Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It wasn't really a good idea to start the day this way.

Which wasn't the most accurate way of describing the scenario that Pete found himself in right now, but certainly was quite a succinct way to summarise the way the morning had gone so far.

Trying to control his breathing, Pete dared to take a peak around the corner. He immediately withdrew as quickly as he could at the sight of a man holding a knife slowly making his way around the house. The alarm clock winks cheekily at him from across the room, reminding him that most teenagers would be in their beds catching precious hours of sleep at this time.

4:35am.

A wonderful time to be awake and pondering the circumstances of your soon-to-be death.

The floorboards creak in the other room. Pete's heartrate quickens.

"What are you waiting for?"

Pete nearly jumps out of his skin as the figure appears in front of him. Ah, yes, the very person that brought him here.

See, while most teenagers would be asleep at this time, Pete, at the risk of sounding awfully cliche, wasn't like most teenagers. So getting woken up at 4:00am by a desperate ghost determined to see their murderer imprisoned or meeting the same fate they'd been subjected to wasn't exactly uncommon.

And now here he is, about to be stabbed by the very same murderer. By the smell of it, with the original body in the next room over no less. At least he'd be found, that was some consolation. Pete had booked it over to the house and, after breaking in, had called the police on the home phone. That much had been simple, trying to access a mobile was far most risky but had become pretty common these days. At the point that it was time to escape, however, the vindicative ghost had decided now was the perfect time to use their intermittent powers of haunting to smash this guy's television.

So there went the perfect execution of the usual plan.

Despite this 'miraculous' gift, Pete was otherwise very much a regular human. Which he tried to make clear with the wildest gestures that he could at the ghost who had very much fucked him over.

Police sirens could be heard in the distance, which was some consolation. But if he could avoid it, Pete would prefer to not stick around and be questioned as to why he was in the house in the first place.

Seeming to understand the message, the ghost rolled their eyes and phased through the wall towards their murderer.

Ungrateful. Pete seethed in his hiding spot.

The footsteps were getting closer.

He wishes Ray were here, she's a much better ghost to be around.

In the dim grey light of the rising sun, a shadow approached the corner.

Pete braced himself, thinking that this time would be the one where he joins all the other ghosts, that hey, at least his body will be found so he can move on.

Something crashes on the other side of the house and the figure runs towards the sound. Pete takes the chance and sprints to the next room over where there's a window he'd been eying. The smell gets so much worse.

He ducks around some furniture and, oh yep, there's the body. Careful not to disturb it, he pushes the window open as propels himself out as quietly as he can. Pete closes the window behind him and darts into the edge of the Witchwoods to make the trek home.

The sirens become louder and flashing lights dance behind him.

Pete doesn't stick around.

He'll know that it's dealt with if the ghost shows up again or not.

He reaches the apartment he calls home at 5:00am. In the increasing light of day, Pete can see the mess that his brother left for them the night before. By the look of it, and also the bra that was left on the couch, Ted has company over and they won't be awake for another few hours.

Pete ignores all of the mess, resigning himself to cleaning in the afternoon as long as no other ghosts interrupt his day. He steps into the shower.

So what if he uses up all the hot water, Ted and whatever person is over tonight can deal with it. They didn't get woken up before dawn to track down a murderer.

He's just stepped out of the shower and wrapping a towel around himself when someone appears in front of him.

"Hey,"

It's a wonder Pete doesn't slip and crack his head open.

"Jesus Ray! Give me some warning next time!" The ghost, Raven, dressed in her usual ripped jeans, band tee, and flannel, only laughs. Pete continues, "And I'm not even dressed! Where's your sense of propriety?" He jokes.

"Propriety? Really? You're such a nerd, Pete," She hops up onto the bathroom sink, kicking her legs and not caring that they phase through the cabinet beneath her. "So, why are you awake so early?"

Pete groans. "Some newbie with perfect recollection wanted their murder to be solved within five hours of their death," He gestures at the cabinet he needs to get into, but only receives a wink and head tilt in return. Shouldering his reservations, Pete reaches through her still swinging legs to grab a hair brush. Raven continues like she doesn't notice. "Almost got me killed too,"

A flash of alarm crosses Ray's face and she scans him with renewed concern. Finding nothing, she relaxes. "These new ghosts, no sense of patience,"

Pete grins at the joke and puts the hairbrush away moving towards his room to change. Though she's probably seen it all before, Raven gives him time to get changed and he finds her again when he's in the kitchen. Pete prepares himself a bowl of cereal, and, as is customary, offers one to Raven.

She always refuses as though she's a guest and he always puts out an empty bowl and spoon in her place anyway.

Six o'clock rolls around and they make idle chatter about the day. Raven starts picking up the spoon and spinning it around as though it's something she can practise, and not entirely dependent on factors outside their control. This morning seems to be good, because she's able to have the spoon completely up in the air and spinning it around her fingers when Ted's accompaniment for the previous evening walks into the room mostly dressed.

For a second, all three of them freeze.

The spoon comes clattering down onto the table, breaking the moment.

Raven starts laughing uncontrollably and Pete can only glare at her in horror.

The lady rushes to pick up the bra from the couch and runs out the door with her shoes in hand.

Only when she leaves does Pete allow himself to let out a small laugh. It's not as though many of Ted's one-night-stands actually ever come back for more. The few that do are normally ones Ted meets in their own home to avoid encounters such as these. It's halfway through her laughter that Raven disappears from the room.

Silence fills the air where she once was, and Pete goes about the rest of his morning quietly.

He's quick enough to the bus that it doesn't leave him behind, and heads to the library for the few minutes before class starts.

Pete is immediately bombarded by a short hurricane that shoves a phone into his face. "WAS THIS YOU?" He tries to adjust his eyes but the screen is pressed up to his face and Pete can't make out anything more than blurry black words on a white background. "DON'T LIE TO ME PETER WAS THIS YOU?"

The loud words get immediately shushed by the glaring librarian and Pete takes the opportunity to push the phone away from his face. "Ruth, shut up, we're in the library," he adjusts his glasses, "And I can't see anything with your phone that close to my face!"

It's Richie that grabs his sleeve and pulls the lot of them over to their usual corner of the library. Only then does Ruth lay the phone down for Pete to read properly.

On the screen is the news of the morning, describing the anonymous phone call prior to the arrest of the man from this morning who had murdered their spouse. No one knew who made the call and no words were spoken in it, leading to the police asking for this person to come forward.

Pete sat back in the chair and pushed the phone away. "Yeah, and so?"

Ruth looked like she was on the verge of exploding but chose not to say anything for fear of getting kicked out of the library. Richie, in a much more controlled tone, spoke up. "You could have been killed!"

"What was I supposed to do?" Pete whisper-yelled. It's not like this was his first time doing this, what was the big deal?

Ruth emitted a sound that only dogs could truly understand, and it was seemingly high enough that the librarian didn't notice it at all. Having gotten that out of her system, she joined the whisper-yelling. "You're supposed to ask for help, Peter!"

"Yeah, Peter,"

Raven's reappearance was far less frightening and precarious than the one earlier.

Pete groaned, looking in her direction. "Not you too,"

Instantly, the other two perked up. "Raven's here?" Richie asked, all previous annoyances forgotten for now.

She sits down in the middle of the table, amongst their books for the day. "Hi Richie, hi Ruth," she smiles at them. Pete stays silent.

Ruth is instantly in his face, holding onto his collar with surprising strength. "Pete you have to tell us what she says, you hear me? Or else I'll haunt you as a ghost forever,"

Raven leans into the small amount of peripheral vision that he has left, "Then there'll be two of us,"

Sighing, Pete relents. "Raven says 'hi',"

Like a switch flips, Ruth is back in her seat and ecstatically waving at the air.

"Hi Raven!"

Ruth begins to ramble about something that had happened to her the previous night and Richie takes the opportunity to talk to Pete.

"You're okay, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"After this morning?"

Pete tries for a reassuring smile, "I'm fine, Richie,"

He doesn't look convinced. "Just, let us know if you need any help, okay? It's a lot for everyone's deaths to be just on you. Even the best anime protagonists can’t do it on their own.”

Pete nods in reply, but doesn't say anything else on the topic. The boys tune back into the other conversation and Pete fills in for Raven's commentary. He pushes down the memory of the body this morning and files it beside every other body and unhelped ghost in his mind.

School passes as usual, which is to say, slowly.

At one point, there's a pop quiz in Ms Mulberry's class. The seat next to him is empty this year, and Raven has taken the opportunity to sit in that position every class she's around for.

It's hard to hide laughing at Ray's comments about how his classmates are faring at the relatively easy test. It's also hard to not react to the blatant wrong answers Ray poses to him at some of the questions.

"You'd swap tests with me if I was in your class, right?" Ray stretches out with her feet on top of the corner of his desk. "'Cause I'd fail this class for sure,"

Pete gives her a look but otherwise doesn't reply, trying to edit his work and ensure there's no chance he'll fail. She takes this as incentive to push harder for his answer.

"It's like your school thing isn't it? Nighthawks"- She imitates the cheerleading dance two of the girls were doing in the hallway earlier, almost falling off her chair in the process - "No one gets left behind."

Still receiving no response, Ray leans in. "You'd be leaving me behind, Pete~"

Pete rolls his eyes fondly and finally gives in. "Fine, yes,"

Grace Chasity sits diagonally behind them, and decides that his minute movements and whispered replies mean that he's cheating.

"Cheater!"

The teacher obviously can't find anything wrong with his work and only tells him to keep his noise to a minimum.

Ray yells "Butt out Chastity!" at the top of her lungs just for the fun of it, and it's all Pete can do to not burst into laughter for the rest of the class.

Lost in listening to Ray's animated explanation of why snitches get stiches and how people like Grace Chasity need to get a life, Pete doesn't see Max Jägerman until he literally runs into him in the hallway. Last year, this would have been a death sentence, but as of lately, Max has been different. Mildly shocked at the lack of verbal or physical abuse, Pete goes to push himself up from the ground when a hand is offered to him. Surprised, Pete hesitantly takes it.

Max says nothing, and moves to his next class.

Pete stares after him. When he looks back, Raven is gone again.

Midway through his final class, Pete gets a message. Well, a text message outside of the bored ramblings of his group chat with Richie and Ruth testing the limits of what they can get away with in class.

Miss H- Got a job for you, meet at the diner?

Peter S.- Sure thing.

Well, there goes the afternoon plans of cleaning.

Who's he kidding, he's going to have to do it regardless, there's no way Ted's getting it done.

Miss Retro's is one of the few places where Pete feels truly relaxed in Hatchetfield. The bullies from school have never frequented the place due to Miss Holloway's distinct lack of tolerance of their behaviours. It's also home to all the weirdos like him.

Pete's under no illusion that he's the only one with peculiarities in Hatchetfield, given Miss Holloway herself will identify as a witch for those in the know, but he hasn't heard of anyone else who can see ghosts the same way that he can.

Speaking of, Miss Holloway is behind the counter when he walks in, accompanied by the ever present ghosts of three girls around her. Pete asked about it once, but when he was told, he forgot. With the ghosts not willing to talk, there's not much he can do to help them.

"Hiya, Pete!" Her cheery demeanour greets him as he enters the room, "If you want to head into the office I'll be with you in a mo!"

Pete nods and pushes past the Staff Only sign to head into the back.

Like the diner, the office doesn't look like much. Old wooden furnishings and a distinct lack of locks on the cupboards. Miss Holloway had tried to teach him magic once, to no avail. The wards on the doors would be forever unopenable to him. Pete's only speciality was his constant commune with the dead, something that Miss Holloway could only do for short periods of time and requiring a significant contribution of power.

As he had done every other time Pete was left alone in the office, he attempted to recall the lesson on magic. Pushing his reserve to his eyes so he could see the puzzle on the drawers.

Nothing. Wood remained its usual grain.

Pete sighed. Frustrating, but expected.

The door swung open. Expecting only Miss Holloway, Pete did not turn around.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

Okay, that's not Miss Holloway. Spinning to face the door Pete turns to see Max Jägerman and Grace Chasity standing in the office. Suddenly, all words are lost from his mouth. What is he supposed to say? "I, uh," Pete is saved by Miss Holloway entering behind the two teenagers.

"Good, you're all here, let's begin,"

Grace spun on her and repeated Max's question. "What is he doing here?"

Miss Holloway only looks mildly amused at the question, moving to take a seat behind the desk. She opens a drawer with ease as though a handle existed all along to pull out a note pad and pen. "Pete's working on your case with me,"

"What?"

The question echoes around the room as all three teenagers say the word at the same time. Unperturbed, Miss Holloway explains, "He's good at what he does and I have no doubt that Pete will be invaluable to your situation. Shall we get started?"

Hesitantly, Max and Grace move to the chairs positioned at the front of the desk, while Pete makes himself comfortable leaning on a cupboard behind Miss Holloway.

With a final glance at Pete, Max pulls a stack of papers from his school bag to place them on the table. "Around a year ago, my cousin went missing, and I want her to be found. There was no major investigation or anything, which was weird,"

Max takes a deep breath.

"I need your help finding Stephanie Lauter."

It's cold, and dark, and a strange hour of the night for anyone to be awake, especially for a young child. Pete blinks sleep from his eyes as he's tugged forward by a larger hand clasping his. 

The hand is the only sense of warmth he had as they walk down a seldom trodden path. Sticks and shrubs bite at his ankles, and the further they walk the more Pete becomes aware of the sounds of many other people walking with them. 

He trips over a stray branch and the hand leaves his own. At the age of four, Pete is more than prepared to start wailing at this: cold and upset and now with sharp sticks and rocks pressing into his hands. 

"Stop whining," The previous warmth of the hand is greatly juxtaposed by the cold tone. Pete sniffs, but tries to stop the tears from welling in his eyes. Strong hands, warmer than those before, lift Pete up.

"Leave him alone, we'll catch up," Ted holds his younger brother close and continues the trek through the Witchwoods, only the stars illuminating their path. 

More people filter through the trees and they reach a small clearing. There are patterns in the dirt, Pete notices, like when he draws on the ground with sticks. Maybe that's what they're here for, to do some drawing together. 

There are other children, looking as lost as he. And the parents range from mad to resigned to ominously grinning. The mayor is also there, watching the families proceed into the clearing. There's a girl around Pete's age standing just behind him, holding onto a woman's hand. Pete would guess that's her mother. 

Eventually, the procession finished, leaving five families at the edge of the runes and the rest gathered behind. Ted places Pete on the ground.

The mayor scans over the five children at the front, a sinister smile growing on his face.

"Good, let's begin."

Chapter Text

Pete got home to the apartment being the exact same as how he left it. As he expected. Well, except for the yelling.

Sighing, Pete moved towards the sound of the voice. He dumped his bag in the hallway before entering Ted's home office where he was greeted by the sight of -

"Pete tell Raven to stop bothering me and let me work!"

- Ted engaged in a pillow fight with an incorporeal being. Surprisingly not the most shocking event he'd had to deal with today. The ghost, who'd paused in their relentless assault of his brother since Pete had entered the room, was not Raven. Pete told Ted as much, "That's not Ray, Ted,"

Focussing on the ghost, he gestured back to the hallway. "Come with me, I can help you,"

The ghost's eyes widened. "You can see me?"

Pete nodded. The ghost dropped the pillow and walked over to him, their hand passing through his shoulder. A cold feeling washed through him as the hand passed through his chest and reappeared on the other side of his body. The ghost looked dejected at the lack of physical contact.

"What's going on?"

Pete tried to smile gently and started walking towards the lounge. "I'll explain as much as a can if you'd come with me," The ghost moved with him slowly, Ted calling "good riddance!" as they left him.

Once seated, Pete started off, "My name's Pete, what's yours?"

The ghost paused, their eyes furrowed as they thought. Then, slowly, they nodded as they remembered. "Hailey," she sounds out, "Hailey Dilmore,"

Pete grins. This will make his job so much easier. "Nice to meet you Hailey, I don't want you to push yourself, but how much can you remember about your life?"

Hailey opens her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out for a second. Then, she closes her eyes and thinks for a second.

"Don't rush it Hailey, whatever you can tell me is good,"

She nods and looks back at him. "I wanted to be an actress, I think. But I don't think I ever got there,"

Well, that was less information than he usually would like to work with. Time for the most trustworthy of all tactics. "Did you ever live in Clivesdale?"

The reaction is immediate. A disgusted face followed by "No way in hell! Fuck that! Fuck them!"

"Fuck 'em straight to hell" Pete agreed. "So you've lived here your whole life?"

Hailey considered this for a couple of seconds before slowly nodding.

"Okay good, that should be enough for me to work with," Pete checked discord and yep, Ruth was online. Perfect.

Only a few rings passed before Ruth picks up. As always, the background is filled with noise. "Pete!" Ruth just about yells into the mic, "Shut up mom! I'm talking to Peter!"

A few scuffles are heard and Pete smiles apologetically to the waiting ghost in his lounge.

"Why can't Kayla do it? She's not doing anything important," More shouting emanated from the other end of the call. "I'll do it later then! Leave me alone now, I'm busy!" A pause, a door slam, and then, "Pete! How's Ray? She hasn't visited me yet this evening,"

"Oh, uh, Ray's not here yet," An intake of breath could be heard on the other end of the line as though Ruth was about to start on a spiel, Pete cut her off before she could, "But listen, I need you to run a name check on someone for me,"

"Mmmmmm, well I could do that, buttttttttt," Ruth drawled out "Why should I?"

Pete sighed, why could nothing in his life ever just be simple? "What do you want Ruth?"

"Now we're talking," A small creak could be heard on the other end of the line, and Pete knew that Ruth was spinning around in her desk chair like the evil maniac she was. "I want something only you can give me, something you hold very close, very precious…"

"Ruth!" Pete exclaimed, then, glancing at the ghost waiting in his room turned away to give the call some privacy, whispered in reply. "Jesus, Ruth, I'm not giving you my virginity!"

"I knew you still had it!" Ruth yelled, "But ew no, that's not my true desire,"

"Then what?"

"I want more Raven time! You can't horde her all to yourself Pete!"

"You can't even see her or hear her! And I don't horde her!"

"That doesn't matter! Me and Raven, our connection goes beyond the physical, I need more Raven time!"

In the room, Hailey had clearly gotten fed up with the ongoing argument and interrupted Pete's response. "I'm still dead here, you know? I'd love to move on sometime this year,"

Pete sighed, weighing up whether he could stand to have an impatient ghost who wasn't above pillow fights haunting him until he could wear down Ruth to a better compromise. Maybe his virginity was still on the table?

He relented.

"Fine Ruth, I'll tell her you asked for her when she gets here, okay?"

"Hm," Another chair creak, "That's acceptable for now. Okay, gimme the name! What are you waiting for?"

"Her name is Hailey Dilmore, lived here all her life,"

The typing that had started paused. "That's it?" Ruth sounded incredulous, "I'm supposed to help you figure out this lady's murderer or purpose in the afterlife with only her name and the fact she lives here? Do you think I'm some sort of miracle worker?"

Pete opened his mouth to apologise or explain but got cutoff immediately.

"Okay! Hailey Dilmore, 23, born and raised in Hatchetfield, works IT in a company downtown, aspiring actor, lives in a share house with… not important, not important, and Zoey Chambers. I'd look into the theatre and Zoey, the job seems fine."

"I-"

"Mom! I said I'd do it later! Okay Pete tell Ray to come to me as soon as you can seeyoutomorrowbye!"

"Okay-" The line disconnected "Bye, I guess,"

"Okay," Pete repeated, turning to Hailey, "We know where you lived, worked, and a hobby, so that's enough to go off of. Let me get my stuff and we can-"

"Where are you going?" For the umpteenth time that evening, Pete was interrupted. This time by Raven reappearing suddenly in the room with them. The part of his heart that had been scared that this it, that this was the time that Raven had moved on and he would never see her again, was soothed. A small smile graced his face as he replied.

"We're just going to find out more about Hailey," Ray glanced over, seemingly noticing the other ghost in the room for the first time. "She's new," Pete tried to add helpfully. He started to move to his bedroom to grab the stuff he needed for his investigation.

"No way, you were up at four am this morning and you haven't done today's homework and-"

"You were awake at four am?" Hailey interjected. Great, just what he needed, more ghosts nagging him about his sleep schedule. It's not his fault that ghosts don't need to sleep and that he's the only person who can help them move on.

Ravin ignored the interruption and continued speaking. "I don't care who she is or how long she's been dead, you can't help anyone if you're not rested. Pete come on-"

"I was awake at four am because I had to be!" Pete glared at Ray and tried to continue. His clean notebooks for new cases were somewhere around here. "And I'm fine! I'm ahead in all my classes and-"

"You were awake at four am?" This time it was Ted's voice causing the interruption. Pete sighed. He wasn't getting out of this one.

He glared at Ray half-heartedly, "Snitch," She looked all too pleased with herself at the turn of events.

"Yeah, no way you're going out," Ted grabbed the backpack out of Pete's hands and set it by his home office set up. "Do your nerd stuff and get some sleep,"

Pete looked helplessly at Hailey, "But I need to help her,"

"Not tonight you don't," Hailey backing their intervention was the final nail in the coffin, "I'll check out the theatres tonight and try to find out more about myself. You get some sleep and I'll meet up with you tomorrow,"

Without waiting for agreement, Hailey left. Ghosts were surprisingly impatient for beings with all eternity to look forward to.

"Pete, get some sleep," Ted asked. The pitying look in his eyes was not what he needed right now, and anger surged up in Pete.

"Like you care," Pete scoffed, starting to walk away but turning to call back, "Oh, Ruth wanted to see you, Ray. You should go,"

He had reached his room and was staring at the blank notebook he had collected minutes ago when Ted opened his door and moved to sit beside him. "I do care, Pete,"

"If you cared, you would have noticed me leaving this morning instead of being wrapped up in your guest for the night. And you wouldn't have had to be told about it by Raven."

"Give him a break, Pete," Ray leant against the doorway behind his brother, "You're both dealing with things in different ways,"

Ted, used to the signs of a secondary conversation by now, stayed silent as Pete glowered. "I thought you were going to Ruth's," The pity in Raven's gaze was irksome, "I'm not going to leave you, Pete, you don't have to worry,"

The double meaning wasn't lost on him

“You don’t know that, Ray. You really don’t know that,” Ghosts weren’t an exact science, and even those who were determined to hold onto some semblance of life on the physical plane could disappear at some point, having found some sort of peace within themselves. Pete had seen it plenty of times: cold cases where there was nothing he could do but try to reason with them to let go.

It was hard, he didn’t know what was After, so trying to convince people to abandon everything they know to go into the unknown was never an easy challenge.

Raven stayed steady as she watched him, never looking away. “Maybe not for certain, but I have a pretty good incentive to not move on anytime soon,”

Pete’s chest swelled at that, and he forced himself to break eye contact. Turning to his brother instead, Pete ushered him out the room.

“Fine, you guys win, you can go now,”

Ted ruffled his hair before returning to his office and Pete turned back to his desk, pulling out two other notebooks.

“That doesn’t look like homework,”

Pete tensed. “I thought you went to Ruth’s already,”

“Pete,” Raven didn’t rise to the bait.

“I just…” He stared down at the two notebooks, clearly displaying the names of the two people in the room, “Maybe I missed something, maybe I’ll find something that can help both of us,”

He finally made eye contact with Raven once more, “You’re my best friend and I can’t imagine you not being here, you know that. But I also wish that I was normal,” There was nothing that could be said to that, so Raven just pushed herself against him in the best imitation of a hug that she could.

Pete groaned as he sat down on the sidewalk, halfway to his house, halfway away from the hellhole called school. There were cracks in his glasses, making the whole world fractured, and the pounding in his head was in sync with the aching of his ribs. 

God forbid he have a good junior year. 

The bullying he’d faced throughout the entirety of his schooling had somehow heightened this week specifically. For whatever reason, although it was probably some issues at home, Max had decided that everyone needed to be his personal punching bag to work through whatever it was instead of just talking it out. Pete would know, he’d been without parents for 13 years, and talking it out was a good way to get rid of the poisonous thoughts that threatened to take over on the bad nights. 

“You look rough,” A voice startled him out of the attempt at controlled breathing Pete had started. In front of him, clear as day (or, well, somewhat translucent, in actuality) was a ghost. Most of the times ghosts looked a little worse for wear, especially if they could remember how they died. This ghost looked like they were just out for the day, maybe going to school. Pete’s heart twisted slightly, probably at the thought of someone his age dying so young (definitely not at the thought that this ghost was pretty, no, no). 

Still, Pete quipped back. “Well, have you seen yourself,”

The ghost glanced down at their hands, looking through them. “Yeah, I’m not sure transparent is the hit look of the year, but it’ll do,” They hesitated for a second. “Do you know why I’m like this? No one else has talked to me today,”

Oh fuck, she didn’t know. Pete paused, wanting to be gentle warring with the blunt tiredness that had caused him to sit in the first place. 

“You’re dead,” He finally spoke.

The ghost reared back, the easy smile dropping from their face. “What? No way, you’re punking me, right?”

Pete shook his head, wincing as the throbbing started up again. “You’re a ghost,”

“Yeah right,” They snorted, “And you can see ghosts,” They mocked. 

“Actually, yeah,” Seeing the disbelief, Pete tried to keep going, “My name’s Pete, do you remember your name?”

The ghost laughed, “Of course I do, it’s…”

They trailed off, looking confused. 

“My name, it’s…”

Pete waited, watching as they struggled to recall anything. Normally ghosts could take a few minutes to remember important information, but occasionally it could take longer. This seemed to be the latter. 

Finally, they stopped, looking stricken. “Why can’t I remember?”

For the second time, Pete held their gaze, softer this time. “You’re a ghost,”

They disappeared. Pete sighed and started to make the rest of the trek home. 

The ghost found him at home, as they did most of the time. Pete waited for them to talk. 

“I’m a ghost,” He nodded.

“And you can see ghosts?” Pete nodded again.

They pursed their lips, “So you’ll help me?”

“Yeah, of course,” Pete grabbed a blank notebook down from his collection, prepared to write any details. 

The ghost snorted, “You have those ready to go? What a nerd,”

“Hey! Be nice to the guy helping you move on to the afterlife,” Pete shot back, causing the ghost to laugh. “Okay, so, do you remember your name now?”

They scrunched up their nose, looking slightly pained. At that, Pete interjected, “Don’t push too hard, what about, uh, do you remember where you died?”

At the shake of her head, Pete continued asking, going through his usual checklist a receiving a negative response on every one. Finally, he just asked “Do you remember anything?”

The ghost paused at that one, thinking for a second before nodding. Pete perked up, poised to write once more. 

“I remember hearing birds,”

What? That was nothing! Pete felt dejected once more. Probably carrions, he thought, writing it down just in case. The ghost watched him. 

“I guess you can’t really help me then,”

Pete looked down at the notebook, devastatingly bare. He closed it to avoid looking at the blank pages.

“Well, if you’re sticking around, you’ve gotta have a name!” The enthusiasm felt forced, but did make the ghost smile. “Okay, I’m thinking, if you remember birds, your name could be something to do with crows?”

Their nose wrinkled at the thought, “Ew, no way, that sucks man,”

“O-kay, uh,” Pete thought through the other, nicer-sounding, birds he knew, and that would maybe help spark a memory, “How about Raven?”

“Raven,” The ghost mused.

Raven grinned at him, “I like it,”