CHAPTER: 5 "Amusement Park"

A little girl with shiny silver hair around the age of six was hopping among the flowers in the garden, she seemed to be enjoying her life a lot.

Old lady kept watching her from behind, a soft smile forming on her wrinkled face.

"Grandma, wanna come out and play with me?" The little girl exclaimed while running around the garden, flower petals swirling around her, carried by a soft breeze. A colorful scene taken straight out of a fairy tale.

"Hoho, Grey, I don't think I am young enough to run like you." The grandma laughed, her eyes looking at a distant past long gone.

She called little Grey to her side as the dusk arrived, giving her a lovely hairband with a symbol of wolf on it.

"Grey, be a good girl, ok. This headband is a gift from Grandpa, he gave it to me when we were younger, my most cherished item. I can see a future full of happiness in you." After thinking for a while she continued. "And don't be afraid of all ghosts, not all of them are bad. Some are just lost."

"Given by Gramps?" Grey asked, her eyes twinkling with a lusture of innocence.

"Yes, this is the headband your Grandpa gave to me when he finally had the courage to ask my hand." The Grandma laughed thinking about the old days.

"What does asking for hand means?" Grey had more questions now that Grandma spoke something about Grandpa.

But, as the old lady was too tired to continue, she promised Grey to talk about it tomorrow.

That was the last conversation Grey had with her grandma as she passed away that night with a soft smile on her face.

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The room was quiet for some time, only the harsh gasping of a guy could be heard as he was writhing on the floor grabbing his stomach in pain.

The two others that were hiding, a little girl and a lady who looked like she was in her mid-twenties came out. Clearly frowning after seeing how the scene unfolded.

Meanwhile, the guy in question was still gasping for air. The lady supported him in a comfortable position telling him to breathe in and breathe out, while the little girl was checking for where it hurt.

"Are you alright? Do you need a band-aid?" The little girl asked with concern.

The delinquent wannabe just chuckled and said in a tone of gratitude. "Nah, I'd survive."

His face said something completely different. The skin was completely drained of colors, he looked like he would puke at any moment.

After recovering a bit he stood up, looked towards me and proclaimed in a tone full of confidence and a smirk of mischief. "My name is Axel." He brushed his eyes around me as if trying to assess my strength. "Though you took me by surprise this time, I will be more careful the next time."

Hmm, overconfident and aggressive, clearly a bother. But not that bad in heart, I guess. I thought while looking at him with a deadpan face while he was leaning against the wall trying to act cool.

The little girl beside him looked a bit scared of me, so I looked at her with a look saying 'cutie I don't bite'.

After an awkward silence, the little girl stood up to introduce herself. "Agh-umm. My name is Pachu, I like sweets." Her voice was so cute, it was too much positivism. The brightness was too much to handle for me.

I looked towards the mid-twenties lady with a weird hat waiting for her to break the final brick that maintained the wall.

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She looked at me with a poker face, no it was more like she had stiff facial nerves or maybe a pale expression, taking her sweet time she introduced. "Hello gal, my name is Milia." She said with a stoic voice her expression still the same.

The hat seemed to wiggle a little I looked a bit closer for inspection...... Wait!! Did the hat just frown on me?

Before I could ask anything she continued. "This is my hat Ita, she is shy, take care of her too." She pointed at her hat, I looked carefully only to find the hat smirking at me. What is this thing?!! I was surprised, but still a bit skeptical. After introducing herself Milia jumped on the sofa and made herself comfortable, the scene looked like that of a cat determining the best place to sleep. Following her the rest also went back to their position of prior to my interruption.

My assessment of these people was that they were a bunch of nutjobs, except for Pachu.

The door soon flung open with a cheerful shout. "Heyyy everyone!! How's the introduction going?"

Of course, it was Blue, who else would do this....... The room was suspiciously quiet for some reason, I looked around but all I could see was them trying to avoid Blue's eyes.

"Why so quiet all of you? Did something happen?" Blue asked while poking her cheek as she entered the room, continuing her words with little to no regard for the silence. "Well, whatever, so you got your first assignment. Grey, Pachu and Axel come with me. Milia this is your assignment, get it done by tomorrow." That was Blue's only reply to the silence, leaving me with many questions.

"Hey, Blue what's with this team division?" I whispered in Blue's ear, getting closer to her side as we exited the room. Looking back on it, the room was very luxurious.

"Oh, it's nothing Milia had experience with that task from when she was alive and either way we would be a bother to her." She said casually.

"Alive? Aren't Reapers like born reapers?" I was filled with questions.

"Now is not the time Grey, let's talk later." With that, a blinding light was released from Blue's palms forcing me to shut my eyes.

As I opened my eyes I realized that I was, right back in the living realm. The sky still missing its vibrancy and the scenery still giving the feeling of decay. Maybe the dead do prefer the realm of the dead more than the living.

"Leettt's gooo..... Yeah! Guys let's go to an amusement park." Blue said with a smirk, indeed she lost it.

"Why are we going there again?" I asked suspicious of her motif, since we met it was a long chain of only promises and no reward, so I was quite reluctant to follow her antics.

"Well Grey, if you are not good at reading situations, guys won't like you much." She retorted, her words were making my blood boil. "Of course, it's to guide lost souls. Come on Pachu, Axel and you too Grey, let's go."

Pachu and Axel looked pretty pumped as they were hopping around, while I was having a bad premonition. The path we were taking was abandoned by the businessmen long ago, and at this time only criminals and gang members would be roaming around.

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"Umm, Blue are you sure this is the amusement park? This place looks more like a dead man's Church" Axel complained looking at the abandoned cars, garbage and broken rides.

I looked around trying to find anything. All I got were the creaking of old gates, the rusted iron pieces and some unattended grass patches. Everywhere I looked, there was no sign of activities except for us, completely abandoned by the flow of time.

It was sad to see since this was quite a popular place in the past, but as time passed rumours of a weeping ghost and child abduction made people reluctant to come here, I too had quite a fond memories of this place.

"Indeed it is a dead man's Church," Blue replied with full confidence, continuing. "And we are here to help a lost soul to find its Golden Gate."

Instead of explaining further, she went inside the park. After walking some distance inside the park, passing through many broken rides and stalls, Blue sat on one of the stall's roofs, shoving her hand in her pocket she took out a gun tossing it toward me. A GUN!!

She looked towards me with a what's the problem look. "This will at least let you survive if you are going to get killed." She said casually, while also telling us to make at least one spirit pass on with teamwork. I was not thrilled by this at all.

"How will this gun help me to survive?" I asked, well it was more of a complain.

The only reply I got from Blue was. "Maybe the lost spirit can outmatch you in strength, but never have I seen a lost spirit outmatch a gun."

What kind of American logic was that? I lamented. In the end, we had to traveled in this abandoned park while listening to Blue's lecture.

Soon we heard a sound. Sound of heavy breathing, the sound of sorrow. The area soon filled with eerie noises. I turned my eyes towards the direction of where Blue was, it was empty.

I braced myself for the potential fight with a spirit, ready to exorcise it.

It would have been easier if it was any other spirit. On the contrary what I saw in front of me was a spirit with a face too familiar to me, though too distorted that I almost couldn't recognize it. Its head in its tummy, looked like it had been starving for decades. My teammates went to fight it, as panic gripped me, wha-how? Why? A lot of questions were in my mind, but only a single word could escape my mouth. "Agh.... G-grandma?"

As I looked at the scene horrified my body couldn't move at all. The being in front of me can't be my grandma I knew it very well, but..but what could I do? My frozen body and the trembling hands not listening to my pleas, I couldn't do anything, couldn't understand anything. My mind went completely blank. I got completely detached from this scene as if I had not a part of this from the beginning.