Forgotten

III - Unwanted

I sit down next to Micah. "First thing's first, why can you see me?"

"Well, that's my problem. I don't know. You're supposed  to be dealing with this on your own or with whatever other dead people you can find. Look here, there are a ton of different types of ghosts," Micah replies, flipping through a book to a particular page. "There's you, obviously. Poltergeists. Apparently they're pretty rare, because most people have lots of people to remember them. The thing is, the people have got to want  to remember you. You just walked out on us all, and I'm the only one who wants to remember you. But the thing is, it looks like I don't count. Because I can see ghosts, it doesn't seem like my memory affects you at all. You looked almost human yesterday, and now even I'm having a hard time seeing you. Can you see you?"

I look at my hands. I can clearly see things through them - a lot more than I could when I first died. "Point taken. What are the other types of ghosts?"

"Well, there's banshees. They're the screaming ones. They actually sometimes come to warn people of poltergeists. Maybe the two of you just don't get along, but we might see a banshee at some point. There are orbs, too. They're harmless observers. They don't try to communicate like you do. If they died a peaceful death, such as passing away in their sleep, they might become an orb. It's usually this way if they have a lot of people to remember them. Then there's the Heard. their voices are audible, and they try to communicate through talking. There's also the Seen. People can occasionally see them very faintly. If you haunt someone for long enough, they'll begin to see you. One that's been mentioned is a boggle, which is a ghost that specifically tries to annoy people. There are also sickness ghosts. If someone dies in agony due to a sickness, they go wherever their name is spoken. Those who say their name are stricken with an unknown illness that passes after a  few days. There's also a type of ghost that causes madness in the ones it haunts. These are pretty rare, so you don't hear about them much. There are those more dangerous that will brutally kill anyone who walks on their grave. They take a long time about it, so just don't walk on their grave. There are also some ghosts that are always hungry. They're usually ones who died hungry or starved to death. They eat any food that's left out, but they never eat all of it. Drowned ghosts somettimes try to drown living people they knew, and they leave wet footprints wherever they go. And--" Micah pauses and frowns. "I did try to memorise them all, but I don't think I quite managed it."

"That's fine," I laugh. "As fun as it is having a pet nerd, that was a bit, erm... Slightly not very interesting. But it's good that you know what to look out for. If you died, I don't know what I'd do." I knock his pile of books off the table.

He sighs. "As fun as it is having a pet poltergeist, that was a bit, erm... Really irritating." He gets up off his chair and crouches down to pick up the books.

"Why can you see me, though?" I ask.

"By the looks of things, I can see all ghosts. There isn't really a reason why."

"And why aren't you bothered about all the blood on my chest?"

He grins. "You know I watch a lot of zombie films. I guess I'm a bit desensitised to that sort of thing. Pablo, do you think you could try to possess something? I want to see if you can. All of these books suggest that you should be able to possess things and people."

"How do I do that, then?" I ask.

"You don't," snaps a voice from behind us. A woman glares at me. "I've worked here for decades. Poltergeists are not welcome in here."

"You can see me?" I gasp. "Who are you?"

"I'm one of the librarians," she tells me. "And I hate poltergeists more than I hate banshees. If you dare mess with things, I'll call a medium to get rid of you."