322Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyEQ6CS4UHO
The brunet pursed his lips as he listened to his mother rant.
“This is the last time I will accept any behavior like this from you! The utter disrespect is… is… ugh, you are the worst! It is because you are learning that garbage at your school, huh? You think you’re a b-”
He silently took in a deep breath and tuned it all out, like he usually did. Her voice was more like background noise.
His gaze drifted around the family room where she was yelling at him, shifting his focus to different things in the room. First, an old witch’s face. Oh wait. That was his mother. Then, a silent man who never spoke up. Then he looked at the family picture above the fireplace, depicting four of them. He wondered when his brother would get back home, even. Maybe sometime at nine. He was eighteen and working a few jobs to support himself, he said he never wanted to take money from that old crone.
His mind drifted, and drifted, until he saw a colorless, blobby face. One that was not his father’s, or his mother’s, and certainly not his brother’s.
Oh. He remembered. A spirit. A ghost, even.
For some reason, he had been able to see them, no matter what he did or where he looked. Last time he checked, he wasn’t in an exorcist family either. After all, he was Grey Pierce. Not Grey Crowmore. Not Grey Songbird. Though sometimes he wished he was born into another family like that.
The apparition wandered around a bit, then left upon finding nothing to do. This happened a lot, and he found that most spirits were generally harmless.
It was odd. They were always depicted as evil, and out to get you, but maybe… maybe that was just because the only ghosts normal people could see were the ones intending to kill them. That’s how it had been for centuries.
Until him.
The first time he saw them everywhere, he freaked out. However, time went on, and on, and he realized that maybe they weren’t out to hurt him. Most of them didn’t even register him as a person, and they wandered aimlessly.
While they wandered, he wondered. How was he able to see them?
“Hey, ungrateful girl. Are you listening?” No one called anyone an “ungrateful girl,” it sounded chonky and weird, but again, that’s how his mother’s speech always sounded.
He sat up a little straighter. Right. He was supposed to be getting lectured.
“Uh, yes Mom.” He wasn’t though. He ignored her as she said a foreign name to him, called him something he was not, and this went on for a long time. Until she said one more thing.
“So that’s why we are not paying for your field trip! We already give you a roof, and food, and we do so much for you. If you want something, you have to get it yourself.”
He swallowed. Oh, right. This is why the lecture had started. He had asked to go on a field trip that the school was having, one to the Marigold forest. He would be given busywork otherwise, and he hated busywork.
Plus, he genuinely wanted to go to the forest. People said it was magical, that the flowers whisper and the trees sway with the music of the universe.
“Ah… please, Mom? I really want to go on this field trip, the rest of my history class is going.”
“No. You’re going to have to pay for it yourself.”
He sighed. That was sort of fair. He wasn’t the best student in the first place, so maybe it made sense for him to work for his own trip. “Yes, Mom. I’ll get a job.”
She made a face, all the wrinkles from her angry outbursts contorting unevenly and in the ugliest way. “EUGH! No! You can not get a job!”
“Why?”322Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ91DfZEzjEq
“NO!”
For a woman who complained about everything being too loud, even the slightest whisper, she sure was very strong with her tone of voice. Meaning she practically yelled when she spoke, and made some sort of repulsive growling/yelling sound when she was very, very angry. He felt like his ears were about to explode and he’d bleed to death.
“Why not?” He had asked again.
“Because I said so! I am your mother, is that not enough for you?”
He sighed, and now she started talking about how hard it is to be a mother and all of her struggles. He tuned it out.
You know, Grey could probably guess why she actually said no to him getting a job. The answer was the reason for basically all of her actions.
She wanted to keep an eye on him. Control his every little move.
Meanwhile, Grey was thinking. He really wanted to go on that trip, because otherwise, he’d be left out of the history activities for a month. Their teacher said the unit was on the history of the Marigold forest and the people that lived there, and many of the questions would be based on the field trip, so it would be really beneficial to go.
Also, Magic forest. Come on.
So a lot of yelling and five hours later, she had stopped after forcing him to promise that he would never get a job.
But he was going to get a job anyway, because he really wanted to go on that field trip. What was she going to do next? Stop him from doing his homework?
322Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzCUmZET5YX
He stood outside the cafe, holding the printed paper in his hand. He found a job offer online, something about a cafe.
Looking up, he read the sign above the shop: The Mystic Cafe. It was small, and on the corner of a street, but it had a few customers and looked quite cute.
He took a deep breath. Well, it was now or never, he might as well enter. He walked forward and pushed open the door to the shop, a bell above the door making a soft chime as he entered the place.
Jazz music played in the background, not obnoxiously loud like some places, not so quiet one would barely notice it, but just right. It was quite relaxing.
The vibe was nice, too, with some nice booths with green padding and striped lamps that illuminated the place well.
Grey also noticed that there were a lot more spirits than usual in the cafe, and they were all going towards the back of the place, where it was unlight and shrouded in shadows. If he squinted hard enough, he could see a faint outline of a door.
“Welcome to the cafe. Your order?” A deep voice asked. Grey glanced over and saw the boy from yesterday, the one who was chasing the cat.
“It’s you!” exclaimed Grey, eyes wide as he took in the familiar messy hair and far-off look.
Upon hearing his voice, his face flashed with recognition, and he seemed to freeze up for a second. “Oh. You.”
Grey nodded. “Uh-huh! I came to apply for a job here,” he said, grinning. “Nice to see you again, by the way.”
“Mhm.”
The silence was awkward, but Grey walked up to the counter anyway. There were no customers ordering at the moment, so he didn’t need to worry about interrupting business. Leaning on the counter, he asked: “So, how do I apply for the job?”
“...you don’t.”
He was taken aback by that. “Sorry?”
“No new employees. Sorry.”
Grey glanced down at the paper he was holding, and read it a little more closely. “Magic Cafe,” it read, not “Mystic Cafe.” His breath hitched at such a mistake. “Oh. I walked into the wrong shop.”
“Must’ve,” said the boy, his voice keeping the same tone it had for the entire conversation.
“Well then, I guess… I should go. Apologies for interrupting,” Grey chuckled nervously, and scratched the back of his head, messing up his poofy curls slightly.
However, a lady walked in through the back, with round oval glasses and bleached highlights. They contrasted with her dark hair quite a lot. “There a problem here?”
“No, I was just leaving, I thought there was a job opening, but… ah, I guess I’m wrong.”
“Oh,” the lady said, and Grey noticed how pretty she was. “Good luck, then.”
“Thank you,” he said, waving a hand, and opened the door, right when a disheveled man walked in. Some of his clothes were ripped and burned, and his eyes were wide with fear and worry.
He looked around the cafe, and then his eyes landed on Grey. “Please! Do you know where my daughter is!?”
Grey’s surprise showed on his face, but then he swallowed it back and glanced around the cafe. “Well what’s your daughter like?”
The man smiled, happy to finally be noticed and getting help. However, the manager and employee behind the counter couldn’t believe what had just happened. Had Grey actually… responded? “Yes, yes thank you for hearing me, oh thank you…”
Grey smiled nervously and scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah, happy to help… now please, what’s your daughter like so I can find her?”
The man talked a million miles per hour, but the boy was able to decipher a few words, and pieced together an image of what the girl would be like in his mind. A six year old blonde girl with grey eyes. She was last seen with a floral blue dress and hair braided to the side.
He nodded along as the man spoke, and once he was finished, Grey nodded and told the man that he would try to find his daughter.
He thanked him, and Grey really didn’t know what to do, but the first step would be to ask around, right?
Walking up to the two stunned employees in the Mystic Cafe, Grey asked the both of them if they saw a girl matching such descriptions. The manager simply stared at him, her round glasses drooping slightly, and the taller boy blinked.
Finally, the manager spoke once her shock faded away, and she adjusted her glasses so that they were resting higher up on her nose bridge. “Every day he comes in, asking for his daughter. He can’t be helped. It’s best to ignore him.”
The dark-haired boy nodded along with her.
Grey frowned. “That’s odd, but no one helps him?”
“Like I said, it’s best to ignore him.”
He glanced back at the man, covered in ragged clothing and worrying his head off. “Well, surely someone must’ve helped him at least once.”
The girl with glasses swallowed. “He really can’t be. We tried once.”
The man approached Grey. “M-my daughter, please…”
Grey held up a hand. “I’ll try to find her, I really will.”
The manager then reached over and yanked Grey’s arm so that he was leaning over the counter. Her mouth hovered near his ear as she whispered harshly. “Don’t help him, and don’t make promises you can’t keep. It’s impossible to find the girl, and you’ll just get hurt if you can’t find her.”
He pulled back. “Honestly, it doesn’t matter if I fail,” he murmured, and then said in a louder voice: “it’s still better than doing nothing.”
She scoffed, still holding his arm, and dragged him to the back room. The quiet boy followed them too, saying something and holding out a hand.
“Aeris. Bad idea.”
She turned back to him. “He can see them, can’t he? We gotta at least show him how dangerous this can get.”
He furrowed his brow. “Fine. Be careful.” He followed them into the back room as Grey had a shocked expression on his face.
She said that he could see them. But… but how? He hadn’t really told anyone about the spirit sight, and he thought that he did a pretty good job of not making it obvious to other people. His shock only grew when he entered the room.
Hell, calling it a room was an understatement. The place was huge, with stacks and stacks of books, spanning to the top of the ceiling with spiraling staircases and balconies and perfectly painted murals-
Soon he realized it was a whole library, spanning out for what seemed to be miles.
And it was weird. Some of it didn’t make sense, like golden staircases leading to the ceiling or random doors placed next to a bookshelf. It looked like a backrooms level, to be honest.
“Uh…?” He didn’t know what to say as she kept dragging him along, and the other boy followed while Grey gaped at the scenery.
She dragged him for a minute or two, and so Grey took the time to start up a conversation. There wasn’t anything else to do. “So, I never caught your name,” he started, looking at the tall barista.
“...because I never gave it,” he responded bluntly. Ouch. Okay. Maybe he wasn’t wanted around here... “It’s Winter.”
“No, it’s spring,” said Grey. “Last time I checked, May wasn’t in winter.”
“May is far away. She’s also dating Aeris.”
“Uh, odd personification there, bro,” chuckled Grey. Maybe this guy’s sense of humor was off?
Suddenly, the manager lady who was dragging him, who he assumed was Aeris, stopped and scowled. “No, you idiots.” She pointed to the barista. “His name is Winter,” she then pointed at Grey “and he’s talking about the seasons. I’m dating May, the person, and the current month is May, which is in the season of spring.”
“...oh.” Grey squeaked in a small voice. That was embarrassing.
She resumed pulling him through the library, and he went past so many books it was hard to even tell how many there were.
They had weird markings, too, in so many different languages, but the ones in English said weird, random things like “the history of wars,” and “the history of forks,” and “the history of history teachers.” All of them talking about history.
However, the trio did pass a strange section, a dimly lit aisle of books that was so dark he could barely see the end of it. It was blocked off with golden chains, and a sign hung, reading: future. He felt uneasy just looking at it.
“That place is off-limits,” Aeris said, walking a little faster while passing it. “No one’s allowed there. Ever.”
Grey furrowed his brow. “Well what’s the point of the area if no one can go there?”
She didn’t respond and kept walking, on and on and on. The weird place seemed to go on forever.
Eventually she stopped, and turned down one of the aisles of bookshelves, and pulled out an old, thick book that looked like it was falling apart.
“Samuel A. Jones,” she said, and sure enough the cover had his name written in a font that looked written by hand. She let go of Grey’s arm and flipped open the book, rummaging through pages and pages of stuff, and then stopped at the end. She pointed at something written below, and above her golden painted nails in big, bold text, it read:
Status: Dead
Soul: Unclaimed
Spirit Type: Middle-Level Ghost
“Interesting book you have there, but what does it have to do with the man waiting outside…?” He then gasped, and looked around in the library. Something clicked in his head. “WAIT, THIS PLACE IS HUGE! AND YOU CAN’T HAVE A PLACE THIS BIG IN THE BUILDING YOU WERE IN!? SO DOES THAT MEAN THAT THE ROOM IS BIGGER ON THE INSIDE THAN IT IS ON THE OUTSIDE!?”
Aeris shot him an are-you-serious type of look, and crossed her arms while holding the book. “No, that’s unrelated. I’m trying to show you the truth.”
“THE TRUTH IS THAT THIS IS A TARDIS!?”
She bopped him on the head with the tome. “No. God, how could someone in an exorcist family be this dumb?” She flipped through the pages in the book, and Grey laughed. “Is something funny?” She asked, looking up at him through her glasses.
“I’m not from an exorcist family! I’m literally just Grey Pierce.”
“Pierce?”
“Yes, not an exorcist surname. Our local exorcist family’s the Crowmores, remember?”
She pursed her lips. “Ah. I must’ve been mistaken.” She looked at Winter, who still had a far-off gaze, then back at Grey. “You sure you’re not from an exorcist family?”
He huffed and crossed his arms. “I come from a boring family in the suburbs. The most interesting thing that we do is have pizza for dinner.”
She shrugged, and said: “fair enough, I suppose,” but she ended the sentence like she wasn’t finished, or had more to say. “Anyway, do you at least get what I was trying to tell you?”
“No idea!” Grey stated with a smile holding up a peace sign.
Aeris made a low, unhappy sound and shoved the book at him. “Read it, and then turn the page to the portrait.”
“I don’t get it. Why can’t you just tell me?” Grey asked.
“Uh, so your realization scene is more dramatic. The author wants to draw it.”
“What-”
“JUST DO WHAT I SAID.” Aeris ordered.
Grey swallowed and opened up the book. The text was exactly the same, reading:
322Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCxrHwQA9C6
Status: Dead
Soul: Unclaimed
Spirit Type: Middle-Level Ghost
322Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEAA7guFR4S
“Yes, I saw it,” Grey said, and held up the book to Winter. “Winter, is there something I’m not seeing?” he questioned.
The dark-haired boy, without missing a beat, deadpanned: “I’m blind.”
Grey froze up. Oh. That actually explained a lot. “Oh, sorry…”
Winter shrugged.
Moving on, Grey did exactly as the manager told him, and turned the page after reading those few words about ghosts and souls and stuff, and promptly made a small gasping sound.
There, his face painted in inks, was the man from earlier, the one that kept asking about his daughter. Gears moved in the boy’s brain, and finally, everything clicked.
The man from earlier was dead. He was a ghost.
He nervously laughed a little, and ran his fingers through his hair. “This is the same guy, right…?”
Aeris said: “Yes, it’s the same person.” Winter nodded.
“But the book says he’s a ghost.” He flipped back to the page talking about his status as a ghost, calling him a “middle-level ghost.” With a breath of disbelief, he continued, saying: “Ghosts don’t look like that usually. They’re all… sort of blobby, and white. That man looked real.”
“Mhm. Middle and higher level ghosts look like that.”
“I’ve never seen one of those in my life.”
“Well now you have,” Aeris said, grabbing the book and closing it shut, putting it back on the shelf. “Moving on, what I’ve been trying to tell you is that he’s dead, and you can’t help.”
He sort of just stared at the ground, contemplating the new information. That man was a ghost, a spirit, and he thought he saw them before, knew what they looked like. But if that guy was a spirit, and he couldn’t tell, then who knew who else was a ghost? Perhaps he met more of them and never even knew.
Well, most of them were sort of just harmless and there, so it probably wasn’t much to worry about, but…
Aeris interrupted his thoughts. “Don’t worry. The longer you see them, the more you can tell the difference.” It was almost as if she knew what she was thinking, because she responded perfectly to his internal monologue.
“Right.”
“Now, just remember not to help him, all right? It can get dangerous.”
“Why don’t we just give him his daughter though?”
She brushed some of her bangs out of the way, then without a hint of emotion in her voice, said: “she’s dead.”
“Then the ghost of his daughter. I’m sure she’s out there somewhere.”
Aeris looked at Winter, causing Grey to look at him as well. He just sort of stood there, hands at his sides, just responding to their silence with a quick “hmm.”
The manager turned her gaze back to the bookshelf, and grabbed the book next to the one she had just looked through. It read: “Chloe V. Jones,” probably the one about his daughter.
Again, she flipped through the pages, though Grey noticed that the book was significantly smaller than the other one. The girl’s book only had a quarter of the pages her father’s one had. But, it still had the same format at the end, noticed Grey as Aeris held up the page for him to see.
Status: Dead
Soul: Claimed
Spirit Type: Ascended
He could generally guess what it meant. She had already gone up to Heaven, or whatever it was.
“She’s up in Heaven, right?” He asked to confirm his thoughts, and upon seeing Aeris nod, he just stated: “Well let’s bring her back down so he can see her, and then they can ascend together.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Winter said after not speaking up for a while. Grey waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t, so Aeris explained for him yet again.
“First, it’s not exactly Heaven, it’s sort of… a state of being in the spirit world. Hard to explain. Second, like Winter said, it doesn’t work like that. Once you ascend, you can’t really go back to the mortal realm unless you have permission from the universe itself, or the higher-ups. Anyway, the point is, we can’t bring her here because spirits aren’t allowed to interact with the mortal world.”
“But she won’t be interacting with the mortal world, she’ll be interacting with her father! Who’s a ghost!” claimed an exasperated Grey, throwing his hands up in the air.
“Look, I don’t make the rules.”
Grey grabbed the book from Aeris’ hands, and also the one about the man, Samuel. “Well I’m helping him. If I can convince him to ascend, he can be with his daughter, and this will all be solved.”
“No! He won’t ascend without seeing his daughter, and we can’t do that because-”
He pushed past Winter, who tried to hold up an arm to stop him, and started walking down the aisle. “I’m helping him, okay!?” She didn’t respond, so he kept walking, until a certain realization made him stop. He had no idea where he was going. Grumbling, he went back to the aisle. “Can you help me get back to the cafe?”
“Not until you put the books back and quit whatever dumb plan you have.”
“...Fine.” He put the books back, but never broke eye contact with her strong green gaze. Once he pushed the second one back in its place and she was satisfied, she started walking, not looking back at him.
“Come on,” she said, and he slowly followed, but not before committing what could be his final act in the library.
Then he walked after her, Winter close behind, silent as ever. Once they were out of the aisle and out of Aeris’ earshot, Winter walked forward a little more so that he was next to Grey. “It’s a bad idea.”
He tilted his head and feigned ignorance. “What do you mean?”
“Showing the books you took.”
“Oh, I actually put those back, like your boss wanted me to.”
Winter just replied with the same monotone: “You didn’t.”
“Yes, I did.” He was starting to grow a little anxious.
“I heard you take them back.”
Grey sighed, not trying to hide it anymore. He really sucked at this, he got caught in the first two seconds of his plan. “How could you tell? It was so quiet.”
He shrugged. “Better senses.”
Well, being blind would cause someone to rely on their other senses a little more, so it wasn’t unbelievable. “Just don’t tell Aeris.”
“I won’t.”
“Thank y-”
“But don’t. It’s dangerous.”
“I really don’t mind,” Grey said, and those words were full of truth. If he got hurt, so what?
Winter frowned, but didn’t say anything, and they kept walking in silence until Aeris reached the door that they came in through. They reached it a lot faster than last time, and Grey noticed that the bookshelves close to it were a lot different than last time, almost as if the library had moved.
Weird.
Aeris held the door open for them, and Grey walked through first, saying a quick thank you as he passed by.
The cafe was the same, all the customers in exactly their exact positions as before, and the song picking up where it left off when they went into the library.
“Uh-”
“Time moves differently.” She answered his question before he could even ask, and closed the door to the library behind her. “Now leave this store. And don’t you dare help him.”
“Okay, I won’t help him,” he lied, and then walked over to the ghost to help him.
The man looked at him expectantly with wide eyes. “D-do you know where she is?”
Grey cleared his throat. Okay, maybe he should’ve thought about what to say a little bit more, but… he just had to word it in a nice way, so it would soften the blow a little bit. So not too blunt, or rude- “You’re dead.”
IDIOT! He just blurted it out without thinking!
Aeris sucked in a lot of air, and Winter tensed up. How was he going to react?
He simply stared. Then he laughed, a really fake laugh that people made when they had no idea how to respond to something. “W-what?”
Well, all he could do now was continue. “Dead. You’re dead.”
The ghost known as Samuel Jones wore an awkward smile on his face as he processed the fact that he was dead, and as he did, Grey noticed things about him. Little things, things that living people didn’t have.
There was his ripped and torn clothing, traces of blood, stuff like that that showed he was hurt, but living people could be hurt too. Of course, his condition was a big indicator, but that wasn’t it.
The ends of his limbs, like fingertips and his feet, were ever so slightly transparent, and if you stared at him hard enough, the edges of his form weren’t solid, and slightly blurred, like frayed pieces of fabric.
“I’m not dead,” he finally spoke after processing the information.
Grey swallowed. Of course he would be in denial. “You are,” he said, and pulled out the book from his jacket.
“Where the hell did you even hide that?!” Aeris exclaimed under her breath as she stepped back.
He looked at her and showed her the inner part of his yellow jacket, with a ton of tiny little pockets, and one the size of a book. “I sewed them in. Helpful, right?”
“Not in this situation,” she said, shaking her head.
However, Grey’s attention being pulled away from the man meant that he missed something crucial. The man was starting to breathe heavily, running his hands through my hair. “I’m not dead, I’m still here. So why do I remember…” Then, he stopped breathing. “I… I just realized I don’t even need to breathe.”
Grey held out a hand, regretting his lack of planning for breaking the news to him. “Yeah… I’m sorry for dropping such a big bomb on you, I really should’ve said it better to soften the blow.” At least he was starting to accept it.
Then, the man’s eyes widened, and he reached out to grab Grey, though his hands passed through his form. “MY DAUGHTER! IS SHE OKAY!?”
He bit his lip and pulled out the second book, the smaller one. Samuel recognized the name on the front of it, and stepped back, but not before trying to grab it. “Give me that book. Why does it have her name on it?”
“These books have all of the information on you guys, and I looked at the end,” he said, holding it out and flipping to the end. “I’m sorry, but…”
“She’s dead.” He concluded, the most hurt expression on his face. Anyone would be after finding out their own daughter had passed away. “I remember, it’s coming back… we were driving to her sixth birthday party.” He chuckled a bit. “She was so happy that we were going to the trampoline park, and she could spend time with all of her friends from school.”
Grey nodded along, but realized that the man’s form was warping ever so slightly, like he was fraying at the edges, except it was becoming a lot easier to see. He was basically unravelling.
“Then, all of a sudden, some guy in front of us swerved. I hit the brake, but…”
“The car crashed,” Grey finished his sentence.
“The car crashed.” He confirmed.
“But it’s okay,” said the boy, still holding the two books. He flipped over to one of the last pages in poor little Chloe’s book, trying to find the part where she ascended. “Your daughter, Chloe, she-”
The man yelled, and the fraying started to happen a lot faster. It was becoming harder to look at him. “MY DAUGHTER JUST DIED, AND YOU SAID IT’S OKAY!?”
Yeah, fair point. Again, he should’ve worded it better. “No- well, yes, but your daughter ascended, she’s still there, you just have to ascend too-”
He wasn’t listening anymore, and finally, he unraveled, just a big ball of pure emotion.
Grey took a few steps back, looking to the pair behind the counter for help. Aeris’s eyes were wide, and when he caught Grey looking at her, she glared harshly. Yep. Deserved that.
Winter, on the other hand, seemed to be emotionless and quiet as ever, just standing there, but particles were starting to form around him. Black particles, just floating there.
What the hell was happening?
Suddenly, what used to be the ghost of the man attacked, it shot out at him. People started to scream, unsure of what was going on, but able to see it now that it had harmful intent. Thankfully, Grey had spectacular dodging skills, (really just so-so, but it got the job done,) and he moved out of the way just in time. It hit the ground and caused a huge dent in the wooden floor.
“MY FLOOR!” screamed Aeris.
It attacked again, and Grey just barely survived. It knocked down a lamp that was hanging from the ceiling, sending it crashing to the destroyed floor and then shattering to pieces.
“MY LAMP!” yelled Aeris.
Grey managed to run behind the counter and stood next to her. “I…” he panted, out of breath already. “I need to tell him something to calm him down.”
“You’ve told him enough,” she snapped, snatching the book from him. “Get out while I handle this.” She pushed past him and took out an extremely small book from her jean pocket, about as big as a phone. She flipped it open and started reciting some words in a foreign language. The rest of the people in the cafe simply watched, unable to exit the building as the spirit was blocking the door.
Something was happening, and she was starting to glow… maybe she could fight this ghost!
It just smacked her in the stomach, sending her hurling across the cafe. She dropped the book and it skidded to the opposite side of the store.
She groaned in pain, and Grey looked up at the spirit he set off. It was still the man… probably. Just angry. So he needed to calm it down, though he discovered he absolutely sucked at that. The only plan would be to finish his sentence from earlier.
“YOUR DAUGHTER ASCEN-”
It reached out to attack him, and this time his dodging wouldn’t work, since it had stretched out and came at him from both sides. He screamed without thinking and raised his arms to cover his face reflexively, but he wasn’t even harmed.
Instead, he saw long, back hair that reached the ground, and a billowing white dress. What drew his attention the most was a giant scythe, like the ones stereotypical grim reapers had. The parts of the ghost that were attacking him were chopped off, and faded.
The man/ghost yelled in anger, and the person with the long hair and scythe just stood there defensively, right in front of Grey.
Somehow, this person was familiar, until it clicked. The person who saved him earlier! About a week or so back, on the bridge, he was caught by him!
Every time the monster attacked him, the person in the dress counteracted it, slicing off parts of the ghost with extreme precision. It was a mystery how he could even tell what was happening with that blindfold on, but Grey didn’t question it, because it was just really, really, cool.
Swallowing, he opened his mouth to say something. “Uhm- should I tell the ghost guy? What was I going to say earlier?” For some reason, he felt like he had to get permission from the guy with long hair.
He paused for a bit, then nodded and continued fighting the ghost with his scythe.
Grey took in a deep breath, now not having to have the fear of being attacked. “SIR, YOUR DAUGHTER ASCENDED! SHE’S IN THE AFTERLIFE!”
“AND I WON’T BE ABLE TO SEE HER! I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF SHE’S OKAY THERE!” The man screamed, still in the unraveled, pure soul form. His attacks got more brutal.
“YOU’RE DEAD WRONG!” Grey replied, standing up. “IF YOU JUST STOP FOR A MOMENT, AND LISTEN, I CAN HELP, I SWEAR!”
Somehow, he listened, and stopped for a second, hovering there.
“You just need to ascend too, and then you can be with her in the afterlife.”
“H-how am I supposed to do that? I didn’t even know I was dead a minute ago.” His voice wavered a bit.
That’s what he didn’t know. “Ah…”
Aeris stood up, groaning and holding her stomach. “You just have to accept the fact that you’re dead and be perfectly fine with ascending. Oh, and don’t fight back when a reaper finally takes your soul. They’re just taking you to the afterlife.”
The man started to reform back to his normal shape, though his face appeared back with a much more solemn look. “Okay… I’ll try.” He didn’t have any other known ways to see Chloe, so this was all he had.
“Where are we gonna get a grim reaper?” mouthed Grey, and Aeris rolled her eyes as if he was stupid and there was something really obvious right in front of him.
The mysterious person put his scythe down, and it disappeared into those black particles that were forming around Winter earlier. Speaking of Winter, where was he?
Anyway, the person with a blindfold held out a hand to the man. He swallowed, reaching his hand out to take it, but still reluctant, and wondering whether or not he should. Then he took it, and they both started walking towards the back door of the cafe.
They were leaving, but Grey still had a question. “Um… excuse me.”
His head perked up.
“Who are you? Are you like… my guardian angel or something?”
He only smiled in response to Grey’s question, and laughed a bit, and spoke, very, very quietly. The brunet had to strain his ears to hear him.
“No. But you can call me that.”
Grey smiled. “Well, I hope to see you soon, Guardian Angel!”
With a nod, his angel gracefully walked to the library in the back of the cafe, and with the closing of a door, he was gone.
The cafe was quiet. Glitchy jazz music played in the background, but the speakers were broken, giving it a more sad type of sound. Aeris walked over and turned it off.
The customers there started to disperse and talk amongst themselves, wondering what just happened and if it was a spirit encounter.
Some walked over to complain to the manager, and she just sighed, wiped her glasses on her shirt, and went behind the counter again.
“All right everyone, that was certainly eventful, but probably an inconvenience for the lot of you.”
The customers all murmured in agreement, and Grey wondered what she was doing.
“To make up for it, I’ll give out some free Marigold Tea, our special.” She started preparing it, and Grey noticed Winter was back, helping out. He walked over to the pair.
“So, uh… sorry about your store. Can I help out to make up for it?”
Aeris stopped making tea and looked at him. “You know how you wanted a job here?” she asked.
“Mhm?”
“You got the job.”
He smiled widely, leaning forward and bouncing slightly with excitement. “Really!?”
She smiled too, though it didn’t seem to be a kind smile, more like a forced one older siblings give when they have to get along with an annoying sibling and don’t want to be rude. “Yes, really. I hope you’re happy.”
“Don’t worry, I am!” Grey exclaimed, excited to get to work. “Now I can pay for my field trip!”
Aeris laughed, and again, not a kind one. Sort of like an evil, pissed off laugh. “Oh, you’re not getting paid.”
“I… I’m not?”
“Nope. You’re working here to pay for the mess you made.”
“Eh?”
Winter turned to the side and chuckled a bit as Grey processed the information.
“I’m not… getting paid?”
“Nope. Now work on the Marigold tea so we can fix all of the customer’s memories. It’ll erase the chaos that happened here.”
He gaped, forgetting about his new situation for a minute. “Woah, that’s so cool! How does it work? It’s like magic, right?” He started making the tea for the line of customers behind them, and Aeris sighed, looking at her destroyed cafe. Then, in Winter.
She leaned over and whispered something in his ear, and by the time Grey saw it happening, he could only catch the word “idiot.”
As he handed out the tea to the unhappy customers and fixed everything up, he realized he really didn’t know anything about the shop, or why it was there.
Though he was working there now to pay off the damages he caused, and boy, he caused a lot of damage, so he was sure there would be plenty of time to learn about it, and maybe look more at that weird library…
ns 15.158.61.23da2
