Death's Temporary Home For Lost Souls

Chapter Ten: Breakfast at Death's

"See, Cara? Now we can start eating."

"Cara doesn't know how to eat?" Lisa asks, her eyes wide. She sits in the chair directly beside me. Her chin barely reaches the tabletop.

"I know how to eat," I assure her, glaring across the table at Sarah's smug grin. At this, Paul's head snaps up from his newspaper, his eyes finding mine for the first time. I notice that the date at the top reads February 26th, 2008.

"Who's Cara?"

"Cara is our newest guest, and she is welcome to stay here as long as she needs," Death says, his voice soft yet commanding as it rumbles across the table. "I know that she's alive, but that doesn't make her any different from any of you. She deserves respect and privacy."

Sarah makes a strangled sound in her throat but doesn't say anything as she stabs a chunk of egg with her fork. I watch in silent wonder as she shovels the food into her mouth and swallows.

"Hey." I lean over to Lisa and whisper, "What happens when you guys eat?"

"What do you mean?" She asks, eyes wide. There's a speck of food stuck to her bottom lip.

"Like, after you eat, where does it...go?"

She giggles. "Our tummies. Duh."

I force myself to nod and smile before returning to my meal, my brain struggling to make sense of the biology of ghosts. It's strange to sit here and watch all of them act so normally. They seem to talk and move and eat like regular people for the most part, Death included. But upon closer inspection, I realize that none of their chests rise and fall with breath. My arms prickle with goosebumps as I'm reminded once again that I'm the odd one out.

"How's the presentation coming along?" Death asks pleasantly. I realize that he's talking to Paul, even though the man doesn't lift his gaze from the old newspaper.

"I've almost got it. It's really going to change everything." Paul finally smiles wickedly, the first show of emotion I've seen from him today. "They won't see it coming."

"He says that every day," Lisa groans.

Death fixes her with a disapproving glance and carefully steers the conversation back to Paul. "Mr. Johnson's presentation is very important. Isn't that right?"

"Yeah, sounds like a real game changer," Sarah says, her tone flat.

"It will be," Paul insists, unfazed by Sarah's sarcasm. "That promotion has my name written all over it."

"What's a probotion?" Lisa asks.

"Promotion," Death gently corrects her. "It's when someone does so good at their job that they get an even better job."

I quietly finish the food on my plate, taking in the strangest conversation I've ever been a part of. I can't help but wonder why this odd mixture of people are trapped inside of Death's house. Apart from maybe Sarah, they seem harmless to me, if a little ... strange.

"So, human," Sarah addresses me, leaning back in her chair. I force myself not to flinch at the demeaning title. Don't show her your anger. I meet her gaze head-on. "What brings you to Neverton?"

"Nothing in particular." A hospital bed. A waiting room. A subway train. An empty dance studio. I nervously pick at the beds of my fingernails under the table. "I wanted a change of scenery."

"And you just happened to choose this town? You just happened to stumble across this house, when you're the first living person we've all seen in years?"