Chapter Text
February 14th, 2026
As early as it was, the streets were still pretty busy on the morning of Valentine’s Day. Many couples walked down the sidewalk hand in hand in search of something to do together, while many other people desperately scrambled around town to find a last minute gift before their partner woke up.
Oliver never liked waking up early, on days with no plans he usually stood up late and just slept until he had to get ready to work. Today, however, he wanted to be able to get some flowers from the flower shop in town, and it was likely going to be completely empty if he got there any later.
As he opened the door to the building and the smell of multiple different plants overwhelmed him, the bells on the top jingled and alerted the lady working at the counter. She had the head of a potted plant, a small bush of roses sprouting out of the dirt inside.
“Goodmorning, sir! Happy Valentine's Day!” She beamed, clasping her hands together and keeping them by the side of her head.
"It's a good thing you came here early! Boy, does it get crazy this time of year!”
Oliver nodded in response. “Hey, well, early bird gets the worm! Or in this case, flowers. Like a hummingbird!” He spoke as he searched for a specific bouquet of roses, eventually finding it and crouching down to pick out one batch out of the bin full of the same bouquet.
“Sooo, who’s the lucky fella? Must be real special to have you waking up this early!” She continued speaking, with way too much energy for someone up this early, which Oliver luckily didn’t mind. The question was an awkward one to answer, however.
“Oh nah, it’s not like that, just uh..” He picked himself up, standing up straight and looking at the flowers in his hand.
“..A friend that I haven’t seen in a while, so I wanna get him flowers!” He responded, not telling a lie, yet not exactly telling the full truth either as he received a hum in response from the other.
Walking closer towards the counter and only half listening to the small rant she went on about how platonic relationships aren’t appreciated enough, Oliver was mostly focusing on the twenty dollar bill he was pulling out of his wallet and handing over.
He quickly greeted her farewell, and opened the door outside, immediately replacing the floral smell with the smog of Dialtown.
The streets seemed much busier than before once Oliver walked out, even though he was only inside for a maximum of what, five minutes? He ignored it, instead making his way to his awkwardly parked car, unlocking it, and starting it up before driving away.
Oliver’s grip on the rose bouquet tightened, thorns prickling his skin and letting a small amount of blood pool.
Come three days would be the second anniversary of Randy’s death, or his death day as Oliver liked to call it, much to Karen’s protests. He stared at the gravestone in front of him, Randy’s gravestone, which had “beggars can’t be choosers” quoted under his name.
They didn’t bother putting a birth and a death date, just his name – not even his full name – and a shoddy quote. As unfortunately fitting as it was, it still angered Oliver just looking at it. It didn't feel right, it wasn't right, especially not with how he died. The day was one that Oliver could remember vividly and would for the rest of his life.
The police tape around the alley, the amount of blood there was, the bandaid that laid in the limp grasp of his body’s hand. The bandaid that he ripped off himself, not by some freak accident, but intentionally torn off by him.
His fist clenched after he tried to shake the thought away, grip on the stems of the roses tightening even more. Only then did he finally notice the multiple thorns stabbing his hand.
Oliver quickly dropped the bouquet defensively, immediately scrambling to pick it back up with his other hand when he realized he dropped it.
With his bleeding hand, he bent over and carefully picked the wilting flowers that previously sat in the vase, placing in the newly bought ones to replace him. He stood back up, wiping his bloodied hand using his pants on the side of his leg to clean it.
“Happy valentine’s day, dude.” He said after a moment, gently patting the new roses into place inside the vase.
Oliver looked to the side after he spoke, silence growing as the only sound being heard was the low howling of the wind and rustling leaves in the trees.
He moved to sit down, knees up so he could cross his arms on top of them and then rest his head on his arms.
“If you were still here, bro, I’d definitely would’ve asked you out today. Maybe I’d convince you to get us into the funfair, as much as you hated it there.”
“I mean hey, the ferris wheel would make a groovy date!” He lifted his head up and held the bottom of it with one of his hands, words full of hope as if the date could somehow happen.
“Man, you really chose the worst time to die. Right when we were actually starting to hang out more again, dude!” Oliver spoke with a tone that he intended to sound jokey or humorous, but his voice began to squeak and he could feel the lump in his throat build up towards the end of his sentence.
He groaned and pushed himself off of the ground before could start crying, taking his phone out of his pocket and checking the time that read 7:45 am. His shift started at eight.
Hurriedly picking up the wilting bouquet of roses, he turned around and made his way back towards his car, which was parked worse than he did at the flower shop.
He was never that good at parking – or driving in general – and mostly walked or took the subway around town. With him only recently getting his license, driving around town was pretty new to him.
While driving was more conventional than his other options, he enjoyed the latter more and avoided using his car as much as he could.
He did need to be at work in less than twenty minutes, though, so there wasn't really an exception he could make.
With the amount of time that he spent trying to actually park his car neatly, Oliver barely made it to work on time.
He exited the car a minute before eight AM struck and rushed towards the entrance of the rubbled building with the wilted roses still in his hand, practically ramming the door open with his body weight.
Hunched over to catch his breath, he didn't look up before speaking and only hoped Mr. Dickens was at least in the room close enough to hear him as he began to apologize.
“Sorry I’m almost late, Mr. Dickens. I was getting flowers for R- ..aaandy.”
Oliver looked up, and there he was. Randy.
“Holy shit.”
It was a hard sight to take in. The top of Randy’s head was covered in bloodied, sloppily placed bandages with something.. new, written on it. There seemed to be blood dripping down his screen, as well as his clothes and right hand being stained with red.
He thought for sure he was going crazy before he remembered he was working at a haunted horror attraction with, you know, actual ghosts in it.
Somehow, Oliver never even considered the possibility of Randy becoming one, yet there he was. Going crazy was still an option though, so he wasn't too sure.
“Heeeyyyyy, Oliver… This is- This is, uh, as awkward for me as it is for you..”
Randy spoke, the same whimpy voice that Oliver hadn't heard for years and missed oh so bad. It wasn't awkward as he described it to be, it was anything but awkward. Confusing, overwhelming, everything, he felt every other emotion there was.
“There's no fucking way. You’re- I-.. Randy..” He spoke quietly at the end, endearly saying Randy’s name when he walked closer to him.
“Oliver, I’m not-”
Oliver brought his hand up to the side of Randy’s head in an attempt to caress it, yet his hand only phased right though. It sent a strange chill across his arm, hairs spiking up and goosebumps rising as a shudder escaped both him and Randy.
“Siiick..” He muttered, moving his hand around and watching it through the translucence of Randy’s figure. “Dude, you’re a ghost.” Oliver spoke with awe in his voice, talking as if Randy somehow didn’t know.
“Yeah! In the flesh..? Can- can I still call it that?” He questioned, turning his head down to look at his hand that he’d slowly rotate around. “I’m still figuring this out, I uh, I- I kinda just showed up.”
Oliver tried to say something, yet everything that came out was a shaky mess of nonsense, the lump in his throat blocking everything out.
Randy slightly backed away, but not far. Just enough to where he could still keep Oliver’s ‘touch’ on him, if that's what you could call it. “Oh, man, if you cry, I’m gonna start crying, too..”
“I just really missed you.” Oliver finally managed to speak through tears, moving his hands to awkwardly place them fading through the top of Randy’s shoulders. “There was so much I wanted to say to you before you died, and I spen-” He cut himself off with a realization.
“..Shit. You didn’t hear any of the stuff I said at your grave, did you? Phone-god, I said so many embarrassing things there for like- two years!” He asked, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck with one of his hands after his spiel.
“Two years? Wow..” Randy finally said after a long silence that definitely freaked out Oliver, then shaking his head to actually answer the question. “But no, I- I didn’t. I ripped off the bandaid and it’s just- kind of blank after that.”
“Huh.” Oliver commented after a sigh of relief. “So it’s just a blank screen when you die? Damn, dude.”
Randy quickly waved his hands to deflect the statement. “No, no, It’s not that! I did go somewhere, I just don’t rem- remember it that well. I think God was there?”
“Like, the hobo one?”
“Yeah-.. I remember he said something about giving me a new bandages since my head looked pretty ‘fucked up’, and.. that’s about it. The rest is comp- completely blank for me..”
“Oh, that explains it.” Oliver said, placing his hands on his hips and lightly turning his head to the side. Randy panicked at the response.
“Wha- WHAT DOES IT SAY, OLIVER?!”
“Nothing BAD! It literally just says.. dead. I thought I was seeing things at first, but it makes more sense now.” He answered quickly to try and not have Randy stress out, but he still let out a loud and upset groan.
“This is- ..we should tell the others, bro!” Oliver tried to switch the topic, reaching for the buttons on his head and getting ready to call Karen.
“About the bandaid?! Oh wait, you probably mean- sorry..” He fidgeted with his hands awkwardly as Oliver stared at him.
“It’s fine, dude.” Oliver said, pressing the last number he needed to on his head and listening to his head ring. “It’s ringing!”
A click was heard, indicating that Karen had picked up.
“Hello? Oh, Oliver!”
“Karen! You’re in town, right? Is Gingi with you, and if so can ya get it on?”
> “HEY, OLIVER!”
“Uh, yeah..? And yes, it is. This is.. sudden. What’s up?”
“I’m about to tell you! Make sure Gingi can hear, okay? This is really groovy!” Oliver suppressed a giggle, doing a silent shushing noise to Randy like they were kids making a prank call, even though he wasn't making any noise.
“You’re on speaker, so I’d hope it can.”
> “Loud and clear, Oliveman!”
Nodding in response, even though they couldn’t see him, Oliver continued. “Okay, okay! Guess who just showed up as a ghost in my scareshack!”
> “Your parents?” Gingi was almost cut off by what sounded like a light smack from Karen. “Ow! SORRY..”
“Haha, real funny, but no. Randy is here.”
…
> “BUAH-HUHH?”
“What..? Oliver, this is really getti-”
“Dude, I’m serious! Just like- come over and take a look!”
There was a series of whispers between Karen and Gingi, ones that Oliver couldn’t really comprehend from the other line. Karen sighed, a long sigh, before eventually replying.
“Okay, fine, I’ll bite. I guess we aren’t really doing anything right now, anyways.” Karen spoke, sounding disappointed about having to move from what she was doing.
“Gnarly! I’ll see you guys right here, then!” Oliver exclaimed, hanging up and cutting off Karen without realizing.
Turning towards Randy, he shot his hands up with thumbs ups. “So, you ready, bro?”
Randy responded with a shrug. “Sure am..! I mean, what else is there for me to do? I can't really leave this building..” Randy muttered, slouching his posture dejectedly and moving to sit on the floor against the wall nearby, Oliver following him.
“Eeesh, yeah. The whole ‘kind of haunted building’ thing. Sorry, bro.” Oliver empathized, pretending to pat Randy’s back endearingly even though his hand just went through.
“Haha, yeah, only kind of haunted.” An awkward chuckle escaped Randy as he turned to look at Oliver, laughing with Randy while looking right at him.
“Hey, can I, uh- Can I ask you something?” Randy finally spoke after the two had been staring for a few seconds.
“Course, dude! Shoot me.” He shot a finger gun up at Randy.
“Right, uhh.. Earlier you mentioned wanting to say some things to me before I di- i died.” Randy said, and Oliver seemed a bit more worried with his body language in response.
“..Yeah! What about it?” He responded, trying to seem oblivious even though he knew what was coming up.
“What were they? I-I mean, I’m here now, so you can tell me.. Only if you want to though, I don't wann-”
Oliver shook his head. “Nah, it's all good!” He turned away, facing what was in front of him instead.
“You remember how we started hanging out more, like right before you died?” Oliver didn't intend for his words to be harsh, but Randy recoiled at them and apologetically nodded.
“We finally got to know each other better, and it was the grooviest thing ever. We had all those deep conversations, you told me everything about your family, your injury, how much you wanted to reach out but couldn't. All of that made me realize so many things and- I realized I liked-
I loved you dude! And hell, I still do! Now it’s- it's too late. I wish I could've told you sooner, just done anything sooner and have been able to stop y-”
“Stop!” Randy cut off Oliver, placing his hand on his lap and letting it hover through it.
Oliver stared at Randy's hand for a bit, turning to face him after a few seconds.
“Don't- Don't say that shit, it's not your fault! ..I- I really love you too, Oliver. I always did, and- it's not too late! I’m still here. Kinda.”
Oliver just stared at him dumbfounded for a while, and Randy could only hope it wasn't in a bad way.
“Ghost boyfriends are cool, right? It'd be like.. Twilight, or something!” He continued speaking in an attempt to break the silence, earning a laugh from the other.
“Dude-” Oliver spoke whilst in a giggly fit. “Twilight is about the werewolf and vampire hunks. How'd you- How’d you get a ghost from that?”
Randy just awkwardly laughed with him, unsure of how to respond.
“But, yeah. A ghost boyfriend is pretty gnarly.” He reassured, a sheepish giggle coming out of Randy when he did.
“You're gnarly! …That- that sucked.” Randy shot a finger gun at Oliver, immediately bringing his hand down when he realized what he did.
“Pft- Cute..” Oliver tilted his head slightly, making it look like he was leaning his head on Randy’s shoulder. It was the thought that counted. “Dude, I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they see you! ..Actually, on second thought, it probab-”
Oliver cut himself off when he heard the sound of a car pulling in close to the building. He turned to Randy. “Oh, shoot, that must be them!” He quickly stood up, Randy following and doing the same.
“Geez, already..?”
“SHhh! Okayokayokay, when they walk in, stand behind me. I have a really funny idea..!”