Young Writers Society

I crouched down in front of Eddie. "I'll help her like I helped you," I said, giving him a big wink before looking back at Megara. I could tell she meant the thread, but I seriously doubted if she'd be able to act on it.

Still, she did need an explanation.

"You're dead," I said. "And, apparently, death likes you just as much as it likes me. Like Natty boy, Asmira and I did, you ended up here after you died. As a little gift, you've been given some kind of power. Eddie has, too, in case you couldn't guess. Your power seems like it's some kind of empathy. If you want your head to stop feeling overwhelmed, you need to get a check on your powers. Powers like acting up when emotions come into play, so isolation is probably the best bet for you."

I spun around, gesturing at the building behind our group.

"Luckily, we have a nice abandoned building right here!" I said. "Go inside there, focus, and you should be able to block it all out."

Megara glared at him and Eddie's gaze switched between them like he was watching some kind of bizarre tennis match. "He can help you, Meggie!" Eddie encouraged, "He knows how to make the weird stuff stop!"

Megara glanced down at him. She returned her attention to Skull. "Fine...fine." She walked into the building without saying another word to him. She was furious, someone else was furious, something. She was feeling anger. She wished she could know if it was hers.

While Megara brooded inside of the building, I turned my attention to Eddie. I could hear Nathaniel and Asmira whispering and shifting behind me - probably talking about how we had two more people to add onto our ragtag bunch - but I was more focused on keeping the kid occupied.

"Thanks for helping me convince her," I said. "Meggie can be really stubborn, can't she?"

Eddie nodded, "Yeah! But mostly with you. She doesn't like you very much." Eddie wanted to go in there with Meggie. She was gone for so long and she was so covered in blood. She didn't look okay. When Meggie wasn't okay he usually had to help her become okay.

"I have to help Meggie," he said, "She's not okay."

"Most people don't like me," I reassured Eddie. The comment hurt - even if I wouldn't admit it to Eddie or Megara - but I brushed it off so I could focus on Megara's situation.

"You're helping her by staying out here with me," I said. "She can feel other people's emotions. If she wants to feel better, she needs to get away from us so she can just focus on her own emotions."

"Oh," Eddie looked down sadly for a moment, but then perked up, "Does that mean when I'm happy Meggie will be happy too?!" That would be really good! He was happy more than Meggie was happy, and he wanted her to be happy more. She always looked so sad.

I grinned.

"If you're happy, she's happy," I replied, "and I don't think it's just because of her power."

Eddie didn't completely understand what he meant, but he grinned anyway.

"When will Meggie come back out?"

I thought for a moment.

"I'm not really sure," I admitted. "Powers are different for every person, and I have no idea what it's like to feel so many emotions."

Megara emerged from the building a few minutes later looking much calmer. She walked up to Eddie and knelt beside him.

"How are you feeling?" she asked him gently.

Eddie grinned, "I'm very good!"

She dipped her head, "That's good."

There was a beat wherein nothing was said, then she stood and faced Skull. "Where are we?" She no longer sounded angry, or stressed, or anything, really. Her voice was devoid of just about any emotion at all.

The lack of emotion was just a bit worrying, but I guess it meant she had gotten a temporary hold on her powers. "I'm surprised you haven't figured it out," I said. "I thought you would have guessed the moment you saw me-"

Nathaniel cleared his throat, and Asmira gave me a look. It wasn't my fault that my first thought was to banter - it was what I was used to doing with her and people like her. It made it easier to deal with her being dead, and made it easier to pretend this was just another grand adventure with the two of us.

"We're in my world," I said. "The world where you go when you die, and death decides it doesn't really like you that much. Technically you are dead, but you got a second chance - and a second body - here."

She nodded as if that meant any sense at all. It didn't.

"Glad we got that figured out. Now, is there a way I could change," she looked down at her tattered, bloodied tunic and pants. The didn't look like they would stay together much longer, being threadbare and torn even before the...even before her slow murder began.

I looked over at Asmira, a certain little glint to my eye.

Nathaniel groaned.

Asmira raised an eyebrow and glanced over at him. "What's wrong?"

"He has that look to his eyes again," he said. "You know that look - Bartimaeus had it all the time, too-"

I coughed.

"He can hear you right now," I said, crossing my arms and shooting him a glare, "and you know how much I hate comparisons to him, Natty boy."

I glanced back at Megara.

"Besides, I have nothing nefarious in mind right now," I reassured him. "I was just seeing if Asmira's clothes would fit Megara. Megara's a little on the small side, but they should do until we can go shopping."

Megara scowled at him, "You berate your friends for referring to you in the third person to your face, and then you do it to me?"

Eddie, who probably had no idea what was going on, instantly turned to mimic Megara's scowl at Skull, "Yeah! Pa-polo-gize!"

Nathaniel, Asmira and I paused in the middle of bickering when we heard Eddie speak. I couldn't say what the other two were thinking, but the kid was cute. It was hard not to start smiling at his comment.

"Sorry," I said, shrugging. A second later, I hurriedly added, "Not sorry."

Nathaniel groaned, and Asmira gave me a look.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"One hundred and fifty-seven years old," I replied without missing a single beat. Now Nathaniel was giving me that look, too, but I brushed it off with another shrug. It wasn't my fault that neither one of them could believe I was a ghost before all of this. In their defense, I hadn't exactly shown them the ghostly abilities that stuck with me when I ended up here. "Fine. I'm seventeen. You happy?"

"You act like you're much younger," Nathaniel muttered.