'I don't really want to take that chance.'
The man smiled again.
'Oh, Ryuuhei, you don't have that option.'
'I could just disappear right now, so I think I do.' I replied, trying to keep my composure. What did he mean, I didn't have that option?
'I can not only see ghosts, but touch them as well.'
With that he lunged towards me, and did he half move fast for an old man. I might have had the mental age of a two hundred year old, but I was trapped in my twelve year old body and didn't have a chance. He grabbed me and pinned me down, grinning.
'Get off!' I shouted, thrashing my arms and legs. I wouldn't let him do this to me! Next thing I knew, he had hoisted me up and was carrying me towards another room.
As soon as he stepped through the door, the atmosphere changed. It was suddenly heavier, darker and felt dangerous, as if the power contained inside the walls was strong enough to kill me- again. The room was dimly lit with candles on the floor in a circle made from what appeared to be blood. In the circle was written what appeared to be latin. Too bad I didn't pay attention at school. I saw that the walls were covered in charms, and I knew there'd be no escape.
He instructed me to lie down in the middle of the circle, and I reluctantly obliged, mentally kicking myself.
As I lay there, staring up at a complex pattern on the black ceiling and preparing myself for immense pain, I wondered how the hell I'd even ended up in that mans office.
'Ryuu!' A shout came from nearby. Well, not a shout, but a thought. Ghosts that died together could use telepathy, so we rarely spoke. I looked up from the chair on which I sat to see Taiga running towards me. He was still in the body of an infant, but had the mental age of someone much older.
'Hey, Taiga,' I grinned. He sat down beside me.
'Why don't we ever see Mother or Father here?' He asked me, his dark eyes full of curiousity locking onto mine.
When you die, you have two choices. Either go to meet your maker, and end up in Heaven or Hell, or become a ghost. We both chose ghost, not for some revenge scheme or daring plan, but purely because we were young boys and wanted to cause mischeif. Of course, that would only happen if we were poltergeists, which we weren't, so instead we just floated around, being boring.
Once you become a ghost, you have a choice to cross over to the other side whenever you wanted, but there a higher risk of not making it to the other side, and instead falling into an abyss of emptyness for the rest of your existence, with nothing but your thoughts for company. That was why we were both still wandering Earth two hundred years later.
'They probably crossed over to Heaven.' I replied, though it made little sense. People who died violently often became vengeful spirits. Then again, I couldn't imagine my parents hurting others. They were so kind, they didn't deserve to die like that.
Taiga nodded in agreement.
'Also, I've found someone who claims to be able to see ghosts. Lets go scare him!'
That was how we ended up outside Matt Davidson's office, Taiga hiding behind me. This would be our first human contact for two hundred years.
We floated through the door and came into the office. The man before us, presumably Matt, had white hair growing in tufts from his head, small 'harry potter' style glasses and a long beard. Everything about him either screamed 'wizard' or 'mad scientist'. I was beginning to think that the two were the same thing.
