An hour later, I discovered that while I could fall into the dark bowels of boredom, I couldn’t take a nap. I wasn’t tired. No matter what I tried, I was unable to fall asleep. I guess with no body, there was no point in sleeping. I had retained two things from this lecture: this class was about music theory and the professor tapped his foot against the podium when it was getting close to the end of the hour.

With a sigh of relief, I watched students slowly pack up and decided to wait in my seat for pink-hair to notice me. She stood up and stretched, revealing she hadn’t pulled out a notebook, laptop, or tablet for the lecture. I eyed her suspiciously, wondering how she planned on retaining all the information, when I noticed she had some sort of weird mic attached to her phone. She must have been recording the lecture. Seeing that, I mourned all the naps I could have taken in high school. Why hadn’t I thought of recording my classes?

As she made her way up the aisle, I sat up straight in my seat, unsure of what to expect. Would she stare daggers into me? Scream or yell at me like a lunatic? But she didn’t do any of those things. In fact, as she walked past, she didn’t even look up. I watched pink-hair put her earbuds in and wondered if she could still see me and if this morning had been some kind of fluke... but no, it couldn’t be. She had seen me. We had somehow hurt each other, and she’d mentioned something about angels. I tried to recall images of half-naked winged people, but nothing came to mind.

There was no way I was staying for another lecture, so I continued to follow her. Once I’d cleared the building and it was obvious we were headed off campus, I caught up to her.

“Hey, could you tell me where Collins Lecture Hall is?” I asked, running up just behind her.

“Yeah, we just passed it. It’s just—DAMN IT. Didn’t I tell you to buzz off?” she exclaimed, realizing it was me.

“I knew you could see me!” I shouted triumphantly.

“You know what,” she spat angrily and snapped her fingers.

I immediately stiffened and shut my eyes, anticipating pain again, but when nothing happened, I slowly opened them. The campus was empty and eerily quiet. As I looked around, I realized the world seemed to have taken on a strange blue hue and was growing increasingly foggy and distorted.

“What did you—”

“We’re in the veil. Between worlds? I snapped us here because you insisted on making me look like a psychopath in public. You didn’t happen to notice all the turning heads when I responded to you? People thought I was talking to myself!” She threw her hands up, exasperated.

The world around me felt like it was getting darker and a slow-growing fear crept its way down my spine and into my gut.

“Listen, I’m sorry. I really am. I have no idea what happened to me or how I died. I didn’t see any angels or whatever you were talking about earlier. I’m trapped like this and I’m scared and I don’t know what to do. You’re the only one I have.” I looked at her sincerely, hoping she’d finally hear me out.

She sighed and scratched her head. Pink-hair folded her arms and tapped her foot thoughtfully.

“You didn’t see a rifter?”

“A what?” I asked, confused.

“A rifter. A being that can travel through the veil between dimensions—don’t look at me like that. An angel. You know, God’s little, winged helpers?” She wiggled her fingers and made a face for emphasis.

Her sarcastic tone about God threw me. Considering she could see and talk to ghosts, I didn’t expect her to be so unorthodox about God.

“No, I have not seen an angel. I woke up in a morgue, sat up, and realized my body didn’t come with me.” As I spoke I started to look behind me. I couldn’t shake this feeling that something was watching us.

Pink-hair looked up, eyeing me suspiciously. “Do you see something?”

“No, but I feel like something’s there. Like we’re not alone.”

“Shit. I’m going to snap my fingers again, but this time, you’re going to shut up and follow me home, no questions asked. Understood?” She pointed at me as she spoke.

“Yeah, absolutely. Anything to get out of this place. So, does this mean you’re going to help me?” I asked hopefully.

“No questions. Now let’s go,” she repeated and snapped her fingers.