I am a dead man who walked into a dead hotel on a dead-end road.

The hotel was old and made of ancient bones, some human, some animal and some alien-looking shapes I would never have recognised if it was not for my extra-terrestrial adventures. There was piped music playing as soon as I walked through the big swing door, a tune I recognized, Talking Heads, ‘Heaven.’

Sweet, I thought, nice ambient touch, soft candlelight flickered to give the air of a séance. Lush plush velvets and burning incense. The woman at the front desk was a dead ringer for a woman I once knew, she was older with grey hair and looked sadder than a country and western song. I offered her a gold coin and she beckoned me to sit down for a reading.

The hanged man.

Death.

And the lovers.

She looked into my eyes and whispered, ‘I only ever seen eyes that black in one man and he’s long dead.’

Her gaze penetrated but she couldn’t see past the wounded history she was recalling.

‘What do the cards say?’

‘You are a ghost.’

‘Am I?’

‘You come to haunt me?’

‘Is that why I am here?’

‘I don’t know, yet. I got a feeling you and I have unfinished business.’

‘Am I a memory or a disembodied spirit?’

She looks at me shocked, ‘It can’t be you, you are dead.’

‘So you say but then you know ghosts very well right?’

‘I spend my youth playing with them. Then I forgot all about them until I met…you.’

I pick up the lovers card, it’s from a much worn and frayed deviant moon pack.

‘These look familiar. Had them long.’

‘Yeah, a long long time.’

‘I remember when you got them.’

‘It is you.’

She steps down and towards me, a hand reaches out for my cheek but passes right through me.

She starts to cry.

‘Why did you return, have you come to haunt me?’

‘No. I came to liberate you.’

She smiles briefly and for the first time an affectionate look crosses her face.

‘You already did that.’

‘And now I return once more to complete unfinished business.’

‘What does that mean Mission.’

I reach out to touch her cheek and she looks in disbelief as my fingers pass through her.

She is shaking, ‘What does this mean, I can’t touch you and you can’t touch me.’

‘You always were and always will be my equal. Now I have come to take you home.’