Young Writers Society

Bobby let out a shaky breath. "O-okay..."

He didn't act scary, even if he did look the part. And he wasn't wrong. Bobby couldn't go about this on his own, and if these people really were nice...

He hesitantly stepped toward the tall man, his gaze flicking around nervously.

Neither Télos or Aquarius were really sure what had just happened, but they didn't have a chance to question it - a boy that had to have been Bobby had gone darting out of the store, and a man that had to be Bo had gone running after him. Neither one of them were what Télos had been imagining, but he pushed aside his surprise so he could focus on catching up.

They found both Bobby and Bo inside a store under construction. Bobby looked so small to Télos, but maybe that was because he was so close to Bo. Télos had a sneaking suspicion that everyone looked small compared to Bo.

Télos awkwardly stepped in through the doorway, Aquarius trailing behind him. When he glanced back, he saw Aquarius was awkwardly fingering his mask - almost like he was trying to figure out if he wanted to keep it on or not.

"Okay," he said softly.

Bo smiled warmly with his brows pinched upward, keeping from making any sudden movements. He didn't want to scare Bobby off again.

He could see Telos and Aquarius approaching from the corner of his eye.

"Telos, Aquarius, glad you guys are okay," he said, glancing over at them for just a moment. He wanted to keep his eyes on Bobby, who was still likely to flee at any given moment.

"It looks like we got pulled out of the mannequins," he continued. "So I guess we're something like ghosts now? Or spirits? Souls? I don't know how all this works, but, we're still alive, at least. So that's good."

Bobby inched behind Bo as the others approached. He didn't know them, and he didn't trust any of them, really, but Bo seemed like the nicest one so far.

He tried to stop his shaking hands, to look a little braver, to no avail. He was terrified.

Where am I? What's going on?

The others were so sure and he seemed like the only one who was nervous at all. Why was he the only one who was confused and scared?

Bo instinctively put a hand in front of Bobby as a shield between the boy and Telos and Aquarius, even though he knew there was no danger. Aquarius had a mask that Bo finally registered, and it seemed like something out a cartoon or an anime or something. It was cool, but it definitely told Bo that him and Telos were probably not from his world at all.

Télos faltered when he saw Bo put his hand out in front of Bobby.

He knew Bobby was scared of him, but he didn't know. He couldn't know. And he knew it hadn't been his fault back then - he hadn't been in control when all of it had happened - but Télos still got weird looks.

He glanced over at his brother. They were closer in height now; he was more used to Aquarius being as his big as he currently was. Aquarius looked uncomfortable, too. He knew his brother wasn't ready to take his mask off; he had been working on it just as much as Télos had been working on his guilt.

But Aquarius took it off anyways, holding it close to his chest and pulling up the hood to his hoodie to hide his face and most of his turquoise hair.

"Is this an awkward time to step in?" a voice suddenly said from behind him.

Télos, already on edge, spun around with his golden sword appearing in his hands. But all he found was the woman who had attacked him with the slingshot - and theoretically gotten him out of his body. He lowered his sword. Aquarius, who had made some water appear in his hand as another precaution, made the water completely vanish.

"I'll take that as a yes?" she replied, giving a sigh and a stretch. "This is why I don't like doing reaping stuff at all. It's so confusing, especially when the ghosts don't know they're ghosts."

When the woman had shown up Bo only leaned in a little more to shield Bobby, but he didn't flinch because of her - it was more because of the suddenly-appearing sword and water magic thing going on with Telos and Aquarius.

"So we are ghosts," Bo said. "You wouldn't happen to know where our real bodies are, would you?"

Télos's quiet, horrified whisper of "I'm a ghost?!" was lost to the woman's nonchalant shrug - only Aquarius really seemed to notice it, given how he glanced over at his older brother.

"I don't," the woman said, shaking her head. "I mean, I guess I can follow your souls to find them. But if you're ghosts, you probably don't want to see your body. You won't go crazy or anything, but it's kind of...depressing."

Bo opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out at first. He did not want to jump to the conclusion that he was dead. If he was, this was some weird, sucky afterlife. Waking up in an abandoned mall? Nah, man. He wasn't going to think about being dead. Not right now, while he could still think and talk and breathe.

"You know what, I think I can handle depressing," Bo said, not confident that he could, but determined nonetheless. "That, and I'd rather know what happened now than later, and you're probably the only person who'd be able to find our bodies anyway. So if you can, uh, follow our souls or whatever, please do. We can follow you."

Bobby had stopped trembling, but still inched a little further behind Bo. The man was comfortingly huge, now that he'd proven he wasn't going to use that for bad. Like a big wall to hide behind.

Bobby's teeth scraped at the dead skin on his lower lip as he thought. Dead?

Somehow, that was comforting. He couldn't be hurt if he was a ghost.

And people were scared of ghosts. Every haunted house, horror movie, and other spooky attraction had at least a reference to them. Even if it was a joke a lot of the time, people were scared. Like the monster under the bed. The little quips you exchanged with your friends didn't stop you from keeping your limbs neatly tucked under the blankets when the light went dim.

He stepped out, not completely, but enough that he could be seen. "Did we die?" his voice still trembled a little with fear, but he was much, much calmer now.

Follow your soul?

Why did that sound so familiar to Télos? He had heard it somewhere before, but he couldn't quite put his finger on where.

The woman - who still hadn't introduced herself - faltered at Bobby's question.

"Uh, yeah?" she hesitantly replied. "That's what happens when you're a ghost. You...You really don't remember?"

Aquarius frantically shook his head beside Télos. If Télos had glanced down at him, he would have seen that he was trying his very best not to cry. Télos would have felt like crying a little more if he wasn't so focused on why that phrase was ringing a bell. Why did he recognize it?

"...That's weird," the woman said. "You're fully formed ghosts, so you should remember your deaths. It's only the partials that don't get those memories sometimes. I, uh, think? I'm not really good with ghost stuff even though I'm technically a reaper."

She suddenly found a spot on the wall next to her to be very interesting.

"I'm Robin, by the way," she said, sticking her slingshot and hands into her pockets. "Who are all of you-"

"I got it!" Télos suddenly exclaimed.

Robin froze and stared at him.

Aquarius, wiping tears from his eyes, stared at him, too. "...Got what?"

"What Robin said!" he said. "'Follow your soul'. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't figure out why until a second ago. It's what I heard before waking up as a mannequin. I think we're supposed to do what Robin said and track down where our bodies are."

Télos suddenly heard a relieved sigh from nearby.

...Only, it wasn't really from nearby. It was as if it was coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. And the sigh was little more than a whisper, but somehow was perfectly clear.

Thank God, the voice from earlier said. I was starting to worry you'd forget about that-

Télos gave a startled yelp when he realized he couldn't place the voice at all. A second later, he was clinging to his slightly smaller brother, golden eyes wide and sword long since vanished.

"Is that a g-g-ghost?" he managed to get out.

Aquarius glanced up at him.

"Télos," he softly said, "we're ghosts."

Télos's grip loosened a little. "...But I can't see that ghost," he hesitantly said, already knowing how weak the argument was.

Okay, that was creepy.

Bo looked up and around, trying to find the source of the voice but couldn’t find any. But he remembered too. Follow your soul had been the whispered advice before he found himself here.

He cleared his throat, looking back to Robin.

“I’m Bo.” He gestured behind him. “My pal Bobby.”

“I don’t suppose disembodied voice has a name?”

Bobby controlled his breathing and stepped closer to Bo. He didn't like this.

He hadn't heard voices like that in a long, long time and he had never, never, never wanted to hear anything like it again.

Without thinking, he'd wrapped his fingers in the back of Bo's shirt and clung closer to him.

The disembodied voice does have a name, but I can't really share it right now, was the surprisingly quick reply. Télos had almost been expecting something a little more ominous. And I'm not a ghost, Télos-

"You know my name," he whispered.

It's not really important right now, the voice hurriedly countered.

Télos wanted to argue that it was, in fact, very important to bring up, but the not-ghost had already switched to focusing on Bobby.

And please don't be scared, Bobby, the voice said, its tone slightly slower. I promise what's going on isn't what you think is going on-

The voice paused for a second.

I can't say anymore, the voice said. I've probably already done too much already. I know I'm not supposed to meddle in things like this, but I wasn't going to let you all die after they separated your souls from your-

The disembodied voice suddenly gave a startled, worried little cry and fell silent.

Well that was even more unsettling. The disembodied voice that apparently saved them from death when someone separated their souls from (presumably) their bodies just got cut off.

Bo cleared his throat.

"Well. Uh. Weird disembodied voice aside, maybe we should follow our souls now," Bo said, looking to Robin. "That is if you'd lead the way."