Despite the incredible mix of emotion threatening to explode inside me, my body was weary.

I'd been running double shifts to compress my work-week to just two super long days.

The thirty, rather than twenty-four hour "day" on this planet took some getting used to when I first arrived. Enkhor was kind of like Spain, but the afternoon siesta was longer.

Two giant red moons hovered in the night sky. I paused and looked up at them for a moment before starting the walk homewards. No matter how many times I saw the twins, they still took my breath away. Enkhor had grown on me over the past few years.

I felt the "stranger's" hand touch my shoulder again. It grounded me.

'It's nice here, Dale. Fresh.'

This time, my hairs stood on end from his fingers. I felt a weird kind of static between us. It triggered a nostalgia in me I wanted to suppress.

I pivoted just a little towards him.

'So, what exactly are you? Dead, but not dead?'

'I'm a spirit now.'

I frowned at his simplistic answer. This was typical... Taos?

'What in the hell does that even mean? A spirit?'

'It means I'm a ghost. And I'm haunting the shit out of you.'

I shuddered uncomfortably and stepped out beyond his touch. I took a long breath and kept a little more distance between us. From the edges of my vision I could see him grinning, waiting for my next question.

Why did you leave me alone? But I can't say that.

'You just touched me just now, right? Aren't ghosts meant to be spooky and ethereal?'

'Oh this?' He gestured to his body. 'Haha, this isn't mine. I just found a trance medium on Enkhor willing to help me out. He's out-of-body right now, so I'm in the driver's seat.'

'So, this body here belongs to someone else?'

'Bingo! You'll meet him properly once his physical form reaches its limit from me overcloaking it.'

I froze for a second time, eyes cast to the pavement. 

'Does that mean you'll leave?'

'No, you dummy. I've been around you for ages. Years even. Trying to get your attention. But you're pretty insensitive to the spirit world. At some point, you must have really shut down.'

'What do you mean, I shut down?'

'When did you stop feeling?'

I started walking again, fists clenched and jaw tight. Taos followed a few paces behind me.

'Dale?'

'Aren't you meant to learn everything when you die?' 

'Some things yeh, but you are still a bloody tight-lipped mystery.'

'After, after you left. I had to push to get through everything.' My fingernails dug into my palms. It was the understatement of the century. 'Eventually I just aimed to survive.'

'Survival makes for a pretty low horizon.'

'Fuck you, Taos.' 

'Fair,' was his eventual response. For a long moment we walked in silence, consumed by our thoughts and feelings.

'By the way, if you turn left here instead of right, you'll get home a couple of minutes early, you know?'

Again. Typical Taos, with his useless facts and math obsession. I couldn't help but smile.

I had worked so hard to forget everything about him. To distract myself whenever the teeniest memory of him would surface in my subconscious and threaten to derail the very meagre progress I had made in becoming a functional adult.

In recent years I could go days without thinking about him. The things I had loved in him. How fiercely we had fought for each other. What had it been like for him?
'Are you happier now, Taos? I mean, do you still think about it?'

'You mean what happened to us?'

Again with the simplistic answer. 'What we did.'

'Its wrecked my entire life, Dale.'

I chuckled. 'Life? You're dead, remember?'

Taos didn't reply. I was a few paces ahead of him on the newly improved route to my flat. Less than a minute from home

Still no response. I turned to check on him again and found he'd paused about thirty feet back, doubled over. I sprinted.

'TAOS!'

Just as I arrived, he stood up straight up again.

'Actually dude, nuhuh! I'm Owen.'

My breath seized in an instant. Was that it? Was that my only chance to say everything I'd left unsaid.

You idiot, Dale. You've ruined-

'Woah! Relax. Your friend is still around, yeh? My body just needs some chill time. And the toilet. I swear, spirits always forget about that. Nice to meet ya, by the way.'

Again, upset and confusion overflowed through my eyes. 'Please. What the hell is going on?'

Owen smiled in response. It was the same face staring at me physically, but the feeling written across his features was totally foreign.

'Is your place very far? Once I recharge a little, you guys can go again. He's still around and he's the most excited I've ever seen him.'

'You can see him?' I searched the air above us.'

'Um, he's right beside you dude.'

The guy was definitely a stoner. A nice stoner.

'Ya wanna know something?' he asked. 'Truth is, everyone can see spirits. Most people just don't wanna.'

'Thats ridiculous,' I scoffed. 'Never seen a ghost in my whole life.'

'Oh really? Fan of horror films?'

I gulped. 'Um, not my style.'

'Cos they stir memories most children learn to shut away forever. They turned the lights off. You just gotta turn em back on.'

My stomach squelched.

More buried memories. Great.