Linger

Chapter 4: Pink Champagne

"You're quiet."

"You're drunk."

Marlow couldn't deny that. After finishing three dozen pink champagne cupcakes covered in glittery edible sprinkles, she polished off the bottle of bubbly as a way to celebrate the last four hours of baking hell. But one drink and turned to another, and soon she had cracked open another bottle of spirits to keep her buzz going.

"I'm proud of you, you know."

"Because I'm drunk? Your standards are horrible, Hannah."

"Because this is the first wedding-

"Wedding-adjacent."

"Wedding-adjacent event you've taken on since the accident."

Marlow took another swig from the bottle. "There's money in, well, you know."

"Weddings?"

Marlow shook her head and regretted the motion immediately. "Bachelorette parties. Celebration. Living…life."

"You could do that too. Live life, Marlow."

The baker banged her head against the cabinet, the pain radiating through her skull a momentary reprieve. How could she live life when she had taken a life?

"It should be you here doing all of this."

"It isn't-"

"Don't say it!"

"But I have to because it's true. It isn't your fault I'm dead. It isn't your fault that I'm a spirit haunting your kitchen."

Marlow felt her vision turn cloudy. "Then why are you here, Hannah?"

"I don't know." A cold presence settled on her shoulder, the chill a comfort as thoughts kept swimming in her head. "All I know for sure is that you have to live for the both of us, Mar."

Word Count: 241 / 967
Prompt Four: "Fourth prompt"   - Sprite, Spirits, or Spirit.
For "14 Days, 7 Prompts, 1 Story Contest"