Chapter 2 – Answers

Normally fear was something that I experienced when Nudge offered to pick outfits out for each member of the Flock, but this was on a complete level of its own. Let's give a hand to death, everyone! It even makes me afraid, and that's saying something. I gulped audibly as I looked up into the face of God, who was watching me with mild curiosity.

"Well, Fang, are you going to get up any time soon or are you gonna sit on your butt all day?" he asked in a timeless voice, that somehow sounded youthful but wise.

I shook my head and scrambled to my feet, straightening my dark clothing to make a good appearance. Hey, if you were face-to-face with a celestial being, you'd be fixing yourself, too. "Are… uh, are you God?" I wondered, feeling a little tongue-tied.

He laughed a boisterous, engaging laugh that would put a smile on anyone's face. Well, except for me, of course, but it did ease my fears. He shook his head animatedly. "No, no, I'm not God," he said with some shock. His eyes darted around momentarily, then wandered down to his attire and he laughed again. Smacking his forehead, he added, "Oh, I see why you thought that. It's the outfit. Sorry to confuse you, but it's our uniform."

Huh? Now I was lost.

"I'm Zeke, your Death Guide."

I swear, for the first time in my life, I was seriously terrified. This beat the time when I thought Max wouldn't return when she went out into the dark ocean to search for Angel, or when she was attacked by the octopus. My eyes widened in disbelief and my mouth fell slack. What was the Flock gonna think? Did they already know that I died? How was Max going to take it? I always imagined being there to comfort her in a situation like this, but now she would never have me to be her support anymore. Why was death so cruel that it still let me hold on to my love for her? My head slunk down in dejection.

So I was dead.

"Actually, youaren't quite dead." My head shot up as my hopes rose. I wasn't dead? Then why was he my Death Guide? Where am I anyway? "You're in the basement of an office building that isn't used, so we dead people occupy it to train our incoming expirees. And you're special because you haven't technically died."

…

Than what was I? How did he know what I was thinking?

He laughed, lightly this time. "You see, all dead people can read each other's minds. You aren't technically dead, so that's why you aren't able to." Oh great, another mind reader I have to deal with. This is just lovely.

"Than if I'm not dead, but I'm not living, then what am I?" I had to ask, even if I didn't really want to know the answer.

"You are a spirit, for right now, or what we refer to as a ghost. You've been separated from your body. In the past I've seen it happen to people who needed to learn a lesson, like Ebenezer Scrooge, people in near-death experiences, like those guys who've written books on death – they were astounded by how boring this was so they made up the stories of seeing heaven and hell the way you imagine it – and, in your case, we believe it had something to do with a glitch in your design."

"You mean like when I was experimented on, right?" A glitch in my design? Did the other Flock members have it, too? So I was freak?

"Yes, it deals with the experiment. Something with an expiration date?" I stared at him blankly and nodded. Oh boy, so even if I wasn't really dead, I was going to die soon anyway. "No, actually, your expiration date was programmed incorrectly. It went off sooner than the scientists had originally planned, and you see, that doesn't go over very well with the Death Council. They maintain a strict order of when everyone is supposed to die, and they weren't prepared for your sudden departure. So that's why you've been given a second chance."

"A second chance? I can live again? How do I do it?!?" That was probably the first time in my life I spoke with emotion. This was fantastic! I can live! I can see everyone again. I could spend more time with Max… I didn't want to think about that with Zeke around, seeing as he'd read my thoughts of her. That would be embarrassing.

"Yes, a second chance. With the other guys I mentioned before, it was because they either died before they were ready, too, like the authors, or in Scrooge's case to improve in life."

"So Scrooge was a real person?"

He nodded. "Crazy people claimed that he wasn't alive and turned his life into a story, just so people would stop bugging him about what death was like."

"Oh." That was interesting knowing.

"And all the ghosts that appeared to him were actually Death Guides. Once he learned his lesson, he was allowed to live life the way he should be. You, on the other hand, have a completely different task ahead of you."

"And that would be…" Why was he torturing me like this? I had to know how I could live so I could be with Max again.

"You have to reunite your spirit with your body."

I looked at him like he'd just said that to make an omelet you need eggs. "That's it? That's all I have to do?" Jeez, what was I standing around waiting for. I tried to sidestep Zeke through the open door but he stuck his arm out to block me.

"Wait, it's not that easy. First you have to find your body again, which I might add is a hard task in itself if you don't know where your body was."

"Well, let me go so I can look for it, at least." I pushed at his arm but it wouldn't budge. For an old guy, he was strong.

He shook his head. "Do you even know where you are now, Fang?" he pointed out. I hated to say that he was right. Where was I? He said we were in the basement of an office building, but we could be in Europe or Africa or, I shudder to think of it, Antarctica for all I knew. Plus, I wasn't even paying attention to where the Flock was when we landed. I knew it was in the Midwest, but it was a pretty big territory to cover.

"How long do I have to find it?" I asked.

"Two days. And if you don't, than the Council has no choice but to make you dead… permanently. But until then, I have two days to introduce you to the Dead lifestyle. Welcome to your training, Fang. You have a lot to learn." He reached into his blazer and pulled out a thin yellow book and handed it to me. I looked at it and gawked. Death for Dummies was the title.

"That will be your guide while you're here," he said as I looked at him with my mouth still hanging open. "Whether that is two days or for eternity. Until then, I must take you to your first lesson in Death at what we call our Dead School."

School? I was dead and I had to go to school? What the fuck?

This was going to be a long two days.

More on the news front to all you Not So Normal fans. I have officially started Chapter 24 (insert cheers). I don't have a guaranteed release date, but I'd say either tonight or tomorrow, being generous. I don't know for sure, but be sure to check anyway. Also I think I'm gonna be rating my other story T just because I think most the people who check out the M page want smut/sex. You get the picture. I don't have any release date set for that one either, and it still doesn't have a title.

iBanana, thanks for the advice! Mo, this had some explaining in it, but I know it's not everything. More will be revealed in the chapters to come. Sorry if this was a little confusing cause I was in a weird mood when I wrote this yesterday. Karebear77, before you kill me, there are several things I want to do in life before that happens (ie college, marriage, job, first home, etc.), but if you feel the need to do it anyway, we can work out a plan. ;) fangfan5, more on that will come later. Sorry to keep everyone waiting about that. Rukiwolff95, thank you vereh much. :P Kina Kalamari, maybe I posted the prologue before you subscribed to me? Just guessing, I don't know if that's true. Also, important notice, if anyone has any specific questions you want answered, leave them in your review and I'll try to incorporate them in the next chapter or two.

REVIEW PLEASE!!!

--biteoutoflife--