; || ✔ COMPLETED

Part 1

Shoutout to @francesmoe for 'collaborating' with me in this short story. (This was one of our requirements in English class if y'all are wondering lmao)

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xoxo

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A semicolon is used when a sentence could have ended, but it wasn't.

-Unknown

It was another day in the English capital. A young man of about nineteen walks on pavement, not careful to slip or hit the passer-by's. He sighs as he leans back on the front wall of a hip café, his hands in his pockets, his faux leather jacket glistening in the rain. There was not much to do, so he kept tapping his right foot, but it barely made a sound. His head was down; the tips of his brown hair touched his eyelashes. If you looked him from afar, he would look like a vocalist of a ratchet rock band, although you won't see him; he is a ghost, after all.

"What am I still doing here anyway?" he thought, "I'm already dead, aren't I?"

He thinks of making another fun stunt. He stole some clothes from Topman once, which he is currently wearing. He doesn't prefer the white hospital gowns, his specifically already smelt of death. He smiled, remembering that time, when he was a new soul, wandering about, trying to remember something he forgot that might be important, when he saw an old soul, making a ruckus in the tube. He had a menacing smile - it both influenced and scared him but that old man taught him how to hold things, touch things, another privilege that only belonged to living humans. It was a useful skill. It helped him ease his boredom, to say the least.

He stared at the small vintage signage in front of the library across the street. It read, "QUOTE OF THE DAY: I want the world to know that everybody deserves a second chance. - El DeBarge". He snorted, thinking of how easy and carefree human's lives are.

He recalled of the things he knew, as if to make sure that he won't forget, that his name was Adam, he was a male young adult, or at least he tried to believe, when he died. Those are the only information he knows. Every time he tries to remember his death, his mind goes blank, like how a preschool pupil tries to solve an algebraic problem but he let it be, since he is comforted by the thought that he'll never know.

"I seriously have no business to do here anymore, I have no mission to complete nor regret to correct. Why doesn't the Light get me yet? I'd even submit to going to The Nether rather than stay here in the surface." He wondered about this every single day.

His days are fast, each of them went in a blur until autumn came at last. It was the start of October, the month of Halloween, when living humans celebrate the so-called Death. If they only knew what souls and monsters really look like in the Wandering Realm - humans know it as the purgatory, they would hide in fear, not memorialize them.

Adam wasn't excited, he couldn't be bothered at how the atmosphere changes, it has all been the same for him. He just continued to sigh and waited for the time that it may be his turn to go up the Heavens or down The Nether. He sat down on a nearby bench.

"Hey."

The female voice shook Adam out of his thoughts. She couldn't possibly be talking to him, right? He was invisible, part of the background.

"Hey! What are you thinking so deeply of?"

Adam frowned. When will this woman go? Just who is she talking to?

"What is your problem? I'm trying to be nice here, mister!" the voice snapped.

He glanced at the direction of the woman's voice, and was surprised that a pair of green eyes returned his gaze.

"Look. I'm just trying to help here. I've seen you for days, just walking around. The moment you sat on this bench, I thought maybe I can talk to you and, you know, help a stranger in need, but no, you just stared at the ground like you didn't hear me. Didn't your mother teach you that it was rude not to acknowledge a person's presence? That's so offensive of you!" she furiously ranted.

"Wait. Are you saying that you were talking to me?" He was astonished.

"Yes!"

"You dared to talk to me?"

"Bloody hell. Yes! Why? Am I not allowed to talk to you? Are you the secret son of the queen?" She sneered sarcastically.

It was at this that Adam realized the woman was a human whose Eye had been opened.

"And now you're ignoring me again! You know what, I give up. If you do-"

Adam quickly covered the woman's mouth. He thought that people are going to have wrong ideas about the silly woman that was trying to talk to thin air.

"Follow me." He said.

The woman frowned but still followed him anyway.

Adam led her to a dark alley so that no one could see the both of them talking. Or at least the woman talking to herself.

"Um, what are we doing here?" The woman said nervously.

"Oh." He understood that the woman got the wrong idea again. "No, no." he said, trying to clear all the woman's misunderstandings "I'm not going to do anything to you. Seriously. Trust me."

"How can I trust you? I just met you!" she said, backing away, as if getting ready for an attack.

"Listen. You were the one who approached me. You wanted explanations for my actions. You wanted to know what my problems are. So, would you please listen? You put yourself here, so there's no sense of trying to back away." Adam answered.

"Fine."

"I'm a ghost." He blurted out.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm a ghost. You know, like in the movies, like people who go through walls, float, and have a sheet of white cloth over them?"

"No, I mean, I know what a ghost is but saying you are a ghost? Please." she laughed.

"I'm serious!"

"Well, whatever floats your boat, I guess. I spent way too much time with a weird stranger. I'm sorry for bothering you, have fun with your ghostly friends!" She said, trying to make a run for it but Adam became very desperate, so he grabbed the woman's arm to stop her.

"You're making a huge mistake. I really am a ghost."

"Whatever." She said as she shrugged off Adam's grip.

At that, Adam finally gave up and sighed, letting the female stranger run away.

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