There was something about being on this bus with a couple of new guys that they were bringing in to work (Mercedes). I'm not sure why I was with them on their way in, but I just happened to be. It was a white guy that was kind of like a whiny version of the guy Shawn on Boy Meets World, a black guy with a white doo-rag, and a third guy that I'm not sure what he was, but it could have been Mexican.
I found out that I was going to be training one or more of them in the Infrared Room. I think the black guy was the first one to come in, and I was trying to show him the crossfire keys. (I think it was just the assembly part, because I never went over to the programming station) He wasn't paying much attention because he kept standing around and chatting with Don (fat guy from work) about football or basketball. I was getting pretty irked about it, and I think that I finally just started giving up on training the guy. The guy got a bit huffy at me for blowing him off like I was doing something wrong. I think I finally wound up leaving, but by that time, the white guy was in there to train. I think that I figured it would turn out the same as the black guy, so I just left.
Eventually I wound up at this mall at night time. There wasn't anyone there except those of us from work and their spouses. I think that rather than it being late, it was actually very early, and we were supposed to be getting ready for work. I had been out walking around the mall and in this fountain area in the main intersection of the mall when I realized that I needed to get ready to go. I hurried down to Em's and my "apartment" (it was more like a storage room that we were living in and sharing with others) and got into the (huge!) bathroom and jumped into the shower.
I was in the shower trying to hurry when I heard Don coming in with the new guys. Something about how Don sounded, I could tell he was younger, like he was in college or something. I knew that they were coming to pick on me while I was in the shower. I turned off the water so I could soap up, and I heard them comment on that. I looked up at the opposite end of the shower, and I could see a mirror there, and I could see myself soaping up.
Anyway, they thought I was done in the shower. I turned and faced towards the shower curtain to my left, and just as I saw Don open in and peek through, I took my soapy left fist and slammed it into his face, not really hurting him, but getting lots of soap in his eyes. He left, cussing at me as he went. I hurried and jumped out of the shower and tried to dry off and get dressed. I kept having trouble because people kept coming through while I was there in the bathroom naked. Em finally came to help me, and when some of the others found out, they started making fun of me. I didn't care, but I kept getting ready for work anyway. Em gave me her usual "cheer up" and "it will be okay, sweetie" and gave me a kiss and hug before I left.
I don't think I ever made it to work, though. I think there was something about showing up on some high building ledge or something, and either I jumped or fell, I'm not sure, and I landed in the muddy street below, which had the feel of a rainy version of the muddy and gravel driveway that went around Weyers Cave Elementary School.
Even though I was laying on the ground, I was still able to see myself from a distance of a few feet away. I had busted a hole in my head and was bleeding profusely, and I was laying there with my eyes open, not moving at all. I realized that I was dead, and others around me realized it too. Then I started to notice that the new guys from work were actually ghosts. I also saw the girl that played one of the grim reapers (the curly haired one that wore the blue dress) on Dead Like Me.
They took me back, albeit somewhat roughly, to the mall that I had been living in. I was now in the fountain area, and again it was night time, and there a lot of people there splashing, swimming, and playing. I got a better look at the fountain area this time. The way it worked was it wasn't out in the middle of the main intersection, but off to the side, wrapped around one of the corners. It was about 6 or 8 feet wide, about 20 feet long on each side from the corner, and only a foot or so deep, yet people were swimming in it as if it were 10 feet deep. I realized that they were all ghosts. It was funny, though, because a lot of them had things like the arm floaties and snorkels/goggles on for swimming, as if they were afraid of dying again.
I jumped into the fountain with them and swam around a bit. Some of them, especially the white guy that I was supposed to train at work, were being somewhat dickish to me, acting like I was constantly getting in their way. I wound up going down one side of the fountain where there was no one else. The area that I was in was almost like it was just outside of Legget's/Belk's at the food-court end of the Harrisonburg mall, and I was on the left hand wall heading towards Belk's.
Just as I got all the way down to the very end of the fountain, I turned around. I was noticing how warm the water was, almost like bath water. Just after I turned around, I saw the woman in the blue dress heading towards me. She was smiling a little bit, like she was glad that she had caught me away from the others. I remembered that she had been rough or snippity towards me soon after my death, so I wasn't sure that I really wanted to talk to her. She came up close and touched my leg and said, "hey, I just wanted to let you know that I really like you, but I can't let the others know that." As she was saying this, her face was getting closer to mine, almost as if she wanted to kiss me. I watched her closely, and something caught my eye. On her nose, right around her nostrils, there were these black slivers that were almost coming out of her nose, going up the outside just a bit, and then going back in through the skin. They had a "quick slug" like quality to them. I was amazed and repulsed at the same time.
Then I suddenly realized that all of these ghosts kept something about the way that they died. For this girl, it was these black things. For me, I realized that I must have a big hole in the back of my head from where I landed on it. Others were mangled in various (usually minor) ways, although I couldn't really pinpoint anyone else's ailments.
Right after this, it was as if a day or two had gone by, and now all the new ghosts (such as myself) were being trained on how to do things like flying and walking through things. They had a step ladder in the middle of the intersection that reached up towards the big chandelier, and we were supposed to float up as high as we could and touch one of the steps on the ladder. I did okay, but with a bit of difficulty. After that was done, there was a Wattaburger cup setting up on the banister/railing of the second story right there at the intersection. We were supposed to float up and get it down. Just as I was getting ready to, I woke up.
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