"You can see them too?" Candace said, with a slight gasp.

Gary blinked. That was a new one. Much more common were excuses like "But they're only staying for a few days!" -- even though Gary didn't bother enforcing a lease's occupancy rules unless his tenant had already had guests staying for more than two weeks.

"You haven't exactly been subtle about it Cand--" he began, but the short blonde woman brought him up short by grabbing his hand.

"Come inside!" she said, excitedly, tugging his arm. He frowned, but allowed himself to be led forward. He'd seen so many of her guests coming and going that he was getting worried about the condition of her unit, and now was as good a time as any to see what the damage was.

The apartment actually didn't too bad, all things considered. That didn't change the fact that she was violating her lease by having all these guests. One of which, he noticed, was standing at the kitchen counter, chopping something with a knife. The woman looked a lot like Candace -- a sister, he guessed.

"Candace, you know the policy on people staying here if they're not on the lease--" he began, but she cut him off again, shaking her head vigorously.

"Gary, I don't have any guests!" she said, excitedly, sounding almost manic. She jerked a thumb at the other woman. "She does!"

He pinched the bridge of his nose, and sighed. Was she...on something? "Look, your name is on the lease -- that means that legally you're the only one allowed to stay here, and you're responsible for keeping it that way!"

"Tell her to go, then." Candace said, with a shrug.

He scowled. Now she was just being childish. Nonetheless, he turned to address her sister. "Ma'am, I don't know what Candace has told you, but she can't have people staying here long term. You and whoever else you brought with you need to go."

The woman just kept chopping.

Candace smirked. "Not so easy, huh? Here, let me try to get her attention for you."

Candace walked behind the counter and over to the stove, where she picked up a frying pan. Before Gary could stop her, she swung it at the other woman's head.

He started to shout at her to stop, but his cry died on his lips as the pan passed right through Candace's sister, then did so several more times as Candace fanned it through the air where the woman stood.

"W-what the..." he stammered, eyes bulging as Candace thoroughly demonstrated the immateriality of her houseguest.

She tested the pan on her shoulder. "See?"

Gary's shuddered, staring at the apparition, "H-how is that...how are you doing that?"

She laughed, incredulously . "I'm not doing anything! Uo until five minutes ago, I thought I was going insane."

"So...so ghosts are real." he said, with an air of resignation. He already had enough on his plate without adding ghosts into it. Oddly, he found himself wondering if this was a maintenance issue as per Candace lease -- did he have to hire ghostbusters, or was it her responsibility?

"I thought that too, at first. But nah, I don't think so." she mused, setting down the pan, and gesturing to the incorporeal woman. "For one thing, I don't have any sisters, dead or otherwise, and my mom and grandma are both alive."

"Maybe...maybe like your great grandmother, or something? Somebody that, you know, died young?" he offered, uneasily.

"Hm...maybe, but in a pair of jeans and a tank top, though?" she pointed out. "That's not how women dressed, way back when. I don't understand how, but I think she looks like me because she is me, like some kind of...I dunno, other me."

Gary hesitantly stepped closer, eyeing the apparition cautiously. Now that he was close, he could see she was chopping at nothing.

"So this...other Candace, she can't see or hear us?"

"Nope. None of them can, as far as I can tell." she said.

They both jumped as the woman suddenly looked up at them, and Candace let out a startled squeak. But the woman seemed to be looking past them. She set down the knife, and the utensil vanished, as she walked around the counter towards the door.

"Crap," Candace breathed, letting out a sigh, as they watched her walk past, and open the door. But behind the door was another door, which remained close, and the door she opened vanished as she removed her hand from the knob. "Always scares the bejeezus outta me when they do that."

"Why are there two doors?" Gary groaned. This was getting worse by the minute.

"One for us, one for them, maybe?" Candace said. "I think we can only see ghost-stuff when there's a ghost touching it."

"I thought you said they weren't ghosts?" Gary pointed.

"I meant not like dead-people ghosts." she said, uncertainly. "But they're people who you can see but aren't really there, so it still fits, more or less."

Gary watched the Other-Candace mutely talking to the closed door, and frowned, curiously.

"Who's she talking to?"

"Another ghost, I'd assume. We can't see them because the door -- the real door -- is in the way, I guess." Candace replied.

Cautiously, Gary stepped forward, and reaching past Other-Candace, he opened the apartment door.

Gary froze, his eyes widening as he saw the apparition she was speaking to. A tired-looking woman with auburn hair, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, was talking animatedly to Other-Candace, though he of course couldn't hear what she was saying.

Candace frowned. "Huh. I haven't seen her before. Not one of other-me"s guests. I wonder who she is?"

"That's...that's my wife." Gary replied, hoarsely. "She died last year."