15. Gravestone
"What does that even say? Something about fish?"
"That's my name you ass."
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Mark died three years ago. Being a ghost was nice, he could still see people who he knew and they could see them. They always cried when they saw him, saying their imagination must be getting to them, but in the end they quickly found out that this wasn't true.

Mark died in space ironically, and he was perfectly fine with that. It's not like he wanted to die but he had seen space, and had said that if they had a line to go to space with one hundred percent chance of death, he'd be first in that line, so it's not like he was necessaryily upset about it. Some people believe that the only reason why ghosts stay here is that they haven't accepted the fact that they are dead, but that's not true. Truth is that ghost can only touch and move things where their bones are, around a thirty feet radios. So I'm short, the dead stay because they can feel here.

Though, Mark has no clue if there's any other place to go. He can't, which probably means other people can't, so he's kind of stuck here until proven otherwise, not like he's complaining though.

Then he met Jack. A cutie with an Irish accent just up and appeared on a rainy day in the park, where it was abandoned since who wanted to go in the rain? Mark loved the rain, even though it often flooded his house that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate it. It was just so pretty to watch come down. Someone clearly thought that as well, because they were standing in the rain with an umbrella, a warm jacket wrapped around them. They had green hair which caught Mark's attention, since he hadn't seen someone dye their hair that shade of green, but they seemed to pull it off pretty well.

Mark was sat on a bench, not able to interact with it in any other way than that, not bothering to his himself from this guy. If you were going to walk in the rain alone, be prepared to see some weird shit.

The person seemed to not have gotten the fact that Mark was a ghost because as they got closer, they smiled at Mark. When he got close enough, he started to speak. "My names Jack. What are you doing here without an umbrella?" Jack asked, realizing that Mark was not in proper clothes. Contrary to popular belief, you can change clothes when a ghost, they just have to be in your coffin. His brother put basically Mark's whole closet in the coffin once he found out, and well let's just say Mark was the most fashionable ghost around because most of them didn't know about this little loophole.

"Are you blind?" Mark asked, reaching out to put his arm right through Jack's chest, and then through his umbrella if he didn't get it. Jack stood their blankly for a few seconds, watching as Mark put half of his body in a tree and the other half out. His hands phase through Jack a couple times, and every single time it looked like he would touch Jack, he would jump a little, expecting to feel the contact.

"Are you dead?" Came the blank expression.

"Yes. I died when I was thirty two. It's been two years." Mark answered generically, acting as if it was no big deal.

"Really? Or are you just fucking with me? Because I think you're fucking with me." Jack asked, one eyebrow raised skeptically. His blank face and stiff body has turned into a pile of sass and Mark wasn't just going to let the guy go unproven.

"I'll show you my grave, if you're so insistent. It's the one three blocks down, actually." Mark said, immediately starting to walk towards there. Jack followed behind, probably still weary. It was interesting to get a different reaction, since you don't just see ghost running around, but yet this guy was pretty calm about it. Sometimes people he knew thought it was some cruel prank by someone when he showed up.

The two walked in silence. Mark never went too far from his grave unless it was to see somebod; always worried that his things might get stolen or they might move his body elsewhere because they had to cram everything to make more room for the newly dead. When they got there, Jack said "This is creepy as shit. You better not stab me or something."

"I mean, I can now since I'm close to my grave, but I feel like that would be cheating if I were to kill you." Mark joked, walking in the path through the grave yard. It was abandoned too, painting a depressing scene. When they got to his grave, he smiled proudly, loving the way the words looked in the stone. "Voilà!"

Jack squinted at the gravestone, looking unconvinced. He kneeled to get a closer look. "What does that even say? Something about fish?" Jack asked, leaning in closer.

"That's my name you ass. It's Fischbach, not Fish." Mark sighed, smiling like an idiot. Everyone always got his name wrong, alway saying Fish or something equally as stupid as that. Jack read over the whole gravestone after that, looking at the flowers at the side of his grave. "I'm sorry. I didn't think you were actually a ghost. You're not going to haunt me or some shit, are you? I mean you're great eye candy but I kind of don't want to be possessed."

"I'm not even sure if I can posses people." Mark's face heated ever so slightly at the eye candy comment.

"Why were you in the park?"

"Less depressing than hanging out in a grave yard all day. My bones, I, uh, can't feel anything without being close to my bones." Mark replied awkwardly while scratching the back of ha neck. Never had he felt embarrassed talking about this, because he never talked about it to anyone else than family and friends. And now he was spilling his guts to Jack, poor guy, probably didn't want to deal with this today.

"Well if you picked up your bones while near them and carried them around with you, wouldn't that be a loop hole?"

"Tried that. I can't touch them, ironically. I faze right through them." Mark said, remembering when he thought of the loop hole, and the disappointment when he found out. No one knew of this, they didn't know he he could feel anything around his bones, and he never suggested they go even near them. It would hurt too much, to be that close to being alive, and for them, it would hurt too much to know that Mark is close to being alive.

"'Sucks. Can you drink hot chocolate?" Jack changed the subject quick, ignoring the bitterness in Mark's voice. Mark nodded slowly, not fully understanding why Jack was asking this. "Well, how about you wait here while I go get hot chocolate for us, because it's cold as fuck, if you want." Mark realized that Jack was taking the cold just fine, the rain hitting his umbrella with heavy thumping.

"Sure, I'd like that."