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“What did you think death was going to be like?” The ghost asked the skull, as it hovered next to it.
“I dunno.” The skull replied, hesitating for a moment. “Not this, that’s for sure.”
The ghost floated around the sealed room silently, trying to think of what conversation to make. The other ghosts were still sleeping in the corner, snoring like whistles. “I always thought that it’d just be nothing, you know? Like… sleeping, only you don’t have any dreams. Forever.”
The skull remained silent, pensive. “Honestly, that sounds kinda lame. I much prefer this."
“...really? This?”
“Yeah! It’s neat!”
The ghost was incredulous. “You think your being doomed to haunt an evil facility for eternity, brought back after every defeat, commanded by a cult of wizards, routinely blown up for scrap, is neat? Really?”
The skull’s eye sockets stared blankly at the ghost. “I mean… I got cool skull powers! I can shoot from my mouth!” It opened its mouth and out came a bright projectile, until it hit the wall and fizzled unceremoniously. “And I can float. Sure beats the boredom of the nothingness of death.”
The ghost seemed utterly unmoved by the argument. “Doing the same things over and over again sounds like the worst fate for me.”
“Eh, it’s not worse than when I was alive. The ruined wasteland wasn’t a great place, anyway. You gotta admit, this facility in the middle of it is way more exciting than anything out there.” The ghost resorted to hovering by the wall and facing away, clearly not very interested in the conversation anymore.
Since the two of them were stuck in this room, the skull figured it might as well try to get along better. “Look, I get that this deal isn’t what everyone wanted. And I hear others got much better forms, like giant ghosts, or little hermit-looking dudes. But this is our life now, right? Uh, I mean… un-life? Afterlife! So… best we can do is enjoy it. Enjoying your cool ghost powers!”
“I didn’t get any powers. I just float and try to touch whoever invades this place, because we’re commanded to.”
“...right…” The skull didn’t want to admit its embarrassment. Truth be told, it did seem underwhelming. The sympathetic pause gave way to an awkward silence, only the gentle whistling of sleeping ghosts and the gentle hum of the facility to fill the air.
The skull piped up. “Is this what they meant when they say that the universe is absurd?”
The ghost couldn’t help but face the skull, and if it had eyebrows, it would’ve raised one. “What? What do you mean?”
“Right, ummm… I don’t remember this very well, but I remember reading somewhere that life- or was it the universe? One of those, it’s absurd. How we want to find answers to difficult questions, but… life won’t give us any. We’re gonna keep looking, even if we know we won’t find it.”
The ghost had no idea how to respond. The conversation had become too deep all of a sudden, a complete curveball.
“I’m not sure I really understand what that means, though.” The skull continued. “Personally, I always thought it meant that the universe had a sense of humor, and that we were
the punchline.” It added as the rocket embedded where its neck used to be propelled it closer to the ghost.
“Well… this afterline certainly feels like a bad joke.” Some part of the ghost’s soul remembered what it felt like to sigh in resignation. “Or like some necromage is laughing at us every time we die and come back.”
“Could be. In that case, best we can do is try and laugh, too. If we’re stuck in a shitty place, we can at least make the most of it.”
“It’s not a bad perspective. It’s just hard to think like that every time I get pulverised.”
“I think you just gotta get used to it.” The skull absently-minded started humming with its little rocket exhaust for a moment. “Hey, what do ya think about them?”
“Them who?”
“The ones who keep coming in and shooting us. Why are they doing that?”
“That’s a good question, but I have no idea. Same reason I don’t know why we’re ordered to destroy them. If I had to guess, we’re just… unwilling soldiers in a conflict that we don’t understand.”
The skull remained quiet for a moment. “You know, you’re right, this afterlife is sounding very similar to life after all.”
“And the universe is still laughing at us for it.”
“Ain’t it the truth.” The skull was staring at one of the four doors again, long ago abandoned any concerns about trying to open it from inside. “Betcha they’re nice people, too. Maybe they’re also doing this against their will. On some mission to fight the cult. Or rescue something that got lost here.”
“Does it matter? We can’t talk to them.”
“Just because we can’t talk to them doesn’t mean they can’t be nice people.”
“It makes no difference to us…”
“Were you always this much of a party-pooper in life?”
The ghost was caught off-guard, and no words came out as the skull turned to look at it. Even with no eyes or muscles, the ghost could tell exactly what expression the skull had in mind. The thought of it, and the sudden shift in mood, and it couldn’t stop themselves from chuckling a little bit. “You know, you’re better than I gave you credit for. You’re alright, you big dumb skull.”
“You too, you moody little ghost. You just like, gotta remember. If the universe’s laughing at us with all the crap it’s throwing our way, learn to laugh with it. It doesn’t make things make more sense, but you sure take it a lot better.”
The ghost nodded with its ghostly form. “Laugh at the absurdity of the world. I can do that.” And it gave a tiny smile to the skull.
“Hell yeah!”
It was right then that the door next to them opened, and a wild spray of fireballs rushed in and promptly incinerated them both, their ashes falling to the floor. The ship flew past them, burnt the other ghosts who’d just woken up, and continued onto the next room without pause or acknowledgement.
“Talk to you again soon, little ghostie.”