“Chen?” Lay replied back to the fisherman, “Is that you?”

The fisherman ran over to Lay and gave him a brotherly hug and a pat on the shoulder. I stared at them, a little befuddled. Was he a ghost too?

“Raine, meet Chen, he is my ghost friend whilst I was still human but now we are all ghost buddies,” Lay introduced him to me enthusiastically, though I didn’t understand what was meant to be so good about being dead.

He held out his hand and I shook it, “My name is Raine, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” he said, a large smile on his face, “You were shot weren’t you?”

I looked down at the hole on my chest and the blood oozing out from it. Of course the blood has stopped flowing but it still seemed so real, “Erm, yeah,” I replied plainly and fiddled with the hoodie.

“I thought you both managed to escape?” Chen questioned, “So how did you both die?”

“The sailor killed us when we were at the river,” Lay replied, glumly, “If I can see you, Chen, does that mean I can see the other too?” Lay asked.

“I think so, let’s go and find out; now that you’re dead we can all do things together!”

Lay just laughed at his optimistic comment; at least he isn’t lonely after his death.

Chen placed one of his arm around Lay’s shoulder and another around mine, and then guided us towards a little clear path towards the centre of the village. Once again, I saw the flickering lights and the upturned bins swarming with maggots and flies. He was leading us towards the café. The café where I saw the moving kitchenware and where I met Lay and where I stayed the night before.

“Come on in!” Chen welcomed us and held the door open, I went in after Lay, the bell jingled, “Go upstairs and take a seat, I’ll get the others from the kitchen, they are having a big tidy-up but I snuck out and went fishing instead!”

He ran into the white swinging door whilst Lay led me back up the stairs which I climbed up not that long ago.

“When we first met, the friends that you came to visit were them?” I asked Lay as we walked up, me trailing after him.

“Yeah, though I’ve never seen them face to face, I can hear their voices, that’s why I recognised Chen’s.”

“Oh, but can they see you though?”

“I think so or maybe they can only hear my voice as well.”

He slumped down into the sofa and placed his legs up on the coffee table, seemed like he has been here many times before.

“If you can hear them when you were still alive, how come I couldn’t?” I continued to ask.

“They were probably shocked that I bought an outside of the village girl into the café, so they had their mouths shut the whole time.”

Then I told him the message on the mirror when I was about to have a shower, he just started laughing and bending over, clutching his stomach in hilarity.

“It’s not funny!” I sulked.

“I could imagine your face when you read the message!”

He was still laughing when I started to hear many footsteps thundering up the stairs.

“Lay!” someone shouted, the voice was a little too high but then still low to belong to a man.

“Lay!” a few voices chorused together.

Lay and I stood up and loads of ghosts suddenly comes tumbling into the living room. My eyes opened so wide that they could roll out from their sockets and dangle by the veins. I mentally counted how many there were, eleven, I noted to myself.

“Hi guys, wassup?” Lay said, walking over to them and patted one on the shoulder.

“Wassup?” one with a white apron on said, his hair was bleached blonde and he has genuine concern smothered across his face, “You weren’t suppose to come back, you were meant to escape and not come back dead!”

“Calm down, Suho!” Lay requested, “Isn’t it better now that I can see you guys?”

“Not really, because what about this poor girl here, she still has a family to go back to?”

“Erm, my parents are dead and my aunt wouldn’t care less where I’ve gone, to be honest,” I interrupted.

“Are you okay?” Suho asked, “I’m Suho, by the way, I’m the owner of the café.”

I shook his hand and said, “I’m fine thank you.”

“Wow!” another one suddenly said, he had a blue t-shirt on and his hair was a light shade of hazel wood, “You’re so good-looking, Lay!”

He walked over to Lay and hooked an arm around his shoulder and observed his face quite close up, “I was imagining a middle aged man who was bald with loads of acne!”

“Thanks, Sehun,” Lay said and lightly punched him in the arm.

“That’s so mean, Sehun!” another said, his hair was darker than Sehun’s but he had nice, soft, cute, features, “I knew you were good-looking, Lay!”

“Thanks, Luhan,” Lay said and then turns back to Sehun, “That’s how you compliment!”

“You knew I was joking!” Sehun laughed and wondered over to me.

He looked at me and I stared back at him, “Erm, hello, my name is Raine,” I introduced myself.

“I know!” he suddenly jumped up and said, “You look nice in D.O’s clothes!”

I blinked a few times at his remark and smiled awkwardly.

“She suits D.O’s clothes doesn’t she?” Sehun asked, “It fits her perfectly!”

Most of them started laughing and I felt embarrassed.

“Hi, my name is D.O,” one of them said, holding a hand out.

“I’m Raine, nice to meet you and thank you for the clothes, but I don’t think I can return them to you.”

“That’s alright,” he said kindly.

“Hey, stop being clowns and introduce yourselves!” Suho commanded.

Four of them were trying to hold their giggles but when Suho asked them to introduce themselves, they just burst out laughing, and I looked at Lay to see what was happening.

“They are just a little crazy,” Lay said, “That’s Chanyeol,” he said pointing to a tall guy with red hair with a black apron on, “That’s Baekhyun,” pointing to a slightly shorter guy with a chef hat on, “And that’s Kai,” he finally said, pointing to a guy with blond but looks white hair. It stuck out all over the place like Einstein.

“Hello,” I said, then I felt a cold vibe as three figures moved closer to me.

“I’m Kris,” one said, “I’m Tao,” another said and “I’m Xiumin.”

I looked at them, trying to match their names to their faces. Kris had blond hair but the black roots were visible. He was also very tall and good-looking; I quickly looked away before my cheeks burn and melt. Tao was scary looking. Good-looking too but more of bad-, don’t get in my way or I’ll kick you to New Zealand type of good-looking. As for Xiumin, he also had blondish white hair and looked like a little child.

“Nice to meet you all,” I said and bowed, “I’m very sorry for any troubles caused. I honestly don’t know where I am and now that I’m dead, I…”

I felt like crying. First, my aunt leaves me and I end up hit in the head and chased by bloody ghouls. When I thought I could finally leave, I get captured, then tortured, then chased again and shot and then drowned.

I sniffled a little and Lay gave me a little hug.

“Don’t worry, you’re not alone, you have me,” he said and rubbed my back.

I couldn’t hold my tears any longer and let them ran.

“You have us too!” the eleven of them said at the same time.

I looked up from Lay’s shoulder and gave them a warm smile, “Thank you.”

“You can have our room!” Luhan said, “Me and Sehun can move in with Kai because he has a room to himself and there’s also a spare bunk bed in there as well.”

“Good idea, Luhan,” Suho praised.

“I bought some new bed covers the other day,” D.O said, “I’ll change them right now.”

“Let’s move now!” Luhan said.

“Yeah!” they all said, “We’ll help.”

Some went to the kitchen and others went upstairs, leaving Lay and I alone.

“Everything is going to be fine, don’t worry,” Lay reassured me.

I nodded, still a little speechless as I tried to process the eleven names and faces and what just happened into my little brain.