When Ray saw Sam, their first instinct was to cry.

They looked scared, helpless. Scraggly brown hair fell into their wide blue eyes. They were shivering all over – the cold from the well. They looked just as lonely and uncertain as Ray always felt.

Once again, Ray cursed their inability to give ghosts hugs.

“Hi…” Sam said, hugging their arms. “I just… sorry. Just, the well started draining, and I wanted to see who was here.”

Ray smiled at them. “No problem. My name’s Ray. I’m… well, it’s hard to explain, but I’m sort of a paranormal investigator.”

Relief sketched itself across Sam’s face. “Oh… it’s okay that I turned visible, then. Good.”

“How do you do that?” Ray asked, genuinely curious. They knew they could from the game, but it had never been explained how. “The only way I knew how to make ghosts visible was with Ectoplasm Illuminator.”

Sam looked away. “It’s nothing, just… I live… well, not live… I’m in the well, and I had to get really… really psychically strong to get out. So… I can do stuff the other guys can’t. I don’t really know how… sorry.”

Ray nodded. It didn’t seem that they knew how they did it, either. “No big deal,” they said. “Do you know why I’m here?”

Sam shrugged. “Rosie said someone was here… she didn’t say who…”

Ray puffed themself up and tried to emanate some of Dare’s unearned confidence. “I’m here to catch your killer, so no one else has to die!”

Sam nodded. “Okay…”

Sam didn’t think they could do it. They’d had the same reaction in the game. “And,” Ray added, “I think I can help you interact with the human world again.”

Sam’s whole face lit up at that. “Really?”

Maybe it was giving them false hope. But Dare had been able to do it in the game, and Ray was betting that they could do it, too. Cursebreaking Sam was officially their first priority. “You bet.”

“Oh…” Sam shook their head. “Wow. That’s… that’s amazing. I mean, if you can’t do it, it’s fine, but…” Tears came into their eyes and fell soundlessly against the floor. “I miss drawing so much.”

Ray wiped their own eyes. “Don’t worry,” they said. “I’ll make sure you can draw again.”

“Can I…” Sam asked quietly. They looked away, cheeks dusted pink. “Can I… hug you?”

Ray’s heart panged in their chest. “Not physically,” they said.

“Oh…” Sam laughed a little, embarrassed. “Right.”

Ray held up their arms, trying to keep a blush off their own face. “Air hug?”

Sam grinned and held up their own. “Air hug.”

Maybe it was Dare’s paranormal sensitivity combined with Sam’s heightened abilities, or maybe Ray was just imagining it completely, but they could swear they felt a cool body press against their own, a heartbeat settling next to theirs.

“Have you been out of the well long?” Ray asked when the two of them lowered their arms again. “I know spirits have trouble being away from their death spot. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“Oh.” Sam looked startled. “Not really… I just came up a few minutes ago… I won’t start feeling jittery from it for a few more hours…”

“Good,” Ray said, then hesitated. They’d never asked this of a real, living person before, let alone a ghost, and Sam seemed to like them so far. What if they thought they were weird? What if they were being weird? What if – “Want to hang out?” they blurted, cutting themself off. Their whole body tensed as they waited for a rejection along the lines of ones they’d gotten their whole life.

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Sam stared at them. “Really…?” they asked.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to!” Ray said hurriedly.

Sam shook their head. “No, I just… what would we do?”

Ray had not thought about that.

They couldn’t do anything that involved leaving the house. Or anything that took longer than a few hours. Or anything that involved interacting with physical objects. Fuck.

“We could… watch TV?” Ray suggested.

“Did you get it set up?” Sam asked.

Did I get it set up?? After a few moments of anxious consideration, they nodded. “Yeah. I don’t have streaming services, but we could… check what’s on cable…?”

Sam chuckled. Ray cringed, certain they were laughing at them. “That sounds fun,” they said.

“Really?” Ray’s heart was racing. “Okay! Let’s… let’s put something on!”

“Let’s invite Rosie,” Sam said. “She’s always nagging Theodore to put something on. He usually doesn’t because he’s not very dexterous with his telekinesis and if he can’t get it turned off again the house just stays loud, and nobody likes that.” They started turning red as they were speaking, like they weren’t used to talking this much.

“Okay!” Ray jogged up the stairs and poked their head into the bedroom. Rose was sitting on the floor holding her hands up in front of her. Little red sparks popped up from her palms like tiny fireworks. “Hey, Rose?” Rose looked up, quickly squeezing her hands into fists and putting out the miniature light show. “Sam and I are going to watch TV. You want to watch with us?”

Rose considered it for a moment. “Can you turn it off and on?”

“Yeah,” Ray said. “Easily.”

Rose’s eyes widened. “Can you change channels?”

“I can do absolutely anything with a remote,” Ray said, only somewhat confidently. They’d used an Xbox controller to operate the TV at their parents’ house.

“Okay!” Rose jumped up and raced directly through Ray, who couldn’t keep themself from flinching as the girl passed through them. They shook their head. Gotta get used to that. They followed her down to the living room only to discover that she’d already claimed about half the couch.

Ray settled next to Sam in the slim remaining space and picked up the remote. “What do you want to –”

“Cartoons!” Rose shouted. “Or football.”

Sam groaned. “Not football.”

“Cartoons it is,” Ray said. They turned on the TV and flicked through the channels until they landed on an old Gravity Falls episode. Rose immediately leaned her head against Sam’s shoulder and closed her eyes.

Ray couldn’t help but pay more attention to the ghosts beside them than the show in front of them. Rose was completely relaxed and already half-asleep, but Sam still looked on edge. Occasionally they started smiling, but that was immediately followed by an anxious glance at Ray. Ray did their best to smile back.

“What’s going on out there?” Lukas groaned, walking straight through the TV. Ray motioned him out of the way. He just stood there.

“Watching TV,” Ray whispered so as not to wake Rose. “Want to –”

“Yeah, sure,” Lukas said loudly. Rose blinked awake for just long enough to glare at him. Lukas tried to shove Ray over to make room for himself and ended up phasing directly into them. “Dude, could you…?”

“No,” Ray said. Sam let out a surprised laugh. “Sit on the floor.”

“Whatever,” Lukas grumbled. “Stupid.” He sat grumpily at Sam’s feet. “Can we put on football?”

“No,” Sam said, and that got a laugh out of Ray. Sam’s gaze darted over to them, a shy smile on their face.

Ray smiled right back.

“I wish…” Sam scrubbed furiously at their eyes. “I wish I’d never met you. I wish I’d never found a reason to stay.”

Dare took their slowly solidifying hands. “Hey. You know what I wish?” They looked into their soulmate’s eyes, full of pain and fear, and said, “I wish we could stay together forever. Cause I don’t think you should aim for bittersweet when it comes to wishes. I think you should go all the way for happy.”

Color was showing through the gray. Sam’s flushed cheeks, their auburn hair, their shimmering blue eyes, all seen for the first time. “I… I guess that’s a better wish.”

Dare leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together. They felt Sam slowly solidifying, becoming tangible for the last time. “If I die, I’ll come looking for you first thing.”

Sam snorted. “‘If’.”

“If anyone’s gonna crack the secret to immortality, it’ll be me,” Dare said, smiling, refusing to let their eyes shimmer or their voice waver. “But if I don’t… I’ll find you. I’ll search the infinity of the afterlife to find you.”

“I’ll…” Sam’s voice cracked even as they smiled. “I’ll put a Dare Google Alert on my heaven phone. So when you come in, I’ll be the first to know.”

Dare grinned. “I wish we had more time to break that sense of humor out of your shell.”

Sam’s hands closed around Dare’s. “I wish I could see more of the world with you.”

“I wish we could stay right here forever.”

“I wish –”

Stardust, floating up through Dare’s fingers.

-One By One (They All Just Fade Away) by Ray Johnstone