Chapter One: The After Life

“Ethan it’s already seven are you going to eat breakfast?”

“I’ll pick something up at the cafeteria I still have some money left over from the movies,” Ethan yelled while rushing to pack his homework into his bag.

“I told you not to stay out too late with that movie,” Ethan’s mom shouted up the stairs to him.

Ethan slung his bag over his shoulder then ran downstairs. “Bye mom,” Ethan shouted behind him as he rushed out the door. Ethan then jumped off the porch and ran across his yard diagonally and leaped straight over the small white fence around his yard. Ethan continued jogging down the street and when he saw that the sidewalk was taken up by the little kids walking to school he jumped into the road and stayed close to the sidewalk in case of any oncoming traffic behind him.

When Ethan passed the children on the sidewalk he hopped on the sidewalk and heard the sound of one of the girls behind him call out, “Hi Ethan!”

Ethan turned around while keeping his jogging pace and waved to the little girl, “Hi Susan, have a good day school alright?” Ethan said.

“Okay, you too,” Susan said smiling at him.

Ethan smiled at Susan then waved her goodbye before he turned back around and continued jogging down the road. As Ethan continued the sound of a car swerving around the corner caught his attention and he looked to his left down the road to see a car pull out onto the road he wasn’t far from crossing. Ethan began to slow his pace down so he didn’t get caught in the road when the speedster came by until he saw a young boy, maybe six years old in the middle of the street walking casually and oblivious to the car speeding towards him.

Ethan glanced once more at the car, it was still speeding down the road, the driver probably unaware that there was a kid crossing the street. Ethan didn’t have any time to think; he turned his jog into a flat run and put forth everything he had into it. “Kid look out!” Ethan shouted! But the kid kept walking casually; still unaware of his impending doom.

Ethan made it to the road before the car could hit the kid but he still wasn’t close enough to tackle him out of the way. Ethan then made a desperate leap forward in an attempt to push the boy out of the way.

The boy launched forward out of the cars way as Ethan’s hands pushed against his back propelling him; Ethan landed right in front of the wheels of the car. Thud Thud Thud; the sickening sound of Ethan’s body getting caught under the wheels of the car sounded as it ran over him. The driver slammed on his breaks and skid several feet before stopping, then got out of the car jogged over to Ethan and after one glance at Ethan’s twisted neck ran back into his car and sped off.

Ethan woke up in the middle of the street, it was dark, it was cold, and it was raining. Ethan rubbed the back of his neck a little as he got to his feet, it was a little sore and he had a minor headache otherwise he didn’t feel to bad at all. He rolled his shoulders back a couple times until he realized he was missing his backpack.

Ethan felt his back, he was still wearing his jacket and everything else he had on before he left for school, except now he didn’t have his backpack. He looked around but realized he couldn’t see anything, not even the ground beneath his feet; he looked up at the sky but didn’t see any moon or stars at all. Ethan tried retracing his steps, what was he doing before he got here?

He was in his room, getting dressed hastily like he was late, and he was putting something important into his back pack as he heard someone calling out to him. It was his mom, asking if he was going to eat breakfast, and he was getting ready for school but woke up later than usual so he had to hurry. Then he ran out the door and was jogging to school, he passed the little neighbor girl who seemed to have a minor crush on him and he waved at her as she said, ‘hello.’

Next he continued jogging and then the loud sound of tires squealing caught his attention. There was a car speeding down the road he saw a kid crossing it slowly and unaware of the car speeding at him. He tried to shout to warn the kid but his voice came out muffled in his panic and the kid didn’t hear him. The car wasn’t slowing down so Ethan ran forward, into the road; and jumped and pushed the kid out of the way. And then… “Then I was run over. And now I’m dead” Ethan said aloud to himself.

Ethan took in a deep breath and then let out again in long sigh. Then he thought to himself, “If I’m dead then now what?”

As if by answer to his question a large structure began to glow green in the darkness. Slowly the green light took shape and form and after a few seconds Ethan could make out it was some kind of mansion. Ethan looked at the eerie mansion with a green glowing outline then looked behind and all around him. Then he said sarcastically, “So my choices are endless darkness, or the mansion from the crypts. Great.”

Ethan crosses his arms and tapped his foot impatiently while starring at the mansion. He stood there with his arms crossed and still tapping his foot for several minutes starring at the mansion, It wasn’t changing and it wasn’t going anywhere either. So Ethan let out a sigh and headed towards the mansion.

When he got to the foot of the mansion, Ethan looked around skeptically and half on guard as if expecting something to jump out at him; when nothing did Ethan took the steps. To his surprise, neither the few steps nor floorboards creaked despite their appearances. The outside of the mansion had a dark grey paintjob that was pealing away in many spots; the wood of the mansion looked decayed and flimsy.

Ethan put his hand on the wall of the mansion and it felt, smooth; despite all its appearances it felt like the smoothest wood Ethan had ever touched in his life. Ethan sniffed the air and it didn’t smell bad either, not like he expected it to smell good either but instead it smelled of fresh cool air, like if he went into the mountains above all the pollution. Still cautious though Ethan put his ear to the door of the mansion and quietly listened in; he couldn’t hear anything inside.

Finally Ethan took in a deep breath and summoned up all the courage inside him. He grabbed the doorknob twisted it and opened the door to the mansion. Lights, noises, and movements flooded him as soon as he did.

Ethan couldn’t believe what he was seeing, the first thing was that the mansion on the inside was very clean and well lighted; it was also enormous. The inside had large stairs the seemed to lead up almost forever, and even the first floor Ethan couldn’t see the wall at the end for several hundred feet, and there appeared to be numerous more corridors, hallways and doors through it. The mansion was also packed with other people of literally all ages and appearances, they were either sitting down at tables, standing around talking or walking around.

One of these other people if Ethan could even call it that stood out amongst everyone. He or she, or it was about 8 ft tall large in diameter too but not appearing to be fat and wore dark robes that you couldn’t see through to the face, almost like you would expect the grim reaper to be wearing.

After Ethan finally stepped all the way into the mansion the door gently swung shut behind him and the hooded figure then began to levitate off the ground. Ethan couldn’t keep his eyes off of it as it said in calm voice “Greetings new arrivals.” Ethan could hear the voice more in his head than he could with his ears and it sounded male. “Welcome to the mansion, I am the caretaker of this place and your host for the Phantom Wars. This mansion will be your new home for the remainder of your time on this plane.

You are free to come and go from here as you please but it is ill advised that you attempt to interfere or make contact with the living. Now then our next order of business, the Phantom Wars. The Phantom Wars is a collection of games, tournaments, and other competitions that phantoms or ghosts like yourselves are able to participate in at your own leisure. You are not forced to participate in the Phantom Wars but it is strongly recommended you do so.

Points are awarded to those who do participate which can be spent are various rewards here; including your own rooms. Now then since it is Saturday we will be doing the grand tournament where everyone is eligible to enter. This tournament will take place in various zones, changing from battle field to battlefield. The rules of this tournament are simple: try to be the last one standing by defeating the other players.

Those who wish to participate simply walk through this portal, and remember since you are already dead you need not fear death twice.”

Then the caretaker began to bend sideways and started swirling and turning into a translucent green; he kept spinning faster turning greener until he transformed into a larger green glowing oval portal. Ethan watched as hundreds of the other phantoms on the first floor began disappearing into the portal. After only a couple minutes there was only about 50 phantoms including Ethan on that part of the first floor, the place felt disturbingly empty.

Ethan looked at the portal and noticed that it was getting dimmer and dimmer by the second. He glanced around at the nearly empty massive room of the mansion again. Then Ethan took in a deep breath, released it, did it one more time and ran through the portal.