Chapter 9 - Return
I teleported back to Dead School, determined to get the answers I needed. But in my brief time spent with my fellow (hopefully not for too long) dead peers, I learned that straight answers don't come easy. Mind games and plays on words, yes, they were frequent. Something to clear confusion? That was a laughable matter.
Thinking solely about Zeke, my Teleportation skill led me right into the middle of a classroom— one that was full of dead students. I didn't recognize any of them from my Dead Skills class, but the white-haired, crisp suited man standing before everyone was a welcome sight. He took me in with a look that was half-knowing and half-surprised.
He raised a snow white eyebrow. "Fang? What took you so long to come back?"
Most of the kids stared at me in amazement, whether from the Teleportation or the wings I wasn't sure. I tried not to focus on the eyes that were watching me. "I have some more questions to ask you," I said simply, but with a deathly quietness that showed I meant business.
"Does that mean you didn't have luck in finding your body?" His eyebrows furrowed; the creases on his ancient face bunched in worry.
My hands twitched nervously, the only sign of my true feelings. "That's not exactly why I came back."
"Then why did you?" He clucked his tongue in disappointment. "Is it safe to assume that you didn't read the rest of your copy of Death for Dummies? I'm sure it could have answered whatever you were planning on asking me."
"Even so, I'd rather hear it from you." I wasn't sure why I was suddenly placing all of my hope in my Death Guide, especially since I'd only known him for a few hours. Maybe it was his appearance that gave him a countenance of wisdom. Or his unusual youth that accompanied his buoyant personality. Zeke was a strangely pleasant person — someone that was hard to not like.
"Hmm." He scratched his chin pensively. Suddenly, he turned toward the curious onlookers. "Class dismissed," he declared. There were some cheers of excitement as dead teens ran through the door (literally through the door). Once everyone dispersed, I had his full attention. "Go on, Fang. I'd like to see what brought you here again. A few hours ago you were dying to leave." He chuckled at his horrible joke.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. If I didn't feel the need to return, I would have kept as far from this place as possible. Zeke laughed; he saw my thoughts as amusing.
This time I did roll my eyes. Then I was serious again. "I didn't find my body," I began.
He checked a watch on his wrist, which was totally ironic. Dead people could care less about the time. "You have about a day left," he noted, as if I wasn't already aware of it. "You might want to start hurrying."
"Don't worry about that. I've got a crew searching for my body."
This confused him. "A group of Dead kids?"
I shook my head. "No, my Flock."
Dead silence. No pun intended.
He gazed at me with wild eyes. "You… got the Flock to look for your body?"
I took a deep breath, realizing the gravity of the situation. Shit. "That's not something that should be possible, is it?" Come to think of it, I never remembered Scrooge being able to communicate with the living world. I was a freak, but then again I always had been. A freak in death was not a terrible surprise.
"No." He took another moment to absorb the information. "How were you able to do that?"
"At first I tried talking to them, but they couldn't hear me. Then I wrote words on the ground to Nudge. She saw them and freaked out. The others saw my messages, too." All with one big exception, the most important member of the Flock to me.
"That's very unusual," he mused. He paced around the room. "I can't even begin to count the sum of us who have tried to communicate with loved ones in a similar fashion. Ground writings, letters, emails. Nothing has worked for us."
"Why is that, do you think?"
He sighed, frustrated. "I'm not sure. I'll have to ask the Big Guy when I see him later. But I'd suspect it has something to do with you not being completely dead and the bond you share with the Flock."
At least I wasn't a Scrooge, as much as you guys might believe so.
"What happens when we find my body?" I asked next. I didn't want to worry him more. "Do I just magically zip back to it, or do I have some kind of strange Skill to perform?" I could imagine it being similar to an out-of-body experience where I see my spirit descending out of air to rejoin my physical form.
"You can will yourself back to your body," he said, glad to have a question he could answer. He laughed suddenly. "Don't worry. Out of everything you have to do, that should be the easiest."
I nodded. With a new surge of confidence, I was willing to ignore any more questions about death I had. As far as I was concerned, I didn't need to have them answered. All that was important was that I had the Flock working for me and that I had to find my body soon. Everything else didn't matter unless the unimaginable happened, but I couldn't allow myself to become pessimistic.
"I can see that you're just about finished." His face softened with resignation. "I wish you luck on the rest of your journey." I wasn't sure, but it almost sounded like he was implying more, as if I had a future of traveling and purpose-filled days ahead of me. He either had hope or was confident in me.
I almost smiled. "Thanks." I was going to leave, but something popped into my mind. "I have one more question."
"Ask anything you'd like."
"Can you see the future?"
He laughed, but before he could answer I felt a presence enter the room behind me. I turned to see a flustered Bobby, the Southern boy, running toward us frantically. Zeke picked up on his tension immediately.
"Bobby, what's wrong?"
The boy was taking deep breaths, as if he had just finished a sprint. "It's Derrick. He's gone."
"Now guys, you know what we got to do." Iggy paced back and forth, moving only several steps in either direction. Since Max had left, he had taken charge of the Flock, a job he used to pretended to take seriously. But since whatever Fang had become had communicated with them, all joking had vanished. "We need to find Fang's body. Whatever has happened to him, it's something that we have to overcome. We don't want to wait too long in case the river has carried his body away or condors think they're picking at a corpse."
That made everyone wince, but the message was understood.
"We'll split into groups. I'll be with Gazzy and we'll head east, traveling along the river. Angel and Nudge will go west and search through the woods. Time is of the essence." He stopped and stared, oddly able to make eye contact with each member of the Flock. "Any questions?"
Total raised his paw in vain. "Uh, yeah, where am I involved?" He sounded offended.
"And Max," Gazzy shouted. "What will she do?"
"Both she and Total will go south, check through towns and villages. Maybe someone found his body and called it in to the authorities."
"But there's still one teensy little problem," Nudge added. "As good as this plan sounds, Ig, Max is the leader. What if she doesn't agree to this? What if she thinks that it's a trap?"
"And we don't even know if she'll believe us in the first place," Angel said quietly. "She might come back as a wreck. She loves Fang, and I'm sure she's still in denial."
"That's why we decided to keep the writing as evidence. Or at least I hope you did. You guys didn't guide me over it by accident, right?"
"Nah, man," Gazzy assured.
"Alright, now we just need Max…"
His voice trailed off as a shuffling sounded in the distance. Everyone tensed and prepared to fight, in case an enemy had followed them into the woods.
It might be her, Angel whispered into Iggy's mind, but he shook his head.
Stay on guard, just in case. Do you hear any thoughts?
She paused and listened. Her nose scrunched up in annoyance. No, I don't hear anything.
The rustling grew closer, and everyone was hyper-alert. It was show time. In only seconds they'd know who was approaching their camp. Iggy held his breath and counted the steps. Five, four, three, two, one…
When it sounded as though the intruder had stepped into the clearing, three bird kids and one dog gasped. Iggy wished he could have known who it was.
He didn't have to wait long to find out.
"Fang!"
Mwahaha. :) So dear readers, I was kicking back one night, thinking about my fanfics, when a strange little idea snuck its way into my head. It said, "Work on Ghost of Me!" I couldn't ignore the Voice (he he), and when I sat down to write, I completely forgot everything that had happened. So I took the time to reread the story, and inspiration struck. I appreciate everyone who has read this story before, and those of you who continue to discover it even with the lack of updates. But I must insist that you REREAD THE STORY. Seriously, REREAD THIS STORY. It'll help you remember what happened, and it's not terribly long (heck, even I was able to reread it in one sitting, and that's saying something).
Oh, and a new chapter of Anything But Easy should be out tomorrow. I'm too lazy to review it tonight.
--biteoutoflife--