text: You don't remember when you first acquired the power to see spirits.
  
  After all differentiating the dead from the living could be rather difficult considering that the ones you saw at such a young age died rather peacefully to your recollection.
  
  Or that was the case, until the age of around ten or so.
  
  The memory of that night was vivid, and it seemed to be stained into your brain, it's not something that you could imagine that you would ever forget.
  
  You had spent the night at a friend's house, which was pretty rare considering that you mostly always stayed at home on your own free time when you were younger at that age.
  
  You were so overjoyed and ecstatic, and so was your friend as you spent most of that night playing video games and at around midnight tried to watch the adult stuff that he had bragged about having access to on his T.V.
  
  It wasn't until the next morning, that he had invited you to come into his basement to look at his dad's motorbike that was stored down there, that made the night so unforgettable and morbid.
  
  At first, you didn't really know what it was, it seemed to be a jumble of hair, mixed with red clothes and gray clay. It was right by the motorbike that your friend was about to show off.
  
  You didn't really think much of it, not even asking your friend about it at first since it was probably your eyes just playing tricks on you, it was pretty dim after all.
  
  It was wasn't until you got closer.
  
  The facial features, the blood, the bent limbs and the wriggling maggots that were feasting around its mouth and what was left of its nose.
  
  You don't remember all that much after that.
  
  Your dad told you that you had to be sent home since you wouldn't stop screaming or crying, when he reminisced the story to you he found it amusing.
  
  Knowing what you do know, you didn't find it funny.
  
  You didn't really fear it all that much either though.
  > present day
  There seemed to be a difference in the dead you saw.
  
  Some were alive and could communicate with you, while others were just corpses that you would see as if the crime or accident had just happened, sometimes the corpses would seem very decayed too, just like the one at your friend's house.
  
  At first, it was just it was just corpses that you were able to see, which really fucked you up when you saw them every now and then at different locations whenever you left you left your house. The first times you screamed, as far you can remember or have been told by your parents, but soon it seems you just got used to it as no one else were able to see what you kept on seeing. It didn't scare you as it did the first times after encountering new corpses, but then again it wasn't a sight that you looked forward to seeing either.
  
  You could best describe it as getting sick, or getting injured. It sucks when it happens, but you can't really do all that much about it, and the only way around it is to limit yourself in the locations that you went. That's how you ended up becoming a shut-in, locked away in your room on your computer for whenever you came home from school or had free time on the weekends.
  
  That's to say you weren't an emo loner or someone who had terrible serious issues that needed therapy, or at least you hoped so.
  
  The screaming parts were just seen as a phase to your parents. Like sex or bad words, seeing dead people was something that you never really felt comfortable talking about with them.
  
  In fact, at first, you thought everyone could see it, and they were just fucking with you when they said that they had no idea what you were talking about when you pointed at the corpses. It took months before you knew that it was just your own personal disease.
  
  A disease that you knew would probably never get cured.
  
  Waking up from bed, in a tired daze, you looked at your phone to see that it was Friday, and you had woken up an hour early before school. This was pretty unusual, since most of the time you would stay up till one or two a.m. and would usually miss the morning bus.
  
  That had to mean you only got like four or five hours of sleep.
  
  "Shit."
  
  Taking the time that you had, you got yourself showered and dressed and went downstairs to make yourself some breakfast before you would walk to your bus stop.
  
  Your school was close enough that walking could be an option.
  
  Although usually, you run into a few car crash victims along the sidewalk, most of the time their heavily disfigured or heavily weeping.
  
  You don't know exactly why you didn't notice them when you were younger, though you chalked it up to the assumption that you were always playing on your Gameboy on car rides or something.
  
  There have been a few instances in which you've spoken to the dead, although most of the time they never ended well.
  
  It seems that they're trapped into a sort of box, each box differentiating in size to reasons unknown to you. If they're lucky they have someone to talk to if the place they died has another ghost, or they died in pairs. When there's a lone ghost, however, most of the time they look miserable or heavily distressed.
  
  You learned never to make eye contact, as that was a sure fire way that they knew that you could see them. There was one time that one on a road you traveled on was screaming at you, and that had caused other ghosts in the area to also look over at you as he screamed that you could see him.
  
  You don't ever go on that road now on the way home, in fact, you stay try your best to stay away from that part of the city.
  
  Though there a bit of you that was ashamed for being afraid of ghosts. If this was something you were going to live with for the rest of your life then you had to start facing it head on, or at least that's what you wanted to think.
  > take the bus
  After internally debating with yourself on what you would do, you finally told yourself that you would do this some other day, not wanting this day to be ruined over a bad interaction.
  
  With that, you grabbed your book bag and said goodbye to your mom who was in the kitchen.
  
  You were honestly genuinely surprised that you hadn't seen any ghosts on your way or at the bus stop. Usually, there had to be at least one every block or so, though this was probably the reason why you preferred this so much instead of walking.
  
  Besides you, there was only one other student who got on at this stop, though he usually kept to himself in the corner of the wall as he huddled down to his knees and checked his phone until the bus was to come. You thought about saying something a while back when you first started riding the bus but thought against it for reason.
  
  As the two of you waited in silence as the sun slowly rises in the distance changing the dark blue sky into a lighter hue by each passing second, the bus soon finally arrives as the two board the school bus.
  
  Your stop was one of the first ones on the route, so you had the first choice in seats. With only three other people on, and none of them being someone you knew, you sat alone in the midsection.
  
  You disliked sitting next to windows, for obvious reasons. The less you saw of the corpses the better.
  
  Today you felt worse than the past couple, probably was something that you had eaten or something. Resting your head against the back of the seat in front of you, you kept your hand against your stomach as you tried to remain calm. Fuck you should have asked your mom to stay home today, you already knew you were to vomit soon enough.
  
  Strangely you didn't notice time pass as you kept to your thoughts, and before you knew it the bus was crowded with most of the stops now being completed. The noise was rampant as you felt like you were getting to your breaking point, fuck this would be so embarrassing.
  
  You were lucky that no one was sitting next to you today, because of this you turned your back to the aisle as you rested your head against the window.
  
  Arriving at school, you were one of the last ones to get out, luckily the bus driver was just playing a game on his phone so he didn't all that much mind that you took your time getting off.
  
  Immediately your first thought was to head to the nurse's office, but with how far it was from the bus lanes, you knew you wouldn't make it.
  
  With your alternative being much, much closer, you decide to head there instead to get some solitude to do the disgusting deed.
  
  Your knees trembled as you planted them to the ground while lifting up the toilet seat. Something felt extremely weird, the feeling of your upcoming vomit fest was accompanied by a strong heartburn. You don't remember eating anything spicy that would have caused something like this but whatever was coming out, would most likely burn your throat.
  
  "Hnph, Hmpfhh!"
  
  A steady stream of brown water exits your mouth as it all enters the toilet in one big gush. It didn't seem like this would be ending anytime soon, as more continued to be projectile streamed from your mouth.
  
  As this was happening though, the heartburn got worse, and your eyesight was starting to become a blur in which you couldn't even see the dirty water of the toilet clearly anymore.
  
  With the last of the vomit exiting your body, you fell back onto the tile floor and went into immediate darkness.
  > dreams
  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.
  > head to class
  This was probably some sort of morning sickness or something, it would probably end up passing during third or fourth period. Besides it's not like you walked or did anything active during class anyway so worst comes to worse you can just lay your head down and wait for it all to be over.
  
  Exiting out of the bathroom, you shuffle down the empty hallways as you navigate to your homeroom. Mr.Finks was pretty laid back when it came to being late so it's not like you would get into much trouble anyway because of this predicament.
  
  Finally arriving in the hallway in which your class was located, you open the door leading inside, feeling the stares of some people as they give you a quick look before going back to whatever was occupying them seconds before your arrival.
  
  You go over to where your seat is as Mr. Finks notices you but doesn't say anything towards, probably assuming your ride brought you here late or something. This makes you a bit glad as you slump down into your seat as Mr. Finks starts with today's morning lecture on what we would be doing for the period.
  
  Classes go by at a regular pace for you as you walk from one to another with each passing hour. Your stomach sways from normalcy to shitty pain every now and then which in turns gives you a piss poor attitude with anybody that interacts with you.
  
  During lunch, you didn't feel like eating anything, which worried you since you hadn't eaten at all today besides a banana for breakfast, which you probably threw up in the bathroom earlier. Most likely whatever you were to take in would immediately come right back out, so you decided to opt out from your normal lunch plans. You instead decide to go somewhere secluded, and find the solitude in one of the hidden areas behind the school were a nice patch of grass and a few benches could be found. Normally this is where couples would usually make out and such, but ever since they increased security around campus and added a camera here, it's become abandoned by students save for rare occasions.
  
  You didn't even sit on the bench and instead plopped your whole body on the grass. Immediately it started feeling better, and you've never felt such bliss of having a painless stomach. You just looked up at the light blue cloudless sky while your stomach just gurgled from hunger and bits of pain.
  
  The quietness of the whole area seemed off, with it being school and all. Normally there would at least be ambiance of wildlife or janitors emptying trash cans, but it was just silence.
  
  "How long have you been laying there?"
  
  Your whole body jumped up in surprise at this sudden voice from behind you, as your body immediately pulled itself up. Your torso turned to look at this intruder of your quiet time, to which you saw a female student giving you an odd look.
  
  "Who are you?" You say with a hint of venom, which you instantly curse yourself for doing.
  
  "You know it was pretty hard to find you when there were so many souls blocking my signal, you being alone though in a place like this just so happened to make the first part of my job extremely easy."
  "Huh?" You say with a confused look for what was just said to you.
  
  The girl sighed with annoyance.
  
  "Now I guess we have to do the boring stuff don't we...you can see ghosts right. Don't lie to me either."
  
  Your mouth hangs open as unintelligible sounds come from it as you don't know how to respond.
  
  A smile appears on her face as she bends down onto her knees to get a better look at you more closely, which in turns startles you even more.
  
  "Do I know you?" You hesitantly ask.
  
  "Probably not, I usually end up leaving early since I'm a senior so you probably haven't seen me around all that much either. But anyway now that my suspicions are correct it's time to get down to business before lunch ends."
  
  This girl was being very vague with what she was telling you, and you felt like just walking off to leave her and her crazy thoughts to her lonesome.
  
  However she knew that you saw ghosts, and curiosity dominated over your cautiousness, so you ended up staying sitting down and for her to explain herself further.
  
  Before she began, you see that she took a big breath before anything left her mouth and then she started.
  
  "Your kind, the kind who sees ghosts are referred to as Wardens. Wardens help ghosts in different ways, and Wardens are categorized in different subs depending on how they help ghosts. You have been categorized into the trapper subsection congratulations, you get one of the most fun jobs there is. You can refer to me as your guide, I'll help you with finding easy ghosts, and in turn well both finish our contracts and bounce out of the quota system for five years until we're needed again."
  
  A lot of what she said didn't make sense, and there were a few parts that just passed you completely.
  
  "Well delve into this topic more, we have some time to spare so we can leave to helping spirits on the weekends. Which I honestly prefer because I don't want to waste my senior year doing this crap, even if it can be fun at times." She says this with a small smirk while look at her cluelessly.
  
  "Until our quota is done, I'm going to be your new best friend for the next couple of months, so let's get this over with as soon as possible. Anyway, give me your phone number so I can start getting you some more information after you go home because this the more extended stuff that you need to know is a real pain in the ass to have to say."
  
  You didn't really respond, as what she had just said went in through one ear and out the other.
  
  "Hey are you deaf, give me your phone number." She said a little more irritated.
  
  Coming back from your daze, you fumble your phone from out of your pocket, bringing up your number on the contacts page as you seem to forget what it is. Giving her your phone, she quickly starts typing in what she needs before giving it back to you seconds later.
  
  "Also don't call me to me around school like you know me, that'll be weird. My name is Ruby." With her quick introduction, she walks away from where you're sitting with everyone seemingly said and done.
  
  You continue to sit in that lonely patch of grass as you wonder what the hell had just happened.
  > later that day
  With school over and you heading over to your bus stop, you wait there quietly as you and some other students idle around until it is time for it to arrive. A few minutes pass however when a car that had come from student parking rolls up onto the curb in which the bus usually parks itself. The passenger window rolls down and seeing who the driver is makes your mouth drop a little.
  
  "Hey, hurry up and get in!" Ruby yells while pointing directly at you.
  
  The other bus riders look at you while you immediately follow her directions and get into her car.
  
  As you close the door, Ruby begins to chastise you.
  
  "Holy fuck didn't you get my texts to wait at your last hour so I could come and get you, I was looking all over for you around campus."
  
  Reaching into your pocket you pull out your phone and see that you had a couple missed calls along with over ten spam texts.
  
  "Ah sorry my phone was dying so I was saving my battery, don't know why I didn't feel the vibrations th-.....Wait why am I here with you again?" You stop yourself and ask her with confusion.
  
  "Trust me, me I had plans to go do other shit to and I'd rather be doing that right now, but I just got a lead on a couple of spirits that you'll be able to take in, and the sooner we do that the sooner we can end the quota and length the time before we start getting sick. Always keep that in mind when I start pulling you out from classes or we go somewhere straight from school. So start checking your phone sooner dipshit." With her lecture and insult out of the way, she puts her car in drive and speeds of the school driveway and out onto the streets.
  
  "What did you mean by take in?" You ask in puzzlement at the first stoplight you meet.
  
  Ruby looks at you with confusion, before realization sets in.
  
  "Oh yeah I wasn't planning on explaining your powers until later over text, but I guess now is going have to be the time we do this. Alright listen and pay attention because I'm not going to repeat what I'm about to say, got it?"
  
  You nod.
  
  "Alright, so each one of your kind has a special power that is used in dealing with spirits and helping them ascend. Some powers are faster with the process than others, while some just go off on their own branches and ways that they can be used. Your specialty is a rarer one, and to be perfectly honest I don't even know how exactly we're going to go about doing this as I have no idea how your kind ascends spirits. But for now I need you to coax these spirits we encounter into a state of comfort, afterward you'll take them in."
  
  "Take them in how?" You ask again, this time a little tenser.
  
  This cause Ruby to grimace a bit as she seems to choose her wording wisely which surprises you a bit given her past attitudes of being upfront.
  
  "Well....Take in as in literally, the spirits we encounter will enter your body alongside you and sort of stay there, seeing what you see, communicating with you, and just being apart of you per say without much control over your body though." She finishes, giving a quick glance over to you for your reaction.
  
  "Wait a minute, you're telling me I'm going to be sharing my body with those fucking things!" You say a bit louder than you meant, but with good reason as this was a pretty serious matter.
  
  "Relax, you'll still have total control over your body, well I'm pretty sure you will. I've never heard of one of your class being taken over so I can't say for certain...but anyway all that'll really happen is that you'll just have other people talking to you in your head is all, or maybe they show up as actual spirits. I don't know your guess is as good as mine, so make sure to fill me in on what happens with our first contact. I'll be needing this information in case I ever have to work with another one of your kind."
  
  You couldn't really tell if she was trying to reassure you or calm you down from your anxiety, but if she was, she was doing a really shitty job at doing so.
  
  "Anyway...who's this first ghost were going to go....see?" You ask Ruby while your throat tightens a bit.
  
  "Well according to the tip, it's going to be a be a young boy who died while drowning, luckily his spirit boundaries included the docks so he wasn't stuck at the bottom of the lake forever, still though, getting out of there must have been hell..." She says with a small pause.
  > The lake
  You remember coming to this lake before. When you were much younger as a child with a couple of your cousins during a summer weekend. You hadn't realized a kid had drowned here, but then again you wouldn't be surprised as there were some pretty deep parts of this lake that could be really dangerous if you were by yourself.
  
  Ruby parked in the area in which a playground was located, though it seemed to be barren, though with school having just ended a little while ago that was probably a given. The two of you exited her car as you made your way down the hill towards the lake that was at the bottom of the large park that is mainly occupied.
  
  There being a lot of people fishing around here when you were younger, but a few signs that seemed to be banning such sport placed along the path down to the lake seemed to tell you that there was no more of such a thing around here. You have a guess that it probably had to do with more people swimming around this area causing the ban, though honestly you would have seen it as the other way around.
  
  "Let's hurry up and get this done before anyone decides to come down here and take a dip, apparently when you take in ghosts the process is a little....weird,"Ruby tells you as she gets into a faster pace on the way down the hill. Thanks to those words the feeling of your stomach churning in her car earlier had returned just as it had died down only moments before.
  
  Upon arriving at the lower wooden docks in which were used as jumping off points, you see no one there which surprises you a little, as you had at least expected to see the boy in plain view.
  
  "Ah fuck where did the little shit run off too..." You hear Ruby murmur under her breath in a not so subtle way.
  
  The two of you look around for the ghost boy but come up with nothing which leads to Ruby getting more irritated.
  
  "Fuck, if he's at the bottom of the lake right now then this is really going to be a pain in the ass to do...you know how to swi...HOLY SHIT." Ruby recoils back instantly, pushing yourself back in the process as she was right in front of you. You catch her with your hands before she can trip the two of you over and push her to the side a bit, to be able to see what shocked her so bad.
  
  You see nothing at first, which confuses you. It isn't until your vision starts lowering to the shallower parts of the water that you also recoil back a bit, but not as much as Ruby had. There in the water, a half-submerged head sits. Its forehead is covered with wet hair that hides most of it. The thing that fucked with you and Ruby though were the pair of yellow pupils that were looking directly at the two you ominously. The only other part that wasn't submerged was its upper nose, everything else of its head and body was under.
  
  "You little fucking shit, why'd you scare us like that!" Ruby yells with fury at the boy, who in turn cocks his head to the side, revealing some of its mouth and nostrils, which all seem to be rotting, as none of its skin is the normal color one would think when imagining a person. Everything about him was a sickly vomit green, the worst part though was some of his skin seemed to be sagging at different parts of its face, no doubt from the water.
  
  "Ruby approached the figure in the water, as she went down the dock. This caused the boy to get himself out of the water using his two hands to hoist his body out.
  
  When he did though, Ruby stopped in her tracks, and your stomach started churning violently as you tried to stop yourself from vomiting.
  
  The boy had no lower body so to speak, it seemed to stop at his stomach, and with how to skin met the flesh at the bottom, it had seemed as if though he was ripped apart violently, as entrails leaked out, but were sturdy enough to stay on him with his swaying motions as he kept balance with his hands onto the docks. His entrails reminded you of tentacles on an octopus, except dark red and green along with some black shit mixed between that you didn't want to guess on it being.
  
  "Fuck..."Ruby mutters under her breath.
  
  "What do you want?"The boy says, with a super unearthly voice that you swear echos like that of someone possessed by