Deals With The Devil: Our Purpose

My Friend

'S-Sophie...' Ricky muttered, kneeling in the corner of the room and placing his hand over his mouth. 'S-Sophie, I...I-I'm so sorry...' I wanted to ask who he was talking to, but some part of me knew he was just going through old memories. Looking back, I noticed everybody else looked so tempted to help but were unsure of what to say. 'I-I...I tried...I-I tried not to get attached, b-but I just...She d-died...thinking I didn't care...t-that I didn't love her...s-she was my only friend...'
'...Somewhere over the rainbow...way up high...' I flinched, spinning around to locate the source of that voice but finding nothing. It sounded gentle, like the voice of a young girl. '...there's a land that I have heard of once in a lullaby...' Looking back, I felt all the air get knocked out of my lungs. A short blonde girl stood beside Ricky, her transparent hand gently planted on his shoulder. She levitated slightly, hair gently swaying up and down. Ricky suddenly looked up at the girl, his teary eyes finally gazing upon the ghost of a girl.
'S-Sophie?' He stammered.
'Ricky...I thought you died...'
'I-I did...I-I was...brought back...y-you're a...ghost?'
'I am now...I saw you come here and I had to come down...I had to see you.'
'Sophie, I'm so sorry...I-I...I treated you terribly...I didn't get to say goodbye...I-'
'It's okay...If I'm honest, I'm glad you tried not to get too attached...I'm sorry you did...' Ricky slowly got to his feet so he was at level with the girl. They were practically the same hight, although she was floating. 'H-How did you...'
'They gassed me...but, it's okay...I'm with my mother again...'
'How can she be a ghost? I thought only cursed souls became ghosts...' I whispered, looking over at Ryan.
'No, tortured souls can too.' He replies before Sophie looked over at me, eyes quizzical.
'Who spoke just now?' She asked.
'Me and Ryan, this guy.' I pointed at him, but it only led her to look even more confused.
'There's nobody there.'
'Ryan doesn't have a soul, so you can't see him.' Devin stepped forward, the collar of his shirt covering his mouth to try to block out the horrible smell.
'But you could see him when you were a ghost.' I pointed out.
'Yes, because he had other people's souls. I couldn't see him clearly, though. He was just kind of a faint blur. I'm gonna go outside to throw up real quick.' He hurriedly spoke before bolting out of the room, Chris following closely behind him.
'Pfft. Humans.' Ryan smiled to himself before turning back over to Ricky. I didn't realise it at first, but the maggot under his skin had slithered up to his throat, forcing itself from between his teeth until he finally picked it up and held it out to her.
'Uh...this is Maggy. She's lives with me. I-I...took a bit too long when separating my soul from my body after I died so...here she is.'
Maggy seemed to purr, it's big black eyes gleaming when it gazed upon the beautiful ghost girl.
'She's cute...'
'I just thinking...y'know, if you ever wanted to visit...I'd be happy to lend you her body. I-I could even find a way to turn you into a zombie!'
'Ricky, it's fine. I don't plan to come back...I want to stay with my mum. This place...it's horrible. I only watched over it because I wanted to find you again...I wanted to thank you for taking care of me.'
'Thank you for giving me the power to accept death...even if things didn't exactly go as planned afterwards.'

We spent a few hours talking to Sophie, Devin and Chris even popping their heads in for a few minutes before getting sick and going back outside. Vinny didn't say much, only waving, while Ryan was eager to ask every question on the planet. Josh was the only person who acted relatively normal. Ryan, however, kept asking about a girl. He kept begging for her to try and remember a "short girl with long red hair and green eyes", but Sophie couldn't recall anybody who fit the description.
After that, we all said our goodbyes. Ricky spent a moment alone with her, telling her everything that'd happened before she went back to the afterlife, never to return. Ricky handled it well, tearing up but quickly taking a few breaths and meeting with everybody else outside.
We walked back to the hotel, practically dying to go back to our rooms. 'I'm fucking beat!' Josh exclaimed, yawning loudly and quickly making his way to the elevator. Devin was blindly following him, his mind completely shutting down and his body soon to follow.
'I think Devin died again.' I snickered. Devin let out a weird groan/yell noise before tripping into the elevator. Everybody else piled in while he got up, nobody asked if he was okay.
Soon we were all back in our rooms and I was getting ready to go out and buy everybody dinner. Chris was slumped over the side of the bed, his pants halfway down his butt and his shirt riding up his waist. 'What would you like for dinner?' I giggled, slapping his butt as I walked past him. He yelped but didn't get up.
'I want cheesecake.'
'Cheesecake isn't a dinner food.'
'I want cheesecake!'
'Chris, you have to watch your weight. You can't just not eat for a few days and then eat a whole cheesecake.' I reminded him, but he seemed to already pass out. I rolled my eyes, a strange, goofy grin still stretched across my lips. I turned around, creeping over to the door before there was a gentle knock. Since I was already planning to leave, I opened it, confused when I saw Josh standing there twiddling his thumbs.
'Can we talk?' He asked.
'Yeah, sure. I was just going to grab everybody some dinner. You speak German, right?'
'Yeah. I'll order everything.'

We didn't say much during the walk to a small store. I grabbed some microwave dinners and a cheesecake before beginning to walk back, where I finally asked him what was on his mind. 'It's...we're going to Pennsylvania next, my home...and I...I don't know, maybe it's best if we don't go...my mother, she is very religious. She chained me to a wall and stripped me of my humanity before dumping me on the streets...I lived as a wolf until Chris found me. He rewired my brain so I wouldn't change physically, but when he stopped doing that, I went back to this...it fucking hurts...I have to get Devin to lock me in the basement once a month...'
'Would you rather be human?'
'I would...I want to be human again...but it's been so long that I don't think I could handle it.'
'Nonsense.' I smiled as we stepped through the entrance of our hotel. 'You're stronger than you think, Josh. When I first met you, you where a dog trapped in a man's body. You licked my face and told me everything about yourself. Now, you've grown. You're a real werewolf, you go through emotional struggles instead of blindly accepting things. You fight back and that's amazing. I remember when I was younger, I had no control over my life. I'm almost 30 and I'm still trying to figure things out but I have a loving husband and the greatest friends anybody could ask for.' I reminded him. As we stepped into the elevator, he began to think about how to respond.
'We've been friends for a long time, yet...I have no idea who you are, (Y/n).'
'That doesn't matter. Just get some rest, alright?'
'Alright...' He signed, waiting until the elevator doors opened before parting ways with me.