Going to a baseball game probably would be a nice distraction, hiking seemed a bit too boring anyway.

"Alright we're going to a baseball game then." you decide.

"Awww, why don't we go to a football, baseball is boring," Owen complains.

Continuing to ignore him, Nick nods at the pick and so does Baron. Now with that out of the way you had to find out how to pay for this.

------

Turns out the tickets for the midsection were pretty cheap, and the nearest game was only about five days away from when you decided. You had told your mom that you were going to the game with friends and if she could buy your ticket. She agreed to it without much hesitation to your relief, getting to the stadium was also pretty easy since there was a bus stop right by it.

Your mom was able to get you middle sears with a good enough view that none of the spirits would be able to complain. It also seemed to be a slow enough day that your row was pretty much empty, allowing the spirits to grab empty seats by you.

Baron and Nick sat together and immediately got invested into watching the game and discussing it together in the row right below you. You made Owen and Veronica sit right next to you so you could make sure that they weren't up to any antics that would ruin the day, though they just started talking about random things, not really paying attention to the game. As long as they were occupied with something though, then you really didn't mind it all that much.

Ashley sat a row above you, she wanted to sit an extra row higher but the boundary didn't allow it since there were hardly any seats up there with how full that row was.

You looked behind you to check on her every now and then, though she was just hugging herself and looking down at her lap. You always think that she sleeps or just daydreams off in her head for most of the time, which maybe is best for her to just enjoy herself with her own thoughts.

The game continued on in peace as you decided that you were to stay for all of the innings. Since people started to leave in the rows around you towards the end of the game, Veronica and Owen couldn't really mess with anyone, so you let them run around in the rows near you when they started getting bored. Since they were ghosts, you didn't really find it to worry about them wrestling amongst themselves and jumping around in the chairs.

When the game finally ended, you looked up at the sky to see that it was pretty dark out already, with the gaming lasting longer than it supposed to.

"I told you they were going to win didn't I?" Baron says to Nick with a laugh. The first one you think you've ever heard.

"Please, they just got lucky, if they would have done better in the second inning than it would have been an easy win for them no doubt."

Baron and Nick walked ahead of the rest of you to the bus stop while they continued to talk about the events of the game.

Veronica and Owen continued to play tag around all of you, using you primarily as a fence to stop one another from getting each other.

This whole entire time you really were trying to just leave Ashley alone to herself. But something kept on bugging you to just try to talk to her and ask her what the fuck was up. Something had to be eating at her, or maybe this is just how she was.
> You leave her alone
It was best to just leave the girl alone. She had her own problems, and if she wanted to keep them to herself until she left this world for good, then it was on her. It would only cause problems if you tried to get involved and she started freaking out or something, besides everyone seemed to have a happy day today, best not to ruin it.


"Do you know why we're here Nick?"

"Are you here to take me to the great beyond? I thought you guys would be coming soon."

Nick seemed a lot calmer than you would have imagined this interaction to be. Maybe it was because Owen had been so emotional and that was your first and only experience doing this till now that you were expecting the same from this guy.

"Well not quite, were kind of middlemen to put it frankly. You'll be able to get to the great beyond soon enough, but there comes a process before that."

"A shame, I was hoping to finally be able to sleep eternally without being hassled to remember to eat and go to the bathroom every now and then."
> You get to the chase
"You seem like a rather calm spirit, were you not in distress when you first found out that you were stuck like this in this house?" You ask, trying to be up front.

"Well at first maybe. But I'm able to move throughout my house as I please, and it's not like I left it all that much, to begin with." He says with firmly, without any sense of doubt.

"So then you don't feel any sadness or depression, just contentment?" You ask to make sure.

"Well if you would want to put it like that, then yes," Nick states with continued affirmation.

"Well, then this just makes the process a whole lot easier. We should be able to finish this process rather quickly."

"What would this process entail?" Nick asks.

"I would need you to agree to the terms of entering my body for an unspecified amount of time. Even I don't know how long you'll be with me, but trust me when I say that it won't be anything bad, in fact, it'll probably even be better than staying here. Wherever I go you'll be able to go, and you'll be able to have a little bit more intractability with the world." You explain to him, trying to make it sound as easy as possible.

Nick takes seems to take this in for a moment, before nodding his head.

"If that's the case then I really see no reason to object then, let's get this out of the way, the sooner I can get my sleep the better." Nick states.

Wow, this would be way faster and easier then it was with Owen, if the older aged spirits were this upfront with wanting to leave and with the questions you asked, then you should totally be helping a lot more of them out. Regardless of that, you extend out your arm for Nick to grab.

"Please grab my arm, Nick."

Nick does as you say as grasp arms.

Closing your eyes, you start to twist your palm around Nicks' arm as the familiar feeling you had first felt with Owen starts to happen once again. Although this time you don't feel as weak as you did, which is good, though your stomach still hurts quite a bit.

As the tingling feeling starts to subside, you see that Nick stands before you, seemingly a bit confused.

"I felt something happen I think, but did something happen?" He asks.

"Yeah it isn't really a big change honestly, you just aren't tied down to this house anymore, and instead have a boundary around me." You explain to him.

"Interesting."

You look over at Ruby to get confirmation over your success to which you see her already standing up.

"I knew this spirit wouldn't take that long to bind with, I've been on a roll with this is so far, anyway that should be enough spirits for you to bind with for now. Let's go home, I've had enough ghost hunting for one week." She yawns before starting to walk out of the bedroom.

You were really surprised and relieved that you didn't really need Owen's help for this spirit, but you also felt a little shamed seeing that Ruby probably had a big part in why the spirits you were encountering didn't really put up much of a resistance when it came to coming with you.

"Let's go home then, I wanted to finish my playthrough of fallout I just started on your computer."

Shaking your head, you leave the room and follow Ruby downstairs with Nick and Owen.
You were really hoping she meant what she said about there being no more spirits for you to take in, any more and it would most likely start to get really crowded in your room, besides all it took was for some ghost with a nasty attitude to really mess with things if you had to spend every minute assigned with them, that's why you were really glad that Ruby wasn't a spirit that was chained to you, that would be horrible.

Ruby was quick to drop you off, Owen and Nick were even a bit worried about how fast she was driving in some sections, but luckily you made it home safe and sound. After getting to your room, Owen immediately hopped onto your computer and started playing Fallout, while Nick grabbed something from your bookshelf and began reading. Hopefully, these guys wouldn't be bored anytime soon, as you had no idea for any other way you would entertain them.

A bit tired from everything that had happened, you decided to just sleep off the remainder of the day, hoping to sleep in well since it was the weekend.

---

Months had passed since you first took in Nick into your circle. Since then you had also taken in three more ghosts, a teenage girl who had committed suicide by the name of Ashley, a middle-aged gangster type man who had been killed in a gunfight named Baron, and lastly there was a younger tween-aged girl who was killed while jaywalking named Veronica.

With each new spirit, you continued to tell Ruby that you couldn't accept anymore since it was starting to get too crowded, though you had to word it carefully since all the spirits were in close proximity. Each time she would tell you that you would be ascending everyone soon, though each time you just got a new spirit to take in. While most of them weren't really a problem in dealing with, since if they got too rowdy you would make them stay in your head, it just became such a hassle whenever you needed privacy to yourself. Luckily Owen was really talkative so he drove the attention away from you as he was always the center of attention.

The quietest out of everyone would have to be Baron, he didn't really speak all that much when you first brought him in, and only really ever talked if spoken to. Ashley was probably the loudest as she kept on complaining about still being here and not in a final resting place, or at least she was at first, now she's quiet like Baron but still gives off a strong negative attitude whenever she speaks.

Owen and Veronica got along the best, probably since they were both around the same age save for a few years. Though still, they were very loud whenever they would get too excited, which led Ashley to start screaming a few times for them to shut up as she spent quiet time in the corner of your room.

You were really glad that you had actually gotten Nick into your circle since he was the only real functioning adult here who could set his foot down causing everyone else to listen and stop whatever it was they were doing whenever he said something of importance.

There was no way you could take anyone else in, the next spirit Ruby tries to throw at you you'll just put your foot down and say no. Half of the spirits assigned to you already want to leave and get ascended too, Ashley and Nick especially, although Nick seems to have gotten comfortable around everyone, to which he stopped asking Ruby about the ascension less and less as time went on. To be perfectly honest the only real problem was Ashley, she just kept pulling on your nerve strings whenever she opened her mouth. You actually just thought about keeping her in your mind so she wouldn't have to argue with anyone, but you felt as if that would just lead to more problems.

The other major thing that you had to keep track off was when you went to classes. Owen tried to show off to Veronica a few times by doing stupid shit in class like touching peoples shoulders or dropping pencils. Naturally, he knew you couldn't do anything about it so your anxiety just kept on increasing along with antics. It got to the point at which you would force him to stay in your mind for the remainder of school. Though to counter this he would constantly try to annoy you in your head so you couldn't pay attention to anything at all. You've told him off plenty of times, probably a bit harsher than one would be to a kid at such a young age, and sometimes he would get into long pouts about it.

As cool as Owen could be at times, he was really pushing you over his edge, just so he could get interest from Veronica, who gave mixed signals towards him which only made shit worse. You could swear that you were starting to get grey and white hairs from all this stress.

--

"I already told you, you're going to be ascending soon now stop bitching!" Ruby seethes as Ashley confronts her yet again after school.

"Bullshit it's already been months and we're still fucking here, I stopped believing you after we took Veronica in. Take us out of here NOW!"

Ashley seemed to be really going at it this time, you've never seen her talk out this long, usually, she starts to brood in a corner after yelling or complaining for only a few seconds.

"Is it my fucking problem that you decided to kill yourself? You should have thought about the shit that could happen before you made such a stupid ass decision."

Veronica and Owen cringed and flinched back a bit, while Nick turned his head. It really was about to go down.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!"

Ashley charged towards Ruby with fury, though as you predicted she flew right past though her due to her emotions.

"Yeah nice try fuck face, now anyway before I was so rudely interrupted, I was going to say that I'm going to get you all ascended by the end of this month, and I'm serious when I say this. Our quota is going to be due soon, and if things go right, I might have something special in store for us." Ruby finishes, looking directly at you when she said the last part.

"Don't do anything stupid or dumb until then while I get all the preparations in place, and after that, you all can get your eternal sleep or whatever the fuck it is you want and we can all be happy. Now I have to go, I have a club meeting that starts in an hour."


You wake up pretty early the following day, although you think it's because the sound of a monster getting slain is what causes you to stir from sleep

"Oh are you awake already, I beat this game for you while you were asleep, it was pretty easy not gonna lie."

You rub your eyes for a second as you just sit there in confusion. It takes you a few moments before you realize who Owen is and remember everything that happened the following day.

"Got to get ready for class..."You yawn as you start getting your clothes.

"Oh let me come with you!" Owen exclaims as he gets up from your chair.

"Well I mean you kind of have to..."

"Oh yeah."

You shake your head as you grab your remaining items and head for the bathroom. Luckily the boundary between you and Owen was pretty big so he didn't have to be close by to you that much, still giving you a lot of privacy then what you originally thought you would have.

Once you were ready to go, you and Owen left your house and made your way to your bus stop.

"You should ask your girlfriend to pick you up." Owne tells you as the two of stand in silence.

"She's not my girlfriend, she's my partner."

"Wait so you guy's are married?"

"No!, were ju-."

You stop yourself mid-sentence as you just now notice the other kids at your bus stop are staring at you, in which you realize it looks like you're talking to yourself.

"Ahahaha, they think you're loony." Owen mocks at you, in which you return with a glare.

As the two of you get onto the bus when it arrives, you sit together as Owen continues on to try to get you to talk to him. Though you decide now to ignore to unless you're alone somewhere or with Ruby.

During your classes, Owen gets bored and decides to start running around the room, getting into people's faces and other sort of shenanigans. You had warned him before you went into class though that he was not to touch anything that would look like something supernatural to everyone else. He had promised not to, but with the half-assed way he had said it, you didn't all that much trust him.

Because of this, you couldn't pay attention in class as your eyes were continually trained on Owen to make sure he wasn't doing anything stupid. There were even times in which he would give you evil glares and pretend to start throwing things, which would make you panic a little in which he could probably tell, as it made him laugh.

Fuck, maybe it would be better if you could just keep him in your head.

With your first set of classes over and lunch starting to begin, you wait to see if Ruby wants to meet with you so you stick by your class. Though after a few minutes you decide to leave and go get lunch with no signs of her, and not wanting to be the last one in line.

"Are you not going to hang out with your girlfriend today," Owen asked, in a serious tone.

You're about to answer him, but quickly stop yourself since you're packed in a line with other people, and instead just ignore him.

"Lame, I thought you guys were cool together and hung out and stuff. Or maybe she's waiting for you to go and find her."

You continue to ignore him.

This seems to frustrate Owen a bit, as he stays quiet for the remainder of the time that you are in line.

Once you grab your food and head on outside, out of earshot from everyone else, Owen starts to speak again.

"OK, no one's around you can talk now."

"Shut up Owen..." You mumble.

"You talked!" Owen says with excitement, though in a mocking tone no doubt.

"Anyway, what do you want to do for lunch today?" Owen asks you.
> You find Ruby
You were really hoping to find Ruby in order to ask her more about the situation with you and Owen. Not in a bad way or anything, but with the powers she had mentioned you had. You didn't know how open she would be about the information that you wanted, but it wouldn't hurt to try and ask her.

"We're going to go look for Ruby, look out for her." You tell Owen.

"Ah Hah! I knew you two couldn't be without one another, on it captain, I'll keep an eye out for your missing lover."

This irked you more than it should off but you brushed it to the side for now. Ruby had mentioned before that she had a lot of friends and wanted to try to enjoy her senior year as much as possible. Even though she was in your grade you didn't see her at all, since you had no classes with her and you didn't know what she did for lunch.

You thought about texting her but for some reason decided against it, so you just started to wander around campus in order to find her before lunch ended.

Checking the cafeteria, library, hallways of some school buildings, and the general courtyard where everyone ate outside, you still couldn't find her even with Owen's help.

"Man, did you make her mad or something? Your girlfriend really is trying to avoid you it seems like."

Ignoring what he said, you give a sigh."I don't think we'll find her in time anyway before the bell rings, I'm just going to get something to eat from the cafeteria before lunch ends."

"Meh, I wouldn't. The food today seemed kind of bad from what I saw when we were in there."

"Don't care, I'm hungry." You reply, as you quickly walk to the cafeteria before it closes.


Walking back up to the boy, you could see that he was still sulking, although he had stopped shaking so at least that was good.

You crouch down to his level and start to speak.
> You stern
"Alright listen up kid, the girl was right, do as you're told and we'll get you out of this hellhole, but don't fuck around or else you'll be staying here for the rest of eternity, and I'm not lying when I say that."

The boy starts to quiver again as he continues to look down at his knees.
> You press on
"Answer me, boy, do you agree to these terms."

"Y-Yes." He whimpers silently.

A nasty smell comes to your nostrils, and the color of the boy's skin starts to turn a dark rotten green, which makes you wince in disgust.

"Alright then, tell me about yourself, how did you die?"

"I drowned in the lake..."He says in a light voice.

"Yeah well no fucking shit, I was hoping you'd be more fucking specific, who let you drown, were you here alone?"

The smell gets worse, you want to pinch your nose and get out of here, but you continue with the questions as the boy shakes harder.

"Leave me alone..."

"Excuse me?"

There's a sudden second in which the boy disappears from your eyes, and seconds later you start to feel a pain from your chest.

With each passing moment it grows stronger and stronger, and before you know it you let out a yell in pain as you fall onto your back.

"Hey!" You hear Ruby shout out to you, but your ears start to ring as you wreathe around the wooden dock in pain.

It feels like something wants to burst out of your chest, and you want nothing else more but to die and get rid of the burning sensation that was cooking your heart like a cracked egg.

Something did burst from your chest, you were sure of it. You wouldn't see it though as your vision had gone out first.

Shortly afterward your senses followed with it.


Walking back up to the boy, you could see that he was still sulking, although he had stopped shaking so at least that was good.

You crouch down to his level and start to speak.
> You tough love
"Alright listen up kid, I know she was pretty harsh with you right now, but you know she's right when it comes to getting out of here. We only want to help you ascend to your final rest, or peace, or whatever it is that comes next. But in order to do that you need to cooperate with me ok?" You tell him with as a hardy of a voice you could muster.

The boy nods at what you say, but he doesn't look up at you.
> You coax
"Hey you know you can trust me, right kid? Helping you is my job, and I'm sure as hell going to help you get out of this place, no matter what." You say reassuringly.

The boy looks up at you but doesn't say anything, though it seems like he's thinking about something as his eye keeps looking at different things.

"Do you want to ask me anything?"You say, hoping that he would clear his mind of any worries.

"How...How are you going to help me?"
> You lie about taking him into your body
"As soon as we get done with this conversation, you'll immediately ascend up to wherever your going to be placed, so please stop worrying about everything, soon enough you'll experience total piece, or get reincarnated, however, it all works." You say with a confident face.

The boy nods his face as he seems in a much more better state than the one that Ruby had left him in.

"When can you do it?" He asks you, almost a bit impatiently.

"I need you to be content, and I need you to accept the terms that I'm about to give you. So start thinking about some happy thoughts before I ask you what I need you too O.K?"

"Yeah, yeah I can do that no problem."The boy says letting out a fake laugh, as to try to build enthusiasm about what is to happen.

"Alright then, take my hand." You order, which he follows through.

You head starts to buzz as Owen disappears from view.
> You on the inside
Your mind starting to get really fucking fuzzy, as if listening to a radio station that had just gone completely static. It didn't hurt your ears though, it was just a mild annoyance as you felt dizzy and your vision getting blurry. Not wanting to fall on your face, you sat yourself down on the ground and waited for this experience to pass by.

"That was pretty anticlimactic." You hear Ruby say through the static, though you don't pay her much mind as you try to concentrate on seeing if you could communicate with, Owen.

Owen can you hear me?

The static continues, and you feel your heart race a little bit. Sitting in silence for a few seconds, you start to feel the static die down a little as you're able to hear yourself think finally.

Hello?

You hear a voice call out to you, which makes your entire body jump up a bit with how it sounds directly in your mind.

Owen is that you?

Yeah. Where am I?

Owen's voice sounded frightened which made you tense up a bit.

You lied to me

"huh?"

I CAN READ YOUR THOUGHTS ASSHOLE, YOU LIED TO ME. I'M STUCK HERE.

The sudden screaming by Owen had made your head hurt as you started to cover your ears.

LIAR, LIAR YOU'RE A LIAR I TRUSTED YOU.

As Owen's screams got louder, his voice started to change, as if turning into something demonic. Moments later, you start to feel a pain in your chest.

With each passing moment it grows stronger and stronger, and before you know it you let out a yell in pain as you fall onto your back.

"Hey!" You hear Ruby shout out to you, but your ears start to ring as you wreathe around the wooden dock in pain.

It feels like something wants to burst out of your chest, and you want nothing else more but to die and get rid of the burning sensation that was cooking your heart like a cracked egg.

Something did burst from your chest, you were sure of it. You wouldn't see it though as your vision had gone out first.

Shortly afterward your senses followed with it.


"Hey you know you can trust me, right kid? Helping you is my job, and I'm sure as hell going to help you get out of this place, no matter what." You say reassuringly.

The boy looks up at you but doesn't say anything, though it seems like he's thinking about something as his eye keeps looking at different things.

"Do you want to ask me anything?"You say, hoping that he would clear his mind of any worries.

"How...How are you going to help me?"
> You tell him the truth
Lying to the kid would probably fuck you over in some way later. It was best to be upfront with everything that was about to happen so he wouldn't be surprised.

"Look kid, the process that were going to through is going to be...different than you would probably except. So please don't get to freaked out with what's to happen."

"Well, what's the process?"He asks, with a bit of force in his voice.

"You're going to be....coming into my body."You say bluntly.

"What!?"He yells loudly, giving you a look of disbelief.

"Yeah, you'll share a body with me, and be able to see what I see and go where I go, think of it as keeping me company." You say trying to make situation sound tame.

"But I don't want to go with you, I want to get off this fucking planet!"He cries.

"Yes eventually you will, but you just have to stay with me for a period of time, and once that period of time is over, you can ascend."

"How long is the period of time...?"He mutters.

You give him a sideways glance. "I don't know, it depends on the spirit."

Silence clouds the two of you as he seems to think this over.

"Well...I guess it's better than staying here I guess, now that the fishermen are all gone."The boy says with a gloomy face.

Even if he was to agree with the terms of coming with you, you still had to bring some happiness into him somehow, otherwise, the process wouldn't work going off of what Ruby had said.

"Don't look so down about it kid. Hey, is there anywhere you ever wanted to go, anything you ever wanted to do?"

"I...I wanted to play a video game that was supposed to be coming out."

You bit your lip hard as you tried your best to stop the laugh that was wanting to come out, you give a deep nod to him in confirmation. "Alright, well then I'll get the game you wanted and we can play it together, and anything else you want to do we will do it, O.K?"

"You promise?"

"I promise."

The kid smiles a little, and you think its a genuine one considering that he lets out his hand.

"Let's do this then, also my name is Owen."

Grabbing the boy's hand, you feel your head start to buzz.


You dream a lot when you sleep.

In fact, you could probably remember all of them from the past week, in almost exact detail.

Almost all of them involved ghosts, and almost all of them had unhappy endings.

You couldn't really classify them as nightmares though, just sad stories.

This dream wasn't like the last ones. The giant marble pillar that you sat on in a dark purple empty void was a brand new experience. This, this seemed and felt like a nightmare. Your surroundings felt so vast and unknown and because you had extreme anxiety and awareness for what could or was about to come.

The voice that came a few minutes after, raised every single hair on the back of your neck and arms while your fingers clamped up.

"Your quota needs to be met. You need to pass one five." These words were repeated twice in the same speed and vocal. You felt as if someone was watching you but as you looked around there was no one to be found. The voice sounded so alluring and calm, but also one that would be able to cause great things, and with that, it also intimated you greatly.

"Diligence will reward you. Diligence is the key to pass them on." These words were repeated as well, and once they were done both were said compounded.

"Good luck."

You could hear the sound of the final late bell for class as your eyes opened to the ceiling of the bathroom. Groggily sitting yourself up and wiping the drying vomit from your mouth with your shoulder sleeve, you get yourself to your feet as you grab your bag and flush the toilet.

You didn't know what the words of your dream meant, and if you should actually take it seriously at all.

What mattered right now though is that you just fucking fainted after throwing up.

You were feeling better but there was still an aching burning sensation in your chest that was starting to worry you.
> You go to the nurse
Fuck this, you weren't about to deal with this shit for the next seven hours, you were going home.

Exiting the bathroom, you shuffled on in the empty hallways while keeping your head down in case any teacher were to give you trouble for not being class. Reaching the nurse's office and entering the main reception room, the smell of medicine and cleanliness enters your nostrils, it made the sick feeling in your stomach start to grow again, albeit for different reasons.

The nurse, who was the front desk filling out some paperwork, immediately lifted her head as soon as you walked in.

"Do you have a pass?"

Immediately she gave the same old first question she gives everyone when they walk in.

"Ah no, I didn't go to first period I went straight here. I just threw up in the bathroom and I'm not feeling well..." You say as she gives you a quick look over.

"You could of at least saved us both the trouble and just stayed home. Come here and sign in and go have a seat in the back. What's your ID number?" She grumbles with a hint of annoyance.

"223312."

Typing in the numbers on the computer by her, she nods towards the sign in sheet as you do as you're told.

"Do you want me to call your mom or your dad?"

"Mom please."

Filling out the sign in sheet you take a seat in the back medical area and wait for your ride.

"You should have told me that you were feeling sick before you left, I was in the middle of cooking something." Your mom lectures you in the car while you look out the passenger window, listening to her with half your attention.

"You could of at least grabbed your homework from class or something, I don't want you playing any video games or anything. You go straight to bed while I go buy something from the pharmacy."

"OK." You mumble through your palm that's resting against your cheek.

Upon getting home, you go straight upstairs as you were ordered and face plant onto your bed in exhaustion.

Normally you would ignore your mom and get straight online, though you were really were feeling like shit, so you decided against it. At least for the time being.

With your mom coming back from the pharmacy and giving you something to take in, you spend the remainder of your late morning in bed, though as soon as you can tell that your mom had left the house to go do some errands, you immediately hop onto your computer now that your stomach had settled to just an annoyance rather than a hindrance.

Logging into your desktop, you start aimlessly browsing around on the net, looking at random articles and looking at headlines to try and pass the time.

For some reason though, the computer seems to be acting really slow. Not the kind of slow that comes from shitty internet, but just constant stuttering of just about everything non-internet related. This computer wasn't that fucking bad, while you started to check the inner settings to see what the fuck was wrong, the whole thing just went black. Thinking that the computer shut itself off, you start to reach for the power button to see that the computer is still on. A little freaked out and worried now, you were praying to god that you didn't download any shitty virus that fucked up your system.

The computer monitor after a few moments turned itself back on and what was on the screen tensed up your whole body.

It was liveleak.
> You death sites
You weren't in control of the mouse, it was moving all on its own as it was traversing through liveleak. You were a little too scared to see what would happen if you tried to take control of it, so you just let it do its thing.

Multiple tabs started opening up instantaneously, photos of people, clippings of news reports, what really fucked with you though were uncensored pictures of corpses and crimes scenes that were the most numerous out of it all.

A new internet window opened up, taking up most of the screen up with it. You looked to see that it was notepad, and almost immediately words started to appear, and you read them as they were typed out.

G- It's been a while since I've last had contact with a Warden, your kind's power has been rather elusive and it's hard finding a partner for my quotas. Luckily your search history pretty much confirms all my suspicions.

The words stopped typing, and you just stared in silence for a moment.

G- You wanna ask me any questions (:??

Your hands trembled a bit as they started typing on the keyboard.

Who are you?

G- You can refer to me as G, we're going to be talking a lot so let's just keep it at that, don't ask me anything else about myself, and don't try to pry into who or what I am, understood??

You reflexively scowled at what you just read, and 'G' quickly responded to this.

G- Don't make such a poor face, I usually come off quite strongly with that first impression but it's a given after my time working with you guys. (:

She saw you fucking scowl?!

Confused at first, you then take direct notice the webcam that sits next to your monitor, with quick haste you turn it backwards so it faces the wall behind it.

G- Awwwww why'd you have to go and spoil all the fun :(

Thinking of what to type at first, you look over at your microphone that's also connected to your PC, and try to test something out.

"Who are you and what do you want."

It takes a moment, but the typing starts once again.

G- I already told you, you can call me G. Also, it's not really want per say, but it's what will benefit us both in the long run, I am contracted to you until you meet your quota until then we both have to work together to solve crimes and help spirits move on to ascension past this plane. I know that you see ghosts, and that is exactly what I have contacted you, my quota itself will meet its deadline at the same time yours will, so both of us meeting the goal would be a win-win. Now since I'm guessing you're new at this, I should explain to you this full phenomenon that you've had your entire life, while also giving insight on the quotas?"
> You ignore the offer
You didn’t who the fuck this person was and you were getting bad vibes from this interaction since the beginning of it. You didn’t it would give you the freedom of choice on whether or not to participate, but it was best to take advantage of this and opt out quickly before it changed its mind.

“Sorry but no thank you, this seems sketchy as fuck and I want no part in this, don’t contact me again.” With those words being sternly said, you unplugged your PC tower before you could get a response. You felt a little stupid for being so demanding when you said those words since you were in no position to do that, but surprisingly to you, there were no immediate repercussions like getting electrified to death or something.

You were a little paranoid about getting back online, however, so you took your moms advice and slept your stomach problems off for the rest of the day.
> Weeks Later
You had thought the stomachache would pass with time and over the counter medicine, but it only went on to become worse with each passing day. It got to the point at which you couldn't stand for long periods of time without having to lay back down.

Your mom thought you were faking the pain at first, but it didn't take long for her to see that the situation was serious, and scheduled a doctors appointment as soon as one would be possible. Though you honestly wished your mom had just taken you straight to the emergency room, as you weren't exaggerating when you said that you wouldn't last until the doctor's appointment.

As it would have it, it seemed like that would be the case. During one of your usual days of resting in bed while your mom was at work, your eyes got heavy and you slowly shut them while thinking you would take a pretty quick nap before your mom was to get home.

You never woke up.


You weren't in control of the mouse, it was moving all on its own as it was traversing through liveleak. You were a little too scared to see what would happen if you tried to take control of it, so you just let it do its thing.

Multiple tabs started opening up instantaneously, photos of people, clippings of news reports, what really fucked with you though were uncensored pictures of corpses and crimes scenes that were the most numerous out of it all.

A new internet window opened up, taking up most of the screen up with it. You looked to see that it was notepad, and almost immediately words started to appear, and you read them as they were typed out.

G- It's been a while since I've last had contact with a Warden, your kind's power has been rather elusive and it's hard finding a partner for my quotas. Luckily your search history pretty much confirms all my suspicions.

The words stopped typing, and you just stared in silence for a moment.

G- You wanna ask me any questions (:??

Your hands trembled a bit as they started typing on the keyboard.

Who are you?

G- You can refer to me as G, we're going to be talking a lot so let's just keep it at that, don't ask me anything else about myself, and don't try to pry into who or what I am, understood??

You reflexively scowled at what you just read, and 'G' quickly responded to this.

G- Don't make such a poor face, I usually come off quite strongly with that first impression but it's a given after my time working with you guys. (:

She saw you fucking scowl?!

Confused at first, you then take direct notice the webcam that sits next to your monitor, with quick haste you turn it backwards so it faces the wall behind it.

G- Awwwww why'd you have to go and spoil all the fun :(

Thinking of what to type at first, you look over at your microphone that's also connected to your PC, and try to test something out.

"Who are you and what do you want."

It takes a moment, but the typing starts once again.

G- I already told you, you can call me G. Also, it's not really want per say, but it's what will benefit us both in the long run, I am contracted to you until you meet your quota until then we both have to work together to solve crimes and help spirits move on to ascension past this plane. I know that you see ghosts, and that is exactly what I have contacted you, my quota itself will meet its deadline at the same time yours will, so both of us meeting the goal would be a win-win. Now since I'm guessing you're new at this, I should explain to you this full phenomenon that you've had your entire life, while also giving insight on the quotas?"
> You accept the offer
You weren't going to lie, you were scared shitless about this whole situation, you didn't want to think this person would do if you pissed them off or denied them, so you went along with it for now.

Giving a small sigh, you reply to her offer.

"Go on..."

G- :) Good choice. Now, where shall we start? Other than G, you can also refer to me as an observer. Whenever you are online doing work, I can spectate all of which you are doing and help you along the way in terms of finding distressed spirits in need of help ascending while you help cross out their requirements in order to do so, normally your kind are referred to as wardens, so that is what I will refer to you a title. Observers and Wardens share a 'professional relationship' as most of your kind would say. Both of us need to meet a certain amount of ascensions for the distressed in order for us to stay alive to put it brutally honest. After completing our quotas, we are free from future quotas until we are called into service again, which is normally five years. Any questions?
> You what kind of spirits do you need to help
"You keep on mentioning distressed spirits, can you explain that a little more?" You ask.

G-Well I thought it was pretty self-explanatory, but it's mainly spirits who haven't ascended yet and still roam this world in their plane of existence. The reasons why they don't ascend vary, and it's usually a case by case basis I assume as the reasons for such happening can be arbitrary. I don't know who decides this and what their reasons are, but that isn't my job so I don't really care and neither should you.

"Well, then how do I help them ascend then?" You say a bit frustrated.

G- I'll give you more details when you come in contact with your first spirit, but the general idea is to give them fulfillment or right a wrong that has been done against them. Other times it's simply just making them happy, you can usually tell what you need to do once you get more information about the spirit, but I'll help you if you're too dense to do the task yourself.
> You are there others?
"You're talking as if there are others like me and you out there..."

G- Well obviously retard, do you really think that the two of us would be able to handle all of the distressed spirits that are currently roaming? Yes, our numbers aren't legion, but they make do to keep balance in the spirits our kind help on the daily.

"How hard is it to make contact with another one of my kind?" You ask, a bit tempted to make contact with someone that also shares your powers, but only to relate."

G- Yeah fuck off, that's classified information that's only available to observers, you won't need help from other wardens on your quotas and you get it regardless.

"It wasn't about help." You mutter to yourself.
> No more questions
"That's all I wanted to know." You say, finishing the questions you had to ask.

G- One other thing I should mention, your grace period for snitching has been over for quite some time now, but like a good boy you are, you've remained silent which was to your benefit.

"What do you mean?" You ask confused.

G- Every warden such as yourself has a grace period from when they are born in which they are able to tell people that they see ghosts and such without suffering any consequences. Once a certain age is reached, however, yours is 16, the grace period ends, and any talk of your powers with anyone else will make you suffer....repercussions. It's not something that's easy to explain, but let's just say for your health it's best to keep this relationship between me and you and your whole powers quiet and hidden like you've been doing so far. Otherwise, I can't guarantee your safety.

These words intimidated you immediately as you read them. Luckily G didn't see this with the webcam turned, otherwise, you probably would have teased heavily. It's not like you were planning on telling anyone about your powers anyway, though this still messed with you immensely.

G- Anyway this explanation has tired me, I'll brief you tomorrow on any spirits that need your help, but until then just relax and pat yourself on the back for all the fun you're about to have, because believe me you have no idea how hard I'm going to ride your ass to get this quota done, I've got shit to do so the sooner we do this the better.

You finished reading her last passage, and after a few moments, you saw that everything that had been written in the notepad was being deleted rapidly until there was thinning left a minute later.

As you contemplated your situation with your hands clasping your head, you felt a buzz in your pocket. Taking out your phone, you see a new message from an unknown number, with an area code foreign from your state. It came from the United States though that much you could tell.

G- ^_^ Don't go off calling me, this is just to send you information about spirits.

You frowned heavily at this message, which leads to another one.

G- What did I tell you about making those ugly faces :)?

You had an instinct to throw your phone against your bedroom wall with the anger and frustration you were feeling, but quickly came to your senses and stopped yourself from harming your electronics.

You needed to sleep this fucking day off.
> You time
Time had passed since your first encounter with G on your computer. Your stomach problems had died down enough that you were able to go back to school two days later, but it still lingered, and you ended up asking G about it.

G said not to worry about it and that it was just apart of the quota, once you were to ascend a spirit, it would die down completely, and would only come back if you neglected your duties to help ascend spirits.

When G told you this, you wanted nothing more than to get the first spirit out of the way, but as you pestered G about any possible spirits that you would be able to help, G kept on telling you that you just had to wait until something was to pop up that you could easily complete without binding you to help a high difficulty spirit for good.

It was around the fourth day while in English class that you had received a message as you felt your phone buzz in your pocket while your teacher was giving you all a lecture. Something about personal growth or some boring shit that you weren't paying all that much attention too.

Sneaking your phone out of your pocket and placing it on your lap, you checked your messages only to see that it was from G as you had suspected.

Alright listen dipshit, I got a lead on a spirit that would be a good starting off point for you. There's a few spirts near a bridge where people usually commit suicide, after looking through each one of their backstories and suicide notes depending if there ever was one, I came up with at least two that would be fairly easy to solve. Check your locker during lunch and you'll find a bus pass for the day, it'll take you to the bridge and back home once you're done with everything. Give some excuse to your parents that you're busy or some shit because I'm telling you now, you're not going to be getting home until late tonight. I'll text you once you're out of class with more details.

Fuck, it was a Thursday too, couldn't G just waited till tomorrow.

During lunch, you opened your locker and stuck between a few notebooks you saw the bus pass that G had mentioned. A shiver ran down your spine as you wondered how G was able to even do this, or if there were other people in on this whole program or whatever it was. All you knew is you didn't want to piss off G all that much if there was this much possibility for direct interference in your life outside of the internet.

Luckily the public bus stop wasn't all that far away from your school, so once classes had ended you went there to wait for the next bus that was to come.

With your phone in your hands, you waited impatiently for G to text you with more instructions as you started tapping your foot. Soon enough one came as you quickly opened the new message.

G- Here I'm sending you the exact bus routes you'll be taking in order to get to where you need to be, make sure you're not retarded and fall asleep on a bus and miss one of your stops, we need to conserve as much time as possible if we're going to get these quotas done, hell I even think we can do two today depending on how fast you are and how good you are at this job. I'll message you once you get to your location, I can track you through GPS.

Jesus fucking Christ, G had set you up to take at least four different buses in order to get to the suicide bridge.

As you boarded each crowded bus, you sat by yourself in the middle of each one as you just looked out at the scenery with each ride. Time went by at a leisurely pace that matched that of the bus.

The fourth bus was the emptiest out of all the other ones, with only about seven or eight other people on board. This probably had to do with the fact that you were on the outer edges of town, where only warehouses and other sort of industrial buildings made up the surrounding land.

Getting off at a secluded bus stop all by yourself, you checked your phone for any new messages from G along with finding the time. You see that it's barely four, and you've yet to get any new messages for G which makes you slightly worried. You don't see any bridge in which would be your destination anywhere close, causing you to think that you might have gotten off on the wrong stop.

Just as you think about waiting for another bus, you feel your phone vibrate as you see that you've gotten a message from G.

G- Alright good, so you didn't fuck up with the directions and get yourself lost, it seems I should put more faith in you. Anyway, the bridge that you'll be needing to get to is going to be up the hill to the east of you, by all of those red factories that you should be able to see.

Following her directions with your eyes, you see the factories that she's talking about in the distance. It seemed like a far walk though, and you wondered if you could have gotten off closer at another bus stop as you could have sworn you saw one by there as your bus was coming down here. Sighing in laziness, you start your walk as you follow the crumbling sidewalk that goes uphill.

With a cloudless sky, the sun beat down on you heavily, with the congested smog that made up this part of town not helping you with the walk either, hell you didn't realize that you were this out of shape, as you were already at a loss for breath twenty minutes into the walk. Though as you passed another brick factory, you could finally see the bridge come into view on the other side of the hill. What really fucking sucked though that it was even farther downhill, then what you had walked up in the first place. You let out a pained groan as you continued on with your trek.

It was probably already close to five-thirty when you finally reached the bridge at the bottom of the hill, and you sat down next to the start of the bridge and took a break to catch your breath. Your back was soaked in sweat and you kept wiping your forehead in a futile effort to get rid of the moisture that was following into your eyes.

You regretted not bringing water or something on this trip, you reminded yourself to yell at G for not telling you it would be this far of a walk.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine just a little h-." You catch yourself as you answer the question that you guessed was directed to you, you quickly turn your head to face this strange voice and with what comes into view, your heart quickly drops.

At first, it seemed like countless of them, but as you started to slowly count the spirits, you saw that it was around eight of them all staring directly at you, only a few meters away.

You were at a loss for words as you quickly picked yourself up and made some space between you and the horde that watched you silently. Fumbling for your phone in your pocket, you started to open your messages to see that G still hadn't sent anything.

"Hey you fuck, I know you can hear me, fucking send something!" You quietly yell directly at your phone as the spirits stare at you with puzzlement.

A few seconds after your demand, you see a few speech bubbles as new messages start to appear on your screen.

G- Sorry, Sorry. I was doing something lol. So did you get to where you need to go?
> The bridge
Pointing up your phone, you made it so that your front-side camera was facing all the ghosts that were before you. Almost immediately, you got a reply from G.

G- God fucking hell, I didn't think you would get their so fast. Alright listen up dipshit, Don't make any unnecessary interactions with these ghosts, if you do something stupid you're going to get yourself bound to help one of these spirits without knowing how hard each one is to ascend. I have a few options for you so look for one of them. There should be a small little boy with brown hair, his name Ken so if you call out to him he should react to you, the other one is a more teen looking male named Jordan, he should be pretty ripped and bulky at first glance. Only choose between those two, if you fuck up and pick someone harder then you'll really cause problems for us down the road.

Looking up from your phone, you see that the ghosts haven't moved from their positions, and haven't said anything at all. This was really tripping you out, you would have expected one of them to start screaming at you or something since you were alive, but there was none of that.
> You ken
You felt like the needs of a kid would be simpler than that of a teen such as yourself. Getting him to ascend would probably be easy no doubt.

Looking around the ghosts, you immediately spot the one that fits the description that G had given you as he was the smallest one there. However now that you had given each ghost a closer inspection, you notice that most of them didn't really seem all that decayed or worn, at least not as much as others you had encountered.

As you step closer in preparation to call out to Ken, one of the ghosts says something to the other ghosts in a hushed tone.

"He can see us..."

"Of course he can, he heard what Mike said to him..." Another one says.

"What do we do?"

The ghosts remain silent as they all go back to looking at you as if waiting for you to do something. Though you notice, that some of them appear to be changing. With features of that of decay starting to appear in which you would normally see with other spirits.

Ignoring this, you head the advice of G and only focus on talking to Ken, besides it's not like spirits were able to touch you anyway. At least none that you had encountered before.

"Ken!" You call out, hoping to get his attention.

The small looking child looks at you, but he doesn't seem to move forward and hides behind one of the other ghosts.

"Ken, I'm here to help you. I won't bite I promise." You say trying to coax him out of his fear.

"What do you want with him?" The ghost in which Ken is hiding behind asks.

You didn't know exactly how much conversation you were to limit with these ghosts, but if you did something wrong G was going to be pissed, and with what he said you were going to fuck yourself over.
> You respond
It's not like you couldn't just give simple answers to these ghosts to state your intentions, if that's all you did then you're sure you would be fine.

"I'm helping him leave this place." You say bluntly.

Ken though doesn't seem to move from his spot, which kind of irks you a bit.

"Don't you want to go to heaven kid? To get your peace?" You say, though with a bit more of assertiveness in your voice.

"Well yeah but.... there are people who've been here longer than me. They should go first..." Ken said in a meek tone.

"Sorry kid but it doesn't work like that, my guides have told me that you've been chosen first to ascend, so come wi-."

"The kid says he doesn't want to go with you." The girl he's standing behind interrupts you.

Fuck this was getting troublesome.

"So you're going to make the kid stay here then? Forever and ever and never have the chance of getting his eternal peace?"

"Fuck off, stop trying to make me out to be the bad guy, don't you think this kid is scared with you trying to take him off without explaining anything?"

You were starting to get really annoyed.

"Everything in my line of work has a reason, and a lot of us don't know the specifications for these reasons so mind your own fucking business or the next one of us that happens to come back here is just going to skip out on you if they find out that you're as troublesome as you are."

You were about to continue your tirade, but you started to feel a lot of buzzing coming from your phone in your pocket.

Taking it out, you saw that it was a spam of messages from G.

G- Are you fucking retarded, do you have any idea what you've just done!

"What, what happen?" You whisper into your phone.

G- You autist you've grown an emotional attachment to her and now you have to bind with her, didn't I fucking warn you about this earlier, why the hell didn't you listen to me!

"I didn't even talk to her that much, are you actually bullshitting me right now because if you are this isn't funny."

G- Fucking Christ you know what? Fuck off and go find someone else to help you with ghosts. If you can't follow my simple ass instructions then working with you is going to be a pain in the ass. Good luck meeting your quota dipshit.

You tried responding to G to try and calm him down, but your messages failed to go through, seeing that he blocked you.

“Fuck.”

Fuck indeed, you were royally screwed.


You felt like the needs of a kid would be simpler than that of a teen such as yourself. Getting him to ascend would probably be easy no doubt.

Looking around the ghosts, you immediately spot the one that fits the description that G had given you as he was the smallest one there. However now that you had given each ghost a closer inspection, you notice that most of them didn't really seem all that decayed or worn, at least not as much as others you had encountered.

As you step closer in preparation to call out to Ken, one of the ghosts says something to the other ghosts in a hushed tone.

"He can see us..."

"Of course he can, he heard what Mike said to him..." Another one says.

"What do we do?"

The ghosts remain silent as they all go back to looking at you as if waiting for you to do something. Though you notice, that some of them appear to be changing. With features of that of decay starting to appear in which you would normally see with other spirits.

Ignoring this, you head the advice of G and only focus on talking to Ken, besides it's not like spirits were able to touch you anyway. At least none that you had encountered before.

"Ken!" You call out, hoping to get his attention.

The small looking child looks at you, but he doesn't seem to move forward and hides behind one of the other ghosts.

"Ken, I'm here to help you. I won't bite I promise." You say trying to coax him out of his fear.

"What do you want with him?" The ghost in which Ken is hiding behind asks.

You didn't know exactly how much conversation you were to limit with these ghosts, but if you did something wrong G was going to be pissed, and with what he said you were going to fuck yourself over.
> You keep talking to Ken
You'd best just follow the instructions of G to the word, he probably had a good idea of what he was talking about.

"Ken listen to me, I've been sent here to this exact location to specifically get you and only you. I don't know the exact process of things but they want you to ascend and get up to the heavens for your eternal peace. Don't you want something like that?" You say, lying about a few things in that statement as you really had no fucking idea.

"Hey, why won't you answer me." The girl asks again, seemingly irked that she was ignored.

Ken still seems pretty indecisive on what he wants to do. You were running out of options on what to do, this girl would probably get to his head to stay if you let this drag out for too long, you had to get ballsy.

"You know what this is a waste of time. You stay here Ken because trust me now that you've decided to come you'll be put at the bottom of the waiting list, and you'll stay at this bridge for hundreds and HUNDREDS of years. I have other ghosts that need help and can't have my time wasted, good luck boy." As finished that heavy statement, you started to turn around and walk away, not looking back or slowing down your pace.

'Come on'

Silence.

'COME ON.'

Even more silence.

You were internally panicking as you didn't know what the fuck to do if Ken didn't give in to your bait, G was going to get pissed.

"WAIT, PLEASE."

"Ken stop!"

Oh, thank fucking god."

You turn around to face Ken, who you heard running towards you. He couldn't make it all the way through as he reached the boundary for which he could travel.

"I don't want to stay here forever, please help me, I'm sorry for wasting your time, mister!" He cried with many tears and snot running down his face. You felt a little bad about that, but in the end, this would benefit both of you so you were also relieved.

"Alright kid calm down, I'll help you get out of here, just do what I say and this process will be easy." You assure him while taking out your phone to contact G.

Though you see he has already sent you a message.

G- Alright good job, you didn't fuck yourself over with unnecessary interactions and now you won't be fucked with other burdens. This next part will be easy, touch the kid's hand and twist it, he'll be bound to you and then we can work on his need in order to ascend.

Doing as what G instructed you turned to the Ken.

"Alright for this next part I need you to grab my hand while I turn it, you'll be with me until I can do the work needed to get you up there alright?"

"Yes, I understand," Ken says while wiping away some tears from his eyes.

Beginning the process you start to turn his rest as your hands clasp with one another, instantaneously he starts to let out a blue glow, and you yourself feel a tingle up in your brain.

Though other than that it doesn't seem like anything has happened. Ken is still standing there like normal. Though he tries walking forward, and much to both of your surprise, he manages to get out of the boundary.

"I can leave!" He exclaims with surprise.

He tries to walk farther with quick haste but ends up being blocked by another boundary, though this time it seems closer to you.

"I guess you're bound to me for now."

"I thought you said I would be going to heaven?" Ken says with a little disappointment in his voice.

"You will don't worry, we just need to do a process and you'll be all set to leave." You promise him.

Looking back at your phone you look to see if you were sent any more messages from G.

G- Ask the kid the top three things that he wants to do. We have to get him really happy for this to work, Even if we can't do the things on his list we can still take him to an amusement park or some shit.

That's probably what he was talking about when he said this would be easy.

"So Ken is there anything that you would like to do before you leave, anything that would make you happy. Trust me I can probably make it happen with my connections." You say to him which causes him to have a look of surprise.

"Well...like what?"

"Like anything. Something you'd like to try, something you'd like to see. I can make it happen to an extent, give the top three things that you'd like to do."

"Are you sure, it can be anything?"

"Like I said, to an extent." You remind him again.

"Well ok..."

Ken seems to take some time to think over what he would like to do. Though it doesn't seem to take long as his mouth opens quickly.

"I always wanted to go to Disneyland....and I wanted to be pilot when I became a grown-up......and I guess I wanted to play that new call of duty game that came out too."

As he said these things on his list, you were also typing them to G who himself was already getting ready to reply.

G- To tell you the fucking truth I think the pilot one is probably going to be easier, I may have a connection that can get you a plane ride, and the pilot is even a ghost-seer such as yourself. Though if you want to go to Disneyland instead you can also do that if you want. A fucking call of duty game isn't going to make him happy enough to where we need to be though.
> You disneyland
You haven't been to Disneyland in quite a long time. It wasn't really even that far to get to either, just a half a day drive. It could be even shorter if G was able to hook you up. The real problem though was getting permission from your mom to go, like hell, she was going to let you go to California on a school week.

Either way, you made your choice, you told G that you are picking Disneyland.

G- Pft, probably want to enjoy yourself on this kid's expense now don't you. Alright fine, I can get you a plane ticket on Friday night to California and you can get back Sunday night, don't pack anything you don't need to and I'll transfer you some money to have fun and shit there. You better make this kid have the time of his fucking life though.

With everything said and done, you turn to Ken.

"Alright let's get home, this walk has gotten me fucking exhausted." You say as you begin to turn around from the bridge.'

"Hey wait!" You hear someone say to you.

Turning around you see the same ghost that Ken was hiding behind earlier. She was a few feet away from you, though you could tell she was at the very edge of her boundary.

"What about us, when are we getting out of here."

Now that you had Ken bound to you, you didn't really think what G had said would affect you now that you were already bound to a 'contract' or whatever it was referred too.

"The rest of you will get your turn in due time, there are others like me out there so they'll get to you all eventually. You just have to be patient and wait, that's all I can really tell you honestly." You say to her, in which your words don't really seem to help her mood.

Seeing nothing else for you to do, you start to turn around once again and begin to leave the bridge with Ken.

Getting back to the bus stop that would help you get home was a lot shorter of a way to get to compared to what you had to walk when you first got here, G was totally fucking with you.

Nevertheless, when you got home you went straight to your mom with the speech of adulthood and freedom that you would give her in order to be able to go to California. Though deep inside your mind you know that still wouldn't work so you decided the next best thing to do would be to go to plan B.

"Mom a friend invited me to go to Disneyland with him for the weekend, it would be cool if I go right?"

Your mom gave you a puzzled look when you said this as if she didn't understand what you said.

"The same friend you've been hanging out with this whole time you've been staying out late after school?"

"Yeah, that friend." You reply, with a little hesitation.

You see a little smile appear on her face.

"Is he going to drive you?"

"Yeah, we leave Friday night and we're getting back on Sunday."

"Well if it'll only be for the weekend then yea go ahead. I'd like to meet your friend when you get back though."

You tensed up a little when she said this but then just put on a smile and nodded.

"Thanks, mom." You say before quickly walking away while heading up to your room.

That was a lot easier then you were expecting it to be. Especially since you would be leaving tomorrow. Nevertheless, you started to get some clothes packed while turning on the T.V in your room for him to watch while you got everything ready.

The next school day went by in a blur. Since Ken was assigned to you as a boundary he went where you went. He kept on talking about Disneyland during class and would also ask questions on what you were learning at the given time. At first, you were a little annoyed by this, but it was something that you got quickly used to. You even caught yourself talking to him while you were with other people, which ended up getting you some weird stares and 'who are you talking' discussions.

While you were finishing up your last periods, G had wired everything you would need in order to leave tonight, the only thing you had to do was get a ride to the airport, which you would just to with an Uber.

"What ride should we go on first when we get there, I heard space mountain was really cool and dark and super scary, It's going to be so much fun."

Ken was getting far more excited then you were at this point.

You felt a little bad though, there would probably be some rides in which he would be limited, or not be able to ride on at all. You really hoped it was going to be a slow day there, or at the very least have some empty seats that wouldn't hinder Ken from riding on, you couldn't have him get upset or depressed there, you had to think ahead.

With classes over and done, you had ordered your Uber to pick the two of you up from school, with the destination being the airport. The price was twenty bucks which wasn't bad, but then again it was coming out of G's pocket. Luckily G had gotten you wristbands and fast passes already so it's not like you had to use the money for much anyway besides the hotel.

"How long is the trip going to take, is it true we're going on a plane too!?" Ken says with excitement as the two of you wait at the school parking lot curb.

Come to think of it, Ken did say he wanted to be a pilot and riding a plane was on his list. While he wouldn't be directly driving it or anything, you're pretty sure that would count in terms of his list. You knocked two birds with one stone, you're not going to lie, you felt a little proud of yourself.

The Uber ride was pretty short, you didn't realize that the airport was so close to your school, you should have noticed something like that. Ken had continued talking to you for the ride, but you had to ignore him for most of the time in fear of not getting the driver to think you were a nutcase or something and kick you out.

With it being one of the largest airports in the area, the entire plaza or center as filled with people either saying goodbye to their loved ones or racing to get to their flight on time.

You didn't have any bags to check in as all your clothes and other supplies fit nicely in your bag, so you were able to head straight to the waiting gate and wait for your flight to be called. Placing your bag on an empty seat next to you, Ken sat atop of it as he started to talk once again now that you had stopped walking.

"Thanks again for taking me on this trip, I had no idea that we would be doing this when I first talked to you on the bridge."

"Yeah don't mention it kid it's all part of the job. Tomorrow is going to be your day so make sure to do everything you want, we can stay up all night, the return flight doesn't leave till late afternoon so we'll be fine."

"Great!" He smiles, the two of you continue to make small chatter until it's time for your plane to be called. Upon boarding and taking your seat, you wait to see if anyone is to sit next to you while Ken shyly stands in the aisle. Seeing that you had your section to yourself, you motion for Ken to sit down which he quickly does. You didn't know if G had something to do with this arrangement though if he did that was pretty uncharacteristically nice of him.
> You californa
The flight was around one or two hours, you couldn't really tell with how fast time seemed to go. In the corner of your eye, you saw Ken's body bouncing up and down as he looked out the window as you started to descend.

"I really wanted to fly one of these...."

He said it so quietly, that you don't know if he meant to say it at all. Though you decided to just pretend that you didn't hear it as sad feelings started to enter your head a bit.

You would make this kid's day today.

The two of you quickly got off the plane and entered the main airport which was much smaller than the one in you had first arrived at. It was probably already close to midnight and you needed to get yourself to a hotel before you crashed from exhaustion. Luckily there were already Ubers patrolling around the airport so finding a ride didn't take all that long.

You had already researched a hotel that you would be staying at so that was all covered too. You just needed to sleep this night off.....

---

"Wake up, wake up! We're going to be late!"

You felt someone pushing you from side to side as your eyes slowly opened. You saw that this was Ken, but his bright eager face startled a bit, enough to get you awake and to your senses.

"Jesus, when did I go to sleep?"

"Oh, you fell asleep as soon as you walked in the door. The room is pretty boring and the only kids show on TV is Arthur." Ken complains with slight annoyance.

"But hurry up and get up, I want us to get there before the gates open at nine and it's already seven!"

"Relax kid where like a few blocks away, let me get showered and dress and well get a bus over there..." You yawn as you start to open your backpack and dump out your clothes onto your bed.

"Ughhhhh, well hurry up. I'm sick of watching Arthur." Ken grumbles before stomping back over to the T.V and plopping himself down on the carpet.

Once you were done and ready, you took Ken with you to go downstairs while you served yourself breakfast in the cafeteria. You felt a little bad eating in front of Ken though while you waited, it seems he took notice to this and just waved his hand.

"I don't get hungry ever." He says reassuringly.

Even so, you raced to finish your food as fast as you could before leaving the Hotel itself and heading to the nearest bus stop that would get you to Disneyland. Ken always seemed to race ahead of you as he motioned for you to hurry up while he bounced side to side most likely from anticipation.

The bus probably won't get here for ano-."

"Look there's the bus!" Ken exclaims while he points down the road.

Well shit.

Getting onto the bus with your passes, Ken made you sit in the front row saying that he wanted to be the first one off the bus upon arriving.

Though it didn't really all that much since the bus ride was only about five minutes anyway. The parking lots outside of Disneyland didn't seem all that full either, even though there was a lot of people around the entrance of the park you guess this would still be considered a slow day.

"The line isn't even that long we're going to get in soon!" Ken says with eagerness.

Just as he predicted, it took no time at all to get in with how fast it was to get through the gates.

Upon entering the main section of the park, even you were overwhelmed on where you should start, Ken was already bouncing up and down while giving endless suggestions.

"Let's go on the tower of terror, my friend said that he peed his pants when he went on that one because the drop was so scary, or we can go on Space Mountain since that's the one everyone always goes on first since it's the best ride in the park!"

It looked like Ken was looking onto you for guidance on where to start in this ginormous park.
> You kid Section
Ken was a kid after all so it only made sense to start with the kid rides. He would probably end up getting too scared with the adult ones and that would lead to some issues.

"Alright Ken, let's start with the kid rides first since I remember those being really fun when I was your age and came here for the first time, trust me you'll enjoy them."

Ken seemed a little disappointed at your starting choice, though he didn't argue with you over it and instead followed you while you took lead.

The two of you started to ride some of the kiddy rides that could also be ridden by adults, though those were a bit few in between, with Ken having a sad face on almost all of them.

It wasn't until then you noticed that you couldn't really do the kiddy rides if you couldn't ride with Ken, you would probably also look really creepy if you just stared at kids riding on the rides without having a little brother or sister with you, your plan was meeting lots of dead ends.

"Alright Ken never mind I'm picking another option for our rides."

Ken's sullen attitude so far changes immediately as he beams at this sudden news.

"About time!"
> You adult thrill rides
You remember being totally scared of all the big roller coasters when you first came to this park when you were younger, but after riding them once they weren't all that bad to you, so maybe it would be the same for Ken. Besides you were looking for a thrill too after all of those boring ones.

"Alright Ken, where going to try out that biggest rides here now, starting with that one."
You say pointing at a towering roller-coaster with a giant drop that you could see from the entrance, which was the California Screamin.

The joy that Ken had earlier seemed to vanish, as he took one look at the ride and looked back at you with honest fear in his eyes.

"Why that one?"

"I thought you wanted to ride the scary rides since the other ones were too boring for you?"

"I never said that I'm good with riding the less scary ones." He states.
"Oh, Well we might as do at least a few of them since we're here. Or if you're not up to it we can just go back to riding all the kiddy rides again if that's more your style.

"NO! That's not it, I just thought we could work our way up is all, that's way to much for me to jump too from the kiddy rides."

"Trust me kid, I thought it was scary too at first but it's honestly pretty fun, now I'm not taking no for an answer so come on." You say as you begin walking towards monster that dominates the park.

"Wait, Wait!"

You don't listen to Ken though, as you hear his fast footsteps behind you catching up to your pace.

Surprisingly the line for this ride wasn't all that long, you remember it taking ages to get on this, but you were the second ones to get on after the first group was finished.

With it being empty, you were able to grab an empty seat next to you for Ken since you went for the middle. He was careful with the bars to not nick him as they dropped over his body, but with that out of the way, the two of you were ready to ride.

Looking over at Ken he looked as if he was right about to shit himself at any moment, seemingly shaking.

You slightly punch his shoulder as he looks over at you.

"Hey, I wouldn't make you go on this if I didn't think you would have fun alright?"

"Yeah....I trust you..."

Ken takes a few deep breathes as the ride starts to lurch forward with all the preparations ready and set.

You took the liberty of getting the seats in the far back to mitigate Ken's fear from the look of the drops, which seemed to be working as he only bothered to look down at his feet.

Upon the first major drop, you could start to hear the laughter of everybody else in front of you as you yourself started to laugh to try to cheer Ken up.

He laughed, but it seemed to be a much more forced and nervous one.

When it got to the very top and you look down even you were starting to get second thoughts since you hadn't ridden one of these things in years, but before you knew it your cart lurched forward as kinetic energy took over with your stomach immediately dropping with the cart.

Screams and laughter took over your ears as hands started to go up in glee as you did the same.

You tried to look over at Ken but the coaster kept on shaking you around that you decided to just keep looking forward to avoid a neck injury.

The ride didn't last as long as you were expecting it to, but that was probably on the account that you were having a blast on it, and once you had gotten off you already wanted to go on again.

Spotting Ken, you looked at his facial expression to see what he thought of the ride.

Emotionless at first, in some type of daze, though as soon as he made eye contact a grin from ear to ear went to his face.

"That was frickin awesome, I want to go on it again!" He yelled whilst jumping up and down.

"Maybe later, we still got another ride I want to try that's an even bigger drop."

"You don't mean...?"

"Yep!" you simply reply.

"Let's go!" This time it's Ken who takes the lead as you chase after him in order for the boundary to not yank him back. You knew he knew what you were referring to as he was heading directly towards the tower.

The tower of terror.

The line for this ride was about the same, though it seemed that it went by faster though you had no clue as to why.

This would be the first time riding this ride as even you were too scared to go on this thing when you were little no matter how much your friends had begged you too.

You were glad at his assessment as the two of you got in line. The group that you were tied to was a rather large family, though because of this they themselves including you were the only ones to ride at that given time. You were kind of lucky since you were riding these rides by yourself, you were an outlier in these large crowds that rode rides together, so there was always an empty seat somewhere since everyone else wanted to ride with their families and friends.

As the room darkened and the narrator began his speech, you saw Ken swaying his body back and forth a little as he looked all around the room with a smile on his face.

You on the other hand, had no smile on your face as you were a little bit scared on what was to come, you didn't really enjoy the drops at roller coasters, and this one was probably going to be ten times that.

"Hey look, we can see the entire pa-." Ken was cut off as the elevator you all were sitting in drastically fell floors below you as everybody started screaming, including you. Ken, on the other hand, was laughing his ass off as the elevator kept on going up and down with drastic height differences. You hadn't eaten anything beforehand but a sick feeling was starting to form in your stomach as you just wanted the ride to fucking end.

You actually ended up closing your eyes, in which Ken seemed to notice.

"Don't tell me you're scared!" He continued to laugh with the drops.

"No, I just feel sick..." You weakly reply.

When the ride finally comes to a stop, the grouped family and Ken get off laughing while you struggle behind trying not to vomit.

"Yeah kid, I think I need a break from rides for a little bit." You say while sitting on a bench.

"Aw really, did you feel that sick from it?" He asked with a mix of disappointment and worry.

"Just give me a couple of minutes kid..." You say while taking a few deep breathes to get your stomach back in functioning order.

"Man you were right though, I really did enjoy those scary rides, I think I want to ride all of them now if those two were the worst ones out of all of them. Let's get those done first before anything else today please?" Ken pleads.

"As long as you give me a few breaks in between Kid then you can get on anything you want today."

Ken smiled at this.

"O.K I understand, I'm going to go check out the nearest line to see how long the wait is O.K? I promise it won't be too much of a scary.

You groan while getting up to your feet.

"I have to come with you remember. Anyway, I'm ready to get anyway so let's do this."

"Hooray!"
> You later that day
You didn't realize that you had been on so many rides until you felt the soreness of your body kick in as the sun had already set awhile ago.

Ken was racing to get on as many rides as he could before the park was to close for the day, and you sluggishly raced after him as fast as your body could keep up. Though when it finally came time to leave, it seemed as if Ken was satisfied as he wasn't begging to stay longer.

On board the bus back to the hotel, Ken kept on talking about the events that had happened throughout this long day.

"Man Space Mountain was probably one of the best rides there, I'm glad we managed to make getting on it before the park closed," Ken states with satisfaction.

"Yeah it was a pretty fun day, even though we did a lot and it felt like we rode everything, it still felt really short." You remark as the bus takes you through the night back to your hotel.

Ken nods in agreement. "Still though, it's not like I'm leaving regretting anything, I did everything I wanted too...". Ken's voice seemed to drop heavily as all the enthusiasm that he had seconds before almost instantly vanished.

"Well that's good, this entire trip was for you to have a good time, I had one too. I honestly wish I could do this every weekend." You say with a little laugh, though Ken doesn't respond, and the rest of the ride is filled with an awkward smile.

Upon arriving at the hotel and getting off the bus, Ken is slow, dragging his feet while you keep looking behind you to make sure you didn't lose him every two or three minutes.

"Everything O.K man?" You asked worryingly since this was really out of place behavior compared to what happened today. Still, there was the silence, though Ken increased the speed at which he was walking this time.

He didn't even bother opening the hotel room door, he just walked straight through it. You've never seen the kid be able to do that and now you were actually starting to worry, hastily opening the door with your key-card, you push it open and look for Ken in the main room, in which he is nowhere to be seen.

"Ken!" You shout heavily, starting to look everywhere around the hotel room to see where he could be.

You finally end up finding him as you see his legs sticking out from under his own bed.

"Ken what the hell are you doing, you scared me. Get out from under there." You order with a sigh of relief.

Seeing that his hiding spot had been compromised, Ken starts to squirm his way out while sitting himself down as he finished doing so, facing away from you.

"Ken you have to tell me what's wrong, you're really starting to worry me. Did something happen on the bus?" You ask, remembering that his change of mood started there.

He weakly shakes his head as he continues to not look at you, which makes you a little frustrated.

You try to grab his shoulders in order to turn him around so that he can face you. Though your arms go straight through his body as the only thing you grasp is air.

Seeing that, that wouldn't work you walk around him and kneel down so that you can get a look at his face.

You kind of cringe a little on the inside when you see all the tears and snot that had built up all over his face, making it one big twisted mess while his red puffy eyes didn't want to make direct eye contact with you.

"Ken you got to tell what's wrong..." You ask again, although this time with a much softer voice.

Ken begins to wipe away the tears and snot from his face, but more keep flowing so it only makes them spread more.

"I tho-thought I was h-happy. But after remembering everything, that I I-I'm going to leave soon. I just g-got scared..." Ken cries with numerous hiccups in between his words.

"I don't want to leave, I had so much fun with you today and now I'm going to forget it all! I know you're going to make me leave as soon as we get home, but I'm not ready to leave...I'm scared.....I want to stay here and keep on having fun with you!" His tears were really falling now, you tried to grab his arm to console him but once again your hands went through his body. This probably had something to do with his emotions.

You didn't really know what to say to him either. He was going to ascend as soon as G gave the word for him to do so. It's not like you didn't want him to stay either, you were having lot's of fun and you wish he could experience more with how young he was when he passed. Though you saw no way around this, he was going to move on whether you liked it or not, the only thing to do now was to try to give a positive outlook on the whole situation.

Sitting down next to Ken you begin to speak.

"Listen, kid. I had a lot of fun with you today, more than I probably had in a long ass time. I don't remember the last time I even went out before this to be honest. Look I know you're scared, I would be too in your situation. What I'm trying to say though is that you should enjoy the memories that you've gotten to experience so far, the fun that you've had up to this point, there's no use in dwelling on the past or on things you can't change. I wasn't a very religious person before all of this, but if I was chosen to help you ascend up into the sky above, then that has to mean you have something to look forward too, something is waiting for you, and who knows maybe it's a lot better than this life." you say, trying to help him feel even a little bit better.

Ken sniffled a little bit more as he wiped his nose with his palm. You didn’t know ghosts could cry like this, how it was even possible, but now wasn’t the time to question things like this.

“Life’s so unfair, I don’t know why my dad had to take that bridge, if he hadn’t none of this would have happened…”

You let Ken vent a little more as you just sat there in silence since there were some things that you weren’t able to refute or deny. The more he vented, however, the calmer he seemed to become, along with acquiring a more lax attitude.

“Is there any way you can visit me...?” Ken asked you, which made your whole body freeze a little.

Taking a moment before responding, you chose your words carefully.

"I mean I'll probably see you again eventually when it's my turn to ascend in the future. Though I'm sure there's some way for me to try to contact you, and if there is then I promise you that'll I'll find it."

"You really promise me that?" Ken asks, with a heavy voice.

"You bet I do."

Ken keeps a bit of eye contact with you, before looking back at his knees while he hugs them.

The two of you sit there in silence until you feel a buzzing from your pocket. Getting out your phone, you see that G had sent you a few messages.

G- Alright so here's the deal, you're going to have to do the ascension there at the hotel room, I was planning on you doing it here, but I don't want to risk anything so get ready to start the preparations.

You feel your heart start to rapidly beat as you type in a reply.

"What the fuck do you mean I have to do it right now? That's way too soon!"

G- Listen to me, if you don't do it now then there might be some complications getting him up. I didn't just spend all that fucking money for you to have a happy make a wish foundation day for this kid just so that he can't fucking ascend, follow the instructions I'm about to send you and get it the fuck done.

G then sends you a list of instructions, much similar to the ones that he had given you when you first bonded with Ken.

Ken seems to see your frustration. "Is something wrong?"

You bite your tongue as the words you want to tell him won't leave your mouth.

"There's.....there's been a slight change in plans."

Another instruction in the list that G had given you said that Ken couldn't be sad while doing this ritual, which would be fucking hard to pull off seeing as what just happen.

"Ken, I'm going to help you ascend right now, it's time to do it." You say, coming off as blunt as possible.

Ken's eye furrowed in a type of fear and panic, as he quickly got up from sitting down, in which you joined him.

"Now listen, it's not anything bad it's ju-."

"Why does it have to be right now! Why can't we just wait a little longer!" Ken cries as he cuts you off.

"I'm sorry but your time has been designated for this moment. Ken, please remember what I said earlier,
> You all good things come to a end
You don't know how much time had passed as you two sat in the hotel room, it had to be one in the morning already though.

Once Ken had stopped crying the second time, you just started to talk to him about his earlier life, and just tried to bring up any question about him you could come up with. At first, he only said single word answers, though as the questions continued he started to get more in depth with what he said until he was bringing up every small detail of whatever he was reminiscing about.

"When they first took my body after the car crash, I couldn't stop freaking out. I tried to get the attention of the rescuers, but nobody saw me, and I cried for so long on top of that bridge. It came to the point in where I couldn't stand to be up there, so I decided to go under the bridge where I thought it would be quiet. Turns out a lot of people died there, so I was never really lonely, but that's when I really found out that I was dead, and there was nothing I could do about it..."

"I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you sooner Ken, really I wish that there was more of my kind that could help you guys, the amount of time some people have to wait to be helped is ridiculous."

"Please make sure everyone at that bridge get's out of there like me, one of the men there said that he had been there for over a year, I was probably the one with the least amount of time spent there, I don't even know why you picked me first."

You didn't have the heart to tell this kid the only reason G picked him is that he thought making him happy would be easy. If that was how these people filtered out which ghosts were worth saving, then who knows how long some of the spirits would have to wait before being saved.

This whole system was shit, but that wasn't something to be worrying about right now, you would talk about it with G when the time was right.

"I promise I'll get everyone out of that bridge kid."

He nods, and stays silent for a moment as if trying to find something else to say.

"I think I'm ready."

"Are you sure? If you need a little more time, I'm not even tired." You say, although lying a little bit.

Ken shakes his head though. "If I think about it anymore it's only going to get worse in my head, this is as ready as I'll be I think."

With that Ken stands up, and you do as well.

The two of you look at each other for a bit, and a bitter small smile appears on Ken's face as he outstretches his hand.

"Thank you for the fun day today, and for getting me on a plane, you really did a lot for what time you had with me."

"Well thanks for being such a good kid about everything, hanging out with you was like hanging out with someone my own age, you're a really smart kid. Wherever you're going to end up, I know you'll come out on top."

Ken laughs a little, and so do you. At this point, your eyes start to sting, but you keep your head held high as you outstretch your hand in which both of you have your palms clasped with one another, just like at the start.

"Don't forget my face when I find you again." You say, knowing in your heart it was about to happen.

"Never." His kiddish eyes glowed, and they glowed. Until all was white.

It had happened.

Your hand felt nothing, and nothing was there.

Ken was gone.
> You ascension
G- Hah, with how I've changed my order of things, I was able to shave off a few days since my contact quota. If things go right we should be able to finish this quota within the next week, good job kid, you're going to turn out to be an efficient member of this group if you keep this performance up, now get some rest and make sure to catch the plane tomorrow.

G had left you alone after the congratulations, but you weren't feeling very happy. in fact, you were feeling like shit. If you had to go through this every single time you were to help ascend a spirit, then you didn't want to do this at all. Though you doubt that you had a say in this matter anyway, the only thing you could do on your own part was to make sure that these spirits didn't suffer, and are at least happy before they ascend.

Though if every single one of your guides was to be like G in the future, then this was going to be one hell of a ride.

You had asked G after the congratulations if there was any way to contact spirits and the response you got was that only certain classes of your kind were able to perform such acts, and G didn't know or come in contact with anyone who had such powers, apparently, they were a very rare bunch.

Still, if there was a chance you were able to contact Ken in the future, then you had to find a way to do so, at least to see how he was doing.

You didn't think G would be giving you any breaks if he finds a new spirit to help soon enough, tired as you were from only a few days of work, you couldn't stop until you finished your quota, and helped these spirits ascend. To hell with the quota actually, you had to find a way to do this permanently.

You were going to help these spirits.

Someone has to take a bigger initiative.

That person was you.

and so starts the adventures to come.