Happy Halloween little pumpkins!! Please enjoy this very AU drabble I wrote in which Leslie and Ben are both spooky ghosts.
Ben never really understood why they served food at these events.
No one could eat it, really it was just kind of pathetic. It was just a waste. And it made Ben miss being able to taste food. What he’d give to be able to have another bite of a calzone and be able to taste the delicacy of the seasoned meat.
He was at the Annual Pawnee Ghost Ball. A party that took place just two days before Halloween. All ghosts were usually busy that day, so it made sense to get together a few days before.
It wasn’t really Ben’s scene. He’d much rather stay at his place in the Pawnee Super Suites that he haunted. Despite doing it every day for the past four years, it was better than this. People would talk about how they died, there was always a lot of fuss when the ghost of Lil Sebastian turned up, and then someone would always think it was funny and put on the Ghostbusters theme.
Still, Ben came. It was good to see some people again. He got to see Ray, the guy who ran the old sandwich shop that was close by his work.
But, this time, someone caught his eye. A lonely woman was standing in the corner, looking around her surroundings.
She must be new, a recent death. Ben didn’t see her last year. He’d remember her for sure.
He walked over to her, grabbing a glass of champagne on his way. He couldn’t drink it, no one here could, but it just gave his hands something to do.
“You new?” Ben asked as he approached the woman. She turned around, a glass of champagne in her own hands.
“Yeah. First time at this,” she sighed. A strand of hair moving as she sighed. Ben was sure it would have been blonde, despite her hair now the ghostly grey that adorned everyone here. That was the ghost fashion. Grey and see-through.
Ben looked down at the glass, wishing he could drink some to pass this awkward silence. “Do you know anyone here?” he finally asked.
“Well, I’m Ben,” he said, giving her an awkward wave with his free hand. “There, you know someone now.”
The woman giggled. “I’m Leslie.”
She bit her lip. Ben was sure they’d be a rosy red too. “How…I mean, I don’t know if this is something that people talk about here but-”
“How did I die?” Ben finished for her. “It’s ok. I don’t mind talking about it, some people get sensitive about it though, I don’t.”
He set the glass down and stuffed his hands in his pockets instead. “It’s so stupid. I was trying to get some documents signed and was in a hurry, I was running across town to get them done in time, and I called over my shoulder to tell my notary, Terry, to hurry up when…” he trailed off and chuckled. “A piano fell on me.”
Leslie snorted. “A piano fell on you?”
Ben nodded. “Yep. It was being craned up into a new concert hall that was being built and…fell. It’s really something that only happens in movies, but I guess I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
It was laughable now. It had been four years since he died, and really, it was just fitting for someone like him to have such a lame ending. Of course it had to be in some weird, notary hell, incident.
Leslie also sat her glass down. “Mine’s stupid too. I wasn’t looking where I was going. I was chasing down a councilman to ask him why he cut our department budget and I fell into an uncovered manhole.”
Ben winced. “Ouch. That sucks.”
“I didn’t feel anything,” Leslie quickly said. “It was ok. All I remember is just watching a load of people gathering around and screaming that someone fell in. Then I realised that person was me.”
Ben slowly nodded. He remembered looking around, wondering what poor son of a bitch just got crushed by that piano. Only to see the documents he was previously holding clamped in the hand of the crushed body.
That was when he realised it was the poor son of a bitch.
He had been in denial, and snatched the documents from his mangled hand and tried to deliver them to City Hall.
Everyone ignored him. Of course they did. He was a ghost after all.
“And where are you now?” Ben asked.
Every ghost was assigned a certain area to haunt. Ben was assigned room 304 in the Pawnee Super Suites. He had fun turning the TV on in the middle of the night and watching the room’s guest scream in fear. He had to haunt, some ghosts didn’t like to haunt and would stay dormant, but he’d go insane if he didn’t.
“The fourth floor of City Hall,” Leslie answered. Ben smirked. The fourth floor was always haunted, with lights flickering and it always feeling like someone was following you if you were alone.”
“It was previously held by a ghost called Henry, but he got promoted to graveyard haunter, so I got his old position. It’s nice being back on home turf,” Leslie said. “I used to be the deputy director of the Parks Department, y’know, before.”
Ben raised an eyebrow. Before he died he was the City Manager of Pawnee. She must’ve been hired just after his death. He didn’t remember her, that was for sure.
Considering she died chasing a councilman, he knew he’d definitely remember her.
The room was suddenly filled with the sounds of Ray Parker Jr, closely followed by a loud cheer. Ben groaned.
“Every year,” he mumbled, and Leslie cackled. It was a laugh that made her nose scrunch up. Ben suddenly had the urge to wrap his arm around her.
If only he could touch her… his arm would just go right through her.
It hurt knowing that. For the first time in four years he felt something, an emotion he couldn’t quite remember. A pang in his chest at the thought of not being able to ever hold this woman in his arms, or kiss her.
He shook his head, ridding himself of those thoughts. He was a spooky ghost. He haunted people. Ghosts aren’t supposed to develop feelings.
“I used to work in City Hall,” Ben said. “I’m very familiar with Henry’s work, you’ve got some big, scary boots to fill.”
Leslie grinned. “I’m sure I’ll do a good job. I have big plans.”
Ben smiled back. “I’m glad.”
He swallowed. “Hey, do you want to get out of here? We could go to Nipple Hill and scare some teenagers?”
Leslie nodded. “That sounds – hold up. IS THAT LIL SEBASTIAN?”
Ben turned around to see that, sure enough, the miniature horse had turned up. Leslie bolted towards him, squealing in excitement.
It just made him want to pull her into his arms and cuddle her even more. But, he’d just have to cope with her being his scaring partner.