“I get called ‘evil’ a lot. It’s not true. It doesn’t bother me, mind you, but it’s also just not true. I’m no Casper the Friendly Ghost by any stretch of the imagination. I’m just filling a role – ‘doing the needful,’ if you will. Hey, if I didn’t do it, it’d happen eventually and it would be a lot uglier.

“Don’t believe me?”

He slapped a wool cap over his bald pate, “Tag a long with me – I’m going to pick up a new recruit today. Yeah, a funeral home – don’t look so surprised!” He leaned in and cupped his eyes against a plate glass window, then stood and gestured. “Here, take a look. See if you can pick him out. Here’s a hint: he’s the one who doesn’t look dressed for the occasion. Ha! I didn’t notice that guy! No, the guy in the Member’s Only jacket is actually a mourner. He’s just got terrible fashion sense, he’s not dead – not yet at least.

“Yep, you got it in two. The guy dressed in hiking clothes is our guy. Ranger Rick there died some twenty years ago. He was backpacking with his bros when his appendix burst in the middle of nowhere. His friends couldn’t get help in time,” he gestured down with his thumb and blew a raspberry.

“He was out there talking to his buddies about proposing to his sweetie – he even showed them the ring.” He stood silent for a moment, contemplative. “but he died. Didn’t get to propose. So, lo these twenty years he’s been hanging around his girl. It was the ring. He was all tied up with it. When death prevented him from giving it to her on bended knee, he couldn’t pass on. So here he stayed by her. He got the old ball and chain without even having done the deed!

“Ah, Figured that part out already?” he smirked. “Yeah, that’s her in the casket. Breast cancer. I fucking hate cancer. What? Don’t look surprised! Cancer sucks for everyone involved – me included. For the living, they have to watch their loved one waste away. For me, there’s generally enough time to make peace so they tend to pass over pretty easily. Fuck cancer.

“But, yeah, that’s her in the box. The guy in the black suit is her husband – yeah, she married eventually.” He shrugged, “time waits for no ghost. People gotta live, right?

“Anyway, our boy there – his name is Devin – just lost his anchor to this world when she passed. Only child, and his parents died in a car accident years before he did. His friends still raise a glass to him, but that’s not enough to hold him. So, really, he’s got no one. That’s where I step in.” He waggled his dark eyebrows and stepped through the door.

He casually sidled up next to Devin. “I’m truly sorry for your loss, Devin.”

Devin did a double take and then said, “You can see me?”

“See you, hear you… you’re as real to me as any of these people are to each other.” Devin gaped at the stranger. “Name’s Berith,” he extended his hand for Devin to shake. Devin tentatively reached for the outstretched hand and audibly gasped when his fingers closed around something solid.

“I… can’t remember the last time I actually shook a hand,” Devin said, shaking Berith’s hand a little too enthusiastically.

“It’s okay,” Berith smiled, “I get that a lot.”

“Do you?” Devin released the hand. “You look familiar. Who are you?”

“Me?” Berith shrugged, “think of me as a sort of guide.”

“Guide?”

“Sure. Now that Sarah has passed, what’s your plan?”

“Plan?” Devin looked confused. “I didn’t have a plan…”

“That’s a problem,” Berith nodded solemnly. “See, without a plan, without a guide,” he turned gracefully and caught Devin’s elbow in the crook of his arm and started to lead him back through the door. “You’re going to fall apart – quite literally.”

“Wait!” Devin protested as the started through the door. “I haven’t said goodbye!”

“Devin,” Berith admonished, “You’ve been saying goodbye for twenty years. See, this is the problem. She’s gone. Gone! Poof!” he spread his fingers apart to emphasize his point. “I ask you again, what are you going to do?”

“I… I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Then you’re lucky I came around. I’ve got a purpose for you.”

“Really? Shouldn’t I be moving on?”

“Devin, my boy, that ship sailed.” He cocked a thumb at the casket behind him, “If you didn’t get things settled when she was alive… it’s too late.”

“So… now what?”

“Now you learn how to really make the living realize how lucky they are.”

“How do I do that?”

“Glad you asked!” he snapped his fingers and suddenly they weren’t in front of a funeral house, but instead inside a modest house, lights low, teenagers gathered around a Ouija board. “Here’s a great opportunity to get started. Look at these kids. You ever play with a Ouija board?” Devin nodded. “Fun, right?” Devin nodded again. “But it’s more than harmless little fun. They’re actively opening a portal into our realm.”

“So we warn them?”

“In a manner of speaking.” Berith walked over and leaned over the kids, pushing the planchette around to form letters of his choosing.

“Do,” the kids repeated the first spelled out word. “You,” they said. “Want. To. See. A. Ghost!” they looked at each other excitedly. The one acting as their spokesperson, a boy maybe 17, said “Yes! Yes, we want to see a ghost!”

Berith straightened, turned to Devin, spread his hands theatrically and said, “It’s showtime, Devin!”

“I… I don’t know what to do…”

“Come over here, Devin.” Devin crossed to stand next to Berith. “This boy just invited you in. Touch him and will yourself inside.”

“Isn’t that… like a possession?”

“Devin, he just asked for it! You heard him!”

Devin shook his head, “I don’t know, this doesn’t seem right…”

“Right? You died before you got a chance to propose to your beloved. Was that right? You followed her around while she lived, while she fell in love, while she married… was that right? And now she’s dead and you’re still here. Is that right?”

“…no,” Devin said tentatively.

“And now you’ve got what? Nothing.” Berith said flatly. “You’ve got nothing and no one. This boy just said he wants you to show yourself. Give him a show, Devin.”

“No one,” Devin repeated. “Nothing.”

“That’s right,” Berith said. “Go ahead.”

Devin reached out a hand and touched the boy’s shoulder, closed his eyes in concentration and in a moment, he disappeared as the boy’s eyes widened unnaturally and he became board stiff. The laughing conversation around the table silenced as the boy said in a deep, gravelly voice, “I am here! You wanted me here!” the boy raised his arms slowly and then slammed them down on the table with a crash.

“Toby, is that you?” one of the girls at the table asked.

“There is no Toby,” the boy croaked.

“Toby this isn’t funny….” One of the boys said.

Toby rotated his head towards the boy then opened his mouth and projectile vomited onto the boy. Shrieks erupted around the table as panic engulfed the other participants. There were more demonstrations. Toby cursed, drooled, spit, threw up at least twice more, and finally sagged forward as Devin slid out the back of the limp boy’s body.

“How was that, Devin?”

Devin’s face expressed both exhilaration and confusion. “So easy! So… wow. But that was wrong. That seemed wrong. Is he going to be alright?”

Berith looked at the boy whose friends had already rushed to his side to revive him. “Sure, sure, he’ll be okay.” Berith snapped again, and they stood on an empty street. “The important part is do you think his friends are going to try that again?” Devin shook his head. “Damn right they’re not. Good job. That was fun, right?”

Devin looked conflicted for a moment, but just a moment. “Yeah, that was fun. It really was. Did you see the look on their faces when that bile flew?!”

“Right?! We’re just getting started! Give me a moment here and then we’ll find another group of the living to torment, err, remind of the preciousness of life!”

“Sounds great!” Devin said with visible glee.

Berith took a few steps away from Devin and said more quietly. “There, was that evil? I mean, yeah, okay, it wasn’t nice, but what in life – or death – is nice. This kid has a purpose now. Granted that purpose is to wantonly torment the living… we started slow tonight, but Devin’s a quick learner, I can see it. Oh, don’t get all high and mighty on me,” Berith gave a dismissive wave. “If I’d left him there he’d have lost his way, wandered aimlessly, forgotten. Just another wraith wandering pointlessly. He’s got a reason for being now. No, it’s not bad, it’s not evil. It’s just another way of being dead.” Berith crossed his arms and stared menacingly, “Don’t knock it ‘til you tried it.”