Loner's Paraphernalia

OCTOBER 18TH, 2006 

SAN FRANCISCO 

          Zhou shoved another bite of cold takeout lo mein into his mouth, typing at his laptop. It was a special high-spec laptop, excellent for playing online games. An LED mouse was to come in the mail next week, too. Having put the laptop together himself, Zhou prided himself on the ability to figure things out.

          He washed down the lo mein with a swig of energy drink, and checked his Mysforums account. Ageofeastnine hadn’t replied to him yet, and he was getting nervous.

          Since Kiya had passed away, he had become somewhat of a shut-in. Closing his eyes, Zhou thought about the memory of his funeral. 

Four months ago, Kiya was found dead, but the police couldn’t figure out how he had died. Not like they tried, thought Zhou bitterly. Three months and two weeks ago, they held his funeral at a nice, fancy looking place on the edge of a riverbank. The kind of place that his mother would never have been able to afford. Zhou wondered where she got the money for the lavish event. And two months ago, he had finally stopped dragging himself to class.

          He considered himself pretty busy, anyways, and was proud of himself for his research on a certain phenomenon. The “Lotus Complex”, which was scrawled on a dozen numbered notebooks lying around his squalid little apartment, had slowly become a subject of obsession for him. He didn’t want to call it a distraction, and obsession made it seem like it wasn’t really his fault for turning out to be a shut-in loser.

          The clock read 6pm, and it was a warm Saturday night. On a day like this, he thought, Kiya would have insisted we do something fun. A sudden burst of confidence hit him, and he decided he’d go out of the house. 

          Zhou changed into presentable clothing, took his phone and some money, and left with the intention of having a good time. He ended up going to the grocery store, and left with two bagfuls of snacks. Ritz Crackers, pretzel sticks, chocolate chips, Lays, and birthday cake Oreos.

Still a valid use of my time, he thought to himself.

Rounding the corner to his apartment complex, he noticed a figure leaning against the gate. He came closer to the figure, illuminated from behind by halogen streetlights. 

          “Y..You’re..”

“I was wondering when you’d get home.” Kiya leaned against the gate, with the casual grace of someone who had not been dead for 4 months.

Zhou felt a dizzy sensation come over him, and he blacked out, dropping his snacks. 

          When he awoke, his presumably dead friend was in the kitchen, making pasta.

“Kiya?” It came out choked and mangled, like a dying cat.

          “Yeah.” he said.

“Aren’t you… not alive?” 

Kiya poured the cup of pasta into the pot, and let it boil.

Suddenly, Zhou began to feel a bit lightheaded. Little stars spun around the kitchen light, bouncing off the walls and reflecting off the windows.

           “It’s a long story.” He scratched his head. “ Also, do you mind if I use your shower?”

Zhou clutched his head and staggered over to the couch.

“Yeah. I mean, no. No problem. Go ahead.” 

          When Kiya got out of the shower and the pasta was ready, Zhou had some questions for him. 

“You’re really here? This isn’t some hallucination from drinking too much Monster?”

          “No, I’m here.” Kiya was almost finished with his pasta.

“That was like six cans and a Gatorade. I think I should be seeing things.”

          “Mmnf.” Kiya was more interested in shoveling as much pasta into his face as possible. 

“I can’t believe this. You’re really back. I never thought you’d come back to me.” He frowned, knitting his brows. I should be happy, he thought. And yet something feels so strange about this whole affair.

Zhou drew his knees close to him. He thought about something Ageofeastnine had said earlier.

“I saw your dead body four months ago.” said Zhou. 

          Kiya stopped shoveling pasta like they were banning pasta and there would be no more pasta ever.

          “Hah? What?” He scratched his head. “I’m still kind of new to this whole dying thing, so bear with me here, Zhou.”

Zhou scrambled over to his pigsty of a desk and rummaged for Notebook #8. “Are you sure you really died? I mean, what if you were in a coma, and you just…”

          “Climbed out of my coffin? Enlisted an army of moles to dig me out?”

“I mean, no-...” Zhou suddenly felt a bit frustrated. Couldn’t he take his own death more seriously? “Okay, you tell me, then. What were you doing for those four months?”

          “Hah? Four months?” 

This puzzled Kiya. Had something happened on the island of the dead before he got on the boat? It couldn’t have been more than a week.

          Kiya thought it best to tell him the whole story, and Zhou attempted to listen and understand as best he could. He was familiar with Kiya's supernatural troubles, and reacted with much less shock than anyone else in the world would have. 

“In that case,” he said when Kiya was done, “I have another thing to ask you.”

He stretched out on the couch.

          “Whatzit?”

“Have you heard of a phenomenon where the soul hovers in between life and death?” asked Zhou.

          “Nope. Whatzit?” 

Zhou’s laptop dinged.

“Sorry, I’ve gotta check this.” He opened the laptop and clicked his messages. 

this guy came to my door. claims he’s death and i saw him turn into this scary thing and then he told me he wanted to make a deal

Ageofeastnine

Zhou felt this was very bad.

You didn’t right? You didn’t let him in? Stranger danger lol

Z_hou1986

“Who’re you texting?” asked Kiya.

          “Some kid online. His sister’s got the thing I was telling you about- where the soul hovers in between life and death.”

Kiya leaned over, and read the messages. 

whoops i did let him in. then we talked and he said he would save phoebes soul but i said no in the end cause i remembered what u said so thx!

Ageofeastnine

“Zhou, I don’t want you to get any deeper into this.” Kiya was suddenly serious.

          “Okay, I’m listening.” Considering Kiya had been back from the dead, Zhou considered him the authority on these matters.

“This Death guy is kind of scary. I mean, I’m not scared. But you would get scared.”

Zhou didn’t know if he should be offended or not.

          “What do I tell the kid, then?”

“Tell him to forget all this business. Death is nasty, and this kid just spit on his shoes.” 

You know what? Just pls forget about all this. It’s not safe and I don’t want you to be hurt. I’m being serious so don’t lol me.

Z_hou1986

do you want to help me or what? i’m already in this

ps: lol

Ageofeastnine

I won’t help you anymore then, if you’re going to be irresponsible. good luck

Z_hou1986

“Alright, that should do it.” said Zhou. He didn’t get a message back from Ageofeastnine. The kid was probably mad at him.

          “It’s nice to be alive again, you know?” sighed Kiya. 

Zhou agreed, it was nice to have Kiya with him again.

The cold apartment seemed warm now that he was back.

“Stupid Death, stupid sea. I’m never going back there again, you hear me?” declared Kiya, shoving the last forkful of pasta in his mouth. 

Zhou sighed. Same as always. His glance lingered for a moment, puzzled at the contrast between Kiya’s delicately jointed fingers and the annoyingly obtuse manner in which he consumed an ungodly amount of pasta. 

If Zhou had known what was soon to come, he would not have let his eyes go so easily. 

(Author's Note: The FDA cites a limit of 400 mg of caffeine as being safe for adults. Zhou comes in at a little over double that...)