Middle(End Part 2)

Chapter 5

A/N: THIS CHAPTER IS DEEP AND PHILISOPHICAL. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I couldn't believe it. Sohinki stood right in front of me, looking mostly like himself, except for the foggy aura outlining his body.

"Yep," Sohinki said.

His voice was slightly echo-ey.

"Wh…are you a ghost?"

He nodded. I stuck my hand out toward him. As expected, it went through his chest.

"Don't do that," He warned.

I, of course, didn't listen. I kept messing with his ghost body until he disappeared and was replaced by a black vapor, which wrapped around my neck. I grabbed my throat unable to breathe. Is he here… to get revenge?

"I don't want to hurt you, Joven," His voice echoed softly, "But you shouldn't touch a ghost. Bad things can happen."

The black mist dissipated, and Sohinki returned, his image flickering slightly.

"W…what do you want?" I asked fearfully.

"I know it was you who killed me," He said.

"I'm sorry," I pleaded.

"I'm not here for revenge," He said.

"Then why are you here?"

"To stop you," He said, "I think."

"Stop me?"

He took my letter off the computer table and read it.

"Death is no fun, Joshua," He said, "The soul is capable of things the mind can't even comprehend."

"Sounds better than being alive," I said.

"You don't understand," He said, "It's not always a good thing."

"Understand what?"

"Where we have to return."

He slapped his hands onto my temples, and suddenly, everything was gone. I saw nothing, not even blackness. Yet somehow, all the evil in the universe: torture, murder, genocide, everything. I couldn't hear anything, yet heard every scream of pain and misery in existence. I smelled nothing, yet all the death and gore. There is no up, no down, no beginning, no end, and no way out. It is Nothing- and Nothing is terrifying.

It felt like forever by the time I was back in the room, Sohinki's spirit in front of me.

"That was…"

"Chaos," I interrupted.

He nodded.

"Something like that," He said, "Spirits are pulled to it, like a magnet, for whatever reason. They usually have no memory, and it's hard to leave. It's so easy to go insane."

"It felt like…"

"Forever," He finished, "Time doesn't exist there either."

I started to shake.

"Everything," I said, "I saw everything, heard everything. But…it's nothing."

"Nothing IS something," He said, "Do you still want to die, Joven?"

"NO," I answered quickly, "But…I'm sorry."

"I was a zombie," He said, "It was a strange out of body experience. Watching my soulless body wake up. But I forgive you, Joven. I never really blamed you in the first place."

"You didn't?"

"You did what you had to do," He said, "I saw what Lasercorn did. And he was bitten too."