Disclaimer: Yea yea, you know it already _ I dont own Izzy, only Xaimy and Axel (not GH) -_-

Chapter 2: Recalling Life

A mansion. Winter storm at full speed. The gravediggers return home. The blonde boy is placed on a large bed in a large room in the large home. The man who carried him removes his hat, revealing his stunning red hair. His female friend walks into the room, now void of her black coat and hat as well. She wears a black shirt and has dark red hair, not as bright as her friend's. She carries an old telephone with a spin-dial and what looks to be the cords of a heart rate monitor. She places these things on the bed next to the boy's body.

"Well, you ready to call him back?" she looks at her friend who seems rather doubtful. "Are you sure this will work? I mean, won't we get in trouble for calling him back to life when he was supposed to be dead years ago anyway?" he says apprehensively.

"Typically, yes. But I spoke with management and they gave me the okay for this. Besides, I ran my theory past them and according to their records, everything I originally thought matched up perfectly." She begins to hook up the cords to the boy's body; one on his silent heart, another on his head.

"Okay, but what exactly is your theory for this kid?" he sits in a chair beside the bed and watches.

"Well, seeing as he was alone and had the tattoo on his neck, I immediately thought that if he were already supposed to be dead, then he must have made a deal with the devil sometime in the past; approximately ten years ago. My guess is he gave away something in order to continue on living…but whatever he gave away must have been too hard to live without, so in due time he died anyway."

"What makes you think he gave up something that was too hard to live without?"

"Well, he died alone, in a dilapidated house just outside of a large city. He could have walked somewhere and been seen by someone, but he chose to stay there and perish in the cold. It almost seems suicidal now that I think about it. He wanted to die in the cold because it's painless and quiet. I don't think he wanted to chance anyone finding him." She gently strokes his face and finishes attaching cords to him. "Well, he's ready. All we can do now is hope he answers the phone and doesn't waste any precious time. I can only speak on the Spirit Phone for so long." With that, she dials an eleven digit number on the phone and holds the receiver to her ear. The phone rings once. Twice. Three times. Four times; and then an answer. A soft, seemingly scared male voice answers her call.

"H-Hello?"

"Hello there. Is this Ishmael? Ishmael Skraps?"

"Yes…how do you know my name? Who is this?" the voice trembles as it speaks.

"My name is Xaimy and…well, I have your body here."

"Wh-What? How can that be, I am right here! You must be joking-

"I have your body and you are a spirit. The only reason I can talk to you like this is because you are in purgatory. I am sure that you are well aware that you don't recognize any of your surroundings. If you want to return to your body, just say so." Xaimy speaks fast because she knows she is running out of time.

"I don't understand, if my body is there, how am I here? This makes no-

"Just say you want to return. I can place you back into your body. Say it if you want me to!" Xaimy raises her voice, sounding more desperate because of time wasting away.

"…Y-Yes, I want to return." Almost instantaneously, Ishmael's body glows, and his chest expands as he begins breathing yet again. He takes in a deep breath of air and opens his eyes. His body then stops glowing. Xaimy gently grabs his wrist and checks for his pulse. His heart beats rather quickly at first, but soon calms down and returns to normal pace. She unhooks the cords from him and puts the telephone aside on a table. Xaimy's male friend is the first to speak.

"Well I'll be damned. It worked." He sits up in the chair and looks over at Xaimy. "Now what?" Xaimy sits down on the edge of the bed and gently strokes the side of Ishmael's face.

"Do you feel alright? Are you in any pain?"

The blonde boy speaks softly. "No, I feel just fine. But what happened? Where am I now?" Xaimy helps him sit up and brushes his hair out of his face. She catches a glimpse of the tattoo on his neck once again. She smiles at him sweetly.

"I am Xaimy, the one who you spoke with not too long ago. This is my friend, Axel." she says motioning over to her red-headed friend. He waves. "We are Gravediggers. Not the kind that you are familiar with on Earth, but the spiritual kind. We only go out to find people who die alone, away from anyone else who would notice and make them noticeable for other people to find, typically so the dead can be buried. Sometimes we bury the dead ourselves. But in your case, we had to make an exception." Ishmael shakes his head in confusion.

"What do you mean "exception"? What happened to me?"

"Well, that's what we are trying to figure out. You died alone in a very dilapidated house, and so you showed up on our radar as we were passing by. However, you have a mark on the back of your neck, which we call a No-Life tattoo. It shows how long you have been dead by adding one year to the number under the cross every year on the anniversary of your death." She turns her head to show him her own No-Life tattoo, which shows the pointed cross and the letters DCCCLXXVII. "The numbers are shown in roman numerals. I have been dead for 877 years. The tattoo you have says you have been dead for ten years." Xaimy stops speaking and reaches in the drawer of a nearby table to grab a mirror. She holds it up for him to see his own tattoo on the side of his neck. "This tattoo never lies. You were supposed to be dead ten years ago, yet you still walked the land of the living as a normal human being. I don't want to pry into your personal life, but would you mind explaining this to us? Needless to say we are a bit confused." Xaimy puts the mirror down and stares him in the eyes. She can see fear and sadness swirling around in his mind. She reaches out and gently touches his young face again, hoping to soothe away his fear. He subconsciously nudges her hand. It has been a long time since he felt such a gentle touch. He takes in a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"A long time ago I was really sick. I was seven at the time and I thought I was going to die. I was always in pain, my family rarely came to visit me while I was in the hospital and no one wanted to be my friend. They all seemed to know that I wouldn't be around for much longer, so what was the point of getting to know me or anything. This guy came into my room with the nurse one day while I was at the hospital. She said that he was a doctor and that he would be able to help me. All I had to do was…ask him." Xaimy looks at Axel who returns her same expression. They knew the devil would use anything to bind a contract, but of course a seven-year-old wouldn't. Ishmael continued his story. "I did ask him and he said he would make all my physical pain go away. He said that when I was older, he would find me so he could get something in return for helping me out now. The next day, I don't know what he did, but I was all better. I went home and never went to the hospital for a sickness again. I never saw that man again until I was 15." Xaimy shakes her head and lets out a light sigh.

"I see. When you were seven years old, you probably were supposed to die of illness. But on the day that you were supposed to die, he sealed your soul into your body, allowing you to live for however long he would allow. Tell me, what happened when you saw him the second time?"

"Well, he said it was time for him to collect his payment for helping me. He gave me three options. One was to become sick again and hope I would survive it on my own. The second was to work for him for eight years, since it took him that long to wait to collect his payment. The third option, the one I chose, was to be put through four years of emotional pain. He only said four years because some say emotional pain is twice as brutal as physical pain. And I suppose he knew that I wouldn't be able to live through it. I died two years later." Ishmael's voice breaks, as if he were about to cry. Xaimy wraps her arms around him gently and rubs his back. Axel leans back in his chair.

"There's a reason we call that bastard 'The Trickster'. He'll use anything to bind a half-assed contract with anyone who can talk. One of those 'I'll take away your pain now if you let me kill you later' type of deals." Ishmael subconsciously snuggles into Xaimy's arms. She hugs him and cuddles him like a child.

"Well because of that whole ordeal, you're more or less stuck here with us Ishmael. Things like this take time to sort out. Now," she holds him away from her and looks into his face, "you're our responsibility. And we take our responsibility seriously." She smiles at him and hugs him again. He speaks in a barely audible voice.

"Thank…you. I prayed…for so long…that someone would come and save me." Xaimy giggles lightly.

"Well you should have known that God would hear you. That's what your name means after all." He looks up at her through her arms.

"What? My name?"

"Yes, 'Ishmael'. It's a Hebrew name, meaning "God will hear". You didn't know that?"

"No, I didn't. No one ever really called me by my real name and I never really thought about it." He relaxes back into her embrace. "God will hear…and He did." Axel looks at his watch and stands up.

"Well, it's getting late and I'm sure our new buddy is rather tired now. We all need to get some rest." Xaimy looks at her own watch and realizes the time.

"Hmm, yes I suppose you're right Axel. We have to fill out our report first."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm going to get started on that now. I'll see you two in the morning." Axel takes his leave and quietly closes the door behind him. Xaimy stands from the bed, only to have a desperate soul reach out and grab her hand.

"Do…you really need to leave? I understand if you're tired, but I'm not. Not really." Xaimy giggles again and turns around, not letting his hand go.

"I take it you don't want to be alone tonight, do you?"

"No…I really don't. I know I must seem like a desperate…lonely…jerk or something, but I really don't want to be alone anymore…not after what I've been through." Xaimy sits back down on the bed. She reaches up and pats the top of his head, as if he were a small child. He looks down and blushes.

"Ishmael, if you want to stay with me tonight, you can. However I am not staying in here, when my master suite is down the hall." Ishmael looks up at her with. For the first time in a long time, happiness was in his golden-brown eyes. "Come on, let's go." She stands up again, this time with him following behind her and still holding her hand. "For a 17-year-old, you seem like such a child right now Ishmael."

"…Izzy."

"Huh?"

"You can call me Izzy. That's what everyone would call me. I actually like it better." Izzy follows Xaimy down the hall to a large door. She opens it, revealing a very large space of darkness. Izzy couldn't see anything.

"Okay then, Izzy is what I will call you if that is what you prefer." Still holding his hand, she leads him to her large bed, which is surrounded by a thick, black curtain; not that he could see anything in this pitch black room anyway. She leads him into her bed and turns to leave. "I'll be right back. I need to change into my pajamas." Within minutes, she returns to find Izzy curled up into a ball, much like when she found his lifeless body. She lets out a light giggle, and tucks him in. He squirms around and smiles. Xaimy curls up under her blanket and closes her eyes. "Goodnight, Izzy."

"Goodnight, Xaimy." They both fall into a peaceful sleep.

A/N: Xaimy is my OC, and Axel is modeled after a KH2 character (kudos if you know who) and my personal best friend named Axel. I use him as Xaimy's friend in most of my stories.