Prologue: 2016

It had been a week since Elizabeth had died. The other ghosts of the house had made an effort to introduce themselves, but Elizabeth just found herself wallowing alone in the room she was given.

Pat had gotten the furthest with a conversation. He was mindful of her sorrows, and listened to everything she had to say.

"I suppose it just happened so suddenly. No one really prepares you for the fact there's life after death."

"Yes, that's how I felt when I died. The thought of leaving Carol, my wife, and my children too. Well, it was all a bit much"

Elizabeth and Pat had come to understand each other, both knowing what it was like to have such a sudden an unexpected death. But for the most part, she stayed in her room. Just thinking over that awful event.

Today though, she'd decided. She wanted to get properly acquainted with the people she'd be sharing this house with.

She walked through her door, and made her way to the common room. Pat had told her that today was show and tell, or something like that.

As she entered the room, the chatter ceased. She gave a nervous wave, and put her hands in the pockets of her jacket. "Hello, everyone. I hope I'm not interrupting anything"

"Oh not at all! We were about to get started! But if you'd like, you could introduce yourself!" Pat suggested gesturing to the space in front of everyone.

Elizabeth nodded, stepping into the spot where Pat was a moment ago. "Well, um, I'm Elizabeth Van Vaughan. I'm a, or I suppose I was, a singer from Wales, as you can probably tell from my accent" she smiled.

Everyone smiled back, and for the first time since she'd died, she felt...happy.

"How did you die?" Julian asked, only to receive a slap round the back of the head from Fanny. "How impolite to ask a lady how she died! Honestly"

Elizabeth chuckled slightly, "no it's fine. It was my manager, Derick, he got drunk and-" she stopped. She'd never really repeated it to herself. "H-he got drunk, and strangled me to death" she stated quietly.

She absentmindedly rubbed her neck, where she'd been left with a large purple bruise as a reminder of what happened. She didn't even notice the tears running down her face.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I got lost in thought" she said, wiping the tears away as quickly as she could.

Kitty frowned, standing to meet he. "It's alright to cry. I cried lots when I died, but afterwards, I always felt a bit better" she smiled.

Elizabeth smiled back. "Thank you, it was Kitty, right?"

"Oh yes! Thank you for remembering my name" she giggled.

Robin stood up too, "we all cry when we died. I cry for three moonahs. But after long time, you get used to it. But important thing is, we have each other"

"Wonderfully put Robin" Pat nodded.

"Yes, Elizabeth. You'll get used to it. You either accept the here and now, or wait for all eternity for something that with never come" The Captain stated quite bluntly.

Elizabeth was smiling widely. "Thank you, everyone. It's...hard right now. But I feel in time, I'll get used to it."

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Elizabeth sat on the window sill of her room. She was humming to herself, enjoying her own company.

A quiet "Knock knock" came from the other side of her door.

"Come in?"

It was Thomas, he seemed chipper. He took a seat on the side of Elizabeth's bed. "How are you feeling? Any better or any worse?"

Elizabeth looked towards him, enjoying his company. "I'm feeling better thanks. I'm at least glad I died in a nice outfit" she joked.

Thomas chuckled softly. "Well I suppose that is lucky"

They sat together in silence for a while. Thomas had been waiting for a good opportunity to have a conversation with Elizabeth, and it seemed like he'd finally found it.

"You know" she started, "I never knew that you keep the items you died with." She pulled out her notebook, a small brown leather book that she held tightly in her hands. "I'm glad I died with this. It's my song notebook. All the songs I wrote for my new album are in here. I'm devastated that I'll never be able to release it."

Thomas looked at the book, and then back to Elizabeth. "May I say, your songs are beautiful. I listened to you record, and your voice sent shivers up my spine."

Elizabeth blushed at his kind words. "Heh, thank you. That means a lot to me, you have no idea." She glanced back down to the book.

"I don't suppose that you'd like to read them? Would you? I'm sorry if it's silly, but it might be something fun to do" she offered, handing the book to him.

It was now Thomas's turn to blush. "Yes, I'd love to."

Carefully, he flipped through the book, his eyes lighting up at the beautiful words written on the pages. It reminded him of his poetry and how much pride he took in it, it made his heart flutter.

"These are beautifully written. I can almost hear the music that would fit to the lyrics. You really have a way with words"

"I uhh, thanks. I'm glad you like them" she smiled timidly.

They looked away from each other for a while, both their faces pink.

"You know, I really think that I'm starting to settle in" she said, looking back to Thomas.

"Well, I'm definitely glad to hear that" he smiled back.