Lost Soul by Forest Ostrander (red queen free ebook txt) 📖

How to make things float to scare the crap out of people. I Watched as Nathan just stood there staring at the canister, I pretended to look at my wrist as if I was wearing a watch and said.

"Look, this is interesting and all but I really need to get home." Nathan looked over at me with a smirk on his face.

"You have no home remember? Now that you're dead, your home really isn't your home anymore." I frowned. The kid may be funny at times, but his cockiness was getting way out of control. Sure I had a home, it was with my grandma. Ya I may be dead but its still my home.

"I don't know what you are thinking but it is still my home." I was scowling at him.

"It's not your home Forest," he said. "You're dead. Going there won't do anything for you." That's it, I was not going to have him talk to me like that again. I stormed up the stairs, ignoring his calls for me to turn around. At first I was eager to learn what he could teach me but now? I think I'll stick to figuring out the things on my own. I had a while yet, I haven’t gotten any bad feelings on the boys yet so maybe they were just now trying to stay low after shooting me. After all, their bullets would be traceable right? Walking out the door, I waved goodbye to Tigers and Sandy as they slept with Crystal and Aaron on their beds. This was their home, and they sure didn't have someone telling them otherwise. Walking out the door, I looked back at the house. This place was the first place I managed to make contact with the living and I was thirsting for more. Taking a deep, really un-needed breath, I faced the way home and began walking it. When I reached the spot where that crazy woman had chased me earlier, I dashed through it. Not a few seconds after I had crossed her 'line' she was screaming out of the woods heading right after me. I smiled, she was going to be fun to tease. A few more leaps, I was out of her home range and just kept going. Nathan had told me that once spirits settle in a particular spot and are not released from that spot again, they couldn't or wouldn't leave unless someone helped them on their way, and that only happened if they wish to leave on their own. He said that a forced spirit will always find a way to return. I looked around me at the sites. Nothing seemed to have changed but yet there is still a strange feeling in the air. It seemed like all of Whitney Point was in a gloomy mood. No stores were open, no cars were on the road, and I didn't catch a breath of another person walking the streets. I never even once spotted a cat or heard a dog. Funny, it usually never gets this quiet when someone dies. I stopped in the middle of the intersection. I could care less since the cars, if there had been any, would just go through me. It was strange really, you would think that the idea of having something go through you would give you Goosebumps but it felt cool to me. I could feel what the people in the object are feeling. Spinning around, I tried to catch any hint of life, any movement besides bags fluttering in the breeze across the streets and sidewalks. The signs above some of the buildings swayed slightly and the creaking of un-oiled hinges squeaked louder now with the silence of the town. I decided to walk down the street some to the diner. I knew if anything there would be something displayed up on the sign, it seems that's how his town finds out about things. Who needs the news when all you had to do was look at the diner sign? Seeing the dinner in view, I began to run to it, the feeling of running now was amazing. I never needed to slow down to take a breath and I never got tired either. I felt as free as I could be and the ability to run again was amazing. I missed running, ever since my knees decided to go all old maid on me, I couldn't run very much if at all. I couldn't even walk up stairs, stand for very long or even walk for very long without pain shooting through my leg. Now? Well now I can run as fast as I want and feel nothing in the process. Reaching the sign, I stopped and stared at it. Unlike any day, it would have the news on top and the daily special on the bottom, almost as if they were dishing out both. I found it funny when one time they mentioned someone's death and had a steak special underneath it as if the thought of meat under a dead person sounded good. Reading the sign, it said 'R.I.P Forest. Funeral at 3 in Allen Memorial Funeral Home.' Great, now they were dragging me to Endicott? I looked underneath the words and managed to finally not find any daily special, and why would there be? This place looked like a ghost town though I knew there were still people living in it.

"You know. It's not like anything will change." I whirled around to see Nathan standing behind me. My eyes were wide open in shock.

"How did you find me?" I asked him. Nathan chuckled.

"All souls can find one another if you look or listen hard enough. We all have that vibe that screams 'SAVE ME!'." I snorted.

"I don't have that vibe."

"No, you have the revenge vibe which is just as loud." I glared. Why could this kid not take a hint that the reason I left him in the first place was because I was pissed at him?

"So, you still want to go home? Or are you going to your funeral?" Nathan asked, cocking his head to the side as he looked at me.

"I...I don't really know," I said and it was the truth. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go or not. I mean seeing my friends and family would be nice and to hear what they have to say, but I also didn't because then it would mean that I would truly have to accept the fact that I was really dead. I saw Nathan smile.

"I remember the first time I went to my funeral." I looked him in the eyes, now my curiosity was spiked.

"What was it like?" I asked him. He seemed to be gazing into outer space.

"It was ok. Not many people showed which wasn't a surprise. My family wasn't really a big one. My brother never even bothered to show up." I knew I could relate to that. My killers were not even at the scene of my death. They just up and left.

"Maybe guilt made him stay?" I asked. Nathan shook his head.

"No, I know that wasn't it. I think it was because he didn't want everyone to see him grinning from ear to ear at his accomplishment." I was disgusted. How could his own brother not want to see him and feel regret about it? They were family! As if reading my thoughts which I wouldn't put it past him to be able to do he said.

"I mean, it wasn't like we were close or anything like that. We always were fighting. I just never expected him to go this far. I just thought he would tie me up in the closet for a week like he did last time."

"You were tied up for a week? What about food or water? What about going to the bathroom?" I noticed the sheepish look on his face and grimaced. Ewe. The kid had to go where he was sitting and I bet his brother made him eat and drink what came out of him. Nathan sighed.

"You want to learn how to get somewhere faster if you are going to your funeral?" I peered at him.

"Sure," I said. Is he saying we can fly? Nathan grinned and took my hand, a blush came to my face but I was quick to make it disappear.

"All you have to do is imagine yourself flying and you will levitate." Nathan said. "Close your eyes an try it." I did. Closing my eyes I let all thoughts drift out of my mind and imagined myself flying. It wasn't hard, most of my dreams were of me flying in the air, sometimes with wings sometimes with my arms. After a few seconds I heard a shout from somewhere below me.

"YOU'RE DOING GOOD! KEEP IT UP!" I opened my eyes and looked down. I was frightened. I had floated a good three feet in the air yet the amazing part? My fear turned into awe. I watched as Nathan came up and joined me.

"See? Isn't this amazing? And this isn't even have as high as you can go."

"You mean we can go higher?" I was amazed. Maybe this kid wasn't so bad after all.

"Yup," he said grinning. "We can go to the very edge of our world, to the point where you would freeze and die if you were living."

"You mean space?" I asked. Nathan shook his head.

"No, we can go into the very outer layer of Planet Earth. The place where rockets or asteroids burn when they first enter Earth's atmosphere." I was defiantly in awe. And to think, it wouldn't even kill me yet so many people dream of doing it their entire lives.

"Wow." I said, disappointed that it was all I could come up with.

"Yup. So ready to fly?" Nathan asked me. I grinned and took his held out hand.

 We flew for a while before I said.

"I think I will go see my funeral. Do you want to come?" I would never have imagined myself asking a boy to come see my dead body in a million years. Nathan smirked. God, he sure had a nice smile. I soon realized what I was saying and mentally beat those kind of thoughts out of my mind.

"Sure," Nathan said. Hopefully he couldn't make out my red cheeks. I soon followed his lead as he taught me how to control my movements and how to use the whined currents to my advantage and in what seemed like only a few minutes, we were at Allen Memorial Funeral Home in Endicott. I was shocked to see how many cars were parked. It seemed the entire street was covered in cars tightly compacted together.

"Damn. Better outcome then me. You must be famous." I heard Nathan say beside me. I had almost forgotten he was there.

"Ya. I am just as amazed as you. And no, I wasn't famous. I just unfortunately helped the world out by stopping their biggest threat from happening all over again and unfortunately obtained some un-wanted attention."

"That still makes you famous!" Nathan said to me. His eyes were like disks. I giggled.

"I don't think so. Famous people have money, I was middle class and even then was lucky to still have money left."

"What did you do?" He asked me.

"I stopped a nuclear war from happening." I said as if it were nothing.

"How?!" Now it looked like his eyes were going to pop out of their sockets.

"It was an accident really. When they came to take some prisoners, I managed to get free and found myself in the control room of the missiles. I didn't know what I was doing and began to fiddle around with some wires when I shut down the entire system completely."

"And that's how you stopped a war?"

"Guess so. Ever since then, I was entrusted with the key to all the safes in the United States vaults."

"Why?"

"I have no idea. I wasn't even expecting that one myself. The mayor just handed it off to me saying the President insisted