Annihilation

Part Ten

"Tai! Taichi! Are you in there?"

No, he would never truly be in there. It just wasn't possible.

Not anymore at least.

"Tai! I need your help with this!"

With what? Besides, he couldn't help anyone anymore. He was dead.

"Please come help me!"

Who was that? Didn't they see how dead he was? He had seen it for himself when his pillow had been dry after crying, after his parents didn't see him, and after that train had just passed through him…

If he had still been alive, he might have been able to save Kari. But then again, wouldn't he have thought about the consequences? Hadn't that been one of his lowest priorities though? Hadn't it? When? When he was still alive. Why? Because he…he…he didn't remember right now. Tai had the sudden feeling that he would never remember again why he had acted the way he had. Responsibilities?…Everyone relying on him?…Love?

Love? Love. No, he didn't love anyone back then. He had been too naïve and too busy to love. Love who? He didn't know. And busy with what? The digital world? Maybe, maybe not.

The thing was, he could not remember.

But did that matter? Was he supposed to remember? He had never really been a big fan of the whole 'fate' proposition, but now it was his only answer to everything. But it still didn't settle right with his stomach so he decided to think about other things. And the other things were?

The others. Where were they?

A sixth sense whispered something to his mind, something barely audible.

They're all almost gone…in fact; most of them are already dead. The ones who remain are going to kick the can soon, too, if you don't help them out. Who? Who was going to die? And who was already dead? The people alive are as follows…T.K., Cody, Yolei, Ken, Davis, and Jou. The rest are gone, and it's all…your…fault.

What?! It couldn't be all his fault! That didn't make sense, didn't compute. Compute. Computer. Izzy. Izzy was dead. Oh God…it was all his fault. Why hadn't he done something to save them?! He was the leader! They were counting on him to be there for them, to save them when things were rough…to save their lives when the time came…

But what gave him the right to mess around with fate? He stopped. According to the law of fate, it's fate that I should not save them. So everything that has happened to this point was fate. It had to happen so something could present itself to me…

He grabbed his head. Ouch, this hurt.

And just where was he?

He opened his eyes slowly, not aware they had been closed in the first place. His eyes widened.

"Oh Jesus!"

He was in the air, just floating there. Below him he could see a city, some city, stretched out for miles on end until it touched the horizon and disappeared. There was a tall building right next to him, one that he could reach out and touch just barely with his fingertips. It looked familiar in some exotic way…wait! Wasn't this the Television Station for Odaiba?

Tai moved his leg experimentally and was surprised feel something under him. It was like a sidewalk, but invisible and in the air. So…was this flying? No, this was levitation.

He laughed. All of his mortal life he had heard people talk about how they wanted so much to fly with the birds, how they wanted to just sit in the sky and sing…He had never been one of those people. He knew that he wasn't a bird and that was that. Oh darn, I don't have wings, but God gave me this body so this is what I'm going to work with.

Once again he stalled walking towards the station. If humans have songs about being birds, than do birds have songs about wanting to walk on the ground and run and kick a soccer ball around? Not likely, but that must be because the birds are satisfied with who they are, a feat many people are yet to accomplish. Maybe that was why they were always so happy, hm?

Tai started towards the station again, holding out his arms for balance. It felt like he was walking on a pole for some reason. Shrug…this was what was given to him to work with…He wondered suddenly just who had given it to him. God…He didn't seem very practical right now, but then of course, he never had. So who had laid this invisible pole down, who had put him above this city, and just who had decided it was his time to go? Tai touched the cold building carefully, and was not surprised to see and feel his hand go through the wall. So he was a ghost now, huh? And that made him pretty much immortal, right? Right. So what was he going to do with this immortality? He had to help the rest of the digidestined, he was sure of that, but how he wasn't sure. Okay, he was immortal now, but he couldn't touch things. Or could he?

The movie 'Ghost' came to mind as he sat in the air with one hand partially through the wall of a Television Station. Another ghost had taught the main character how to lift things, and he had also been able to possess people. That sounded like fun, but his life (or lack there of) was not a movie. That much he knew was true. But he really wanted to try to take control of someone's body. Then he could touch things. Then he could communicate with the other digidestined about what was going on.

But what was going on? They were dying, that's all that Tai knew. Or maybe he could tell them what had happened to Kari, but…that just didn't feel right.

Tai slipped his hand in farther and then dared to stick his face through the barrier. He saw people. Real, live, breathing people. People who took for granted their flesh, their being able to touch someone else so easily…but Tai didn't know if he couldn't touch someone yet. Let's try…

He tried to walk, but found himself just walking in midair. Aright then, he would just let them come to him…but if he did that, how would ever get to the other digidestined? He shuddered. It didn't seem right: him, being a ghost. This was Taichi we're talking about, mind you. He shouldn't be a ghost. No, he should be out playing soccer with his buddies, fighting with Matt (fists included), and saving the digital world. Or maybe he could still do the last one…if he tried really, really hard.

He snorted.

"Things don't get much easier even when you're a ghost."

A man passing by him stopped suddenly and turned around to face the man behind him.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Hm? Nothing…why?" Then the man smiled. "Hearing things already, Jordan? And your 40th is just around the corner!"

The first man grumbled a 'shut up' and then walked away hastily.

They can hear me?! Oh my God! This is so great!

Or was it. If he tried to talk to one of the digidestined, then wouldn't they think that they'd be going crazy? Or hallucinating? Oh God…

Tai ran his fingers through his hair, oblivious that he was doing so. It was something that Matt had always done.

He once again tried walking, but only managed to flip in air. This was so much like an anti-gravity room. Well, how did you move around in one of those rooms? By pushing off of the walls, dimwit.

Damn it. So to walk, he first had to figure out how to touch things. How had the man in 'Ghost' done it? Focused all of his thoughts or some crap like that. All right, Tai could do that. It didn't seem too hard. He spun around and stared hard at the wall. I will touch this, I will touch this, I will touch this…

He reached out his hand and once more it slid through the wall. Damn it! Who was he kidding?! His life wasn't a movie, so why was he comparing it to one?

Suddenly it felt like the wall was closing in on his hand; it had become solid!

Tai screamed in pain and tried to pull out his hand.

Everyone in the office stopped and looked at each other like dumbfounded frogs. Who keeps on yelling?

He bit down on his lip, trying to make himself shut up. They had heard him (well, duh!), and he didn't want to frighten them like this. But, holy Jesus, that hurt!!

Finally the wall returned to its untouchable state, and Tai slid his hand out of it. It wasn't hurt. It didn't have any scrape marks, or red streaks at all. Funny…

But that didn't matter. Now he knew how to touch something, right? Just wait awhile, and somewhat believe in yourself. Okay, got it. But was it the same for people?

He held out his hand again, this time holding it right by the wall, not in it, but if it became solid, he would know. He stood like that for a few minutes. Come on, come on…

He felt it harden suddenly so he brought back his hand and pushed with all of his might. Okay, so this could be classified as flying…

He floated through the air at an almost break-neck speed, and then slammed into the other wall across the way. He let out a little gasp of surprise/pain that luckily no one heard. They were all busy asking who had yelled.

When had that wall become solid? Whatever, what works, works. Now to try and touch people…

He pushed off lighter this time and floated towards the nearest person. It was a man, a young man, maybe around thirty, who looked pretty calm. Hm…and what would happen if the man felt his touch? Tai saw a women walking towards him, and decided he should wait so that the man thought that it was her.

She was closer now. Almost there, almost…dang it. She turned. Ah well, better now than never. Wait, that didn't make sense. Whatever, just try it Tai.

He took his fingertips to the man's shoulder and…touched him! He had actually felt that! He gave a little laugh of happiness and then shut up quickly. The man was staring at him, he was sure of it. Looking right into his eyes…

The man turned away, disbelief showing on his face.

Tai tried to suppress his laugh.  I bet he thought that he's losing it. Fun.

But enough of that. He had figured out some of the things he could do so now he had to go find Davis and the others. He didn't know what he would say, but he had to find them as quickly as possible.

He touched his feet to the ground out of routine, and was surprised to actually feel solid under his worn out tennis shoes. This was getting better, but he wondered if he could still go through walls. That was something that he didn't really want to give up. 

He walked (actually walked!) towards the wall he had used to come inside. On the way, he bumped (actually bumped!) into a wooden chair. Only one person saw the chair tilt suddenly, and they didn't point it out to anyone. Tai smiled, ashamed. He was going to have to be more careful. These people were probably going to spread rumor of this part of the building being haunted. He didn't want to scare these people that way.

The train was dead silent.

White, pasty faces looked from one person to another, in a complete stage of shock. What had been that bump a few minutes ago?

The only two people who could even fathom what had happened were as silent as the rest. Their faces had more color, their eyes weren't as cloudy, but their thoughts were filled with morbid slides, running one after another, nonstop. Davis looked at Ken. Ken didn't look back. A feeling of worthlessness and shame hung around them, tinged slightly by a revenge that was soon to grow.

"Davis?" Ken's voice was barely audible.

"Yeah, Ken?"

"There are only six of us left."

Davis swallowed the wad of spit that was threatening to choke him. "What happens when none of us are left?"

They exchanged a sideways glance, but it didn't last long. It was too painful.

"I don't know. Jesus, Davis, I don't know."

Then their eyes locked permanently and a question passed between them telepathically.

What about T.K?

Takeru was transporting between two worlds when pain suddenly struck his heart in a mighty blow. His breath stopped short. The light and data processing around him stopped with it. He was stuck in the void between the Digital World and the real World, but that didn't seem to matter right now. Kari, something had happened to Kari.

His body jerked spasmodically into a curled position and the pain in his chest flared past excruciating. It was going to kill him.

His pulse quickened madly, his eyes rolled, his tongue lolled, he started to foam at the mouth, and yet all he could think about was Kari. Her beautiful smile, her grace, her amazing attitude towards life. Kari, the one person he felt that he could never let go of, had left him. No, she couldn't leave without him. NO KARI, DON'T LEAVE!

Then his tongue covered the entrance to his windpipe. His arms and hands were still twitching, and jerking, and jolting, so he couldn't pull his tongue back up. He probably couldn't have done that anyways if he had been in control of his body. After all, he was alone and stranded in God knows where.

So T.K. died in the black hole between the Digital World and Earth, alone and afraid, leaving only five more digidestined left.

Yolei and Cody stopped dead (pardon the poor pun). Bodies, oh God, there were too many bodies!

Cody turned swiftly away from Yolei and hurled, only to find that his face was close to the rotting corpse of a Tokomon.

"Oh God Yolei…"

She didn't hear him. She couldn't, she just couldn't –

They couldn't be dead. There was no way that any merciful God would ever let such good people die. Oh! Especially Tai! Their brave and fearless leader could not possibly be one of the blackened bodies before her. After all that he had worked for in life, all that he had accomplished, and all the times that he had saved all of their lives… Tai wasn't dead. There was no way in Heaven or Hell that Tai could be dead.

And Sora…

Yolei looked from one body to the next, trying to decide who was who even though it was killing her. Why should it matter? Oh wait…it was possible that these weren't the digidestined and that they were some wild native people who were never –

She broke off her thought. Who was she kidding?

Sora was gone. Sora, with her pretty smile and all around great personality. She was like a mother to all of the digidestined. And Mimi, who was always so kind and whose voice was rich like buttermilk. And Yolei would never forget Izzy neither. He was certainly one of the smartest teenagers she had ever met, and had always had the answers in less than an hour to any problem. And Jou –

Yolei stopped for a second and counted the bodies. There were five, but that didn't make sense at all. There would have to have been six, plus that, one body didn't look human at all. What was going on here?

She forced herself to walk closer to the bodies, trying to ignore the putrid smell that hung in the air. Yes, that one definitely wasn't human. She shivered. Ugh…not human? What was happening here? Why should other species intervene with the human race? Anyways, that was off subject.

"Cody…!"

He walked over painfully slow, while she counted the bodies around her again. Five, there were only five. How can that be?

"Cody," she said, when he was close enough, "there aren't enough bodies here to be all of the digidestined. There's only five, while there should be six, and one of them isn't even human!"

He grimaced.

"Are you sure that the body wasn't…uh…deformed in some way?"

Yolei leaned closer to the body in question.

"Pretty sure," she exclaimed and erected herself quickly. This was just too creepy. And…wasn't this some sort of "Danger Zone" as Izzy would have liked to call it? Whatever had killed these guys…could it come back? And if so, how soon?

"Cody, I think we need to get out of here as fast as we can, but first we need to identify these bodies." He gave her a horrified look and she nodded sympathetically. "I know, I know, but at least we have one down." She pointed to Kahandro's body. "None of the digidestined."

In spite of everything, Cody laughed a little at Yolei's bluntness. This was going to be a very painful process, but they needed to know who exactly was still alive, even though Cody suspected the only older digidestined left was Jou. Wait…Jou was the only one left alive? Could it be possible that…nah, of course not. Jou couldn't be credited with mass destruction and senseless homicide. No, not quiet, responsible Jou.

There was something incredibly enthralling about floating through the sky and looking down on people, and Tai was sensing all of its pleasures right now. Of course, he still had his priorities straight, and never forgot about his mission in the long run. Because, this might just be the perfect chance to show everyone just how courageous he could be. Yeah…they would all soon learn the power of their leader, dead as he might be.

Right now he was looking for Jou, because he had a feeling it would be best to see him first and, because Jou was the only older digidestined left, he was somewhat worried about his safety. But where? Could people and places possibly stand out to Tai because he was dead? Maybe…

Suddenly there was a screeching of tires and the smashing of metal.

Tai looked underneath him, feeling a weird pain stab at his chest. About ten feet below, a man was yelling and making angry gestures at another man, every now and then pointing at his ruined fender and hood.

Oh, all right, at least no one was hurt.

So he resumed to go towards Jou's apartment, when something else caught his eye. Under the city, there were three figures that stood out in amazing contrast to the other people around them. Digidestined kids? It was possible.

Tai changed directions (wow, he was getting good at this) and ascended to the street level. The entrance to the subway must be somewhere around here…

"No, no, NO! I refuse to believe that something like that could have happened! Ken, you idiot, do you think that my Kari is that stupid? I know Kari better then you ever will and she would never get caught up in a thing like…like…you know what I'm talking about! She would never do that to us, to…to…to me!"

Davis broke down and cried. Sobbing, he crumpled to the floor, followed by countless pairs of eyes.

Ken sucked in his breath. What kind of leader cries? He shrugged. Davis wasn't actually the leader here, Tai was. Just at that moment, he felt his D3 ring with a message. Wow, he had forgotten all about being able to communicate with the others. He opened the flap of it.

Ken –

Cody and I are in the digital world, dunno where T.K. is at the moment, left him at computer room. We found the bodies of the older kids, all but Matt and Jou. Yeah, Ken, their bodies. Tai, Mimi, Izzy, and Sora are dead. I have no idea what killed them, but it looks like some sort of explosion. I'm sorry I couldn't deliver this in person. Have you found Jou or Kari yet? And be on the lookout for Matt as well, even though he was with Izzy the last time I saw him.

-Yolei

A small noise escaped Ken's mouth, drawing the attention of Subway passengers from Davis to him.

"Davis! Davis, get up! DAVIS!"

"I hear you."

"Davis…"

Ah forget it, Ken mused and just threw the D3 onto Davis' lap. That was just too hard to say.

Then he felt a chill as the ghost of Tai passed into the subway train.

His body stiffened.

"T – Tai?"

Tai turned around slowly and looked at Ken. Surely he couldn't see him because his eyes were on Davis. Had he felt him in some bizarre connection of destinies? But it wasn't just Ken that could feel his presence; the whole train of passengers were stirred from their dull daze by this paladin spirit entering and they showed it in an awe-inspiring spectacle where they lifted there faces towards Tai and smiled just slightly. They all knew he was there. They all knew he was good. And best yet, he knew himself that his courage had made an indelible aura around him. Tai smiled.

"Davis," now that it came to it, Tai knew exactly what to say, but he hadn't rehearsed anything, "you need to find Jou. Next to that, you need to start acting like the leader you have to be. And Davis," he knelt beside the extraordinary boy who, like himself, would never quit, or he would die trying, "leaders do not cry."

What a load of bull, Tai suddenly realized. Leaders were of course humans too, and hadn't he just been crying himself not but an hour ago? Well, like time mattered now anyways. Actually, it did. More than he knew, but he wasn't about to let Davis go soft in front of a butt-load of strangers just because he thought that he "couldn't go on" and "it's not worth living anymore." Shit, if not for him, then for Kari. What the hell was this boy doing anyhow? Was he just going to sit there and let the digital world get blown to shreds by some invisible perhaps ubiquitous being? It took all of Tai's strength and reason to not choke Davis, and when the feeling passed, he didn't regret wanting to kill him. 

Davis finally lifted his tear-stained face (this was the moment that Tai wanted to strangle him) and looked up at Tai. He couldn't see him, but a longing that had been inside of Davis ever since he had met Tai came to the surface full-force. He wanted to become more like him. Actually, the truth was that he wanted to be him, but of course he could never have Tai's incredible build (*author smiles*) at his young age, but by Aphrodite's lust and Poseidon's sea he would try.

Ken fainted.

Now that they were on a clear mission, things ran more smoothly.

Davis and Ken set off for Jou's apartment and were halfway there when Ken had another fainting spell. He collapsed like a wet burlap sack to the ground and busted his nose. Davis was so focused, that he decided to just carry Ken the rest of the way – imagine this – over his shoulder like a burlap sack. (*author: hee hee*)

Yolei and Cody returned to the real world in search of T.K, but found nothing but his bag, which, in his panic, T.K. had left behind. Figuring that he had decided to go to the digital world, Yolei and Cody made themselves comfortable in the computer room and waited for his return.

Tai began a long search to find the people responsible for Kari's death. He was sure they were an independent group and that they knew nothing of her involvement with the digital world. With a sour revenge in his set heart, Tai stayed behind in the subway tunnels, or now called by the police: "The Crime Scene."

Part 7: Tenebrous Landing

"Hi, is Jou here?"

The woman that Davis and Ken had seen when she opened the door wasn't exactly what they would call a "happy person." Her hair was pinned up in a sloppy mess, bags screamed depression and insomnia from under her eyes, she had a cup of coffee in her hand (which didn't look very hot), and sweat stains were very visible from the pits of her shirt. Davis smiled weakly as he supported the very faint Ken.

"Are you all right ma'am?"

She screamed suddenly in a berserk rage and slammed the door on Davis' nose. As the two boys backed away slowly, they could hear someone in the house trying to calm her to no avail.

"Oooookay…I'm taking that as a pretty good sign that Jou isn't there."

"You don't know that for sure," Ken said as he tried to peak into the front window.

"Ken, what are you doing? I'm positive that Jou can't be in there. That was his mother right? Well, when someone's mother looks that way you just assume that they're worried sick about their missing child."

"Yeah, assume."

Davis laughed. "You are so the conspiracy theorist."

"No, Davis, I just have a weird feeling about Jou missing. Like…it could be that he's the one doing all this."

"What?!" Davis was appalled. The thought of Jou being a criminal mastermind had never occurred to him and hearing it from a kid he considered to be a genius was even more frightening.

"Haven't you ever heard of the saying 'it's always the quiet ones'?"

That – was - it.

Davis yanked Ken off of the windowsill and dragged him away from Jou's apartment.

"Davis!"

"I've had it with your stupidity! Jou is not the reason people are dying and in fact he's probably already dead himself."

"Davis-"

"And if you think for one more second that it's Jou's fault I'm going to…tie you to a pole in the east side, strap some meat on you, and then blow a dog whistle."

"Da-," Ken stopped short and crawled loose from Davis' grip. "What?"

"Nothing," grumbled Davis, remembering clearly when Tai had threatened him that way.

"Anyways Davis, Tai told us to find Jou. Now, I'm not for sure if Jou is the victim or the enemy, but we need to make sure that Jou isn't in that apartment. It's the only for sure place that we have right now. If he's not there, I don't know where to start looking."

Davis nodded reluctantly. After all, Tai had once told him that being a leader also meant taking advice and listening to the people you were protecting. Sometimes they new better than you, and sometimes they didn't.

"Yolei?"

"Yes, Iori?"

"Do you think that T.K. is ever coming back?"

"No, not really."

"Oh."

…and so ended their only conversation in the span of three hours, while they sat waiting for T.K. to "return" from wherever he "went".

It had been a good time to think about things, not to mention regret those things, and Yolei had done a lot of the latter. It had been stupid of her to leave T.K. here, because, after all, he was one of the original digidestined and those were the only ones that seemed to be dying. Had he died quietly? If this thing chasing them was a beast, probably not, but…there was the thought of: could any death be quiet? Sure, you could be quiet, but what she meant was: was it not painful? 

She sighed and stood up from the hard metal chair, her sore legs creaking.

"I think we should go, Cody. He's not coming back."

As they walked out the door, Yolei turned back around and looked into the so-empty classroom. She sighed again, and then turned off the lights.

Cursing a Chthonic place with all the words he knew, Tai slid through the subway train's side and to the gathering of officers surrounding the little girl's body. A sickening possessiveness was coursing through Tai right now and the thought of anyone, a-n-y-o-n-e, touching his dead little sister made him want to scream, but logic once again stopped him. Cursed logic.

They already had her in a body bag. It was zipped up past her face, and only a stray strand of light brown hair greeted Tai. He stared at it, thought about going over to it, but stayed where he was.

He wanted to cry.

A police officer walked by him and crossed the tracks to where black numbers on yellow cards gleamed. Tai choked back the tears.

His sister: The Crime Scene.

His sister: Bits Represented by Numbers.

His sister: … is de- hey! If Kari was indeed dead (which there was no doubt by the way the paramedics were shaking there heads sadly) then was it possible that he would get to see her as a ghost?! The dead seeing the dead; it made perfect sense!

Tai grinned. But of course, she'd want to know that he was avenging her. So…start the avenging.

In a little cabin out by the lake, two people sat looking at each other. Okay, staring more like, but nonetheless looking. It actually looked like a freaky staring contest, because neither was blinking. Well, here's a better way of putting it:

Wearing a mordant grin and being a legerdemain man, he had killed his comrade in one swift blow to the back. Now impassive to his motives, he stood staring at the lifeless eyes of the one he had slain. He had never before noticed how the eyes of the dead grew so milky like…

He was now exalted to chief in a band of no one now, because he had killed them all. Why? Because he didn't want to chance any of them knowing what he had stolen from that girl.

His dark, flat eyes shined as he pulled out the D3 and digivice. He could remember long ago when he had held one of these…yes, they had changed their model, like he thought they would, but all of the buttons did the same thing, he was sure. He wondered if the girl had ever pressed any of the buttons, or if any of the buffoons in her group had. They would of found out the secret for sure if they had done that. Yes, they would of found out about the experiment he had participated in before he had screwed up and had been sent to this hellhole. Smiling, he pushed one of the buttons.

Wind shifted the trees outside and a bird chirped nonchalantly, because it was used to this sort of senseless killing. Used to seeing its birdie friends shot down for sport, it had no reason to think that the human race did otherwise between themselves. And, sadly, it was right.

Sora looked across and saw Mimi. Mimi looked across and saw Izzy. Matt looked across and saw Kari. Kari looked across and saw T.K. T.K. looked across and saw Jou. Jou looked dazed.

"Uh…"

Matt touched the bars of his imprisonment tentatively. They were a shiny gray, and through them he could see, across the room, T.K., who was looking away from him.

Everything was a shiny white, and there were wires connected to his body.

"Well! How are you folks doing?!"

A man, who looked like he smelled and for sure hadn't shaved in days, entered the room smiling broadly.

Matt gaped.

"Wha-  What the hell is this?! I thought I was supposed to be dead!"

The man continued smiling his crazy smile.

"Why, you sure are a pessimistic little boy, now aren't you?"

Matt growled.

"Well, I guess you all deserve to hear what has been going on."

Now all of them gaped.

"The digital world, the digimon, and all your adventures there as the digidestined, were all in your minds. You see, when you were very little, your parents agreed to lend you to us for an experiment on the human brain and its imagination section. The experiment went so well; we decided to not give you back. So we struck a bargain with the government (they're very easy to persuade you know) and now your real parents think of you as dead. Did you all have fun in our virtual reality world?"

His smile was still just as large as when he had begun.

"So you mean…" Sora started, confused, "that all the emotions we had were just a result of your programming us?"

He nodded.

Everyone heard Jou throw up in the background, because, hey, why shouldn't he be a ninny in the real world too? ^.^

Mimi played with her hair a little.

"So now that you're done with your sick little game we get to go home, right?"

The man looked her deep into the eyes and, still smiling, said:

"No. There is still one more test we want to use you for."

From his dirty clothes, he pulled out a pistol.

"We want to see if there really is life after death."

And, still smiling, he shot them all.

The End

A note: In this story, there did turn out to be life after death, because the presence of Tai was felt long after he awakened to be shot in the real world. He woke up first in the real world, and that is why he is a ghost in the last two parts of this story. Did you like it?