Young Writers Society

Bo loved the smell of the fried food. He tried to imagine the deep-fryers, and the breaded meat sizzling in the oil. He tried to imagine the servers handing them over when he received the stick in his hands and felt the way the meat was distributed on the stick. It felt hefty. Filling.

When he took a bite into it the taste was wonderful, but more than the taste hit him in that moment.

He... he would never be able to cook again.

Not like he used to. It didn’t matter which world he was in.

He stood frozen, stick in hand.

Nathaniel was the one who caught Bo's reaction first - I was too distracted by my food to notice.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Asmira gave him a concerned look as well.

I opened my mouth to add my own comment in once I saw Bo's reaction, but I didn't get a chance to speak. Someone had slipped around the stall and grabbed me from its side. And with Asmira and Nathaniel's backs turned, and Bo blind, there was no way for me to seen when the guy pulled me around the corner with their hand.

A shadowy hand.

I went to give some sort of cry of alarm, but my shadowy friend had decided he was going to cover my mouth. All that came out was a mumbled Victorian swear, and it was easily lost among chatter of the bustling streets.

So I did the first thing that came to mind.

I possessed him.

I had done it briefly back when he captured me the first time, but it wasn't for as long as this. It felt weird - like I looked one way on the surface, but was another way down beneath it.

My body went limp in my arms.

And this guy had a seriously strong will. I kept trying to fight it, but I could barely get control. In the struggle that ensued, my body went crashing to the ground.

And that was the noise I needed.

Leave me, djinni, he commanded, or my master will-

"For the last time," I said in his weird, shadowy voice, "I'm not the guy you have a problem with. My name is not Bartimaeus, I'm a ghost and not a spirit, and I'd really appreciate it if you stopped with the kidnapping attempts!"

Bo felt tears prick at his tear-ducts. He held it in. He took in a slow, deliberate breath, though his chest felt like it was shaking.

“No,” he said quietly. “I’m just... it’s just hitting me again.”

He held the stick awkwardly, unsure that if he drew it too close, he’d make a mess on his new clothes.

The he heard something crash, and his ears perked up. He looked towards the sound.

“What was that?”

I couldn't see it from where I was fighting against my kidnapper, but Asmira and Nathaniel both turned towards the noise, too.

"Skull's gone," Nathaniel commented.

Asmira pulled out one of her knives. "They must have found us - Nathaniel, you stay with Bo."

Before anyone could question her plan, Asmira slunk towards the noise. When she turned the corner, she saw my body sprawled across the ground and me towering over it. She immediately raised her knife like she was going to throw it, but I held my hands up in mock surrender.

"Put the knife down!" I exclaimed. "It's me - Skull. This guy tried kidnapping me again."

Bo had to strain his ears to hear, but he caught “Skull” and “tried kidnapping again.” It seemed like he wasn’t the only person with people on his tail. Then again, the last time he’d met Skull, Skull had been in trouble then too. Stabbed, and all.

This was probably a normal, if unwanted, occurrence for them.

“Are you alright, Skull?” he called out.

Even as my would-be kidnapper tried to fight it, I slowly walked towards the entrance of the mini-alley and looked around the corner. Asmira, realizing it really was me, took the helpful extra step of grabbing my body and bringing it along.

"Considering that I'm possessing the guy who tried kidnapping me, I'm doing great," I said, shrugging. He kept going off in his head about how his master would make me pay for this - I ignored it.

"Hey, Natty boy, I look like you right now," I commented. Nathaniel frowned right now. "Although I can see your eyes when you use your powers - this guy is all shadows."

Bo tilted his head to the side. "Why'd this guy try to capture you?"

I mulled over the question, moving a little closer to Bo to make sure he could hear my answer.

"Well," I started, "he tried capturing me last week so he and his master could get revenge for something Asmira and this guy named Bartimaeus did. Because everyone who ever met that guy thinks that I'm him. So it's probably a combination of revenge for whatever the two of them did and revenge for the last time, too."

"It doesn't happen a lot," Asmira reassured Bo.

"It doesn't," I agreed. "Usually we're dealing with Nathaniel's enemies."

Nathaniel gave me a look. Maybe Asmira and him were trying to make Bo less worried, but I wasn't going to sugarcoat things for him.

Bo nodded slowly. He didn't really know enough about the three to understand the fullness of that statement, but he figured that meant probably had a past that caught up to him to - and apparently so far as to follow him into the afterlife. At least, that was his assumption. It didn't seem like Nathaniel was looking to make enemies once he was dead, but Bo didn't know much for sure.

He could hardly remember what Nathaniel even looked like, but he remembered him looking like a teenager. Whether he was one or not was never said, but if he was anything like Skull, he probably wasn't as old as he seemed.

Though he was physically the largest, he was probably the youngest among them. That felt weird to admit. Then again, admitting to himself that he was dead was even weirder, and he hadn't really gotten there yet.

"Ah," he hummed. "Revenge plots... sounds sad. Typical cause of trouble, but sad."

"See?" I said. "There's no reason to dance around it - Bo knows how the whole revenge thing goes. The guy I was possessing when we ended up in his world was someone who definitely disliked him. And besides. We all have some kind of power to protect ourselves."

"Bo doesn't know his power yet," Nathaniel pointed out.

"But I know his power," I replied. "And I'll show him how to use it, too, once we get rid of our shadowy friend. Now, how can we ditch him this time..."

"Spirits don't like silver," Asmira said. "I think the one you're possessing is a higher level-"

"He is," I said. He had just interrupted the conversation in my head to inform of how powerful he was, and I had a feeling he was telling the truth.

Asmira nodded.

"Silver still should have an effect on him," she informed us - though the information was mostly for Bo and me. Nathaniel already knew everything she was saying, after all. "There's a jewelry shop down this street. Skull and I can go there. Once we're inside, Skull can switch back to his body."

I gave a grin that they couldn't see.

"I like the way you think, Asmira," I said. "He's already complaining about it in my head - let's do it."

I looked back towards Nathaniel and Bo.

"Be right back," I said, giving a wink that both of them couldn't see.

And then Asmira and I were heading down the street, Asmira carrying my body in her arms. We got a few weird looks, but people tended to stop questioning strange things like that on this world.

While Bo waited for Skull to return, he stood quietly, eating his meat on a stick as carefully as he could. Even though he didn't have any more eye to poke he still was trying to not stick his face with a stick or with meat. Cleaning up after himself just seemed like it would be a nightmare without help. Earlier he could barely get his clothes on.

When he bit at the last piece of meat (if any fell, it was unbeknownst to him) and swallowed, he wondered how much time had passed.

Skull had mentioned something about powers. About him having powers.

Wait, what?

Bo reached out to his side, swinging his arm a little before he found Nathaniel's chest. He had meant to tap his shoulder, but he guessed that'd have to do.

"Oops. Uh. Sorry. Probably should've just said your name, but uh. Skull said... I have powers? And he knows what they are? I like, vaguely remembering him saying people could wake up here after death with powers but uh, I'm confused."

Nathaniel shifted a little when Bo suddenly reached out and touched him - the sudden contact took him by surprise. He didn't flinch. He had been taught not to do that. But it was still more than a little bit of a shock when he suddenly felt someone touching his chest.

"It's alright," he reassured him. It had been awhile since he had last slipped into the persona of John Mandrake, but he couldn't help it. This felt like the type of situation where it would be comforting to talk to who he had been before he died - not after. "We do all have powers here. Since you died before ending up here, you have some kind of power as well. I don't know what it is. Skull must have seen you using it earlier. Some powers let you tell what other people's abilities are, but his isn't one of them."

He thought about the powers that they had.

"Skull can possess people," he said. "Which I'm sure you already knew. I can turn my body into shadows, and, according to Skull, Asmira imitates ghosts by changing the temperature of a place and making it darker."

Bo hummed. He'd kinda already known all of their powers because he'd seen them himself. The reminder helped bring the memories back, though. Asmira had cut the lights, Nathaniel has shimmied in the shadows, and well, he was already familiar with Skull's possessing.

He wondered what he had. If it was something he couldn't see, but others could, how would he be able to control it? Would it just be dangerous? Were there other blind people that they had met who had managed to control their powers? Surely he couldn't be the only one.

"This... might be a dumb question, but, how long have you been here? I guess - I just wonder if you've met anyone else who has powers and is also blind. I feel like that might make me using my powers more complicated."

"We haven't been here that long," Nathaniel admitted. He wished he could say otherwise, but there was only one answer he could give. "We never met someone who was in the same situation as you."

He paused.

"...I'm sorry," he hesitantly added, his voice soft.

Bo was playing with the wooden stick in his hands as Nathaniel spoke, and accidentally snapped it when Nathaniel said "sorry." He didn't know what to do with the sticks, now. He didn't know where a trash can was, and he didn't want to litter.

"Ah. It's okay. I can't imagine blind folks ending up here is like, super common." He laughed a little. "I mean, I don't know how densely populated it is, but, I can't imagine you've explored the whole thing. Uh." He paused, still playing with the broken sticks in his hand despite himself, starting to twirl them between his fingers.

"How long ago has it been since you got here? I know Skull is like... ancient."