It had been a month since Mr. Silver disappeared on me. Much to my relief, Thanatos hadn’t pursued me after that previous incident but much to my dread, it had been a month since Mr. Silver disappeared.
It was summer holidays and unfortunately, thanks to Mr. Bellamy and my repeated incidents of defying his authority I was made a teaching assistant during the first month of summer school. It was… alright. Harper decided to help me out which lessened the tedium but it was very awkward teaching Momoko and Wesley. Momoko tried her best not to laugh when we stepped in to teach her maths and science.
Every evening we’d all meet up, Wesley occasionally joining us whenever he wasn’t busy dealing with his other problems and chill at school, ordering meals from the nearby mall and talking about our problems and all in all just having fun. It was how Momoko found out about Wesley’s other versions.
It was after one of those conversations Wesley pulled decided to ask me a piercing question.
“April, why exactly did you need my other versions company card in the first place?”
I felt all eyes on me at that moment. Both April and Momoko stared at me, waiting for my answer.
“I mean…” I said, trying my best not to look away even though my high-pitched voice made it clear I was trying to avoid the question. “Isn’t it kinda… none of your…” Before I could say business, I caught Harper’s disapproving glare and sighed.
“I don’t think I can say,” I said, sighing.
Harper started at me, crossing her arms. “Is it because you don’t know or because you don’t want to?”
I looked away from her. “I… Uh…”
“So, you almost ruin his life,” Harper turned to Wesley. “And you can’t even give a clear answer.”
“Hey I was just curious,” Wesley interjected. “It’s no big deal.”
“Look I’m sorry Wes,” I said. “It’s just…”
Harper sighed. “Excuses again. I don’t like secrets, April. You of all people should know what secrets cost me.”
She got up and left, leaving me, Momoko and Wesley alone. Those words stung. She was right, after all it was a secret that cost her, her friendship with Skye.
“Ugh, I’m so stupid,” Wesley said. “I shouldn’t have asked her.”
I shook my head. “It’s not your fault.”
Momoko looked at her walking away with a concerned expression. “Why is she so worked up about this?”
I crossed my arms, to give myself warmth. “She had a friend who kept a lot from her. Those things she kept tore them apart. It’s not my story to tell but…” I sighed.
Momoko turned to me. “So why don’t you talk about it?”
“I don’t know,” I snapped, making Momoko reel back in surprise. “I’m sorry. Look I… just… I want to go home. You guys can continue without me.”
I left them behind. On my way home I couldn’t shake off the feeling of tremendous guilt in my chest. I hated keeping secrets from them but what if telling them put them in danger? No, that wasn’t it. There was more to it but without Mr. Silver guiding me I didn’t know what that it was.
I stared at my friendship bracelet, the colourful beads hanging limply on a tight string. I tried tapping it in an effort to tried call Mr. Silver but no response. I groaned. On the train ride home, my only company was my guilt. I had to basically drag myself home because of how shitty I felt.
I didn’t have time to mope because as soon as I got to my apartment, I saw my door was swung open halfway. I heard my heart start thumping in my chest. Did Thanatos Inc finally find me? When I opened the door would I be shot or injected and taken into a facility? My first instinct was to run to Momoko’s and tell her everything but I felt a sudden warmth in my hand and I was pulled inside my apartment. I tried dragging myself away but it pulled me in and soon, I was in my room.
Everything was neat and nothing was out of the ordinary. Nothing except the boy lying on my bed. He was lying down on his side, smiling at me. He was kind of cute with curly hair and our school’s uniform. He looked to be around 18 years old, too. But there was something off about him. I didn’t know if I had a migraine or what but he looked transparent. Like I was looking through a piece of glass instead of a solid body. Also, while I recognised the green of our school uniform, there was something odd about them. Like they were from a different time, with the additional collar on the jacket and the fact that he was wearing a bowtie instead of a normal green tie.
“Mr. Silver?” I asked, a little hopefully.
“If I knew the new face of communism was this pretty, I would have come much more prepared,” the boy said in a voice that was clearly not Mr. Silver’s. “Hello Comrade!”
I frowned. “Are you with Thanatos Inc?”
At the mention of Thanatos Inc, there was a brief flash of anger before he greeted me with a grin. “No Comrade, I’m against them,” he said, getting up. I had to do a double take because he didn’t just get up like a normal human. No, he floated up. “And you are too.”
“What the hell are you?” I asked, taking a few careful steps back.
“Baby, I’m the spectre of communism,” he said with a grin. “Ready to commit some corporate espionage.”
So, he was a ghost. Or something akin to one. If this were any other day my curiosity would be piqued. Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t any other day.
“Cool,” I said. “Could you get out of my apartment?”
“You mean your landlords,” he scoffed. “It’s a shame we still haven’t abolished private property…”
“Whatever,” I said. “Could you get out of my house, you pervert. Before I call the cops.”
“You can’t call the cops on a dead man,” he said.
I sighed. He was right, they’d think I’m insane.
“Come on, Comrade,” the ghost said. “The material conditions are right. It is time for us to strike…”
“Just fucking get out,” I snapped. “I just had a really bad day and I don’t have time to deal with you.”
He grinned, winking at me. I guess being dead meant he lost touch with reality too. “If you want me to get out, you’re going to have to make me,” he said, teasingly.
Since the ghost wasn’t going to get out anytime soon, I decided to cut my losses. I walked past him (or I should say through him since he was a self-proclaimed ghost) and lied down on my bed.
I saw him floating around my peripheral version, grinning at me as if to goad me into doing something. I sighed and turned around, avoiding him.
He floated to where I turned, his head emerging from underneath my bed. “Come on, Comrade,” he said, beckoning. “Where’s the fighting spirit you had?”
“Somewhere,” I said, turning away from him again. “Far, far away.”
Again, his face appeared, leaving me without any personal space. “Can you please just leave me alone?”
The ghost chuckled. “But I can’t. You see I was there at Thanatos Inc and I saw how you tried to fight off those guards. I couldn’t just let you go. You have a communist’s fighting spirit.”
I sighed. I figured since he wasn’t leaving me anytime soon, I might as well make conversation.
“So, what’s your name?” I asked.
“We have no time for questions,” he said. “The blight of the free market that is Thanatos awaits us. We shall rest once the ghostly forces of capitalism are finished.”
I got up. I didn’t have time for him. “You’re right,” I said.
I saw a grin appear on his transparent face. “You see, I knew you’d come around. So, what’s the plan of attack? We’ll need a force of about 100 men to dismantle those guards. We’ll need guns, swords, whatever weaponry we can get our hands on. And we’ll need to be smart, the forces of Thanatos Inc are bound to be well-equipped since the last time we staged a…”
I raised my hand. “Hold on, hold on. First, we need to scout it out, right. Figure out the lay off the land.”
The ghost nodded in agreement. “True, true. We’ll need a scout or a spy, someone who’s heart is in the cause. Jacob from IT has shown a tremendous interest in the literature…”
“I mean you’re a ghost, right?”
He understood where I was getting at. “Ah yes. I’m invisible.” He face-palmed. “How could I forget such a small detail? Of course, of course. I shall scout out the area and come back to you with a report.”
I grinned. “Yes, you do that. Leave no detail unturned.” And just for extra measure I added a “Comrade” with a wink.
He seemed to take that well as he laughed. “We’ll make a revolutionary of you yet.”
And with that, Mr. Communist Ghost left me alone to wallow in my misery.
“Man,” I said staring at my friendship bracelet. “You would know what to do.”
I curled up and before I knew it, I fell off to sleep.
…
That night, I had a hefty handful of dreams I couldn’t even remember, including one where someone begged me to wake up over the sound of the increasing pitch of my alarm. It took me a while to realise that that in fact wasn’t a dream but rather a ghost trying to wake up while my morning alarm rang.
“Comrade,” said the ghost with urgency. “Comrade! The mission is complete, I have detailed maps on the layout of Thanatos Inc. When shall we begin the infiltration mission. Comrade…”
I groaned, stretching my body. When I got up, I realised I had fallen asleep with my only clean school uniform. I sighed. Oh well. I dragged my way into the bathroom all the while Comrade ghost got up in my nerves.
“Comrade, I figured out the schedules of the guards…” Comrade ghost then went on about the different routines of the guards and the names of the most skilled ones. He also gave me detailed instructions while I spat out my toothpaste.
“Hey look, comrade,” I mumbled. “I want to take a shower so…” I pointed at the door. “Would you mind?”
“But comrade, I have a detailed list off…”
I smiled at him. “I know. I’ll listen to you while I shower.”
He went outside. I shut the door on him, making the water go faster to drown out his mumbling. After I was done, I put on my clothes and went down to eat my cereal. He was still going on with it.
“The keycard you used last time won’t work,” he said. “But I noticed a few people in IT who would be extremely sympathetic to the cause…”
After breakfast I walked all the way to the apartment gates where Momoko was waiting for me. Communist Ghost still was going on and on but he went invisible and soon as we went out the house.
“You hear that?” Momoko asked. “I heard someone rambling about theory and commodities for the past few minutes…”
I turned to Comrade ghost. “Yo, young Marx. Show yourself.”
His eyes lit up at the mention of Karl Marx. “So, you do know about him but…” he lowered his voice. “Are you sure we should be sharing our plans with…”
I looked at Momoko and back at him. “She’s a friend.”
“Yes, comrade but she’s…”
I raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“She’s Asian…”
I frowned. “You’re really a product of your time, aren’t you?”
“Um…” Momoko asked shyly. “April, who are you…”
“A communist ghost.”
Momoko paled. “A… what?”
“Show yourself,” I said. “Momoko’s a friend.”
“But…” Comrade protested.
“April… I don’t like…” Momoko said, tapping my shoulder.
“Relax,” I said. “He’s not that scary. Times have changed. If you trust me, you can trust her.”
The ghost let out a defeated sigh. “Fine.”
Comrade showed himself and for the first time in months Momoko turned into a Kaiju.
…
She calmed down after ten minutes but it didn’t help with their relationship. When she turned back to normal, we were already late for summer classes.
“What made you turn after so long?” I asked her as we rushed to the trains.
“I’m scared of communists,” Momoko said shyly. “My father used to tell me horror stories about them.”
At hearing this, Comrade let out a cocky scoff. “A daughter of a bourgeois. You’re better off without her comrade.”
Momoko looked sad at that comment. I gave Momoko a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to listen to that idiot.”
I gave Comrade a harsh glare. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stop mouthing off about the current state of society as we went on through the streets of the city with the words of bourgeois, capital and exploitation floating around.
“Look at them,” he scoffed as he saw the waiter of the Usual Spot smoking outside the coffee shop. “So happy to be exploited.”
The waiter just gave him the finger as we walked on to school where his rant came to a relieving stopped and he was silent for a second.
“It’s so much bigger and…” he stared at the students walking around and smiled. “Peaceful.”
Momoko turned to me. “I have to rush to class.”
“Go on ahead, I’ll catch up to you.”
I looked at Comrade. “Finally shut up, huh?”
There was almost a look of peace on his face, he slowly started to phase out but then came into full focus. “Pfft, look at these students Comrade. So uneager to learn. The school is just a factory for the bourgeois to mould the proletariat into a puppet for them to exploit.”
I sighed. “Wonderful,” I turned to face him. “Are you going to follow me around?”
“Yes, comrade,” Comrade said. “I’m interested in what they teach children nowadays.”
“Great,” I said, making my displeasure clear. “Just be sure not to mouth off as much as you do now, please otherwise I’ll kick you out.”
“Sure,” he said. “What are you teaching?”
I pulled out my timetable from my bag and saw my schedule for today. I was in charge off…
“Great,” I said, looking at the history class I was supposed to teach the second years and I was five minutes late for.
…
Comrade sat at the back of the class, smiling. Immediately the kids doing history were surprised at the new classmate. To make matters even worse my co-teacher was Harper and she was talking to me not as a friend but because we had a job to do. That hurt. Mr. Bellamy, sitting in the corner of the room looked at me with a disapproving but self-satisfied look on his face.
“You’re late,” she whispered.
“You can blame the new kid,” I said.
“Speaking off, who is he?” she asked, eyeing him.
“A communist ghost.”
Mr. Bellamy cleared his throat. “If you’re done talking, may we start the class?”
Harper nodded and went up to the blackboard. Mr. Bellamy got up.
“Today we’re going to be learning about the student communist revolution,” he said. “Bunch of lazy losers if you ask me. Don’t end up like them children.”
At that comment I saw Comrade straighten his back and I knew that today was not going to be a good day.
“Excuse me,” Comrade said. “You’re calling these revolutionaries lazy when you’re the one sitting on his ass while these two pretty ladies teach the class?”
Comrade had a point but unfortunately, Comrade was that kid who had long-winded discussions with the teacher. Comrade was also that kid telling the teacher that homework was due. I knew that today we weren’t going to have a class.
“Excuse me who are you?” Mr. Bellamy said, raising his eyebrows.
“Karl Genosse,” Comrade said. “I was part of this student revolution you show disdain for.”
Mr. Bellamy scoffed. “We have a nutter here.”
I facepalmed.
“Can we just continue with this lesson?” Harper spoke up. “We have places to be after this?”
But her voice was drowned out by Karl’s.
“You’re a man who just sits on his ass,” Karl said. “While people work. You embody everything the revolution stood against which is why you hate it so much.”
“And what is it those students back then wanted?” Mr. Bellamy said with a self-satisfied smirk. “To sit on their ass. All these strikes were because they didn’t want to work or write exams. It was during the exam season.”
“God,” I groaned. “How long is this going to go for?”
The rest of the students didn’t share in my disdain, however. They were entertained. They all had massive smirks on their faces at this little row and wouldn’t mind if it took up the whole hour.
“It was because we couldn’t ignore what Thanatos Inc was doing to our people,” he said. “To our country all the while the government and people suffered.”
Wait, Thanatos Inc? They were around back then? And what’s more the communists were fighting against them?
“Well Thanatos Inc has done more for the people than you communists ever did!” Mr. Bellamy said with a smile. “These students were funded by another company. How else do you think they got their weapons.”
That caused Karl to pause for a second. “I… these students funded themselves. Because they cared about the direction their country was going.”
Mr. Bellamy had a look of triumph on his face. He held his head high. “The student revolutionary party was funded by an opposition company who wanted the same resources Thanatos found. Since you claim you were alive back then how could you not have known about Orpheus Propriety limited.”
I didn’t know if it was possible for a ghost to sweat but Karl sure did. “No…”
Mr. Bellamy smiled. “Turn your history textbooks to page 518.”
The students groaned because class was finally in session. When Karl saw the citation, he paled (or became even more transparent).
“See,” Mr. Bellamy said. “This student Communist body was nothing but a manufactured sham by another company so that they protect their interests. There was nothing communist about it except for the lazy students who fell for this nonsense.”
“No, this can’t be true,” Karl said. “It can’t be.”
“If you really are from back then,’ Mr. Bellamy jeered. “Where do you think those friends of yours got their weapons?”
Karl floated up from his chair and like wind ‘swooshed’ out through the wall much to the amazement of the students. People started getting up and talking about Karl.
“Is he a ghost?”
“What the heck?”
Students wanted to get up and investigate, some were even getting up from their chairs but Mr. Bellamy got the class back in order. “Settle down students, let’s get back to class otherwise you’ll have a winter school too.”
The students groaned and muttered protests amongst themselves but ultimately, they settled down and sat on their seats.
I decided to go check up on Karl. I told Harper that as I rushed to the door. She didn’t join me; she just went back to teaching.
“Ms. Anji,” Mr. Bellamy said. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To check up on that ghost,” I said.
Mr. Bellamy scoffed. “Again. I will not be disrespected like this. If you leave through this door, you will have another month of teaching and…”
I opened the door and ran around the school hallways looking for the communist ghost.
…
I found him in the library, amidst the rows of shelves spreading out from the centre of tables and desk in the middle. Digging through history books, with a pile of books at his side. He sensed my presence and turned to face me.
“He’s lying,” he mumbled. “That class traitor teacher of yours. He doesn’t… we WEREN’T PAID, DAMMIT!”
I heard a wave of shush emanating from the students in the centre of the library.
“Calm down,” I whispered. “Those books are from a publisher owned by Thanatos.”
A flicker of sadness appeared briefly on his face. “They own history now.”
Karl regained his composure. “Okay, okay. Let me find the true information. The truth. Not the corrupted bourgeoise version of it.”
I decided to help him. We went through the books and as we went through them, he smiled.
“Ah yes, Clair,” Karl said. “Samira, Roger.” He showed me pictures of his friends in the history books, two girls and a boy painting up protest signs, laughing with each other. He showed me pictures of happy and determined students preparing to strike “I remember when we first started to strike against the government policies… I…”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He went through his pockets. “I don’t have my wallet,” he frowned. “I had a picture of our first black eyes. The government mobilised the police, at first the pigs started with tear gas and non-violence. After a while…”
He sighed. “No bourgeois would sacrifice as much as we did. That’s why your teacher is vomiting out lies.”
“What were you striking for anyway?”
Karl looked at me, shocked. “What type of Communist doesn’t know her history? Comrade what are you doing?”
I frowned. “I didn’t say I was a…”
Karl interrupted me. “We were protesting the regime. Our country had come across tremendous wealth but rather than sharing it with the people, they decided to divest many of our resources to a new company in the block, Thanatos Inc so that the politicians could line up their pockets and leave us to rot in the gutters.”
“What sort of tremendous wealth?”
He tossed me a book. “Read a book.”
I sighed. Well, any dirt I could dig up Thanatos was a boon, however…
“You staying behind?”
“Yes,” Karl said. “I will destroy that pathetic excuse of a teacher of yours with facts and logic!”
He shuffled through the books, letting out exclaimed interjections. “We were not troubled youths! We were perfectly normal!”
A wave of shushes emerged from the centre of the library. I left Karl to his own devices and made my way back to history class. Unfortunately, the class was over. Students were just about to leave class but when I walked in, they winced and decided to sit back in their seats. Harper whispered a quick Mr. Bellamy wants to talk to you before leaving. The only person in the classroom who was happy to see me was Mr. Bellamy.
“Ms. Anji,” Mr. Bellamy said with glee. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “I’ll be teaching in August too.”
“And that’s when…”
“The city is at its hottest,” I interrupted so as to not give him the satisfaction. I gave him a thumbs up. “We cool. I need to leave and read up on some history.”
He screeched at me as I left the classroom, flickering through the history book that Karl gave me.
…
It didn’t take much to realise that what I was reading was Thanatos propaganda. The history book seemed to emphasize the delinquency and test results of the communist students. They barely seemed to address the students concerns, rather all they talked about was how some of the students had a history of being ‘troubled’. All it took was a quick internet search to find out that the publisher and the historian were bought out by Thanatos. Huh, maybe Karl had a point.
But there was something about what they were fighting for that caught my eye.
“’Ectoplasm’,” I read. “’Is a substance that allegedly allows the soul to be separated from the body’. Thanatos was going to use said resource to help improve the lives of people in…’”
Reading that out loud, it was ridiculous. There was no such thing as a soul and what was this about separating it from the body. I decided to search up on this precious resource and sure enough it existed and through hours of skimming through research papers I found out that ‘Ectoplasm allows the existence of a soul-like entity to live on even when the physical body is dead.’ That explained Karl but I thought about the fact that I was a 24-year-old in my 18-year-old body then…
The ‘soul’ according to some sources was immortal and could not be killed. By mixing with the ectoplasm the soul could go through walls and interact with the physical environment but the soul could not go through bodies.
If my twenty-four-year-old soul was in my 18-year-old body then what happened to 18-year-old April Anji?
I didn’t have time to think about it as Karl came in through the door.
“These bastards,” he yelled. “Your stupid teacher was right; the party was funded by the bourgeoise but Joseph, Joseph cared…”
“Hold on,” I said. “Number one who said you could barge into my place like this and number two who’s Joseph.”
“Our great leader Joseph,” Karl said. “He formed our party. There was no way he was a bourgeoise plant.” He showed me a picture he had found of a handsome man with windswept hair raising his hand up amongst a podium of students.
“Cool,” I said. “Are you down for a revolution?”
He was busy rambling on about the bourgeoise but when he heard the word revolution he perked up like a cat. I held his shoulders to stop him and suddenly he solidified. Weird but that wasn’t what the focus was.
“Did you say revolution?” Karl asked, staring at me with starry eyes and a grin.
“Yep,” I grinned back. “I need something from them.”
If I wanted to find out more about this ectoplasm stuff, I needed to find my file and to do that I needed whatever the hell Karl found out about Thanatos.
“The two of us won’t be able to do it alone,” Karl said. “We’ll need many people. Thanatos is well equipped.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll handle it.”
…
Momoko and I walked to school in the morning when I broached up the topic of corporate espionage.
“BUT SHE’S A JAP,” Karl interrupted. “And they’re…”
“Shut up,” I hissed. I turned to Momoko. “So, you in? Think you can turn into that small lizard form of yours.”
Momoko nodded. “After everything you did for me, how can I ever say no?”
I smiled at her. “Thank you Momoko.”
…
I was ringing the bell over at Wesley’s house.
“Private property,” Karl spat. “He even lives where the bourgeoise of our time used to stay. You sure he’ll have the heart for this.”
Through the gate I could see Old-Man Wesley bathing in the sun while Jesus Wesley and Hobo Wesley sat on his sides, looking up at him as if he were about to drop a million dollars.
The gate opened. Prime Wesley appeared.
“Sorry to ask this of you so soon but I need a favour…”
When those words came out both Hobo and Jesus Wesley stepped to his side, ready to defend him.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve woman,” Hobo Wesley said.
Jesus Wesley nodded. “You’re like… bad vibes to lil Wes here.”
Prime Wesley intervened. “Guys, relax. She’s a friend now. What kind of favour?”
“Corporate espionage.”
“I’m in,” Hobo Wesley said.
“Count me in bro,” Jesus Wesley said.
“Great,” I said, turning to the Wesleys. “That’s all I needed.”
“Cool if that’s all you wanted,” Prime Wesley turned around.
“By the way,” I said, pointing to old man Wesley. “What’s he doing here?”
“He couldn’t get back home,” Prime Wesley said. “So, he decided to stay behind. All the Other Wesleys listen to him except for Priest Wesley. He doesn’t agree with his atheistic tendencies. Says he’s the manifestation of Satan himself.”
I nodded. “Cool. I’ll get out of your hair.”
Jesus Wesley, Hobo Wesley and Karl seemed to have gotten into an intense discussion. I heard them say the word ‘women’ 35 times.
Old Man Wesley rolled over to us on his wheelchair. He placed a gentle hand on Prime Wesley’s shoulder. “What seems to be the problem?”
“Sir,” I said, smiling at him. He smiled back.
“April here needed people to help her with some corporate espionage,” Prime Wesley said. “The other Wesleys decided to join her.”
“You should join them too,” Old Man Wesley said.
“I couldn’t ask that of him…” I spoke.
“Yeah, and it’s illegal,” Prime Wesley said.
Old Man Wesley shrugged dismissively. “So what? It’s fun.”
He rolled back into the house.
“So, wanna join?” I asked Wesley.
…
With three Wesleys and Momoko in tow, we needed a captain. Neither of us were suited for any leadership rules or had any organisational skills so that just left…
“I’ll talk to Harper,” I turned to Karl. “Alone.”
“I need to know if she can be trusted Comrade,” Karl said. “The people you’ve chosen…”
“Karl,” I said firmly. “Did you forget whose idea this was?”
“Yes, Comrade but…”
“And did you forget who’s been in charge of most of the organising?” I smiled at him; eyebrows raised.
Karl frowned. “Yes, Comrade. I’ll get out of your hair.”
He disappeared. Harper was at the school gym boxing and kicking a punching bag. How she had time to stay in form whilst also being the top of her class eluded me. I stopped running in my final year so I could get some studying in.
I walked up to her as she grabbed a towel and started wiping her face.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“I need your help,” I said though it was hard for me to meet her eyes.
“No,” she said before I could even tell her what it was. She took a swig of her water bottle and went back to the punching bag.
“We’re going to Thanatos Inc,” I said, practically yelling over the sound of her hitting the punching bag. “There’s something I need to find out about myself and…”
She let the punching bag sway for a while before picking up some headphones.
My passion started to wane. “We’ll find out all there is to do about me and…”
I sighed. “Look I’m sorry okay.”
Harper paused. She stopped punching the bag and took out her headphones.
“I’m sorry I’ve been keeping secrets from you,” I said, clenching my fists. Again, I felt that paralysis when it came to being vulnerable. The wave of resistance keeping my mouth shut and my body glued in place. “At first I thought I didn’t know the reason why I was doing it but the answer was pretty obvious.”
As I said the words, I winced through them. It was a struggle hearing those words coming out of my mouth. “I’m scared of losing you. I’m scared of losing all of you. I’m scared that if the truth comes out, you’ll all abandon me and… I know it’s unsatisfactory but I don’t… I’m not ready to talk about everything I just know I need you around and I know that after this thing is done, I’ll tell you everything. I promise.”
Harper stared at me in a scrutinising gaze. I almost didn’t want to meet her eyes but I did. Finally, she looked away.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll join your little thing…”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much, I…”
She held out a hand to stop me. “Just know if you don’t keep your promise we’re done. We’re not going to talk anymore.”
I nodded but deep inside me I could feel my heart breaking. I didn’t know if it was the blunt tone or the coldness in her voice, whatever the case was, it was like Harper was behind a glass wall and I had to be the one to break it.
…
That night felt extra cold. I was leaning against my table, head resting on my shoulder staring at the hollow colourful beads of my friendship bracelet. It was dark. I hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights and there was no cocky silver glow to light up my room.
On the rooftop, Karl played a haunting, mournful tune on his flute as the night breeze rustled the trees.
“Wish you were here,” I mumbled to the empty friendship bracelet. I chuckled. “I don’t think I’m worried about you. You are a massive asshole but…” I sighed a wistful sigh. “You are the only one who can help me with whatever the hell I’m feeling.” I looked up at the dull concrete of my rooftop before turning my gaze back to the empty friendship bracelet. “I feel I lied to Harper. It’s not that I’m not scared of losing them. I am. It’s just…” I looked everywhere as if the walls and the doors or the scattered kitchenware would give me answers. “It’s just… if they find out I’m not me… if they find out I’m twenty-four would they still care?” I frowned. “No not would, will… and it’s not them caring about me but them caring about her.” I rolled my wrist around, watching the beads skirt through the string. I smiled. “What happened to 18-year-old me anyway, huh?”
I got up from my seat. That was a little too much emotion to be sharing with some beads on a friendship bracelet. I decided to see what Karl was up to on the rooftop and just where the hell he got that flute from.
I climbed up the rooftop, up the uneven metal sheets. Karl sat on the rooftops looking ahead at the cityscape, the moonlight shining down on his translucent body. It was almost like he was being bathed in the silver glow of the moon.
I sat down next to him hugging my legs.
“You know my landlord will kick me out if she finds out about this
Karl just rolled his eyes and continued playing the flute.
“Where’d you get the flute?” I asked.
He stopped playing. “Stole it from your school.”
I stretched out my legs, looking out at the full moon. “Where’d you learn that tune? It’s beautiful.”
“When we made encampments around the school,” he said. “We used to play it. Most of the time we’d dance and shout and make merry. But when a Comrade died or was imprisoned, we’d play this tune instead.”
I nodded in solemn silence. We sat there, looking up at the sky. “The moon’s beautiful isn’t it.”
He nodded. “There used to be so many stars in the night nowadays…”
He looked at the city in the distance. “Light pollution,” he scowled. “Like everything capitalist, it’s poisonous.”
I groaned. “Is there anything good about capitalism?”
Karl shook his head.
“I read about… well… you, your people,” I said. “I know about, well… ectoplasm.”
Karl was still, he had a sad look on his face.
“I read about… well…” I had no easy way of bringing about this topic. “The siege.”
“The massacre you mean,” Karl said. “They were too many deaths on both sides. Acts of violence that weren’t permitted, retaliations after retaliations and it all culminated in one final massive, bloodbath.” Karl clenched his flute tightly. “We were supposed to get backup, pointless as it was compared to arsenal at Thanatos’s disposal. They cornered us into the Ectoplasm Lake underground. All my Comrades were murdered before me. Killed, maimed, there wasn’t anything those bastards wouldn’t do and there was nothing we could do against an onslaught that massive. We held the line bravely. But bravery would only get you so far when all you had were pistols and rusty AK 47’s against state-of-the-art carbine rifles. It’s sad though, out of everyone in that cesspit, I was the only one who survived to be this ghostly form.”
He stared at his own body in disgust but the tone of his voice betrayed his true feelings. He was sad. More than that he was lonely. The only survivor of a time long gone. A time he may never get back to. In a weird way, we were exactly the same. Him from the past, me from the future. Despite that…
“I’m surprised though,” I said.
“Why?” Karl asked.
“Even after fighting alongside a lot of Asian immigrants,” I said. “You still dislike Momoko.”
He frowned. “There were no Japs…”
I pulled out my phone and searched it up. “Look again.” Through a gallery of black and white photos I even found one of Karl himself drinking some alcohol alongside a bunch of Japanese students. “Communist or no I guess bigots will never…”
And then I saw a look flash across Karl’s face. The familiar agonizing frown of trying to remember memories that were permanently lost. A frown I was unfortunately very familiar with in the dementia patients I had to work with during my time as a student doctor.
“Akihiko and Li.” The look on Karl’s face was one of visible pain. “How could I…”
I placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Relax. It’s okay… It’s…”
He pulled away from me. “There’s so many names I forgot, so many feelings I can’t put faces too,” he said in a hollow voice, trying to regain his composure but failing. “I have been alive way past my time.” He laughed weakly. “I’ve been alive so long that there’s no room for me to grow. I was supposed to die with my comrades, in a burst of glory now look at me.”
The distress twisted his face into something unrecognisable. His eyes flared up in an unrecognisable jumble of despair and rage that was unfortunately alien to me. The despair of an immortal.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have brought it up…”
He raised a hand to stop me. “It’s not your fault Comrade. I should be thanking you. You helped me remember my Comrades with the dignity they deserved and not those ‘history’ books they shit off the shelves.”
He looked out at the city. “Things… they end. Thanatos, these capitalists, they live on the assumption that everything is forever. The markets, the profits, the companies themselves.” He said those words in a mocking tone. “They earn numbers so beyond our comprehension in a system made with that very same comprehension. It’s madness. And they think that this madness will last forever. Forever… forever is something so very alien to us. Everything decays, things have to end.” He held out his hands in front of him. “Otherwise, we end up with as caricatures of ourselves.”
We sat there in silence, looking out at the cities, at the massive wall looming in the distance. Snaking towards the cities were the various highways, little dots of car lights going to and from the city like ants going to and from an ant farm.
“Death is natural,” Karl smiled. “Nothing is immortal, right Comrade?”
“Yeah.” Though I knew my confirmation rang hollow. After all, much like Karl I was a ghost. A ghost with a body that wasn’t mine.
…
The following morning the gang was assembled. Thanatos loomed large in the centre of the city. The silver building overshadowed us and from Karl we found out that there were a few soldiers patrolling the building but those soldiers were no match for our little Kaiju.
“Momoko you ready?” Harper asked.
The Wesleys, Karl and I turned to face Momoko who stared at us determined.
“Let’s kick their fucking asses,” Momoko said.
All of us huddled around Momoko and in a red flash we were in the scaled claws of a thirty-meter Kaiju. Momoko only had to take a few steps before sirens started blaring and helicopters started rumbling in the sky but despite it all, the bullets barely grazed Momoko. In the skylight formed by the crossing of her claws we could see missiles bouncing uselessly off her body.
We finally made it to the Thanatos building without any hiccups.
“If I remember correctly, I was at the 2…”
“13th floor,” Prime Wesley yelled. “Drop us at the thirteenth floor.”
I don’t know how Momoko heard us through the shouting but her claws slashed through the building. She held out her hands and we stepped into the building. Harper looked like she was about to follow us when a white military grade helicopter started to fire at Momoko. The bullets fazed off but it was clear that there needed to be a distraction.
“We’ll hold em off,” Harper said. “You two go ahead.” She motioned at Karl and I. Before I descended to the scattered glass covered floor Harper gripped my arm.
“And remember what you promised,” she said, meeting my eyes with a firm glance. “No secrets.”
I nodded, jumping off Momoko’s claws onto the 13th floor.
I turned around and Kaiju Momoko disappeared. Down on the first floor a lizard girl started slashing at Thanatos soldiers as Harper and the Wesleys scrambled for cover.
Karl stared at me with a look of glee that was quite the contrast to the contemplative look on his face I saw last night. “You ready to blow shit up?”
“You do that,” I said. “I have some files to go through.”
…
When I reached the file room I saw two security guards.
“Are you serious?” I groaned. “Don’t you guys have a building to protect?”
The two buff guards charged towards me with their chests puffed up. I decided to slacken my body and accept my fate. We’ll do this next time, Harper, I thought. Luckily, I didn’t have to do that. Karl came to my rescue, knocking out one guard by dropkicking him and kicking the other across the face.
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“Mandatory combat classes,” Karl said. I picked up a security guard from one of the guards and opened up the door to the file room.
“Thought you wanted to blow things up?”
Karl shrugged. “Turns out there’s not a lot of explosives in a mega corporation.”
The file room was massive, with loads of shelves stuffed with files wrapped up in admittedly beautiful red binders. A lavish red carpet cut through the centre sprawling out into the maze of shelves. In the corner of the rooms, pure white cameras craned around the room. I prayed that nobody was manning them. I walked towards one of the files, written in gold on the spine were the numbers of various subjects ranging from 1 to 9000s.
“Let’s hope Harper can keep them occupied for long enough,” I said as I walked through the shelves trying to wrack my brain to come up with the subject number the emergency alarm had yelled out the last time I was here. It was Karl who helped me from my pickle.
“12,” Karl called out. I rushed to the shelves with the double numbers, shuffling through them.
“How do you know that?” I said, tossing out files of names that blurred together.
“How could I forget such a revolutionary action.”
And finally, I found it. File Number 12. I stared at the form plastered on the cover, with my name, my former age and gender. My hands shook as I unclasped the side of the red leather-bound file. Looking at it, it screamed this is it. Finally, the answers to everything were just a small action of opening it up away.
And I did. I opened it. And I saw her. 24-year-old April Anji with her longer brown hair, thicker glasses and green blouse. This was me. Not the girl that stared back at me in the mirror. Written in the file was April Anji is a twenty-four-year-old student, currently studying to be a doctor. On the date of 12/4/2024 she will die in a truck accident. Her funeral will be unremarkable, only one person will be in attendance her best friend Violet…
I almost dropped the file when I read that. My hands shook, I felt a cold pit in my stomach.
The rest of the file went over how I was orphaned at a young age, how I grew up, my psychology but all those words were like a blur to me. All I could feel was the unending shame of how my life was lived.
My legs felt weak. It was like the full weight of my regrets was contained in that file and when I opened it, I finally felt it on my shoulders. How could I have lived like that… how could I have died like that? The world around me shrank and shrank and it felt as if I were leaving my body when I felt a calm hand on my back.
“Breathe,” Karl said gently. “Breathe.”
He gently pried the filed out of my hand “No, no, no,” I didn’t realise I had been sobbing. “No don’t look at that… don’t…”
I got up immediately, ready to fight him for the file if it came to that. I lunged at him weakly but he stopped me from doing that. All he did was look at me with a gentle smile.
“So, you’re a ghost too.”
And I don’t know… I didn’t know at the time but those words were what I needed to hear. The quiet acceptance that I wasn’t who I said I was.
“You came here for the file, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” I said, regaining my composure. I wiped my eyes. “Yeah I…”
Karl opened a page at random. “How very bourgeoise can be efficiently explained. What is it you were looking for?”
“Any information on the experiment,” I said. “Anything that can help me find out more about what’s going on?”
Karl skimmed through the file, scanning each page until he found something that could be considered a lead.
“Says here you’ll be assigned to two anonymous observers,” Karl said. “One will track your progress, the other will communicate and give you guidance.”
“Mr. Silver,” I whispered to myself. He was the observer giving me guidance. But what about the other one? The one tracking my progress. “Does it say anything about the advisor who’s tracking my progress?”
Karl turned his head to the file. “Says here that this observer has full discretion to decide when to award you a bead. The other one is to guide you to the beads.”
Karl and I both stared at my friendship bracelet. So that’s where those beads were coming from. It didn’t explain the how but it sure as hell explained why those beads were coming in at just exactly the right moment. It also explained Mr. Silver pushing me to make friends.
I stared at Mr. Silver’s eyes, despite my breakdown, finding this out had excited me. “That explains everything. Well almost everything. What else can you find out?”
“It says you’ve been part of this experiment for a hundred years,” Karl said.
Those words didn’t register with me. “What?”
“It says…”
“No, I heard you,” I said. “What do you mean hundred years?”
“Due to unsatisfactory results,” Karl read out to me. “April Anji on special request from the executive board, this experiment has been repeated for over a millennium thanks to constant donations from the Thanatos Chief Executive Officer and… April…”
Those words, they felt hollow. I’ve been doing this for over a hundred years. But why didn’t I remember? Why couldn’t I remember?
And before I could even process the words the alarm started ringing. Red lights started to flash around the room.
“April Anji… experiment number 12…”
Karl and I prepared to run but suddenly we heard a rumbling sound and the shelves to our right parted, revealing a set of stairs leading downstairs.
“What the…?” I asked. “What’s happening?”
“April Anji…” droned the robotic voice of the alarm. “It’s… me… Mr… Silver… I don’t have long… go downstairs and get her… the girl who can sense history.”
I had to try my best to hide my smile just in case that bastard could see me. “You heard the voice,” I said to Karl.
Karl looked confused. “Who’s Mr. Silver?”
I smiled. “A friend.”
Karl frowned. “That doesn’t answer my…”
I grabbed his arm. “Just follow me you doofus.”
We ran downstairs, past rows of stairs until we emerged in a room in what I could only describe as a hotel prison. There were rows of glass doors like massive cubicles lining the hallway with a few security guards patrolling. The people in those cubicles didn’t look like they were complaining though. They were chilling on yoga mats, reading books and sleeping on what looked like very comfortable beds. Some of them even walked to each other’s cubicles and made conversation.
“Ready to take them on?” I asked Karl.
But when I saw him, his face was pale. His eyes were fixed on someone in the middle of the room. I followed his glance to see a fat man in a suit with fake brown hair extensions and three chins. Karl, however, looked like he recognised him.
“Karl,” I said. “You okay?”
He ignored me and floated right at the man, grabbing him by the scruff of his collar.
The security guards pointed their guns at him but before they could even fire a gust of wind blew them against the glass cubicles.
“What’s the meaning of this?” the fat man screeched. “Who or what the hell…”
And when the fat man met Karl’s eyes, he knew and he paled. “You…”
“You… you betrayed us,” Karl yelled. “You are the one who sold us out, Joseph.”
Joseph, the leader of the Student Communist Party. The man who organised all the strikes who, admittedly looked rather handsome from all the photos compared to the old, fat man Karl had in his arms.
Joseph smiled, his eyes darting around in fear. “You don’t understand, Karl.”
“We were waiting for reinforcements!” Karl shouted. “And you… you… left us to die. Why?”
“You see…”
“WHY?” Karl shouted.
“Orpheus…” Joseph stammered. “They offered me a good… deal…”
The security guards started to get up. Somebody started calling for reinforcements.
“Karl,” I yelled out. “Let’s get the girl and get out of here…”
“SHUT UP!” Karl yelled at me. I looked up at him and saw tears start to fall down his face. He turned to Joseph, his eyes burning with atomic rage. “You know how many of us died? Do you know how many of us suffered for what we believed in…”
“I mean…” Joseph said, looking down at the floor. “If you think about it, communism is too idealistic… a teenage fantasy.”
“You…” Karl’s face was full of anguish, full of pain. “You…”
Reinforcements started to shuffle in, another massive gust of wind and they were knocked all over the room. It shook me too. My hair flew all over my face and my clothes felt heavy. The ‘prisoners’ started to look worried, they started stirring.
“Karl, you have to understand,” Joseph said. “We were trapped in a corner. There was no way anybody was going to escape.”
“What happened to your group, huh?” Karl shouted. “Are you telling me they were pigs like you!”
Joseph laughed nervously. “They were a risk. They knew too much you see and well… they uh… had to be dealt with.”
He chuckled nervously as if that would make things better. That was when the storm started to act up, soldiers were flying all over the room. I could barely stay on the ground as guns and equipment and unconscious bodies floated around the room. I tried reaching Karl but my voice could barely be heard over the roar of anger.
“A risk.” Karl’s laugh was a hollow one. “A risk. Samira, Akihiko, Li, George, Fyodor, Roger. They were just a risk.” Karl’s grip tightened around Joseph. “Samuel, Madeline, Jacqueline, John. They were nothing but a risk. You… you…” his grip tightened around Joseph’s neck until his face turned pink. “You…”
He loosened his grip. The wind died down. The unconscious bodies of the soldiers plummeted to the floor. Karl just sighed.
“You won’t remember their names,” Karl said, defeated. The anger sapping out of his body. “You don’t care about them.” What’s your position?”
Joseph was still regaining his breath. Karl let go. There was a snap as Joseph broke his pudgy legs on the floor below. Joseph screamed out in pain but Karl just floated down to him.
“Tell me,” Karl said. “What’s your position?”
“HR Management,” Joseph cried out. “Human resources.”
The guards started to stir. One of them saw Joseph and they all panicked.
“Get me to the infirmary you idiots,” Joseph cried. “Otherwise, you’re all fired.”
“But sir there’s an attack…” one of the guards spoke up.
“FIRED!”
All the guards and soldiers scrambled around the room to grab him, carrying his obese body out of the room. Karl laughed at it. His face lit up for a second before he sagged, as if all the energy was sapped out of him. He leaned against one of the glass prison hotel rooms.
“All those lives for an HR Manager,” he said, leaning against it.
I decided to sit next to him. Since all the guards had all but disappeared, there wasn’t really a rush to get things done. “Would it have been worth it if he were a CEO?”
Karl turned to me. “No.” He stretched out his legs and looked up at the concrete rooftop. “I’ve been here for more than fifty years you know? I didn’t even know Joseph was a member until now.”
“Didn’t know or didn’t want to know?” I asked.
Karl contemplated his answer for a while. “Both.”
He turned to face me. “I’ve been a teenager for fifty years. You know your brain only fully develops at 25? I’ve lived my whole life as this angry teenager with a stupid teenage brain. Maybe Joseph was right. Maybe communism is too idealistic, maybe it really is a teenage fantasy.”
“You did go about doing things immaturely,” I said, agreeing with Karl. “But you read the file. Take it from an oldie, there’s nothing wrong with dreaming. Especially if it’s for a better world.” I smiled, pointing at myself. “And hey if it weren’t for people like you or people adjacent like you, I’d probably be living on the streets or staying at an orphanage. So, thanks for the Orphan Welfare Programme, I guess. Even though they’re slow as shit.”
Karl chuckled. For a while there was a big smile on his face before he finally turned to face me, his expression serious, his eyes sad. The spark had long gone from them. “I guess I’m just tired. I’ve been here for fifty years. At first, I tried haunting the place but still nothing changed, people just continued working over me. I tried leading those who I could see had revolutionary spirit in the right direction but their spark had disappeared until they either left or were just another cog in the machine trying to get their next paycheque. This place…” he spread his hands dramatically. “It conquered all of time, all of space, life itself even. Yet the people here are so stagnant. They’re tired, you can see it in their dreary faces and when you watch someone yawn, you end up yawning too. I…” he looked at his hands growing transparent. “I shouldn’t be here. I’m an alien. I should have died with my Comrades all those years ago, I should’ve been remembered as a monster by the passive and a human by the active. My fight should have ended all those years ago.” He looked at me and I didn’t see a young boy anymore, I saw an old man wearing the mask of a young boy. “I’m tired April. I want to rest.”
I held his hand. For a ghost, it was surprisingly warm. “I’m tired too,” I whispered.
He rested his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes. And then he disappeared. On my friendship bracelet there was a red hammer and sickle.
“Karl,” I called out. No response. “Karl.”
The prisoners had all disappeared. Probably ran off. In this empty, dark hallway, I was the only one left.
The only ghost left.
I was ready to give up and rendezvous with Harper - I failed in my mission to find the girl who could sense history after all, when I heard a voice behind me.
“April Anji,” it was a girl’s voice. She had an Indian accent. I turned around to see what I could only describe as a beautiful brown skinned girl with long waist length silky black hair and
“You’re blind,” I said, noticing her glassy grey eyes. “How do you know my name?”
The girl smiled. “Let’s just say I know many things. I take it you’re here to get me out.”
She was wearing the white prisoner garb that everybody else behind those glass doors were wearing. The glass door hissed open in what I only assumed was Mr. Silver’s meddling. She stumbled down the steps. I grabbed her arm.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Amrita,” she said. “I’m the girl who can sense history your friend Mr. Silver was talking about.”
I didn’t have time to ask questions like how she knew about my little nickname. The guards had finally dealt with Joseph and were shuffling down the stairs.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said, linking our arms together and getting the hell out of here.
…
“What kept you?” Harper asked as I made it to the entrance with Amrita. “And who’s that?”
“No time,” I yelled. “Let’s get out of here.”
Momoko was waiting for us at the entrance in a fifteen-metre form, tearing through helicopters and tanks like a boss.
Harper nodded. “You heard that, Wesleys,” Harper yelled. “MOVE!”
The Wesleys emerged from behind their hiding place at the reception desk. They all held machine guns and had painted their faces with printer ink. Prime Wesley stumbled out of there with the other Wesley’s, firing wildly at security guards who were nervously hiding by the elevators.
“FUCK YEAH!” Hobo Wesley yelled.
“REVOLUTION!” Jesus Wesley roared.
“GET ME OUT OF HERE!” Prime Wesley cried out.
We all ran towards Momoko as the Wesleys fired at the guards on our tail. Momoko knelt down, grabbing us in her claws and in another explosion, she was in her true Kaiju form, swiping at the helicopters and crushing the tanks.
“Where’s the ghost?” Harper asked.
I glanced at the red bead on my wrist. “Gone.”
“And what about the file?” Harper asked.
At that I perked up. I’d left it behind but I knew of the contents but telling Harper about it would mean telling her the truth.
“I lost it,” I said. “Burned in an… explosion…”
“Did you see what was in it?” Harper asked, unconvinced.
We stared at each other’s eyes. Harper’s sharp brown eyes met mine. And I knew I couldn’t lie myself out of this.
I did it anyway. “No,” I chuckled. “I forgot.”
And when Harper looked away, her eyes like ice, I knew our friendship was over.
To be continued…