Young Writers Society

Bo let one of his arms fall to the side and he stuck a finger in the sand as Skull replied. He started drawing what he thought might be a circle but could've just been a squiggle of lines. His finger followed the path round and round. Maybe.

"Fair point," he muttered, finally lifting his head up. Could he see, he was pretty sure he was facing the ocean. That would make sense.

"What are you thinking of?" he asked. "To get back. I thought it - well, I thought it was impossible. Because then everyone could go back, and that would... I dunno, defeat the purpose of dying in the first place. It'd just make everyone immortal in some weird way."

Bo wasn't a kid like Nikko had been, and didn't hate my guts like Megara did. Uncharacteristic optimism and very characteristic vagueness weren't really needed.

Something told me Bo would appreciate the truth more, anyways.

I sighed.

"I don't really have an idea right now," I said. "The last two times were flukes - we found a person who could do it the first time, and found an artifact that could do it the second. But both were pretty much one shot deals, so we can't use either one now."

I paused.

"Still," I said, "I've done it before, and I can do it again."

Bo hummed. His finger was digging deeper into the sand, up to his wrist now. Ah. Skull didn't know but was willing to try. So going home wasn't certain. He supposed that was for the best - he wouldn't get his hopes up on the off chance he was stuck here for eternity, or until his second death (if that was even a thing).

Bo took in a slow, deep breath and let it out. The saltwater smell in the air filled his lungs, but so did the fresh breeze riding off the waves.

He pulled his hand out, shaking off the sand.

"That seems like a pretty big thing to promise," he said quietly.

"That's not to say I don't want you to be right that we might find a way for me to get home. I just... I want to prepare myself for the worst, too. That I might be stuck here, I guess. I know it's too soon for me to decide that now. How I feel, or anything. I'm just thinking. The stakes are really high, and I don't want to get my hopes too high only to have them crushed later. Maybe that sounds jaded or something. I'm just-" he chuffed, weakly. He poked again at the sand, flinging some up in the air. He didn't know where or how far. "Guess I'm just trying to protect myself from the pain. I'm already feeling it and I know I'm in denial right now. Like, I just know it, but that's just how it is at the moment."

I watched a wave roll in.

"...I can get that," I finally - quietly - admitted. "When I ended up here, I was ready to pass on. I went out with a bang and everything. But the first time?"

I sighed and laid back on the sand, staring up at the overcast sky above. It felt weird talking about that with someone. I didn't usually. But the people who died rarely needed the kind of comfort Bo needed, and my last hurray as a ghost wasn't really the kind of story Bo needed to hear right now.

"I knew it was coming, I think," I said. "Just didn't expect to happen when it did. One moment I was alive, and the next moment I wasn't. Being a ghost does have its perks, but I hadn't ever guessed I'd be one."

Bo hadn't been turned into a ghost. He didn't know if that had even been a possibility for him. All he knew was that he was in some kind of afterlife, alive, but separated from the people he cared about.

Maybe it was because he couldn't see. Maybe it was because he hadn't fully experienced the physical pain of the loss of his second eye. But either way, this all felt like a dream, and he was stuck with his eyes closed. It was like a dream that he'd never wake up from.

It would be dramatic to call it a nightmare. It was far more peaceful than that.

It was just his painful reality.

"I..." he started a sentence, and floundered around in his mind for a few seconds, trying to find where it would land.

"I always knew the life I led in my youth would lead to harsh, and possibly inescapable consequences. I... I think I just felt safe. With my wife, and my daughter. I felt like for the first time in a very long time, things were normal - and because they were normal, nothing bad would happen. If I'm being honest, I think I forgot about the shadow of my past that kept following me."

He paused, hesitantly reaching out to where it sounded like Skull had sat.

He wanted to touch someone. Not because he wanted the comfort of human touch so much as he wanted the physical assurance that this was real. That it wasn't just all in his head.

"When you last saw me, Trey had been following me for a while, and continued to a while after you were gone. I kept an eye out until one day he just... disappeared. Fell off the map. It probably would've been smarter to move somewhere else, start over again. And again..."

"But I would've never met Mel. And I never would've had Maya."

When I realized Bo was trying to figure out where I was, I moved a little closer. I kept forgetting he was completely blind now, and not just in one eye. I listened to everything he said, too. Nathaniel and Asmira could joke all they wanted about how bad of a listener I was, but I was actually a good one. Listening and thinking was the most I could do for the past century, anyways.

But when Bo mentioned having a wife and daughter, I went stiff.

I had been assuming that Bo's life hadn't changed since we last saw each other. That he had his magical friend and that was it. There definitely hadn't been a wife or kid in the picture before. And I tried to push the thoughts that followed away, but I had already made the mistake of opening up about my first death.

I had wanted to get Bo back to his world before, but now I was determined to. I had to get Bo back to his daughter and wife.

"I'll get you back," I said. "I promise. And if your killer's not freaked out by you coming back from the dead, I'll make sure he doesn't even want to set foot near you again."

Bo's hand met Skull's knee at the word "promise."

(The remains of) Bo's eyebrows drew up and together, and his mouth tightened into a frown.

"I don't think he'll make it that long," Bo said softly, sober. "Today my father is going to be released from prison. The moment he realizes I'm dead, he won't stop until he finds my killer and makes sure they die a terrible, horrible death."

His head dropped low.

"Today would've been the first day we could meet without a wall of glass between us."

I frowned.

I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get a chance to deal with the guy myself, but at least Bo's dad would be taking care of it.

"So you'll just have to push off meeting for a bit, then," I said, shrugging. "You'll see him again. Don't worry."

I gave the hand he had on my knee a pat, then got to my feet and stretched.

"But before we go searching after a way to get you home, it's probably a good idea to get you some new clothes," I pointed out.

Bo got to his feet, surprisingly more steady than he thought he'd be. Apparently years of having no depth perception prepared him for this moment. He didn't know how he felt about that.

"How bad is it?" he asked, before realizing he should clarify. "Like, uh, my clothes I mean."

I looked him over.

"...Bad," I determined. "You definitely look like you just died."

"Is that not a 'look' for people down here? The just-died look? Or is it a please-mug-me look? Or a i-just-got-mugged look?"

I couldn't help but give a smile at that.

"It's a just-died look," I admitted. "But this place we're in doesn't have a lot of new arrivals from what I've seen, so it's probably good to trade out your bloody clothes."

Besides, we still had that guy after us. And if he somehow managed to track us down, the worst thing that could happen was him seeing Bo as someone that could easily be taken care of.

Bo pretended to look himself up and down before sighing.

"Okay, but you better not dress me up in anything stupid."

I smirked a smirk I forgot he couldn't see.

"Will do," I said. "I'll make sure to pick you the stupidest outfit I can find."

I turned to walk away, then paused when I remembered that Bo was blind now - he might have been able to hear where I was going, but I had no idea if that was enough to follow me.

I changed course, returning to his side and grabbing his hand. Then I headed off to where town was, leading Bo towards it.

Bo turned towards the direction he thought Skull was going, but once Skull had grabbed his hand, he realized he was wrong, anyways. He followed, hoping that Skull would have the forethought to tell him if there were any major obstacles Bo could trip over or run into along the way.

If not, well, it wasn't like landing on his face would do much more damage than was already there.

"Find me a shirt with a pun on it," he said, taking confident steps even though he was far from confident.