ache even more. She's trying to hide herself.

"When I was 16 I ran away." She continues quietly. "I met this older guy and he took me in, I was so grateful at the time, but the price I had to pay wasn't worth it. He... Well he was awful, but I was trapped. After a year I ran away from him too."

She lifts her head, pushing her hair back. I try to make the room warmer, to comfort her, but I can't. Seeing her upset like this is the middle of the night has caused a dull ache in my chest, it's drained away all of my power.

"But I got a good job. Moved to a nice area, found this flat... But somehow, things leave scars on you, inside. It's like, you try and hold your entire life together with safety pins, but they aren't strong enough and one day you're worried they'll burst at the seams and you won't be able to hold it together anymore."

She's quiet for a long while, sipping at her tea and lost in her memories.

"You know, all I've ever really wanted is for someone to love me. Just for being me. I just want someone to say, 'You're perfect just as you are Adele and I love you just like that.'
I'm just sick of being alone. 'No man is an island', that's what they say. No one wants to be alone, even when they cut themselves off." Her voice becomes quieter. "I've got no one. So I guess I'm lucky I've found Derrick."

I love you Adele, just for being you.

She stands up and rinses her cup.

"I must seem mad, talking to myself..." She laughs then thinks for a moment.

"I know I saw you that time... I can feel you sometimes too. Derrick says I'm mad, even Perrie and Zayn think I'm crazy. But I know, I'm certain. I think you're lonely too, maybe we would have been friends." She smiles at the thought. "I wish I knew your name."

It's Louis. My name is Louis.

"I wonder why you're here, did you live here? I guess I should be scared of you, but I'm not. I think maybe you're just lonely. You don't fit in... Just like me." She smiles softly, pulling at the t- shirt she's wearing. The bed creaks heavily from upstairs and we both glance up.

"Adele? Where the hell are you?" Derricks tired, impatient voice demands.

She sighs and walks to the door, wiping her cheeks of the last of her tears and she turns off the light before turning back to the room.

"Goodnight." She whispers as Derricks whining voice gets louder.

Goodnight Adele.

I don't move. I stay sat on the chair, listening as she climbs the stairs.

I don't think about Niall, Harry or Lola.

Instead my mind wanders to a little girl called Adele, alone in the world with no one to love her. A little girl who would grow into the woman that has become my entire universe.

A girl who would never know how loveable she truly is.

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AN- Hope you liked this, I've got the next chapter almost ready :)

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