“Ugh! Get me out of here!” Chang grumbled.

He’d spent an indeterminable amount of time stuck in a sack that smelled like the rear end of a pig and was ready to be free. Trapped and floating a world of darkness. Now and then, he’d find another captive wandering aimlessly. None of those talked. They’d been here far too long and lost themselves.

“Get me out Z—” his throat closed as he tried to scream. “Z—”, why couldn’t he say the man’s name? He couldn’t even think it.

A second later, the darkness above him opened, and a blinding light stretched out towards him. It grabbed him, pulling him upward with a sharp jolt. Chang covered his eyes and ears to protect himself from the loudness of the outside world. He turned to his captor. The obese bearded man stared at him from behind dark circular glasses.

“This is your stop.”

Chang spun around, searching for any familiar landmarks. “This isn’t home.”

“Ha!” the man roared a laugh that shook the motorcycle beneath him. “You think you’re going back to China?”

“Wasn’t that the deal?” Chang complained.

“The deal was that in return for helping the princess, you would not become a permanent resident of one of the thousand hells. Instead, you would pay for the rest of your misdeeds on earth.”

“Yes, and Jianye is on earth.” Chang responded. Why couldn’t he go home? Three hundred years spent waiting on his judgment, only to be punished for rescuing the first princess of heaven.

The fat man leaned in close. “Tell me, who would keep you safe from Guan Yu? How about Lu Bu? Will he forgive you for putting that sleeping elixir in his drink and making a fool of him in front of the emperor? Plus, it’s called Nanjing now. Well, at least in this country it is.”

Chang clenched his fists to hold back his anger. Or was it his fear? Mattered little in this case. There was nothing he could do.

“How about one of the other heavens?” Chang asked. The man on the bike merely shook his head.

“You’re lucky!” shouted the man. “Most con-men don’t get a second chance like this. So be a good little ghost and stay here for the next thousand years. Then we can talk about where you’ll be for the rest of eternity.”

The fat man was annoyingly right. It didn’t matter where he was as long as he wasn’t in one of the hells.

“So where do I go from here?” Chang asked.

The man shrugged. “Beats me. But wherever you go, try to not make so much noise. Keep your head down and time will fly by.”

“Oh, I’m sure. A thousand years in some place I’ve never seen will be fine.” Chang said through gritted teeth. “What if I go back and ask the emp—”

The bald man raised a thick, ink blackened hand. “Enough.”

Chang’s body froze in midair. He couldn’t even blink.

“I’m sure you were a good man at some point. You’ve just been scum for so long you’ve forgotten. Focus on that, on being a good man.”

The biker’s eyes lit up with a bright red spark behind his dark glasses. “Hmm, seems I have to go,” he spat. “Remember, I’ll be by from time to time to monitor you. Don’t make me be the bad guy.” He laughed, patting the large leather pouch that hung to his side. With that, he snapped his fingers, freeing Chang, and riding off down the street. The wheels of his black bike stained the ground with some thick, dark substance.

Chang flew upwards until he could see over the surrounding buildings. Each one built from strange materials that definitely didn’t exist during his time on earth. Might as well survey the new home, he thought.

His exit from the afterlife had been a surprise. He couldn’t grab anything on his way out. Had he known the reason for the clay guardians following him, he would’ve snuck into Erlang’s armory. Chang had watched celestial beings get human bodies by wearing a pair of mortal coils. Those would really be handy right now.

It wasn’t long before he found other ghosts. Of course, these weren’t like him. They’d never moved beyond their earthly attachments or were stuck here for some other reason. A group of old dead people floated near a pole with a lamp at the top. At the front of the group, a small woman in grey spoke to someone who Chang couldn’t quite make out through the mass of nearly transparent bodies. He drew closer, but stopped when he saw what they were looking at. It was a human! They were speaking to a human.

A young guy with wide round glasses, in need of a haircut and wearing a long red scarf spoke to the ghosts as if they were normal humans. Chang snuck closer, letting his body melt into a nearby wall.

“Thank you, thank you! Simon. You’re the only one who looks out for us! Other psychics would’ve just destroyed James, but you helped him move on,” the old bat whimpered.

“It’s ok, seriously. No need to thank me anymore, just please don’t call me a psychic.”

A dark-haired man with a large forehead and a burn scar over the right side of his face jabbed the old woman. “How many times do we gotta remind you, Nat? He don’t like that word.”

She grabbed the burned man by the throat and strangled him as hard as she could. “How many times do I have to tell you not to touch me? I’ll kill you.”

“I’m… already…. dead…. you bitch.” The man gasped.

Riled up by the sudden attack, the group of ghosts descended into chaos before vanishing. The young man that Chang now knew as Simon continued down the street, completely unfazed. Psychics were a weird bunch. Even in life, Chang had never liked them, with their weird auras and eyes that always made them look like they knew too much. He stayed close to the psychic, nonetheless. The fact he was creepy didn’t mean he wasn’t useful or interesting.

Some psychics, known as channelers, were like houses for spirits and, if weak enough, were easily controlled. On the other hand, the kid might be a telepath or dream walker. Those were too hard to possess, and even if you did, they were almost impossible to control.

Through snow-covered streets, busy roads with hundreds of people in horseless carriages, Chang followed the guy, only to learn that—for a psychic—he was the most boring man on the planet! All he did all day was walk, then go to a university, then walk some more. Chang had no legs, but even he was exhausted. Not to mention, the kid made no effort to talk to the women that passed by him. What good was a body if you didn’t use it for anything?

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Simon stopped near a tall building made of a strange brick. Before Chang reacted, the kid leapt into a dark alley. He jumped towards a wall, using it to launch himself over a metal fence and continue his sprint without stopping. Where was he going? Was the boy on to him?

They passed more groups of people on the street, but as they went on Chang could see that the masses became smaller and more spread out. Simon continued into a large wooded area, with a sign at the front that read ‘Park’. His bright red scarf trialed behind him as he dashed between trees and onto a stone path.

Chang froze in the air. A chill? He wasn’t supposed to feel the cold. He was a ghost. Phasing through trees to keep up with the boy, he sped up.

“AAAHHH, RUN SARAH, RUN!” A man’s voice pierced the air.

A blonde woman in a fur coat did her best to run across the icy park grounds. She screamed uncontrollably as the man who’d yelled for her flew over her head and hit a tree with a deep thud. Chang dodged the man, forgetting that it made no difference to him.

To the other side of the shivering woman, a man with pitch black eyes walked towards her. An aura of sickly yellow wind enveloped him the closer he got to her. Drool dripped from his open mouth as he mumbled something softly.

“S… Sarah.”

A possession. Chang knew just how nasty things could get when spirits went poking around inside of humans. He turned around, searching for the psychic. Had he come here to find this thing?

“Excuse me, sir,” said Simon. He stood behind the possessed man, removing his black leather gloves. “I think you’re scaring this woman and her date.”

The man lashed out, spinning so fast that the wind whipped up the surrounding snow, but he missed his target. Simon flipped over him, slapping his shoulder. The thing let out a howl of pain as a mark the size of Simon’s hand appeared on his now exposed shoulder. He roared again, this time kicking in the psychic’s direction before dashing forward and catching the young man by the waist.

Chang watched silently. The possessed man barreled through a tree, forcing Simon to take the brunt of the hit with his back. Simon slapped the man’s back again, ripping away another piece of the man’s shirt. Again, a yellow mark in the shape of a hand appeared on the creature. Possessed or not, those had to hurt.

The psychic kicked his boot off and ran at the screaming man. With his bare feet, he kicked the downed man. Over and over again. Chang’s jaw dropped to the floor. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?

He stomped the back of his enemy until the possessed man shook. A shaking that caused a rumble in the air that even Chang could feel. Simon jumped away. A moment later, the man turned to Simon and a yellow beam of pure spiritual energy shot from the man’s mouth.

“Get out of the way, kid, he’s gonna kill you!” Chang yelled, but the sound of the beam, like the screaming of a hundred souls, muted his voice.

Simon removed his jacket and shirt before the light could reach him. He extended his arms outward and in an even more surprising turn of events; he jumped at the beam, grabbing onto it with all four limbs. Chang followed the trail left by the boy’s body as it crashed through trees and a wooden sign. The possessed man dashed forward, crushing fallen branches under foot. He was too fast, even for Chang.

The man leaped into the air, clearing the trees before crashing down. Chang pushed himself harder, following the sound of the struggle ahead. He came upon the limp body of the once possessed man. A short ways away, in a crater in the ground, he found the spirit that was in the man and a bare chested Kenta wrapped around him.

“Let me go, you freak!” the possessed man grunted.

“I’m sorry, I can’t,” Simon responded.

“Get off me.” The man struggled but couldn’t get free. His black eyes brightened the more he fought.

“Just a little longer now.” Simon muttered while holding onto the wiggling man. “I just need to hold you a little more.”

The man went silently still. Then he screamed with every bit of energy he had left. “Help! This guy wants to do things to me.”

A gust of wind blew over the snow on the ground and the temperature dropped even lower. Ghosts of all ages and sizes came from the ground and the trees. Each one was probably as eager as Chang to figure out why a half naked psychic was spooning a ghost in the middle of a crater.

The air shook once more, but it wasn’t the yellow man’s doing. A Blinding white light exploded from his eyes and overtook his body, inch by inch. It washed over him and made it impossible to look in his direction. He didn’t scream or even make a sound. A while later, a soft whimper from the now blue-eyed man in Simon’s arms was the only thing that broke the long silence.

“I loved her, my Sarah.” The man began. “My heart was hers since we were kids.”

Snot dripped from his nose as he spoke. “If it wasn’t for that car accident, we would’ve married, you know. She was my everything.”

Simon’s head popped out from behind the man. “I’m sorry to hear that, but I think it’s time you both moved on. Maybe you’ll meet again in the next life.”

The crying man suddenly stopped, turning his head at a sharp one-hundred and eighty degree angle. “I’m thankful for your help… BUT CAN YOU GET OFF ME?”

Simon unhanded the man, jumping to his feet and apologizing. On the ground, the man convulsed. His body rapidly shifted in and out of visibility. He struggled to his knees and got a few yards away before vomiting up what looked like three pearls of white energy. Chang floated through the onlooking ghosts, keeping his distance in case some other crazy thing happened.

Simon stepped over to the pearls and kneeling down, he pressed his a finger to each one. Eeww, what is wrong with this kid? Chang thought. He undresses when he fights; he wrestles with ghosts, and he touches their vomit?

The first pearl shook, knocking into the one beside it, and that one did the same. All three continued their shaking and bashing into each other until small cracks appeared. From the cracks came a light as bright as the spirit of the man on the ground. It shimmered, then morphed into the image of three women. All three were blonde with blue eyes and bared a passing resemblance to the woman the man had chased through the park.

“Thank you for saving us,” said the first woman. “This man had us trapped in there for who knows how long.”

The other two women jumped on the spirit of the now sobbing man and punched, kicked, and spit on him until satisfied smiles crossed their faces. The man screamed for a God though Chang was unsure of which one.

“It’s really no problem,” said Simon. “He won’t be able to possess anyone anymore. He’s marked now.”

Marked? What did that mean? Chang got closer but remained hidden behind the ghost of an aged street vendor in ragged clothes.

One of the two women assaulting the man turned to the psychic with a bright smile. “We really must thank you somehow. We would’ve gone insane if we’d spent another minute in this asshole’s mind.”

The third woman nodded in agreement.

“Really, it’s alright. I do this all the time.” Simon responded.

“I’ve got an Idea.” The first woman spoke up. “We’d like to bless you for your help.”

Chang’s jaw clenched so hard he even felt pain. Three blessings? This psychic was about to become one of the luckiest men on the planet and probably didn’t understand what it meant. The blessing of a spirit was like taking on a wish from that spirit. A wish that the universe obeyed. Ghosts usually used these wishes of wellbeing on living relatives, as it meant good fortune for their families. For one man to have three blessings at one time wasn’t unheard of, but it was rare.

Kenta just shrugged at the offer and thanked them. Each one of the three spirits placed a hand over him and prayed. Energy, like water droplets, poured over him and condensed into three large spheres at his feet. At that moment, more appeared at his feet! Too many for Chang to count, but he could feel everyone. None of the surrounding ghosts seemed surprised. Instead, they marveled at the twinkling lights like children.

They obviously didn’t know what this meant. Maybe too young to understand, but Chang knew what this was. Each sphere was a blessing from a different spirit inside of the young psychic! All nine-hundred and eighty of them!

A chill crawled down his back. This was impossible. According to legend, a being with a thousand blessings gained the crown of glory. He didn’t know what that meant, but it had to be good. NO! It had to be amazing. Surely, a psychic with the crown of glory could help him with his little predicament. Maybe he could even get him back home.

At that moment, a plan formed in Chang’s mind. A splendid plan, but maybe a risky one. He shot a glance at the spirit of the man on the ground. He’d begun to heal and was crawling away, but the first woman grabbed him by the throat with a ghostly hand.

“This could go so wrong.” Chang whispered to himself. “But it also could go oh so right.”