I sat down beside Oliver on the bench an wrapped my arms around myself, trying to warm myself up in the brisk Autumn air. Oliver draped his arm across the back of the of the bench and looked at me seriously.

"I want to make a deal with you," He stated.

"And what could you possibly offer me that I'd want?" I asked, not unkindly.

"Protection from other spirits," He said casually.

I snorted and glared at him. "What if you want to hurt me?"

At this, he leaned in close to my face and tilted his head slightly. "Please, sweetheart. If I was gonna hurt you, I would have done it already." He leaned back with a shrug. "Besides, I wouldn't benefit from hurting you."

"And what do you want in return for your services?" I inquired as I wrapped myself up in a tan scarf I found at the bottom of my satchel bag.

"I want to stay with you," Oliver smiled wickedly and I laughed.

"Now why would you want to do that?" I asked in sincere confusion.

"The life, or should I say afterlife, of a spirit is a lonely one. Believe it or not, I hate being alone," He frowned slightly.

I gave a light sigh and looked at Oliver sympathetically. Personally, I hated being alone. I kind of had a fear of it. The only time I was okay with it was when I was in my room or visiting Mom and Dad's grave. I couldn't imagine spending as much time as a spirit probably did alone.

"Deal," I said after a while. Oliver grinned at me and jumped up from the bench.

"Really?" He asked, obviously thinking I wasn't serious.

"Really really," I said with a smile then shugged. "What could it hurt anyway? The only friend I have is Ty so it couldn't hurt to have another one, dead or not."

Oliver nodded and gave me another toothy grin. I eyed him for a moment and scrunched my bows in confusion.

"Wait, you don't have any wounds like the other spirits I've seen," I observed thoughtfully. "How did you die?"

Oliver went still for a moment then turned to face the willow tree. "File that question in the 'Don't ask' category," He said plainly. I frowned and got up from the bench.

"Fine then, at least tell me how old you were when you died. You look pretty young," I said carefully.

"Seventeen. But where I was from, I ws already considered an adult," He said, still not facing me.

"Really? Where are you from then?" I asked.

"New York, 1809," He stated breezily. My jaw dropped.

"Dang you're old. And if you died that long ago then where did you get those clothes? Ghostmart?" I asked with a snort.

Oliver chuckled and faced me, a grin on his face. "You could say that." I smiled at him as I felt my phone buzz. I drew it from my back pocket and saw it was a text from Ty.

Ty: You've been out for a while. Are you alright?

I typed a hastey reply and turned back to Oliver, who was now right infront of me, leaning over my phone.

"Who's this Ty fellow?" He asked and wiggles his eyebrows.

I snorted and shoved my phone back into my pocket. "My best friend, mind you."

He gave me and unconvinced look then shugged. I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed, a small cloud forming infront of me from the cold. Oliver's grin grew wider and I rolled my eyes. I turned on my heal and started to walk, calling to Oliver over my shoulder, "I need to get home. Are you coming or not?"

I felt a rush of warm air as Oliver ran to my side and I sighed. "You're really hot," I said as I scooted closer to him, drinking in his warmth. He chuckled and gestered to me.

"You're not so bad yourself. You look cute in a scarf," He said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes and muttered a quick 'not what I meant' under my breath but I felt my cheeks getting warm. Was I really letting a ghost sweet talk me? What has the world come too?

As Oliver and I made our way down the street that led to my grandmother's house, I saw two or three spirits stop and stare at us. I shuddered and Oliver had walked a little closer to me and leaned down to whisper in my ear, "They won't touch you as long as I'm with you. I'm pretty well know in the Afterlife." I just nodded and kept pressing on. We finally arrived at Gram's house and I mounted the porch and swung open the front door, anouncing my arrival.

I saw Ty peak his head out of my room an put his finger to his lips, signaling for me to can it. I instantly knew what he was talking about. Grandma must be asleep. I tiptoed to my room and shut the door after Oliver. Ty gave me a quick hug and settle himself back onto my bed, his DSI in his hands. I laughs quietly and he shot me a look that said don't-crap-on-my-mood-I-just-won-a-pokemon-battle. I sat down beside him, slightly leaning against him because he weighed so much more than me. He was actually very lean contrary to his weight of 117 lb. All his weight was actually muscle due to the fact that he was the star of the swim team at school.

"Just friends, eh?" Inquired Oliver with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh hush," I said and stuck my tongue out at him.

"What was that?" Asked Ty without looking up from his DS.

"I.. um... I was talking to a friend..," I stammered, unsure how to tell him about my new spirit body guard.

Ty set his DS down and lifted an eyebrow at me. "Are you sure you're alright?" He lifted a hand to my forehead to take my temerature. I swatted his hand away with a short laugh.

"I'm not sick Ty. We aren't the only ones in the room," I said slowly.

"Way to make me not sound creepy," Snorted Oliver. I shot him a glare and turned back to a confused looking Ty.

"I might have hired myself a bodyguard from the Great Beyond," I said as I fiddled with the end of my scarf.

Ty stared at me, startled. "You didn't make a deal with the Devil did you?"

I laughed and quickly put my hands over my mouth, trying not to wake my grandmother. I shook my head and made a mental note to practice my revealing skills.

"I met a spirit at the cemetery and we struck a deal. He protects me from other spirits and I let him stay by my side," I said slowly.

"He?" Ty said as he raised a concered eyebrow.

"Is that the only thing you got out of that?" I said with an exagerated eye roll.

He gave me a stern look. "No, it's just what stood out to me. You hired some dead guy to protect you at the cost of your privacy? What if he like, makes out with you while you sleep? You wouldn't even know!" He paused and then gasped, "What if he watches you while you shower!?" He stared at me in utter horror and I couldn't help but laugh at him. Always so protective.

I heard Oliver groan from the other side of the room. "I'm not a pervert thank you very much," He said as he rolled his dark grey eyes.

I looked over at Ty and gave him a weak smile. "He say's he's not a pervert."

Ty frowned at me. "What if he's like, a forty-three year old serial killer?"

I laughed and patted his hand reassuringly. "He's not a serial killer and he's seventeen."

Ty's eyes widened. "Seventeen!? Then he is most definitely a pervert!"

I snorted and leaned back against my bed post. "You would know woudn't you?"

He frowns slightly, realizing that he had pretty much just said that he himself was indeed a pervert and dropped his head into his hands. "Just trust me on this one."

In the background, I heard a television click on, signaling that my grandmother was awake. I silently cursed myself for most likely being the one who woke her up.

"You haven't even talked to him! He doesn't seem like a pervert to me," I stated.

Ty leaned back beside me and fluffed one of my throw pillows, carefully placing it behind his head.

"Then lets get a Ouija board or something because I really wanna talk to this guy. I don't like the thought of a seventeen year old boy following you around all the time," Ty said in a protective tone.

I snorted and threw a throw pillow at him. "Yeah, that's your job."

Ty grinned at me and draped an arm across his chest. "Darn right it is."

Oliver, who had seated himself at the edge of the bed, sighed and gave me a bored look. "Sorry to intrude on this touching moment but I don't mind using a Ouija board to talk to your 'friend' here," He said, putting air quotes around the word 'friends'. I rolled my eyes at him and looked at him questioningly.

"And where do you intend to get one?" I asked, ignoring Ty's annoyed look. Ty hated being the odd one out of conversations.

"You're grandmother has one," He stated confidently.

"How would you know that?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

He shrugged. "Spirits are drawn to it, kinda like metal to a magnet. I can feel it. It's downstairs the the basment."

I swung my feet off my bed and pulled Ty to his feet.

"What are we doing?" He asked as I led him through the kitchen.

"Going to get a Ouija board. Grandma has one in the basement," I said as I unlocked the basement door with the key I had grabbed from a drawer on the way here. I opened the door and took Ty's hand as I stared down the dimly lit stairway. I had been afraid of the basement for as long as I could remember. When I was five, I accidently locked myself in while Ty and I were playing Hide n' Seek. We weren't supposed to be able to hide inside but I was never really a rule follower. I was too short to reach the lightswitch so I was stuck in the dark, damp room until Ty finally figured out that I wasn't outside. Thus, my fear of the basement, my fear of being alone, and my fear of the dark were born.

"I'll go get it of you want to stay up here," Ty said and sqeezed my hand.

I shook my head and shuddered. "No. I want to do this. It's a childish fear and I need to get over it," I stated defiantly.

Behind me, I heard Oliver give a short laugh. "Why are you afraid of a basement?"

I turned to him and shook my head. "It's a long story."

Oliver just shrugged and brushed past me, leaving my shoulder with a warm tingling feeling. I braced myself and followed him down the steps, leading Ty behind me in the narrow stairway. When we made it to the bottom of the steps, I flicked on the light quickly. I dropped Ty's hand slowly and walked over to the box that Oliver was pointing at. I pulled it open after a moments struggle  and lifted the Ouija board out, coughing as a cloud of dust rose from the box. I was about to turn away from it when a small silver object caught my eye. I handed the Ouija board to Ty and dug through the box, searching for the object. I wrapped my fingers around it and lifted up up carefully.

"What is it?" Asked Ty.

"It's," I said as I held it up to the light, "a necklace."

I twisted it in the light and inspected it. It was a small oval shaped pendant with an odd symbol carver into the face of it. On the back, there was a small inscription that read With Love, From Jeremy. I took a sharp breath and craddled the necklace in my palm. This was my Mom's, given to her from my Dad. I clasped it around my neck quickly, ignoring the curious looks from Ty and Oliver. The three of us made our way up the stairs and out into the living room. I took a deep breath, glad to be out of the basement.

On our way to my room, I found Grams sitting on then couch with a book in hand. She eyed Ty and I curiously and raised a thin, grey eyebrow.

"What are you two up to now?" She asked, folding the corner of her page down.

"Oh, we're just going to use your Ouija board so Ty can talk to my new spirit bodyguard," I said in an obvious tone.

She stared at us for a moment then wave her hand. "Well you kids have fun. Don't get yourselves posessed, especially you Catalyst. If you do, I'm disowning you and dropping you at an orphanage," She said in a serious tone but her eyes were light with the joke.

I snorted and turned towards my bedroom door, beaconing Ty and Oliver to follow me. Ty set the Ouija board up on my floor and sat down beside it. Looking up at me, he smiled. "Let's get started then, shall we?"

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So, what did you guys think? I just can't stop writting this story! I have so many ideas! Comment what you think and don't forget to vote! Thanks for reading!