Chapter 3

Lisa took a shower as Phillip pilfered the cupboard for first aid supplies. It was barely 5:30 am. Only an hour had passed but she was now in the presence of a dead person. There was a dead person walking around in her house and her parents and her little brother were still asleep in their beds.

She dried herself, putting on a pair of shorts and an overly large shirt.

Phillip came in with bandages and some antiseptic cream. He knelt in front of her and gently took her ankle in his hands. His touch was freezing.

"Do you mind?" He asked. Lisa shook her head mutely. A few days ago, she was hating her boring life. Now, life couldn't get any weirder.

Phillip lowered his head and pressed his lips against the wound. Lisa retracted the thought immediately. Life could get weirder.

"The hell?! You're a ghost! Not a vampire!" She shouted in alarm, trying to jerk her foot away. Phillip laughed against her skin as he held on. His touch only became colder the longer he maintained contact.

"Either way, I'm dead." He pointed out when he finally raised his head. "I survive on life energy. Flowing blood is full of it." He added. Lisa wanted to kill him but that wasn't going to work. She settled for scowling at him. The area that he had kissed had turned purple.

"Let me guess. You leave hickeys whenever you feed." She asked. Phillip nodded apologetically.

"I'm literally taking the life from your blood. Your blood cells die." He supplied helpfully as he wiped the wound with cream and bandaged it.

"It's not deep." He said as he wrapped it. "You'll be fine."

"I saw a man die in my arms two days ago." Lisa said drily. "Now I'm seeing his dead ghost and other dead or random things in the night. That is not the definition of fine." Lisa said.

She flopped backwards onto her bed and kicked out half heartedly. Phillip made a concerned sound.

"I'm not a SIN, am I?" Lisa asked at last. Phillip snorted.

"Nah, you have to be born one of those." He said.

"Then tell me I'm not crazy." Lisa said. She covered her eyes with her forearm. There was a brief silence before she heard Phillip shuffle over to sit on the edge of her bed.

"You know about paradigm shifts?" He asked. Lisa made a noise of affirmation.

"It's one object, but it can be seen in different ways. Some people see it naturally. Others need to be taught. The world is like that. You can see the normal world, or you can see the dead world. People see the normal world naturally. We've to be taught to see the supernatural things." Phillip's voice was halting, as if he didn't really want to tell her.

"Seriously?" Lisa uncovered her eyes. "These thing have been there all along and we never noticed?" She asked incredulously. Phillip shrugged.

"Then what are you? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be some vengeful spirit or something?" Lisa demanded, sitting up.

"Is this what happens to everyone who dies?" She asked aggressively. Phillip held up two bloody hands in a placating gesture. He shrugged nonchalantly.

"The paradigm shift is one part of the story." He admitted, looking away.

"There's a story about people who can see the supernatural but it's become so distorted I don't know if it's really true." He hesitated and folded his hands in his lap.

"People have forgotten about the supernatural because of the SINs. Everyone is too busy looking at them to remember limbo." Philip chewed on his bloody lip for a moment before continuing his story.

"The legend says that in the very beginning, there was a fine line between this world and the next. Things could only pass through if they went through a gate. The devil wanted to come into this world from the next but the gate was guarded by an angel. So he tricked the angel and devoured the gate, thus becoming the entryway for all things evil and supernatural."

Phillip hesitated again, screwing up his face as he tried to remember.

"Apparently for a thousands of years, humans suffered at the hands of supernatural beings. That's where all the folklore started existing. Finally, a human gathered legions and masses of men and women who then overpowered the demon when he was sleeping. They intended to destroy the gate but it couldn't be destroyed. It was a thing made by divine means and could only be transferred."

"So each man and woman took a part of the gate, thus dividing it into many tiny pieces so that no larger evil or supernatural being could pass through."

Phillip stopped. He wrung his wrists nervously.

"My grandmother gave hers to me. I was supposed to give it to a girl in the next city but I crashed here because of one of the monsters following me. I gave it to you."

Phillip met Lisa's eyes straight on.

"Lisa, you're now part of the gate. Ghosts, demons and what not are going to be after you."

She didn't want this. She wanted to hit him with the first aid kit but that wouldn't hurt him or kill him enough to make her feel better.

"So I'm now some sort of ghost magnet gateway?" Lisa asked, not liking how faint her voice sounded, even to herself.

Phillip shrugged "In a way."

"Is there any way to get rid of it?" She asked weakly. Phillip smiled thinly. Lisa knew his answer before he even said it.

"I had cancer and a severe allergic reaction to the medication. I was dying Lisa. That was why I was in a hurry to find someone."

"I'll guard you though. I'll guard you like my grandmother guarded me." Phillip grabbed her by the shoulders and told her earnestly. "As long as you keep me fed on your life energy and by your side, I'll protect you."

Lisa laughed weakly.

"Can you disappear like a ghost?" She asked. Phillip stared, uncomprehending for a moment.

"My mom's coming down the hallway." Lisa added. Phillip nodded. Lisa wished there were some cool effects like in the old movies or something but there were none. One moment Phillip was there, the next, she was alone in her room and her mother was knocking on her door.

"I heard voices." Mom said. Lisa snorted.

"Talking to myself, Mom!" Lisa shouted through the door. She got up, opened it a crack and gave her mom a bleary look.

"I had a weird dream and couldn't sleep." She lied. Her mother felt her forehead in concern.

"Honey, do you want to stay home?"

Lisa nodded. Her mother gave her an encouraging smile and then bustled off to wake Tony. Lisa watched her go, wondering what her mother would say if she knew what had happened not too long ago.

Lisa closed the door. Phillip was there again. He was curled up at the bottom of her bed, eyes closed. He would have seemed like he was sleeping if Lisa didn't know he was already dead. She wanted to laugh. She was seeing dead people. One was in her bedroom, resting at the foot of her bed. She glared at the clock which proclaimed it seven oh one. She climbed back under the covers, wriggling her toes when they met Phillip's cold mass.

"Night." She whispered. Phillip didn't answer.