Business of the Dead: Part 1

Hiding just behind the magazine and newspaper shelf the orange haired boy stood next to his father, who was peaking at the newest issue of National Geographic from under his pitch black hair.
   "They seem to be doing well." said the boy, half distracted by the war strewn New York Time.
   "Indeed." replied his father, placing the magazine back on the shelf, revealing it's subject to be on religion.  "They deserve it, but I fear it won't last long.  Evil doesn't always rest as long as we'd like."  he looked at the ground, then turned and began to head for the glass doors.  "Come on, we have some business to attend to in the East."
   And with that, they walked out of the library and towards their inevitably short time left on Earth.  Soon to wake up from their dream again."


I sighed in satisfaction, looking at the words typed out on my old dinosaur of a computer and leaning back in my beat up roll around chair.  After at least a year, my novel was finally finished.
   My eyes wandered from the tube monitor to the pictures and magazine clippings stuck in the wall behind my cluttered desk.  They were all fairly random, just little pictures of things that had caught my eye while flipping through an old photo album or magazine.
   I sighed again and picked up my cereal bowl, it was late at night, around ten, but my parents were out and I didn't feel like making myself an actual diner.  I got up out of my chair and walked out of my room and towards the kitchen, pulling up my severely oversized jeans as I went.
   "Hey Isac?  Are you there?" I yelled as I passed in front of the stairs.
   The floor creaked as I walked through the threshold of the kitchen.  The room was only half kitchen, the other half was a small breakfast nook which I now walked through, hitting my hip on the counter that separated it from the kitchen area as I walked by.  I swore under my breath and winced in pain before continuing on to the sink.
   "Freaking house..."  I said, still clutching my hip as I set my bowl in the sink.  "Hello?  Isac!  Come out come out wherever you are!"
   I looked down at the sink in distaste, it was full of dirty dishes that my parents must've left when they went out.
   "Well isn't that nice..." I said sarcastically to myself.  My parents knew that I hated dishes being left in the sink, they just left them there so I would clean them.  I rolled my eyes, pulling off my rings, setting them on the wide window sill, and rolled up the sleeves of my button up shirt.
   The sink was half empty when a shiver spiked up my back, making me stop what I was doing and look over my shoulder in fear that someone was standing behind me.
   "Isac...?  Is that you?" I said, confused.  I waited for an answer, then slowly turned back to the dishes.
   I shut off the water and turned to the cabinet to the right of the sink, pulling open the door and putting the mug I had just dried on the top shelf.  I grabbed the next cup and turned back to the cabinet to find it closed.  I stood there and wondered about this for a second, then figured that I had just closed it myself and opened it up again.  
   I turned around to grab a plate when- "SLAM."
   The cabinet door whipped closed, making me jump and stumble backwards, dropping the plate and tripping over my huge jeans.
   Both the plate and I were just about to hit the ground when we both just suddenly stopped.   The plate floated there in midair as I leaned back onto the force, something that felt like a cold hand pushing into my side.
   I was still catching my breath when a friendly laugh came from the air just above my left ear.
   "Isac you jerk!" I said laughing as he handed me back the plate and pushed me off his arm.  I began to see his outline as I turned to look at the entity.  He appeared slowly, just as a perfectly normal looking boy, around fifteen, messy dark brown hair, loose jeans and a tan cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up.  There was absolutely nothing about him that made him look like a ghost other than being a bit pale.  Finally I could see all of him, and he was currently bending over in laughter.
   "The look on your face!" he said, looking up at me still laughing and smiling widely.
   "Yeah, Yeah..."  I said smiling and laughing back, "I hate it when you do that though...  It still freaks me out."
   "Why?  At this point I would think you know all my tricks." he smiled, finally calming down enough to float over and sit on the counter I had just jammed my hip into.  "Not that it doesn't amuse me to see you have a spaz attack of course..."
   "I don't know..." I said, walking back to the cabinet, opened it and smiling.  "Have you ever tried falling backwards and not knowing if you're going to hit the ground or not?  I have a mini heart attack whenever you do it."
   "That's kinda the point." he said, smirking.
   "Well I don't really care for it." I smiled back as I put the plate into a different cabinet and walked back to the sink.  "Speaking of scaring people, where were you the last few days, I didn't see you around... here or at school."
   "Oh you know... around." he said smirking
   "Oh come on, you never disappear that long.  And I need to know if someones going to report a kid breaking into houses then disintegrating into midair."
   "No... it was nothing like that..." he said, his voice discernibly different.  I paused, I had only heard Isac talk like that once before.
   In that moment, I flashed back to the first time I had met Isac.  It was about a year ago when I was thirteen, and was right around the time that I first started seeing them; the ghosts.  They were all over the place, school, stores, outside, just sitting on the side of the streets, sometimes they would even follow me home.  The worst part:  They were all in the state they were when they died.  They walked around with bullet holes in their heads, knives stuck in their backs, and practically green skin with black shadows under their eyes.  
   All of them, but Isac, I first saw him when I was at school.  At first, I just mistook him for one of the high schoolers that was helping out in the middle school.  He had been sitting outside of the classroom when I got out of math to go to my locker because I forgot my text book.  When I passed him, he just got up and began following me as if I couldn't see him.  At first, I just ignored him, thinking that it was just a coincidence and he was going to break off down another hallway, but he didn't.  When I had finally reached the hallway my locker was in, I was practically having a panic attack.  So, figuring that I would be beaten up either way, I spun around on my heel and faced him, he was standing less than two feet away, and towered over me at the time.  He looked down at me as I stared him straight up in the face.
   "You got a problem buddy?"  I said, trying to act tough, and not doing a very good job of it.  I sounded more like a cheap actor than someone actually threatening.
   In that moment, the boy looked completely shocked that I spoke to him. He stared down at me for a minute longer, then looked over his shoulder as if he was waiting for someone to sneak up behind him, then, he smiled.  
   That scared me even more.  To me it seemed that he was looking over his shoulder to see if there was anyone around to see him beat me up.
   "Well?!" I yelled, "Why are you just standing there?!  Say something!"  
   He was silent, and just smiled wider, then began to extend his arm towards me.
   I jumped and with both hands, tried to push him, then froze when my hands passed directly through him and all I felt was ice cold air.
   The boy began to laugh as I stumbled backwards a few steps.
   "You can see me!" he laughed happily.  "Thank god!  They said you could, but I thought you were going to be just another imposter!"
   I thought about this for a second, then it dawned on me.
   "Oh." I said, my mood changing as I turned from the boy and continued to my locker, "You're one of them."
   "What, dead?  Yeah.  Hey!  Where are you goin?!"  he yelled after me as I walked down the hallway, my head down, staring at the grey tile floor.  I heard him run to catch up just behind me.
   "Leave me alone." I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
   "What?  Come on...  I haven't talked to anyone in months." he said.  I suddenly felt a stab of cold as he rested his hand on my shoulder in an attempt to get me to look at him.  I jumped as five dozen different memories popped into my head all at once.  None of them were mine, and with all of them came a horrible sadness that immediately overtook me.  I smacked his hand from my shoulder.  

"Don't do that!"  I yelled, tears already filling my eyes.  
   "Sorry!"  He held up his hands in retreat, an apologetic look on his face.  
   "How did you even touch me in the first place?" I said, sniffing and wiping the tears from my eyes.
   "I can touch stuff if I want, and people can touch me if I want them too.  It's just a bit tiring...  Are you okay?"
   "Yes.  Just leave me alone, and don't touch me again." I said coldly as I continued to my locker.
   He sighed and shoved his hands in his jeans pockets, looking at the floor as I pulled open my locker just down the hall.
   "Fine..." he mumbled sadly as his form slowly began to fade, "I get it, sorry by the way, I really didn't mean to hurt you... Bye..."  
   For some reason, something about his sad voice clicked in my head as I remember all the memories I had just seen, his memories.  I suddenly felt a pity for him that I had never felt for a ghost before.
   "Wait..."  I said, looking over my shoulder to see his now solid form looking up at me.  I paused, thinking about the situation... did I really want to make friends with a ghost?  It's not like I had many living friends in the first place, and there was something about this boy- or ghost, that was different than all the rest.  Might as well give it a shot.  I sighed, "You can stay."
   The boy smirked,  "Thank god," he said, "I was afraid I scared you off."
   I raised my eyebrows,  "You?  Scare me?" I said jokingly, "Please, I've seen cheap horror movies scarier than you."
   "Ooh harsh..." he smirked wider.
   I smiled and began walking back down the hallway the way I had come, the boy following me as I walked.
   "So what's your name anyway?" he asked as he walked alongside me, his feet silent on the floor.
   "Ella." I said smiling, "You?"
   "Isac."
 
I snapped back into the present when Isac leaned back against the counter next to the sink.  I looked up at him, searching his face.
   "Zone much?" he finally smirked after a few seconds.
   I turned back to the dishes trying to disguise myself by smiling, "Isac..." I started after a long minute, "How did you die?"
   He sighed, his smirk disappearing again. "I knew you were going to ask that eventually...  To tell you the truth...  I'm not even sure if I know myself..."
   I looked up at him and turned off the water as he pulled himself onto the counter.  "Then tell me what you do know." I lifted myself onto the counter next to him.
   He stared at the floor for a long moment, then looked back up at me, "You have to promise me you won't think of me differently after I tell you this." he said, looking directly into my eyes.
   I nodded slowly, "I promise." I said.
   He sighed, and rubbed the back of his head nervously, "I'm not completely de-" he started, but he was suddenly interrupted as a loud crash sounded from down the hall.
   "It sounds like someones trying to break in!" I whispered loudly, jumping off the counter and grabbing the biggest knife I could find.
   He looked up, his eyes wide.  "No..." he mumbled to himself as he jumped from the counter.  "Come on."  
   He grabbed my arm, which had once caused me too much pain, but it can't anymore, Isac has long since learned to restrain his emotions.  He dragged me to the basement door, keeping his eyes locked in the direction of the front door as another bang erupted from it, this time louder.  He quickly pulled open the door, then looked me in the eyes, grabbing my shoulders.
   "Ella, you have to go find a safe spot in the basement and hide there.  Don't leave for any reason, not to escape out the back door, not to come check on me, nothing.  I'll come get you, got it?"  
   "What's going on?" I asked, my heart pounding out of my chest with fear and adrenaline.
   He just looked at me for a second, thinking.  Then caught me by surprise when he wrapped his arms and me and pulled me close.  I hugged him back, wrapping my arms around his cold waist, and scared to death at the way he was acting.  
   "Isac...  You're scaring me." I said shakily, "What is going on?"
   "It's okay, don't be afraid..." he said, "It's just...  They came back for me."
   With that, he disappeared in my arms, and I was pushed into the basement as the door slammed just behind me and the front door busted open.
   My heart was pounding faster than ever as I ran down the basement stairs, going around to the back when I reached the bottom and pulling on a small hook sticking out of the wall.  The door to the secret compartment swung open smoothly, and I quickly moved inside, shutting the door behind me and curling up in the small space.
   This little closet had been my secret hiding place for as long as I had lived in the house, it was full of all sorts of little knick knacks and random toys I had long outgrown since the last time I was in here.  Last year I had used it as a sanctuary when I started seeing the ghosts, but ever since I met Isac, I had stopped using it, he helped me deal with my ability.
   But I wasn't here to hide from my ability, I was here to use it.  I looked up to the ceiling, only a few inches above my head there was a small heating grate that had once been connected to the boiler.  I looked up through it, only seeing feet, but hearing everything.
   From the looks of their heavy black combat boots, there were about five or six men upstairs, two of them were standing closest to the grate, along with a familiar pair of partly see through grey converse that I recognized as Isac's.  
   "...have him Sir!" yelled one of the men near Isac as I caught him mid-sentence.
   I heard footsteps moving across the floor as another set of shoes entered the house.
   "Ah, Isac Kealin, it's always wonderful to see you...  How have you been?" came the cold, hard voice of a man.
   "What the hell do you want Raysin?" responded Isac, sounding restricted and telling me the two men near him were holding him back.
   The man's feet paced back and forth as his voice changed to something more amused, "Oh please boy, must we really jump into this so soon?  Can't we talk a bit more first?"
   "I'm not interested in talking with you.  Just tell me why you're here.  I already gave you what you wanted."
   The man laughed coldly and the pacing stopped as he stopped in front of Isac.  "You know perfectly well that wasn't what we wanted." he said, his voice threatening, despite his laugh.  "Now where is she?"
   "Who?"
   "You know damn well who!  Where the hell is that girl you've been loitering around with for the last year?"
   I froze, they were looking for me...
   "I won't let you take her." said Isac, his voice just as dark and threatening.
   "Oh we're not asking."
   I screamed as the door to my hiding place was suddenly ripped open, and a huge man three times my size grabbed me around the waist.  A weird feeling came over me as the man suddenly began to float, taking me with him.  I shuddered as we melted through the ceiling and landed on the floor in the kitchen.  There stood the man Isac had been talking to, his blank eyes matching his cold voice and dressed in a dark suit.  The man who had grabbed me clipped my wrists into handcuffs behind my back then threw me backwards into the arms of another big man, dressed in the same baggy black pants, grey t-shirt, and leather jacket as the rest of them.  I looked over to Isac, who for the moment, seemed to be very well restrained by the men with the strange glowing gloves.  He looked up at me, a mixture of fear, anger, sadness, and desperation on his face.
   "Let her go now Raysin.  She has nothing to do with this." he growled at the man.  
   "According to your little 'attachment' to her, she does." said the man, Raysin, walking up to me and staring me straight in the eyes.  "Ella, is it?  Do you know what is keeping Isac here with you?"
   I slowly shook my head.
   Raysin smiled, "Well, I see he must be keeping a lot from you then...  Do you know how he died?"
   I shook my head again.
   "Huh, you don't?  That's a bit strange, isn't it?  Why would this boy, who obviously cares about you; not tell you how he died?  Well, I can only guess that I must've been something he's too afraid to tell you about...  Or maybe he's even not really dead...  Maybe he's too ashamed to tell you the truth...  Isac?"
   "I'm not ashamed-" started Isac.
   "Oh!  So you're not ashamed?  Then why in the world would you keep your death from this wonderful girl?  Could it have to do with the greedy deal you struck with me?  The deal to keep you here on Earth?  What was that deal again Isac?"
   Isac stared intently at the ground.  "A soul for a soul." he mumbled quietly, anger streaming through his voice.  "And it was no deal-"
   "Ah, right.  A soul for a soul...  What exactly did that mean again?" continued Raysin, stopping in front of Isac and looking at him with his cold eyes.
   Isac just stared at the floor, ignoring him.
   "It meant you give me a soul every time you feel weak, and I don't eviscerate what little life you have left, Isac." he said, grabbing Isac's hair with his glowing gloves and forcing him to make eye contact.  They stared each other down, Raysin holding Isac's head by his hair, until he finally let go and continued to pace, the floor creaking as he went.  "Isac, you couldn't have possibly been planning on sacrificing this girl to us, could you?  I mean really...  I would think she'd be too important to you.  But then again, if you did, she's so powerful... I would definitely leave you alone, imagine it...  You would never have to give me another soul again, she would pay off your entire debt to me at once.  You'd get your body back and be on your way...  Sounds like a deal to me Isac...  What do you say?"
   "Never."
   "Why not?" I asked.  I had been silent the entire time, so I caught Isac and Raysin by surprise when I suddenly spoke up.
   Isac turned to me, his eyes worried.  "...  What...?" he asked quietly.
   "Why not just give me to him?  Isac, if it means you getting your body back...  You actually being alive...  I think you deserve it after all you've been through.  And I wouldn't mind either.  I mean...  What's so bad about it?  No school, no pressure, turning invisible and phasing through walls...  It doesn't sound like a bad way to live.  You know that I'm tired of living normally, everyday the same and nothing amazing ever really happening.  This is my chance for adventure, and your chance to be normal again.  We can still see each other, just the other way around-"
   "No." he interrupted.  "It isn't that simple..."
   "Why isn't it?!" I said, "I'll eventually get my body back like you anyway-"
   "No!" yelled Isac, "You don't understand!  What I do-  How I live...  It's not nice, or good, or fun!  I have to kill people Ella.  Every time I feel weak.  I have to kick them out of their bodies and force them to work for Raysin, and the entire time they do, they're having the life slowly sucked out of them.  It's not something I want you to go through!  It's not something I want anyone to go through!"
   I looked back at him something in my throat catching.  I never knew that Isac was being sucked away...  I always just thought he was a ghost and that was the end of it.  But to suddenly find out that the entire time I knew him he was slowly dying...  My head spun. "Why..." I started, "Why didn't you tell me?"
   Isac turned away when he heard my voice as I realized it came out more upset than I intended.  "You didn't need to know."
   "Why the hell didn't I?  You didn't think that I'd want to know why you were always with me?  Why sometimes, you didn't show up for days on end and when you finally did you always seemed better... more... there.  But always so much sadder.  Or why you alway just sat on the sofa, or on a bed and slept all day just before you left?  Why wouldn't I want to know Isac?"
   He blinked slowly, keeping his eyes closed longer than he should've.  "Because it was an ugly truth." he finally said, opening his eyes and looked back at me from under his brown hair.
   There was suddenly something strange about him, something that made him seem almost alien.  Like I had never even met him before.  His green eyes sharpened as Raysin began to speak, but Isac didn't turn to look at him.
   "Well Isac, if the girl really wants to take your place...  I don't think there's much you can do to change her mind, is there?"  said the man, turning his back to us and folding his hands behind him.  "So...  What do you say Ella?  Do you want to give up your own body to release your friend's?"
   "I..." I started, thinking.  I looked back to Isac, who had been staring at the floor.
   He sighed.  "Go ahead." he said, "I won't stop you, and I'll help you get through it.  Just...  Just promise you won't let yourself waste away."
   I smiled a little and nodded.  "I won't...  I promise."  I turned to Raysin.  "Okay.  I'll do it."
   He smiled wider.  "Fantastic." he said turning and snapping his fingers.  Two men who had been standing nearby now moved in, one carrying a long silver pole covered in buttons and lights similar to the ones covering all the men's gloves and with a prong at one end.  The other carried a similar rod, only with red lights rather than blue.  "But I do warn you...  This may hurt."
   Raysin had just finished his sentence when the two men pushed the buttons on their rods, both making a disturbing buzzing noise and forming an electrical arc between the prongs.  The man with the blue rod turned to me, as I watched the man with the red rod move to Isac.  
   Isac clenched his teeth and looked to me, fear and pity in his eyes.  "I'll see you soon." he said.
   I was just taking this in when the man with the blue rod suddenly shoved it at my stomach.  I screamed and lurched as the searing pain surged through my body, making everything burn and blurring my vision until it was only static.  
   All I heard was Isac yelling along with me and the even louder buzz of the blue rod.  Then everything fell silent and the pain stopped.  And all I heard was Isac's voice saying something I couldn't understand.  Then, there was nothing.