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clothing back.
    Molly was amazed to find herself wearing jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers. She looked down in surprise, and the men gave rueful smiles.
    She opened her mouth to speak, and they held their fingers to their lips as one. Without speaking, they pointed out the door and to the last doorway in the hall.
    Wearing comfortably normal clothing, she headed for the doorway, and here was the wind and sunlight. She had gone from inside to outside in a heartbeat. The door behind her remained open.
    “You can speak now. Nothing will happen.” The man she had first met was standing next to her.
    “Where are we?”
    He pointed to the gathering a few yards away. “We are at your funeral. We have not had a woman die within our walls before. We made every effort to keep your soul with us while your body died. I hope that we made your passing painless.”
    She stared at him. “I am dead?”
    “You began to die the moment that the bullet passed through you, and we caught your soul before it could leave the house. While they were treating you and trying to keep you alive, we had to keep your soul busy. One word would have put you back in your body and we would have lost our chance.”
    Molly stared at him. “Your chance?”
    “To have a female companion here at the house. We have died decades apart and all have differing desires in the bedroom. You seem to have an open mind and a willingness to experiment.”
    She shivered at the thought of further experimentation. “You let me die just to have a fuck buddy?”
    He shook his dark head. “You were dying anyway. We just diverted you on the way to your final resting place.”
    Molly remembered something that Darryl had said. “Won’t the house be sold?”
    “No. It remains in a trust to an ancient group of paranormal investigators. They come and speak with us now and then. In exchange for our cooperation, they put the house up for sale now and then to bring in some contemporaries so that we can keep abreast of the living world.”
    “Why don’t the investigators tell you what you need?”
    “They are too fixated on the past.” He shrugged. “So, we have them bring the modern world to us.”
    “Those are my parents. So... she shot me?”
    “Yes. She struck near your heart, and we pulled you out. It is disconcerting to see one’s dying body.” He took her hand. “If it makes you feel better, she is being charged for your murder. Her companion as well. He liked to taunt her into jealous fits. You were just the means to the end.”
    Molly looked at him. “You have seen them before.”
    “Three times in the same week. He would lure a woman with him, his woman would attack and they would have sex while the newcomer ran for safety. Yours was the first time that she brought a pistol.”
    “Who are you?”
    “I am Gerald. I am the most recent addition to the house. Well, aside from you. You are the newest haunt to our home.”
    She blushed and looked down at their hands. “What was with all the sex?”
    He laughed, and she looked up at him. He was grinning. “We are men, though we no longer walk the world. Having a woman at our disposal after so many years was an opportunity we did not want to miss.”
    She covered her eyes with her free hand and groaned. She should have felt something for the mourners who wailed that she was gone too soon, for her parents who watched her casket being lowered into the soil. There was no place in her for grief. She had moved beyond her body, and there was so much more to do.
    Molly looked down at her casual attire and changed it to something a little more feminine with the classic draping of ancient Greece.
    He pulled her up against him and smiled. “How did you know? The classics are my favourite.”
    Her hair pulled up into a loose arrangement, and she pulled his head down for a kiss.
    He escorted her back into the house via the open doorway, and as it closed behind her; he disappeared in a flash.
     
    Molly clutched her chest as agony