"Um... well it's hard to explain." Sarah stammered not daring to look him in the eye.
"Then, explain the best you can I am losing my patience with you." He said dangerously calm. It was almost harrowing.
"Well I am dead but alive, so..." For the first time she looked up at him to meet intelligent dark blue eyes on an exquisitely chiselled face. He had full lips that fit his face like the last piece of a puzzle.
"So what?" He asked arching a dark brow that matched his jet-black hair. His voice was luxuriously smooth and enticingly masculine.
She gulped as if trying to take in his outstanding physical perfection. "Now I am your Christmas Spirit to help...you...er." Intentionally leaving out a vital part of the story.
"And how do you plan to help me um..."
"Huh...yes it's Sarah, Sarah Carter."
"Ok, but first, how am I supposed to believe you?" Not giving his name.
"Well, I can move through objects like this..." She stands and walks through the sofa she had been sleeping on "...if I want, but for as for people they can't see or touch me even if I want to." It reminded her that she could not even go back home without completing the mission.
"Um."
"That's how I was able to not be seen by your security, see..." She tried to walk through him only to slam into his wall-like torso. She rubbed her head. "Ow, sorry." She unconsciously tried to dust off his suit. He felt the way he looked, athletically lean and muscular.
His large hand clasps her wrist. "I guess you don't even know what you are doing." He scoffed in a low voice.
She pulled herself free, noticing how his tan skin is almost a stark contrast to her beige one "Well, that proves I am here to for you since you are the only one that can see and touch me." The last part left an uneasy feeling in her gut.
"So, how are supposed to help me then?" He was now leaning on his desk, his long legs crossed. He was watching her with dark probing eyes.
"I am supposed to collect three things from..."
"You are a spirit that pilfers?" His accent was mocking.
"No, it's not what you think, I am supposed to collect your laugher, blood and tears." She mumbled stupidly.
"How will that help me, Sarah?" Her name rolled out alluringly out of his mouth.
She felt electricity surge up her spine. "It has something to do with your family and a stranger."
He laughed. He laughed loudly, it was so sudden she was visibly shaken.
"Family? I don't have one."
He doesn't have a family, no wonder she said I needed luck, Sarah thought defeated.
"They are dead to me."
"They are dead to you? So you do have a family?"
"They are simply unwanted blood relatives."
His statement left an unpleasant taste in her mouth. His laughter did not reach his eyes. His voice was suddenly laced with bitter sarcasm. To Sarah her family was everything. She wanted to know what made him think this way. Hating family never came naturally there was always a story to be told just like Jonah had one.
"What happened?" There was a tone of concern in her voice. He held in his misery and told not one soul of what he had gone through. They were all backstabbers in the end. Looking at the plain-looking stranger in front of him, he wanted to believe she cared. Unfortunately in the past family and friends had betrayed him, so what good was a stranger.
"You don't even know me, why do you bother?"
"I believe it doesn't matter."
"I will just be straight with you if whatever will help me has anything to do with them, don't waste your time."
He almost sounded like acknowledged he needed help.
"But..." There is a knock on the door.
"Come in."
"The representative is here, sir."
"Bring him in."
"Yes, sir." The door is closed again and soon opened again and in walks in a stubby man with grey hair clinging on to his otherwise bald head.
"Mr Williams, it's a pleasure." Stretching out a hand.
Taking his hand. "The pleasure is all mine, Mr Alonzo please sit so we can go through the terms."
They both took their seats and started to discuss.
Sarah fully accessed her situation. She was given a chance to help this man named, she glanced at his desk where his name was carved in a table nameplate. It read 'Reese Williams(CEO)'. She was to help Reese Williams by collecting the items. Now that she understood, now that she knew what he felt about his family. The purpose of the items made absolute sense. Why the hell had she not realized sooner. She couldn't blame herself too much really. Everything happened so quickly
Volunteering in an orphanage had brought Sarah in terms of childhood trauma. Children as young as eight would have an uncaring and frigid approach to life. 'They are dead to me' she heard that statement before. It had already been three years yet the memories remained evergreen.