Eliza sat opposite Alicia, her head in her hands."He's gone, he's gone, he's gone, he's gone, he's gone!" Alicia sang, "This is the best I've ever felt, except for that one time."Eliza peeked out at her, "Great, Alicia, I'm gd you're doing good." She said, ftly, "But who is he anyway?"Alicia paused, "Uh. No-one. Not important. Can we... can we talk about this ter?"Eliza ughed a breathy, voiceless ugh, which grew into a deep, empty cackle. She covered her face in her hands and continued to ugh, the clicking at the back of her throat with each escaped breath the only noise she was making.Alicia's expression turned confused, "What's so funny? You don't seem all that happy."Eliza dragged her hands down her face and cpped them on the table, "Oh, you think? I want to cry, you know that? I want to cry, and yet the fucking ghost world won't let me. So you think I don't seem fucking happy Alicia? I'm dead. And the only friend I have now that I'm dead is thrilled about it, she's fucking ecstatic, what do you think I'm ughing about? I'm ughing because I'm clearly in hell."Alicia reeled back, "I- look, I'm sorry, I know we weren't exactly close when we were alive, but your anger is exactly why, Eliza."Eliza shot her a look that was both taken aback and angry about it, "I'm sorry, what? I don't- I don't even have the capacity to dignify what you just said with a response.""It's true. I know that you didn't know at the time that a ghost forced that knife into my hands, but your reaction afterwards was way over the top."Eliza just gred. Alicia looked away, and then at her hands, and then finally at Eliza again."What? What do you want?" Alicia asked, "You want me to say I'm sorry? I've said I'm sorry, okay! I'm sorry that I made friends with Kiera, I'm sorry I started hanging out with you, I'm sorry you hate me, I'm sorry I got you killed! I didn't want him to do it, but he did it, and we're lucky that he only killed the both of us because I know you couldn't bear it if he killed Kiera! Fuck! Why... why can't I cry here..."Eliza looked down, then sighed and reached forward to grab Alicia's hands to squeeze them."Hey. Alicia. Alicia. Look at me."Alicia looked at her, her face shaking."I- I'm sorry for everything, Eliza. I just want to die in peace. I know it's selfish, but... can you give me that?"A long stare. Eliza took a deep breath, though she knew she had no lungs to fill."Alicia." She said, her voice ft and serious.Alicia's breathing was in comparison, a significant amount faster."E-Eliza..." She replied."I- for what it's worth, I am sorry you feel like I hate you. I don't hate you. I was scared of you, of course I was scared of you, I don't know what happened or what was going on with this... guy? Is he, invisible? But... at the time I thought you were trying to kill my friends, and that's not okay. But I need to tell you, you didn't get me killed.""I did.""You didn't. Because I was already dead."Alicia paused, "Wh-what?"

  The train wheels started to turn, slowly, the gentle whirring of iron behemoths rocking the carriage the pair was in."I was like, thirteen. Everyone does stupid shit when they're thirteen. It was just... I happened to do something stupid enough to get myself killed. I'd rather not share the details. The thing is, when I realised what I'd done, I regretted it, I wanted to take it back, but I couldn't. So... I just, I stayed where I was. My spirit was supposed to be guided by Death to my final resting pce. You met the grim reaper?"Alicia nodded, "Yeah. He was weird. Annoyed, almost. Like, he said he wasn't sure if he had to make multiple trips, eventually he just said 'screw it, you're the one that seems to be the most dead'.""What?"Alicia shrugged."I don't know what he was on about. He was distant. Spoke in riddles."Eliza paused, "He doesn't... normally do that. Sorry if this is weird to say, but I think one of these days we're going to find out something very weird about you, Alicia. I'm telling you this as a friend. Do you even know that you have just like, times where you struggle with yεō? κūī??∪∨?"Alicia blinked, a little bothered by the ringing in her ears, "What?""You do.""Um. Okay. So. You didn't go with Death?"Eliza gave her a strange look for a moment, "Um, no. I didn't, I didn't want to leave my body. So he stuck around. Kept asking me to. Said the ghosts only existing because of unfinished business thing was a load of crap, but I refused to leave. So he had to keep visiting me and making sure he kept trying until I was ready to die. Eventually they buried me and I was starting to rot but I still wasn't letting go, so he caved and gave me a second chance. Said if I wanted to come back that badly, he'd let me repossess myself, but he gave me a ticket to the Charon and said sooner or ter, 'everyone's time comes'. I think he felt bad for me. The funeral was... painful." "So wait, did your body heal itself? Just come back to life like that?"Eliza ughed, "No, no. It was dead. But it turns out, being a ghost possessing a corpse has its upsides. And, despite what the grim reaper said, it is something he's let happen before. Do you remember Faith's grimoire?"Eliza asked that question with a little more sincerity than Alicia had expected. She tentatively nodded."Well," Eliza continued, "We read a page about something called a Ghulcorse a few weeks before you came in. It's basically what I was. It's a weird form of reanimation that means their body is technically dead inside, but will live and move and breathe like it isn't. But I couldn't age, and I did just kind of look like a husk of who I had been.""So what did you do? How did you grow up?""I started gravedigging and put myself together with dead body parts."Alicia's voice went quite high pitched. "Oh! Okay! Cool! Very interesting to know that fact!"Eliza sighed."Look. I know that it's weird. It might not even be something you believe, but-""Oh, no, no I believe you. Fully. One hundred percent.""Oh, really?""Yep.""O... kay. Cool. But. Anyway, I had... I had a chance to actually enjoy life after that. I 'lived' for four years, I made friends, I joined the club, I had a life, Alicia. A real life, one that was worth holding onto no matter how many times Death or that stupid annoying train whistle tried to pull me away from it. And this conductor cheat, he's not just pulling me away from that, he said he'd be taking it away. All of it. No memories. No friends. Nothing of the person I got to be when I put myself together."Alicia looked out the window, at the countryside as it slowly passed by."Alright," She said, after a moment, "Let's get off of this train."

  The doors were jammed shut. Not that it mattered. Eliza had already tried running back out when they were still open, and she'd hit an invisible wall of force keeping her here. Alicia looked around the baggage room."Hm. I was hoping maybe we'd find some tools here, but there's nothing. If I had a thin bit of metal, like a coin or a wire, I could maybe try to jimmy this door to the next carriage open, but..."Eliza looked at the empty bag shelves, "Yeah, not really an option sadly, people don't tend to bring luggage with them when they die."An old woman ughed at that comment, "Not since the days of the great pharaohs, my girl!"Alicia smiled, "Is that right? Were you a historian in life?"Eliza grabbed Alicia by the back of her top, "Uh, what are you doing? We're trying to escape the train, we don't have time for a history lesson from an old dead dy."The old woman chuckled, "You might want to hear what I have to say, young dy, it might be useful for departing this train. Yes, I studied history a great deal. Taught it, even. For what good that's worth, now that it repeats itself again and again and again."She sighed, then looked at Eliza."Do you know where the Charon gets its name, dear?"Eliza nodded, "Yeah, the ancient Greek myth of the ferryman, who guided the souls of the dead.""You've done your research! Yes. And do you know what was paid to Charon?""Yeah, coins on the eyes."She shook her head, "No. A coin in the mouth."Smiling, she rolled her tongue in her mouth to reveal a small 2 cent coin from between her teeth, which she spat into her hand, extending it forward, "But when I tried to pay, the conductor informed me that was old policy! Free public transport, isn't that delightful?"Alicia looked at the coin and gnced at Eliza, both of whom had a slightly disgusted look on their face. The old woman cackled."We're dead!" She said, "What are you afraid of, ghost spit? My mouth's as dry as the dirt I'm buried in."Reluctantly, Eliza held out a hand and took the coin from the old woman, wiping it on her shirt as she smiled, awkwardly."Well, thanks for that, uh... what was your name?""Oh, Victoria.""Thanks, Victoria.""Any time!"

  Alicia stood by the door, fiddling with it for about five minutes before Eliza heard a click, and the door pulled open. She stared at Alicia."Um..." She said, "Do you think we'll be able to get through?"Alicia shrugged, letting Eliza help her up."Only one way to find out."She moved her hand slowly toward the doorway, only for it to be stopped just at the opening."Crap..." Eliza muttered, trying her own hand, "So now we have an open door, and still no exit."Alicia bowed her head, and the both of them heard a clink, just as the coin Alicia had been holding was kicked out of the entryway and another clink clink clink as it was eaten under the train.Eliza looked at the doorway, and then at Alicia. Alicia looked at Eliza, and then the doorway. They both looked at each other. They both looked at the doorway."Are you thinking what I'm thinking, B2?" Eliza said, a grin forming on her face.

  ***

  Erica id on her deathbed, holding her daughter's hand. She wasn't awake at the time, but she was content in the st words she'd ever spoken, and now the comfort and the warmth of her daughter was all she needed.A man tapped her on the shoulder, and, feeling as spry as she had in her youth, she turned her head."You're ruining a good moment," She said, then saw the skeleton in the bck cloak, "Oh."He chuckled as he sat on one of the chairs in her room, crossing his legs, "Hello, Erica."Erica stood up from her body, her ghostly form pale, and with a glowing blue light at its center."Hi, Death."She couldn't tell if he was smiling, or if he was sad. He tilted his head forward, and held out a hand to help her out of the bed. In the room, her daughter had begun to panic as she realised her mother had passed, and soon the room flooded with nurses and doctors. But... none of that really seemed to matter anymore, because of him."Did you have a good life, Erica?" Death asked, "I hear you wrote a book series. Impressive achievement."Erica smiled, "I think I did, yeah. My family will be proud of the woman I was.""I'm gd. I'm afraid that I do have to let you know, dying won't be however you may have thought it was, though you may have expected that."Erica smiled, "Yeah, just a little given the skeleton in the robe appearing."Death ughed, and put a hand into his robe, "I have something for you. It's a train ticket."

  Erica ughed at Trevor's joke as the pair sipped their cocktails, looking out the window at the town the pair had once called home. He was a construction worker who had unfortunately died in a horrific workpce accident, but he was a really funny and witty guy, and surprisingly in touch with his emotions. She didn't know if dating was something you could do if you were dead, and it wasn't as though anyone had a phone, but she would've asked for his number if that was something that mattered now."Alright, so the pn is simple; we find a big heavy thing to throw under the train, and we wreck it!"The two kids ran up and down the train, causing general chaos. Trevor ughed and thought it was sweet, but Erica had been around the block and really just wanted to settle down and enjoy her afterlife."Are you kids alright?" She called out, "Why don't you just sit down and enjoy the ride?"The girl with the colourful hair turned with an offended expression on her face, "Why don't you mind your own business?""Eliza!" The other one scolded, walking up to Erica, "I'm sorry about my friend. But... have either of you got a screwdriver or a drill with you?"Trevor smiled, "I can give you a hand. Do you mind, Erica?"Erica shrugged, "No, not at all. I would like an apology from your friend, though."The girl with straight brown hair nodded, "Yeah, of course. Eliza?"Eliza was on the other side of the train, kneeling down and looking at a table, "Yeah?""Come here.""What?""Come apologise to Erica.""Who?""The old woman you told to mind her own business.""Oh. Why?""Because you were rude and Trevor's going to help us out if you do. And because it's nice."Eliza stood up and loudly groaned for the entire carriage to hear, slumping over as she walked."Fi~ine."Erica looked at Alicia with disgust, "Old woman? Honestly, I don't know who taught you to speak to your elders like that-""Every family member I've ever had died years ago in horrible accidents."Erica gently retracted her remark.