The Dead Are Living

“You are still a person like us and you are still pretty cool.” Ricky said and leaned against the door jam. “You can see dead people but that is okay. I can be a slob. Ange is evil without his morning coffee. Ryan is an asshole. Devin has a more feminine body than even you. Chris rarely ever acts his age. We all have weird things about us.”

“Are you sure? You might come in one day and I’ll be talking to a wall or something.”

“We are sure and jackass is right we all have our oddities.” Chris said and smiled.

“I feel like an asshole now.” Max grumbled and looked at his feet. “I made fun of you for talking to yourself and the entire time you were talking to people but I didn’t believe you. Wow. What a good big brother I am.”

“Oh stop your sulking Maxwell Green.” I smiled and lightly punched his arm. “You were and still are an asshole but even though you thought I was a crazy bat you protected me as best you could. You’re all the family I have man… though it does look like I may have new friends and this time I think they are all alive. You are all alive… right Ghost?” I asked and made myself smile even though I felt like my heart was still being ran over by a steam roller.

“Most of the time… not in the mornings.” he laughed.

“Hey can I borrow you for a moment?” Angelo asked suddenly and looked up at me. I nodded and fallowed him back outside and then all the way back to the park. We sat on the swings and kicked the gravel under out feet.

“Sooo… what are we doing here?” I asked and looked at him. “Because it is cold as fuck and neither of us are wearing coats.”

“I uhm wanted to talk about what you said last night… without them being able to hear us at all.” he said and looked over at me. “That voice talked about me because it thinks you like me?”

“Yeah well it doesn’t think that I like you it knows it because I have let you near me but I have let pretty much all of you near me. It just knows that I wouldn’t let Ryan sleep in the same bed with me and it felt the relief that I felt when you stayed with me last night instead of going home. I’m sorry… I probably just made this tour awkward for you.”

“No not at all.” he said and smiled. “I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just hearing things last night.”

“You pulled me all the way out here to ask me if I like you? We could both get hypothermia now.”

“Well I didn’t know if any of them knew about the voice so I was being careful.”

“Thank you Angelo.”

“Anytime… do you want to go home now? It is cold and like you said we are both going to get hypothermia. This weather is bullshit. It is June and there is snow and ice.” he huffed and stood up but started hopping in place to warm up.

“We are in the north. Ten months out of the year it is winter.”

“I need to move south.”

“No you would miss it up here.”

“Yeah youre right.”

“Yup I know.” I laughed and hooked my arm in his and we started walking back to Chris’s house. I took a picture of his profile and laughed when he jumped at the flash. In the picture he was smiling and just a little bit of his hair was raising around him.

“Why’d you do that?”

“You looked happy.” I shrugged. “And it is my job to take pictures of you guys. It is a good picture.”

“Can I see?” he asked and I showed him. “That is just what I look like everyday.”

“Even still it is a good picture of you. You look happy.” I said and then in my mind I added ‘And you look fucking hot.’

“But-”

“Nope Angelo.” I laughed. “It is a good one and I am keeping it.”

“But-”

“Nothing will change my mind.”

“Okay fine. Race me back to the house and if you win I will let you put it up on whatever but if I win I will delete that picture somehow.” he said and took off down the road. I ran after him and as I was passing him I tapped his arm.

“Later sticks.” I laughed and bolted. I ran through the door and collapsed on the soft carpet of the hallway just as Angelo came through and tripped on my legs causing him to topple on top of me. “I…. Win.” I said through heavy breaths.

“You suck.” he groaned.

“Only if you want me to.” I laughed and kissed the tip of his nose before slipping out from underneath him and walking into the kitchen where Ryan and Balz were sitting.

“Well what if I do?” he asked and fallowed me into the kitchen.

“Then you’ll have to wait. Having an audience isn’t my thing.” I said and held my sides which were hurting. “Hey you two. Where is everyone else and Max?”

“At the store.” Ryan said. “We stayed behind because they are going to the mall… and Max wanted to make sure that you weren’t violated.” he said and I laughed.

“By who?” I laughed. “Angelo?”

“Why is that so funny October?” Angelo whispered and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Because you’re too nice.” I laughed and looked up at him.

“Is that so?” he chuckled and kissed the base of my throat then bit it softly. “I don’t know.”

“It-” I started to say but stopped when I saw something by Balz and stopped. It was a tall man with red eyes and the darkest aura I had even seen on anything. “What do you want?” I whispered.

“Breath… it is yours or his.” The being said and smiled showing rows of sharp teeth.

“What are you staring at?” Balz asked and looked around.

“They cant see you?” I asked.

“No but you can little witch and that is all I need. Now your breath or his?”

“Don’t hurt him.” I whispered in a choked voice and it lauged before disappearing. The breath was punched from my chest and I hunched forwards out of Angelo’s arms. I fell against the cold hard floor and tried to breathe but there was no air.

“Fuck! CPR or something. Ryan chest compressions.” Angelo yelled and dropped to his knees next to me. my vision was getting fuzzy and my body was relaxing. I felt someone start pressing my chest and it felt almost like they were punching me and then when I couldn’t see anymore someone breathed into me and cold air flooded into my lungs causing me to cough. My body lurched up and I felt arms wrap around me. I coughed violently and rested my head on someone’s shoulder. Three different hands were patting my back and when I was good again I looked up at Balz and smiled softly.

“You’re okay.” I whispered softly.

“Well yeah I’m okay what in the hell was that?”

“That thing was gonna hurt you and I told him no. It wanted your breath or mine and I told him to take mine.” I whispered and relaxed in Angelo’s arms. “It was gonna hurt you.”

“PEOPLE WE ARE HOME!” Chris yelled obnoxiously as the four guys ran through the door with at least ten bags in hand. “What is going on?”

“Something attacked her.” Ryan said softly and fell back against a cupboard.

“What?” Max asked and his protective big brother mode turned on. “Tell us exactly what happened.”

“We were talking and I saw something next to Balz and asked what it wanted and it wanted breath it said and then asked me which it should take. His or mine? I didn’t want to be selfish and let it hurt him.” I said and stood up. I helped Angelo up and then looked back at the floor.

“It isn’t selfish to protect yourself.” Balz said.

“But it is selfish to let other people get hurt if you can do something to stop it when they have only helped you.” I huffed. “Plus I am okay now so I don’t care. Mission accomplished. I woulda done the same thing for Max or Angelo or anyone else in this room and their mothers.”

“Well not ours because she pretty much disowned us.” Max said and sat the bags he was carrying on the table. “But we got you some stuff since yours burned in the fire… and don’t even think of giving me the mean face because you need clothes.”

“It was easy to shop for you because you like basically the same shit we do.” Devin said. “Our friend is coming by soonish and he has some stuff to… not to mention he will be touring with us again and we are all gonna be camping here tomorrow anyways.”

“You guys didn’t have to do this.” I said and blushed. “I could’ve managed.”

“Well we did anyways.” Chris said and sat some bags down.

“And before your tiny brain explodes only four of these are for you.” Max said and pushed for of the biggest bags towards me. “The others are stuff to put on the RV because yup they gots one of those.”

“Cool.” I said and looked at the bags not really knowing what to do with them. “I um what do I… where am I gonna put these?”

“Well I guess five are for you.” Ricky said and pushed a suitcase towards me that had been behind him. “Happy Birthday, Halloween and everything in between.”

“For the next fifty years.” Max added.

“Max I am twenty three and I do not plan on living into my seventy whatevers because I don’t wanna be old and wrinkly but thank you guys for helping like this.” I said and grabbed all of the bags and then kicked the suitcase into the living room.

“Alright I don’t know most of what you got but Devin got you your lady stuff. Chris took care of shoes. Me and Ricky got everything else.” Max said and sat on the couch. “Any sign of Mitch?”

“Sorta.” I said and took out my camera and tossed it to him. “The last picture on there is a little girl but she was a ghost and I got that when she was disappearing. A voice told me that she had moved on and it sounded like Mitch. I didn’t see him though.”

“So you can take pictures of ghosts and see them when they are moving on?” Ricky asked and reached out for the camera.

“Apparently so.” I said. “Her name was-.”

“Lindsey.” Chris said and looked at the camera sadly.

“Did you know her?” I asked. Him and Ricky nodded sadly.

“She was my baby cousin but she was hit by a car two years ago. My uncle and his wife left town a couple months after she died.” Chris said.

“That was her?” Angelo asked. “I didn’t recognize her.”

“It is her. Did she… was she happy?” Ricky asked he looked even more shaken up than Chris did. “I wanna know how my little sister was. I didn’t realize that was her when I first saw it.”

“She was sad. She was worried that her family didn’t miss her. I was talking to her and told her that in time when her family members died that they would be able to be together again in the after life… where ever that may be. She started glowing and I took that picture because she was so happy she was laughing.” I unpacked all of the clothes they had gotten me and I neatly folded them into the space I had. I finished just as the door bell rang.

“I’ll get it.” Angelo said and went to let the person in.