When my parents died 8 years ago in a car accident, I learnt my first important lesson about life; don’t ever forget to wear a seatbelt.

I was in the backseat when the accident happened. Fortunately I had my seatbelt on, but my parents were not so lucky and ended up flying through the window. Even now at the age of 16, I can still remember hearing their bones crack at impact.

I stayed with my grandparents for some time but they died two years later, a botched burglary. I learnt my second important lesson about life after that experience; don’t get attached to the living.

Death truly follows me wherever.

“Psst,” Benjamin whispers to my ear, taking me out of my train of thought, “the answer to question 7 is A.”

I nod and put the mark X next to option B. I should have studied for today’s maths test but I needed to confirm something.  

Benjamin moves towards Alice’s desk and peeks at her test paper. I know she must have studied for this test. She’s a top academic achiever, with straight A’s in all her classes.

Mr Rodriguez suddenly walks past my desk as he scans around for any wannabe cheaters. Benjamin completely ignores him of course.

While Mr Rodriguez is infamous in school for catching cheaters, he doesn’t have the ‘gift’ of seeing ghosts. Then again I might be seeing things, that’s why I have to conform that the ghosts I see are actually real. I could be hallucinating all of them.

Since I don’t know the answers to the maths test, if ghosts are real like Benjamin then he shouldn’t have a problem telling me answers to questions I don’t know.

The likelihood I could guess all the questions correctly in this maths paper that has 40 questions is really slim, so my experiment should come with conclusive results.

Benjamin returns to tell me the rest of the answers.

The bell rings marking the end of the test. “Attention!” Mr Rodriguez shouts, “if I catch anyone and I mean anyone still writing, you’ll get 0. Do I make myself crystal clear?”

The class goes dead silent and no one moves an inch. We all know that he’s being serious.

When all the test papers have been collected, I get up to leave. It’s time to go home.

“Move out of my way, pleb!” Alice says as she pushes me forcefully out of her path.

 She doesn’t have the best personality in school. One would expect the top student in our grade to be kind and polite. Maybe even be a teacher’s pet. Not Alice, she ain’t got time for that. It also doesn’t help that she has a resting bitch face with that charming personality of hers. Everyone in school knows her as the ‘Ice Princess’.

I still don’t understand how come she’s one of the popular girl’s in my grade. Girls want to be like her and guys want to be with her.

I make my way to the front gate of school where an expensive looking car is sitting.

Alice enters it.

A silver haired man waves at me, smiling gently. Probably her father. Very few have ever seen her parents even though they’re the richest family in town. Scratch that, one of the richest families in America.

When Alice turns to see who her father is waving at, she sees me and just rolls her eyes.

Rich kids, sometimes I envy their lives.  I wave back at her dad out of social etiquette, I don’t want to be considered rude around here. This is a small town and views about one’s personality stick forever. If you’re were to be rude in primary school, you can bet that view will stick with you throughout your life here, even if you changed. 

The car drives away.

“Young Master Lucius, can I now attach to your body for sustenance?” Benjamin appears in front of me, his wrinkled face masked with great expectation

I don’t even know whether this ghost is real or not. Ever since the accident with my parents, I’ve been seeing things that others don’t. I haven’t told anyone of course, they’ll probably send me to some asylum for crazy people. It’s only recently I’ve been interacting with these ghosts.

“Not now, Benjamin.” I say to him.

Benjamin is not the first ghost to ask this from me. The last time I allowed a ghost to attach to me, I got really sick. It could have been coincident of course. As they say, correlation doesn’t equal causation.

“How about just drawing a bit of your energy?” he shakes in desperation.

“Not today, Benjamin.”

“Young Master Lucius, I beg of you. I’ll do anything, I swear I’ll only take a bit. You won’t even notice.” He begs.

“No!” I glare at him. No amount of begging or crying will change my mind. Feeble minds might be moved by such displays of desperation, it only ends up irritating me.

Benjamin keeps his mouth shut and quietly fades away. His still close by, I can still sense him.]

I start to walk again. The walk back home is always peaceful and quiet. Few cars go by. A stark contrast to when I lived in New York, where traffic would be quite busy at this time.

I guess this is a benefit of living in a town with a population of about 8,000 people. Stonefield, the name of the town, is unremarkable. Little of interest happens around here. I guess that’s partially untrue, this place is obsessed with football. The whole town shuts down on a Fridays to watch schools play.

I see no value in partaking in such activities, simple minds find just about anything that moves entertaining. Then again, I don’t see much value in anything.

As I walk, the gold-red blanket of leaves on the ground crunch under my feet. The crisp autumn air breezes gently on my face. It’s these little things that make this town more bearable. Seeing lots of trees around is a good break from the concrete jungle of New York. Just seeing a red tractor pass by puts a smile on my face because it’s not something I’ll ever see in New York.

Finally I make it to the deadbeat apartment block I call home. I sigh.

I open the door to find the room a mess, as usual. Uncle Ethan hasn’t cleaned again. The dishes are not washed, beer bottles still lie around on the floor and the smell of this place… Let’s just say that not even pigs will tolerate to stay in here.

Uncle Ethan is passed out in the couch, like always. He promised he would clean up before I got back to school. Clearly he hasn’t kept that promise.

Lesson three about life; don’t trust in people.

 I set my bag down and begin cleaning around the place. Every day I have to do this. There’s no use complaining about it at this point. Someone has to be the adult around here, and certainly Uncle Ethan is not prepared for such responsibility.

I notice a white powder on the table. It doesn’t take a genius to know that it’s not sugar. We barely have food in the house and yet he always finds some way to buy cocaine. He lives for it. And also alcohol. No wonder I have to be the responsible one

Once finished cleaning, I just stare at him. There are days I wish I could kill him. Just to strangle his throat and watch the life in his eyes slowly dim away. But of course I wouldn’t. Because as much as I hate admitting it, I need him. Without him, I’d still be in foster care. And that’s not an experience I wish to go back to.

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I crash on the bed and take out a book I took out yesterday in the library. We don’t have TV here, we can barely afford it. And even if we did have the money to buy one, Uncle Ethan will probably buy booze and crack with it.

The book I’m reading is Albert Camus ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’. Reading a philosophical text like this one will be seen as weird at my age of being 16. But I prefer exercising my mind than wasting time playing sport or socializing. Two activities I find rather tedious.

Anyway, back to the book. I’m sure most people know about the Greek tale of Sisyphus. Actually no, I’m putting too much faith on humanity. I’m constantly surrounded by idiots at school and at home. I’m sure just hearing ancient text bores my generation instantly.

So Sisyphus is some guy who got condemned to forever push a boulder up a mountain, and watch it every day roll down to the bottom. He has to repeat this meaningless task for all eternity.

The book ends with Albert Camus stating that “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

“That’s absurd.” I say out loud having read the last sentence.

“What’s so absurd, young master?” Benjamin appears.

“Camus’ statement is stupid. If Sisyphus can find value in rolling a stone up a mountain for eternity, he hasn’t learnt his lesson.”

“What lesson?” Benjamin raises his brow, he looks at me curiously.

“The most important lesson of all: life is meaningless.” I turn to face Benjamin directly. “Sisyphus hasn’t accepted the meaninglessness of his task fully, he’s romanticising it by being happy. He’s choosing to distract himself from accepting life is meaningless.”

“I thought everyone can find their own value in life, young master.”

“Just shut up, Benjamin.” I turn my back on him.

Benjamin doesn’t get it, they all don’t get it. Finding value in life only brings… misery. Having desires leaves open the door to disappointment. The harsh reality is that this world is uncaring. For should Sisyphus lose that rock that he now finds value in, he’ll be left in a state of melancholy.

Nothing lasts forever, definitely not his rock nor even my parents.

I close my eyes and enter my dream world. Before my eyes, a celestial sphere surrounds me with countless stars shinning on it. I just lie there, in the centre of it all. Drifting aimlessly in the dark. Sometimes I wish I would never wake up. Unfortunately, there are things in life that can never come true.

For some reason, I wake up in the middle of the night. My stomach then grumbles. Reluctantly, I make my way to the refrigerator and notice that Uncle Ethan is still asleep on the couch.

I open the refrigerator door and see Uncle Ethan next to me all of a sudden.

“P-pass me a bottle of b-beer, kid.” He slurs.

I pass him the bottle but his hand passes through it. It’s then I turn around to see that he’s also on the couch. His right next to me and also on the couch at the same time? That could only mean…

“What the hell is going on?” he says in surprise.

“You’re dead.” I answer back nonchalantly. I should be happy but now I have a big mess to fix.

“No wonder I couldn’t open the fridge door. If I’m dead, how come you can still see me?”

“I just do.”

I also have other psychic abilities that I’m not going to tell him about. I can’t read or control minds but I can make people see or feel illusions when I touch them directly. At least partially if they’re awake. However when they’re asleep I can fully manipulate their dreams. My uncle was a great guinea pig, I should find another one soon in order to practice more.

“Oh.” He nods slowly. “So what now, kid?”

“You have to pass over to the other side.”

“Can’t I stay here?”

“Of course not!” I turn to face. “Just get out!”

He doesn’t get the chance to react and gets immediately banished out of here. What I discovered when I was younger was that the ghosts I saw will disappear if I willed it strongly enough.

I should check his body first before I begin celebrating. I walk up to him and check his pulse. No heartbeat. His dead alright. This might be conclusive evidence that ghosts actually exist, I really just saw Uncle Ethan’s ghost.

 Now what to do with the body?

Calling the cops is the natural thing to do here, but doing so will mean I’ll be sent to foster care again. And that’s not happening. I’ve no other family relative besides him. What a pain, why did he have to die now and not when I turn eighteen?

I furiously scratch my head. Rigor mortis will soon set in his body and I won’t be able to hide the body here due to the smell it will produce. I need to get rid of it. But first, I need to know how.

 I sit on a couch across my uncle and close my eyes to concentrate.

I have to get the body into his car. But I’m on the third floor on an apartment building, it’s not going to be easy. There are no elevators. I can’t simply drag the body downstairs and hope people will not notice. On top of that, Uncle Ethan is heavy. He weighs more than double my weight.

Just looking at his fat body is tiring enough. What if I don’t have to drag the body downstairs but rather get rid of it entirely?

Maybe chop it up into smaller pieces and pack those pieces into a disposable bag. Bad idea though, there’s no axe here and such an activity will make a mess. And more importantly, I have an aversion to blood.

Surely there must be a way to dispose of the body in a manageable way. Wait a minute, I think I might have an idea on my hand.

I rush to the kitchen cupboard. I take out a large bag of sodium hydroxide (lye).

“Are you going to make soap again?” Benjamin asks as he appears out of nowhere.

Bloody hell, he should stop surprising me like that.

“No, I’m not doing that science project again.”

“Then why are you taking it out then?”

“Benjamin, you’re distracting me. If you’re that desperate to know what I’m doing, I’m planning on disposing his body through an alkaline hydrolysis process.”

I open the hot water into the bathtub and wait for it to fill. I’ve never thought that reading crime novels and criminology books will come to use one day.

I made a mistake. I should first put the body in the bathtub and then add the water. I don’t want water splashing around when I put him in the bathtub. Jeez, I’m losing my cool.

I quickly drain the bathtub. I then walk to my uncle’s dead body and begin removing his clothes, except for his boxers.

Looking at his dead body is not as nerve-wrecking as I thought it would be. Actually I feel rather calm about it now. It’s really no better than discarding trash.

Slowly but surely, I drag his lifeless body to the bathroom. Easier said than done. It takes me 10 minutes of huffing and puffing and excruciating muscle work to get him there. Then I spend another 10 minutes just trying to get him in the bathtub.

Finally I manage. I wipe the sweat all over my forehead. I feel tired but there’s still work to do.

I clutch my chest as it starts to wheeze. Cough. I’m having an asthma attack. I rush to my room and search for my pipe. It takes a good five minutes finding it.

Puff, my chest eases up.

Then a knock comes through the front door.

It could have been my imagination.

“Ethan, open up the bloody door!”

It’s the landlord. What is he doing here at this hour of the night?

“Ethan, if you don’t open up this second, I’ll barge in there myself!”

The landlord has the master key to all the apartment rooms here. So it’s not an idle threat.

I have no choice but to deal with him also. I slowly open up the door.

“Mr Anderson!” I give him a fake smile. “Uncle Ethan is not here.”

“Let me in, Lucius. Ethan is now three month late in paying rent. I’m not running a shelter here, this is a business. Either he pays up now or I’ll kick you both out by tomorrow.”

 Bloody hell, even in death Uncle Ethan is causing me trouble.

“Look Mr Anderson, I’m sure he’ll pay up tomorrow.” My voice trembles a bit and I look down at the floor, garnering as much sympathy from him. “Uncle Ethan has been trying to get his life around. He’s at work just as we speak.”

“Do I look like a fool, young man?” The landlord glares at me. “Ethan’s bloody car is still in the parking lot.”

Shit, I completely forgot about that part.

“The car is giving us problems and so he left it there, Mr Anderson. He took the bus to work. Please, you’ll get your money tomorrow.” I sniff my noise a bit and hope that he buys the excuse.

He grumbles a bit but eventually leaves. He does however warn that if he doesn’t get his money, we’re going to be living in the streets. I close the door behind him, I dodged a bullet there.

Maybe I should turn back and just call the cops. Maybe I’m way over my head.

 Nope. I got this whole situation under control. I’m more responsible than any other adult. I can live by myself. And I won’t get caught by the cops, especially the ones from a small town like this.

I search my uncle’s trousers for his wallet. When I do find it, unsurprisingly it’s empty. He probably used the money to buy booze.

I throw it at the wall in frustration.

With disdain in my mouth, I open the tap and let hot water fill the tub with my uncle’s body in the tub. Once full, I pour the sodium hydroxide pellets in the water.

“Benjamin, where are you?” I call out to him.

“Yes?” He appears next to me.

“You can control the temperatures of things, right?” I ask him. That’s one of the things he said he could do when I first met him.

“I can also heal wounds, Young Master Lucius.” He smile enthusiastically, very proud of himself right now.

“I don’t care about your healing skills. Just keep the water cool as I pour the pellets in the water.”

Benjamin nods and does as his told. Mixing sodium hydroxide with water causes an exothermic reaction that makes the water boil. I don’t want the water splashing all over me as I pour the pellets into it. I know I'm putting the horse before the cart as I've yet to confirm his actual existence but desperate times call for desperate measures. Benjamin has to prove himself now and keep the water cool.

I use a couple of bags of sodium hydroxide, and I make sure none gets on my skin. I mix it well until it’s all dissolved.

“Keep the water hot throughout the night, at around boiling point. If you do that, then I’ll reward you, Benjamin, by allowing you to attach to my body.” I say to him.

At just those words, Benjamin smiles widely. Ghosts apparently have different powers and abilities. Benjamin fortunately has the power to increase temperatures of many materials. He can also make things colder, but that will be useless in this case. I’m not planning on freezing Uncle Ethan’s body.

If I had a pressure cooker, I could have heated the water well over 300 degrees Celsius and have this body be dissolved in a few hours. But I’ll have to do with sticking around the boiling point temperature. If all goes well, the body should be dissolved after half a day.

Lastly, I open the windows and spray the entire apartment with air freshener.

I crash on my bed and smile. My heart rate is beating faster than usual. This feeling is intoxicating. I chuckle to myself. I feel alive right now.

I better get some rest though, tomorrow I still have school.   

Also, I don’t know how I’ll get the money to pay rent tomorrow. But somehow I’ll have to find a way.