Lucia Espinosa:

The days pass by relatively uneventfully.

Lucia visited Laurie a couple of times, learning about her past. Laurie lived a very full life, backpacking across several continents in her youth. Most of her travels were spent learning about how different cultures viewed the occult and the afterlife, speaking with shamans and psychics to increase her own knowledge of the shadows she could see. Both Lucia and I lapped up the information eagerly. On one visit both Lucia and Laurie visited the cemetery, talking about what they each saw. Laurie saw only formless blobs, similar to Lucia, but was excited to hear that I could see them as humanoid. Overall, Laurie became a valued source of information for me, and a confident for Lucia.

Lucia also met up with Sophie’s college friends again. While Lucia was still nervous beforehand, it was good seeing her being welcomed so easily into the group, as if she’d been friends with them all from the beginning. It was certainly fun to watch them all. Sandy was quiet, like Lucia, and soon it was often the two of them sitting aside and laughing at the antics of the other four. Lily was much louder and outgoing, with an easy laugh and an obvious ride-or-die attitude towards her friends. Pete was tall and gangly, all ginger hair and freckles, often tripping over himself whenever he got distracted. Dwayne was calm and collected, and an obvious flirt, although most of his flirting was directed towards Sandy, resulting in blushing and nervous giggling. Sophie’s friendly charisma naturally brought this group altogether.

Seeing them all having fun together, made me ache for some reason, though. It made me long for a friendship like that, I guess. When I was alive, I tended to keep to myself, kept my head down to avoid attracting too much attention, focusing on my studies, on my goals and ambitions. I couldn’t hang around wasting time if I wanted to succeed in life.

At least, that’s what I told myself. And what did it leave me? A lonely walk late at night, not watching where I was going, until bright lights and a screech of tyres landed me in this mess. Was there even anyone who would attend my funeral?

Maybe I should have spent more time getting to know people, making friends.

Oh well, no use crying about it now.

Mike Greene:

Mike’s days also pass by uneventfully.

Major Peters and his wife, or Harry and Ellen as I’d learned over the past week, were ecstatic when Mike told them he’d continue seeing Dr Singh. Understandable reactions, considering his initial reluctance.

Mike helped out around the house, cleaning, grocery shopping, fixing up some areas that were in need of repair. And of course I supplied some wonderful commentary throughout.

Why waste so much time over a simple piece of wood? It won’t be seen, anyway. I asked on one such occasion, after Mike had spent what seemed like hours looking through various wood samples in a hardware store.

Mike sighed, muttering to himself, “They’re like a bad case of herpes I just can’t get rid of!”

Oh come, I’m growing on you, and you know it.

“Yeah, like poison ivy,” Mike grunted, but the tones of annoyance in his voice whenever he answered my incessant questions were definitely decreasing, sometimes taking on almost a teaching tone when talking through some of the repair work he was doing. “Yes it’ll be at the bottom and won’t be seen, but it’ll be the foundation. I need something strong that’ll hold the structure up, not brittle, but also something that won’t rot, especially with the rain and the cold coming.”

So a strong foundation means it won’t break.

“Not necessarily, but it’ll be harder to break, and easier to rebuild if it does.”

Huh. You know, that philosophy could easily be applied to a lot of other things.

“It ain’t philosophy, it’s simple engineering. Now hush up, can’t be talking to you when I’m checking out. Won’t do for folks to think I’m crazy.”

You think you’re crazy.

“I’m allowed to. Everyone thinks they’re crazy, but they’ll be damned if they let others think so too.”

I can’t help but laugh at that. Even Mike smiles a bit as he finally heads to checkout with his selection of wood samples.

I’m glad Mike is slowly warming up to me. For one thing, it’ll make helping him easier, as he’ll be more inclined to open up and accept the help. For another, I find myself genuinely beginning to like Mike. Sure, we didn’t start on the best of terms. He’s got a rough exterior and so many walls built up around his emotions it’s like a maze. And I’ll admit, I did judge him harshly at the beginning. But now, it feels like we’re becoming genuine friends. Previously I just wanted to help Mike because I felt he owed it to me to let me help him. Now, I just want him to heal and recover because he deserves to.

Damn, I’m getting soft in my undeath.

Joanna Yang:

With Joanna, the days seemed uneventful to her, but not exactly for me.

In the evidence locker there was always something going on. New evidence being brought it, current evidence being stored in between analysis, old evidence being taken out for use in court. It was exciting, hearing about what each piece of evidence was for. Sure, most of it consisted of various items needing to be dusted for prints or swabbed for DNA for inane cases of vandalism or breaking and entering, but I still found the ins and outs of the legal system fascinating. But then again, I’ve always been a nerd.

Joanna only seemed to perk up whenever her friend Detective Bobby Platt came by to update her on the case. They’d confirmed that it was the same killer who’d murdered Anna Ferris and Deborah Moore, and with camera footage from the hospital, bar, and nightclub that Richard Wilkes had found his victims, that he was the man they were looking for.

However, he wasn’t at him home address, his car had been abandoned, and they were running out of leads.

“His father owned a cabin somewhere in the National Forest, that’s our best lead of where he might be hiding out. We’ve got rangers out there searching for the cabin and combing the woods, but it’s a large area. We’re also looking into other family members, just in case he’s hiding out with them. His mother is still alive, but we’re having some issues tracking her down. It’s only a matter of time before we find the son of a bitch.” Detective Platt briefs Joanna, showing her a couple of casefiles with the corresponding information.

Joanna looks over the casefiles, taking it all in. “It’s a pity we don’t have a birds eye view on Wilkes himself. If only we could actually watch him in real time.”

“Pft. Maybe if we had illegal CIA satellites, haha.” Detective Platt jokes.

Joanna laughs with him, but she knows that I’m currently listening in.

Once again, the crazy idea of returning to Richard Wilkes flashes through my head. I’m not just an observer anymore, after all. I can interact with my organ recipients to some degree. So why am I still so reluctant? It’s not like I’ll be taking a huge risk and putting myself in harms way. I’m already dead for crying out loud! Am I that scared of seeing something horrible? Am I that much of a coward?!

…

Screw it.

Next time I return to Joanna, I’ll return with information on Richard Wilkes.

Lena Bleu:

As the days pass by uneventfully for the other recipients, they also pass by for Lena.

She went on daily walks with Mack and Georgia, each time being able to walk further as her strength and energy grew. Since the official school term had started, Lena also now had homeschooling lessons with Georgia who used to be a teaching assistant before her retirement. Lena was smart, easily completing her homeschool assignments, although it soon became obvious she favoured English Lit. and history.

Her parents kept their word, and on their morning off they all sat down to have a long discussion on the prospect of Lena starting public school once again. I couldn’t help but feel proud as I watched Lena maturely state her case about how much she wanted to go to school and feel like a normal kid again.

Eventually, the compromise was reached that Lena would attend public school after the winter break. Since Georgia had been a teaching assistant, she quickly volunteered to help with the process of getting Lena enrolled and up to speed with the syllabus so she’d find it easier to fit in when she started and wouldn’t have to catch up on any schoolwork.

To Lena’s great excitement, her parents also agreed to let her volunteer at the garden centre on Saturdays with Mack. They could see the benefits of the fresh air and light exercise towards her recovery, and trusted Mack could keep an eye on her in case she had any medical emergencies.

Overall, Lena’s life definitely seemed to be improving for the better. She was still shy and nervous when meeting new people, but I’m hoping the volunteering will also help Lena get out of her comfort zone and get used to meeting new people before starting school in the Spring.

If I’m learning anything from helping my organ recipients, it’s that no one should be alone. That’s the one mistake I made in my life, and I’ll be damned if any of my recipients end up alone too.