~~~Chapter One~~~
Ben cried out as he was thrown forcefully against the wall. As he fell to the ground, his body distorted; like a computer glitching. He gasped for breath, the wind being knocked out of him. The man infront of him chuckled, kicking him once in the stomach and muttering, "That's what you ghosts get when you enter the human world, you piece of shit."
Before the man walked away, he reached into his backpack and poured a bottle of water on Ben. Bloody tears rolled down the boys face, dripping onto his tunic like paint splatters. He took a long shaky breath, leaning his head against the wall in the alleyway.
"Help..." He whined softly, not thinking about what someone would think if they found him. Honestly, he didn't care right then.. He was hurt and could barely breath. Anything was better then this.
"Please..." He sobbed out, desperate for someone, anyone to help. He opened one eye slightly as he heard footsteps approaching, flinching as the person knelt down in front of him in the dark.
"...Ben?!" A familiar voice said with a concerned tone. Ben's eyes snapped open, to be greeted by a white face with a smile carved into it. Hope rose up in Ben as he stared into his best friends eyes, tears still falling in a steady stream down his face.
"Jeff... Help..." Ben's voice was soft, weak, barely audible over the noisy street directly to the left of them. Jeff gently grabbed Ben around his waist, pulling him up on his feet. Yet, the other boy was to weak to support his own weight so he fell forward against the taller boy when he was let go, groaning in pain. Jeff quickly lowered Ben back on the ground, not wanting to hurt him any more.
"You're wet..." Jeff said with a small sigh. Ben just noddded in return, hanging his head. He was ashamed of how weak he was at the moment, he hadn't been this weak since... well, his drowning. It was like all of his pwer had been simultaneously sucked out of him. He had someone to help him, now all he needed was to get back home but he couldn't do that without Jeffs help.
As he was slowly picked up by the killer, he whined from the immense amount of pain shooting through his body. He had to of broken something during that beating. Maybe multiple things. Jeff slowly walked away from the alley and onto the side walk of the main street with his hood covering most of his face, "Hang in there. I'll get you back home and to Ms. P so she can heal you."
The small ghost closed his eyes and relaxed in his friends arms as he walked. Conciousness slowly drifting away from him, and to his relief the pain was also drifting away. As he breathed, he could feel an obvious broken rib. Only made obvious by the pain whenever he took a breath in, unfortunatly this pain would not subside like the other ones did during his loss of conciousness.
Jeff glanced down quickly at Ben, walking a bit faster towards the only way to get to The Underrealm he can think of, "Ben no, don't fall asleep." Jeff pleaded with him, not completely sure if Ben could die again, but not willing to take any risks. As the other boy completely lost conciousness, Jeff quickened his pace into a jog towards the gas station.
When inside, he went straight to the bathroom. Ignoring the employee calling to him. He looked into the mirror, trying to remember how to get back to the underrealm through this. He sat Ben down on one of the closed toilet seats and closed the stall, walking out of the bathroom.
As soon as he was back in the store part of the Gas station he began looking for First Aid items. Shuffling around the store with his hood up, after bringing a passed out person into the bathroom at 10 pm was probably not the smartest thing in the world. Needless to say, Jeff was not the smartest thing in the world.
Jeff looked up quickly as a police officer came into the gas station, immediatley spotting the strange looking boy and pursuing him, warning him to put his hands up.
