The aging butler placed twin goblets down, then left with a bow.

Melissa took one with a shaking hand. Her brother’s apparition took the other; they tapped glasses.

She downed the cup in one gulp.

The ghost twisted into flesh, wine splattering his skin.

Her cup clanked to the floor.

Katlina Sommerberg lives in San Francisco, where the summer nights are colder than the winter days of her childhood. She is a cog in the machine for Big Tech, where she writes software and loves to hate her company’s perks. Her work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in AntipodeanSF, 365tomorrows, and 101 Words.