Young Writers Society

Oh, she definitely found that off-putting.

I studied her again. She seemed surprisingly uncomfortable with this whole conversation despite being a Type Three. With a name like the Phantom and that kind of ghostly classification, my comment shouldn't have made her that uncomfortable. From the gulping, she might have even been scared of me.

Which didn't make any sense at all.

"Where'd your name come from?" I asked, taking a step forward. I honestly doubted she was going to attack me at this point. "Mine was from the agency that was keeping my skull. They weren't exactly the most creative, calling me 'the skull' all the time when talking about me."

Susan shuddered at what that implied. Someone had kept this person's skull for some reason. She shivered once again, even though she really shouldn't be able to. Maybe that's why this ghost was so grim all the time. That would be a very good reason to see the world in such a harsh light.

"The people I helped," said Susan, a tiny smile making its way onto her face at the new memories formed in recent times. "And I thought it was really cool, so I kept it."

I faltered.

That was...different than what I had expected. I had assumed that the name had come from the people who made her into a Type Three. Maybe they were the people she had helped, but I doubted it.

My posture relaxed ever so slightly.

"Do you do that a lot?" I asked. "Help people?'

"When I..." Susan began, before realizing that was maybe part of the things she shouldn't be saying and changing her direction slightly. "...can. Its a really wonderful feeling to help someone." She did genuinely believe in that though. As much as what she had to do at the beginning was technically without her having a choice, helping people had proven to be something she really enjoyed doing.

I noticed her faltering, but I decided I wasn't going to address it. As of right now, the only red flag I could see was that the Phantom was a Type Three. She didn't seem to be having any trouble with the ones who had made her, and even seemed to be doing helpful things with her abilities.

...A pit formed in my spectral stomach at the thought. I had never really done that when I was true ghost. I had helped, sure, but it had never been in that kind of innocent way the Phantom must have. I had even told Lucy to leave Lockwood & Co. for dead.

Well, with that sobering thought, it was time to turn my attention to the now more pressing thing: I needed to find my body. It probably wouldn't be good letting it bleed out any longer.

I looked around the forest.

If I was a presumably magic knife that teleported people from one forest to another, where would I have brought my body?

"It was nice chatting," I said, "but I should be going—I have a body to find. Let me know if you see it kicking around anywhere."

Susan nodded. She couldn't echo the sentiment that it had been nice to chat. It definitely hadn't, but she was much too polite to say that outright. The last thing he said did definitely catch her attention though.

"A body?" she asked, confusion leaking into her voice. She'd heard him mention it earlier but had assumed it was some sort of veiled threat. "Sorry if I'm being rude, but aren't you dead? What good would finding your body do?"

"I never said I was dead," I replied. I walked over to a tree and checked behind its trunk. Then I frowned. My body, unsurprisingly, wasn't behind it. "I said that it was complicated. I can get back into it, once I find out where it is."

I walked over to the next tree and checked for my body. My frown deepened when I couldn't find it there. Where could it be? There had to be a faster way of checking for it.

Susan's confusion only increased. "Complicate? But...if you're not dead, how are you here? You can't be. Unless you were...oh why did I complain about this day being too boring?"

Mid-peering behind a tree, I froze.

I kept one hand on the bark of the tree as I turned back to look at the Phantom. There were only two places that let the dead roam free: the Other Side and Arium. This couldn't be Arium. Most people there were comfortable saying that they weren't dead anymore, since we were more like the living than ghosts once we ended up there. As for the Other Side...

...It wasn't as likely, but it was possible.

"...Where are we?" I slowly, carefully asked.

"The Underworld," Susan said, as if that should've been obvious. One doesn't just randomly pop in there after all, you only come here if you had no other choice or if you really wanted do.

I went incredibly still.

That couldn't be right. I could still feel my body. I knew it was here. I couldn't pinpoint where it was, but I wouldn't be confused over something like that. This wasn't me trying to prove to myself that I alright.

Then again, hadn't I already cheated death before? Wouldn't it be par for the course if I somehow survived going to the afterlife?

"I'm not supposed to be here," I finally said. It had to be that knife. The wound probably wasn't fatal on its own, but it must have had some weird kind of magic that brought me and my body here. If I could yank it out of me, I could probably return home.

I just had to find my body.

"Ohhh," said Susan, "but if you're not meant to be here, how are you alive? No one alive that's not given permission can enter this area."

"Like I said," I replied, "it's complicated."

I paused, debating if I should reveal exactly why it was complicated. Natty boy and Asmira hadn't originally believed me when I told them I haunted my own skull, and it had taken me passing out in front of Nikko for her to realize why I acted the way I did. For the most part, I didn't share who I had been before. I just ominously referred to it from time-to-time.

But seeing that I was currently in the afterlife with only one person who seemed to know what was going on, I'd have to reveal a secret or two. She was probably my best bet at getting home now. She'd know where I could find my body, or know someone who could help me find it.

"Death doesn't like me," I started. I turned so I was actually facing the Phantom instead of looking over my shoulder at her. I moved my hand off of the tree for good measure. "I was a ghost who haunted my own skull. I tried passing on, but instead of getting sent to the afterlife, I ended up on a world filled with other dead people brought back to life. Some of my ghostly powers stuck around. I was doing fine with them, but I was rudely stabbed with a knife."

I gestured at the seemingly bloody wound in my stomach.

"The knife must have brought me here. And before you guess I'm dead for good: I can still feel my body, and there's no way I would let myself get killed by a guy like that."

Susan nodded at the explanation. A year ago, she would've probably fainted on hearing that or run away screaming, or both. Now, it was hardly the craziest thing she'd heard this week. Her own story was probably on par with that.

"Sorry to hear that," said Susan, pouring a touch of genuine emotion into her words. "You must be from a world parallel to ours. This underworld simply doesn't work that way, but luckily I don't think you would have too much trouble finding your way out, there are plenty of people to help with that. As for your body, well it's not like I have plans for the evening and this seems urgent. Do you want any help?"

I nodded. I could use the help.

"You're taking this surprisingly well," I noted. Parallel worlds weren't anything new to me. I had been visiting Nikko's world for ages at this point, and had even encountered an alternate version of her crush and his childhood best friend.