(First: https://redd.it/o8vgiw Previous: https://redd.it/wh8d9c TW for a violent murder)
Lately we’ve been getting fairly easy delivery jobs, which I desperately needed. With work going at such a relaxed pace, I noticed how Max started to act at the beginning of the work week. It wasn’t a really noticeable change, and I doubted anyone but myself could see it. He just felt a bit off. Almost as if he’d been forcing himself to get excited over things he normally enjoyed. We were asked to go to the sorting room for a few hours to help them get caught up right after we finished our latest easy delivery job.
Aside from all of my monstrous co-workers, I didn’t mind the sorting room. It was pretty easy work and a nice way to pass the time. Rufus knew we were coming and waited by the door for us. To my horror, he stood on some crutches and his with replacement leg missing. I got dizzy at the sight of his bandaged knee and sputtered out a question about how it happened. I expected Max to be upset seeing his father missing a leg again, but he took it in stride
“Did you chew off your leg?” Max asked calmly.
I did a double take, mouth open at the mental image of the question. Rufus let out a sigh almost sounding guilty.
“Yeah. The replacement one really wasn’t agreeing with me or healing right. I might just go with a false one instead of a transplant.” He answered, and Max nodded as if this conversation was normal.
Supernatural creatures were weird… That much was certain. In an earlier case, I’d needed to cut off my own arm to save Max, and getting a replacement turned out to be very easy. I guessed human limbs were easier to replace than dog ones. Rufus lost his leg on our first delivery and it hadn’t healed yet. I felt horrible that he still had to go through all these issues because I made a mistake way back then.
“Would my blood make things easier on you? I mean, would it help a transplant stick?” I offered.
Virgin blood apparently did a lot for creatures and thus was very sought after. Most people wouldn’t assume a thirty-year-old guy like myself wouldn’t have hooked up with anyone yet. It was an embarrassing fact to admit and the only silver lining of my situation is that I might be able to donate some blood to help Rufus heal faster.
“Don’t worry about it. Sometimes it takes a few tries to find a good replacement part for any given creature. I do appreciate the offer, but don’t advertise your blood in such a public place. That’s something you really need to keep as secret as possible. You never know who might go after you for something like that.” Rufus pointed out.
I grew tense and looked around the mailroom and at the others walking around. I felt terrified by some of my co-workers but so far none had made any hostile moves around me. A pile of mushrooms taller than myself moved slowly between letters, and a pair of human hands covered in fungus extended from the pile to take an envelope and place it somewhere else. The sight made my skin crawl but for the most part, I trusted my co-workers. Then again, they might slip up and mention my blood to someone outside of the company, causing a different creature to try and hunt me down.
After all, I got this job because I went on one bad date after my body in all the wrong sorts of ways.
“Hey Max, can you get started on sorting? I want to ask Toby something.” Rufus asked.
Max’s big ears perked up, wanting to know why he’d been shooed away, but he was a good boy and listened to what he’d been told. When he left, I looked over at the taller man, confused about what Rufus may want to say without his son listening in.
“Could you do me a favor and invite Max over to a sleep over, or something fun?” Rufus asked me when he thought Max was far enough away to not be able to listen in.
“I would love to. But why are you asking?” I questioned.
I really didn’t get to hang out with Max often enough. Aside from working together, we didn’t really find the time to do anything. At least he had gotten the hang of using a cellphone so we could text on our off times. But generally, most of our jobs were just about hanging around and waiting for a creature all day, so I didn’t find I missed his company by not meeting after work.
“His mother’s death date is coming up this week. I know he’s tried acting like it doesn’t bother him but this time of year always hits him hard. He’s getting close to becoming a full adult and it upsets him that she’s not around for a celebration like that. He does care for his step mother, but it’s not really the same. He’s been getting into human culture lately and I figured you two doing something could cheer him up a little.” Rufus explained in a heavy tone that didn’t suit him.
I looked over toward Max, who had started sorting some letters. Sensing eyes on him, he turned and waved, then got back to work. I sort of understood how he felt. My mother left when I was younger, just disappeared into thin air. From time to time, news came up of her living somewhere or other, so I doubted she’d met some awful fate. She just decided she didn’t want a family any longer. I tried to pretend that I didn’t miss her, but that was a lie. I wanted to be angry at her for leaving and yet I couldn’t bring myself to feel any kind of negative emotion toward her beside being upset that she wasn’t around. It must be harder for Max to have lost his mother in a different way.
“We can totally have a sleep over. It’ll be fun.” I said, glad to be able to help in some way.
After all, hanging out with a guy that was basically an oversized puppy should be fun. But my luck didn’t hold out and I couldn’t just have one nice day with a friend.
That Friday, Max knocked at my apartment door around dinner time. He stood in the hallway holding a large pillow and dressed in a nightgown with soft shorts underneath it. His tail was wagging under the long shirt, moving the fabric. He had assumed that the long sleepwear was unisex, and I didn’t bother correcting him. As long as it made him happy it really didn’t matter what kind of PJs he wore.
I let him inside and got to ordering food. I knew how much he could eat and how excited he was to try out a bunch of different foods, so we ordered a lot. I also bought some candy and enough soda to drown a small country. I didn’t know if the caffeine would be alright due to him being part dog or whatever kind of supernatural creature he was, but he assured me it would be fine. Because I lived alone, I had put my T.V. in my bedroom and hooked it up to my computer. I rarely, if ever, used my living room. Instead of moving everything and getting that space set up, we just crashed in my bedroom for some movies.
Max ate through the pizzas I ordered and the Chinese food with no issues. And here I thought I might have leftovers. I don’t think he’d ever heard of leftovers before. For the first movie he looked in better spirits. All the sugar and caffeine might get him too hyper to deal with, but after the second movie started, he mellowed out a bit. I’ve never seen him this calm before and it freaked me out a little.
“Are you alright with scary movies, or do you want to watch something else?” I asked him.
We started out with The Evil Dead because I had the DVD on hand. I reflected that I might be one of the last people left who still had a DVD drive in their computer to watch movies with. Not even any blue-rays. I owned some animated movies and thought he might like some cartoons better. With a yawn he nodded his head and hugged the pillow tighter.
“The scary ones are fine. I like the zombie ones. The make up on the zombies make them look tasty.” He commented, but still sounded a bit tired.
Reaching down he found some jerky hidden away in our candy stash, and ate a mouthful. I gave him a look, wondering how my friend saw me. I considered if we ever got trapped someone while delivering mail if he might see me as emergency rations. At least I think he would agonize a little over the choice of eating me if it came to it.
As we watched a movie I’d seen at least a hundred times, I wondered if I should talk to Max about why he’d been invited over that night. Aside from acting so drained, he didn’t really seem like he felt upset over the loss of his mother. Since I’d been so young when mine disappeared, I didn’t really remember the date it happened. And it wasn’t a topic I brought up with my father at all. It’d been harder on him than on myself. My father acted distant while I grew up. I still loved him but we didn’t have the same kind of relationship Max and Rufus did. I sent him money and supported him as much as I could, but we didn’t talk. When I did call him, he tended to try and pressure me into finding a girlfriend and that was it. He knew nothing about my current job, since I lied and said I’d landed something in I.T, which he bought.
I glanced up at Max when he yawned, then reached for some more snacks. At one point I would like to ask him about what his mother was like. I think he would enjoy talking about her. Not tonight. After this movie we should go to bed super early. He looked like he needed the rest. Being so focused on my thoughts, I didn’t notice what his eyes started to focus on.
“Do you have a roommate?” He asked in a somewhat tensed tone.
“No, why?” I asked confused.
“Then… who is that?”
I followed where his clawed finger pointed to the open bedroom door. I normally keep it shut, but with two of us in the room it would have gotten too stuffy. I also kept the lights on in the hallway. Looking out into a dark doorway was a bit too creepy for me to handle after working my current job. My brain didn’t register what I saw for a few seconds because there shouldn’t be anyone else in my apartment. We both looked through the open door and to the dark shape standing at the end of the hallway. The entire form was black and without a face but I knew it stared back.
I did the only thing I could. I screamed like a little girl, sprang up and slammed the door. Footsteps came thudding down the hallway and I felt something charge against the door. Thankfully, I had also locked it on reflex and that kept it closed for now. The figure resorted to knocking and trying the handle instead of breaking down the door. I turned to ask Max what the hell just showed up and saw him trying to stand on uneven feet. When he fell forwards, I dove to catch him. We both sat on the floor, my friend feeling weak in my arms and just as scared as myself. His body flinching at every knock.
“I think that’s a ghost. No wonder why I was feeling so weird when I showed up. I really can’t-”
His words were cut off as we both let out a strangled scared noises seeing the door open. But who came through wasn’t the dark shape we feared. Although, the person who just crashed the sleepover wasn’t much better than a ghost. Belizas walked right inside and we screamed at her to not shut the door. But she’d already kicked it shut half a second after walking through it. The wooden locked door went back to being pounded on and rattled by the ghost on the other side.
With magic, creatures are able to connect two doorways together. The Mailing company gives their workers one charm a day to create a connection between doors just in case they get stuck somewhere, or want a fast way home. I guessed Belizas used her one free charm to invite herself over to the sleepover. From her reaction, she wasn’t aware of the situation she walked into. When she looked at us cowering on the floor holding each other, her face spread into a grin wondering what gossip she could spread.
“Is this a bad time?” She teased.
Hearing the doorknob rattling, she looked over her shoulder.
“It’s a ghost.” Max told her in a small voice.
“A ghost?” She asked and the word reached her brain very slowly.
Once it clicked, she jumped and piled onto us frightened as hell. I’ve never seen Belizas scared before and thought she was too dumb for that emotion. I struggled to get my head free from being clung onto from two very strong and scared creatures.
“It’s just a ghost! We dealt with them on the last delivery job, right? Why are you freaking out?” I asked her, trying to make sense of all of this.
“That was different! They had bodies I could punch!” She corrected.
I nearly got crushed to death when the spirit on the other side of the door got impatient. We all screamed again when an extra loud bang came from the door. At this rate the lock would give out soon. I didn’t know how we had gotten lucky enough to not have the thing inside the room yet. Belizas did something none of us had thought of yet. She jumped up and tugged at the window, desperate to get it open. With a yell of pain, she shot back nursing her suddenly raw hands. Both palms and the window sill smoked where she touched it. Cursing, she stomped around the room trying to calm down. I always thought Belizas could be the strongest creature I’d met, and yet she couldn’t do anything in this situation. She wasn’t used to being powerless and didn’t know how to react. For the first time I noticed her outfit. She had track pants on and a comfy sweater that was cropped leaving her stomach exposed. She really did just come here to crash our sleep over. I felt a pang in my chest and I wished that her inviting herself over had been the worst thing that happened that night.
“Are you telling me you two can’t do anything when it comes to spirits? Like, have you ever come across one like this before?” I asked.
Sweat started on my forehead. I needed to protect Max but didn’t even know where to start. If neither of them could do anything, then I had little to no hope of helping.
Belizas paused to think, which was never a good thing. Her train of thought tended to arrive to the station far too early. Since she never needed to dealt with a real ghost before, she didn’t know for sure that she couldn’t punch one. The only way to prove it wouldn’t work was to test it out. She moved too fast. I didn’t clue into what she had planned until her hand had already landed on the door handle. Max and myself shouted at her to stop, but she boldly opened the door and swung a fist into the dark shape’s empty face, and then fell forwards into the darkness. The entire thing formed into a black mist and wrapped around her body. Both her and the mist fell into the floor, our party crashers disappearing right in front of our eyes. I got up to go over to the spot where they been and found it freezing cold and empty. In frustration, I punched my fist against the floor only to hurt myself in the end.
“Where did it take her?” I asked mostly to myself.
“The basement, I think. It’s hard to tell but I sort of feel like they landed there.” Max replied and tried to get up again.
His legs shook and I needed to go back to him to support his weight. Him being this weak wasn’t natural. It might be related to the spirit but I didn’t know for sure yet. I helped him sit on my bed and got out my phone. Pausing at the screen, I didn’t know who to call. It wasn’t as if the Ghostbusters were a real thing. In all the time I worked with supernatural creatures, I didn’t make any connections or friends who could run over to help.
“Supernatural creatures like us have issues with ghosts. They drain our strength just by being near us. If they take too much, we could die. I’m scared that Belizas might get all of her internal magic stolen. If that happens then the ghost would be strong enough to actually hurt the humans in this building. Normally spirits are harmless and don’t have the energy to even be seen. I think it was draining my magic the entire time I was here… I’m sorry, I should have noticed sooner.” Max explained, looking as guilty as he felt.
“It’s not your fault. I should have known my place was haunted. Do you know if there is any way to save her?” I asked, quickly worried over how much time had already passed.
Max’s face looked pale. He shook his head, which worried me more. I almost got angry at Belizas. What was the point of letting her eat my arm if she couldn’t deal with one little ghost?
“There are some people who specialize in dealing with ghosts, but they’re always so backed up case-wise. They’re a part of a corporation that only cares about saving humans from supernatural creatures. I could try calling them, but they’ll only show up after she’s…”
Max trailed off, unable to finish his thought. Belizas did act like a pain in the ass most of the time, but we both wanted her safe. I paced a little, trying to think of a way out of all of this. In the end, I decided on something I really didn’t want to do. I thought back to the last delivery job and how I listened to those spirits. Dr. Wick said that been enough to lay them to rest. I had the chance of saving one of the world’s most annoying co-workers by putting myself in danger.
“I’m going down there.” I told Max, who weakly started to protest. “You should leave the building to be safe. Then call those ghost specialists and tell them what’s going on. They might show up if they know there’s a chance of this getting much worse. I might be able to save her before anything terrible happens though.”
Max didn’t look confident in the slightest. His big ears dropped to the side, making him look the saddest I’ve ever seen him. I hated how badly our fun movie night turned out to be. Because he was unable to think of any other plan but leaving Belizas to die, he caved and listened to me. I hurried him downstairs and saw him out the front door. He already had his phone in hand. Once he left the building, he started to look a little bit better. He wished me luck one last time. On slightly shaking legs, I turned back inside and headed toward the laundry room stairs.
The apartment building had a laundry room in the basement. The landlord kept the space as clean and well-lit as possible, but beyond the laundry room was the rest of the basement. No one was allowed inside, but the lock to the door had been broken since before I moved in. If you jiggle it just right, you could go into the dusty and dank basement. Because of all the spiderwebs and lack of lighting, no one really went inside beside the occasional teen to drink or smoke, thinking they’re acting sneaky.
It took a few minutes of fiddling with the lock to get inside the darker part of the basement. I used my phone as a flashlight and nearly tripped over leftover beer bottles by the door. A dull humming of some sort of machinery for the building made the place extra creepy. My hair on the back of my neck stood on end when a breeze of cold air hit my face. I kept telling myself to not freak out. After all, it was only a powerful angry ghost stalking in the dark.
Every step made my heart work overtime. I scanned the dark and cluttered room, trying to find Belizas. When my light landed on her I nearly choked on my own fear. The dark shape stood above her, the mist twisting around her limp body. I held back a yell of anger over the thing that was hurting my friend. I needed to be calm and understanding with this spirit or else I couldn’t help it finally rest.
“Hey, please leave her alone! I’m here! I’ll listen!” I half-shouted in a trembling voice.
When that thing turned a blank misty face in my direction, I nearly fainted. It started to gather its body together, ready to charge toward me. I wanted nothing more than to turn heel and run, but it wasn’t just Belizas I needed to save. It was everyone in the building and the ghost as well. I stood my ground when the mist cleared the distance in a second to wrap me up in what felt like a never-ending darkness.
For a long time, I couldn’t sense anything but a chill that went right down to my core. I fought to reach anything. Even if it was harmful, I couldn’t stand being in that darkness any more. My body came tumbling through the cold, finding a pin prick of light. It took ages to reach it but I finally found something other than the deathlike feeling to deal with.
Everything was hazy in that light. As if I started to watch a T.V set through fogged up glasses with the fog also being inside my brain. Forcing myself to focus, I started to get some details to come through. Somehow, I knew I landed in the nearly faded memories of the ghost. I told her I would listen, so she wanted to share whatever she still held of her life.
She lived before my apartment building had been finished. She no longer could remember her own name or her appearance. From what I could see of her, I guessed she was a very small teenager, still a child when she played with her friends in the unfinished basement of the apartments. That construction area turned into the most important place for her. Her and her friends did everything together there. They got some beers on occasion from a cool uncle of one of the friends, and sometimes cigarettes. She didn’t like smoking but did it to prove herself to the rest of them. She spent the best summer of her life hanging out, and even crawled out of her bedroom window late one night to have her first kiss in the unfinished basement.
The whole memory was of a long, almost forgotten teenhood that should have ended in all of the friends growing up to carry on their own lives. A summer to look back on fondly after becoming an adult. All of her friends got that chance, but she’d been left behind.
One day, she arrived early. The cool uncle was already there ready to offer drinks. She refused them and talked with him alone for the first time. As the conversation got longer, she started to feel uneasy. For some reason, the older man had always been vague about which friend he was related to. By the time she realized none of her friends really knew for certain who this man was, it become far too late for her. The entire time they hung out around him, they all assumed he’d been one of their uncles without anyone confirming it.
I turned my head away, unable to look at the rest. I sensed something at my back and noticed the dark shape of the ghost this small girl became over the years. I said I would listen and yet I refused when it got to the most important part. She wanted someone else to see, to know what happened in that dark space of the past. My chest nearly broke open from the pain of what I needed to watch. A small girl being strangled by someone she trusted. If anything else happened to her, she wasn’t certain. When she woke back up, she found herself in a dark cramped space, neck sore and unable to move.
Her eyes adjusted to find some light in the space. Turning her head on a stiff sore neck, she followed the sounds behind her. Her mouth was covered with tape, making it impossible to scream at what she saw. That man who thought she was dead had placed her inside an unfinished part of the wall. He had nearly covered the last part of the opening when their eyes met. For the first time, the memory became clear as she stared at her murderer’s shocked expression. He debated on what to do and picked the worst option. He finished sealing up the opening, trapping her inside and subjecting her to an unimaginably slow death.
I could feel the ghost at my back as we both experienced what it had been like to die within those walls. The frantic attempts at breaking free from the bindings. The fear of being alone in the dark and the hallucinations that came from dehydration. The poor girl cried and begged, wanting to see her mother one last time. To just be out of the dark at the very least. None of those pleas were answered. Even after her death, she stayed aware of the cold darkness. Of her body wasting away. And of the ones outside of the wall. She couldn’t see them, but she sensed when someone walked by. Her soul screaming out the same sentence over and over again for years.
“I’m right here!”
She had just wanted someone to find her.
A sadness overtook me. One that I almost lost my entire self to. It went beyond anything I’ve ever felt before.
One of her friends rented a room in the apartment, unaware they started to live above someone they lost so long ago. They raised a family while the girl trapped in the wall started to change. Instead of misery, her emotions turned darker. She hated her old friend for having the life she should have lived. Then, by sheer chance, her aging mother moved in for a while. No matter much she screamed, and no matter how much the hatred grew, no one heard her.
Only once her murderer came by. He stood outside the wall, drunk and dying from old age. He sobbed, begging her to forgive him. Deep down, she might have if he exposed where he buried her. Being the piece of human trash he was, he died without telling a soul what he’d done, leaving her to rot further.
All those emotions swirled around us. She wanted to take in as much energy from Belizas in order to tear apart the building and everyone inside it. Her hatred became misplaced and landed on everyone who lived so close without knowing she’d been there the entire time. Her rage only grew while reliving those memories. All that darkness was about to spill over into harming someone innocent.
“I’m here. I can see you.”
Fighting through all of her rage and hate, I found her hand somewhere in the middle of it all. The air grew still after I spoke. The twisted dark shape froze, then started to change into something smaller. Instead of an angry vengeful ghost, there stood a scared little girl. Her face was blurry, but I knew her eyes were filled with tears.
“Did you find me?” She asked in a voice so soft I barely heard her.
Tears of my own flooded my eyes. Unable to help myself, I took her into a tight hug, telling her everything I wanted her to hear through the years. How sorry I felt this happened to her, and how I wished I could have gotten to her sooner. Her own emotions broke as we both cried, holding onto each other as if nothing else existed. We couldn’t change the past no matter how much we wanted. The only thing to do was to move forwards.
I wanted to stay with her a bit longer. A voice calling out my name distracted us. She knew I needed to go and calmed down enough to be alone again. At least it wouldn’t be for very long. After I woke up, I would tear down the wall on my own if I needed to. I promised her that she would never be forgotten again. Then, we were separated.
“Toby, are you alright?”
I found myself on my back on the cold cement. Max sat beside me, looking down with a scared look on his face. I heard other people moving around and thought the basement was too bright. He helped me sit up to see men in suits moving around. They had already started to take apart the far wall and quickly put up a tarp to hide their progress. My body felt stiff and painful. My chest hurt most of all, and my face was cold from tears. Soon, a man in a suit joined Max and helped me to a chair. His long white hair was tied back, and he removed his sunglasses to show off red eyes. After having seen a real albino, I knew this man just had white hair. The rest of his body held bits of pigment, making him look a bit off.
“I’m Manny. My job is dealing with ghosts like the one you just faced. I assume you had a bad time, but you’re alive which is honestly pretty lucky. Do you know your name? Your age and all that?” He asked in a kind voice.
He handed me a bar of chocolate that I really didn’t want to eat. With some prodding, I nibbled on the side of the bar and answered some basic questions to prove I hadn’t lost my mind. Max got a peanut butter cup and I fretted over him having chocolate as well. Manny assured me that dogs could have a little bit without making them too sick. Max could have one small piece, and he’d surely earned it. When it didn’t look like the ghost experts would come over, Max threatened to use all his family connections unless someone got over to my apartment to deal with the ghost and to save his friend. I learned then that his step mother was sort of a big deal and he could use some leverage if needed, but disliked doing so.
“What’s going to happen with her?” I asked, as I looked at the tarp covering the wall.
Manny sighed looking already tired.
“We’ll identify her and return her to the family. If she doesn’t have any, then we can arrange a service. And we’ll do our best to figure out who did such a thing. Even if the murderer has passed on, we’ll still track them down for the sake of the victim.” He explained.
At least she’ll get her name back. Looking around, I spotted Belizas sleeping against a wall, someone having placed their suit jacket over her like a blanket. In the end, everything turned out as well as it could have.
“Is she still here? The ghost I mean?” I asked, the exhaustion starting to set in.
“It’s hard to say. I think you took care of her, but she’ll never really be gone. Not as long as you’re alive. The problem that comes with ghosts is you’ll always become haunted afterwards. Every death affects the living in some way. She may have been laid to rest by your efforts, but no matter what, you’ll carry her until you die.” Manny said, speaking from experience.
I wondered how many ghosts he’d dealt with and just how many people he carried with him. I imagined this job wasn’t easy and most people couldn’t do it very often. I doubted I could deal with another ghost again. Even if they weren’t overly dangerous, I couldn’t carry the heavy weight in my chest of another person’s death. I tried to stand, finding that my legs refused to listen. Manny and Max took over, helping me back to my apartment. My body shut down the moment someone got me to bed and I didn’t even hear when someone carried Belizas upstairs as well.
When I woke up later the next day, it was almost the afternoon. My body was heavy and felt hot. Something tickled my nose and I tried to raise my arm, thinking it was just a stray hair. I found my arm too heavy to move. For a moment I freaked out, thinking my false arm stopped working. I opened my eyes to see the cause of my uncomfortable state. Max had curled up on one side, his arms tight around my chest and fluffy ears on my face. Belizas was on my other side, her legs twisted around my own and arms somehow tangled into Max’s and mine. It took a few minutes to sit up and to not wake them. I looked to either side, wondering when they both crashed in my small bed and how I could explain such a sight if anyone saw this. Good thing no one had any reason to be in my apartment to walk in on this.
“Hey boys how was…”
My heart stopped when my bedroom door opened and Rufus stuck his head inside. He used his free door charm to come and check up on his son without asking permission. Mind you, it wasn’t as if he thought we would be doing anything that needed some privacy. His eyes landed on us, and his face froze in a friendly smile. His entrance didn’t wake up either of the two still clinging to my side. He didn’t say anything else. His expression was still pleasant, but clearly he’d started to internally panic at what he walked in on. I couldn’t even explain myself by the time he closed the door.
I really wished that ghost had swallowed me up, or killed me that night. I would never live this sleepover down.