Page 2 of Aftermarket Afterlife

“Hello?” called Mary, and walked toward the impossible crossing, steps slow and cautious, but foolish all the same. She’d lived in Buckley her whole life. She knew better. But this wasn’t the woods; whatever was toying with her might be willing to let her go, and the best way to make that happen was to play along. The things that took people liked it when they played along, because they enjoyed the challenge, but they didn’t seem as inclined to eat the ones who played along.

She stepped into the crossing, and the sky went from yellow to bruised black in an instant, like a screen had been removed. The sound of footsteps behind her was somehow not a surprise. She didn’t turn around. To turn around was to challenge whatever was moving toward her. To turn around was, very probably, to die.

“Willing to discuss your options, are you, Miss Mary?”

“How do you know my name?”

“I know a lot of things,” said the voice, as its owner stepped in front of her. Mary flinched but managed not to recoil.

The figure now standing in the center of the crossroads wasn’t really there, not in the sense she was used to. It was more like someone had carved the outline of a person out of the world, creating a void of absolute nothingness that shimmered at the edges with staticky distortion. It didn’t look onto blankness, or whiteness, or anything else she really had the words to describe; it was a dusty, dirty, shifting absence, like a slice of television screen at the end of the broadcast day, visual static where it had no possible reason to be.

Mary stared. “Whatareyou?”

“That’s up to you, little girl.” The voice came from the absent figure, still filled with buzzing, like a million cicadas had somehow found their voice. “We can be a figure you met on the road to your final resting place, or we can be the benevolent employer who helped you back to the life you left behind. And all you have to do is choose.”

“What do you mean,” demanded Mary, taking a step backward.

“Uh-uh-uh,” said the voice, shaking a finger chidingly. “Don’t go any further. If you leave the crossroads, we can’t help you anymore.”

Mary froze.

“You know you didn’t survive when that truck hit you. I can see it in your eyes. Mary, Mary, quite contrary, there’s so much you need to know. Like how you died, and how you tried, and where the crossroads go. I have a proposal for you.”

“What’s that?” she asked, barely above a squeak.

“You’re dead. You know that, if you really think about it. You were still conscious when your neck snapped, and you just don’t want to remember. We can understand that. You’re in-between right now. You don’t belong to anyone, which is a stroke of good luck for you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Humans are the dominant intelligent lifeform on this planet, and that means we need human spirits to speak for one another when the time comes to strike our bargains. We need negotiators, as it were.”

“Istilldon’t understand.”

“Look, child. We are in the business of granting wishes, glorious miracles raining down on those who want them enough to come and find us. But for the sake of some ‘universal balance,’ we need someone who will speak for the people we bargain with, to keep things fair. Someone who will tell them we’re offering them a balanced trade, and that the payment we request is justified. Someone who died with reason to remain, but no claims on their spirit strong enough to make them any kind of defined ghost. If you agree to come and work for us, we can define you. You’ll be a crossroads ghost, and you’ll be able to stay. With your father. Isn’t that what worries you the most about dying? That you’d be leaving him alone?”

Mary frowned, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’tfeeldead.”

“We can escort you back to your body, if you’d like.”

“What if I say no?”

“You have reason towantto remain, but nothing to tie you tightly to the twilight and keep you here,” said the voice, implacably. “You would pass into whatever waits for human spirits beyond this realm.”

“Would I be able to come back?”

“No.”

Mary glared at the figure. “This isn’t a very fair proposal, when I can’t say no without being sent away forever!”

“We never promised fairness. We’re offering more than is required.”

Mary took a deep breath, trying not to think about the foolishness of breathing when she was no longer alive. “If I say yes, I can go home to my father? And he won’t notice anything’s wrong?”

“You’ll be able to pass among the living as one of their own. You won’t age or need to eat as they do, but you’re a clever girl. You can work around that.”

Mary nodded slowly. “My family comes first. You have to agree to that.”

“We do?” The voice sounded almost amused. “We were not aware wehadto do anything.”

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