I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’ll have you exorcised before I let that happen.”
“Ooh, would you? I wanna see if it actually works.” His voice was genuinely eager. What a weirdo. Luckily, the bus pulled up and I climbed aboard, sliding my bus pass through the slot. It was half past noon, so there were passengers everywhere, forcing me to choose a spot in the very rear. Michael walked on, flopping down next to me in the empty seat.
“I think the best thing about being dead is no longer paying for public transportation.”
“You’re just full of deep thoughts, aren’t you?”
“Yep.”
I sighed. “Focus, please. I need you to watch where the bus route goes and let me know when you recognize something so we can try to find your body.”
“What if we don’t?”
“I check the obituaries. If nothing turns up, I have to file a missing persons report and see if anything matches at the coroner’s.”
The bus lurched forward, its engine coughing to life and making it harder to hear his voice. “How many times have you had to do that before?”
“Not many. I have to be careful that the police don’t get wise to me being involved with so many dead people. They might peg me as a suspicious character.”
Michael peered into my face, making me lean back a bit. He had a strange lack of appreciation for personal space. “You are pretty shifty looking. It’s the bags under your eyes and the fact that you’re about ten pounds underweight.”
I folded my arms underneath my chest, choosing to stare out of the window instead of facing him. “I don’t look that bad.”
“Maybe not. You’re pretty cute for a girl who sees dead people all the time.”
I resisted the urge to squirm in my seat from the compliment. I was wholly unused to them.
“Though I can’t vouch for your fashion sense. What’s with the man-coat?” He tugged at the edge of my sleeve.
I jerked it away reflexively. “Don’t!”
His eyes widened at my reaction. The people in seats in front of me turned to look.
I cleared my throat, reminding myself to calm down. “It’s…important to me.”
Michael studied my neutral expression before nodding. “Got it.”
No joke this time. Maybe he wasn’t as thick as he looked. Ye gods. I started to apologize, but his hand shot out past my face, pointing.
“There! I recognize that club. I woke up down the street from here.”
I tugged on the bus line and we came to a stop nearby. Michael followed me out as I hopped onto the sidewalk and fished for my notepad.
“Let your mind go blank and then just describe whatever comes in it as you look at this place,” I instructed with my pen poised.
Michael let his eyes wander over the building, now mostly empty because it was the middle of the day and most people were at home or at work. “I remember there was music, some kind of emo-kid rock music playing when I woke up. The first thing I noticed was that it looked sort of chilly out here, but I wasn’t cold. I just felt…faint. I felt like myself but somehow a little different.”
He ran his fingertips across the aforementioned park bench, eyes searching the tattered wood for answers. “I got up to ask a girl next to me where I was, but she didn’t answer me. When I touched her, she looked right at me but asked her friend if he was messing with her. That’s when I figured she couldn’t see or hear me. It should have bothered me more when I realized I had died somehow, but instead I just wandered down the street checking for proof. I flipped the girl’s skirt up over there.”
He pointed towards an ice cream shop two stores away with a faint smirk on his lips. “She freaked out. Thought it was the wind. I couldn’t figure out what to do so I just starting walking in that direction.”
Michael turned and walked, making me have to jog to catch up with his long strides. “I walked for most of the night, not knowing why but I knew I had somewhere to be.”
“What happened after that?”
He stopped and I collided with his back. I rubbed the tingling sensation away from my nose, frowning up at him. A few people around me whispered and stared at my strange behavior but I ignored them. Michael hesitated, turning his face until just one side was visible.
“I saw you.”