Chapter 2

"It's rare for you to call out of holiday." My brother soothing and tired voice, he wasn't sleeping yet. I checked on Facebook before waking people out of bed. He was the one the few I looked forward speaking to the most. It was him or my other uncle - my biological uncle doesn't want any part of the society as my mom did.

"I wanted to call and ask how things were. I also wanted to tell you about my other grandparents. You remember them, the ones mom was worried that they were in some cult." he laughed in remembering, "I got a weird letter in the mail from their church. Saying they passed away. I don't trust it to be true unless I knew from other sources. I am also unable to make it over there to find out for myself."

"I remember them. They took you to all the cool stuff and sometimes I tagged along. I went because mom was worried about you. I remember that they were strange but I found it cool. I can go check for you sometime later in the week. Send you photos on message."

"Thank you. Are you doing better? I seen you had a nice job, is everything going ok?" He held off saying much of what he could have said. Holding back maybe some the problems he has going on, "Don't worry about it. I am just happy to know your ok. You're the first person I have called since having this letter. It seems just talking about it has helped me." He gives a prolonged sigh, "I got citizenship, just like grandpa asked. Mom and Dad are doing well. They live up were his mom lived, her funeral is soon too. A lot has been happening."

"Yeah, it sucks being adult." He blurted, " I am glad you called. A surprise but I can understand." he did a nervous tone, "Don't call your aunt." his actual mom, "She been tied up with grandmother." My mom's mom, "Grandma isn't doing ok."

"Progression of dementia. The hardest death is the long goodbye caused from it. I worked for a short time as a career. I know. She should know better but they all slightly regress as they get worse. I am sorry for leaving it to you."

"I sometimes forget your not a little girl anymore." He laughs and I shared it too.

"And your still the Zelda geek" I tagged.

"That was from Mom." He meant our mom, my mom. This is how he has always viewed the family and it's why his more my brother then my cousin.

At this point, we spoke on for hours about trivial things and memories. Since it was part of the subject, it was the other grandparents memories we were talking about. The good times and the bad ones. How he viewed it all and the echo of what it made today. Through him we figured out the missing flowers for the candles, the same set that was on the card. He did get the address off me and we called it a night for him. It's the late afternoon for me but it must be the next morning for him. A last nerdy random song and he hung up. My poor brother having to stay there to watch the folks he loves fade. It could have been me if I stayed there.

I get myself ready to walk my dogs, warm clothes, harness to clip all three leads on me. Doggy treats and poop bags. I gave the cats something to occupy them while we are out. It's going to be short walk. I took one step out my door, dogs in toe. Now I have a weird guy in a long black goth outfit standing at my door. I freeze a while in wondering if he was going to say something to me. My dog went through him, I blinked in sort of realizing that I am seeing things. I close my door and lock it. I give the house one of my habit ward spirit charms. The guy in the black suit backed off away from the door more. He sighed in a sort of annoyance. The fact that my dogs can't see him, walks through him a lot and isn't barking at this stranger. They do however smell him, they are highly interested in his leg areas for smells. He doesn't have a necklace or any sort of thing that has to do with the church. To be fair, that doesn't really look like a uniform. He seems like a normal person, in spite of being all the ghost. This has to be for me a point towards why I am crazy.

"Excuse me." I say passing him. He jolts with looking around to see if I meant someone else. I peer back a last time and then make it to worrying about my dogs more. Walking and letting the smell everything. They love smelling the things they can't see, so there is a presence that is there. Just not human. A small trip around the block and I returned back. It was nothing exciting, none of my neighbours were about and there was plenty of enough dog smells to tired out the younger two. My eldest dog can't walk far distance anymore.

"Did you mean me?" He is still at my front door and just sort of lingering.

"I did but I realize I shouldn't have." I walked through him in making a point to myself, yes... his not really physically here, "I am sort of new to this." I got my key out and got to unlock it. He took out a notebook, "You're not for a church or anything?" I had to ask and he paused, "I take that as a no." I sigh in my mistake, "Never mind. Was there anything not to annoying that you wanted to ask?" He laughs at me.

"Annoying? No. I didn't really come here to talk. I was going to fix your door thing." He gestures about the wrath that I have more warding plants stuck into. I get my dogs inside at the least.

"Well, have a good day stranger. If that's how it works." I shrug and he tilted in thought.

"You're a living person, aren't you?" I give no answer because all I could think of was - it makes sense that a ghost is a dead person. Now a movie quote of - 'I see dead people'. It was slightly funny and not. He stared in waiting for me to say anything.

"You know." I finished putting my coat and the leads away and I offer him inside, "Instead of talking to air outside of my front door where my neighbours will call social service on me. Please." He nods at this and came in... not using the door. Just walked through the wall. He left back out my wall and shivered, "I have a lot of house wards." He now used the front door. I closed it through him I don't let that bother me. I go let my dogs out the backyard and my cats came to join me as always. Especially Mr fluffy of the softest fur sitting on my shoulder, bumping his head into my face. I pet him and he purrs. I picked up my fat one and baby him too. The third cat hissed at the goth guy, all rough fur and claws scratched. He managed to actually touch the goth, and leave a cut.

"I am sorry about that. He is protective of his humans and house. He was part of the deal of staying at this place." I walked him to the living room. I use the baby gate but this goth walks through it. He looked out the backyard from the glass slide door. Peering at this whole door in mild oddity. I make myself a drink. I looked at how there is flower petals follow out of the picture of my card and is now in the zip lock. I closed my cups to only just open it to check again. Yup.

"When you asked about a church, you mean some sort of society. right?"

"Yes. I did. My grandparents are part of it. I just got mail about their passing. But since receiving the mail... well." I poured the hot water to the tea bag in the cup in my long silence, "I didn't really want to believe that they are dead. And seeing folks like you has drastically put me on edge."

"That is understandable." He makes some written notes from a pad of paper he fished from a pocket. The pen he used was more like a pencil. He had a lot of things in writing. I let there be a prolong silence of this writing. I thought about changing the tv channel, the remote suddenly in front of me. This habit again. I stopped doing it when we moved to England. I was already being picked on for being foreigner. I didn't want to add voodoo. Why is this happening again? Was the letter a trigger? So many questions. Why did a invite a stranger inside? I doubt he would answer my questions.

"One of your dogs is chasing a bird." I sigh at such things as this was normal. I walked past and open the door. Clap for the attention of the dogs, which they all ran inside. A crow waddles up to me... with a black letter. I lower and stare a prolong time, "That be one the message birds. We use them all the time." It hops and coos at the man and not me, "Oh, my mail." he takes it and exchanged it with a coin. It ate the coin and left, flies through the solid fence. I close my door. I take a long moment of medication and return back to finish making... to instead start drinking my finished made tea.

"Do you plan on joining that society?" he asked. He was reading his letter but was asking me this question.

"I don't know. I live in England now. I have these pets." I happen to be petting a fat cat, "Moving back over to the USA is to much a hassle. I made my efforts in staying in England." The guy laughed at me or that it was his letter, "Maybe it isn't wise to accept any sort of offers from anyone. Not this soon. I was always told to never shake a person's right hand." he lowered his letter to look at me oddly, "But I remember my grandparents doing a lot of that."

"Right hand." He hummed, "Why that hand?" He asks.

"Its a folk tale or like one them things you tell children to prevent them being harmed." he shook at this, "Well, the left hand was always in damning or disagreeing. The right hand is righteous and accepting. This sort of thing has history. The romans used to use the left hand to be bad language." The goth laughed at this a little nervous and also does find my knowledge oddly refreshing. He posed with tapping about himself.

"Well maybe now that your able to see us and interact. It be wise for you to read the rules we follow. Normally I would be told off for not having this on me. But I think making an exception would be wise. I will need it before I go back home. In the meantime, I have found this enlightening. But I also have jobs to do." He left the way he came, and walks through my front door. Didn't say anything else. I guess the dead don't do goodbyes which now makes me consider why the society was the same way.

My grandparents were shady. They were voodooing with the dead spirits. I see dead people.

Distractions aside. Book. I can't read it. Not even the cover. I can't actually move it or touch it. Then again... what if... and now its gone. I just will have to hope when I am done with it. It is returned. My mind melts for a while, a lot of strange rules. But when put into the context of a dead spirit person being the one to follow these. Maybe some the nonsense is a dead thing, like when you don't have a body. Possessing people rules make more sense. I used my notebook of contacts - the back page for notations of some the rules that would need to know. There is occasionally where I wanted to directly edit the book. This book doesn't belong to me, it's a loan. So notation of the edits are added in my notebook. When I knew the rules about mostly off by heart, I finished three drinks of tea and it's late evening again. I make check for that undertaker, looking out for him to return his book to him.

There is three main known spirit types that interact among the living but not in sight of it. Undertakers. Angels. Demons.

The exact names are a culture or summoning sort of thing. When a human knows a name, that name can summon the being. Often demons and angels prefer sharing out names to use as wards against each other's work. I assume that demons and angels are still not getting along, if there ever was a time they did. These spirits are the lower end of the pyramid , normally. Lower angel types and imps of demon kind are small creature things. The more humanoids are lower management. Then there the three culture differ in ranking above themselves.

Give this book is a guide for undertakers to have quick access to the rules; it has the most about undertakers and their laws of interference of the other two. It also states that undertaker's never work alone unless they are deemed worthy to by their monarch. Everything lower undertaker has a partner, there is a section of the binding to make a partnership and the warning of how it works. It's a soul thing... I don't really understand it. This book does have a sort of nickname written into it, as undertakers are the only folks that disregard their real names. Which is how you would know a bond worked with a partner - as they would know.

'Shade' - which is more a title then a name. To be the shadow or nicknamed Shade of something, you are the under hand or spy for them. It's explained the intro section for newbie Undertakers to not mistaken someone higher as a underling. I wonder if this means this book as important details i shouldn't have read. Well, for his sake. I will do my best to follow these rules.

I opened my back door to let my dogs out, and before letting them. I closed the door. There was the other section of the handbook which was the types are visible to living people, but often in set conditions. For example, 'dream walkers' are only when the living is half asleep. They are also reminders for the living to survive through a natural disaster or show themselves as a sort of omen. There is also the grim reaper, they collect souls from the dying. That out there isn't a reaper, or at least I hope not. It's not visible through glass, which was why when I opened my door... it became visible. There is many beings that aren't visible to the living, and not all of them are recorded. It's not anyone's business to, so it adviced in the guide book.

A knock at my front door, I pet my dogs as they started wooing about it. I cross the baby gate, peer through the window... no one is visible. I open the door a crack.

"What did you say normally? good day or something?" I sighed at some relief and see he isn't alone.

"Well..." I peer at how each person's outfit was different. It's noted in the handbook about the the style of uniform suiting their jobs within their duty. Two fighter folks, "Are you here to sort out the thing in the backyard?" I ask.

"That is exactly right and..." I let them in, offering the book of his, dropped on his hand. He looked around confused of how that happened, "You have anything else to worry about?" He was the last in. I close my door and give it a knock, resetting the ward. He peered at the door strangely. I walked through them and around to my living room. They backed off from my back door, but I don't see it.

"Well I can understand why that would freak anyone out." my dogs also disliked the back door.

"It helps that I currently can't see it. Maybe." I step around to my kitchen where my eldest dog is, checking on her. I pet her and these undertakers seem very busy. They made strange actions but i can't see the full picture.

"So, here's the caught. You slammed it locked into your door." I looked up to the Shade. He sighed annoyed, "Did you happen to openned your door before?"

"I checked through the glass of the door, seen nothing. I open it and it stood there very visible. I closed the door. It maybe moved fast enough for me to do this." He thinks about it, "What exactly is is it or is this one those i shouldn't know? He tilted thinking further.

"Thats a hex demon, it would have been commanded to do something and sent here." Thinking about the recent changes, I rose and took out the two jars and the card. I directed about them. Shade peered in looking at these things, "It be after that necklace." He can't touch it, "Someone sent that to you in the purpose of murder." I sigh at this.

"Leave it to the church to murder in mysterious accidental ways." I frown, "All because I didn't call them or send them a quick enough reply. The packages took a long time to get here, stuck in customs." I fetched salt from my kichten, "So demon. Demons hate salt, am I wrong?"

"Not all demons. But it would work for this guy. Best not yet." I put it down, "You have no regard to your own safety do you."

"I could just banish you all. But that be rude." He then nods getting it.

"Like a shaman." He laughed, "Like that works." I focused with the whole room and I allowed my other self to be visible. Not sure what it did, but it moved the salt back when I opened my eyes. There seems a poker face about Shade and the fear out of the two fighter looking around the room. I can tell that I am back to wearing the mask, my reflection in a item, "You should warn folks that you can do that. That is unless you trying to hide yourself."

"May I remind you that I am living person, I just happen to be be cursed it seems." he peered at me, "Until I learn more about why this society is poaching my biological father and me. I don't really know what else to tell you."

"Ok. that's fair." He pondered, "I have to go back home. But when I return, we can do some simple tricks to teach you. It would help you not." He waved his hands about, "doing that."

The two fighter walked the way back to my door. I sensed that the wards were shuffled for them to leave. Shade leaves too, pointing at me like it a warning. He finally did the thing with my wreath, and the wards are fixed. My dogs and cats are back to normal. My back garden looks like a swamp. I don't want to think about it. Blood not water. Ugh... to late. I am not working tomorrow morning, but the afternoon. Bed time. Feeding pets. Clean the floors. Shower. food. Bed. Just to be sure, dream catcher.

In order to survive a normal day, I must take to practice of the signs I learnt in the guide book. All spirits can't have affect of light in the realms they don't belong - essentially they are always visible in the light or dark but they do not have a afterimage. Undertakers look for this to tell if a demon has broken a law about not taking a physical person to the other side. Not only is it illegal, disillusion for the human in question but also there is a actual issue of not knowing the side affect of a living being crossed over. The times that such crossing had happened, the living forgot to live. Maybe it must mean the person forgets to eat and drink like normal. I hope.