Who? *Complete*

Blood

"Yeah, I guess that's what all humans bleed", Caleb mocks as he tries to stop blood flowing from his hands. "I'll wash my hands and come back."

Not even once I can stop looking at Kage's hand. This is so new and shockingly good. This means maybe he's finally coming to life.

We all humans want to die so badly and this guy sitting next to me is dying to live.

"Excuse me guys, I need to use the restroom." I walk away from the table motioning for Kage to follow me there. Because a cafeteria full of students is not a good place to talk to yourself.

As soon as we get out of the cafe, I grab Kage's arm and inspect the blood on it. This seems a pretty bad cut I don't know if Caleb will be able to stop it without stitches.

"What does this mean?", I ask Kage with hope of an answer. A real one.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" He replies as he pulls his hand away from mine and reaches for his box of needles in his pockets.

Before I could tell Kage to not do any stupidity, Caleb appears behind me and asks what I'm doing here. I brush off his question with mine.

"How's your hand?" I ask.
He brings his hand up, to show me the cut and replies, "uh... Not so well. The bleeding isn't stopping. I went to the nursing room and currently they don't have any sewing needles around. Out of stock I guess."

Anna comes out of the lunch room with Joana. They both leave for library to complete their homework as the next class is literature, and Mr. McAndrew is on leave.
Luckily Caleb has his football practice which doesn't start anywhere in next 30 minutes.

Me, Kage and Caleb leave for the football ground which is completely empty. We take one of the bleacher and breath in the fresh air. I'm mesmerized by the view of perfectly mowed green grass and how beautiful the stands look when they're empty.

Caleb and Kage's hand is still bleeding. I offer Caleb a juice and leave for the juice stall behind the bleachers.

"Is it paining?", I ask Kage as I search for icepacks and pineapple juice bottle.
"Yes, a bit", he is still in shock.

I leave the icepacks on the stall and reach in Kage's front pockets to grab the needle box. "I can do it", he says and grabs my arm with his bleeding hand. His contoured face tells that he suddenly realized that the cut does hurt.

"Stop acting as if you're a rock." I say angrily shrugging off his hand from mine. I take one of the needle and start passing it through Kage's arm. I pass the needle several times but nothing happens. The blood just keeps flowing like water from a tap.

"Kage..." There's a hint of frightness in my voice.
Kage pulls his hand away, grabs the bottle of juice and throws it on the ground in anger. I flinch and he walks away.

"Tori, is everything alright?"
I immediately rub away my tears and turn to see Caleb standing behind me with his bleeding hand.
"Yeah, just the bottle of juice tripped over. But the good thing is, I found sewing needles. Hope they work." I say with a faint smile on my face.

The needle worked perfectly on Caleb's cut. After meeting Kage I learned a lot about cuts and stitches. So, I got Caleb's hand stitched and bandaged in time for his football practice.

I sit there on the bleacher under the bright shinning sun and winter's cold breeze watching Caleb do his soccer magic.

And as I see Caleb score several goals, laugh, making fun of his friends and teach his teammate's the trick, I wonder how alone Kage might feel. And worst part is that I can't do anything about it. Books and me is all he has. Before I moved to Mizu, his existence didn't even matter.

When we first met I asked him his name. "I've never had one. Never felt the need to introduce myself to anyone before, as no one can see me." Was all he said.

That answer shattered my heart into a million pieces. So I got my fun and motivated look on my face and said, "Until now. How about 'Kage'?"

Kage likes to pretend as if he doesn't have emotions, as if he doesn't care. But I know, that only his body is invisible, not his emotions. He never smiles. Laughter and Kage is an alienated concept. He never cries and never lets his face give even a hint of sadness. Anger and rudness is all he knows. What happened on the juice stall was him confusing his sadness with anger.

Maybe Kage bleeding blood instead of darkness meant something. Something like him coming to life.

Why wouldn't he be sad? After all he is a normal teenager like all of us. But he won't accept this.

"It stopped." I turn my head to my left side and see Kage sitting there, watching everyone lift Caleb on his shoulders and hooting.
"The bleeding stopped, migically. And now I have these stitches." Now he faces me and raises his hand to show the result.
I couldn't contain my excitement and jump on him throwing my arms around his neck and hug him.
"I hope you do realize we're in a public place where it is not normal for people to hug ghosts." Aah!! My typical Kage.
"And I hope that you do realize how huge of a buzz killer you are." I say getting back to my seat being annoyed his attitude.

"Am I interrupting your ghostly sessions, Kage?", Anna says dropping her huge bag on the floor and herself on the bleacher.

"No Anna you're not. And please stop pretending as if you can see him it's really freaky." I say rolling my eyes.

"Don't stop her. I like it." Kage acts all so interested in her.

"I knew you liked her!" I snap at Kage.

"Kage likes me?" Anna asks, moving her head and eyes around, in the empty bleachers as if a blind man searching for light.

"What?! No! Caleb likes her.... I have a feeling." Kage says with confusion in his voice.

"I also like you very much, Kage, but I'm not sure if this human and invisible ghost thing will work..." Anna tells, trying not to hurt his invisible feelings.

"I'm also sorry Anna, but I like someone else." I could feel Kage's eyes on me while he say that, as if waiting for me to decode a hidden message in that confession, for someone.

What is that hidden message and for whom is it?

To be continued....