And here comes that second chapter. Man, writing ghost stories is kinda weird, kinda hard too, but i'm sure i'll get over it. :B

Beware: Short chapter is evilly and painfully short. For some odd reason, i have problems writing long chapters.

I do not own any of the characters

Here was my problem though; I didn't know how to help my phantom friend. All I seemed able to do was watch this transparent figure sleep upon my bed. This sight was almost foreign to me; never did I know that ghosts could actually sleep. This specter.

My single eye had suddenly drifted off to eye the outside world. The rain was no longer pounding against the glass of the window, leaving an odd eerie silence in the room, as if the rain had stopped. But it hadn't; I could still hear a soft pitter patter of drops hitting the outside road. Not to mention the sky, though obscured from view, was still dark.

And as my eye wandered back down to my sleeping specter, I noticed how transparent he indeed was. I could almost see my quilt clearly though his body. The thought was eerie in itself. Never had I thought of phantoms, ghosts, apparition, as anything but a person. My overworked mind knew that's what they were, even if they weren't apart of the living any longer, they weren't some strange other-dimensional creature though. Most humanoid phantoms I'd come by were humans, Homo sapiens.

I sighed. It was so quiet, too quiet. This specter before me made no noise, his chest did not rise with breath, and he made no breath. How foolish of me to believe that he could breathe, how foolish indeed. With a quick movement of my hands, I heaved myself out of a chair and moved to start my after school routine.

Once changed into something far more comfortable than a button up shirt, tie, and pants, I drifted back to look at the sleeping apparition. I mindlessly tugged at the low collar of my shirt, feeling rather uncomfortable now just staring at him.

"This is so weird…" I whispered to myself as I moved to my backpack. I hadn't finished my Calculus homework, not to mention I had Physics, but I didn't need my book for that, it was online.

After I settled into work, time seemed to, forgive the cliché, fly right by. I only noticed the time when there was a knock at my door. I jumped, feeling the urge to tell Kanda to leave, but when I looked back, he was barely visible, and I knew my grandfather couldn't see him. However that only calmed me down a little; I always hated being interrupted during homework because I did freak out most of the time. I go into this little zone and there's no way to get me out of it until you scare me, and that's what happened every time Gramps came home.

Opening the door, I could already feel some lecture about to be spit from his lips. However, I wasn't met with one; my grandfather instead handed me a box. My stomach churned as the smell emitted from the box.

"It's almost seven o'clock," He said in a gruff voice, "and since I have no seen you since I returned, I figured you could use some food."

"Thanks, Gramps," I said, "I would've made some dinner, but I've been working on my homework. Calculus is a pain, ya know."

Gramps nodded and without a word, left me standing there. Not that I was disappointed, he'd never been very social with anyone, let alone me. I shut the door and walked back into the room, and instead of going back to my desk, I plopped on the empty side of the bed and opened the take out box.

My tongue ran across my lips as I inhaled the aroma, I'd always been a fan of Asian food, and General Tau's Chicken had always been my favorite. And the Crab Rangoon helped of course. I pulled out the plastic fork and began to eat, when a sudden question, so soft and casual, almost made me choke.

"What are you eating?" My specter asked me.

I did almost choke. I dropped the fork and coughed for a few seconds before smiling nervously, I hadn't had the intentions of doing that.

"Wh-what?" I coughed again.

"What are you eating?" the nearly gone figure asked me.

"D-D-D-Dinner," I stuttered out, looking at him.

He rolled his eyes and leaned against the head board, "I knew that. But never mind, I don't care anymore."

I chuckled slightly, not used to that kind of cold behavior, "Um…c-can I ask you a question?" I would've flinched away in fear of being hit, but I knew Kanda couldn't touch me.

"….Yeah," Kanda eyed me curiously and hesitantly. His eyes wavered.

"Why…am I having trouble seeing you? You're so…almost invisible," I pointed out.

And no reply came. He obviously wasn't answering. My only hint was that he stood up and glided along the tiled floor to my desk. His back arched as he peered over to look at the open Calculus book, those stolid eyes scanning over it.

"Whatcha looking at…?" I chuckled nervously.

"You're too smart," He stated gruffly.

"S-Sorry?" I said, for lack of nothing better to fill the silence.

Those transparent shoulders shrugged as he came back to sit on the bed. It didn't bounce and it didn't creak, there were only creases in the blankets were he'd placed himself.

The silence was uncomfortable. It wasn't that we didn't have things to talk about; I'm sure that wasn't it. It was just that I didn't know how to ask him anything or say anything for that matter. So, having a lack of better things to do, I sat there gingerly nibbling on my dinner. I wanted to know what my roommate (?) was thinking about at the moment. I couldn't tell by looking at him, or through him as that's where it was getting.

"How old are you?" his cold voice moved through the room, almost making me choke again

"I-I-I'm um…I'm uh n-n-n….18…" I stuttered out before immediately going back to wolf down my food.

Kanda nodded, "So am I…well I was. But if we're counting years of existence I'd say I'm about 55," he shrugged and hugged his knees.

At that comment, I dropped my fork into the box and looked at the figure on my bed. In the silence, I could hear the rain begin to pick up again; this was rain country after all. As I watched him, listening to the rain, I couldn't help but notice how he became a little more visible, visible enough for me recognize color on him.

He turned to face me, "That freaked you out, didn't it?"

I gave no answer.

"Sorry, I should've have said that. I'm 18, same as you," he repeated, meaning that's what he wanted me to remember. But I knew that, that's what "So am I" meant. But the 55 scared me. When he said "years of existence" then the number, I automatically subtracted 18 from 55 and got a frightening number.

37.

I would forever fear that number from now on. This specter in my room, Kanda, had been utterly and totally dead for…37 years. Years. And he'd been so calm about it, as if he didn't even care about…

"How long have you…ya know…been…like this?" I tried to ask as subtly as I could.

"The entire time," Kanda's voice was barely above a whisper.

That is, he acted like he didn't care that he'd been a ghost for 37 years.

"Why are you still here though? I mean isn't there some sort of light you're supposed to see?" Lavi asked, clearly expecting that that's what happened.

Kanda shook his head, "Not for me, and if there is, I haven't heard about one. A light. Honestly how stupid can you get?"

I tried to smile at his scoff, but I couldn't. And inside me there was an urge to ask him what had happened after he died, how he had died, who had killed him. Just the mere thought was killing me, but I held my tongue.

Kanda stood up, and I watched him turn to face me, he was becoming less visible again. This wouldn't annoy me, but it was rather irksome.

"Sorry," Kanda said, "didn't mean to crush your hopes and dreams."

It dawned on me that he was showing off his anger and annoyance for no particular reason, taking my silence as something it was obviously not meant to be.

"I just don't know what to say," I replied, still staring at my now cold food.

"What does that mean? If you can see me, you can see others, so why is it you don't know what to say?"

"You're the first one I haven't shooed away…" I actually hadn't meant to let that slip out, but it did regardless. Holding my tongue was not working.

Kanda raised a barely visibly eyebrow, hidden by his bangs, "Really now? But either way, I'm sure you've talked to some others."

I nodded, that was not a fact I could hide. I knew from experience that it wasn't often spirits found people who could see them. And it was even more rare that they could find someone who saw them as a person, not some floating dot or shadow.

"Then how am I different? Not talked to many murder victims?" he shouted. I could tell he wasn't happy with me, maybe even hating me for my ignorance at the moment.

"No, I've talked to some. It's just their first priority is trying to pull me into finding their murders by telling me their sob story. Yours was to become somewhat of a friend, ask for my help, then follow me home. And even now all you're doing is yelling at me," in my mind, I knew I had to keep my voice low, but also hidden deep back there was that Gramps knew not to bother me if he heard me screaming at a seemingly empty space, void of all humans save myself.

Kanda sighed, "I'm low on strength. And…" he started as he was latterly fading from view. "I'm not like…those other victims…" his eyes found mine as he had almost vanished. "I don't remember a thing."

The final word came out more like a whisper as the phantom vanished from sight. I immediately set my food down and sat up straight onto my knees, looking around.

"Kanda!" I shouted.

No answer.

"Kanda!" I shouted again.

And still there was no answer. I sat back, slouching against the headboard, the pillows keeping me from injuring myself. As I began to slowly, gingerly, hesitantly, eat my food, I replayed the last line spoken from my vanishing friend in my head, over and over and over again.

I'm not like those other victims, I don't remember a thing.

Some odd thing prevented me from understand what he meant for a while. Not until I had run out of food to mindlessly eat, not until I could no longer hear the cars outside or the water dripping from structures, not until I couldn't even process was I was thinking.

No, not until then did I realize one important fact. Kanda couldn't remember how he'd been killed. He might not even know where. And he hadn't implored my help to find his murdered, he'd requested it for his own sake. So he could remember.

I hope i'm not rushing this :B

enjoy, i would love some reviews ^^