Dead?

Ghost Friend

    Michael leaned against the brick fence along his apartment. Maxine and Katrina said they would be around within the hour. Maxine was still convinced about the realms even allowing Katrina to stay up at her house. Though he could not imagine that especially Maxine shared a room with her younger sister.

        She had mentioned seeing a man claiming to have a demon staff bust because of a ghost he was trying to send away. The word demon for most the people they did bump into during their Pastor Wendell days was a catch-all word for anything that wasn't human. Everything to them even the gentler folk that came across their paths were "demons". Demons, demons and demons, everywhere but when one questioned why everything was under "demon" --- they had the audacity to question if he was in fact human still.

          At a young age being fearful of adults who had the potential to point fingers at as being some sort of demon. It was traumatizing to say the least. The Pastor had regular meetings with the other adults that participated in the program away from Michael for a few months before they finally all agreed that he was fine.

          Well, some of them agreed. Michael involuntarily shivered, pulling him out of his thoughts-- Maxine was just a few buildings away from him.

            To solve whether or not their ghost friend was in fact from somewhere else was a great distraction. The job interviews he keeps torturing himself with aren't going as well as he would like them to. A lot of older businesses on the other end of the place with a lot of dead folk walking around in the offices, through the walls, standing in the middle of the coffee pots. Things like that, some having loud conversations over machinery that isn't there any longer. To the newbie ones who don't know how they even got to the area and try to touch everything -- even him during the interview, which was the case this morning.

          Katrina came down the block just minutes after Maxine. Maxine looked pissed off about something, and just handed him a small black book.

              "How was the sleepover?"

           "Our ghost friend here snores loudly." Maxine glared away from Michael. Katrina simply shrugged, "And talks in her sleep. I had to listen to some jotty conversations about Eliza."

             "Who is Eliza?" He looked at Katrina finally which allowed Maxine to know which direction to give her crabby looks at.

             "My girlfriend. Next week we'd have been together two years." 

           Maxine''s face soften at that. Even he wanted to hug her the way she was standing there twisting a gold chain that was around her neck. It glittered as the rays from the sun touched it.

            "Wait," Michael turned to look at Maxine, "how is that even happening?"

            "Because I can fucking see what's going on?" Maxine snorted, a older woman walked by them shaking her head at them, "Maybe we should do this in your place."

               He followed behind, the necklace's shine diminishing a little as they walked through the dark hallways of the apartment complex. It was old., lighting was shoddy and had frequent visits from plumbers, electricians, and the city. A wonder really how it has stayed open so long without being condemned. Children raced by playing a game that involved plastic toy creatures flying through the air, giggling along the way. Sometimes they played hide and go seek in the dark with flashlights in the hallways

               Even though quite old the place was mostly void of ghosties. Maxine believes it is because of how entirely shitty the place is that not even ghosts want to be seen near it.  The hallway that lead up to his apartment, the lights couldn't decide whether to stay on or not. There was no windows, and the only reason he knew where the girls were was the small flash of Katrina's necklace and Maxine's bright sunny dress. His place rested toward the other side of the hallway, he stumbled around some of the kid's toys -- children occupied the hallways on every level even the ground floor where they weren't supposed to be at all.

            He stepped, loud ear splitting siren blasted through the hallway, the lights spinning around the room. Loudly he fell, cussing all the way down trying to keep himself upright.

             "Michael, what the hell?" Maxine turned, her dress flairing around her as she took off back in his direction. Katrina turned seeing nothing -- murkiness -- the only thing she could see was the the outline of Maxine.