Chelster was haunted by many ghosts, most of them figurative but some of them are real.

Ambrose's brother, Leander, was obsessed with the history of Chelster. He would spend his free time investigating the secrets of the town, discovering the reasons which caused each factory to be abandoned. While Ambrose spent his childhood burying dead animals, his brother liked to investigate, among other nefarious activities.

"You met any cute girls at law school?" Leander asks, sitting on the couch. Leander's arm is elbow-deep into a bag of cheese puffs.

Ambrose does not care for the living, "no."

"No cute girls at uni, none at law school, it's ridiculous," Leander points out, rolling his eyes. "What's even the point?"

Ambrose doesn't bother dignifying his brother's line of questioning. He turns his nose up, smelling the casserole in the oven. It's beginning to burn. Overhead, the fire alarm beeps and smoke begins to billow into the living room. His mother rushes down the stairs and into the kitchen. The boys can hear the sound of a tea towel flapping in the air, as their mother tries to blow the smoky air away from the fire alarm.

"Want to go for a ride?" Leander asks. "Let's pick up a pizza or something."

"Dinner will be fine!" their mother calls from the other room.

Ambrose shrugs and stands up, "sure."

Tossing aside the bag of cheese puffs, Leander gets up. He leads the way to the door. It is cold outside; it is a Canadian winter.

~~~

Barry hated funerals, so he didn't go to Lydia's. He also hadn't sung she died, hadn't listened to any music. Those moments might bring her back to life, and while Barry wished things were as easy as resurrection, he knew that Lydia was quite literally six feet under the ground.

Barry sits down by her tombstone. Not directly in front of it, because they know it is disrespectful to walk on graves, but at a distance. The snow has melted, leaving a brown slush on top of her grave. They stare at it and pull out a flask, sipping.

"You know, your album was not as good as your opera," Barry says, to no one in particular. He kicks takes a chunk of slush and throws it at her tombstone, "that stupid fucking album. I hate it. I hate it!"

The graveyard in Chelster is as old as the town, so old for Canada but young in general. Still, that means there are hundreds of graves. Thankfully, no other visitors are around to listen to Barry scream.

"And you know what else?" they collapse onto their back, so that they are lying on top of her body, staring up at the sky. "Your album, and all your music, was the most beautiful thing that I had ever heard."

~~~

The competition is easy enough, and Audrey has made it to the second round, out of four. She waits, slowly calculating, as her opponent makes the next move. He takes his time, slowly but surely. He is old, lines wrinkling his face. She needs the cash prize though. International tuition to Yale university isn't cheap.

Audrey is lucky a competition popped up in their hometown of Chelster. It gives them a break from work for a chance to win a few thousand dollars. It'll make a dent in their student loans, but not a big one.

The man taps the timer, and now it is Audrey's turn.

She analyzes the board, looking at each of the moves. She has lost a knight, two rooks, and several pawns. The man has sacrificed more pieces though. She's in a good position to move on to the third round, and then finally win the pot. Her mind whirls in her head.

"You know, you're quite good," the man says.

"I know," Audrey says, still scanning the board. They move a pawn and click the timer.

The only man grins, "unfortunately for you, my dear, I am much better."

~~~

"We've got a call," Clare's partner says as she steps into the car.

"Oh?" she passes him a coffee.

"Drive-by shooting on the edge of town," their partner continues, taking the coffee and bringing it to his lips. "At least, that's what dispatch says."

Clare purses her lips, "any bodies?"

"Don't know," he answers. The two of them put their drinks in cupholders and begin to drive to the edge of town. It is decently warm out, and so they keep the car's AC blasting as they drive through Chelster. Eventually, they reach the town line.

They drive to the outskirts of Chelster. The pair spot a body on the ground. Blood pools beneath it, soaking into the dirt road.

"What do you reckon?" Clare's partner asks.

"I wonder why he was walking here," Clare points out. There is a gas station up the road, but not much else for kilometres. "Where did he come from? Where was he going?"

"Maybe he got dropped off here," the other guy suggests. "It was probably a targeted hit."

The car pulls to the side of the road, and both of them exit. Clare moves forward to examine the body while their partner calls for a coroner and back-up.

~~~

Lydia knows better than most how to handle stress. Working as the prima donna is a demanding job, one that required all of her focus and energy. Going home to Chelster for the weekend to visit her parents is a significant change in scenery, and she can't help but wonder if her understudy was doing a good enough job.

She continues to stretch out her neck, repeatedly, running her fingers over the muscles to prevent them from tensing. She has a headache, so she grabs a bottle of water from the fridge.

"You guys should move out of here," she says to her father, who is sitting at the kitchen table. She turns to face him, swallowing the cold liquid. "We have the money."

"Lydia," her father begins, his voice is always stern. He says her name like it's stuck to his tongue, and it tastes horrid.

"We have the money," Lydia repeats. Recently, she has received even more money.

"It's not about the money," her father insists.

Lydia rolls her eyes. Everything is about prestige to her father, and she doesn't think of her father as particularly prestigious, "Chelster is awful."

"You are so disobedient," he says. "You and your silly album."

~~~

Leo exits the car at the warehouse. They shut the door quietly, half a kilometre away, in case the serial killer they are hunting is listening in.

"Are you ready, Sang-Wook?" his partner asks, patting Leo on the back.

Leo was ready. He'd joined the RCMP quite recently, but was still an ace in the local unit. They had to travel to Chelster, with the local police's permission, to catch the guy they'd been tailing for weeks. Leo and his partner have travelled across different provinces, cooperated with a variety of different police officers, and they are about to nail the bastard.

"You go in the back, I'll go in the front," Leo says, his voice quieter than his partner's. He doesn't want to be heard. This will be his first big bust, not that it matters. Leo wants to stop this guy from killing any more children.

They both head up to the building. There are a few businesses around the warehouse, and there is back-up coming, but back-up is always so far away. Canada is vast and expansive. Leo will never get used to the emptiness of the country. Even in a town the size of Chelster, which is decently large for its rural location, feels the opposite of claustrophobic. Terrifying in its openness.

~~~

Diners feel like home to Kaia. They all smell the same, most of their staff look similar. It's a truck stop, closer to the highway, and so the majority of people inside are older white men. Kaia enjoys eating dinner at this hour, especially when the food is greasy and the fries are soggy from vinegar, to give them some sort of flavour.

Her girlfriend, Rory, smiles, "remember when you took me out on our first date to that crummy diner in Vancouver?"

"It was not that bad," Kaia rolls her eyes, a smile on her face. "I quite liked the chips."

"I'll never get over the fact that you call fries chips," Rory laughs. She puts down money on the table and the pair get up, leaving a generous tip, and wander into the parking lot.

It's nice, to finally have privacy with Rory. It's a luxury that is rarely afforded to her, especially in Chelster. Kaia has lived in a few places, and Chelster is near the bottom. Still, as the sun sets, Kaia wraps her arms around Rory's waist. In the golden light, Rory seems to glow.

Kaia cannot help herself. She has to lean in and kiss Rory. Thankfully, Rory kisses back. Wrapped tightly, they stand in the growing cold.

~~~

There is only one bar in Chelster, and every sub-par band in town and the surrounding boonies tries to become the next big thing there. Eva loves it though. She thrashes her head in the crowd, screeching the lyrics to a chorus she had only just heard for the first time. Her friends are around her, bouncing on their feet as well. Eva has never felt so alive.

Her new friend, Lawson, brings her over to the bar. He's handsome, from a farm just outside of town, and he looks it, with his baseball cap on even in a bar and red flannel. He orders her a round of drinks, a vodka cran, and she downs it in a second.

"You're supposed to sip it, not slam it down your throat," he laughs.

She winks at him, already pretty inebriated, "yeah, yeah."

"If you're in for something harder..." he begins.

Lawson pulls her deeper into the crowd, away from the wandering eyes of the bartenders and security. He pulls a tablet out of his pocket. In the light of the bar, it looks almost purple.

"Give it a go," he says to her.

She nods and brings the pill up to her lips.

~~~

Este is waiting on the porch of the house she and Jayce share. He is late coming home from work, again, and she is sure she knows what it means. She pestered him about it this morning before work, and he had left in a huff. No doubt, he is with her now.

She chose to wear a nice outfit too, mostly to show him what he could have. A red scarf covers her neck, in a matching shade to her red lipstick.

Finally, Jayce pulls into the driveway. She hopes he doesn't see her. Since it's getting dark already and the porch light isn't on, he might not.

Jayce gets out of the car with flowers. He jogs towards the house, and smiles when he spots her, "oh perfect, you look lovely."

"Where were you?" she demands, her voice colder than the air.

He flinches, but recovers with a smile, "I was getting you flowers. Roses, your favourite."

She doesn't relent.

"Come on, get in the car," he tells her. "There's a dinner at your favourite place guaranteed if you do."

She stands up on the porch, straightening her spine. With rigidity, she walks to the car and Jayce opens the door for her. She sits down in her seat, and he shuts the door gently.

Este isn't stupid. She knows if she melts right away, he will just go back to sleeping with his newest conquest. Some blonde girl, a few years younger than her. They have been younger since they first got together. She'll let him grovel if it means she wins in the end.

~~~

Christmas dinner is spread out over the table, and Nico is starving. They are squeezing Kye's leg under the table. Their boyfriend always has a way of easing them. Nico likes his family, almost as much as they like their own parents and siblings.

They stayed out of the kitchen for the most part, even though they offered to help. Kye insisted that Nico spend time with his father and brother, rather than with his mother in the kitchen. Nico didn't mind too much, but now they are unhappy they didn't even get to steal a cracker from the cupboard.

The turkey is served and everyone begins to load up their plate.

"So, when are you both heading back?" Kye's Dad asks.

Nico loads some broccoli on their plate, turning to Kye for an answer.

"Three more days," Kye says. "Aren't you driving us to the airport?"

"That's like a six-hour round trip," Kye's brother snorts. "You should just live in Chelster permanently."

Kye scoffs, "yeah, like they'd enjoy my drag act here."

"You could revolutionize the market," Nico says, with a laugh and a wink.

Kye moves his leg under the table so it is resting against Nico's. The pair play footsies, hoping the others stay oblivious to their touch, but not really caring if they see either.

~~~

Ajay was nervous. Normally over reading week, he stays at his university and studies, rather than drive the twenty hours it takes to get home. This time, he couldn't bear it, because he was waiting for the results from his MCAT. He doesn't want his parents to worry, but this test will determine which medical schools he is able to get into, and how much of a scholarship they will offer, and his future is on the line.

He and his younger sister, who is also home on reading week, spend the time that they have together helping their parents garden and playing card games. Eventually, Ajay decides to take a walk.

He walks out the front door and down the streets of Chelster. Since his family has little in terms of finances, they live closer to downtown than most residents. Downtown is three long one-way streets. There isn't much to Chelster; most of the shops are boarded up. The quiet of the town brings him peace. Chelster even has a fairly tiny hospital, but there would be no work for an anesthesiologist there.

As he walks, Ajay prays that his MCATs will come back satisfactory. He needs to be enough, but nothing is ever quite enough.

~~~

Over the summer, Fallon and Corrin had agreed to live in Chelster. Living in Chelster is much cheaper than the bigger city that they usually call home. They don't mind coming home for the summer though, since most of their friends still live in the small town.

Fallon was desperately waiting for Corrin to get home. After all, Fallon had bought a ring recently, saved up with all the money she made working at the diner over the summer. She was sure Corrin would come home with paint stuck to her forehead, from the paint night she was running at work, but Corrin could change before they went out to the restaurant for dinner.

Fallon practices her speech carefully, walking around the apartment in heels that are slightly too big for her and a soft dress.

"The best years of my life have been with you," Fallon recites the lines she's practiced, but they all feel cliché. "I feel like you are the metronome that my heart beats in rhythm with. I want to build the rest of my life with you."

Then, there is a knock at the door.

~~~~~

Well, I have a few notes! This was fun, but like I said, important things for you all to note!

ONE: This takes place in Canada (I decided once I started writing it that Canada felt best). If you mentioned an American city in your application, that is going to change! To explain it the best way possible, the big cities in Canada are mostly Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto. If you're from NYC, pick one! Other cities, you can assign based on your knowledge of Canadian geography (if that is very limited, ask me and I can help locate your character). Sorry for the inconvenience, I just feel Canadian climate and culture will do a better job in this story (also, I hate how American centric everything is all the time, so it was a rough debate between Canada and England, but ultimately, England doesn't have enough snow).

TWO: Although I am quite familiar with she/they and he/they pronouns, I've got no clue how to write them. Orally, it's pretty easy. I'm thinking about switching between paragraphs, so that it is less confusing, rather than between sentences or during sentences, but let me know if I should switch between chapters, or something else to that effect.