Young Writers Society

Trevor backed away from the view of the maze, which was totally freaking him out, and kept an ear on the conversation going on between Adeline, Natalia, and er, the Grim Reaper. Still Griffith? He wasn’t sure. He felt guilty for listening in, but he didn’t want to intrude, and he definitely didn’t want to find out more about the maze.

Instead, he nudged a nearby door open with the toe of his boot. Inside was what seemed to be a lot of furniture, all covered in white sheets to keep the dust off. It reminded him of ghosts in a bad way, so he hurriedly closed the door and edged a little closer to the others. He would rather be guilty of eavesdropping than end up lost and alone.

Natalia rested her hand on his shoulder. "People have become closed minded. We like you, we aren't going to hold anything against you."

Realizing that there really was no point in staying as a partial anymore, he let himself become visible and solid like he had been earlier. He looked over at Adeline for a moment and concentrated hard. There was a cartoonish heart nestled inside of her chest. His jaw dropped just a little bit - not because he was surprised, but because it was the one way he could really convey a smile.

"You have a soul," he told her. "I can see it right now."

He looked up at Natalia. After a moment of hesitation, he rose to his full height and instead looked down at her - he easily towered over both of the girls standing near him. "But Trevor and Bleffles are scared of me," he quietly pointed out. "There's nothing you can do about that. I don't think it's really because people are close-minded. People fear death. It's a natural thing, right? You don't know what comes next. I don't, either. And the Grim Reaper...the Grim Reaper is supposed to kill people. It's hard not to be afraid of someone like me for that."

He glanced down at himself, then back over at Natalia.

"Also I'm a giant skeleton," he added, "that moves and talks. I don't think that really helps all that much."

Natalia nodded. "You have a point, but Trevor and Bleffles are going to have figure something out. We can't split up, they know you aren't going to kill them. For most people, yes, they fear death. Trevor and Bleffles are going to have to push that aside. I don't have that fear."

“I-I’m not afraid,” Trevor said before he could think better of it. “Or, I mean, I’m not afraid of death. Or the Grim Reaper. The whatever. It’s just part of life, right? What I am afraid of is messing up in front of others and embarrassing myself making stupid decisions.”

He paused for a moment before adding, “And I’m already doing that, so I’m already terrified of pretty much everything in this place. So... I guess I’m trying to say that if you want to stick with us, I’m okay with that.”

Trevor looked down at his feet, face reddening. He hardly understood half of what he said, and he desperately hoped it was the right sort of thing. Also, there was the small matter of his listening in on the conversation before just popping right into it.

Adeline brightened immensely at the prospect of having a soul. She tried to get a handle on her elation as she listened to Grim's address to Natalia. She opened her mouth to try to respond, only to startle as Trevor too the opportunity instead.

Deciding to remain silent and not overwhelm Grim, she gave a reassuring smile and gently reached over to pat Trevor's shoulder.

Bleffles meekly descended the stairs, and tried to pretend that stepping slowly would make her return more subtle.
She knew it was having the opposite effect.

Bleffles inhaled purposefully, and strode up to Griffith.
She coughed. "Ghm. I'm sorry if I made you feel self-consious about your body." she said.

Then she stuck out her hand, which shook only slightly. She hoped he would not take that personally.

"Whatcha say? Still wanna be Danger Castle Buds with good 'ol Princess Dinosaur?" said Bleffles, with a twitchy, but genuine smile.

Grim down at the hand offered to him, then back up at its owner. His gaze slowly traveled from one person to another - from Bleffles to Trevor, from Trevor to Adeline, from Adeline to Natalia, and finally from Natalia back to Bleffles. His gaze dropped back down to the hand. He couldn't understand why they would all be so accepting of him. It didn't matter that Bleffle's smile twitched or her hand shook; she was still trying to show him that she accepted him for being the way that he was.

Maybe there were people out there who broke the rules of what he had known, and he had just had the unfortunate luck of never being able to find them before now. He didn't want to get his hopes up, but maybe, just maybe, other people like these four existed out there - people who would openly accept him.

He reached out a slightly trembling hand of his own and shook Bleffle's.

"I do," he said. "I-I really do."

And that was when he noticed that the temperature in the hallway had dropped a considerable amount in a matter of only seconds, and that it was so cold he could see the group's breaths forming in the air.

His hand immediately dropped to his side, and he looked up and down the hallway in horror. "Oh no," he whispered.

Natalia, shoulder aching, smiled as Trevor and Bleffles calmed down. Then she became aware that the air had become cold. She shivered, then looked up when she heard Grim speak. She turned pale.

Adeline didn't feel the cold first hand, and so it took her until Grim's reaction to it to realize that the temperature was dropping. She glanced over at the others, whose breaths were coming out in little clouds.

"T- that's not good, is it?" She said softly, for some reason feeling as if she shouldn't raise her voice.

Grim shook his head. "It's not," he said, his voice quiet and high with fear. He looked up and down the hallway as the temperature dropped just a little more; he couldn't see it yet, but it had to show up soon. "A p-partial is coming. They're not usually good ghosts. They were...They had a regret when they died, but the regret wasn't strong enough to keep all of their soul. So it's just a part, and that part fixates on whatever they regretted."

He took a step closer to the group, hoping that he was standing on the side that the ghost would come from. "And a lot of times, the reason they're still around is because they were killed in violent ways and want revenge."

Natalia nodded, shivering with the cold.

The Grim Reaper had just accepted what amounted to a friendship proposal. That was nice.

Bleffles was thinking about how she was going to tell her grandchildren about this someday, until she was shocked to find not only that the temperature was dropping fast, but that it clearly had nothing to do with Griffith.

She paled at his description of the partials.

"I didn't bring any salt! But salt isn't for ghosts, anyway. But I should have, just in case-" muttered Bleffles, thinking fast, but not thinking.

She looked up to Griffith. "What should we do? It's your job to deal with souls, so you know what to do, right?"