Shannon Kostyal

Your Ghost or Mine Shannon Kostyal

For a year, Violet's life has been blissfully calm. In fact, life has actually been pretty great; A year of a fully effective restraining order against her abusive ex, and as a bonus, she just closed on her very own house. Nothing fancy, nothing big-but safe, and it came at a pretty great price. Her work is a little odd - but it had been for a few years. No one worked at Pompeii's Periodical, the resident new age bookstore/cafè, without expecting at least a little uniqueness in the environment. Violet didn't actually believe in any of the things her store marketed to, or that the customers believed in, but she liked her coworkers, most of the customers were pretty cool, and she admired any environment that encouraged free thinking. One size didn't fit all in clothing, so why would it on something so profound as philosophical and spiritual world views? Sounded great. Heck, it even sounded like the happy ending wrap up to a story. The year came and went, and the restraining order expired. Her ex showed up again, and if that wasn't bad enough, it turned out Violet's bargain price house wasn't quite what she'd bargained for. One teeny tiny extra feature came with the purchase. Her very own theatrically dramatic ghost. One stalking ex, one attention-starved dead actor, and one budding romance later, Violet's kissed her peaceful, calm existence goodbye, and all she has to show for it is a deep uncertainty about all the things she thought she knew. Juggling these strange changes would be a lot less difficult if the resident ghost didn't keep screwing with her tea stash.