Kelly's house, Gresham Park, DeKalb County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 08:00.

It was a sunny morning. The sleeping survivors were secured, and Sara had a date.

Today, she and Kelly were supposed to explore Panthersville loot a McDonald's and whatever other fast-food joints and restaurants they could. Fill that refrigerator truck with munchies and other related goodies. Maybe even a bakery. The girl's stomach rumbled as she daydreamed.

Sara wanted to scout a good place to claim as her own and make it her new house. A house all her own. From there, she just needed to wait until the right time and sail to the center of the lake to turn the System Core on. Then humanity would be saved and everything would be fine.

She would have her home, her business, and a source of income. Her own fiat currency. The girl was giddy thinking of a life of luxury. System Dollars weren't intended to replace US Dollars, though. Whatever the government stance on this new currency was, she would adamantly keep it out of official business.

She would let people trade SD$ for USD$ all they wanted but never pay taxes in SD$. The stance against SD$ transfers under duress would also extend to paying taxes. After all, people paid taxes only because the government threatened people with imprisonment or foreclosure otherwise.

"Sara?"

The girl snapped out of her money-induced reverie. "What?"

"Brett and Amanda are going back to the university," Kelly said.

The two were halfway to a neighbor's car. Anything that didn't belong to a survivor was up for grabs and nobody even batted an eyelid at what would be a felony in the old world.

"Oh, well. Safe travels, guys," she waved, a bit out of it. Brett waved back, and Amanda even nodded. Figures.

Amanda had slept in Kelly's bedroom while the musician crashed on her parent's couch in the master bedroom. The two college students spent most of the night chatting about a lot of things while Sara went to bed earlier.

"I'm leaving the radio equipment next door," Brett said, "We'll come with a high-gain antenna in three days to coordinate the bigger rescue operation."

Officially, Kelly and Sara had a mission to scout the neighboring areas inside the former time bubble to find more survivors. By Abby's geographical estimates, they should find something around thirty to fifty more. That would make the survivors from the time bubble almost half of the known living people in their region, including those stuck in downtown Atlanta.

Without the Necropolis King, they would number much more than a hundred. Sara lamented the loss of life. She lamented that so many died in the best place to be a survivor in the entire world. They had their own garden of Eden, and still...

The girl shook her head and took in a deep breath.

No time to waste thinking of what could be. Sara could only move forward. She was eager to activate the System Core, though. If everyone could have the power she had now and more, the dangers of this world would become meaningless.

*

*

Old Constitution Road, Constitution, DeKalb County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 08:20.

A group of survivors stood on the road near a junkyard. After going along the rail tracks for a while, the road turned north, but the rails went west.

"I think if we follow the rail tracks, we can reach the federal prison," Trevor said. "Zombie density is linked to traffic density at the time of the meteor shower, the rail should be empty."

Next to the man, Hainsworth scratched his chin. The Major noticed he needed to shave. He couldn't let the good news erode his discipline. Not with the elections next month or probably in December. They needed to wait for the new survivors to wake up and get acclimated to the new reality before they could create an electoral committee and only then plan to cast ballots.

They needed order, they needed a government. Legitimacy. Rules and laws that were adequate to this new reality. People needed to feel safe and that they belong in some sort of social structure. He couldn't let another mass suicide happen.

"We should go on foot," the military man suggested, then turned to his team.

Joe and a few other tough volunteers waited for his orders. His new soldiers, former criminals. Hainsworth liked to think they were performing community service in exchange for their sentences. Which reminded him they would need a judge and a sheriff, not to mention a legislative branch. Too bad Keynes was invalid now. He'd make an excellent sheriff.

"Put on your bulletproof vests and helmets!" He ordered, his command voice coming easily. "Get your weapons and supplies, we'll move on foot from now on. Remember, do not engage the undead. They are slow and harmless unless you are stupid enough to blow their heads off. Then it is your head that's coming off."

"Yes, sir!" They shouted.

If only that crazy girl agreed to help. He could be home with his daughter right now. Hainsworth stared at the Bank of America tower. The building could be seen from anywhere in the metropolitan area, standing as alone as it was tall after the meteors demolished most of the skyscrapers downtown.

After the troop was ready, he led them along the rail tracks. The detour was necessary to circumvent the infested freeway. The only section of the interstate highway that was free of zombies was the I-20 near Gresham Park.

An easy two-mile hike put them right next to the federal facility.

"Halt," Hainsworth raised a fist. "That's the prison fence."

He took his binoculars and scanned the lawn and ancillary buildings outside the prison proper, then the tall walls and towers of the correctional complex. He switched to thermal imaging and checked for sources of heat. The purpose of holding the operation so early in the morning was exactly to keep the sun from masking human presence.

"Bring in the wirecutters. We are entering," he commanded. "Keep your weapons ready, and don't shoot the damn zombies. We might have living wardens in there and not just inmates. Avoid contact but do not engage unless they open fire first. Stick to the walls and move slowly. Keep your squad members in sight. Heads low, eyes and ears wide open. Also, don't keep your damn fingers on the triggers, remember our gun safety training sessions. Let's go."

*

*

"5th Avenue" Boulevard, Belvedere Park, DeKalb County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 09:00.

MDW: The remainder of this chapter is in Kelly's POV.

She climbed into the cabin of the refrigerator truck while Sara adjusted the driver's seat.

The massive Stonecrest Lake, the thirty-seventh in the country by surface area, spiked interest in the region. Instead of idyllic suburbs, the shore nearest to Atlanta became heavily urbanized. Large boat clubs and marina, a lovely promenade stretching for miles in a crescent shape. The water saw plenty of jet skis, yachts, and even lazy ferries and party boats that went around the lake full of tourists, back in the day.

Kelly used to visit the lake very often. Her father had a small motorboat and often took her to fish in the lake. The waters were always crystal-clear, even after the region saw its first high-rise buildings a few years ago. The fish was tasty and the memory made the musician salivate.

"Here is our first stop," Sara announced after they had advanced another block. The girl didn't bother to park and left the truck in the middle of the street.

Kelly could see the sparkling water on the horizon at the end of the street. They were next to a narrow apartment building squeezed between other narrow apartment buildings. Someone really liked New York's iconic street-side mid-density apartment complexes and copied them over here. Sara produced her lockpicks and opened the front door while Kelly kept watch. From what, she had no idea. The teenager made it look easy as she gained access to the building. She could swear it went almost as quick as using the real key.

The air inside was stale and already reeked of carrion, not two days after they'd released the wall of water. Kelly poked her head inside and saw a dead man wearing a suit across the narrow lobby. He had some pink foam bubbling from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.

"Gas mask?" Sara suggested.

"Gas mask," she agreed.

They removed the masks from their backpacks and donned them.

They sidestepped the dead man and climbed the stairs. The building was so narrow it didn't have an elevator. Light quickly became a problem as they moved away from the door but Sara took a small pen-sized flashlight. She attached it to her lapel and kept moving. They stopped at the third floor. Sara politely knocked on the door.

"May I come in?"

Kelly's heart fluttered. A survivor! But how did Sara know? Did she see the survivor by the window? Magic? Kelly was still skeptical on that one but Sara was able to pinpoint survivors with laser-like precision. Hainsworth even sent people into the other houses to check if Sara had missed any but no. All survivors in Gresham Park were accounted for.

Oblivious to Kelly's thoughts, Sara picked the lock and opened the door to the apartment. "Good Morning! Coming in!" She said like an Avon salesperson as she walked in.

She followed the teenager, eager to see who she was talking to. As she entered the apartment, she noticed it was empty. The lack of flies indicated that it had been this way since the meteor shower. All of them knew the telltale hints of a nearby decomposing body.

"Nice to meet you too," Sara continued, staring at an empty spot. "How may I help you?" The girl nodded in silence for a while. "Yes, we can do it. Can you follow us? We'll need a car for that." Silence, then Sara moved to a fish bowl filled with coins and keys, taking the car ones. "The Toyota, then. You have a good taste in cars, sir."

Kelly came close and whispered in her ear, "Sara, what are you doing? Is it another ghost?"

Sara looked at Kelly for a brief moment but then went back to her charade. "Sorry, I don't think your stocks are worth anything anymore. The internet is gone. For good, I think. But I'll write down your access credentials anyway. If it comes back online, I'll surely sell it and send the cash to your parents. Yes, yes. The account password, I got it. Wait, I need to write it down. No, Kelly is trustworthy. Alright, that sounds fun," she giggled.

Sara looked like someone else, a tour guide pretending to be all nice and polite to entertain an important customer. The... ghost. Didn't she stab the last one? Why be so nice with this one?

Kelly got her attention again and they exchange a glance. "What are you doing?"

Even though the gas mask, Kelly could see Sara was feigning excitement, "Me? Nothing. But you and me, we're going to ride a boat."

Kelly hooked the teenager's arm. "Sara, who were you talking to right now?"

"Fred," she looked at the empty spot again and appeared to exchange a nod. "He moved into town two years ago. Fred worked at an office with a nice lakeside view. He never had the chance to ride one of those boats, but today is his golden opportunity."

That explained nothing. "Where's Fred, Sara?" Kelly's stomach churned as she considered the possibilities. Was it all a prank? No, Sara wouldn't...

"Sorry, Fred. This is my friend Kelly, she can't see or hear you. She decided to tag along but I swear she is a nice person," Sara quickly introduced her to... the empty spot. Why did she sound worried? She faced Kelly, "Kelly, don't make too many questions. We're all friends here and we are going to ride a boat and have a wonderful time. Capisce?"

Kelly was both parts curious and worried. The mafioso undertone didn't evade her perception or ease her worries. She nodded. Definitely a prank. Maybe even the passive-aggressive drama with Amanda was staged. Did Sara have a hidden camera? Was it in the pen-sized flashlight? When she came to herself, Sara was waiting in the hallway, arms akimbo.

"Are you coming or not?"

*

*

Stonecrest Lake, DeKalb County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 09:40.

Sara collected a few random items from the bedroom in a bag before ushering her out of the building. They walked up the street to find a yellow Toyota sports car. She pressed the key fob and the car beeped. Sara removed her gas mask and took a whiff of the car's interior.

"That's awesome, Fred. Almost two weeks parked and the air is not stale. You're right, this brand of car freshener is the real deal!" She gushed in an overexcited voice.

The musician was dazed, overwhelmed. She kept glancing at the pen in the girl's breast pocket, trying to see the tiny camera lens.

"Would you take the back seat, Kelly? I'm driving. We're going to the lakeside marina," Sara pointed at the driver's door.

"Okay?" She gave up on trying to understand Sara. Kelly instead tried to find the hidden cameras on the vehicle as she pulled the driver's door open and moved the seat out of the way to climb on the back.

"Great. Please, let me open the door for you," Sara circled to the other side of the car and opened the passenger door like a chauffeur. Why hadn't she got the door for Kelly too? Then she went around again to take the driver's seat. "Manual shift? Yeah, I can drive stick," Sara rolled her eyes playfully at the empty passenger seat. "I didn't know they made 'em with it. Oh, a custom job?" She forced a squeal. "This baby is too good for ordinary streets! It belongs on the racetrack! I beg your pardon if your baby stutters, Fred. I don't think I'm ready for all this horsepower. Oh, thanks for the confidence. You are a sweetheart."

Sara sighed, then bit her lip as she twisted her torso to talk to Kelly. At that moment, she seemed like her normal self. "Buckle up, Kelly. This is going to be a bumpy ride."

She didn't lie.

Kelly screamed as the Toyota's engine roared and the car buckled like a wild mare. The girl had lied about knowing how to drive stick. Sara drove to the marina like she was racing someone, dodging the abandoned cars in the middle of the road. The Toyota scratched the sides of other vehicles at least three times... She was cursing the psychotic teenager when they parked near the marina. Dozens of boats to choose from.

"Phew! What a thrill. Don't you agree, Fred? How was my driving? Four and a half stars? You surely know how to flatter a girl!" Sara laughed. "You were in the wrong profession, my friend. You should've been a stunt driver. Let's go ride our boat!"

Sara tilted the driver's seat forward and extended a hand to help Kelly get out. As she tried to stand up on uneasy legs, Sara placed her head next to Kelly's ear to whisper. "Please hold on a little while longer. I'll explain it all to you later."

Kelly nodded, "Okay. It better be a good explanation."

Sara frowned, then plastered a smile as she went around to open the passenger door. She held it for a few seconds, then closed it and turned the car alarm on. They walked to the pier.

"Do you have any preferences, Kelly?" Sara asked, waving her arm to show the many vessels anchored nearby.

"Do you even know how to pilot a boat?" Kelly asked.

"Fred does. He's going to teach me," Sara winked at her.

Again with this imaginary friend. A part of Kelly wanted to call Sara's bullshit but she decided to let the charade go just to see where it would end up. She stared at the lake. It was so big she couldn't see the other margin. Some said that if you went to the middle of the lake, you couldn't see land at all. The blasted thing was twelve miles across at its narrowest point. On maps, it was almost circular. A crater from a meteor crash a long time ago, geologists said.

Kelly flinched. Meteors made her remember the end of the world, right before she went unconscious.

Meanwhile, Sara and Fred had found their ride. "Right. That sounds cool. That one with chairs on the roof looks nice. What do you think, Fred?" Sara pretended to listen, then giggled and swatted at the air, "I bet you say that to every girl you take on a boat ride! Let's take that one then!"

Kelly almost cringed at how fake Sara's flirtatious acting was. They boarded the small yacht, and Sara pretended to be listening to Fred's instructions as she went through the steps to launch the vessel.

"I don't believe you! You never took a girl on a boat ride? You know all that about boats and never set foot on one? Yeah, okay. Sorry! I'm not making fun of you, Fred. We're gonna make this ride count for a whole life then. We're going to drive this baby until it runs out of gas. Diesel. Sorry."

She used her thieving tools on the ignition, and after a few tries with the wires, the boat's engine started rumbling. Sara tilted her head like she was paying attention to her new imaginary friend, then fiddled with the controls. The boat moved on reverse, then she steered it out of the marina and into the open lake.

A few derelict vessels floated and rocked back and forth, rocked by the wind. Jetskis, boats, yachts; a plethora of floating coffins without a lid. Their occupants, as dead as most of humanity.

"It's much like driving a car," Sara remarked. "I've never been on a boat either," She talked to Fred. "But I'm coming back here every opportunity I can. I might even turn one of these babies into my new home! A floating house! Yes, that's so true, Fred!"

The ruined city skyline blurred past as Sara tested the boat's maximum speed. She kept talking to Fred but she wasn't ignoring Kelly entirely. Sometimes she stole a worried glance her way. Kelly almost believed a third invisible person was there with them.

"I'm sorry, Fred. We need to stay close to shore. Don't want a sea, I mean, lake current taking us off-course, now do we?" She said out of the blue.

Kelly shook her head and climbed to the roof to claim a stretcher and enjoy the ride. Half an hour into their trip back and forth, something changed. Kelly could feel an eerie tension in the air. Sara was having an argument with her imaginary friend.

"Really, Fred? I don't know if she will do it. That's the last request I'll take from you," Sara negotiated seriously, "I'll ask her. if she says no, then that's it, okay?"

"What is it, Sara?" Kelly asked as she climbed back down, worried.

"Kelly, I'll owe you one," Sara begged. "Would you sing 'I'm on a Boat' with me?"

"I don't know the song," she admitted.

"Me neither. It's a rap from those Saturday Night Live guys."

"I didn't watch that show," Kelly deadpanned. She was getting tired of this charade.

But the boat ride was nice. If she wasn't so on an edge, she probably would enjoy it a lot.

Sara stopped, turned to the side, and pretended to listen to something.

"What is it, Fred? No tuxedo. Let me tell you a little trick. All you have to do is imagine you are wearing one. Yeah, you don't have to keep the clothes you died in. Great! You have great taste. Is that Italian? Obviously an Armani. I knew it at first glance! You'll teach me the lyrics? Okay, why don't we do it like this: You sing the song and the two of us dance like we're in a rap music video. Yes. No. We can try. Kelly, would you at least sing the chorus?"

"Sure," Kelly shrugged.

"Okay. You sing the rap, Fred, we sing the chorus when it comes up. The chorus goes like this, Kelly," Sara kept shifting between the two conversations. "I'm on a boat. I'm on a boat. Everybody look at me cuz I'm sailing on a boat!"

Kelly chuckled. "Oh, I know that song. I just remembered it now. A friend from high school used to play it in his car."

"You had FRIENDS in high school? How envious," Sara joked. "And even now in college, you have friends. You're so lucky. You don't even have to repay your student loan."

Kelly frowned, then forced a laugh out. "I guess even Armageddon has its silver lining."

"Right!" Sara shouted. "Let's start it! AWW SHIT! Get your Towels ready..."

Kelly remembered the lyrics so she sang and danced with Sara on the boat's deck. She loosened up and even enjoyed doing the little music act.

*

*

Lake Stonecrest, Panthersville, DeKalb County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 10:30.

Right after they stopped singing, Sara dropped down on the boat bench. She flipped the bird at thin air. The girl was back to her usual scowling and abrasive self.

"Phew, it's over! Fuck you, Fred you whiny man-child!" She shouted then yawned and stretched. After a moment of silence, she gave Kelly a wry smile. "Sorry for making you go along but we were almost losing Fred. Dump the points in Brawn, Abby. Gotta become superwoman. Okay, Kelly. It's over now, you can ask me anything."

At least the charade was over, Kelly thought. She looked away for a moment. The boat's engine was off, their ride floating on the calm lake. She had too many questions and no idea where to start.

"Take your time. I know I put you in a delicate spot. Thanks for going along with it."

"You can't drive stick. You ruined the car," Kelly accused. She tried to be playful but failed. She was too distressed.

"I can," Sara went on the defensive. "But have you ever tried to drive while fearing that the murderous specter on the driver's seat would change its mind and attack you? I bet I was driving like I was drunk because my attention was so divided. sorry for the bumpy ride."

"What about Fred?" Kelly asked, suspicious.

"Gone," Sara waved her hand as if she was throwing sand or ashes into the wind. "He moved on when we fulfilled his last wishes to the letter. At least I got a bonus."

Too cryptic or maybe Kelly's brain had fried a fuse, "Okay. Let me try it another way. Who was Fred?"

"Fred was an accountant before he died in the Apocalypse. His ghost remained at his apartment where we found him."

There was it again. The way Sara mentioned "Apocalypse" sent a shiver up Kelly's spine. It carried some hidden gravitas. The word that came out of the teenager's mouth was loaded with sorrow and meaning. It gave Kelly goosebumps.

"What you didn't see in the apartment, our car ride, and here on this boat was his ghost. Fred was almost turning into a wraith, an undead monstrosity. Thank you for helping me help him. Now, he's at peace. Elsewhere. Out of my back," She sighed with relief. "And I got another bonus point. Brawn again, Abby. Man, this place is teeming with Mana."

Kelly pinched the bridge of her nose. "Is this what you meant when you said you were doing God's work?"

"Damn right," Sara kicked her legs up as she leaned her back on the railing. "That's my job ever since the world ended, Kelly. I help the restless dead move on. I helped Mr. Brown when he died in the supermarket gunfight, then I helped little Catherine at the university. That dealership creep, too. Today was Fred, tomorrow it shall be Ted. Then Edd, Jeb, and maybe Caleb."

"You're a medium? Undertaker? Grim reaper?"

"Sort of a medium yes. No to the other two," Sara shrugged. "I'm not crazy, Kelly."

"I didn't say that," she tried to defend herself.

"I don't read minds but I didn't need to. I saw the faces you made," the girl was almost challenging her to say otherwise.

"I'm sorry."

She shrugged, then shifted her gaze to the city near the shore. "Don't be. It's too surreal. You have the right to be a skeptic. I didn't take offense."

Kelly felt bad. "Thank you for understanding."

"Comes with the territory. Fred was my... tenth ghost? Dunno. I didn't keep a tally."

"Do you want to talk about Fred? Who was he?" She offered.

"Sure. Fred the accountant got sucked into his work. He began working for the money but after a while, he started working for the sake of work. He wanted to enjoy life but he didn't have time. He went to the office at seven in the morning to only leave between nine and ten PM. Went home and slept until the next day. Maybe that's why he became a ghost. He couldn't accept that the things he was postponing for 'the next vacation' never happened. He lived a life without enjoying it, then got stuck."

"I see."

"Do you know who my first ghost was?"

"No."

"A pedophile and child porn trafficker. My next-door neighbor," Sara looked away, ashamed.

That surprised the musician. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. He died in the hallway, trying to reach his house. His last request was to destroy his hard drive and the evidence of his crimes."

"And did you do it?"

Sara nodded. "Do you think I did wrong?"

Kelly wanted to believe. She wanted to, but it was almost impossible. The pedophile neighbor felt made-up at first but she couldn't find a single sign Sara was lying.

"I don't know," Kelly answered. "He was dead, we don't prosecute dead criminals. Why did you help him instead of doing the thing you did at the dealership?"

"I didn't have that ability. I only learned how to attack the wraiths after the plane crash."

"So, the pedophile was dead. You said his corpse was in the hallway. You broke his computer. You destroyed the child pornography."

"Guilty on all counts."

"You did right, however weird this case was. The pedophile's ghost went to Hell, right?"

"There's no Hell anymore. Neither a Heaven."

Sara's voice was almost inaudible. But save for the rustling of the water and the wind, the world was dead silent.

She tried to find something to use as a litmus test, to try and get a contradiction out of Sara's stories. Kelly used one of the survivors' theories about the end of the world.

"The meteor shower," Kelly snapped her fingers. "It was too massive for NASA not to detect it. We had an early warning system in place. Satellites, the Hubble, the ISS. A lot of eyes looking at the sky. Peterson was majoring in astrophysics, he used to say that all the time. How did these meteors reach Earth without anyone noticing?"

Sara bit her lower lip. She seemed conflicted. "Kelly, do you want to know how the world ended? For real? I saw it all."

The girl's question carried an ominous depth that caused goosebumps on Kelly's arm. The sorrow in the young woman's voice chilled Kelly like an early winter blizzard. That same weight, the utter desolation her voice carried as she'd really seen the world ending.

"Please tell me," Kelly asked after a silent minute.

"NASA would never detect the meteors approaching because they didn't come from outer space. They weren't even meteors but falling debris from another dimension. Two, to be exact."

"What?" She interjected with utter disbelief.

"I know this will sound like utter madness. Even now I myself can't entirely grasp it. Heaven and Hell went to war. Total war, the final war to end all wars. Instead of a solitary hill in the Middle East, Armageddon happened in the skies above our dimension. Demon fought Celestial, and they slaughtered each other. The clash was so fierce it shattered these two dimensions.

"The debris fell on Earth along with the energies of these higher realms. Mana. Magic. Earth was a dry planet and became teeming with Mana. It seeped into our bodies and killed everyone at the same time, save for us survivors. Back to the meteor shower. The 'meteors' you saw were pieces of these places falling on Earth. Less than one in every thousand humans survived, Kelly. And many are dying for the most stupid reasons. Infighting. Trying to become king of their own necropolises. Like what happened at the supermarket. Like what's happening right now at the federal prison and in downtown Atlanta."

The girl was rambling and repeating herself. Yet Kelly couldn't help but feel her heart squeeze at the pain in her voice.

Sara sucked in a big breath. "Your parents are knocked out because their bodies are adapting to the infusion of Mana. Just as you did. The black stuff you vomited the other day, you cleansed your lung Mana channels or meridians. I bet you can sing better now and even hit notes that were impossible otherwise. Why don't you try singing the Phantom of the Opera solo again?"

How could she sing right now, when all her soul wished to do now was to weep and cry?

Kelly's legs wobbled. She took a seat across the boat and stared at Sara, waiting for her to say 'gotcha' and laugh. But the girl was dead serious. She could feel it in her soul.

"The world ended at rush hour," Sara continued, tears growing in her eyes.

"Because the stupid Celestials and Infernals couldn't put their grudge aside. God is gone. The Celestials and Demons are dead. All we have left is this," she spread her arms to the sides and pointed at the lake shore.

"And a sliver of hope. I'm trying, Kelly. The feather was given to me by a Seraph. He gave me the strength to survive and a mission. Give humanity the power to save themselves. Ourselves. I'm working on it. God's work," she let out a wry chuckle. "One person or ghost at a time, or all of them at once."

Sara sobbed and hiccuped. "It's too much sometimes."

The teenager wept for a dead world, and the sadness infected Kelly. The weight she felt pressed down on the older woman as it came from all directions at once. While her mind was skeptical, her heart knew better. She could sense the truth in Sara's words, though they sounded like the ramblings of an insane person. The inflection and intonation were the same as she replayed the words in her mind, but the weight felt real. Tangible.

Their vessel rocked idly on the waves while the two made peace with their feelings.

"I have the feather and some other things I can do to prove you it's real," Sara continued. "We can go and see if we can find another ghost. Maybe one who will accommodate a few requests. I'm thinking about asking for personal details, hidden items in the house I would have no way to know. Maybe even get the ghost to tell me their safe combination. It happened once. Or we can go back to the university. I have something I can show you there."

The teenager paused to let Kelly decide.

The musician closed her eyes. Zombies or ghouls, invisible wraiths slicing people in half. The wall of water. Magic wasn't a far-fetched idea after all. The white and gold feather didn't match any known bird in the world. She owed Sara a chance. "I want to believe you. Let's go see more ghosts then, I guess."

Sara hopped back on the pilot's seat. "Fuck Fred and his stock options on dead companies. At least I learned how to pilot boats."

"This is a nice boat," Kelly said.

"Now that it is no longer haunted, I am inclined to agree," Sara snickered. "I Christen thee the Queen Kelly," She mocked breaking a bottle on the fuselage.

She started the engine and set course for the shore. The girl stared back at the center of the lake. Kelly saw longing and pain but didn't understand why.

"Gonna fly this boat to the moon somehow," Sara mumbled.