Young Writers Society

"Awesome," said Susan, "so I guess it will look like...well you." She smiled awkwardly as Skull proceeded to note how she wasn't reacting very strongly.

"If you'd told me this a year ago, I would have run away screaming. Now, your story is really not the craziest thing I've heard this week." She frowned as she thought on how crazy that was. "I guess you get used to it."

"I wouldn't have done the same," I said, with yet another smirk, "but I wouldn't have believed that I could end up in another world until I came back from the dead twice."

This also wasn't the only other world I had visited before, but the Phantom didn't need to know that.

"And you're right on my body—it'll look exactly like this one."

Susan frowned at that smirk. They were starting to annoy her ever so slightly. "Okay then. Have fun searching, I'll just look around nearby and call for you if I see anything." She turned to leave and begun her search, but couldn't resist throwing one last line in the direction of the..well she didn't know what he was.

"You should smirk less. That might decrease your chances of being stabbed."

For a moment, said smirk faltered. It was a force of habit at this point, and it wasn't like I had been able to do it all that much when I had been stuck in my jar. The glass would distort it.

Then I remembered the whole point of the smirk was to annoy people, so the smirk returned in full force. I also remembered The Phantom was my current ticket to finding my body, so I decided the last thing I needed to do was leave her side.

"There has to be a better way of looking than that," I said. "You live here, don't you? There must be some place a magic knife would drop a body."

If Susan actually breathed in air, she would've sighed. As it she settled for a low groan. She really didn't like working with people with that attitude. But, yu do have to help everyone, unfortunately so she tried not to scowl as she stopped midstride, not bothering to turn back.

"Not if I'm the one doing the searching," said Susan, flatly, "I might live here, but its not been that long, certainly not long enough to know something that oddly specific."

Oh, she was definitely getting annoyed now. If I hadn't already been smirking, I would have grinned.

"Then do you know someone that does know?" I asked. I walked over her, bridging the little distance between us. "You can't be the only ghost kicking around here."

"I am the only one in this particular forest actually," said Susan, doing her best to keep her tone neutral. She dealt with far worse idiots, she reminded herself. There was no need to entertain this one any more than she already had with her little outburst. "And while I do know at least five or six people who'd probably know better, they're all very busy at this time."

That was...weird. I would have expected a place with a Type Three-esque ghost to have more ghosts kicking around. Type Threes were made from things tied to death. It wasn't exactly a rule, but it was close to one.

Maybe this afterlife just worked differently than the Other Side did.

"I'm sure they can spare a minute," I said, nonchalant. "But, until then, I guess you're stuck with me."

"At this time, I hardly think so. Sorry if this sounds rude, but they have far more important matters to tend to than one person," said Susan, resisting the urge to add on how they'd definitely not care to stop and help someone this annoying. "And well, I daresay your the one stuck. I can leave this forest any time I want. I'm just staying because I've decided that helping you is the right thing to do for some reason."

"I can leave, too," I pointed out. There was nothing to say my body was actually in this forest. I just knew that it was here. Here could have been the entire underworld. It could have been the forest. It could have been the part of the underworld the forest was apart of.

"For all I know," I said, with a stretch, "my body is just outside this forest."

"Oh, well then by all means," said Susan, gesturing broadly to the forest around them. "Look for a demon maybe. They'll be of much more help. Ghosts you can try to ask, but, not a lot of them are in any condition to help, the poor things."

Susan took a couple of steps back once again, slowly turning to walk away.

My face momentarily contorted into a look of disgust when she suggested looking for a demon—it reminded me too much the guy everyone always confused me for.

Then she kept talking, and the look disappeared.

I walked right next to her. I could tell she was trying to leave, but I wasn't going to lose my best chance at getting home.

"I meant that I could follow you out of the forest," I clarified.

Susan frowned at the look on Skull's face. She couldn't understand why demons got such a bad rap among so many other worlds. Was this world the only one where they weren't viewed that way? Well this one and that other world Harry had once mentioned.

"You could, but I really think you can find much better help," said Susan, starting to walk towards the exit. "And you said it yourself. You don't really know if you're body is in the forest or outside it, do you?"

"That's true," I said with a shrug, "but you also admitted earlier that you're the best help I can find. Everyone else that might be helpful is occupied right now. You're the only person I've run into so far. If I want to find my body and get back home, you're my best bet."

I thought for a moment. I could tell I was going to be losing a guide if I wasn't careful. Whatever I had unintentionally done to convince her that I was worth helping earlier was losing its effect. I needed to make her think helping me was beneficial—just like I had convinced Lucy to keep me around what felt like an eternity again.

But what could I offer her?

I looked her over again. She had mentioned being unused to things like this a year ago. That was more time than I had been on Arium, but it was nothing in ghost years. She was a little fledgling ghost, and I had been haunting my skull for over a century.

"You haven't been a ghost for long," I said. "You don't have a good grasp on your powers, do you? I could help you get better at using them. All you have to do is help me track down my body."

"No," said Susan, simply. She didn't quite know what exactly she was saying no to, but it felt appropriate in general. She did however not want to leave Skull hanging on just that so she tried to explain.

"I mean. The people who know how foreign magic works better than I do are currently busy, but there's plenty of people who know the layout of this place much better than I do that can help you a lot more. If you want, I can take you to one of them? I really don't know that much."

She took a deep breath after letting all that out. Responding to the rest of that offer was a tiny bit tricky, especially since she knew Skull had probably not meant to strike a slight nerve inside of her with that offer.

"I am not a ghost," said Susan, finally, voice a bit quieter than it should probably should be. She didn't know if Skull could even hear her.