Shade

Ady leaned on the counter, chin cupped in her palm, eyes fixed on one of the numerous TV screens as the news flash came to a end. One of the benefits of working in an electronics store was that the news was always on one of the mulitude of display televisions. It was one of the best places to pick up information, if you knew what to look for. And with several years experience, Ady knew exactly what to look for.

Take today. The signs were clear: mysterious deaths, little signs of a struggle, no leads as to the killer. If Ady knew anything, it was the work of a spirit. Possibly more than one, but if the victims hadn't tried to fight back they were probably unable to see their murderer.

Ady's mouth twisted to one side thoughfully. She'd have to find Coby and tell her. Glancing down at her watch, her pale green eyes widened as she realised how late it was. She should have left the shop over an hour ago. Damn!

A couple of days ago, they'd gotten some information about a spirit that needed seeing to. Apparantly it haunted an old pub on the other side of town. They'd been going to deal with it tonight. Coby wouldn't have gone without her ... would she?

"Jen!" Ady called to the other shop attendant in the stock room. "You mind locking up?"

"No problem. See you tomorrow, Ady!"

"Bye!"

Grabbing her coat and bag, Ady dashed out of the shop and starting sprinting along the road. She kept an eye out for any free taxis as she rummaged in her bag for her phone. Knife, gun ... ah, there was the phone.

Pulling it out, Ady flipped it open and speed-dialled Coby's number. She wasn't sure it would be any use; half the time Coby never took her phone with her, and when she did she generally ignored it.

Ady glanced anxiously at her watch again. She hoped she'd get there in time.

Coby jumped as her phone rang, the morbid melody spilled through the empty pub and she swallowed.

She took the phone from her bag and looked at the number, Ady. Would she be mad? She took her eyes away from the phone and looked at the spirit again.
It had changed a little it’s eyes shrunk back into it’s head it’s sockets black and desolate. She didn’t know quite what to do. Ady had always been there in her ear telling her how things were done. But her physiologist said she had to do things for herself, this was the right thing to do wasn’t it?

“Get out!” the spirit roared and Coby shuffled back dropping the phone.

“I can help you,” Coby said her voice still whisper soft. “Don‘t you want to rest?”

It was laughing at her now, low and rusty like an old gate swinging in the breeze. As she tried to stand she panted in shock it felt like forever before she found her feet. The spirit in the mean time had come to stand in front of her.

“You want to help me?” it asked. Coby nodded her head vigorously, oh yes more then anything she wanted the horrid man to go away. More then anything she wanted to help them all go away. She dialled Ady’s number it was to late to act the brave and brazen fool.

“Ady,” she whimpered when she heard the phone pick up. “Come help me…I‘m so scared.”

“10-52 on Morrison and 7th, requesting a bus for a 10-53; dee wee drove through a van.”

Edward Walked nodded sleepily, then grabbed the radio. “10-4 base, this is unit 274/5, we’re about five minutes away.” Yawning, he leaned back again to smack his partner, who was napping on the stretcher. “Wake up, we got a car accident.” The man groaned and turned around, leaving Edward with a wicked grin on his face.

Base returned his call soon after. “10-4 274 dash 5. Damned Ed, fourth time today. Going for a new record as first responder?” Ed grinned. He was on a roll this shift. Then again, this ‘shift’ had been going on for seventeen hours straight now. To many accidents, not enough personnel; if a driver was volunteering to work overtime, his boss wasn’t going to complain.

Besides, Ed didn’t mind working extra hours; he lived for his job as it was, and with no one waiting for him at his apartment, he figured he might as well sleep in his ambulance as his bed. Starting the car, he hit the sirens, which caused the sleeping beauty behind him to cry out and curse loudly. “10-4 base. Still three short. Make my day.” Laughing, he hit the gas, not giving hit partner time to climb into the passenger chair.

***

“Ma’m, are you alright?” The woman responded with a soft groan, pain more than acknowledgement. Edward cursed as he flicked the light around again. “No light reflexes. How’s our dee wee.” Edward’s partner kneeled next to the woman he was attending to before shaking his head. “Dead before we came here. Grey matter on the wheel. She ok for transport?” Within the madness of sirens and smoking debris, Edward was a beacon of calmness, checking the woman’s neck and back before responding. “No obvious trauma to the spine, I think she’s ok. Probably the blow to the head that caused brain trauma.” The woman was none-responsive, no sense in sugarcoating it.

***

“What do you got?”

Edward had gotten used to the drill; bring them to the nearest hospital, name, address, anything you knew about the patient, leave them in the doctors capable hands. “Car accident victim. Wallet tells us she´s Sara Pardin, thirty-four, trauma to the head, no obvious allergies, no pupillary light reflexes. Driving a van, got hit by a dee wee.”

“Is she going to be alright?” Edward frowned, then nodded. “She should be fine.”

He looked up into the doctors face, and noticed the man was frowning. “Well aren’t you Mr. Optimism.” With that, they crossed the red line; only authorized personnel from there on. And in this place, he wasn’t considered authorised personnel. Mercy hospital didn’t like ambulance personnel snooping around in their building.

Edward turned, past his partner, past the desk, into the restroom, holding the door open a moment before closing it behind him. He let out a sigh before giving the man in front of him a once over. Torn clothing, a head wound, worried look on his face. A face Edward had seen before. The dee wee, the drunken driver. A dead man walking. And talking.

“Is she going to be alright?” the man repeated. Edward shook his head as he walked over to one of the sinks and splashed some cold water on his wrists. He should be screaming, at least be terrified. A dead man, in the restroom. In truth, Edward wasn’t even surprised. He had been surprised and terrified with his first spirit, and his second, and the first dozen or so. But as he saw more and more of them, he had gotten used to them. He had to; in his line of work, he dealt with more dead people than most, and as such, he had to deal with an increasing number of spirits. “She’ll be fine. Go into the light.”

The man frowned, then shook his head. Well, at least this one knew he was dead; not all of them did. And the conversation that followed was always ridiculous; how did one convince someone he was dead? “She had to be alright. I don’t drink, I never do, just this once. I can’t die like this. I don’t know how I could live with myself.” Edward didn’t feel like explaining the irony in that comment.

“Then stay here, at least until she recovers. But then, you have to go. Bad things tend to happen if you stick around.” Edward dried his wrists, then his hands. The spirit was not impressed. “What are they going to do, call the ghost busters?” A spirit with a sense of humour, then. Wonderful.

“Worse. Just do as I said.” With that, Edward walked out of the restroom to his ambulance. He needed a drink.

The phone rang out. As the automated voicemail message came on, Ady cursed and flipped the phone shut again.

Stopping on the edge of the road, she looked around for a taxi. There, parked on the street corner! Ady checked for traffic then dashed across the road. Pulling open the taxi door, she issued hurried instructions to the driver. "Quickly as possible!"

The car pulled out onto the road. Ady sat back, hand going into her bag and closing over the hilt of her pistol. She really hoped Coby hadn't gone without her. She wasn't sure how well Coby would cope without her; the girl was a talented Shade, but she relied on Ady a lot. Not mention the sheer danger of facing an unstable and volatile spirit without any back up. That was just plain stupid.

Ady was so absorbed in her thoughts she almost jumped out of her skin when her phone rang. Letting go of the gun, she grabbed the phone and looked at the caller ID. Coby.

"Ady," the frightened bleat came through. "Come help me ... I'm so scared."

Ady bit back a sigh. So the little fool had gone by herself.

"I'm on my way," she reassured Coby. "I'll be there in two minutes."

Kate whistled as she lounged on a bench.

God she was so bored. "Bored, bored, bored." she muttered to herself. With half intrest, she watched an ambulance speed past her, all bells and whistles. "Crap. A live one."

With a heavy sigh, Kate swung herself into a sitting position. No spooks when you needed one. "Gah!" she shouted as her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. "What?"

"Kate, a friend of a friend says there is a spook hounding one of her patients at the nursing home off Allcourt drive. Good luck."

Kate stared at her phone stupidly. She hated it when Max did that. Oh well. She sighed heavily and stuffed the phone into her pocket. Looks like it was just her and the oldies tonight.

Drake leaned quitely against a wall somewhere in Oldtown. He sometimes wondered around without really careing where he ended up. Sometimes he just needed a change of scenery, and today this gloomy alleyway seemed to suit his mood. He leaned quitely against the dirty wall with the tip of his kendo stick on the ground in front of him and both of his hands resting on the top of the opposite end. He liked this spot. A homelessman sat hopelessly alone, an empty bottle of booze at his side. A dog was digging through trash looking for food for her puppies that cried nearby. A tough looking man wearing a red jersey stood at the end as if he was reigning over his territory. It was very much a place Drake felt comfortable, though the comfort never lasted. This time for instance, the big boy in the jersey has decided that Drake won't pose a threat even with the stick and moved towards him purposely.

"You're in my alley." He said in a voice that seemed to grind Drake's nerves. Drake looked the man over, street tough for sure but he carried himself like a gorrila.

"I like it. I was thinking of taking it myself." Drake said and stopped his calm leaning. The peace was gone, the silence broken. "Needs some drappes and a carpet if you ask me." He continued even though he was sure the first comment was enough. Drake scowled at the man now. His face serious. "What? Did you expect me to cry for my mommy if you messed with me?"

The man was obviously used to getting a much different reaction from people, and stood stunned for a momment before reacting. Drake smiled, tossed his Kendo stick to the side and stuck out his chin in open invitation. The man accepted gladly and Drake quickly found himself stumbing back but able to maintain his feet. "Good, I was hoping you'd hit me." Drake said and calmly took a boxer's stance, bouncing lightly on his feet. He was about to play with the man when he heard a call behind him.

"Hey! What are you two doing?" Drake turned to see a cop. He smiled at the cop almost mockingly.

"nothing to worry yourself with..." He said and picked up the Kendo stick. "My freind here was just helping me learn how to take a blow for my Kendo club." He anounced and after a questioning look at the 'freind' who quickly confirmed the story Drake walked past the cop. Damned cops allways taking away all the fun. Drake paused for a moment looking at a TV in a store window. It seemed there was a killer on the loose. "Now that'd be something interesting to run into."

Lance glided in on his skates, "Then you guessed right." He plopped down on the couch and glared at the television, "As to the stubborn things, I have a feeling I won't be getting much sleep. I think i'm gonna go back out and patrol. Do you wanna come, or are you going to suck on that suffocation stick of yours?" He set one of the hot dogs on the little crate between the couch and the recliner before scarfing the other one down. "Oh, I set up a portal downstairs in back, just in case."

"Okay, not sure if it's indegestion or the whole six sense thing, but I sense a disturbance in the force man." Lance rubbed his stomach and grabbed the remote just as the news brief came on. "Great, now I know I'm not getting any sleep." He scratched his brow and looked to Derek, "Sorry, gotta go. Damned Shadedness."

He folded himself onto the couch, legs crossed under him and focused on the transition. First his skates and toes, then his calves, his thighs, his torso, his arms, and finally his head. "See ya." He said over, or maybe through, his shoulder as he slipped through the cracked window and towrds the scene.

---
It took him awhile, but he got there despite the breeze in the air. He settled a good dozen meters from the scene and regained his solidity before skating into towards the fray. He could already see the souls rising as he arrived.

One man in particular caught his eye. The man was giving him the stink-eye. Lance stopped and the man walked over to him.

Lance sized the man up. His spirit wavered around the left wrist, right set of ribs, a knee from the looks of it, and a good portion of his face. Lance was not going to look for this dude's body. "Okay, I'm your guide, you have two options, follow me so that you may pass on, or stay here and...it's not pleasant dude. So, what do you remember?"

"You're not an Angel, you have an effing mohawk!"

"Ey, no dissing the hawk. And I never said I was an angel. What's the last thing you remember?"

"Some guy cut me off and a metal pipe flew at my car," his hands flew to his ribs, "Am I dead?"

Lance shook his head, "Yes, yes you are dead. Now, would you like to go to the otherside now?"

"My daughter, is she alright? Can you go look?" Lance was taken aback by the sudden niceness.

"All I can say is that I don't see any little children, I guess that's a good thing. Let's go man." The man shook his head and staid still. "Okay, look, I'll take a look see, but I'm ot going to guarenttee anything." He slowly transitioned back to his spiritself, "By the way, what car were you in?"

"A bright blue Honda Civic."

"Okeey," Lance floated on the breeze and over the mayhem. he spotted the Honda Civic easily, it was bright and crumpled like a crumpled Post-It note. He hovered over the car for a few moments and waited. No spirits arose from it, but he could hear a faint whimper.

He returned to the man and told him what he'd observed.

"Why are you telling me this!? Why didn't you save her?!"

"There's no way for me to get into that car if I'm solid. And I can't touch her if I'm a spirit, that would kill her. And not the kind I'm trying to perform on you, her soul would be nothing. Speaking of which, if you don't go to that portal, I'll make your soul into nothing."

The man's eyes were wide, Lance's were set and serious. The man nodded and gave one last look to the wreckage. As they began to float into the air, rhe man crossed his chest and mumured something to himself. Lance had seen this many times before. He still couldn't find the need in religion, but he wasn't going to tell a spirit that.

----
As they stood in front of the building's back door, the man turned to Lance and asked, "Will I be able to watch her from Heaven?"

"Sir, I can't answer that, I don't know. I guess, if it's your religion and all...and you're going to this place yu call 'Heaven.' Only walking through that doorway will tell you." He pointed to the portal as it the wood glistened despite there being no light in the alleyway.

The man nodded and walked towards it, his spirit dissolving as he got closer and closer until there was nothing there. With a final shimmer, the paint-chipped, moisture warped dooray was back.

“So, you want to go get something to eat?”

“I’m not hungry.” He wasn’t hungry. Not hungry, not shaken up, not worried. Not nothing. Just feeling sullen, like he always did after meeting a spirit that refused to just leave. A bit cynical, to be exact; seeing spirits was a burden more than anything else. Especially for someone like himself; Edward’s drive, the thing that kept him going, was his ability to help people. Can’t help the dead.

His partner shrugged as they rode down the freeway. During this time of day, calls would start coming in from downtown, and they were heading to Edward’s usual waiting spot, a parking lot near one of the city’s larger malls. Easily accessible, close to the freeway, a god given spot when you had no idea where you were going next.

The man next to him kept grunting, and finally Edward turned to him, somewhat annoyed. “Look, okay, I’ve been semi-awake for nearly twenty hours straight now, so have you, no need to start getting all...”

It all happened so fast. The sound of metal on metal in front of him. The sound of a large solid object hitting another solid object. The sharp ring of metal on concrete as dozens of large metal tubes bounced around the freeway. The shattering of glass as one of the metal tubes drove itself trough the reinforced glass of the ambulance. The death rattle of his partner as the tube punctured his clothing, then his chest, then his chair. Another pang of metal on metal, behind the man’s chair.

Edward had hit the brakes of the ambulance as soon as he had heard the sounds, but he hadn’t been able to advert his eyes from the metal tube in the man’s chest. Even as they came to a standstill, he still stared at the metal tube in the man’s chest. The metal tube in the man’s chest.

Reality hit Edward as a shock, literally, as the car behind them impacted with the rear of the ambulance. Hitting his head hard on the wheel, Edward cursed, then looked around. Cars everywhere. Smoke, cries for help. And spirits. Not a lot, but still a fair amount, standing there, looking, confused.

If the car hitting the ambulance was the first reality check, the hissing sound in the area behind him was the second. He turned, slowly, almost lazily, to look for the sounds origin, and he felt his eyes grow wide in terror as he spotted the source; the metal tube had gone all the way through the man’s chair and had damaged the vent of the oxygen tank they always carried. The hiss was the sound of pure oxygen slowly filling the ambulance.

Edward panicked. He half rolled, half crawled out of his ambulance, took a few steps, fell over, then scrambled to his feet again. “Get away!” he screamed to the bystanders, but seconds, it felt like hours, after he had exited the ambulance, there was a sizzle, a moment of silence, and then a deafening explosion as the heat of the engine of the vehicle that had impacted with the ambulance sparked the oxygen.

Even as she spoke, the taxi rounded a corner and screeched to a stop before it rammed into the line of cars at a standstill on the freeway. Ady swore down the phone as she was buffeted backwards, her head hitting the back of the seat hard. Seeing the wreckage blocking the road, the driver shut the car engine off and turned to Ady.

"Sorry, love. Looks like we're gonna be a while."

Ady nodded distractedly, not really listening but instead unbuckling her seatbelt and and getting out of the car. There were already a fair number of spirits dotted about, with the confused, disorientated expression common to the newly dead. Ady sighed, and glanced down at her phone. It was still connected.

"Coby? Looks like we have a bigger problem than the one spirit at the pub --"

She broke off as a car slammed into the taxi she had just gotten out of. Instinctively she dived to the ground, rolling to her feet a couple of metres away. Spinning back round, she saw the impact had bent the taxi almost in half. The driver was almost certainly dead, and -- yes, there was his spirit, looking around in bewilderment.

"Coby, get to the freeway," she called into the phone.

Then was knocked off her feet again, flying back through the air and landing in a bruised, tangled heap, as an over-heated engine exploded. Through the ringing in her ears, Ady could hear screaming and crying. Picking herself up, she looked round at the flaming hull of the car that had blown.

"Coby, get here as soon as you can," she said wearily, then flipped her phone shut again. Until Coby got here, there wasn't much she could do.

"Hi. This may sound a little weird, but I heard one of your friends saw a ghost at the old pizza place the other night and was wondering if you might be able to direct me to him."

"Haha, I'm afraid that none of the other hobos round here are my friends. I know who you're talking 'bout though. You must mean Jason, he's off hiding away in the alley across from the supermarket on Main Street. Poor guy. You'd be best to stay away from any... Shady business though." Ansgar finished as he raised an eyebrow. He was about to take another bite from his dog when a pretty young woman came running down the street. "Ansgar! Something horrible has happened on the highway!" the girl cried with tears starting to form in her eyes. "You'd better get down there, Adelei. I'll be there in a second." He told the girl. "Well i'm afraid that some... shady business has come up that I need to help out with. Maybe I can help you more a little later." Ansgar told the man as he got up, dusted himself off, and grabbed his suit case. He gave a glance to the girl and walked back into the alley as Adelei rushed back to where she had come from.

As soon as he rounded the corner of the alley Ansgar shifted his form with a speed that takes ages to master. With that done he quickly worked his way through the city's alleyways and backstreets with a speed that could only come from living within those same areas. Within just a few minutes he had reached the scene of the accident. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a cheap walkie-talkie.
"Adelei, are you there yet?" Ansgar said as he worked his way up an old deserted building that over looked the accident. "Yeah, I'm here, Ansgar. I'm in front of the Red pickup thats on its side."
"Good, I'm on the old, red-brick building next to that new town house." Ansgar said as he finished reassembling his weapon of choice. "You know the drill, Adelei. Just give me a yes or no, and if there's any trouble, get our of there immediately. I'd never make it past Monday if you aren't at the Soup Kitchen."
"I know you old fool"

"Coby, get here as soon as you can," she said wearily, then flipped her phone shut again. For the third time Ady said her name over the phone. She sounded calm but it was no consolation something worse was at foot. She’d have to tackle the lone spirit alone then go to Ady on the freeway. She sucked in a deep breath and looked up at the spirit.

“You want to help me?” it asked again.

Coby slowly put down the phone and nodded her head. Brown hair fell over her eye and she pushed it back.

“You don‘t have to fight anymore,” she said gently.

“Isn‘t that it? You drank yourself to death and took your battle neurosis with you when you slept?”

He wasn’t laughing now he was looking around the room eyes gleaming with wetness.

“I‘m so very tired,” he agreed.

“So why are you still here? Why let the pain drag out like that. You‘re dwelling on the past.”
The spirit inclined its head, interested in her.

“That past is my history, I wanted to do something. I wanted to fix it for others. I couldn‘t, that‘s when I realised I wasn‘t flesh and blood anymore. War…” he wanted to say more.

Coby knew the memories had dragged to the surface with want for bettering the future soldiers. One man couldn’t do that let alone a spirit.

“That‘s something none of us can fix, I can‘t explain why any better then you. You need to rest no more of this pain. You‘ve suffered enough.” Coby sighed standing up. The spirit nodded his head and turned from her. It wasn’t a victory by any standard. What had she fixed for him? The world would still turn without him and he wouldn’t be the only soldier to die.

He vanished from the old pub and Coby stared at the empty room. She hadn’t fixed anything…

Stepping out onto the pavement she walked towards her car. The heavy limp made it a struggle to duck those who moved about her.

She climbed into the black Nissan sedan and turned the key in the barrel. The car started the exhaust giving a heavy humming noise. Winding her way through the streets in the car she made it out onto the freeway and turned in the direction the traffic was starting to back up. The car was boxed in half way down the stretching line of waiting drivers and Coby stepped out of the car. She limped down the line staring in shock at the chaos that stretched out before her.

"Yeah I'm a shade, so what?"

Tom felt an inexplicable urge to swear at the retreating back of the hobo who was presumably a shade or his guardian.

"This must be why there isn't really an organization for us. We're all jackasses."

What he really wanted to do was go and talk to the man's friend over on Main Street and not get involved, but it couldn't be helped.

The place was a disaster. It had to be the worst traffic accident in the last ten years in the entire country at least. People were running and screaming, some trying to get help for the ones who were stuck in the wreckage. Hell, there was even an ambulance that was more fireball than metal. The explosion had blown all of the doors off.

Tom stared at it for a few seconds before a sly grin stole over his face. It was a crappy job, but who was to say you couldn't have a little fun while doing it? He started walking towards the ambulance, going to spirit in mid-stride. The heat was intense, but it didn't really affect him the way he was. In seconds he had a gate set up in the burning frame of the door at the back of the vehicle.

With that done he stepped away and admired his handiwork, then he cast around to find the nearest spirit, a man sitting on the ground staring into space. He jerked his thumb towards the ambulance and said "the light, the gate, or oblivion. It's your choice."

"Why are you dragging me around for?"

Kate banged her head against the window of the bus. She could of created a portal there and then but when the call came in about the severe traffic accident on the Freeway. And she didn't want to cart several spirits around.

She turned towards the spirit. Sour bastard. She should of killed him and sent him to the never beyond. But he claimed to be Christian. The bus let out a hiss as it came to the stop nearest to the accident.
She could already hear the wail of sirens in the night sky.

"Ok. Here'e the deal, as soon as i'm close enough, I will open up a portal and you can go through. Got it?"

The spook rolled his eyes. "Does it look like I have a choice?"

Kate ground her teeth. "You have a choice. I can put you down and you will never even experience whatever happens beyond the great dirt nap or you can hang around and wait for the portal to open up. Now move your ass!"

She was already jogging, knowing that the spirit would follow her. She knew this place and would be ok in having a portal nearbye. She hated when she had to go to the other side of the city then drag the suckers all the way back. It was a pain in the ass.

With a heavy sigh, Kate withdrew a black marker from her pants and drew a large door sized rectangle on the brickwork. She wasn't sure how it worked but it did. The brickwork inside the rectangle shimmered before disapearing.

"Ok. there you have it. Off you go!"

The spirit hesitated. No doubt he was an asshole in real life being he was haunting his grandmother for not putting him in her will, not that Kate understood his reasoning. He was dead, not the other way around. But now his cold eyes were unsure. He turned to her. "What's it like? Heaven I mean?"

Kate sighed. "I have no idea. I'm not allowed to go through the portal myself. Now get your butt through." She paused for a moment, "you will be fine. Whatever is on the otherside is where you need to be. Now go."

The man nodded and adjusted the tie he had been buried in and stepped through the portal, duckign his head. Well, she wasn't exactly tall. The portal shimmered then the brickwork returned to normal. The only way anyone could tell there was something there now was her initials printed beside the gateway.

"One down...." Kate murmured as she turned to face the freeway nearbye. Damn. This was going to suck.

Jogging forwards, Kate leaped the fence and stumbled slightly. Chaos. Utter chaos. Cries shouted up, angry voices cursing or demanding help. Yuppies.

And there were spirits. Quite a few actually. Rolling her neck until it cracked, Kate morphed into spirital aspect and approached a spirit, looking worriedly at her car.

"Miss?" Kate started. The woman turned to her. "Miss? I'm Kate. I will be your guide for about ten minutes. If you would like to come with me?"

"Excuse me? I have no idea who you are but I am waiting for the paramedics-" She stopped as a medic paused at her car, shook his head at his partner before moving on. "Why did they stop?" She turned to Kate, her face a picture of surprised. "Why didn't they help me?"

Kate sighed. "Lady. They have other people that need help more than you do. I hate to say it but you're dead as a doornail. Now please come with me because I really don't want to waste my energy wasting you."

"But my Pookie! He was in the car with me and... Oh! There you are my big boy!" She scooped up a poodle and snuggled it.

Kate grimaced. "Oh you have got to be kidding me!"

Derek was about to answer when Lance already started changing into his faded image of his spirit. He then went out the window and left Derek blinking. "Damn bastard," a snarl enticing his lips, "asks me a question and doesn't even let me finish."

He took another puff of his smoke, "I will smoke this too!" he shouted to no one in particular. He sat back in the chair, if anything was going to happen, he would see it on the news. Sure enough an accident happened, Derek looked on in anticipation, an ambulance had exploded into a fireball, a semi crashing into other vehicles. If anything Lance would be here, he could already see the spirits, thier faded images on the screen.

Then Lance had came, he was talking to someone, floated off somewhere, then returned to the guy. Then after a few minutes he had taken the spirit with him, Derek knew where he was going, he stood up and walked towards the back entrance, just in enough time to see the glimmering flash of the spirit heading off into the nether regions.

"That seemed easy, and I didn't even need to hold your hand," he took another puff of his cig, before tossing it on the ground and stamping it out.

Drake had continued walking minding his own bussness when he heard a loud noise of something happening near by. Skidding, and crashing. Drake wondered if their had been a major accident and if their was he wanted to see it for himself before the police arived and blocked everyone off.

Drake slowly made his way towards the crash through back alleys and popped out to see a major pile up in the middle of the freeway. He wondered what kind of idiot had caused the mess, but didn't wonder for long as he noticed a few people hurt. He snorted to himself but knew he was going to help anyways, if only to shut up his consinence.

The limo rolled to a slow stop. Traffic on the highway had reached a complete standstill. Midday and already we have a traffic jam, Duncan thought. He wished the church had sent someone to meet him, not just a driver. He appreciated the message the limo sent, even if it was just a regular Lincoln Towncar, but he would have much preferred some one he could have talked to. The driver had stopped all communication when Duncan had begun to go into the moral implications of producing CO2 for a living.

He was still fretting over his failed conversation when he saw a blood drenched woman run past his window. "Did you see that?" He asked his companion.

"See what?"

Duncan was about to reply when he heard the explosion. It became clear in that instant what had happened. There was an accident up ahead and the woman had been a spirit. It seemed he had souls to attend to before he even got to his new position. He got out of the limo but he couldn't see the woman anywhere. There were a few wandering souls up ahead of him though. He would go give guidance and try to ease their journey to the next world.

Donnie got up and went to his computer to check his e-mails for work. He lit another cigarette and rested his head into his hands as he waited for the internet to start up. He ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath to look up at the screen and log on. He stared at the screen, extremely sleep-deprived, blinking slowly at his company's website materializing.

After entering his identification and password, it took mere seconds for him to get into his mailbox. Nothing. Donnie always saw that as a good thing, it meant less of a chance he might have to hunt his own flesh and blood down in the event that Tom felt unequal to stalking a spirit.

"Thank God," he said, taking a puff and reaching for his vodka.

No e-mails meant he was able to relax and perhaps attempt to squeeze a nap in. Let's face it, he won't get to sleep anytime soon, but if he can close his eyes long enough, maybe he'll be somewhat recharged. Good luck, Donovan.

Kate let the woman snuggle her 'big boy' poodle for a few more seconds.

"Ok, now you can take your dog too." She turned on her heel and walked to edge of the road. "Move your butt lady!"

The clack of high heels on the tarmack let her know that the woman was making her way over. "Little girl, can you please tell me what's going on? Why am I not in heaven? I've been good and Mr.Pookie here has been good too. So why am I not in heaven?"

Kate ground her teeth. Looking around sixteen had it' disadvantages. She turned to face the woman and forced herself to smile. "I have no idea why. What I do know, is that beeing good or bad doesn't really make a difference. You go through the portal and that's it. You go on from there or something like that. I have no idea what happens after you go through. No please, come with me. I would really hate to..." She dropped the sentence.

The woman looked at her dog and it whined. "Very well then, show me the way."

Within a few minutes, both the woman and Mr.Pookie were crossed over. Another five minutes later, she was chasing a woman running screaming down the freeway, blood streaking her face.

There were other shades there, quite a few from the looks of it. There was something strange about this. Why were they all here? Tom took a minute to go physical and whip out his cell phone to send off a text to Donnie.

Huge accident on the freeway. Lot's of shades here I've never seen. Do yo have any info on what happened and any idea why all the shades are here?

That done he slipped back into spirit form. It didn't really matter if anyone saw him. There was so much chaos that even if they did notice they would probably figure they just lost sight of him. He caught sight of a girl chasing a woman down the freeway. She was obviously a shade since he had seen her getting some spirits before, but he couldn't see where she had put her gate. It didn't look like it was anywhere nearby.

"Hey, if your gate's not here you can always feel free to use mine!"

Tom gestured to the one he set up in the burning door-frame of the ambulance.

Spirits. And spirits talking to spirits. And humans, running after spirits. A guy pointing at his ambulance and talking about gates. Edward touched his brow and winced before looking at his fingertips. No blood. Well, that was a relief; no blood meant no wound, meant no stitches which meant no scar. In short, he was fine.

Scrambling to hit feet, he groaned as he pushed himself up and looked around. Spirit hunters. He had seen them before, on multiple occasions actually, but he had never talked to them; all he knew was that they hunted down reluctant spirits, and the ‘gate’ the man spoke about was some sort of tool. Fantastic. Really, awesome. Shaking his head, he took the emergency kit he always attached to his trousers and grabbed two painkillers.

The death of his partner meant surprisingly little to him. Death was part of life, to Edward even more so. The fact the man’s spirit was not here meant he had crossed over. Good for him. The painkillers made his mouth feel dry and Edward grimaced as he limped over to the spirit standing near his ambulance. “You’re a spirit hunter right? Could I borrow your phone for a moment?”

As she put her phone back into her bag, Ady wondered how long it would take Coby to get down here. She ran a grimy hand through her hair, shaking her head at the wreckage across the freeway. Injured suvivors gazed about, disorientated. Admist the noise of the sirens and the crying there was also the wailing of spirits figuring out they were dead.

Ady grimaced, her hand closing over the hilt of her pistol again. Although she knew it would do no good against spirits, it gave her some comfort to hold it. Already several Shades had appeared and were trying to convince spirits to cross over. The fact that there were so many Shades in one place spoke volumes of the tragedy.

"Love?"

Turning, Ady saw the cab driver's spirit looking at her confusedly.

"Sir?"

"I ... I don't understand. I'm here, but ... I can see my body in there." He indicated the crushed taxi. "Am I ... am I dead?" His voice broke on the last word.

Ady slowly nodded, and replied solemnly, "Yes, you are. I'm sorry."

"How come you can see me?"

"I ... it's a long story."

The driver nodded, and there was a pause. Ady looked around, but there was really nothing she could do except wait for Coby.

"I shouldn't be here, should I?"

She turned back to the driver. "No. You shouldn't. You need to cross over. But I can't ... I need to find - ah, Coby!"

Catching sight of her Shade, she waved to gain the other girl's attention. She noticed with concern that Coby was limping, and seemed to be in shock as she stared at the wreckage. Ady shook her head again, and turned to the driver's spirit.

"Wait here. I'll be back in a minute, with someone who can help you."

Then, spinning on her heel she started making her way over cars and through the tangled wrecks towards Coby.

Tom switched back to physical and tossed his phone at him.

"Sure man, just stay away from certian numbers if you know what I mean."

Tom gave him a sly wink.

"I can't help but notice that you could see me...and you're not dead...and you're not scared. Usually the best I can hope for is two out of three. You a guardian? You don't really look the type, but your job definitly suits one." He looked at the man's uniform and back at the ambulance. "Sucks about your buddy though. I haven't seen him around, which is good, but you probably already knew that."

"I can't help but notice that you could see me...and you're not dead...and you're not scared. Usually the best I can hope for is two out of three. You a guardian? You don't really look the type, but your job definitly suits one." He looked at the man's uniform and back at the ambulance. "Sucks about your buddy though. I haven't seen him around, which is good, but you probably already knew that."

“Guardian?” slowly shook his head as he dialed the number to base. “Mate, I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. I drive an ambulance, so yeah; I’m a kind of a guardian. As for being afraid; I was afraid, the first time, the second time, but I’ve lost count since, and…”

“Central Emergency Centre 03-4, one moment.” The voice was rushed, almost panicky, and Edward hears the sound of another dozen phones on the back ground.

“No, don’t hang up, it’s… Damned!” Phone still next to his ear, he gave the man an apologetic smile. “Seems they’re a bit busy. I wonder why.” Looking back, he shook his head again. Cars as far as you could see. Panic making way for annoyance. Somewhere in that line of cars, there were probably a few ambulances. He could almost hear their swearing. Again, a small smile.

He hung up the phone and handed it back. “Not getting trough there. Better see if I can find some survivors. Anything I could help you with?”