text: a demon.
  
  "We're here to help you cross over kid, so help us help you."Ruby says getting straight to the point, although she isn't as confrontational and rash as she was before, not even able to look directly at the boy."
  
  This causes the silence from the boy, but through your peripheral vision, you see that his eyes start to furrow in anger.
  
  "What are you some kind of devils or something, was this my punishment, sitting at the bottom of the lake for four months trying to dig my way out! Fuck you!"
  
  This boy had quite the vocabulary of words for someone as young as him.
  
  "Trust me kid, do you know how many people die each and every day and get stuck in this limbo, count yourself lucky that you haven't been waiting years, hell you might even be considered early,"Ruby tells him with a sideways glance. It seemed as if the boy took this the wrong way though as if Ruby was mocking him, as this only seemed to increase his anger.
  
  "You fucking bitch! Do you have any idea how long a month can be at a bottom of a lake, how murky and dark it can be. Do you have any idea how long I was dragging myself until I reached the embankment that started to take me up? Unless you can relate to that don't fucking joke about time, you know nothing of it." The boy seethed through his teeth.
  
  Ruby scoffed at this as she stepped closer to the kid.
  
  "Alright listen here kiddo, you can be mad all you want, what's done is done so why don't you start worrying about your future. Do you want to stay at this lake forever and not move on? If you keep us with this attitude we can just leave you here and you can wait for another one of us to come and find you, but trust me, you'll be waiting a lot longer than four months."
  
  The kid through his furious expression turns away to stop making eye contact with Ruby as he starts to shudder. You can see the tears falling from his remaining eye as he just shakes his head slowly. He stays silent after that.
  
  Ruby walks back to you as she crosses her arms.
  
  "Ok, well this is going to be harder than I thought due to what just happened, but everything else is going to be up to you. You have to get the kid to agree to come with you, but the trick is he has to be happy, or just content I think, afterward were done with this one and we can move on."
  
  "You know you could have been a little nicer with him you know." You reply with a frown.
  
  She laughs at your complaint, and with how real it is, it un-nerves you a bit.
  
  She puts a hand on your shoulder and looks you dead in the eye. "Trust me, once you start dealing with enough of them, you'll eventually get jaded out. Besides most of them are going to a better place after this, so don't worry to much about it."
  
  Letting go of your shoulder, she walks away and goes to sit down at the other end of the dock, and just seems to watch you. Better that she did this, you didn't think she would be much help in getting this kid into a good mood.
  > The boy
  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.
  > apologize
  "Hey I'm sorry about my friend back there, she doesn't really know how to talk to people all that well."
  
  "Yeah, I could tell..."The boy quietly replies.
  
  "Don't worry though, you don't really have to deal with her anymore. From now on it's just going to be you and me interacting with one another. Trust me I'm a lot nicer than she is." You say with a little laugh.
  
  This causes the boy to look up at you, and the two of you make direct eye contact. You try to morph your facial expression to that of an assured and friendly one, you think it's working as the boy doesn't break eye contact with you.
  
  "What's your name kid?"
  
  "Owen."
  
  "Well Owen, how would you like to come with me. I can get you out of here in the next couple of minutes."
  
  "You'll help me get to heaven?" Owens' eyes beam with home, but as he reads your unchanged expression his mood darkens.
  
  "I'm going to hell aren't I?"
  
  "What? No, it's just that.....well you won't be going to heaven just yet."
  
  "What do you mean...?"Owen asks suspiciously.
  
  You give a sigh."Alright look kid, I'm going to be straight with you. I'm going to perform an action and after this action. Well,.....you're going to go inside my body."
  
  "What?!"
  
  "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. You don't seem like all that bad of a guy either so I guess it wouldn't be all that bad, compared to that one bitch..." He mutters.
  
  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, instead 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."
  
  Grabbing the boy's hand, you feel your head start to buzz.
  > getting in
  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 your ability 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, it's me. Man this is so weird, I can see what you're seeing I think, but I can't control where my eyes go, I can't explain it
  
  "Hey, so did it work then?" You hear Ruby ask you as she starts walking up to you from where she was sitting.
  
  "Yeah, I guess. He's in me now."
  
  "Well that's amusing, hopefully, that counts to your quota in terms of delaying the sickness for the both of us, anyway I guess were done here now that you have him. Before we go though you should test some of your abilities out."
  
  "What do you mean by abilities?" You asked puzzled.
  
  "I looked up on your specific class on my database while I was sitting down over there, and apparently you and your spirits can do some specific things together."
  
  "Like what?"
  
  "We'll first off he can detach from your body, apparently you're now his boundary zone, so he can stay around you in his own form if he doesn't want to stay inside your head so to speak."
  
  Ask her how to do it!
  
  Owen speaks loudly causing you to wince.
  
  "Well how is it done then?" you ask Ruby.
  
  "Tell him to just start thinking about leaving your mind, while being absolutely calm and patient, that's how they said to do it on the database."
  
  That sounds easy enough.
  
  Seeing as that you didn't have to do anything yourself, you waited for Owen to do the process of getting out.
  
  Nothing seemed to happen for a few moments, but a voice from behind you made you jump from behind.
  
  "Hey, it worked!"
  
  Turning around you see Owen, although this time, he had legs. Not just legs, but his entire body was completely different, he had regained his eye, and his skin was that of a normal healthy color. His whole body looked normal, as if he wasn't dead at all, this would be the first time you've ever seen a ghost this healthy looking. Owen didn't seem to notice this at first, but he soon looked down in puzzlement and let out a yelp as he stumbled back on his feet.
  
  "My...My legs are back!"
  
  "Yeah, now I can actually look at you without vomiting..." Ruby mutters from beside you.
  
  You give her a glare as Owen continues to feel up his body for all the body parts and skin that he had regained.
  
  Once again, tears started falling down his face as he continued feeling himself, although more slowly than before.
  
  "The other trick is getting back inside your body, and for that, all he has to do is grab your hand and twist it, those are the only tricks I've found so far, I'm sure there's more, I'll let you know once I find them," Ruby explains to you as she starts to walk off.
  
  "Now let's get out of here, I have to get home and do my homework."
  > home
  Ruby had dropped you and Owen off at your house. Surprisingly though, Owen seemed to have regained physics as well, as he was able to touch a few things that other ghosts weren't able too, although some items were still limited, you felt as if though that could change with some practice.
  
  Your parents didn't seem able to see Owen either, as when the two of you walked inside, you were the only one who was greeted, which was good.
  
  Getting to your room, you start to speak to Owen as he's looking around with curiosity.
  
  "Alright, so from now on I want you to stay this way when it's possible, I don't want you reading my thoughts or anything while you're inside my head. Besides I'm pretty sure you'd like having your own freedom instead of being stuck to what I see and do, right?"
  
  Owen nods.
  
  "Good.....so um....do ghosts sleep?"
  
  "No, I usually just walked around the lake or looked up at the sky during the night time, not that much different than during the day..." Owen says in a bit of a depressed voice.
  
  "Well, with how you've changed already, you might need to start sleeping too. If that's the case sleep on the floor once I lay out some blankets. Otherwise just do something in my room....just don't go poking around in any of my personal stuff." You warn, wanting to keep at least some sort of privacy.
  
  "Yeah, Yeah, Whatever you say." He says sarcastically as he makes his way over to your desktop.
  
  "Can I play on your computer?"
  
  "Can you even touch it?"
  
  Owen reaches for the mouse and keyboard as he starts clicking and typing randomly.
  
  Guess that's a yes.
  
  "Yeah go ahead, the password is 01234."
  
  "Shitty password.
  
  "Do you want to play on it or not?"You say annoyed.
  
  "Sorry."
  > Next day
  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.
  > library
  When Ruby had brought up the powers in which you had with Owen, it never really left your mind as you continued to think about it every now and then. You decided to go the library to see if you could find out any of this information out on your own. Though you didn't really have many hopes considering the silence your kind had to keep about their powers, though maybe someone had found a loophole and got around it.
  
  You checked a few books that had information from decades ago, but all of them proved useless as you decided to continue your search online.
  
  "I'm bored....Can't you play games or something on the computer? I don't think anyone will notice me typing on the keyboard...." Owen complains as he sits next to you in an empty chair.
  
  "Don't you want to learn how to use our powers?" You whisper to him as you open up numerous articles about ghosts and phenomenon.
  
  "Just ask the girl!" He exclaims, in which you ignore.
  
  You had done some research on your condition long before you had met Ruby or Owen, so you had a little bit of an idea in which websites had the best information and which ones didn't. Even the most credible sources though we're all pretty wrong or just vague when it came to what you had experienced yourself.
  
  It seemed as if you wouldn't be finding out how to use your powers on your own after all. At least not through any of these means.
  
  Giving up on your endeavors, you give a sigh before exiting out of all your windows and finding a website with flash games.
  
  "Here, go ahead and play..."You say to Owen, scooting your chair over a bit.
  
  "Really! Hell Yeah."
  > Weeks later
  Two weeks had gone by since you had taken in Owen. Even though he was to be extremely annoying at first, you had gotten used to his shenanigans and personality until it came to the point in which you weren't bothered by it at all anymore.
  
  Ruby only interacted with you about maybe twice or three times a week at most, and that was only to check up on the status of you and Owen, to make sure that you were doing alright. Though she worded it in a really weird way as if she was expecting something bad to have happened.
  
  On the second week, Ruby had given you forewarning of another spirit that the two of you would be meeting on the weekend. She had tried to push it during lunch on Friday, but you had persuaded her out of it since you weren't really up for skipping.
  
  "So then that means someone else is going to join us?" Owen asked you when the topic had been brought up in one of your conversations during lunch.
  
  "Yeah seems like it, which is kind of good since you're pretty boring to talk with one on one." You tease.
  
  "Fuck off." He laughs off with a smirk.
  
  When the weekend finally comes, Ruby comes by your house to pick you up early in the morning as you've already told your mom you would be heading out for the day and maybe coming back at night.
  
  "So who's it going be?" Owens asks in the backseat as Ruby gets onto the freeway.
  
  "It's going to be an older man actually, like really old. I can't tell if he had just died recently or the others had just forgotten to help him ascend, if it's the second one then at least it'll be easier to take him since he would already be broken." Ruby explains although an awkward silence fills the car with what said with the last part.
  
  "Where's he going to be at?" You ask Ruby in order to change the subject a little.
  
  "It's going to actually be at an old abandoned home. Apparently, the man owned it and died there alone, the house hasn't been bought yet which makes our lives a whole lot easier." Ruby explains as she merges onto a new lane.
  
  "So it's going to be the same process as last time, with what I did with Owen?"
  
  "Yep, but I expect you to do it faster and more efficiently this time now that you've had the experience."
  
  You roll your eyes at that as the car ride remains quiet for the remainder of the trip.
  
  The house in which this spirit was located seemed out of place compared to the commercial buildings surrounding it. It was also weird that its driveway merged onto an avenue, which seemed to be super inconvenient for anyone living here.
  
  As the three of you exit the car, Owen is the first one to run up to the door and try to open it.
  
  "It's locked!" He exclaims.
  
  "Well, of course, it is you dip, why wouldn't it be." You reply causing his to give you a dirty look.
  
  "Wait does it mean we're going to break in? That's so cool!" He says towards Ruby, who nods her head.
  
  "Wait I'm pretty sure this is illegal, I don't want a cop to pull up on us breaking in." You tell Ruby who is digging through her book-bag for something.
  
  "Relax pussy, where going to be in and out of here in no time, besides it's not like we're going to break a window or anything, a squatter recently was here and I found out that he leaves the back window open him to get in and out."
  
  "How could you possibly know that?" You say, feeling as if she was totally bullshitting you.
  
  "Your job is to catch the ghosts, my job is to make sure it all goes smoothly. You should be a little more grateful for the amount of research I put into our contacts if you had a shittier partner they would only have to give you the bare bones information on where spirits are." She says with total pride, which causes you to smirk.
  
  "Stop acting like you're doing this out of the good of your heart or something, I already know that your life is on the line too with these quotas."
  
  This causes Ruby to stop digging through her backpack, and give you a hard look, which actually intimidates you a bit.
  
  "Listen here fuckass, I don't think you realize how easy it is for those with my job to find wardens to help with getting ghosts, if I really wanted too I could drop you and find another one to help me. The only actual reason that I'm still with you is that we both go to the same school so finishing this quota can be done in a lot less time than it usually takes. I'm only doing this for convenience, not a necessity, you best remember that." With her rant over, Ruby starts to make her way around the house as you stand there with your butt clenched at what she just said.
  
  "Damn, she really got you there." Owen chimed in as you just notice him standing next to you.
  
  The two of you followed Ruby into the house as she easily opened the window letting all three of you gain entry.
  
  "Alright follow me and don't fucking touch anything, I don't want any traces that we were here if we can avoid it." Ruby orders as she starts walking up wooden stairs that are placed in a narrow room. When all of you get up to the second floor, Ruby seems to know immediately where to go as she starts directly walking to a lone door at the end of a long hallway. It didn't seem to work properly though, as merely pushing open the door lightly caused it to move back with ease.
  
  Taking a peek inside for herself, Ruby looked back over to you and ushered you inside, before closing the door once you were in with Owen.
  
  The room was empty, not a single piece of furniture could be found, but that could be said with most of the house anyway, besides random piles of trash and boxes. A single window could be found here but the blinds were only letting in a few rays of sunlight, giving the room an eerie atmosphere that wasn't helped by the spirit standing alone in the corner of the room, staring at you directly. You didn't think you would ever get used to this.
  
  "Um...Hello?" You say, in hopes that this would be a friendly spirit.
  
  The spirit gives a slight nod at you, but that's about it.
  
  The spirit in it's form, seemed very oddly different compared to what Owen had looked like. The immediate distinction above all else though was the blue glow that emitting from it's entire body. It had no markings of decay whatsoever, but at the same time it didn't look human. It looked as what one would imagine a spirit were to look, a form of energy in some sorts.
  
  "What's your name mister?" You ask, trying to be polite.
  
  "You can call me Nick, boy." The spirit since in an asserting type of tone.
  
  "Well Mr. Nick, do you know how long you've been here?" You ask, trying to get all the basic questions out of the way.
  
  "Well I've lived here my entire life, and it seems after it as well, so if that answers your question."
  
  "I mean how long has it been since you've passed?"
  
  "Oh, you mean that...Well, I don't really seem to remember. Could have been days or weeks. Probably less than a month though by my guessing."
  
  Even though Ruby had already told you this stuff, you still wanted to ask the spirit these questions to see how much they knew and if they were lying or not. Luckily this time Ruby didn't piss off the ghost before you talked to it so hopefully, this interaction will be much less of a hassle.
  > nick
  "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."
  > ask Questions
  You felt as if though asking a few questions would help along the way later, and maybe also be a bit polite in inquiring about this man's past life.
  
  "How old are you Nick?" You ask to start off.
  
  "I had turned fifty-nine a few months ago, don't remember celebrating it though so it really just faded in with all the other days."
  
  "Do you know how you died, you seem pretty young to die from natural causes." You say with another question.
  
  "I couldn't really tell you myself, I smoked a helluva lot in my thirties but managed to quit when I turned forty with the help of my sister. All I know is that it was painless, don't remember feeling a thing when I passed."
  
  You nod at his recollections. "Well, that's good at least that you died in your sleep peacefully."
  > No more questions
  "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