They didn't talk. Albert had taken his place on the couch, laid back, and let his mind torment him for what felt like seconds. It must have been longer though, because Amy left shortly after. It was an unceremonious exit. A bit of eye contact, a nod, and she left. It was a kind gesture all things considered, and it fit with her distant personality. Albert wasn’t sure when he’d be able to talk about how he was really feeling, but Amy was right. He needed to get those feelings out of his head and into a place where they could be understood, but that wasn’t going to happen alone.

When his mother got back from work, Albert pretended to be asleep on the couch. He could hear her quietly looking through various rooms in the apartment, probably checking to see if Amy was there. But she didn’t bother Albert directly. Once she went into her room and the apartment was relatively quiet again, Albert opened his eyes to be be alone with his thoughts.

Why was he so angry? He wasn’t as angry as he had been immediately after his failed the arbitration, but he was still… it wasn’t quite anger anymore. It was more like frustration. Frustration that he was in this mess at all in the first place, that some invisible thing that he couldn’t even see or know what it was had caused him to be targeted by Death. That he had to work with Death at all to avoid his own death, when it was clearly Death’s fault that he had been killed. That he had to do this work that felt so wrong in so many ways to survive. That he had gotten so close to being done with this all, so close… and then it had been taken away from him. And lastly, frustration that he had lost control of himself. Not just his life and the circumstances he was forced to work with, but he had lost control of his own actions and forced a dead man’s spirit to burst into mist and lose even the most minuscule chance of giving him some last recourse.

The more Albert thought about what it was that bothered him about collecting souls, the more he realized that it wasn’t the work itself that made him uncomfortable. He knew it wouldn’t be feasible to give anyone else the sort of deal he had gotten. In fact, he didn’t necessarily think he deserved the deal he was working under that let him stay alive. It was Death’s fault that he had been killed, and so Albert felt that Death was obligated to make that up to him. But that didn’t mean that meddling with the balance of life and death for anyone was right. It was against the way the world worked, it was going against nature.

Giving people the option of righting wrongs or saying a farewell to loved ones felt right though. Forcing dissipation still felt wrong, but Albert hadn’t ever really condoned that. Amy had reasons why that didn’t bother her, he was sure, but Albert knew it wasn’t something he ever wanted to do again. But the work of helping departing souls make some peace with their lost lives seemed almost noble. But it could be very easily misused if it was done with the wrong attitude or by the wrong person. Albert didn’t exactly consider himself the right person, but he wasn’t sure he was the wrong sort of person either. As he thought about it, the idea of who was or wasn’t the right sort of person to help departing souls became a very nuanced problem in his mind.

Rather than focus on the mess that his train of thought had become, Albert willed himself to attention. He wasn’t exactly sure if it had worked, when he snapped open his eyes and everything seemed blurry. But as his vision focused and he could make out the microwave clock in the kitchen, he felt better about his level of awareness. The time he had spent in thought hadn’t felt short, at least not as short as it had in the past. It was almost like he had gone out of focus without losing any time. The clock told him it was 5 AM, and that didn’t feel wrong. It was still far earlier than Albert ever woke up, but it wasn’t unreasonable. When his mother was called in for an early shift at work, she would often wake up at 5. But Albert couldn’t hear any movement from his mother’s room.

Rather than resume thinking about any of the things that were bothering him directly, Albert picked up one of the spiral notebooks that Amy had left on the floor and started to make a list. Thinking directly about the things that were bothering him was complicated; Albert didn’t have all the answers, or really any answers at all. But Amy knew some of the things that he didn’t that could help him process his situation better. Albert started with things that had been bothering him the longest and moved towards the most recent. By the time his mother got out of her room he had five questions written down that he was determined to ask Amy. He had been careful to avoid anything pertaining directly to Amy, since those questions would likely go unanswered. It wasn’t exactly five questions either, some of them were split up into multiple parts. Rather than keep going with his mother potentially reading over his shoulder at any time, Albert kept it at just the five.

1a) What is spiritual property?

1b) What spiritual property do I have?

1c) What does Death want with my spiritual property?

2) What happens to a spirit when it dissipates?

3) What does Death do with the souls he collects?

4) Are there other beings out there like Death?

5a) Why does my body react to successful arbitration the way it does?

5b) Is that normal and/or safe?

“How are you feeling today, Albert?”

He quickly closed the notebook and dropped it back into the small pile of school supplies.

“I think… I think I’m feeling better. I woke up kind of early, but I think I actually slept okay.”

Albert flipped his legs over the side of the couch and put some pressure on them. He had walked around for a few hours on them yesterday, so he knew he could definitely walk just fine, but there was still some dull pain. Albert had to actually focus to feel the stretching sensation he had felt the day before. It was becoming more and more faint.

“I think I’m good enough to get back to school.”

“Are you sure?” Albert’s mom stopped what she was doing in the kitchen and frowned at Albert. “Your knees are still scabbed up and your face still has glue on it. Do you think you’ll be comfortable enough sitting at desks all day?”

“I’ll be okay. Though… maybe I should get the glue off my face so I don’t get made fun of.”

Albert got up and made his way over to the kitchen area to demonstrate that he was fine walking around. His mother didn’t look convinced, but pulled the glue solvent out from the kitchen cabinet where the rest of the first aid supplies were and handed it to him.

“Thanks.” Albert smiled and took the solvent back to his room and gathered a change of clothes and towel to bring to the bathroom.

After cleaning up, Albert actually felt much better. The solvent stung on his face, but it wasn’t too hard to get the glue off. The scrapes and other injuries that Albert had been changing the bandages for had started closing up more quickly the day before, which Albert had figured was part of the changes that happened after the first successful arbitration. But the glued cuts still stung a little as they dried out. They would probably need more time without the glue on them to actually heal, his mom had said it usually takes a week for the glue to come off by itself and the cuts were usually gone by then. With whatever was going on with him, Albert had no idea what to expect timeline wise, but he hoped his mother wouldn’t get suspicious if he healed too quickly. He might have to keep bandages on his hands and knees for a while just to make sure she didn’t figure anything out.

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Albert did his best to act like nothing had changed since the last time he left to go to school as he made his way out. He didn’t want his mom to worry, but the act seemed to make her nervous. He wasn’t sure what she was picking up on, but he could tell that she knew something was wrong.

“Albert.” His mom stopped him at the door to the apartment. “Promise me you’ll be safe today.”

“Yeah. I promise.” Albert sighed.

He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to keep that promise, but he definitely didn’t plan on doing anything dangerous. Besides, Amy would be there and Albert had a good feeling that she would make sure he stayed safe. Or at the very least, she’d keep track of him. But who knew, there was still a lot about Amy that remained a mystery to Albert.

It wasn’t until Albert had promised that, that his mom let him out the door. She still looked worried, but as he closed the door behind him he felt better about her worries. Or rather, he felt reassured that she was satisfied that he wouldn’t do anything stupid. It was a strange feeling.

It felt stranger to make his way to school.

Albert took the most direct route to his high school, doing his best to avoid the street he had died on and staying to the main roads. Or, at least that had been his plan.

As soon as Albert was around the corner of the block his apartment complex was on, he saw Amy’s car. It was idling on the other side of the street in a parking space, windows down. Amy was looking directly at him, and as soon as she had his attention she tilted her head and motioned for him to get in the car. Albert crossed the street at the nearest crosswalk, incredibly aware of the slightest danger that faced him from passing cars, and climbed into the car.

“I didn’t expect you to… you know, do this.”

“It’s faster… and I figured I should warn you about some things.” Amy pulled the car back out into the road and started the short drive to the school. “Mostly that someone else that works with Death has decided to take an interest in your case and you might run into them at school. I put that private contact only addendum in your file, which wasn’t difficult or anything—there were no objections at least—but I think it might have gotten you some unwanted attention.”

“Who should I be on the lookout for then?” Albert was nervous again for a whole new reason. He probably wasn’t going to get a chance to get to his list of questions for a while if new things kept popping up.

“She’s… well she looks about your age, like I do. Little shorter, dark brown curly hair, and dresses like she stole her parent’s credit card.”

“She sounds obnoxious.” Albert rolled his eyes at the description. He could tell there was some prejudice and that was what really made him uncomfortable. He didn’t want the only person who seemed interested in helping him being distracted or obstructed by a workplace rival.

“Her name is Hope, and she is very obnoxious.” Albert could hear the disgust in Amy’s voice loud and clear. “She doesn’t get out much, but she’s Death’s primary arbitrator.”

“Isn’t that a little ironic… that her name is Hope, I mean.” Albert was more caught up on that than her position working for Death. He still had no clue how many people actually worked with Death, or what kind of jobs they had, so he had no scale of how important that role was.

“I guess. Don’t tell her that, though. She doesn’t like jokes. Or anything fun.” Amy sighed. “Or better yet, just avoid her. That’s probably what’s best for you.”

Amy pulled into the high school parking lot as she finished talking, leaving Albert hanging for any other information he was hoping to get.

“Hey, I want to talk to you about some things today. Not really feelings things, but I made a list of questions that I think would help me with the feelings thing.”

“Okay. We can get to those.” Amy got out of the car and did a quick sweep of the parking lot and the other students making their way towards the school buildings. “We have the same lunch break, we can talk then. I did some looking around and there are a few quiet spots where we can talk.”

“Right. We can talk during lunch then.” Albert nodded.

He was still nervous about whoever this Hope girl was. But he made his way to his first class, wary of Amy as she trailed him. He didn’t exactly expect her to follow him into the classroom, but she did. She sat across the room at one of the desks that was always empty and eyed every other student that walked in the room. She looked immediately out of place, not bothering to put up her friendly and gentle facade. Albert didn’t see any other new faces though, and as the bell rang to signal the beginning of class, he grew more and more aware of all the attention he was getting from his classmates. He was usually ignored, but now he was catching sideways glances from people he never talked to and even the teacher was giving him a strangely worried look. It crossed his mind that people might think he was the victim of abuse because of the bandages on his hands and the bruises on his face. But there was also the possibility that people were just curious about him and what had happened that made him miss two days of school. It was really only the other kids that sat around him who he usually ended up doing group work with or chatting idly with that gave him the respect of not eyeing him like he was a freak. But even they were acting strange and not initiating any conversation in his direction.

Albert could hardly focus through the class. He had started spacing out during any lull or quiet time and was losing track of what was going on in class very easily. It was unfortunate, because Albert wanted nothing more than to be in his head the whole time so that he would be the only person aware of himself. But the teacher giving a lecture and the sporadic chatting of his classmates always snapped him out of his thoughts. The first few times it happened, Albert jolted to alertness and gained more unwanted attention. By the end of class, Albert had a notebook with essentially gibberish on it, severe paranoia that he was constantly being watched, and a powerful desire not to be there anymore.

After the bell rang again, and as everyone filed out and made their way to their next classes, Amy bumped into him and pushed him into a small nook between two sections of lockers on the side of the hallway just outside the classroom.

“You look like crap. You doin okay?” She didn’t exactly sound sympathetic, but she clearly cared to some degree.

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to do anything while my head is still scrambled like this and everyone keeps looking at me and I just about jump out of my seat every time something pulls me out of my head.”

“Yeah. That sounds about right.”

“Why did you think this was a good idea?”

“Because getting you out of the apartment more means less things of your mom to be suspicious of and more time we can spend looking for a soul for you to contract.” Amy looked around and noticed two girls getting books out of their locker across the hall that had stopped to look at the two of them. “But you might be right. I don’t think you’re going to do well with the constant attention. I also highly doubt there will be any dead people here.”

Amy tilted her head to signal that they should make their way out of the hall and towards the doors out of the building. Albert followed her lead and stayed close to her so they wouldn’t be separated by the crowds of students.

There were four main buildings that made up the school campus and there were classes held in each of them as well as converted trailers in one of the back parking lots where some of the less popular classes were held; the students called those trailers ‘portables,’ and they were universally reviled for their lack of air conditioning. It wasn’t strange at all for students to have to move between classes or even across the entire campus between periods, and some students even made stops at their cars between classes to keep their backpacks light and avoid clutter at lockers. There was a flow of students that went in all of the common directions, into and out of every main door. But Amy was leading Albert back to the back parking lot where the portables were.

When the river of students finally thinned out and Albert felt safe talking out loud again he tried to stop and interrupt Amy, but she pulled him along.

“Where are we going?”

“We’re leaving.” Amy grunted.

She was pulling him to the back fence of the campus that backed up to the baseball fields the school used for varsity sports. Beyond that there was just neighborhoods and small businesses.

Albert didn’t stop Amy as she forced open an obviously unused fence gate and waved for him to follow her through it. Rather than go through the fields, Amy directed him to walk along the fence and towards the nearest street that led into the residential area. Albert just went with it, glad to be away from so many watchful eyes. He was mildly surprised when Amy led him through a few small neighborhood streets, down the sidewalk of a slightly busier area, and to a quiet park.

There was no one to be seen in the entire park, at least not from where they stood. It was just long green grass and big oak trees with the occasional bench. Albert vaguely remembered the park, but he was curious how Amy knew about it. It wasn’t exactly a well known attraction for the town. Moreover, the town wasn’t exactly a tourist hot spot either and didn't have a lot in the way of available information about nice locales.

“I’ve got an idea to help you talk some things over. Follow me.”