Dead Boys Walking

Purgatory

Connor Murphy had not intended to spend his morning in a grey room, with no windows. Actually, he had intended to spend his morning dead, as he had tried to kill himself the day before. Instead, he was lying on the floor of a large, empty room with no recollection of what had happened since he overdosed. He was unsure of whether he had been there for only a few minutes, or several hours, because there was no way to tell what time it was. 

I must be in the hospital. Connor thought to himself. But if he was in the hospital, surely there would be a bed. Connor stood up and brushed himself off, surprised that he could do so easily. Strangely enough, he wasn't in any pain. In fact he could not feel anything.

"They must have me on some pretty strong painkillers." He said aloud to no one in particular. 

He looked around the room, which was still grey and empty. This time, he noticed the important detail that he had missed before, which was that there was no door.

"Stupid room with no doors." Connor muttered, kicking the wall. After kicking the wall, and feeling no pain in his leg, he began to feel along the walls of the room for a secret door of some kind.

After a while, Connor got tired of this exercise in futility, so he lay back on the ground and proceeded to scream at the ceiling until he grew tired of that too. Just as the boredom was becoming unbearable, a rectangular exit opened up in the wall, seeming to form out of thin air. Instead of finding himself in the hallway of a hospital or a house, Connor saw that he had only entered another grey room, only this one seemed to go on forever. It stretched out infinitely in front and to the side of him, and when he turned around, the doorway was gone, too, leaving yet another infinite expanse in its place. 

Confused, Connor chose a random direction, and walked, hoping to find something of interest. The only thing that made this larger room better than the first, was that there were, occasionally, random objects on the ground. Most of these objects were socks or trash, but a few were more exciting items, such as an old pistol, a fresh rose, and a bottle of wine. Connor eagerly   chugged down the wine in the bottle, but didn't feel even the least bit tipsy, so he continued forward. Finally, he saw a figure in the distance. Even though he wasn't a big people person, Connor was relieved to see another human being and ran towards the stranger. The other figure noticed him and beckoned to him.

As Connor got closer, he saw that the stranger was a handsome young man who appeared to be around Connor's age, with dark hair, a long, black coat,  and a cigarette in hand.

"Where are we?" Connor asked.

The boy smirked. "Name's Jason Dean, JD for short. I'm guessing you're new here." 

"You didn't answer my question." Connor persisted. "I need to get home. My parents are worried."

JD laughed, "Yeah, they're worried all right. You're dead, my friend. Welcome to purgatory."

Connor looked at JD in stunned silence. Eventually he managed to stammer out a reply. "No, I can't be dead. I'm here talking to you right now."

"Well, Sport," JD drawled, "That would be on account of the fact that I'm also dead. In fact, I've been dead since the late eighties. I died in an explosion, and nearly took my whole school with me. How'd you go out?"

"I overdosed." Connor told JD. "Not that I believe I'm dead. Maybe this is a dream."

"Don't waste your time thinking that this is a dream..." JD trailed off, "Sorry, what's your name?"

Connor told JD and started to walk away, hoping to find someone with answers that he liked better. 

JD noticed that Connor was leaving and fell in step with him saying, "It's not often you come across others around here. We should stick together. Otherwise, it might be ten years before either of us comes across another person."

Connor wasn't sure he liked the idea of spending ten years with JD, but he reluctantly agreed and let JD tell his story. JD seemed to have lived a very sad life, until he met Veronica, who he believed to be the girl of his dreams. JD and Veronica accidentally killed one of Veronica's school friends, but managed to stage it to look like a suicide. Then...

"You killed two more people?" Connor looked at JD in disgust.

"Yes." JD said rather impatiently. 

"And you made Veronica an accomplice?"

"Yes, and I would have killed more." JD shrugged. "I don't see what the big deal is. They hurt Veronica and I hurt them back. An eye for an eye, a bullet for a rumor, or however the saying goes." 

Connor shook his head. "No wonder you aren't in Heaven. I guess it's a good thing you died young."

"Ouch." JD said apathetically. "Anyways, Veronica stopped me from blowing up the school, and I ended up doing the right thing and carrying the explosives away from the school, and that's how I died. Then Veronica changed the entire high school hierarchy for the better, went to an Ivy League college, and started a nonprofit, so I'd say I caused some good in the end."

"Whatever." Connor muttered. "Wait, how do you know what Veronica did after she died?"

"Oh, I haunted her." JD said nonchalantly, "Any ghost in purgatory can do that. I got tired of haunting her. I would have haunted someone else, but you can only haunt the person who either cared about you the most, hurt you the most, or benefited the most from your death. In my case, Veronica was all three." 

"How do I haunt someone?" Connor started to gain interest. Maybe he could say goodbye to his sister.

"Check your pocket." JD instructed. 

Connor put his hand in his pockets, and, sure enough, there was a small piece of paper inside. He pulled it out to see that it was a ticket stub. 

Connor scanned the ticket. "I don't get it. This says Evan Hansen. He's that turd from school who wrote that creepy letter about my sister." 

"Great, you get to haunt him." JD said blandly. 

"I don't know if I want to." Connor mumbled. "He's sick."

JD's eyes lit up. "How sick? Is he a disturbed freak who could be tipped over the edge into homicidal mania with the slightest tap?"

"I dunno, maybe." Connor was tired of all the questions. "I guess there's nothing better to do than to go haunt him. It's gonna suck, but it sucks more here."

"Or you could give me the ticket and I can go haunt Evan the creep." JD suggested.

"Why would I do that?" Connor asked. "Then I'd be stuck alone in purgatory."

"Well." JD considered. "I could give you my ticket and you could haunt Veronica. She's 48 now, and she has a comfortable life. She's been dead for a good 30 years now."

"What?"

"Metaphorically." JD sighed exasperatedly, "She's boring, ok? Try to keep up."

"I don't care about her." Connor said, "Why would I want to haunt her?"

"That's the point." JD explained. "You aren't connected to her. That means you don't have to be upset when you see her unhappy. You can just relax on earth. If you haunt Evan you'll have to see him creeping on your sister. No offense, but you don't seem like the kind of guy who can handle that." 

"Fine, whatever, take it." Connor gave JD the ticket and took JD's. "Now how do I start haunting?"

"Just throw it on the ground." JD told him. "On three then."

Connor nodded, "One."

"Two."

"Three."