You don't remember when you first acquired the power to see spirits.

After all differentiating the dead from the living could be rather difficult considering that the ones you saw at such a young age died rather peacefully to your recollection.

Or that was the case, until the age of around ten or so.

The memory of that night was vivid, and it seemed to be stained into your brain, it's not something that you could imagine that you would ever forget.

You had spent the night at a friend's house, which was pretty rare considering that you mostly always stayed at home on your own free time when you were younger at that age.

You were so overjoyed and ecstatic, and so was your friend as you spent most of that night playing video games and at around midnight tried to watch the adult stuff that he had bragged about having access to on his T.V.

It wasn't until the next morning, that he had invited you to come into his basement to look at his dad's motorbike that was stored down there, that made the night so unforgettable and morbid.

At first, you didn't really know what it was, it seemed to be a jumble of hair, mixed with red clothes and gray clay. It was right by the motorbike that your friend was about to show off.

You didn't really think much of it, not even asking your friend about it at first since it was probably your eyes just playing tricks on you, it was pretty dim after all.

It was wasn't until you got closer.

The facial features, the blood, the bent limbs and the wriggling maggots that were feasting around its mouth and what was left of its nose.

You don't remember all that much after that.

Your dad told you that you had to be sent home since you wouldn't stop screaming or crying, when he reminisced the story to you he found it amusing.

Knowing what you do know, you didn't find it funny.

You didn't really fear it all that much either though.

You present day

There seemed to be a difference in the dead you saw.

Some were alive and could communicate with you, while others were just corpses that you would see as if the crime or accident had just happened, sometimes the corpses would seem very decayed too, just like the one at your friend's house.

At first, it was just it was just corpses that you were able to see, which really fucked you up when you saw them every now and then at different locations whenever you left you left your house. The first times you screamed, as far you can remember or have been told by your parents, but soon it seems you just got used to it as no one else were able to see what you kept on seeing. It didn't scare you as it did the first times after encountering new corpses, but then again it wasn't a sight that you looked forward to seeing either.

You could best describe it as getting sick, or getting injured. It sucks when it happens, but you can't really do all that much about it, and the only way around it is to limit yourself in the locations that you went. That's how you ended up becoming a shut-in, locked away in your room on your computer for whenever you came home from school or had free time on the weekends.

That's to say you weren't an emo loner or someone who had terrible serious issues that needed therapy, or at least you hoped so.

The screaming parts were just seen as a phase to your parents. Like sex or bad words, seeing dead people was something that you never really felt comfortable talking about with them.

In fact, at first, you thought everyone could see it, and they were just fucking with you when they said that they had no idea what you were talking about when you pointed at the corpses. It took months before you knew that it was just your own personal disease.

A disease that you knew would probably never get cured.

Waking up from bed, in a tired daze, you looked at your phone to see that it was Friday, and you had woken up an hour early before school. This was pretty unusual, since most of the time you would stay up till one or two a.m. and would usually miss the morning bus.

That had to mean you only got like four or five hours of sleep.

"Shit."

Taking the time that you had, you got yourself showered and dressed and went downstairs to make yourself some breakfast before you would walk to your bus stop.

Your school was close enough that walking could be an option.

Although usually, you run into a few car crash victims along the sidewalk, most of the time their heavily disfigured or heavily weeping.

You don't know exactly why you didn't notice them when you were younger, though you chalked it up to the assumption that you were always playing on your Gameboy on car rides or something.

There have been a few instances in which you've spoken to the dead, although most of the time they never ended well.

It seems that they're trapped into a sort of box, each box differentiating in size to reasons unknown to you. If they're lucky they have someone to talk to if the place they died has another ghost, or they died in pairs. When there's a lone ghost, however, most of the time they look miserable or heavily distressed.

You learned never to make eye contact, as that was a sure fire way that they knew that you could see them. There was one time that one on a road you traveled on was screaming at you, and that had caused other ghosts in the area to also look over at you as he screamed that you could see him.

You don't ever go on that road now on the way home, in fact, you stay try your best to stay away from that part of the city.

Though there a bit of you that was ashamed for being afraid of ghosts. If this was something you were going to live with for the rest of your life then you had to start facing it head on, or at least that's what you wanted to think.

You take the bus

After internally debating with yourself on what you would do, you finally told yourself that you would do this some other day, not wanting this day to be ruined over a bad interaction.

With that, you grabbed your book bag and said goodbye to your mom who was in the kitchen.

You were honestly genuinely surprised that you hadn't seen any ghosts on your way or at the bus stop. Usually, there had to be at least one every block or so, though this was probably the reason why you preferred this so much instead of walking.

Besides you, there was only one other student who got on at this stop, though he usually kept to himself in the corner of the wall as he huddled down to his knees and checked his phone until the bus was to come. You thought about saying something a while back when you first started riding the bus but thought against it for reason.

As the two of you waited in silence as the sun slowly rises in the distance changing the dark blue sky into a lighter hue by each passing second, the bus soon finally arrives as the two board the school bus.

Your stop was one of the first ones on the route, so you had the first choice in seats. With only three other people on, and none of them being someone you knew, you sat alone in the midsection.

You disliked sitting next to windows, for obvious reasons. The less you saw of the corpses the better.

Today you felt worse than the past couple, probably was something that you had eaten or something. Resting your head against the back of the seat in front of you, you kept your hand against your stomach as you tried to remain calm. Fuck you should have asked your mom to stay home today, you already knew you were to vomit soon enough.

Strangely you didn't notice time pass as you kept to your thoughts, and before you knew it the bus was crowded with most of the stops now being completed. The noise was rampant as you felt like you were getting to your breaking point, fuck this would be so embarrassing.

You were lucky that no one was sitting next to you today, because of this you turned your back to the aisle as you rested your head against the window.

Arriving at school, you were one of the last ones to get out, luckily the bus driver was just playing a game on his phone so he didn't all that much mind that you took your time getting off.

Immediately your first thought was to head to the nurse's office, but with how far it was from the bus lanes, you knew you wouldn't make it.

With your alternative being much, much closer, you decide to head there instead to get some solitude to do the disgusting deed.

Your knees trembled as you planted them to the ground while lifting up the toilet seat. Something felt extremely weird, the feeling of your upcoming vomit fest was accompanied by a strong heartburn. You don't remember eating anything spicy that would have caused something like this but whatever was coming out, would most likely burn your throat.

"Hnph, Hmpfhh!"

A steady stream of brown water exits your mouth as it all enters the toilet in one big gush. It didn't seem like this would be ending anytime soon, as more continued to be projectile streamed from your mouth.

As this was happening though, the heartburn got worse, and your eyesight was starting to become a blur in which you couldn't even see the dirty water of the toilet clearly anymore.

With the last of the vomit exiting your body, you fell back onto the tile floor and went into immediate darkness.

You dreams

You dream a lot when you sleep.

In fact, you could probably remember all of them from the past week, in almost exact detail.

Almost all of them involved ghosts, and almost all of them had unhappy endings.

You couldn't really classify them as nightmares though, just sad stories.

This dream wasn't like the last ones. The giant marble pillar that you sat on in a dark purple empty void was a brand new experience. This, this seemed and felt like a nightmare. Your surroundings felt so vast and unknown and because you had extreme anxiety and awareness for what could or was about to come.

The voice that came a few minutes after, raised every single hair on the back of your neck and arms while your fingers clamped up.

"Your quota needs to be met. You need to pass one five." These words were repeated twice in the same speed and vocal. You felt as if someone was watching you but as you looked around there was no one to be found. The voice sounded so alluring and calm, but also one that would be able to cause great things, and with that, it also intimated you greatly.

"Diligence will reward you. Diligence is the key to pass them on." These words were repeated as well, and once they were done both were said compounded.

"Good luck."

You could hear the sound of the final late bell for class as your eyes opened to the ceiling of the bathroom. Groggily sitting yourself up and wiping the drying vomit from your mouth with your shoulder sleeve, you get yourself to your feet as you grab your bag and flush the toilet.

You didn't know what the words of your dream meant, and if you should actually take it seriously at all.

What mattered right now though is that you just fucking fainted after throwing up.

You were feeling better but there was still an aching burning sensation in your chest that was starting to worry you.

You head to class

This was probably some sort of morning sickness or something, it would probably end up passing during third or fourth period. Besides it's not like you walked or did anything active during class anyway so worst comes to worse you can just lay your head down and wait for it all to be over.

Exiting out of the bathroom, you shuffle down the empty hallways as you navigate to your homeroom. Mr.Finks was pretty laid back when it came to being late so it's not like you would get into much trouble anyway because of this predicament.

Finally arriving in the hallway in which your class was located, you open the door leading inside, feeling the stares of some people as they give you a quick look before going back to whatever was occupying them seconds before your arrival.

You go over to where your seat is as Mr. Finks notices you but doesn't say anything towards, probably assuming your ride brought you here late or something. This makes you a bit glad as you slump down into your seat as Mr. Finks starts with today's morning lecture on what we would be doing for the period.

Classes go by at a regular pace for you as you walk from one to another with each passing hour. Your stomach sways from normalcy to shitty pain every now and then which in turns gives you a piss poor attitude with anybody that interacts with you.

During lunch, you didn't feel like eating anything, which worried you since you hadn't eaten at all today besides a banana for breakfast, which you probably threw up in the bathroom earlier. Most likely whatever you were to take in would immediately come right back out, so you decided to opt out from your normal lunch plans. You instead decide to go somewhere secluded, and find the solitude in one of the hidden areas behind the school were a nice patch of grass and a few benches could be found. Normally this is where couples would usually make out and such, but ever since they increased security around campus and added a camera here, it's become abandoned by students save for rare occasions.

You didn't even sit on the bench and instead plopped your whole body on the grass. Immediately it started feeling better, and you've never felt such bliss of having a painless stomach. You just looked up at the light blue cloudless sky while your stomach just gurgled from hunger and bits of pain.

The quietness of the whole area seemed off, with it being school and all. Normally there would at least be ambiance of wildlife or janitors emptying trash cans, but it was just silence.

"How long have you been laying there?"

Your whole body jumped up in surprise at this sudden voice from behind you, as your body immediately pulled itself up. Your torso turned to look at this intruder of your quiet time, to which you saw a female student giving you an odd look.

"Who are you?" You say with a hint of venom, which you instantly curse yourself for doing.

"You know it was pretty hard to find you when there were so many souls blocking my signal, you being alone though in a place like this just so happened to make the first part of my job extremely easy."
"Huh?" You say with a confused look for what was just said to you.

The girl sighed with annoyance.

"Now I guess we have to do the boring stuff don't we...you can see ghosts right. Don't lie to me either."

Your mouth hangs open as unintelligible sounds come from it as you don't know how to respond.

A smile appears on her face as she bends down onto her knees to get a better look at you more closely, which in turns startles you even more.

"Do I know you?" You hesitantly ask.

"Probably not, I usually end up leaving early since I'm a senior so you probably haven't seen me around all that much either. But anyway now that my suspicions are correct it's time to get down to business before lunch ends."

This girl was being very vague with what she was telling you, and you felt like just walking off to leave her and her crazy thoughts to her lonesome.

However she knew that you saw ghosts, and curiosity dominated over your cautiousness, so you ended up staying sitting down and for her to explain herself further.

Before she began, you see that she took a big breath before anything left her mouth and then she started.

"Your kind, the kind who sees ghosts are referred to as Wardens. Wardens help ghosts in different ways, and Wardens are categorized in different subs depending on how they help ghosts. You have been categorized into the trapper subsection congratulations, you get one of the most fun jobs there is. You can refer to me as your guide, I'll help you with finding easy ghosts, and in turn well both finish our contracts and bounce out of the quota system for five years until we're needed again."

A lot of what she said didn't make sense, and there were a few parts that just passed you completely.

"Well delve into this topic more, we have some time to spare so we can leave to helping spirits on the weekends. Which I honestly prefer because I don't want to waste my senior year doing this crap, even if it can be fun at times." She says this with a small smirk while look at her cluelessly.

"Until our quota is done, I'm going to be your new best friend for the next couple of months, so let's get this over with as soon as possible. Anyway, give me your phone number so I can start getting you some more information after you go home because this the more extended stuff that you need to know is a real pain in the ass to have to say."

You didn't really respond, as what she had just said went in through one ear and out the other.

"Hey are you deaf, give me your phone number." She said a little more irritated.

Coming back from your daze, you fumble your phone from out of your pocket, bringing up your number on the contacts page as you seem to forget what it is. Giving her your phone, she quickly starts typing in what she needs before giving it back to you seconds later.

"Also don't call me to me around school like you know me, that'll be weird. My name is Ruby." With her quick introduction, she walks away from where you're sitting with everyone seemingly said and done.

You continue to sit in that lonely patch of grass as you wonder what the hell had just happened.

You later that day

With school over and you heading over to your bus stop, you wait there quietly as you and some other students idle around until it is time for it to arrive. A few minutes pass however when a car that had come from student parking rolls up onto the curb in which the bus usually parks itself. The passenger window rolls down and seeing who the driver is makes your mouth drop a little.

"Hey, hurry up and get in!" Ruby yells while pointing directly at you.

The other bus riders look at you while you immediately follow her directions and get into her car.

As you close the door, Ruby begins to chastise you.

"Holy fuck didn't you get my texts to wait at your last hour so I could come and get you, I was looking all over for you around campus."

Reaching into your pocket you pull out your phone and see that you had a couple missed calls along with over ten spam texts.

"Ah sorry my phone was dying so I was saving my battery, don't know why I didn't feel the vibrations th-.....Wait why am I here with you again?" You stop yourself and ask her with confusion.

"Trust me, me I had plans to go do other shit to and I'd rather be doing that right now, but I just got a lead on a couple of spirits that you'll be able to take in, and the sooner we do that the sooner we can end the quota and length the time before we start getting sick. Always keep that in mind when I start pulling you out from classes or we go somewhere straight from school. So start checking your phone sooner dipshit." With her lecture and insult out of the way, she puts her car in drive and speeds of the school driveway and out onto the streets.

"What did you mean by take in?" You ask in puzzlement at the first stoplight you meet.

Ruby looks at you with confusion, before realization sets in.

"Oh yeah I wasn't planning on explaining your powers until later over text, but I guess now is going have to be the time we do this. Alright listen and pay attention because I'm not going to repeat what I'm about to say, got it?"

You nod.

"Alright, so each one of your kind has a special power that is used in dealing with spirits and helping them ascend. Some powers are faster with the process than others, while some just go off on their own branches and ways that they can be used. Your specialty is a rarer one, and to be perfectly honest I don't even know how exactly we're going to go about doing this as I have no idea how your kind ascends spirits. But for now I need you to coax these spirits we encounter into a state of comfort, afterward you'll take them in."

"Take them in how?" You ask again, this time a little tenser.

This cause Ruby to grimace a bit as she seems to choose her wording wisely which surprises you a bit given her past attitudes of being upfront.

"Well....Take in as in literally, the spirits we encounter will enter your body alongside you and sort of stay there, seeing what you see, communicating with you, and just being apart of you per say without much control over your body though." She finishes, giving a quick glance over to you for your reaction.

"Wait a minute, you're telling me I'm going to be sharing my body with those fucking things!" You say a bit louder than you meant, but with good reason as this was a pretty serious matter.

"Relax, you'll still have total control over your body, well I'm pretty sure you will. I've never heard of one of your class being taken over so I can't say for certain...but anyway all that'll really happen is that you'll just have other people talking to you in your head is all, or maybe they show up as actual spirits. I don't know your guess is as good as mine, so make sure to fill me in on what happens with our first contact. I'll be needing this information in case I ever have to work with another one of your kind."

You couldn't really tell if she was trying to reassure you or calm you down from your anxiety, but if she was, she was doing a really shitty job at doing so.

"Anyway...who's this first ghost were going to go....see?" You ask Ruby while your throat tightens a bit.

"Well according to the tip, it's going to be a be a young boy who died while drowning, luckily his spirit boundaries included the docks so he wasn't stuck at the bottom of the lake forever, still though, getting out of there must have been hell..." She says with a small pause.

The lake

You remember coming to this lake before. When you were much younger as a child with a couple of your cousins during a summer weekend. You hadn't realized a kid had drowned here, but then again you wouldn't be surprised as there were some pretty deep parts of this lake that could be really dangerous if you were by yourself.

Ruby parked in the area in which a playground was located, though it seemed to be barren, though with school having just ended a little while ago that was probably a given. The two of you exited her car as you made your way down the hill towards the lake that was at the bottom of the large park that is mainly occupied.

There being a lot of people fishing around here when you were younger, but a few signs that seemed to be banning such sport placed along the path down to the lake seemed to tell you that there was no more of such a thing around here. You have a guess that it probably had to do with more people swimming around this area causing the ban, though honestly you would have seen it as the other way around.

"Let's hurry up and get this done before anyone decides to come down here and take a dip, apparently when you take in ghosts the process is a little....weird,"Ruby tells you as she gets into a faster pace on the way down the hill. Thanks to those words the feeling of your stomach churning in her car earlier had returned just as it had died down only moments before.

Upon arriving at the lower wooden docks in which were used as jumping off points, you see no one there which surprises you a little, as you had at least expected to see the boy in plain view.

"Ah fuck where did the little shit run off too..." You hear Ruby murmur under her breath in a not so subtle way.

The two of you look around for the ghost boy but come up with nothing which leads to Ruby getting more irritated.

"Fuck, if he's at the bottom of the lake right now then this is really going to be a pain in the ass to do...you know how to swi...HOLY SHIT." Ruby recoils back instantly, pushing yourself back in the process as she was right in front of you. You catch her with your hands before she can trip the two of you over and push her to the side a bit, to be able to see what shocked her so bad.

You see nothing at first, which confuses you. It isn't until your vision starts lowering to the shallower parts of the water that you also recoil back a bit, but not as much as Ruby had. There in the water, a half-submerged head sits. Its forehead is covered with wet hair that hides most of it. The thing that fucked with you and Ruby though were the pair of yellow pupils that were looking directly at the two you ominously. The only other part that wasn't submerged was its upper nose, everything else of its head and body was under.

"You little fucking shit, why'd you scare us like that!" Ruby yells with fury at the boy, who in turn cocks his head to the side, revealing some of its mouth and nostrils, which all seem to be rotting, as none of its skin is the normal color one would think when imagining a person. Everything about him was a sickly vomit green, the worst part though was some of his skin seemed to be sagging at different parts of its face, no doubt from the water.

"Ruby approached the figure in the water, as she went down the dock. This caused the boy to get himself out of the water using his two hands to hoist his body out.

When he did though, Ruby stopped in her tracks, and your stomach started churning violently as you tried to stop yourself from vomiting.

The boy had no lower body so to speak, it seemed to stop at his stomach, and with how to skin met the flesh at the bottom, it had seemed as if though he was ripped apart violently, as entrails leaked out, but were sturdy enough to stay on him with his swaying motions as he kept balance with his hands onto the docks. His entrails reminded you of tentacles on an octopus, except dark red and green along with some black shit mixed between that you didn't want to guess on it being.

"Fuck..."Ruby mutters under her breath.

"What do you want?"The boy says, with a super unearthly voice that you swear echos like that of someone possessed by a demon.

"We're here to help you cross over kid, so help us help you."Ruby says getting straight to the point, although she isn't as confrontational and rash as she was before, not even able to look directly at the boy."

This causes the silence from the boy, but through your peripheral vision, you see that his eyes start to furrow in anger.

"What are you some kind of devils or something, was this my punishment, sitting at the bottom of the lake for four months trying to dig my way out! Fuck you!"

This boy had quite the vocabulary of words for someone as young as him.

"Trust me kid, do you know how many people die each and every day and get stuck in this limbo, count yourself lucky that you haven't been waiting years, hell you might even be considered early,"Ruby tells him with a sideways glance. It seemed as if the boy took this the wrong way though as if Ruby was mocking him, as this only seemed to increase his anger.

"You fucking bitch! Do you have any idea how long a month can be at a bottom of a lake, how murky and dark it can be. Do you have any idea how long I was dragging myself until I reached the embankment that started to take me up? Unless you can relate to that don't fucking joke about time, you know nothing of it." The boy seethed through his teeth.

Ruby scoffed at this as she stepped closer to the kid.

"Alright listen here kiddo, you can be mad all you want, what's done is done so why don't you start worrying about your future. Do you want to stay at this lake forever and not move on? If you keep us with this attitude we can just leave you here and you can wait for another one of us to come and find you, but trust me, you'll be waiting a lot longer than four months."

The kid through his furious expression turns away to stop making eye contact with Ruby as he starts to shudder. You can see the tears falling from his remaining eye as he just shakes his head slowly. He stays silent after that.

Ruby walks back to you as she crosses her arms.

"Ok, well this is going to be harder than I thought due to what just happened, but everything else is going to be up to you. You have to get the kid to agree to come with you, but the trick is he has to be happy, or just content I think, afterward were done with this one and we can move on."

"You know you could have been a little nicer with him you know." You reply with a frown.

She laughs at your complaint, and with how real it is, it un-nerves you a bit.

She puts a hand on your shoulder and looks you dead in the eye. "Trust me, once you start dealing with enough of them, you'll eventually get jaded out. Besides most of them are going to a better place after this, so don't worry to much about it."

Letting go of your shoulder, she walks away and goes to sit down at the other end of the dock, and just seems to watch you. Better that she did this, you didn't think she would be much help in getting this kid into a good mood.

The boy

Walking back up to the boy, you could see that he was still sulking, although he had stopped shaking so at least that was good.

You crouch down to his level and start to speak.

You apologize

"Hey I'm sorry about my friend back there, she doesn't really know how to talk to people all that well."

"Yeah, I could tell..."The boy quietly replies.

"Don't worry though, you don't really have to deal with her anymore. From now on it's just going to be you and me interacting with one another. Trust me I'm a lot nicer than she is." You say with a little laugh.

This causes the boy to look up at you, and the two of you make direct eye contact. You try to morph your facial expression to that of an assured and friendly one, you think it's working as the boy doesn't break eye contact with you.

"What's your name kid?"

"Owen."

"Well Owen, how would you like to come with me. I can get you out of here in the next couple of minutes."

"You'll help me get to heaven?" Owens' eyes beam with home, but as he reads your unchanged expression his mood darkens.

"I'm going to hell aren't I?"

"What? No, it's just that.....well you won't be going to heaven just yet."

"What do you mean...?"Owen asks suspiciously.

You give a sigh."Alright look kid, I'm going to be straight with you. I'm going to perform an action and after this action. Well,.....you're going to go inside my body."

"What?!"

"Yeah, you'll share a body with me, and be able to see what I see and go where I go, think of it as keeping me company." You say trying to make situation sound tame.

"But I don't want to go with you, I want to get off this fucking planet!"He cries.

"Yes eventually you will, but you just have to stay with me for a period of time, and once that period of time is over, you can ascend."

"How long is the period of time...?"He mutters.

You give him a sideways glance. "I don't know, it depends on the spirit."

Silence clouds the two of you as he seems to think this over.

"Well...I guess it's better than staying here I guess, now that the fishermen are all gone. You don't seem like all that bad of a guy either so I guess it wouldn't be all that bad, compared to that one bitch..." He mutters.

Even if he was to agree with the terms of coming with you, you still had to bring some happiness into him somehow, otherwise, the process wouldn't work going off of what Ruby had said.

"Don't look so down about it kid. Hey, is there anywhere you ever wanted to go, anything you ever wanted to do?"

"I...I wanted to play a video game that was supposed to be coming out."

You bit your lip hard as you tried your best to stop the laugh that was wanting to come out, instead you give a deep nod to him in confirmation. "Alright, well then I'll get the game you wanted and we can play it together, and anything else you want to do we will do it, O.K?"

"You promise?"

"I promise."

The kid smiles a little, and you think its a genuine one considering that he lets out his hand.

"Let's do this then."

Grabbing the boy's hand, you feel your head start to buzz.

You getting in

Your mind starting to get really fucking fuzzy, as if listening to a radio station that had just gone completely static. It didn't hurt your ears though, it was just a mild annoyance as you felt dizzy and your vision getting blurry. Not wanting to fall on your face, you sat yourself down on the ground and waited for this experience to pass by.

"That was pretty anticlimactic." You hear Ruby say through the static, though you don't pay her much mind as you try to concentrate on seeing if you could communicate with, Owen.

Owen can you hear me?

The static continues, and you feel your heart race a little bit. Sitting in silence for a few seconds, you start to feel the static die down a little as your ability to hear yourself think finally.

Hello?

You hear a voice call out to you, which makes your entire body jump up a bit with how it sounds directly in your mind.

Owen is that you?

Yeah, it's me. Man this is so weird, I can see what you're seeing I think, but I can't control where my eyes go, I can't explain it

"Hey, so did it work then?" You hear Ruby ask you as she starts walking up to you from where she was sitting.

"Yeah, I guess. He's in me now."

"Well that's amusing, hopefully, that counts to your quota in terms of delaying the sickness for the both of us, anyway I guess were done here now that you have him. Before we go though you should test some of your abilities out."

"What do you mean by abilities?" You asked puzzled.

"I looked up on your specific class on my database while I was sitting down over there, and apparently you and your spirits can do some specific things together."

"Like what?"

"We'll first off he can detach from your body, apparently you're now his boundary zone, so he can stay around you in his own form if he doesn't want to stay inside your head so to speak."

Ask her how to do it!

Owen speaks loudly causing you to wince.

"Well how is it done then?" you ask Ruby.

"Tell him to just start thinking about leaving your mind, while being absolutely calm and patient, that's how they said to do it on the database."

That sounds easy enough.

Seeing as that you didn't have to do anything yourself, you waited for Owen to do the process of getting out.

Nothing seemed to happen for a few moments, but a voice from behind you made you jump from behind.

"Hey, it worked!"

Turning around you see Owen, although this time, he had legs. Not just legs, but his entire body was completely different, he had regained his eye, and his skin was that of a normal healthy color. His whole body looked normal, as if he wasn't dead at all, this would be the first time you've ever seen a ghost this healthy looking. Owen didn't seem to notice this at first, but he soon looked down in puzzlement and let out a yelp as he stumbled back on his feet.

"My...My legs are back!"

"Yeah, now I can actually look at you without vomiting..." Ruby mutters from beside you.

You give her a glare as Owen continues to feel up his body for all the body parts and skin that he had regained.

Once again, tears started falling down his face as he continued feeling himself, although more slowly than before.

"The other trick is getting back inside your body, and for that, all he has to do is grab your hand and twist it, those are the only tricks I've found so far, I'm sure there's more, I'll let you know once I find them," Ruby explains to you as she starts to walk off.

"Now let's get out of here, I have to get home and do my homework."

You home

Ruby had dropped you and Owen off at your house. Surprisingly though, Owen seemed to have regained physics as well, as he was able to touch a few things that other ghosts weren't able too, although some items were still limited, you felt as if though that could change with some practice.

Your parents didn't seem able to see Owen either, as when the two of you walked inside, you were the only one who was greeted, which was good.

Getting to your room, you start to speak to Owen as he's looking around with curiosity.

"Alright, so from now on I want you to stay this way when it's possible, I don't want you reading my thoughts or anything while you're inside my head. Besides I'm pretty sure you'd like having your own freedom instead of being stuck to what I see and do, right?"

Owen nods.

"Good.....so um....do ghosts sleep?"

"No, I usually just walked around the lake or looked up at the sky during the night time, not that much different than during the day..." Owen says in a bit of a depressed voice.

"Well, with how you've changed already, you might need to start sleeping too. If that's the case sleep on the floor once I lay out some blankets. Otherwise just do something in my room....just don't go poking around in any of my personal stuff." You warn, wanting to keep at least some sort of privacy.

"Yeah, Yeah, Whatever you say." He says sarcastically as he makes his way over to your desktop.

"Can I play on your computer?"

"Can you even touch it?"

Owen reaches for the mouse and keyboard as he starts clicking and typing randomly.

Guess that's a yes.

"Yeah go ahead, the password is 01234."

"Shitty password.

"Do you want to play on it or not?"You say annoyed.

"Sorry."

Next day

You wake up pretty early the following day, although you think it's because the sound of a monster getting slain is what causes you to stir from sleep

"Oh are you awake already, I beat this game for you while you were asleep, it was pretty easy not gonna lie."

You rub your eyes for a second as you just sit there in confusion. It takes you a few moments before you realize who Owen is and remember everything that happened the following day.

"Got to get ready for class..."You yawn as you start getting your clothes.

"Oh let me come with you!" Owen exclaims as he gets up from your chair.

"Well I mean you kind of have to..."

"Oh yeah."

You shake your head as you grab your remaining items and head for the bathroom. Luckily the boundary between you and Owen was pretty big so he didn't have to be close by to you that much, still giving you a lot of privacy then what you originally thought you would have.

Once you were ready to go, you and Owen left your house and made your way to your bus stop.

"You should ask your girlfriend to pick you up." Owne tells you as the two of stand in silence.

"She's not my girlfriend, she's my partner."

"Wait so you guy's are married?"

"No!, were ju-."

You stop yourself mid-sentence as you just now notice the other kids at your bus stop are staring at you, in which you realize it looks like you're talking to yourself.

"Ahahaha, they think you're loony." Owen mocks at you, in which you return with a glare.

As the two of you get onto the bus when it arrives, you sit together as Owen continues on to try to get you to talk to him. Though you decide now to ignore to unless you're alone somewhere or with Ruby.

During your classes, Owen gets bored and decides to start running around the room, getting into people's faces and other sort of shenanigans. You had warned him before you went into class though that he was not to touch anything that would look like something supernatural to everyone else. He had promised not to, but with the half-assed way he had said it, you didn't all that much trust him.

Because of this, you couldn't pay attention in class as your eyes were continually trained on Owen to make sure he wasn't doing anything stupid. There were even times in which he would give you evil glares and pretend to start throwing things, which would make you panic a little in which he could probably tell, as it made him laugh.

Fuck, maybe it would be better if you could just keep him in your head.

With your first set of classes over and lunch starting to begin, you wait to see if Ruby wants to meet with you so you stick by your class. Though after a few minutes you decide to leave and go get lunch with no signs of her, and not wanting to be the last one in line.

"Are you not going to hang out with your girlfriend today," Owen asked, in a serious tone.

You're about to answer him, but quickly stop yourself since you're packed in a line with other people, and instead just ignore him.

"Lame, I thought you guys were cool together and hung out and stuff. Or maybe she's waiting for you to go and find her."

You continue to ignore him.

This seems to frustrate Owen a bit, as he stays quiet for the remainder of the time that you are in line.

Once you grab your food and head on outside, out of earshot from everyone else, Owen starts to speak again.

"OK, no one's around you can talk now."

"Shut up Owen..." You mumble.

"You talked!" Owen says with excitement, though in a mocking tone no doubt.

"Anyway, what do you want to do for lunch today?" Owen asks you.

You library

When Ruby had brought up the powers in which you had with Owen, it never really left your mind as you continued to think about it every now and then. You decided to go the library to see if you could find out any of this information out on your own. Though you didn't really have many hopes considering the silence your kind had to keep about their powers, though maybe someone had found a loophole and got around it.

You checked a few books that had information from decades ago, but all of them proved useless as you decided to continue your search online.

"I'm bored....Can't you play games or something on the computer? I don't think anyone will notice me typing on the keyboard...." Owen complains as he sits next to you in an empty chair.

"Don't you want to learn how to use our powers?" You whisper to him as you open up numerous articles about ghosts and phenomenon.

"Just ask the girl!" He exclaims, in which you ignore.

You had done some research on your condition long before you had met Ruby or Owen, so you had a little bit of an idea in which websites had the best information and which ones didn't. Even the most credible sources though we're all pretty wrong or just vague when it came to what you had experienced yourself.

It seemed as if you wouldn't be finding out how to use your powers on your own after all. At least not through any of these means.

Giving up on your endeavors, you give a sigh before exiting out of all your windows and finding a website with flash games.

"Here, go ahead and play..."You say to Owen, scooting your chair over a bit.

"Really! Hell Yeah."

Weeks later

Two weeks had gone by since you had taken in Owen. Even though he was to be extremely annoying at first, you had gotten used to his shenanigans and personality until it came to the point in which you weren't bothered by it at all anymore.

Ruby only interacted with you about maybe twice or three times a week at most, and that was only to check up on the status of you and Owen, to make sure that you were doing alright. Though she worded it in a really weird way as if she was expecting something bad to have happened.

On the second week, Ruby had given you forewarning of another spirit that the two of you would be meeting on the weekend. She had tried to push it during lunch on Friday, but you had persuaded her out of it since you weren't really up for skipping.

"So then that means someone else is going to join us?" Owen asked you when the topic had been brought up in one of your conversations during lunch.

"Yeah seems like it, which is kind of good since you're pretty boring to talk with one on one." You tease.

"Fuck off." He laughs off with a smirk.

When the weekend finally comes, Ruby comes by your house to pick you up early in the morning as you've already told your mom you would be heading out for the day and maybe coming back at night.

"So who's it going be?" Owens asks in the backseat as Ruby gets onto the freeway.

"It's going to be an older man actually, like really old. I can't tell if he had just died recently or the others had just forgotten to help him ascend, if it's the second one then at least it'll be easier to take him since he would already be broken." Ruby explains although an awkward silence fills the car with what said with the last part.

"Where's he going to be at?" You ask Ruby in order to change the subject a little.

"It's going to actually be at an old abandoned home. Apparently, the man owned it and died there alone, the house hasn't been bought yet which makes our lives a whole lot easier." Ruby explains as she merges onto a new lane.

"So it's going to be the same process as last time, with what I did with Owen?"

"Yep, but I expect you to do it faster and more efficiently this time now that you've had the experience."

You roll your eyes at that as the car ride remains quiet for the remainder of the trip.

The house in which this spirit was located seemed out of place compared to the commercial buildings surrounding it. It was also weird that its driveway merged onto an avenue, which seemed to be super inconvenient for anyone living here.

As the three of you exit the car, Owen is the first one to run up to the door and try to open it.

"It's locked!" He exclaims.

"Well, of course, it is you dip, why wouldn't it be." You reply causing his to give you a dirty look.

"Wait does it mean we're going to break in? That's so cool!" He says towards Ruby, who nods her head.

"Wait I'm pretty sure this is illegal, I don't want a cop to pull up on us breaking in." You tell Ruby who is digging through her book-bag for something.

"Relax pussy, where going to be in and out of here in no time, besides it's not like we're going to break a window or anything, a squatter recently was here and I found out that he leaves the back window open him to get in and out."

"How could you possibly know that?" You say, feeling as if she was totally bullshitting you.

"Your job is to catch the ghosts, my job is to make sure it all goes smoothly. You should be a little more grateful for the amount of research I put into our contacts if you had a shittier partner they would only have to give you the bare bones information on where spirits are." She says with total pride, which causes you to smirk.

"Stop acting like you're doing this out of the good of your heart or something, I already know that your life is on the line too with these quotas."

This causes Ruby to stop digging through her backpack, and give you a hard look, which actually intimidates you a bit.

"Listen here fuckass, I don't think you realize how easy it is for those with my job to find wardens to help with getting ghosts, if I really wanted too I could drop you and find another one to help me. The only actual reason that I'm still with you is that we both go to the same school so finishing this quota can be done in a lot less time than it usually takes. I'm only doing this for convenience, not a necessity, you best remember that." With her rant over, Ruby starts to make her way around the house as you stand there with your butt clenched at what she just said.

"Damn, she really got you there." Owen chimed in as you just notice him standing next to you.


The two of you followed Ruby into the house as she easily opened the window letting all three of you gain entry.

"Alright follow me and don't fucking touch anything, I don't want any traces that we were here if we can avoid it." Ruby orders as she starts walking up wooden stairs that are placed in a narrow room. When all of you get up to the second floor, Ruby seems to know immediately where to go as she starts directly walking to a lone door at the end of a long hallway. It didn't seem to work properly though, as merely pushing open the door lightly caused it to move back with ease.

Taking a peek inside for herself, Ruby looked back over to you and ushered you inside, before closing the door once you were in with Owen.

The room was empty, not a single piece of furniture could be found, but that could be said with most of the house anyway, besides random piles of trash and boxes. A single window could be found here but the blinds were only letting in a few rays of sunlight, giving the room an eerie atmosphere that wasn't helped by the spirit standing alone in the corner of the room, staring at you directly. You didn't think you would ever get used to this.

"Um...Hello?" You say, in hopes that this would be a friendly spirit.

The spirit gives a slight nod at you, but that's about it.

The spirit in it's form, seemed very oddly different compared to what Owen had looked like. The immediate distinction above all else though was the blue glow that emitting from it's entire body. It had no markings of decay whatsoever, but at the same time it didn't look human. It looked as what one would imagine a spirit were to look, a form of energy in some sorts.

"What's your name mister?" You ask, trying to be polite.

"You can call me Nick, boy." The spirit since in an asserting type of tone.

"Well Mr. Nick, do you know how long you've been here?" You ask, trying to get all the basic questions out of the way.

"Well I've lived here my entire life, and it seems after it as well, so if that answers your question."

"I mean how long has it been since you've passed?"

"Oh, you mean that...Well, I don't really seem to remember. Could have been days or weeks. Probably less than a month though by my guessing."

Even though Ruby had already told you this stuff, you still wanted to ask the spirit these questions to see how much they knew and if they were lying or not. Luckily this time Ruby didn't piss off the ghost before you talked to it so hopefully, this interaction will be much less of a hassle.

You nick

"Do you know why we're here Nick?"

"Are you here to take me to the great beyond? I thought you guys would be coming soon."

Nick seemed a lot calmer than you would have imagined this interaction to be. Maybe it was because Owen had been so emotional and that was your first and only experience doing this till now that you were expecting the same from this guy.

"Well not quite, were kind of middlemen to put it frankly. You'll be able to get to the great beyond soon enough, but there comes a process before that."

"A shame, I was hoping to finally be able to sleep eternally without being hassled to remember to eat and go to the bathroom every now and then."

You ask Questions

You felt as if though asking a few questions would help along the way later, and maybe also be a bit polite in inquiring about this man's past life.

"How old are you Nick?" You ask to start off.

"I had turned fifty-nine a few months ago, don't remember celebrating it though so it really just faded in with all the other days."

"Do you know how you died, you seem pretty young to die from natural causes." You say with another question.

"I couldn't really tell you myself, I smoked a helluva lot in my thirties but managed to quit when I turned forty with the help of my sister. All I know is that it was painless, don't remember feeling a thing when I passed."

You nod at his recollections. "Well, that's good at least that you died in your sleep peacefully."

No more questions

"You seem like a rather calm spirit, were you not in distress when you first found out that you were stuck like this in this house?" You ask, trying to be up front.

"Well at first maybe. But I'm able to move throughout my house as I please, and it's not like I left it all that much, to begin with." He says with firmly, without any sense of doubt.

"So then you don't feel any sadness or depression, just contentment?" You ask to make sure.

"Well if you would want to put it like that, then yes," Nick states with continued affirmation.

"Well, then this just makes the process a whole lot easier. We should be able to finish this process rather quickly."

"What would this process entail?" Nick asks.

"I would need you to agree to the terms of entering my body for an unspecified amount of time. Even I don't know how long you'll be with me, but trust me when I say that it won't be anything bad, in fact, it'll probably even be better than staying here. Wherever I go you'll be able to go, and you'll be able to have a little bit more intractability with the world." You explain to him, trying to make it sound as easy as possible.

Nick takes seems to take this in for a moment, before nodding his head.

"If that's the case then I really see no reason to object then, let's get this out of the way, the sooner I can get my sleep the better." Nick states.

Wow, this would be way faster and easier then it was with Owen, if the older aged spirits were this upfront with wanting to leave and with the questions you asked, then you should totally be helping a lot more of them out. Regardless of that, you extend out your arm for Nick to grab.

"Please grab my arm, Nick."

Nick does as you say as grasp arms.

Closing your eyes, you start to twist your palm around Nicks' arm as the familiar feeling you had first felt with Owen starts to happen once again. Although this time you don't feel as weak as you did, which is good, though your stomach still hurts quite a bit.

As the tingling feeling starts to subside, you see that Nick stands before you, seemingly a bit confused.

"I felt something happen I think, but did something happen?" He asks.

"Yeah it isn't really a big change honestly, you just aren't tied down to this house anymore, and instead have a boundary around me." You explain to him.

"Interesting."

You look over at Ruby to get confirmation over your success to which you see her already standing up.

"I knew this spirit wouldn't take that long to bind with, I've been on a roll with this is so far, anyway that should be enough spirits for you to bind with for now. Let's go home, I've had enough ghost hunting for one week." She yawns before starting to walk out of the bedroom.

You were really surprised and relieved that you didn't really need Owen's help for this spirit, but you also felt a little shamed seeing that Ruby probably had a big part in why the spirits you were encountering didn't really put up much of a resistance when it came to coming with you.

"Let's go home then, I wanted to finish my playthrough of fallout I just started on your computer."

Shaking your head, you leave the room and follow Ruby downstairs with Nick and Owen.
You were really hoping she meant what she said about there being no more spirits for you to take in, any more and it would most likely start to get really crowded in your room, besides all it took was for some ghost with a nasty attitude to really mess with things if you had to spend every minute assigned with them, that's why you were really glad that Ruby wasn't a spirit that was chained to you, that would be horrible.

Ruby was quick to drop you off, Owen and Nick were even a bit worried about how fast she was driving at some sections, but luckily you made it home safe and sound. After getting to your room, Owen immediately hopped onto your computer and started playing Fallout, while Nick grabbed something from your bookshelf and began reading. Hopefully, these guys wouldn't be bored anytime soon, as you had no idea for any other way you would entertain them.

A bit tired from everything that had happened, you decided to just sleep off the remainder of the day, hoping to sleep in well since it was the weekend.

---

Months had passed since you first took in Nick into your circle. Since then you had also taken in three more ghosts, a teenage girl who had committed suicide by the name of Ashley, a middle-aged gangster type man who had been killed in a gunfight named Baron, and lastly there was a younger tween-aged girl who was killed while jaywalking named Veronica.

With each new spirit, you continued to tell Ruby that you couldn't accept anymore since it was starting to get to crowded, though you had to word it carefully since all the spirits were in close proximity. Each time she would tell you that you would be ascending everyone soon, though each time you just got a new spirit to take in. While most of them weren't really a problem in dealing with, since if they got too rowdy you would make them stay in your head, it just became such a hassle whenever you needed privacy to yourself. Luckily Owen was really talkative so he drove the attention away from you as he was always the center of attention.

The quietest out of everyone would have to be Baron, he didn't really speak all that much when you first brought him in, and only really ever talked if spoken to. Ashley was probably the loudest as she kept on complaining about still being here and not in a final resting place, or at least she was at first, now she's quiet like Baron but still gives off a strong negative attitude whenever she speaks.

Owen and Veronica got along the best, probably since they were both around the same age save for a few years. Though still, they were very loud whenever they would get too excited, which led Ashley to start screaming a few times for them to shut up as she spent quiet time in the corner of your room.

You were really glad that you had actually gotten Nick into your circle since he was the only real functioning adult here who could set his foot down causing everyone else to listen and stop whatever it was they were doing whenever he said something of importance.

There was no way you could take anyone else in, the next spirit Ruby tries to throw at you you'll just put your foot down and say no. Half of the spirits assigned to you already want to leave and get ascended too, Ashley and Nick especially, although Nick seems to have gotten comfortable around everyone, to which he stopped asking Ruby about the ascension less and less as time went on. To be perfectly honest the only real problem was Ashley, she just kept pulling on your nerve strings whenever she opened her mouth. You actually just thought about keeping her in your mind so she wouldn't have to argue with anyone, but you felt as if that would just lead to more problems.


The other major thing that you had to keep track off was when you went to classes. Owen tried to show off to Veronica a few times by doing stupid shit in class like touching peoples shoulders or dropping pencils. Naturally, he knew you couldn't do anything about it so your anxiety just kept on increasing along with antics. It got to the point in which you would force him to stay in your mind for the remainder of school. Though to counter this he would constantly try to annoy you in your head so you couldn't pay attention to anything at all. You've told him off plenty of times, probably a bit harsher than one would be to a kid at such a young age, and sometimes he would get into long pouts about it.

As cool as Owen could be at times, he was really pushing you over his edge, just so he could get interest from Veronica, who gave mixed signals towards him which only made shit worse. You could swear that you were starting to get grey and white hairs from all this stress.

--

"I already told you, you're going to be ascending soon now stop bitching!" Ruby seethes as Ashley confronts her yet again after school.

"Bullshit it's already been months and we're still fucking here, I stopped believing you after we took Veronica in. Take us out of here NOW!"

Ashley seemed to be really going at it this time, you've never seen her talk out this long, usually, she starts to brood in a corner after yelling or complaining for only a few seconds.

"Is it my fucking problem that you decided to kill yourself? You should of thought about the shit that could happen before you made such a stupid ass decision."

Veronica and Owen cringed and flinched back a bit, while Nick turned his head. It really was about to go down.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!"

Ashley charged towards Ruby with fury, though as you predicted she flew right past through her due to her emotions.

"Yeah nice try fuck face, now anyway before I was so rudely interrupted, I was going to say that I'm going to get you all ascended by the end of this month, and I'm serious when I say this. Our quota is going to be due soon, and if things go right, I might have something special in store for us." Ruby finishes, looking directly at you when she said the last part.

"Don't do anything stupid or dumb until then while I get all the preparations in place, and after that, you all can get your eternal sleep or whatever the fuck it is you want and we can all be happy. Now I have to go, I have a club meeting that starts in an hour."

You home

Upon getting home, Ashley got in her usual corner, though she was much more upset looking than usual which could be easily understood why. Nick went over and started talking to her quietly, while Veronica and Owen got onto your computer in which you now could almost never use. Baron sat himself down in one of your spare desk chairs and just placed it by one of your windows, and just stared outside which was his usual activity.

"Ashley please, I guarantee you she means it this time, trus-."

"No! It's not about that. The stupid bitch brought up my suicide again. Don't you think I regret it Nick, each day I'm stuck here I keep on thinking about it. If I knew this was waiting for me instead of what I dreamed of then I would have stayed alive for as long as I could, at least I had the freedom to do what I wanted." Ashley interrupted him with tearful cries.

Man Ashley's reasoning's were pretty annoying, you hated when she got loud like this because of the stuff she said hardly made any common sense.

Sitting down on your bed, which was probably the last refugee you had in your room, you started going through your phone as you had already completed classwork at school. In fact you got a lot done now ever since Nick first joined, turns out he was really good at math, and would instantly remember the lessons that were taught to you as he reheard them, during your free-time for homework, he would kneel beside you and help you with problems as you whispered any questions to him.

Baron might have had some knowledge too, as he was only the only other one who actually paid attention to your classes, although he never spoke up and you've never been bothered to ask.

Going through messages, you saw a notification from Ruby for a message that had been sent twenty or so minutes ago that you forgot to open.

'Hey don't tell those dweebs, but I might end up pushing the ascension up even earlier,I really want to get it out of the way for some reason, reminds me the fuck out how much Ashley bitches about it. So just get ready to do it on a Thursday or Wednesday in the next two weeks if need be. I'll give you the rides as usual.'

Thank fucking Christ, though you were a little irritated that she only bothered doing this because of someone else. Besides that the quicker you got these guys to ascension the better, while you were still on good enough terms with most of them.

Though you don't know why she didn't want any of them to know, the news itself would probably calm down Ashley enough for her to stop moping so hard. Unless of course, Ruby was bullshitting you again and what she just told you was a load of crap.

Man you really felt so negative for the past couple of weeks, you needed something to blow off steam before you really went over the edge and snapped or something. Getting these guys out of the house too would also probably raise their spirits. Though you hadn't really gone out and did something since you watched that movie three weeks ago, in which Veronica and Owen ruined when they started making shadows near the projector, to which no one could tell where it came from except for you. You felt really bad for the couple that was sitting in the back that got the blame for it.

When everyone seemed to look very bored in your room, was the time you gave them the news.

"Alright, since this is the last month we'll all be together, I've decided that we should all go out and do something fun. Any suggestions?" You ask them all.

"Oh let's go see a movie!" Owen immediately suggested.

"No suggestions from you or Veronica." You immediately sternly reply.

"What why? She was the one who did that stuff at the theater it wasn't even me!"

"You're such a liar!" Veronica replies while pushing Owen.

"Cunt!"

Once again they start to go at it.

You try your best to ignore them though as you continue taking suggestions from everyone else.

"I'd like to go hiking," Nick says.

"Baseball game..."Baron says next, which surprises you a bit.

Looking over at Ashley, she doesn't seem to be paying attention all that much.

"I don't care what you guys do..."

Well that was it then, you had your two suggestions.

You hiking

You didn't know how much tickets were to go the earliest baseball game this or next week, and you didn't really want to spend all that much money since you were basically broke as it was.

"Alright then, I guess we're going hiking."

"Sweet, I've like going to the mountains, my dad found an arrowhead one time when we went really far out!" Owen brags to everyone.

Even though Baron didn't get his suggestion, he still nods in approval while Gwen still doesn't really seem to give much of a shit.

----

This was really going to suck if you were the only one who was going to get tired out of this. Though on the bright side that meant you only had to pack for yourself, which made everything much lighter.

You were glad that Owen and Veronica were pretty enthusiastic about this trip, as they were already running ahead of the trail as far as the boundary would let them go. Baron and Nick were walking beside each other, talking about some grown-up stuff that would have probably bored you if you decided to join them.

Ashley was the slowest one of everyone else, dragging her feet as she just looked at the ground while she walked, making you anxious that she would bump into a cactus or something if she wasn't careful. These ghosts could touch things, you had no idea if they were susceptible to pain depending on what they touched.

Everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves out here, as you took suggestions on which routes to travel on and which spots to stay and just look at.

Though the one thing that really kept on bugging you on this trip was Ashley and her mopping in the back.

Maybe it was just best to ignore it and let her be down on her own.

You talk to her

You would probably be annoyed by this for the rest of the week, you best to just get this out of the way and try to talk to her about it.

Lagging behind everyone else a bit on the trail, you started to match your pace to Ashley who immediately noticed this.

"What do you want?" She asks rudely and a bit loudly.

"Just wanted to talk is all." You simply respond.

"I don't want to to talk, thank you."

"It looks like you do."

When you say this, she immediately gives you one of her usual dirty looks. She attempts to start walking ahead, but you hold her back by her bicep.

"Let go of me!" She yells twisting away from.

This causes everyone else to stop walking look at the two of you.

"Could you calm down a little?"

"Why do you want to talk with me?"

"Because you're someone I'm supposed to help. Besides your whole attitude lately has been absolute shit. I'm not going to stop bugging you about it until you tell me what fuck is so wrong."

Ashley sees everyone staring at her now as she backs up a little. You weren't planning on that happening, but since she decided to start yelling now all the attention was drawn on her.

"Can we talk about this later..." She says to you, with her voice turning extremely soft. You think you also heard a quiver.

You sigh, nodding your head in agreement.

"Alright shows over everyone, let's just keep walking." You say to everyone else watching.

You're pretty sure this little event pretty much negated all the fun that everyone was having, it would probably be best to end this hike soon.

You probably should have just kept your mouth shut.

You later that night

The hike actually went on longer than you thought it would after the argument, as everyone seemed to forget about it soon enough, and Ashley was quickening her pace to match everyone else's. By the time you got home though you were dead tired as it was already pretty late along with all the walking, you had done.

Everyone had been doing their own thing in your room that night as you got ready for bed after your shower. You had actually forgotten about your little fight with Ashley for a while, deciding to bring it up anymore since there was really no point if she was just going to get confrontational every single time.

Though right before you were about to call it a night and get into bed, she stopped you while standing up.

"Can we talk now?"

You were a little surprised that she wanted to go through with her earlier offer, with you just slowly nodding in agreement.

"I don't want to talk like this though, can I....." she doesn't finish her sentence, instead, raising up her arm towards you. If this was about to be a deep talk then it would make sense that she wouldn't want anyone else to hear. Raising up your own hand, you twist her forearm as she disappears in front of you.

'A- Whoa, I've never been inside here, it's weird....'

'Yeah, it is.'

You try to block off any other unrelated thoughts as she continues.

'A- Look, I want to apologize for what I did earlier, I've been thinking about it, and thinking about how I just act in general around everyone. It's just....I don't know I'm still upset about what I did. I've had so many regrets since I went through with it that it just got to the point in which it was all I could think about. What I could have done differently, the help I could have gotten that would have made me get better, it killed me inside as I thought about it every second, every day.'

'Yeah, I get what you mean, but you really have to let it go. I know it was a really shitty thing that happened, but there are some things you just have to stop worrying about if you have no way in changing the outcome. If you keep on worrying about the past, then it'll just fuck up your present, which will cause even more unhappiness with you. Look, I'm sorry for how I acted too. It's just ever since I've had to take everyone in, it's been bugging me every other day. Though honestly, it isn't even that bad, and I'm probably just overreacting about it. It's just.....seeing you unhappy makes me unhappy, so I want to stop that.'

You hear her laugh a little.

'A- Thanks for caring about me.'

You feel your face warm up a little as embarrassing thoughts start rushing through your head, which in turn makes her laugh even more.

'Well anyway, if you ever feel like you're down or anything like that. Please just talk to me about it. If not me then Baron or Nick. I want you to pass on happy, it's going be really shitty if you leave behind any regrets.'

'A- Yeah....Thanks for the talk, I really appreciate it.'

'Alright let's see if I remember how to pop you out of here.'

'A- Wait!......Would it be alright if I stayed inside her for the night...'

'Huh?'

'A-Well....I mean we can't sleep. So I was wondering if I was inside your mind while you slept, I could sleep too...'

'Well.....I mean if it doesn't work out then you realize you're going to be self-aware in total darkness right?'

'A- I'll take the risk.'

'Well if you want...'

You dreams

You don't really know exactly what happened in your dreams that night.

It's really hard to remember.

You do know that Ashley was there though, and the two of you were having fun. You were either at a carnival or in a city you can't really recall.

But you were having fun.

You hope that she was having the same dream too.

You day of Ascension

Ever since the day in which you all had fun. You had decided that it would be best to continue this as much as you could, continuing to take suggestions from everyone to places in which you could go and have fun. Each time everyone enjoyed themselves as all tensions seemed to fade off, you were glad that you managed to get through to Ashley as she now was enjoying the time with everyone else, being much more vocal and active.

It wasn't until the day that Ruby had said everything would be ending that you realized you would be missing everyone here. The time in which you've spent with them made you mad sometimes, yes. But on the other hand, they had become sort of like family.

No one really seemed all that happy upon entering the abandoned warehouse in which you would be performing the ritual with Ruby.

"Bout time you guys showed up, haven't you ever heard of being early? I thought you guys would be hurrying here with how much you wanted to leave before, especially you." Ruby complains as she sees all of you enter the warehouse, directing the last bit to Ashley.

Everyone stays silent though, as you're the first to speak up to break the awkward silence.

"Why are we even doing it here?" You ask, getting really creepy vibes.

"There are some cases in which ascension rituals get sort of.....unpredictable. They're really rare occurrences but it's best that were in a place in which nobody would bother to visit." Ruby explains.

That really didn't make you feel all that comfortable, but not like you could call this off or anything.

"So what does this ritual entail then?" You ask.

"A very simple process. Each spirit here stands before you, and they each shake your hand. Depending on their attitude, fulfillment's, regrets, it decides whether or not they ascend, all of things are taken into the factor."

That sounded easy enough, it's not like anyone here had any regrets now that you had Ashley was cool with her problems.

Everyone started to line up in a row while you stood before them.

"Alright let's make this quick, I got shit to do," Ruby says as she claps her hands.

The first person to step up to you is Baron.

You're about to speak first but he cuts you off.

"Listen, kid, I know I didn't talk all that much when I first came with you. I think I was just a little shocked that I had lost during my last fight. Thanks for giving me the time to enjoy life without having to worry about all that other shit that I had to deal with for most of my life, I really enjoyed it." He says raising up his hand.

"Thanks for being so cool with us, I hope you end up somewhere good Baron, you honestly deserve it."

He laughs at that. "That's debatable."

You raise up your own hand as the two of you lock onto each other, and before you know it, he's gone.

Nick is next, and again he's the first one to speak.

"Thanks for getting me out of that house kid, coming from the stories of everyone else here I was probably the one who had to stay in their death place the shortest amount of time. I probably would have started going crazy if I had stayed there any longer, due to some personal reasons I've been trying to forget all this time. Thanks for taking the time to take us to different places so we could enjoy ourselves before we left, it was probably one of the best months I can recall in years, you take care of yourself kid, and keep on helping those who can't help themselves."

"You really helped me a lot with everyone, you made things a hell of a lot easier then they would have been if you weren't there. You kind of honestly normalized everything, thanks for that, I hope you find your peace."

You both smile as your hands meet, as he too ascends in a matter of seconds.

Veronica and Owen step up next, wanting to do the ascension together.

"Bout time I got you out of my hair." You joke at Owen, who smiles in return.

Though the smile itself does not last, as it starts to quickly quiver as Owen runs up to hug your abdomen.

His muffled voice covered by your shirt begins to speak.

"I'm going to miss you."

You place a hand on top of his head while another one wraps around his back.

"Wherever you end up, make sure to stay out of trouble kid. Either way, though I'll know everything is going to turn out good for you. Thanks for making everything so fun, and I'm sorry If I ever got too mad you."

Fuck, you were actually about to tear up a little bit, though were able to stop yourself as Owen reluctantly let go of you as you gave one last firm hug, wiping away at his eyes.

"Don't worry about it too much kid, we'll meet again someday. I'm sure we all end up in the same place." You say to raise his spirits.

He smiles. "I'll be waiting for you so I can mess with you again."

You both laugh as you take his tiny hand into yours. After a brief pause, you turn your wrist as you see Owen leave your eyes for good.

You really hope that kid ended up somewhere nice.

Veronica's ascension was much shorter, you two really never talked all that much. So you gave her your best wishes and she did the same, she ascended without any worry.

Last but not least was Ashley, who slowly made her way up to you.

"I saw those tears back there, that was pretty cute." She laughs.

"I know I can get emotional too, big surprise," you reply with a grin.

The conversation seems to turn a bit more serious as Gwen's smile fades into a neutral tone.

"Thank you really for everything, I don't think I could have ascended if I was still depressed like that. You really did save me."

"Ehh don't be too dramatic, you would have found your way eventually. You're quick to see things through so I have good faith that you would have gone through eventually."

"I think you have a little too much faith in me, but it's nice that you think that. I'm going to miss you the most, thank's for the help. I'll be waiting for you on the other side." her hand goes up and so does yours.

"Until then." You reply as you both give a nod.

The wrist turns.

She's gone soon after.