The one thing I liked about being dead was that every day was the same.

Well, the people changed (sometimes), but nothing else really did. The same dead trees reached towards a sun they would never see, the same steady stream of new souls drifted into their eternal prison. Trust me, it isn’t as bad as it seems. Most people had family to reunited with, and there were things to do. Our settlement still had to run.

Me, I’m Clay Russel, a guard for our Queen - Lady Dabria.

It’s… pretty boring, not going to lie. Nothing ever happens here. Really, it’s kind of sad how complaisant everyone is. It seems my job mostly consists of babysitting my “partner”, Theo.  

She’s new to the job, only been here a year and a half (by my rough estimate, I stopped counting at some point)... but she’s already getting on my nerves. See, I can’t talk. It’s a curse I’ve had to deal with since I died, one that only a handful of people have to. But Theo, well you see, she talks way too much. I can’t get her to be quiet. I suppose it could be worse, but I don’t see how.

Anyways, we were called in to my lady’s throne room one day, something that wasn’t entirely unusual.

“Guards Russel and Carson,” The Queen said, looking up at us as we entered the room. “Hello. I have some important… information for you,” She clasped her hands together, letting them rest in her lap.

“Let me cut straight to it…. souls are going missing.” I stiffened, and I could feel Theo do the same beside me. Missing? How do dead people just disappear? “I want you two to find them.”

Us? We were probably one of the worse partner pairs and she chose us? I hoped Dabria wasn’t losing her mind…

“Yes ma’am,” Theo nodded her head and elbowed me in the ribs. I nodded furiously.

“Great!” She smiled. “Most of them have been disappearing from the back section of the main town. Try there first.” With that, we bowed then turned and left. I still couldn't get over the fact that we were chosen. Neither could Theo, but she seemed way more excited than I was.

“Clay! Can you believe it?” She pretty much yelled, grinning wildly. “She trusts us!”  I rolled my eyes, but gave a small smile. It was pretty cool.

We headed towards the town, not sure exactly what we looking for. Maybe some abandoned tools or something along those lines. We just needed an object that proved someone was there. We’d figure it out. We had to.  We split up once we arrived, Theo deciding to look behind some houses that seemed empty as I looked through the dead grass until something caught my eye.

There were patches of green scattered throughout the stretch of yellow, which was odd. Maybe it was part of someone’s shirt? Upon closer inspection, it was not fabric (which was a stupid suspicion, but whatever). It was grass. I stared at it. I hadn’t seen green grass in a very, very long time.  After a minute, I snapped out it, running to find Theo, unable to call for her.

I found her sniffing around some soul’s backyard, muttering something to herself. I tapped her on the shoulder and she seemed to jump a little. I would give her apology later on, this was more urgent.

“You spooked me, Clay. What’s up?” Theo had turned around to talk to me, speaking calmly like nothing important was happening. I impatiently gestured for her to follow me, leading her to one of the green patches I had found.

She stared at it in confusion. “How…” For once, she was almost speechless. The quiet was appreciated. Theo’s hand snapped back up, eyes wide. “I guess you don’t spend much time in the town, so you wouldn’t know, but there have been rumors going around about someone raising the dead. I thought they were false, but I guess… maybe that’s what it is? Nothing, and I mean nothing, should be able to grow down here. The patches will be gone soon probably. Maybe this was recent?” I nodded furiously, turning this over in my head.

Someone raising the dead? It sounded impossible… but what we had just witnessed was impossible, so I guess anything goes. Who knew about it and never reported it to the Guard? And, more importantly, who was doing it? It had to be someone still living… right? No dead soul could pull this off, they would’ve been noticed. I looked at Theo and pointed back towards the castle. We would need help. To my frustration, Theo shook her head.

“C’mon Clay, live a little. We can do this. Believe yourself for once in your wretched afterlife.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “If you want to go running to Dabria crying, be my guest. I’ll be gone, actually doing something useful, like stopping whoever is doing this.” With this, she turned on her heel and walked away, heading out of town and to where I guessed was an exit of out here. She would go up, despite knowing it could get her thrown out of the favored souls of the Queen, and maybe even being locked up. With a sigh, I followed her.

I couldn’t let her go off by herself. What kind of partner would I be? Certainly not one worthy of guarding the Queen. Theo’s face spread into a satisfied grin when she noticed me following. I almost expected her to say I told you so. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Theo found an exit fairly quickly, which was a little suspicious (I would have to bring it up with her later), but I was okay with whatever got us finished the fastest.

I hadn’t been among the living in a long while. I stood there like an idiot, looking at all the new sights, while Theo went on, unfazed by everything. She had been up here much recently, but I’ve been gone too long. Everything seemed  so… new and bright. I followed Theo slowly, she seemed to know where she was going (had she noticed more than I did?). She must be following someone, I thought, noticing the same guy over and over again. Theo didn’t give an explanation at that point, and I couldn’t ask, so I just put my trust in her (a usually foolish decision that somehow didn’t get us killed).

At some point (I really wasn’t paying attention to where we were going… there was so much to look at, how could I?), we stopped outside a suspicious looking building. Theo’s eyes were trained on the man that we were following. She watched him enter the building, then motioned for me to follow. Weird.

Once we got inside and down the hallway, we were lead into a room by Mr. Clueless (seriously, how did he not notice us?). It was empty, save for us and some glowing portal-looking thing. Whatever it was, it didn’t feel good.

The man finally notices us and seems to panic, before Theo grabbed him.

“What is that?” She demanded.

“It’s to… it’s brings people back… from the dead,” This guy was weak. Whoever employed him did not pay him enough apparently.

“Clay,” Theo looked at me. “Destroy it.”

So I did, and we saved the day. The end.

Okay, okay I’m kidding (though that all did happen).

Destroying the machine was not an easy process, but I did it. Somehow. It took a lot of kicking (my foot still hurts), but eventually the thing was too broken to go on anymore. We threw it away when we left, aka Theo threw it into a pond and probably killed a turtle. The escaped souls would be tracked down later, right now we needed to report to Dabria.

On our way out, I managed to steal a pen from the man we had followed. I also found a piece of paper floating around when Theo was killing innocent marine life.

I tapped my partner on the shoulder and handed her the little note I wrote.

Thank you for everything Theo. You’re a great partner.