Flashfire

Ch4

Liam was very apprehensive about what they would do next. It was a Wednesday morning and the two of them had a slow customer day, just like always.

"Liam, are you ready to go to the tracks?" Caleb asked.

"Yes," he said absentmindedly.

He was not ready, but once again they had to do it. Liam and Caleb needed to look for clues. What clues? For how exactly it was that Liam died and became a ghost. In his human form he felt powerful, as he could touch the wood grain of the barstools and the floor again without worrying about slipping right through. He could also annoy Caleb in his very human way, but he was also afraid.

Liam had no idea what happened, no memory of what went down that night that he took his last breath before he was violently squashed under the weight of a hundred wheels, but he knew that the train had ignored the impact as if he were a bug on a windshield. The conductor was oblivious that he had just hit a man and raced away into the night, leaving Liam's body for the scavenging animals who were just trying to get through the night.

He felt the weight of his death more when he was in the flesh, humiliating and inconsequential. Liam wasn't sure if he wanted to know the person who had done this to him. He hesitantly slipped off of the barstool and followed Caleb outside, the dinging of the bell above their heads bringing him back to the present. They stepped out onto the curb and Caleb opened the passenger door to their '94 Honda Civic for Liam to get in.

"I can open doors for myself, Caleb. I'm not a ghost," Liam said. He brightened with a smile as he did his seat belt. "Although if I were-"

"Let's not talk about it now," Caleb said.

It made Caleb uncomfortable whenever Liam brought it up. Even when there wasn't an audience to hear them, he didn't like Liam talking about being dead (and subsequently undead). Liam didn't grasp what was so wrong with it. He thought it was especially odd after Caleb had bought that creepy book off of Amazon full of spells, as though that were something that someone just did; but somehow, this was an unnatural conversation.

Liam simply nodded and went quiet until they could find something else to talk about. Fortunately, it never took Liam very long.

"Well, that bird sure did hit the window hard! It really cracked its head wide open, just boom right there and it was down. I've never seen a bird like that, have you? I don't remember taking a picture of that one and I have a whole gallery of birds saved in my phone. Nope, it looked like it came from somewhere else."

Caleb raised his brows. "It looked normal to me."

"Did the bird make it out okay?"

Caleb shook his head.

Liam couldn't help but to feel a little sad, even though he had encouraged Caleb to just put it out of its misery. He hated that they only prolonged its suffering and now felt guilt heavy in his chest.

"Oh, that's why the trash can smelled so bad," he said, instead of voicing his thoughts.

"He wasn't meant much longer for this world," Caleb said.

The way he voiced this was very dramatic, and it made Liam laugh. Then he winced.

Caleb looked over when they slowed at a yellow light, causing the car behind them to honk. "What's wrong?"

"My head hurts," he said.

Everything still hurt, but he didn't want to look like a big baby in front of Caleb. Sometimes Liam felt that their relationship was still in the awkward phase where he would watch him from behind the bar, cleaning glasses and pretending not to notice when the other would come in on the weekend and order a drink. He waited for the day when Caleb would start a conversation. Then one day, Liam could no longer wait.

One night Caleb walked in with a bird pin on his jacket. Caleb was very quiet as he listened to the bartender go on about how he loved it and that it was shiny and nice, and that a bird would ironically love it too as it was shiny, and to protect himself walking out lest one fly and snatch it right off of his jacket very violently. Then he noticed that the man's smile was tight as he spoke, and he thought that he had messed up and that Caleb would never come back again.

Caleb stayed for a while longer and then walked out. Liam sulked, thinking he messed up again! However, for whatever reason that Liam would never know, it actually worked. The man came back into the bar the very next morning. He thanked his gift for always being able to find something to talk about, especially when it was related to birds, even though it was a curse sometimes.

What he loved the most about Caleb is that he never, ever told him to shut up.

"Jesus!" Caleb shouted.

The light turned green and the car behind them honked impatiently, almost ramming into their bumper.

The car swerved around them as they started to move and turned right, racing down the road. It was an all-black car with the windows tinted so much it had to be illegal.

"I wonder where they were going," Liam said.

"Wherever it was they're going to end up in the ER."

"Because they're going to crash?"

"No, someone is going to pull them out of their car and beat them up."

The businesses turned into houses that grew more sparse and wider apart as they drove. Next up ahead were the old, dilapidated homes and businesses; a barbershop owned by a family that moved before either of them were even born, a donut place that now only served cobwebs, a house partially hidden by the overgrowth of trees and bushes that should have had a wrecking ball taken to it thirty years ago, but was now the place where kids went to drink and look for spirits.

Even with the sun shining right overhead the windows of these places seemed to be unnaturally blacked out, like the car that nearly hit them. Liam hated this place. They slowed and turned into the parking lot of the Cash for Clunkers place where they had gotten their car, then walked across and up the short hill that led to the railroad tracks. The police tape was worn away with time, the yellow browning as it faded and fell limply.

Liam noticed that they moved on very fast.