You didn't move, but instead, help your ground as the ghost continued to eye you.

"What's your name?" You ask, a little more steadily then your wordings from before.

The ghost stood motionless her a second as her pupils moved from side to side, as if thinking heavily on the answer to your question.

"It was Gwen."

"Well, I'm sure it wouldn't be all that bad if you still decide to go by Gwen." You joke a little with a smile.

The humor doesn't seem to be returned though as her face shows no emotion, making you feel a bit awkward for what you just said.

"You're not going to go then...?" Gwen asks in a lower voice than before.

You shake your head. "I usually don't like going to first period anyway, It wouldn't be all that bad if I just killed time here with you for a while.

You knew your mom and dad would seriously have your ass if they found out you were ditching, but you would worry about that at a later time.

"I see.." Gwen replies as she makes direct eye contact with you once again.

"Do you have anything you would like to talk about, anything you'd like to ask me?" You had run out of things to say to her so you decided it would be best to let her do the talking while you came up with more topics in the back of your head for later.

"What grade are you in?" This was probably the first time you could directly hear emotion in her voice, which was no doubt curiosity.

"Oh, I'm a senior, this will be my last year before I graduate."

"I was a Junior...I think I know school was just starting though." Gwen replies with her own memories.

"Oh really, did you know which school you had gone too?" you asked a little too quickly since you were interested if you went to the same school or not.

"I don't know..."She says sorrowfully, breaking eye contact and looking down.

For someone who has been dead for less than a year, this girl seemed to forget things rather quickly. You had met one or two ghosts who seemed rather old, and even they seemed to have more recollection about their past than she did. You didn't want to pry too much though, as the questions seemed to be bothering her somewhat given on how they were making her act.

You decided that it would best to come up with questions on your own.
> You what's your favorite color?
Wanting to start your questions with something simple and innocent, you tried asking something basic.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Green." She says immediately, her attitude sparking up with that answer.

This causes you to smile a bit.

"How come it's your favorite color?"

"I used to go on trips a lot to the mountains, with my grandpa at his lake house. I loved the trees around there."She says, quite rapidly, and possibly with excitement.

As she's talking about this, you could swear that there areas of her body that were turning from a rotten and decayed color to the light color of tan skin. Even her eye that was bulging seemed to shrink slowly to that of normal size.

"Yeah, that seems like a pretty nice play to go too, always wanted to go to a place like that."

"It really is great! Especially when it snows, it's an experience that you have to be there to truly know how great it feels!" As Gwen says this, her smile starts to fade, and her older decayed features begin to reappear.

"I want to go back..."

You frown at her sudden change in mood, you take a look at your phone again only to see that a half an hour had passed.

Fuck you really couldn't miss more than one period or you're mom would REALLY have your ass, the confidence of staying had left as soon as her mood began to falter again, you would have to come back and talk to her some more when you had the luxury of your own set time.

"Listen, I have to go and get to school. I'm going to come back though O.K? I just really can't miss it."

She lifts her head with a pained expression on her face.

"You promise you'll come back?"

"Promise."

With that being said, she sits back onto the asphalt and covers her head into her knees.

"I'll see you then."

It takes you a moment before you get yourself to move your legs and head down the quiet sidewalk towards your school.

Classes go by fairly slowly for you as you can't stop thinking about Gwen. About what she had told you so far and the time she had spent on that street.

It seemed rather odd how often her mood had changed, from being quiet to being happy and then finally ending with sadness. You couldn't tell if it was something like her being bipolar or just all the events that happened in such a short time span. Either way, you still felt sadness for how you left her, and you immediately had plans to go and visit her again on your walk home.

Though on your walk, you had gotten a call from your mom. She chewed you out a little for being marked absent for first period, and you just gave the excuse that you had to go to the bathroom on the way to school and couldn't hold it. That seemed to work for her as she didn't try to question you all that much afterward.

Gwen's figure had started to come into view as you arrived at her street. She was still sitting down while holding her knees, but as soon as she caught sight of you she instantly picked herself up and waved at you, with a cheery expression on her face.

"You came back!" She beamed with a wide smile.

"Of course I did, I promised you didn't I?"

Her smile got bigger as she tilted her head while her eyes narrowed.

"You're not leaving right away though right?"

"Of course not, I got plenty of time to spare." You assure her.

Her smile returns. "Good, because I've thought of a lot of things to ask you."

You spend around two hours talking to Gwen as she learns about your high school and stuff that happens with you on a daily occurrence. She asks about your powers to see ghosts and you tell her about all the interactions you've had so far. It's when though that you bring up some of them being crazy that her mood seems to dampen a bit.

"I was almost at that point too, had you not come along when you did. It wouldn't have taken long for me to be too far gone..."She told you sullenly.

"Why bother thinking about that when it didn't happen, I met you and that's that."

She smiles again. "Yeah, you're right."

You look at your phone to see that time that had gone by since you had been talking to Gwen.

"I should probably be heading home now, my mom would kill me if I didn't get home by six."

Gwen's expression darkens as she starts twiddling her fingers.

"Could you stay maybe a little longer....?"
> You sure
It wouldn't hurt all that much if you were to stay for a little longer. You could probably come up with another excuse anyway if your mom questioned you too much about it.

"Alright why not, I think I can stay for another hour or so..." You say which causes Gwen's attitude to beam back up.

"Great! I still got stuff to ask you, like.....when's your birthday and....what's the worst thing that's ever happened to you!"

The conversation continued on as Gwen asked you random questions on a variety of topics. It seemed as if she was trying to prolong your stay or at least make it in so that you wouldn't get bored while being with her.

It's not like you were anyway when it was your turn to ask questions or talk, everything that she replied with genuinely interested you. Still, there was a strange feeling in the pit of your stomach you would get, and it seemed as if it kept on recurring every time you were to interact with Gwen. You pushed it off to the side though as just random nervousness.

Checking your phone you saw that it was already six.

"Alright, I really got to go now, my mom's going to get pissed if I get back any later." You say, trying to excuse yourself out of the conversation as soon as you saw a good stopping point.

"Yeah, you have been here for quite a while....thanks for deciding to stay a little longer with me though..." Gwen sweetly smiles you.

Don't worry I'll be back every day at least twice, this route is on my way to school after all."

"I know you will, and I'll be waiting."

Those words send a little chill up your spine, though you don't exactly know why. Besides that, you wave Gwen off as you start head back home.

Upon walking into your house, your mom is in the kitchen as she asks you where you've been. You tell her you stayed with some friends to do some stuff after school, and head up to your room before she can try to question you.

You wake up a bit later than usual the next morning and take your time preparing yourself for school. Somehow the day before had drained you, as you were sluggish to leave the house and go on your walk. In fact, you actually had an inner desire to take the bus and catch a nap for a few minutes but decided against it. Not wanting to do that to Gwen.

When you arrive on her street, you catch her looking in your general direction when the two of you make eye contact. You walk at a normal pace until you finally arrive at her boundary.

She's the first one to say something.

"You're later than usual."

She didn't say this jokingly, but with a sort of seriousness and matter-of-factness.

"Yeah....I slept in so I was a little late in getting ready."

As you say this you take out your phone and look at the time.

"Speaking of which I can't stay all that long either because of it, I can't be late again."

As you say this, you see a deep frown start to form on Gwen's face. She's not even attempting to hide the disappointment that came from what you just said, and because of that, you started to feel guilty.

Gwen didn't respond to what you said and just kept on looking at you. Fuck this was really awkward

"Alright, well I'll see you later then..."You mutter as you give a little wave. You walk at a normal pace until you feel that you're out of her eyesight, before quickening your pace.

You don't know why you did this, but you did know you weren't tired anymore. What the hell was that interaction? She was so weird about it that it actually made you genuinely uncomfortable. It wasn't just the guilty feeling, fuck the guilty feeling wasn't the worst part as all. The worst part is that you started having thoughts of just cutting interaction with Gwen, you had ideas why this came to mind, but you didn't know why it came onto you so strong.

You started to worry that Gwen would be like the past ones, the ones who wouldn't let go if they could help it. Did it just take longer for the signs to show with her compared to the others?

As more of these thoughts continued to plague your mind, you were eventually able to get rid of them and start trying to feel some compassion in which it seemed you were lacking. Gwen was alone a lot on that street, so it was only natural that she would get upset if it meant less interaction time with you if you were the only person she interacted with. Your apology for it was pretty shitty too, though at the time you didn't really feel the need to, and a part of you still doesn't now.

Regardless you were to visit her again after school since you weren't ready to just abandon her, much reluctance was in you though as you down that street after school as you were contemplating if you had made the right decision or not.

When you caught sight of Gwen, she was waving heavily at you, which made you quicken your pace a bit expecting something to be wrong.

"Hey! You came back!" Gwen exclaimed, as if you had no intentions of doing so.

"Of course I did, I said I would."

"Listen I'm sorry about how I reacted earlier today, I acted like a little girl and didn't realize you had your own problems to deal with and such, I was putting myself ahead of you and I'm so sorry!"

She was rapid with this apology, and with each word she had taken a step closer to you, causing you to in turn take a few steps back to keep the distance.

"Don't worry about it really....you have nothing to apologize for."

"I....I just don't want you to think I'm like those other ghosts that you left for being clingy or weird. I'm not like that, I'm.....I'm just lonely!" Her face twisted into something saddening as features of decay starting to rapidly show all over her body. It seems as if she wasn't able to hold in her emotions as she falls to the ground and starts sobbing, with her whole body shuddering heavily.

You don't know how to react to this, especially since you're not able to touch ghosts, you can't really comfort her physically. You're still a little shocked with this happening so suddenly, but you get yourself out of it quickly as you try to figure out something to say.

"Hey...I'm not going to leave you. You got it all wrong man, just because I didn't stick around for that long in the morning doesn't mean I don't want to be here or anything..."

You felt that you weren't really good with words, as what you had said didn't really seem to help all that much.

"I know, or at least I hope you're not lying. But still, these feelings just won't stop. I keep being afraid that you'll decide to leave me and I'll be alone again...Do you have any idea how long I've been on this street?"

"Four months?" You say rememberering your conversation.

"No...That was a lie. I've been here for about a year maybe more. You're the only person to have talked to me since then. At first, I didn't even think you were real, just a sign that I was actually losing it for real this time. But when you came back I knew you were real, and when there was the chance that you wouldn't be coming back, I got scared. I know I sound like I'm being clingy, well I am clingy. I don't don't want to lose you and I don't want you to go, ever."

At this point Gwen didn't seem to be holding anything in, as she was letting all her emotions and thoughts out in the rawest form possible. You didn't really know how to feel about this, in one way you felt extreme pity for her, on the other hand a few things in which she admitted made you feel a little dirty. It felt like she was expecting too much from you, there was no way in which you could stay by her side on this street forever, it was heavily impractical. It would have been one thing if it were just a figure of speech, but you knew she was being serious, and that sent chills down your spine.
> You you'll try your best
Even though you didn't really ask for this responsibility, and you really hated obligations. You were the only one who would be able to talk to this girl if you were to leave her she would be alone to her own thoughts. You didn't know for how long you would be able to keep this up, but until the time came that you physically or mentally wouldn't be able to return here, you would visit her regularly.

"You don't have anything to worry about trusting me, I'll stay by your side whenever I'm able, I'm not going to leave you alone here." You assure her as best as you can, she seems to work as a smile spreads across her face.

"Are you sure? Please don't lie to me to make me feel better, I need to know the truth."

"It is the truth, I won't leave your side if I can help it. It's not like I hate being with you, but you have to understand in turn that I have responsibilities and stuff, if there's a day that I don't show up or just end up being late, then don't take it personally. I'll be back eventually no matter what."

"Sorry for putting to little faith in you, I promise it won't happen again." She says, still having a bit of a worried expression on her face.

"Hey no please, don't try to hold back with me. I really want to know exactly what you're feeling whenever were together. If you hold something in then it's only going to get worse." You plead with her.

Gwen was silent for a moment as she just sat there looking at the ground, then she started to speak.

"During the first few months I was able to walk down the entire avenue, all the way to the next block. I didn't really take advantage of it though since I was still broken during those times, but as each month passed the barrier kept on getting smaller and smaller until it's what it is now. I started getting scared that it would keep on shrinking until I had nothing left but a few feet of walking space. Thankfully it never got to that, but it seemed to stop shrinking around the time that you had arrived. You saved me from getting squished, or whatever happens when the barrier closes on itself, but in a small way.....I wish it had. Then everything would finally come to an end. I could finally sleep..."

You didn't know how to respond to this, so you just didn't and then were was a continued awkward silence afterward, though Gwen soon got up while rubbing her puffy eyes.

"Thanks for the talk, I think I feel better now. I just needed to let some steam out, that's all."

"Do it whenever you feel like it, just please don't assume anything of me, OK?"

"OK."

What a rough day.
> You these worries
Ever since that day when Gwen had broken down in front of you, you started to research online if there as any way that you could help her off that street. Even if you couldn't help her ascend to heaven or anything, at the very least you could move her to a spot in which there was more foot traffic, or better yet another ghost that she could interact with. The whole idea was morbid and gross to think about, but you didn't want to see her suffer anymore, there had to be a way. You had your powers for a reason, and you would be damned if you didn't put them to good use.

The time that you didn't spend with Gwen, which you had increased by a few hours, was time spent locked in your room as you visited countless supernatural pages. Each of them had information dating from just a few days ago all the way to old tribal superstitions and ideas.

Some of them sounded really far out there, while others just seemed like stupid entries placed by people writing fiction. Nevertheless, if you thought a process to help a ghost ascend sounded valid enough, you would try it out with Gwen to see if anything were to happen. Time and time again, you were disappointed with the lack of reaction.

Gwen had told you not to worry about it, and seemed a little worried with how far you were taking this as most of your conversations now involved helping her move on. You just couldn't forget what had happened that day, even if you did come off as strange or weird with what you were doing, you had to get her out of here, she needed freedom from the boundary, at the very least this one.

There were still two theories left that you could try out to see if it would help Gwen out of her boundary, and thankfully you saved them for last since they looked the most promising getting off of what you had read on them so far.

One involved doing an old African ritual in which you had to chant some words while holding a couple of ingredients. The other was an old native American ritual, in which one would let out blood from their palms, and touch hands with a ghost in order for them to have increased physical contact.

You were a little queasy about the second one, but not just that. You couldn't touch Gwen physically, so you didn't really understand all that well what that meant when it came to exchanging palms. The African one seemed more appealing, but gathering the materials would be a hassle, and you felt like you were being trolled with how rare the required ingredients were.

Nevertheless, you had to choose one.
> You african Ritual
You felt as if the Native American ritual would be some kind of impossible riddle that wouldn't be able to be solved. At least with the African ritual, all you needed were physical items and everything would be set to go.

The list of what you needed made you grimace. Googling some of them led to results of plants that were from far away countries, of which didn't show up on Amazon. You would have to go looking in niche sites for anything that you would need, and if you were to get a fake of anything you were fucked.

You would need the feather of an African Harrier Hawk, ten crushed Dorylus ants, the eye of a lion, and a whole bunch of other shit that you couldn't even pronounce properly. Half of this shit was no doubt super illegal to try and obtain.

You were already having second doubts about going down this route, as you could tell you would be in big shit trouble if you messed up and got caught. Though after much debating in your head, you decided to just go through with it to the end and see if this solution would work.

Luckily you already had experience when it came to browsing the deep web as you had downloaded TOR when you were first looking up stuff about ghosts and phenomenon years earlier. You remember coming across online markets in which various illegal goods were being sold but never paid much attention to them. Those kinds of places would probably be your best shot for getting the materials you needed.

After some hours of re-downloading and testing software on your computer, you were able to recreate the system requirements needed to browse the deep web again. Though it would take even longer to get some good market results, as the site you had found before seemed to be shut down as you searched back up.

As you were getting frustrated with broken link after broken link and endless wiki pages to different sites, you were finally able to come up with two markets in which the materials you needed could most likely be sold. One of these markets even had its own little forum in which you could request products that weren't currently available on the market.

That seemed really fucking sketchy though so you shied away from it, promising yourself to only use it if it came to the last resort.

Anyways you had the choices between Garner.Net and Atlantic Trade.Net, which was the site with the forum to begin your searches.
> You garner.Net
Something seemed a little too fishy about the other one, especially with the forum and all. You just wanted to get the materials and never touch this side of the web again. Since most of everything you needed was mainly animal parts and some herbs, it meant that filtering through everything else made the whole process a tad bit easier.

What really fucking sucked about this though where all of the prices each of the items on your list were going for on this market. Using your phone as a calculator, you started to add up all the expenses and saw that the total cost of everything would be a few grand.

You didn't even have that kind of money and we're past the phase of using your mom's credit card, though even that was only for a few bucks here and there. The money part of this completely went over your head until now, and now you felt as if you were fucked.

A idea hatched though, and that involved going back to the other site for the forum.
> You forums
The forums were pretty bare looking compared to ones you've seen on the regular internet portion.

When making a new account in order to post and send messages, the only boxes were for a username and a password. Though in big red letters at the bottom of the password box red.

DON'T USE A IMPORTANT PASSWORD!

Very charming.

Like the market portion, there were subsections of the forum for different types of items and off-topic discussions with weird titles such as "Does Fed-Ex check it's packaging and "Is 'X' item illegal if used this way?" Pretty expected stuff honestly.

Though you looked past all of these, even the ones that were offering to sell some ingredients that were on your list.

The subsection that you were looking for was labeled under barter.

With your newly made account, you started on making a new post with the title.

H-(Ability to communicate with the dead) W-(The ingredients listed here.)

You didn't really expect this plan to work, but it was the only actual idea you could think of for right now so might as well put this here to sit and be read while you thought of other options to get money.

IF you worked a job, you could probably earn enough in a few months, but that would take far to long for you. Fuck you wish you had started working a part-time job earlier and had not been such a lazy ass.

For two days you would check back in on the forums to see if you had gotten response, and you got a few, but all of them were either dead ends or troll posts making fun of your offer, which is what you expected to be honest so it didn't really dampen your spirits all that much.

You actually ended up forgetting about the forums for a day as you were focusing on some schoolwork while also trying to take a break from the whole hunt to try and calm your nerves, though during class you had gotten a mysterious text during class.

Checking it, you see that it was from an unknown caller with a really weird area code.

'Take your post off of the forums, now.'

You didn't really understand what this text meant for a little bit, as it was so random and you posted on a lot of forums.

You reply back.

'huh?'

You get a reply in mere seconds.

'Delete your post of the barter section on Atlantic Trade."

The hairs on the back of your neck instantly stood up as your whole body jumped a little, causing the person sitting next to you to give you a stare for the way you were suddenly acting.

For the time being, you put away your phone and just continued to pay attention to class as your heart was beating at an alarming pace while tiny drops of sweat were forming on your forehead.

It's not like you could really do anything at the time being since you needed your own personal computer to access those forums. But still, who the fuck was this persona and how did they know that you posted on there. The whole process was supposed to be fucking anonymous. Were you careless this time and did something stupid giving away your information. Would you have your identity stolen in the next few days, did anyone else know who you were on that trading site? These type of questions continued to swarm your mind as the school day dragged on in a painful like way as you had raced from your bus stop all the way home when the never-ending school day had finally ended.

Racing up to your room and locking your door, you immediately logged onto what you needed to in order to get back onto the forums. Doing as what you were told, you immediately started to look for your post, and once you had found it, deleted it without hesitation.

With that out of the way, you brought back out your phone and texted back the person who had sent the message.

"Alright it's gone, now who the hell are you."

You got a message pretty quickly, just like last time.

"Do you feel any pain, live severe pain that would make you want to die."

The vagueness and the notion of the message made you feel worse as you just replied with a simple 'no'

"Interesting, I don't know exactly why it didn't get you as I've heard it harming others before even if the words of power were shared online. Nevertheless, you're a lucky man, and so am I since I managed to find you in time before my quota expires."

You didn't understand what this guy was saying, so you decided to start asking him questions on what the hell he was talking about.
> No questions
You didn't want to annoy this guy, who knows what he was capable of if he managed to find you and get your phone number.

"Don't be too frightened, I'll tell you everyone you need to know in due time and when the situation comes to it. Now, tell me are you in contact with a ghost as of now?"

You didn't really see any reason to lie to him, and a bit of you thought that he would know if you were doing so.

"Yes, I'm talking to a girl that's been bound onto a street, and I've been trying to get her out of there." You text back, giving him the general idea of what you've been doing."

"Hmm, well that would probably fall into the caretaker class. Lucky you to have gotten such a thing, that class is generally rare to come by. That also seems to answer a few of my questions. So let me ask you, do you really want to get this girl out of her set boundary?"

"Yes. more than anything."

"Well then, let me help you with what you need. You were smart enough to find one of the correct ways in order to get the spirits out. Normally most caretakers go the other route instead of this ritual, but this could be relatively easier and faster than that riddle shit in which we would have to go through. Alright, I'll get you all the materials you need, they should come in by the weekend."

"What's the catch?"

"No catch, just hurry up and do the ritual."

You didn't really trust what he had just said, there's no way someone could buy this much stuff for that price just from the kindness of their hearts, but then again who were you to say no to free help.

"How did you know that I could really see ghosts? That I wasn't lying?" You ask, a bit curious.

"Our eyes are more....open than others. It's apart of our hierarchy, so don't you go worrying about it."

After you and Ned had finished exchanging messages, he had again said the date in which the materials would be coming, didn't even need to ask for your address which freaked you out quite a bit when he told you that he already knew.

Nevertheless you felt extreme joy for finally being able to get Gwen out of that boundary.

---

Ned started messaging on your phone for the rest of the time that you were in contact with him with how the deliveries were going. You were getting the ingredients on separate days individually. They each came in some pretty sketchy looking packages, ignoring this though you started storing everything in your room closet for future use.

Ned was actually pretty fast about all of this, more than you were expecting him to be considering that this was all free. You just know that there was a catch to all of this, but you didn't know what it could be, hopefully, he wasn't the devil or something and you had unknowingly signed away your soul for bird droppings and crushed ants.

It took about two weeks for the final ingredients to come in, to which Ned already knew without you having to tell him.

Ned- Alright listen here. I'm going to tell you how to mix these ingredients carefully. All you really need is a stove and something to mix everything with, you might want to throw away the pot after or just thoroughly bleach it or something but that's all on you.

"I thought the website already gave instructions on how to do everything?"

Ned- You're really going to trust instructions that are run by nerds who think they know our craft? I'll give them credit they got some stuff right, but only about 60% of it, and you need the whole process and ingredients to be perfectly accurate if you're going to make this work. Normally ascending someone would be a snap, but with what we're doing, it's going to be a little more tricky than that.

Ned then sends you a list of instructions on how to prepare the potion or drink it was that you would be making. The number of steps was pretty big, though reading through it a couple of times it didn't seem all that hard, just combining a thing or two and stirring for periods of time.

Ned had told you to get it done as soon as you could, though you were planning on to anyway.

You were lucky that your mom had gone out to go do some things were a friend and your dad was still at work. You could get the first quarter of the list done before any of them were to get home and see what you were doing. Unpacking the ingredients you needed, you got straight to work.

---

Jesus, the temperature that was emitting from the pot kept on fluctuation from hot to cold. You didn't even fucking know pots could let out a cold temperature, though will all of this ghost and stalker shit that you have come across you couldn't really be all that surprised. It must have been no joke when Ned said that the other faux ingredients wouldn't do, to combining these to make such concoctions took someone who knew what the fuck they were planning on making.

You were secretly hoping though that this wouldn't explode in your face and destroy the entire house if you did something wrong, Ned didn't say such things would happen, but then again he didn't bring it up.

The process was slower than you expected it to be as some of the ingredients took awhile to be stirred before they look as if they needed to be going by the instructions. Still, you think you would be able to finish in time before your dad was to get home since he would probably be here first.

Though as time went on, you got more and more worried that he would catch you in the act, and you had no way in knowing how he would react, and it wasn't like you could just stop what you were doing midway into it.

You could skip on stirring all the way, and only do it in half the time. The materials were already mixed enough as they were, it wasn't like they needed to be stirred to perfection.
> You keep going as the instructions tell you too
You weren't about to be killed because you didn't follow the instructions. Ned probably trusted that you had common sense and didn't need to be told to no go off of the instructions.

A few more hours had passed as you finished with everything you needed too, pouring what you had made into a metal canister that Ned had sent you to store what you needed until you were ready to finish the other parts of the recipes.

You were really surprised that your dad hadn't come home in the time that you were storing everything back where you had hidden it, but you weren't about to over question your luck. Now you were set on bleaching the cooking pot as Ned had instructed, he may have been fucking with you but you weren't about to take any chances of dying because of it in the future.

Ned- You got the first part done then? Good, when you're ready for the next steps then get them done and tell me once you're ready to get your girlfriend of that street, there's a whole other process you'll have to go through on that day.

After you finished your conversation with Ned, you did whatever homework you needed to do and went straight to bed. Your arms felt a bit weak with how thick some of the ingredients turned out to be, and that constant heat made you a bit dehydrated as well even after drinking a few glasses of water. You could already tell you would be passed out for a long while.

--

Your dad had to wake you up the next morning as you were running a little late. Realizing what you were about to miss, you quickly got on some clothes and started to race down your usual route once you were out of the house.

Gwen, as usual, was patiently waiting for you as she seemed a bit worried with how out of breath you were.

"You O.K?"

"Y-Yeah just didn't re-realize how late I was." You panted as you regained your composure.

Gwen gave you a sideways look with a sweet small smile.

"It was only a couple of minutes."

You shrug with a small laugh. "Well..."

"Anyway, what have you been up to, you've been seeming really busy with our last few meetups." Gwen acknowledges curiously."

Shit, she caught on pretty fast, were you really that easy to spot?

"Ugh, well, to be honest, I've been missing some homework that's worth a lot of points for a couple of classes, so I've been racing to finish them so my parents won't have my ass." You lie with a cheeky smile.

"Well don't go getting yourself in trouble, and be sure to graduate. I don't want to see your moping around if you have to stay another year in high school." Gwen jokes.

Your earlier excuse was only half a lie, you have been cutting down on schoolwork ever since you started this quest to make what you needed, you really needed to spare some time for school so you wouldn't fall too far behind, though worrying too much about it would only cause a whole other set of problems that you weren't ready to deal with at the moment.

After you had said enough to feel content with your meeting, you give her a wave goodbye as you start racing towards school, if she was able to read your expressions with you realizing it, then you didn't want to risk giving anything away that would harm your mission.

Trying to pay a bit more attention in class now that you didn't have to worry about the parts coming in, you were able to do a bit more classwork in order to catch up where you needed to for the week, even with some stern talks with teachers that you had to face during lunch, you're pretty sure it was all going smoothly.

Your second meeting on the way home with Gwen seemed to be even shorter than the last one, though she brought up that you had a much better appearance than you did in the morning so she was glad enough to not ask you to stay longer.

It's not like you wanted to ignore Gwen or anything, you just needed to get this potion done as soon as possible, and getting home earlier meant better opportunities to get the brewing done.

With your parents away again for the early afternoon, you went straight ahead on starting the preparations to finish half of the potion, getting out all the materials that you needed. You like to think that because you had some experience with it yesterday, you should go a little bit faster now that you knew how all the steps usually went.

One ingredient after another went into the pot as the steps were followed once again. You were a little more used to the steaming heat, but regardless you had opted to wear a bandanna and a baseball cap while you cooked so you wouldn't be drenched in sweat, or at least have something else to absorb it.

After everything, you ended up finishing a half hour early. Since the third part of the recipe was also the smallest, you decided to get it out of the way as well, as you still had plenty of time to go going by when your parents had come home yesterday.

You felt satisfied by the end of the day with everything completed and you taking a well-deserved rest in your room after bleaching everything moments earlier.

You could get the last portion done by tomorrow, and the day after you could try out the potion with Gwen to finally get out of that street. Your mind was filled with complete euphoria knowing that everything was turning out in your favor. You never remember being this lucky.

Meeting Ned, finding the correct recipe, having everything shipped to you for free. Everything was going your way, and you enjoyed the hell out of it.

----

Finally, it was all done. The final portion of the recipe really almost fucked you over since you messed up a bit of it when you stirred a little less than you were supposed to causing a different color then was intended after the next ingredient, but the final product looked the same in which you were intending for. You were also very careful upon mixing all the four mixtures, as putting them in the wrong order would cause a different potion. You really had to nuke the pot with bleach afterward because the look of what you just made was very unappealing.

You had to remember to throw these metal cans you were storing this shit in far far away once you were done with everything.

You texted Ned the good news about the success of the potion, and he responded almost immediately.

Ned- Alright awesome, make sure to get the ritual done tomorrow with your girl, that potion shit isn't something you just want to have sitting around for to long.I'll text you the rest of the shit that you need to do then, just make sure to do it. Talk to you later.
> The next day
You were very careful not to fuck up the canister while you were finishing classes at school. You were a little frightened that a security guard would check your bag for one of their random vaping checks, and stumble upon the foreign liquid that could or could not be lethal to regular people. Though you realize they would just assume it was a thermos of a drink or something and leave it well alone. The smell of what you made was really strong when cooking it at your house, though the canister did a surprisingly well job at sealing it to make your bag pretty much odorless from it.

You raced down the street to your house as fast as you could make yourself go with your cargo as you were extremely excited to get this ritual done. You had already texted Ned that you were on your way to meet with Gwen as soon as you left your final class. On the way, he started sending you various messages that had the steps that you needed to follow in order to make the ritual a success.

Most of them seemed pretty normal to you, except when you came across one that was towards the end of the list.

6. Drink the liquid yourself, wait for effects to kick in.

You froze in your tracks as you re-read the step to make sure you weren't looking at it wrong.

You had to drink it?

Your fingers hastily typed out a confused message for Ned.

'What do you mean I have to drink it?'

Ned- You want to be with this girl, don't you? This is a potion to help you be with her, and that requires that you drink it too. Don't worry it's not even that bad. The taste is shit, but other than that it's going to help

You didn't really trust what he was saying all that much considering how it looked and smelled while you were making it, but given that he had much more experience with this than you did, it was going to work.

Gwen was waiting for you as usual, while you were already slipping your bag off your back.

"You got something to show me or something?" She asks with confusion and curiosity.

"You could say that," you say with a smirk.

Taking out the canister, you carefully start unscrewing the top, keeping it in your other hand so it could be used as a cup.

"Is that soup or something?"

"No it's not, but I want you to drink it."

"Excuse me?"

Pouring some of the liquid into the cap, and pushing it in her direction.

"You're actually serious?"

You nod your head.

"But I don't even think I can..." she says quietly.

"Just try for me please." You plead with her.

Being a little hesitant with her hand, she goes out to reach for the cup, which she gingerly grabs, though in both of your surprise that she could even grab it to begin with. Your eagerness rose exponentially as you knew the results of this would be in your favor.

Putting the cup to her lips, she tilted it a bit so that it could fall down her throat, which it did with none of it falling onto the ground. Once the cup was empty, she wiped her lips and handed it back to you, with a weird expression on her face.

"That tasted a bit funny..."

"Yeah sorry about that, though trust me give it a few minutes and it's going to be so much better."

"Could you stop playing with me and just tell me what this is all about." She complains with a frown.

"Of course, I'll tell you everything you want to know after I take my drink." You say while pouring some more of the liquid into the cup once again. It looked so unnaturally black and thick that you actually started having some doubts with it yourself on drinking it. Though if Gwen did it you definitely had to do it, so you tilted back your head and put the cup straight to your parted lips, pushing it back along with your head.

You managed to get it down in one big gulp, though your throat felt like complete shit afterward as you coughed it a bit. Weirdly enough it went down fine, though the coldness it left in your throat was the problem as if you had pushed an entire Popsicle down there.

"You O.K, it looked like you took that pretty bad," Gwen says with a bit of worry.

"Yeah I'm fine, just wasn't expecting it to taste like that either." You laugh a little while wiping your mouth.

Speaking of which, it had little to no taste, besides the hint of herbs. You had no idea if that should worry you or not, as it was completely different from the smell. Nevertheless, you put that out of your thoughts for a moment as you took out your phone and contacted Ned, telling him that you had both drunk what you needed too.

Though this time you didn't get a reply, at least not one in the span of the next five minutes as you usually did.

"Is something wrong?" Gwen asks.

You shake your head. "Nah, just messaging a friend is al-."

The feeling was instant, and you dropped to your knees without any warning.

"Hey!" Gwen shouted.

Though your ears started to ring, and you couldn't really much after a few seconds.

It felt like your body was quickly shutting down, as you were losing the feeling of everything.

You just wanted to sleep.
> You drugged
You didn't know how long exactly you had been out, though by the time you had woken up the sun had already gone down. Though besides the darkness of the sky, the one other thing that had been watching you was Gwen, who was kneeling over her body, her eyes swollen red and her nose runny with mucus.

"Hey, are you awake!" She cries as she brings you closer to her face/

"Ugh...yeah, I think so....what happen?" You ask while groaning from your massive headache.

"You fucking passed out for over an hour! What the hell did you drink?"

Fuck, was it really the drink? You would be super pissed and Ned once you got all your senses together.

"No one stopped their cars to check on a passed out teen?" You ask, with a little sarcasm.

Gwen doesn't seem to answer at first, her eyes darting around with hesitation. This causes you to panic a little.

"You should probably look now..." She says.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Gwen grabbed both of your hands and laid them out in front of you so you could see all of your arms. Your heart started beating faster as you saw how they looked.

They were blue, though that wasn't the problem. Your arms were almost completely transparent, you could see your legs through them. Though the transparency was fading in and out as if it hadn't settled in yet. Looking at the rest of your body, you saw that the same effect was all over.

"What the fuck happened to me?!" you say with panic.

"I don't know! It was probably that drink like I said.....fuck I knew it was a bad idea..."

Yeah, Gwen was totally right about that, but it still really fucking pissed you off. Even though your body was still shifting in and out of reality, you were still able to grab your phone and other things that were in your pockets, backpack included.

'What the fuck did you do to me!'

Sending your message to Ned, you awaited a response.

Ned- Welcome to the spirit world kid!

The spirit world?

Ned- I know you got a lot of questions kid, and I'm sorry for tricking you like this. But I need you for an experiment I'm doing, and I haven't been able to find another replacement since my last one. Trust me if anything you'll thank me after this is all over with the powers that you'll gain. You'll see me soon, I'm already flying over to get you and your friend. Just hang tight until then.

Shit, shit, SHIT.

You clasped your hands onto your head in frustration as you didn't what the fuck you should do.

Getting up from the floor, you tried out your first intuition and went for the barrier that was always blocking Gwen. You were met with a large solid force that pushed you back as you hit it with your run, and of course, it was the exact same one for Gwen.

You were a ghost now, there was no denying it.

You would get that motherfucker Ned back if it was the last thing you were to do. Though the only good thing about all of this was that you hadn't left your body behind and actually died normally, so maybe there was still a chance to get back to your normal state.

Nevertheless, you walked back over to Gwen.

"I have something to tell you, it's going to be a pretty long story...."

and so you started telling Gwen everything that had happened since you first met Ned, the potion, his promise, and that he was coming here soon.

"You should of fucking told me this earlier idiot! That sounded sketchy as hell I would have stopped you!" She chastises you while giving you a push.

"Yeah I know, but now isn't the time to be playing the blame game OK, he's coming soon and we need to think of a plan to kick his ass."

Gwen just shook her head as she faced away from you, obviously still pissed about this.

"OK....Look, I'm sorry about what happened, it's just that I really thought this would work. It was supposed to get you out of here so you could finally leave this street and go wherever you wanted, I really wanted this to work, I'm sorry I fucked us over in the end."

Gwen gives you a quick look before shaking her head once again.

"Idiot....next time just tell me these things."

"Promise I will."

Gwen nods at this, as she walks back over to you.

"Well, whatever happens, we're going to do this together, no more secrets and no more surprises. If we're going to stop this guy then you can't do any more of that crap, you got to trust in me too." She says to you, looking directly into your eyes for confirmation.

"Together then." You nod.

She smiles, which makes you feel a little bit calmer about everything.

As long as you were together, nothing would stop you.


You didn't want to annoy this guy, who knows what he was capable of if he managed to find you and get your phone number.

"Don't be too frightened, I'll tell you everyone you need to know in due time and when the situation comes to it. Now, tell me are you in contact with a ghost as of now?"

You didn't really see any reason to lie to him, and a bit of you thought that he would know if you were doing so.

"Yes, I'm talking to a girl that's been bound onto a street, and I've been trying to get her out of there." You text back, giving him the general idea of what you've been doing."

"Hmm, well that would probably fall into the caretaker class. Lucky you to have gotten such a thing, that class is generally rare to come by. That also seems to answer a few of my questions. So let me ask you, do you really want to get this girl out of her set boundary?"

"Yes. more than anything."

"Well then, let me help you with what you need. You were smart enough to find one of the correct ways in order to get the spirits out. Normally most caretakers go the other route instead of this ritual, but this could be relatively easier and faster than that riddle shit in which we would have to go through. Alright, I'll get you all the materials you need, they should come in by the weekend."

"What's the catch?"

"No catch, just hurry up and do the ritual."

You didn't really trust what he had just said, there's no way someone could buy this much stuff for that price just from the kindness of their hearts, but then again who were you to say no to free help.

"How did you know that I could really see ghosts? That I wasn't lying?" You ask, a bit curious.

"Our eyes are more....open than others. It's apart of our hierarchy, so don't you go worrying about it."

After you and Ned had finished exchanging messages, he had again said the date in which the materials would be coming, didn't even need to ask for your address which freaked you out quite a bit when he told you that he already knew.

Nevertheless you felt extreme joy for finally being able to get Gwen out of that boundary.

---

Ned started messaging on your phone for the rest of the time that you were in contact with him with how the deliveries were going. You were getting the ingredients on separate days individually. They each came in some pretty sketchy looking packages, ignoring this though you started storing everything in your room closet for future use.

Ned was actually pretty fast about all of this, more than you were expecting him to be considering that this was all free. You just know that there was a catch to all of this, but you didn't know what it could be, hopefully, he wasn't the devil or something and you had unknowingly signed away your soul for bird droppings and crushed ants.

It took about two weeks for the final ingredients to come in, to which Ned already knew without you having to tell him.

Ned- Alright listen here. I'm going to tell you how to mix these ingredients carefully. All you really need is a stove and something to mix everything with, you might want to throw away the pot after or just thoroughly bleach it or something but that's all on you.

"I thought the website already gave instructions on how to do everything?"

Ned- You're really going to trust instructions that are run by nerds who think they know our craft? I'll give them credit they got some stuff right, but only about 60% of it, and you need the whole process and ingredients to be perfectly accurate if you're going to make this work. Normally ascending someone would be a snap, but with what we're doing, it's going to be a little more tricky than that.

Ned then sends you a list of instructions on how to prepare the potion or drink it was that you would be making. The number of steps was pretty big, though reading through it a couple of times it didn't seem all that hard, just combining a thing or two and stirring for periods of time.

Ned had told you to get it done as soon as you could, though you were planning on to anyway.

You were lucky that your mom had gone out to go do some things were a friend and your dad was still at work. You could get the first quarter of the list done before any of them were to get home and see what you were doing. Unpacking the ingredients you needed, you got straight to work.

---

Jesus, the temperature that was emitting from the pot kept on fluctuation from hot to cold. You didn't even fucking know pots could let out a cold temperature, though will all of this ghost and stalker shit that you have come across you couldn't really be all that surprised. It must have been no joke when Ned said that the other faux ingredients wouldn't do, to combining these to make such concoctions took someone who knew what the fuck they were planning on making.

You were secretly hoping though that this wouldn't explode in your face and destroy the entire house if you did something wrong, Ned didn't say such things would happen, but then again he didn't bring it up.

The process was slower than you expected it to be as some of the ingredients took awhile to be stirred before they look as if they needed to be going by the instructions. Still, you think you would be able to finish in time before your dad was to get home since he would probably be here first.

Though as time went on, you got more and more worried that he would catch you in the act, and you had no way in knowing how he would react, and it wasn't like you could just stop what you were doing midway into it.

You could skip on stirring all the way, and only do it in half the time. The materials were already mixed enough as they were, it wasn't like they needed to be stirred to perfection.
> You stir halfway
If your dad were to throw away what you were making then it would all be over, and you had no idea if Ned would be willing to send more ingredients to make up for the ones you had lost, he wouldn't be happy either way.

You had to cut corners, the people who had done this before had to have done it at least once or twice right?

So you only stirred halfway through each ingredient that had been entered into the pot. Though you made sure that you had stirred enough for it to be mixed. You had done this for about three different mixes until you started to feel a funny sensation.

The heat emitting from the pot was getting hotter, much hotter than it had ever done before. Your whole face was burning heavily as you sweat was dripping down into the liquid. It got to the point in which you actually had to back away with how your eyes started to feel.

"Shit, this isn't good..."

The sound of something steaming grew louder and louder like a teapot, the whole bottom of the pot started to glow red as smoke was coming out of from the top rapidly. The smoke detector immediately went off as you starting coughing and wheezing, trying to get to the doorway.

Somewhere along your panic, you heard an explosion.

No pain was felt from it, just emptiness, and lot's of quietness.


The forums were pretty bare looking compared to ones you've seen on the regular internet portion.

When making a new account in order to post and send messages, the only boxes were for a username and a password. Though in big red letters at the bottom of the password box red.

DON'T USE A IMPORTANT PASSWORD!

Very charming.

Like the market portion, there were subsections of the forum for different types of items and off-topic discussions with weird titles such as "Does Fed-Ex check it's packaging and "Is 'X' item illegal if used this way?" Pretty expected stuff honestly.

Though you looked past all of these, even the ones that were offering to sell some ingredients that were on your list.

The subsection that you were looking for was labeled under barter.

With your newly made account, you started on making a new post with the title.

H-(Ability to communicate with the dead) W-(The ingredients listed here.)

You didn't really expect this plan to work, but it was the only actual idea you could think of for right now so might as well put this here to sit and be read while you thought of other options to get money.

IF you worked a job, you could probably earn enough in a few months, but that would take far to long for you. Fuck you wish you had started working a part-time job earlier and had not been such a lazy ass.

For two days you would check back in on the forums to see if you had gotten response, and you got a few, but all of them were either dead ends or troll posts making fun of your offer, which is what you expected to be honest so it didn't really dampen your spirits all that much.

You actually ended up forgetting about the forums for a day as you were focusing on some schoolwork while also trying to take a break from the whole hunt to try and calm your nerves, though during class you had gotten a mysterious text during class.

Checking it, you see that it was from an unknown caller with a really weird area code.

'Take your post off of the forums, now.'

You didn't really understand what this text meant for a little bit, as it was so random and you posted on a lot of forums.

You reply back.

'huh?'

You get a reply in mere seconds.

'Delete your post of the barter section on Atlantic Trade."

The hairs on the back of your neck instantly stood up as your whole body jumped a little, causing the person sitting next to you to give you a stare for the way you were suddenly acting.

For the time being, you put away your phone and just continued to pay attention to class as your heart was beating at an alarming pace while tiny drops of sweat were forming on your forehead.

It's not like you could really do anything at the time being since you needed your own personal computer to access those forums. But still, who the fuck was this persona and how did they know that you posted on there. The whole process was supposed to be fucking anonymous. Were you careless this time and did something stupid giving away your information. Would you have your identity stolen in the next few days, did anyone else know who you were on that trading site? These type of questions continued to swarm your mind as the school day dragged on in a painful like way as you had raced from your bus stop all the way home when the never-ending school day had finally ended.

Racing up to your room and locking your door, you immediately logged onto what you needed to in order to get back onto the forums. Doing as what you were told, you immediately started to look for your post, and once you had found it, deleted it without hesitation.

With that out of the way, you brought back out your phone and texted back the person who had sent the message.

"Alright it's gone, now who the hell are you."

You got a message pretty quickly, just like last time.

"Do you feel any pain, live severe pain that would make you want to die."

The vagueness and the notion of the message made you feel worse as you just replied with a simple 'no'

"Interesting, I don't know exactly why it didn't get you as I've heard it harming others before even if the words of power were shared online. Nevertheless, you're a lucky man, and so am I since I managed to find you in time before my quota expires."

You didn't understand what this guy was saying, so you decided to start asking him questions on what the hell he was talking about.
> You who are you?
"Who exactly are you?" You text him, as he never really got around to answering your question.

"You can refer to me as Nick, that's the name I use to go by online so that's the name you can call me. As to who I am, I'm someone who is need of your help, but in return, I can offer you something you want, and maybe also save your life if what I think will happen is true."

Well at least he was forward with his name, but the second part only stirred more questions into your head.
> No more questions
You didn't have any more questions to ask Ned, so you said you were done.

"Don't be too frightened, I'll tell you everyone you need to know in due time and when the situation comes to it. Now, tell me are you in contact with a ghost as of now?"

You didn't really see any reason to lie to him, and a bit of you thought that he would know if you were doing so.

"Yes, I'm talking to a girl that's been bound onto a street, and I've been trying to get her out of there." You text back, giving him the general idea of what you've been doing."

"Hmm, well that would probably fall into the caretaker class. Lucky you to have gotten such a thing, that class is generally rare to come by. That also seems to answer a few of my questions. So let me ask you, do you really want to get this girl out of her set boundary?"

"Yes. more than anything."

"Well then, let me help you with what you need. You were smart enough to find one of the correct ways in order to get the spirits out. Normally most caretakers go the other route instead of this ritual, but this could be relatively easier and faster than that riddle shit in which we would have to go through. Alright, I'll get you all the materials you need, they should come in by the weekend."

"What's the catch?"

"No catch, just hurry up and do the ritual."

You didn't really trust what he had just said, there's no way someone could buy this much stuff for that price just from the kindness of their hearts, but then again who were you to say no to free help.

"How did you know that I could really see ghosts? That I wasn't lying?" You ask, a bit curious.

"Our eyes are more....open than others. It's apart of our hierarchy, so don't you go worrying about it."

After you and Ned had finished exchanging messages, he had again said the date in which the materials would be coming, didn't even need to ask for your address which freaked you out quite a bit when he told you that he already knew.

Nevertheless, you felt extreme joy for finally being able to get Gwen out of that boundary.

---

Ned started messaging on your phone for the rest of the time that you were in contact with him with how the deliveries were going. You were getting the ingredients on separate days individually. They each came in some pretty sketchy looking packages, ignoring this though you started storing everything in your room closet for future use.

Ned was actually be pretty fast about all of this, more than you were expecting him to be considering that this was all free. You just know that there was a catch to all of this, but you didn't know what it could be, hopefully he wasn't the devil or something and you had unknowingly signed away your soul for bird droppings and crushed ants.

It took about two weeks for the final ingredients to come in, to which Ned already knew without you having to tell him.

Ned- Alright listen here. I'm going to tell you how to mix these ingredients carefully. All you really need is a stove and something to mix everything with, you might want to throw away the pot after or just thoroughly bleach it or something but that's all on you.

"I thought the website already gave instructions on how to do everything?"

Ned- You're really going to trust instructions that are run by nerds who think they know our craft? I'll give them credit they got some stuff right, but only about 60% of it, and you need the whole process and ingredients to be perfectly accurate if you're going to make this work. Normally ascending someone would be a snap, but with what we're doing, it's going to be a little more tricky than that.

Ned then sends you a list of instructions on how to prepare the potion or drink it was that you would be making. The number of steps was pretty big, though reading through it a couple of times it didn't seem all that hard, just combining a thing or two and stirring for periods of time.

Ned had told you to get it done as soon as you could, though you were planning on to anyway.

You were lucky that your mom had gone out to go do some things were a friend and your dad was still at work. You could get the first quarter of the list done before any of them were to get home and see what you were doing. Unpacking the ingredients you needed, you got straight to work.

---

Jesus, the temperature that was emitting from the pot kept on fluctuation from hot to cold. You didn't even fucking know pots could let out a cold temperature, though will all of this ghost and stalker shit that you have come across you couldn't really be all that surprised. It must have been no joke when Ned said that the other faux ingredients wouldn't do, to combining these to make such concoctions took someone who knew what the fuck they were planning on making.

You were secretly hoping though that this wouldn't explode in your face and destroy the entire house if you did something wrong, Ned didn't say such things would happen, but then again he didn't bring it up.

The process was slower than you expected it to be as some of the ingredients took awhile to be stirred before they look as if they needed to be going by the instructions. Still, you think you would be able to finish in time before your dad was to get home since he would probably be here first.

Though as time went on, you got more and more worried that he would catch you in the act, and you had no way in knowing how he would react, and it wasn't like you could just stop what you were doing midway into it.

You could skip on stirring all the way, and only do it in half the time. The materials were already mixed enough as they were, it wasn't like they needed to be stirred to perfection.


"Who exactly are you?" You text him, as he never really got around to answering your question.

"You can refer to me as Nick, that's the name I use to go by online so that's the name you can call me. As to who I am, I'm someone who is need of your help, but in return, I can offer you something you want, and maybe also save your life if what I think will happen is true."

Well at least he was forward with his name, but the second part only stirred more questions into your head.
> You how did you find you\?
"How did you find me on that forum, that shit was supposed to be anonymous?"

"Trade secret, can't inform you on that sorry. Don't worry though your class probably has its own secrets of its own. All part of the job."

His answer only led you to more questions to pop up into your head with confusion.
> You quotas
"What did you mean by quotas?"

"It's the system that makes our world go round, it's the purpose for those of our kind. Question is in which I'm curious, as to why you haven't received one yet and why you haven't had the symptoms of not fulfilling yours, most of us get one once they're around your age at least once."

He stopped with that message as if signaling for you to ask another question.


You felt as if the Native American ritual would be some kind of impossible riddle that wouldn't be able to be solved. At least with the African ritual, all you needed were physical items and everything would be set to go.

The list of what you needed made you grimace. Googling some of them led to results of plants that were from far away countries, of which didn't show up on Amazon. You would have to go looking in niche sites for anything that you would need, and if you were to get a fake of anything you were fucked.

You would need the feather of an African Harrier Hawk, ten crushed Dorylus ants, the eye of a lion, and a whole bunch of other shit that you couldn't even pronounce properly. Half of this shit was no doubt super illegal to try and obtain.

You were already having second doubts about going down this route, as you could tell you would be in big shit trouble if you messed up and got caught. Though after much debating in your head, you decided to just go through with it to the end and see if this solution would work.

Luckily you already had experience when it came to browsing the deep web as you had downloaded TOR when you were first looking up stuff about ghosts and phenomenon years earlier. You remember coming across online markets in which various illegal goods were being sold but never paid much attention to them. Those kinds of places would probably be your best shot for getting the materials you needed.

After some hours of re-downloading and testing software on your computer, you were able to recreate the system requirements needed to browse the deep web again. Though it would take even longer to get some good market results, as the site you had found before seemed to be shut down as you searched back up.

As you were getting frustrated with broken link after broken link and endless wiki pages to different sites, you were finally able to come up with two markets in which the materials you needed could most likely be sold. One of these markets even had its own little forum in which you could request products that weren't currently available on the market.

That seemed really fucking sketchy though so you shied away from it, promising yourself to only use it if it came to the last resort.

Anyways you had the choices between Garner.Net and Atlantic Trade.Net, which was the site with the forum to begin your searches.
> You atlantic Trade.Net
It's not like you really even needed to touch the forum part of the web-page to access the market portion. You just wanted to get the materials and never touch this side of the web again. Since most of everything you needed was mainly animal parts and some herbs, it meant that filtering through everything else made the whole process a tad bit easier.

What really fucking sucked about this though where all of the prices each of the items on your list were going for on this market. Using your phone as a calculator, you started to add up all the expenses and saw that the total cost of everything would be a few grand.

You didn't even have that kind of money and were past the phase of using your mom's credit card, though even that was only for a few bucks here and there. The money part of this completely went over your head until now, and now you felt as if you were fucked.

An idea hatched though, but that involved the forums and silently cursed thinking of what you were about to get yourself into.


Ever since that day when Gwen had broken down in front of you, you started to research online if there as any way that you could help her off that street. Even if you couldn't help her ascend to heaven or anything, at the very least you could move her to a spot in which there was more foot traffic, or better yet another ghost that she could interact with. The whole idea was morbid and gross to think about, but you didn't want to see her suffer anymore, there had to be a way. You had your powers for a reason, and you would be damned if you didn't put them to good use.

The time that you didn't spend with Gwen, which you had increased by a few hours, was time spent locked in your room as you visited countless supernatural pages. Each of them had information dating from just a few days ago all the way to old tribal superstitions and ideas.

Some of them sounded really far out there, while others just seemed like stupid entries placed by people writing fiction. Nevertheless, if you thought a process to help a ghost ascend sounded valid enough, you would try it out with Gwen to see if anything were to happen. Time and time again, you were disappointed with the lack of reaction.

Gwen had told you not to worry about it, and seemed a little worried with how far you were taking this as most of your conversations now involved helping her move on. You just couldn't forget what had happened that day, even if you did come off as strange or weird with what you were doing, you had to get her out of here, she needed freedom from the boundary, at the very least this one.

There were still two theories left that you could try out to see if it would help Gwen out of her boundary, and thankfully you saved them for last since they looked the most promising getting off of what you had read on them so far.

One involved doing an old African ritual in which you had to chant some words while holding a couple of ingredients. The other was an old native American ritual, in which one would let out blood from their palms, and touch hands with a ghost in order for them to have increased physical contact.

You were a little queasy about the second one, but not just that. You couldn't touch Gwen physically, so you didn't really understand all that well what that meant when it came to exchanging palms. The African one seemed more appealing, but gathering the materials would be a hassle, and you felt like you were being trolled with how rare the required ingredients were.

Nevertheless, you had to choose one.
> You native American Ritual
You didn't feel like doing a scavenger hunt that could end up being a waste of time going off by your previous leads. At the very least you could try this one first and do the African ritual later. Though you were a bit confused when it came to the part in touching hands, as from what you know that wasn't very possible, and you wanted to make sure you could do it before you started bleeding yourself.

You tried several times in touching Gwen whenever you two were talking, but each time your hand would go through her body and she would look confused in what you were trying to do. That probably had to do with the fact that you had told Gwen that you had given up on your efforts and to make the best out of what the two of you had. You wanted to surprise her if any of your efforts were to come to fruition so for now, you had to play dumb.

Gwen seemed relieved at this as it meant that it would put a stop to your antics and experiments that you would try on her. Maybe she was glad that things were going back to normal. But no matter what lies you told her, you wouldn't stop trying, not until you found a solution to all of this.

You looked a bit more online as now your research was focused on how to make ghosts physical. You tried your experiments in secret on Gwen as each of them failed as the ones had before. You didn't get far into your research though when similar phrases and words kept on reappearing with each new website that you visited. Apparently increasing a spirits happiness or any kind of a strong emotion, would lead to a bigger connection to the one that caused it.

Well, that's what you interpreted from what you had read. You didn't want to make her to sad or mad, so you would be going with making her happy. But how would you make her happy? Wasn't she happy content enough that you were talking to her every day? She sure seemed like it with her mannerisms and occasional laughter at what you had to say every now and then.

How happy would you have to make her to get this ritual to work, and would you have to cut your palm right there and then to get it done quickly before her happiness died down?

Fuck, you needed to get yourself a pocket knife.

There weren't many ideas of ways to make Gwen happy that you were able to think of, at least not much that could be done within the confines of her street. You didn't think you could reach the limit of happiness you needed with just words, maybe you could, you just didn't know how.

"Is there anything that would make you really happy, like anything I could bring you physically for you to see?" You asked her one day to see if you could get any leads.

"No not really, please don't tell me you're going on about this again. I told you to forget about that day, I never should have said those things so openly. Please, I'm happy now knowing that you're here with me." She pleaded as you frowned a bit.

There was always the chance that she really was happy, and doing the ritual now was all you needed to do in order for her to ascend. Though something was telling you that it wasn't the case, and you needed to do something big in order to reach the criteria.

Though as you were thinking about her happiness, you started to think about your own, as the thoughts that had been circling your mind earlier for the past few days kept on recurring.

Did you really want to see Gwen go?
> Yes
No.

You weren't about to pussy out of this because you were starting to get second thoughts. That would be incredibly selfish to make Gwen suffer on that shitty street while you knew you could do something about it, as she herself could not.

There had to be a way, and you would try every way possible.

Starting with this one.

----

You knew what these feelings were, you'd known them for a while now. You've had them ever since you first started talking to Gwen. As her face got less deformed and you started to talk to her more, the feeling just got stronger and stronger.

You brushed it off at first as a stupid feeling that you shouldn't have been getting. Though it wouldn't go away, and a lot of the times you couldn't really look at Gwen straight in her eyes without you blushing a few times when she made her usual jokes.

She really quickly changed from that fragile quiet girl you found on the street to someone filled with personality, who was both funny and caring at the same time. You loved her, yet you still wanted to see her go.

You hoped to god that this ritual wouldn't send her off, maybe at best it would let her free roam around the planet to her heart's content. But even then, that would be dreadful.

If that were to happen then you would need to be with her to keep her company, or at least find other ghosts that could do it as well if she were to get tired of you. Because of all this, you had been delaying the ritual for a few weeks already, it was about to be a month now, as each day went on you kept on hating yourself more and more, though it's not like in that time did you have an opportunity to make her euphoric.

As these thoughts kept on running through your head, an idea came into view.

Maybe if you told her that you loved her, that would make the spark you needed for the experiment to come together. Thinking it over it did sound really self-centered and cliche, but it was really worth a shot, and you wanted to convey your feelings before anything was to happen if she were to disappear or ascend without you knowing or being able to say your final goodbyes.

This led to a whole other set of problems as you started pussyfooting around the whole confession. Although to be fair you weren't exaggerating when you said it had to be perfect, in more than two ways. You had to make sure you did it with enough finesse to swoon her over, and you had to be agile enough to make the cut and start the ritual, or at least persuade her into doing it for you without having to trick her.

This isn't something that you could redo at a later day, it was all or nothing with this.

Though with enough planning and patience, and the knife that had taken a while to get shipped from Amazon, you had planned for your confession and the ritual to fall on the day of Friday.

With each passing day you rehearsed what you were planning on saying in your head countless times, and making sure that Gwen wasn't in a bad mood or anything that would ruin your surprise if she kept up with it for the entire week.

When it finally came to Friday, you were really fucking nervous about how everything would turn out. Like an edgy school shooter emo, you had been fake practicing the cut in the mirror to be as quick and precise as possible. You were really bad when it came to pain so that would probably be the worst part out of this whole experience.

It would be on your walk home when you would confess, and you waited a little bit later before actually starting your walk since you were wanting to do it a bit towards the time that the sun would lower. The last thing you needed was someone calling the cops because they saw a kid cut his wrist.

--

"You're a little late, did anything happen at school?" Gwen asks.

"Yeah had to stay behind for a bit of tutoring is all." You lie with a smile.

"Ah, well that's good, I'm glad you're actually doing something about it now, with how tired you look every morning I could have guessed with how you were doing in school."

"Is it really that obvious..." You frown.

She laughs. "No don't feel bad about it, I'm just really good at reading expressions and all."

You couldn't really tell if you were actually acting like that, or if it was just apart of your fake act from your earlier meetings.

Forgetting about that for a moment, you started to think of your words.
> You start slowly
"Gwen, for the time that we've known each other, what do you think of me..." You ask while looking away a bit.

Though you see her smirk a little.

"What brought on that type of question?"

"Just wondering."

She seems to think for a moment, seeming to choose her words slowly.

"Well....you were really nice to me. Yo still are, but I'm glad you stopped being super nice after that one day. You also really care about being on time here, which I appreciate....so I guess I think you're OK."

HNNNNNNGGGGG.

"Just OK?" You say half-jokingly, although on the inside being completely serious.

She gives you a sly look with her eyes.

"Well tell me then, what do you think of me?" she asks.

"I think you're OK." You reply with a smile.

"Oh fuck off, don't make me say that embarrassing stuff and you not do the same." She said slightly annoyed.

"Well....I think you're a pretty cool ghost. You're very interesting to talk too, and you have a good sense of humor about things. You care about....well what happens to me and my school work so there's that too, I guess." Your carefully picked words cause Gwen's face to shift in a certain way. You couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment or something else, but she also couldn't seem to make eye contact with you either.

"Gwen, I.....well I really like you."

You didn't really know what to say after that, your mouth kind of dried up the point in which you didn't feel as if you could get anything else out of your throat.

"Uh-h well..." You heard Gwen's reaction sounded stiff and hoarse.

"W-Well I like you to I g-guess!" Gwen was a little bit louder with how she said it, trying to laugh along with it after saying it, though it sounded extremely unnatural.

"Fuck I made things weird didn't I, I'm sorry." you apologize sheepishly.

"No! Please don't. I mean yeah it is kind of awkward the way you said it. I would have worded it a bit differently I mean, but.....well I really do have the same feelings." she replies, a bit sturdier with her voice.

"Well....I...It's more than just liking....I love you..."She finishes after a brief pause.

"I loved you when you first came here and decided to stay.....you could of walked away but you stayed the first time and that's all that really took....I hated when you weren't here, and I always looked forward to our little talks, even if they weren't for that long. Maybe because they were so short is why I treasure them so much. I like to hear about your day, I want to know about your problems, I just want....I want to be with you..."

Man, she was doing a better job than you were doing with this confession. She didn't even lose eye contact when she said that last part, her facial expression was one of seriousness, she didn't laugh that last bit off.

"I love you too....That's why....Well that's why I want to help you. If it's just one way that could bring us together, or let you have your peace. I don't care if you say you don't want it, I'm doing what I'm doing because I care about you, and if a day comes where I have to stop coming that's out of my own control, then I don't want you to be here all alone, at the very best, I want you to be with me." You say, trying your best to sound as sincere as possible with your antics.

"Well, I know that you have my best intentions in your heart, just please don't get yourself hurt over it, that's the last thing I want."

Shit.

"Well that's the thing, please listen to me through before you say anything though." You plead as you see her facial expression darken as she hears this from you.

"I'm going to try a ritual, which just involves he drawing a little blood. After that we just need to hold hands while I say a chant. Afterward, I think you'll be able to walk free and go with me wherever I go. I want that more than anything, to just be with you outside of this street, and I think this way is going to work."

Her attitude on this seems mixed as she seems hesitant about it, although you're already taking out your knife as you flip it open.

"Wait! How do you know this is going to work?" Gwen hastily asks.

"I honestly really don't, but I'm going to try either way. I'm not just doing this for you either, I'm doing it for me." You joke as you reflexively wince while making the cut. Although you make sure to not do it too deep that it would be dangerous or worry Gwen to an extreme level, though blood was easily flowing now if you tipped your wrist over sideways.

You raised out your hand for Gwen to grab.

"Let's try it out Gwen, me and you. You just need to grab my hand." You say.

Again she seems to hesitate. Though much less now as she seems to make up her mind in less than a minute.

"OK. Together then."

Gwen reaches for your hand as your heart beats rapidly, as if ready to explode from your chest.

You feel contact, as her cold clammy hand meets with yours. Your stomach drops as your knees begin to buckle, but you stand as firm as you can as you start to remember the chant.

The words escape your mouth as you look up a little into the sky. You change your gripping from her hand to her forearm as you speed up the chant.

Gwen grips you harder as she looks down.

The chant ends as you finish saying what you needed to say.

You don't feel anything different, and that makes you start to panic internally. Gwen slowly starts to look back up as her grip on your wrist begins to loosen, so does yours.

"D-Do you know where your boundary is?" You stammer, not giving up on your hopes that something had changed.

"Yeah, that fence is where I usually can't pass through...." She says quietly.

Both of you start walking towards the fence, though your pace is slow as it's hard to move your feet with how weak they feel, while Gwen is right beside you at the same speed.

When you reach the fence, you both pause. Both of you don't step forward, and part of you hopes that Gwen does it first. But since this was all your idea, it was best to find out if this was all for naught.

Stepping past the fence, you turn around and look at Gwen, who's un-moving,

You raise out your hand again for her to grab.

"Come on, only one way to find out."

All she needed to do was be able to grab your hand, that was all. Even if she couldn't leave this boundary, the of you being able to make physical contact was already enough to make you happy.

Her hand raised up as it shook with nervously, moving it closer to yours, she grabbed your hand.

She grabbed your hand.

Outside of the boundary.

The two of you froze for a moment as nothing was said. Though immediately afterward, you felt your body push back as a large amount of weight fell on top of you from the front. Falling on your ass, you felt arms embrace around torso while loud wails pierced your ears. Gwen was crying, and she was really letting it all out as you felt your shoulder be soaked with tears. Though looking down, you saw that your shirt wasn't wet, which was a really weird feeling. You hugged Gwen back as you let her cry out what she needed to cry out, rubbing her back to console her a bit.

"It worked....>I-It really worked!" She cried into your ear.

Maybe you should have been crying too, but your face just felt numb as you realized what you did actually worked, maybe deep down you expected nothing out of this, and to have it actually work just shook you.

Though you knew, that now, everything was going to be OK.

You got Gwen off the street.
> You later
You and Gwen talked throughout the night at your house. She looked at every square inch of your room while you offered to take her out somewhere for the night so that she could see the rest of the city again. Gwen also wanted to take the time to clean your wound herself after you supplied her with what was needed, saying that this was something she wanted to do.

She refused though, saying that was where she wanted to be.

Music was played, tears were shed, and before you knew it you were passed out with exhaustion on your bed.

Ghosts couldn't sleep, so Gwen stayed up, sitting on your bed and playing with your hair while you lost consciousness.

When you had woken up, she was back to where she was.

You asked if she had stayed there the whole entire night, she said no, telling you she had explored your house for a couple of hours.

Since it was the weekend, you decided that it would be best to take her out to go do something, and you already had an idea of what to do. Though you would have to wait until tonight to actually get there when you wanted to get there.

Hanging out at your house and just talking for most of the morning, you got some money from your wallet and told your mom you would be coming back later tonight, saying you would be out with friends and getting a ride home from them.

Paying for a bus fare you and Gwen traveled to a local mountain in which people usually hiked at. Though you didn't tell her the destination since you wanted it to be a surprise. You didn't think ghosts could get fatigued either, though it wasn't really that long of a climb so no need to worry about it.

Upon arriving, there were only a few cars parked in the parking lot. The mountain didn't have a closing time, or at least this trail didn't you think. You already took the precaution of taking a flashlight too for the way down, since you would be up here until nightfall.

"We're going hiking? That's so lame, It's late too." Gwen complained.

"Stop being such a baby, there's something cool to see up top."

"You know what else is cool? Taking your ghost girlfriend to go see a movie or something."

"Maybe if you appreciate my thoughtful trips I'll take you when I feel like it." You joke.

She smirks. "Ass."

Reaching the top of the mountain, you continued on at the little plateau that was on the top in which you could look at everything.

"Wow, the view from here is pretty..." Gwen says with admiration.

"Yeah, but it gets even better." You say.

She asks why, but you change the topic, and just begin to talk about random topics for the next couple of hours.

Luckily there weren't that many people who came upon this mountain top at this time of day, only a few others you saw though they went to the other side of the area, whether that to avoid the crazy man talking to himself you had no idea.

As the last bits of rays were disappearing in the horizon, the view that you had been waiting for came into full effect as you stopped the conversation that was going on and pointed towards the view, to which Gwen had been oblivious too until now.

An audible "Woah" escaped her lips as she saw what you were seeing.

Countless city lights had brightened up buildings as far as the eye could see since downtown wasn't that far away, you were able to see how beautiful the skyscrapers could be.

"It's so pretty..."

"Yeah, I came up her once during one time when I was climbing with my uncle, it's something I really wanted to see again."

The two of you continued to look in silence as your arm was wrapped around the shoulder of Gwen.

You had no idea how things would go from here, you finished what you needed too and you got what you wanted. Though the uncertainty if Gwen would ever enter the final stage of leaving this planet would be on your mind for quite some time, as long as she was here with you and you could physically feel her hand in yours, then you really didn't really care all that much.

You would live each day as it was, and live it happily with Gwen.