After I Died

Welcome Wagon

Standing in the doorway was a very interesting looking person. Her hair was black, frizzy and parted at the side, like pictures I've seen parents show their kids of when they were their age. She was wearing a white tank top under a studded, black leather jacket and black ripped jeans over black fishnets. She was wearing dangle earrings shaped like crosses, black eye shadow and eye liner around her red eyes, several bulky chains and necklaces, and two thin scars stretching from either corner of her mouth. Her paper pale skin was a stark contrast to the overall black theme of her outfit.

"Hey, I'm Alex!" She said, smiling and showcasing her sharp fangs.

"Hello Alex, good to see you again." Ms. Belle said, chuckling lightly and taking another dainty sip of her tea.

"Hi Ada!" Alex said, waving at her. She reminded me of Jay a bit. "So, I'm you're tour guide!" Alex said, looking at me. "What's your name?"

"Oh, Kat." I said, standing up and walking over to her.

"Sick name!" She said, smiling again. "See ya later, Ada!" She walked over to the door and opened it. "Newbies first!" She said as she held the door open for me.

"Thanks." I said, walking through the door and down the tight stairs once more. As I reached the bottom of the stairs and walked through the door I realized I didn't hear a second pair of footsteps behind me. I turned around and waited, but still, nothing. Then, a small black bat flew down the spiral and over my head. I whirled around, having never seen a bat before, aside from Halloween decorations. The bat hovered in front of me for a couple seconds before turning into some kind of inky, bat-shaped goo, which began to swirl and grow bigger, becoming a person sized tornado in a matter of seconds, before slowing and solidifying into an Alex.

     "Pretty rad, right?" She asked, my face no doubt in another state of dumbfounded shock. "I'ma take that as a 'yeah', cool?" She asked after a couple seconds of silence. I nodded, not sure what to say.

     "That was... really cool." I said, a simple response being the only thing I could manage.

     "I know." She said, turning around and walking off. "Thanks, though." She added as I jogged up to her.

     "How did you do that?" I asked, vaguely wondering if I could do something like that, though I wasn't too hopeful.

     "I'm a vampire, duh." A what now? I knew people dressed up as them for costume parties and stuff, but I didn't think they were real.

     "I didn't know they were a real thing." I said, before realizing that was probably kind of rude.

     "You... what?" Alex stopped walking and looked at me with yet another unfamiliar expression.

     "Sorry, that was probably really rude." I said quickly, hoping apologizing was the right thing to do in this context.

     "Don't apologize," She started, looking more confused now. "I just- when did you get here?"

     "To this school? Couple minutes ago." I said, confused as well now.

     "No- I mean when did you wake up?"

     "As in this morning?" Was this more lingo I wasn't aware of?

     "As in, when did you die?" She asked impatiently.

     Right, apparently I was dead.

     "Yeah, I have a question about that." I said, wanting some clarification.

     "Oh, did you not catch the date on your tombstone?" She asked.

     "No, I... don't have one. Or I haven't seen it for whatever reason." I had a feeling this wasn't normal either, considering Ms. Belles previous reactions to what I'd told her. I was right.

     "You... didn't wake up in a cemetery?" Ms. Belle had asked this question too, I noticed. I guess that was the norm.

     "No. I woke up in a building." 

     "How long ago?" This was beginning to feel like an interrogation.

     "According to the calendars I've seen in peoples houses..." I tried to remember, I stopped keeping track a while ago. "Three years?" That sounded about right.

     "Three- three years?!" She asked, apparently dumbstruck. "This... is way more than a delay..." She looked deep in thought. "Did you tell Ada this?"

     "Not how long, no. Should I?"

     "Not right now, um..." She furrowed her brow and thought some more. "You... didn't have an orientation, did you?" I shook my head. "Okay then, I'll have to do then!" She said, smiling at me again, as if the previous revelations hadn't just occurred. Just then, the bell rang, and students filed out into the halls. 

     It took a couple seconds of looking at them to realize that none of them were even remotely human. Most of them I could recognize from Halloween decor: zombies, mummies, frankensteins, werewolves, and vampires like Alex. What struck me the most was the vast majority of them were ghosts. Why weren't they passed on? Wasn't that a reapers only job, to make sure ghosts didn't stick around? Reapers even go to this school!

     "Oh, this must be kinda cray, huh?" Alex asked me, making me realize that I was staring.

     "Yeah, kind of." I say, now trying to look anywhere but at them, which probably made me more obvious.

     "The welcome wagon should be here any second." Alex said, scanning the crowd until two students emerged from it and walked towards us.

     One of them I immediately recognized. Well, not him exactly, but what he was wearing. I've been hanging around a 10th grade history class lately, (people aren't just dropping dead everyday, I have time to kill) and they're learning about the Irish civil war. This guy matched the textbook perfectly. He was wearing a white collared shirt under a tattered brown dress jacket. On top of that was a dirty and ragged beige trench coat, with equally dirty beige slacks to match, as well as a pair of heavily scuffed dress shoes and topped off with dark brown newsboy hat tilted to one side, which was doing a poor job of controlling his wild blonde hair. His clothes were one matter, but the rest of him was another entirely. His skin was a kind of cool grey and looked oddly leathery, his pale blue eyes looking dead (no pun intended) and dull, not to mention the fair sized hole in his left cheek, exposing all the teeth on that side of his mouth. 

     The one next to him was a ghost, and I had to keep in check the immediate urge to reap her. She was wearing a long dress that looked like it used to be white, with a deep brown lace up bodice and white apron tied around her waist. Her hair was silky, light brown, and waist length, several wispy strands cascading in front of her ears. Her large green eyes stared at me, as the dark scar on her neck caught my attention before I averted my eyes out of courtesy.

     "Hey guys! This is the new kid, Kat! I'm givin' her a tour!" Alex said, waving at them as they both looked me up and down. 

     "A reaper, eh?" The guy in the trench coat said in a heavy Irish accent. "You'll 'ave to watch out for 'er, eh Sab?" He asked, nudging her playfully in the ribs. (He didn't really, the tip of his elbow just went through her side a bit)

     "Quit pickin' on her, Cam!" Alex said, swatting him on the back of the head as Sabrina stuck her tongue out at him.

     "So, you're the newbie?" The zombie asked, turning his attention to me. "I'm Cameron." He stuck out his hand for me to shake, his index finger only bone from the knuckle to the fingertip.

     "Kat." I said, shaking his hand. His skin felt waxy, which I hadn't expected from the look of it.

     "This 'ere is Sabrina." Cameron said, gesturing to the ghost girl to his right, who waved and smiled. "She's selectively mute. Can talk, but doesn't." He said in a slightly lower voice, even though Sabrina heard him perfectly and nodded.

     "Ah, alright." I said, the bruise on her neck making a little more sense now.

     "Anyways!" Alex said, bringing our attention back to her. "Let's start that tour!"