Chapter Four: Picario

When Ethan got into the first floor lounge it was practically empty. There were handfuls of other phantoms standing or sitting around in groups, but they barely made a dent in the massive sized lounge. Now that it wasn’t swarming with phantoms, Ethan realized just how big the room really was. He also noticed that there were three wide halls to the right of the stairs with signs above each of them.

The first sign read: Rooms, the second sign read: Ghost Points Shops and the third sign read: Sign ups.

Ethan starred at the halls and the signs posted above them for a couple minutes. Each hall was wide enough to fit at least three people side by side and was totally empty. They each turned to the right when you walked to the end. Aside from the sign posted above them they looked exactly the same. Ethan pulled out the key from his pocket looked at it then walked down the hall with the sign that read “Rooms” above it.

When Ethan got to the end of the hall and turned right on the other side was an even larger hall easily twice the size of the previous hall he just went through. The walls were painted a light mossy green throughout the entire corridor and to Ethan it looked like a long straight line that continued for miles… maybe it did. The right hand side of the hall was nothing more than the wall but on the left side were corridors, each of them with a rectangular mantle placed before it. Ethan inspected the first mantle and it read: Rooms 1-99

Ethan looked down the first corridor, it had the same paint color as the hall he was in and was just as wide as it. There were light grey doors on each side of the corridor with numbers engraved on them near the top. The doors were made of wood that might have been in their prime well over a century ago.

Ethan turned away from the corridor then continued down the hall. After several minutes of walking he heard some noises coming from further down but he was too far away to make out what they were. Ethan picked up his pace and as he got further down the hall the noises became clearer; they were coming from people.

As Ethan passed by rooms 3500-3599 he could make out the noises were that of a struggle and Ethan took off running. When he got to the hall with the rooms 4700-4799 Ethan turned down it and saw three male phantoms only a few years apart from him at most pushing around a young boy who couldn’t have been more than thirteen years old. “Hey!” Ethan shouted. “Leave him alone.”

The three stopped pushing the young boy around and turned to face Ethan. The tallest one of the group was the one to speak up saying, “This isn’t any of your business so just walk away.”

Ethan took a few steps closer and said, “It is my business now and I’m more than capable and willing to take on your three losers.”

The boy who spoke up pushed the young boy to the side as he walked through and approached Ethan. He kept walking until he was only half a foot away from Ethan and they stared off for a minute. Ethan was a few inches taller than the boy; which helped him play the intimidation card. As the boy went to speak Ethan quickly put his hand on the side of the boy’s head and slammed it into the wall, then he grabbed him by his shirt with both hands and turned and threw the boy behind him.

Ethan then turned back to facing the other two and said in a challenging tone, “Anyone else have something to say?”

The two boys looked at each other then shoved the younger boy down and carefully walked passed Ethan to their friend. Ethan never let his eyes leave them and as they walked down the hall back towards the lounge one of them called out, “This isn’t over for either of you.”

Ethan walked over to the young boy and offered him a hand up. The boy took it and thanked Ethan. While the young boy dusted himself off and picked up his book Ethan studied him a little bit closer. He had brown wavy hair that was cut at medium length and looked like it was well combed earlier. His outfit consisted of a simple plain light black hooded sweater and some brown slacks. He wore old style sneakers the kind that went up the calf and resembled thin boots.

“My name is Picario,” the boy said as he offered out his hand. Ethan took it and said, “Mine is Ethan, are you alright?”

“Yeah I’m fine; those jerks are just mad because I blasted them to kingdom come in last night’s tournament. How about you let me buy you some juice as token of my appreciation?”

Ethan rubbed the back of his head and looked around him. “Uhm” he said. “Yeah sure why not?”

Picario’s face lit up and a huge smile crossed his lips. “Awesome, lets go,” he said.

The two of them came back into the lounge in silence and went down the hall with the sign above it posted: Ghost Points Shops. When they turned the corner to the hall they came out into a normal sized square room lined with green carpet and mossy green colored walls. Inside the room were five doors with the same general design, size, and materials; as well as more signs above them.

Ethan read the sings above each door starting from the far left; Materials, Weapons, Magic artifacts, Assistants, General.

Picario led Ethan to the room on the first right; the General shop and opened the door. Inside was a room about as big as the lounge on the first floor. There were rows of shelves up to four feet in height on both the right and left side of the room and a direct path forward to a counter with only a strange black cube sitting on it.

The left rows of shelves were stocked with glass bottles that appeared to range in three different sizes with a multitude of colors. The right rows of shelves were stocked with bags of chips that like the left had three sizes and a multitude of colors on them.

“Go ahead and pick out any size and flavor you want, hell grab some chips if you like,” Picario said while disappearing into the rows of bottled juices. Ethan walked down the first row of juices and on the bars between the shelves by the smallest bottles was written: 1 liters. 10 Ghost Points

Ethan walked over to the second size bottles and read, 2 liters . 15 Ghost Points Then Ethan walked to the third and biggest sized bottle that read, 3 liters. 25 Ghost Points

Ethan picked up one of the bottles and read the flavor out loud to himself, “Cactus juice?” Ethan shrugged then put the bottle back and went down the other juice rows and as he did he noticed each row was filled with a single flavor of juice in the three sizes. Eventually Ethan found a flavor that suited him and he grabbed a 1 liter bottle and walked up to the counter and placed it down next to a row of several other 1 liter bottles.

Ethan looked at the amount of bottles placed on the counter with surprise when Picario came up holding five more bottles and placed them at the counter then winked at Ethan before then running over to the rows of chips. Ethan studied the bottles and saw that there were a total of twenty-two, and all but six of them were peach flavored. Moments later Picario came back to the counter his arms filled with bags of chips.

He placed the chips on the counter then pulled out a translucent card from his pocket and pushed it down into the top of the cube until only a small part of it was sticking out. The black cube had several rainbow lines suddenly appear on it and race towards the translucent card. When the lines touched the card it turned into a rainbow of colors as well for a few seconds then went back to its translucent as the rainbow lines on the black cube receded.

Picario pulled out the card, placed it back into his pocket and tapped the counter with his finger a couple times. A moment later three large orange colored paper bags with handles and a white smiling skull on the front materialized under the chips and sodas covering them. Picario grabbed one of the bags and turned to Ethan then said, “Give me a hand?”

Ethan shook his head but grinned and grabbed the two bags filled with the juices. The two then walked out of the shop and headed towards the lounge. “You know this is a lot of stuff for what I assumed was supposed to be a quick drink.” Ethan said.

“Yes I tend to go a little over board when I shop.” Picario said. “It’s fine though, whatever we don’t eat or drink I can add to my snacks and refreshments shelf back in my room.”

The two of them finished the walk to the lounge in silent and sat down at the nearest table with chairs. Ethan placed the bags he was holding on the table and searched through them to find his grape juice. Ethan twisted the cap off his bottle took a sip then placed it down on the table and said. “This is actually really great.”

Picario who was taking massive gulps from his peach juice bottle just gave Ethan a thumbs up. When he finished the bottle Picario put it down on the table reached into the bag grabbing another bottle of juice and began chugging that down as well. Ethan chuckled and then grabbed his own juice when he calmed down and took a few gulps from it.

“So what room are you in anyways?” Picario said after he finished his second bottle of juice.

Ethan pulled the key out of his pocket and looked at the tag again then said, “Room 30,425.”

“Floor 28?” Picario asked while grabbing a bag of chips.

“No uh, floor 1.”

“Why haven’t you upgraded floors yet you seem pretty strong, I’m sure you could afford something at least on the 60th floor.”

Ethan took another drink of his grape juice then said, “I didn’t know I could upgrade floors.”

Picario put his bag of chips down, which he just opened and quietly starred at Ethan. The long silent stare began to unnerve Ethan when Picario finally asked, “How long have you been dead?”

Ethan looked away from Picario, took in a deep breath and said, “Isn’t a question like that considered impolite around here?”

Picario went back to his chips and in a softer voice said, “Not very long then.”

Ethan finished off his juice and then said, “I died on Monday morning and then I woke up in the middle of complete darkness and saw the mansion. When I came in here that giant guy with the grim reaper sort of appearance said ‘it was Saturday, there was a tournament walk through this portal you can’t die again’ or something like that and I walked through it out of curiosity and the battle erupted moments later.

I’ll admit after I was able to contain my fear it all became exciting and the powers I had were exhilarating but when I was defeated and found myself back here in the lounge I was back to being scarred and confused. Then I left the mansion and-”

“And like a fool went to see your loved ones and tried to contact them.” Picario finished for Ethan.

Ethan looked at Picario again, “You speak from experience?”

“Yeah, I think we all go through sort of the same thing after we die. In truth after I died I avoided the mansion because I thought it was the gate to hell. I mean everywhere I went the thing would magically show up behind me. Eventually though I went inside and was surprised to find so many others that were dead like me.

It was weeks before I had the courage enough to enter the tournament or any of the other games and months more after that before I discovered my powers. But after time and routines of living here you get the hang of things. Anyways, that’s all ancient history and you my friend could use a guide to your stay at the “After life mansion” as I like to call it.”

“I’m all ears, mind if I have another juice?”

“You may,” Picario said while gesturing to the bag filled with the bottles of juice.

“So then the first order of business, the mansion. It is made of 100 floors and phantoms such as you and I may purchase rooms on any of the 99 floors using the ghost points we earn from tournaments and other competitions from what is collectively known as the ‘Phantom Wars'. Now then rumor has it that the 100th floor is where the caretaker resides in but I have only been up there for the special parties so I don’t know for sure.

The floors and the rooms get slightly fancier and bigger every time you go up one but this doesn’t mean you have to buy a room on each new floor before advancing higher, heck you could go from floor 1 to floor 99 right away if you have enough points. Although why anyone would want to stay in a dump on floor one until they can afford a room on floor 99 is beyond me, but whatever.

Anyways, you will get to see for yourself how much better the floors and rooms get. Next, do you remember that card I put into the black cube back at the shop?”

“Yeah that weird see through thing, right?”

“Correct. That card is what holds all the points you get from every tournament and other competitions; it is also what allows you to purchase things such as these snacks I bought, or the keys to another room on a higher floor. However that’s only the surface of all the amazing things you can purchase here, there are phantoms or others who have turned their personal rooms into shops where you can buy many wondrous different things. In fact I think I have posters of every shop there is; I’ll go grab them to show you while you run to your room and grab your card if you haven’t gotten it already. I will meet back with you in the lounge in a few minutes.”

Then before Ethan could even respond Picario pulled out an oval shaped amber crystal from his left pocket and disappeared in swirling orbs of light that left a small trail behind them.

Ethan let out a sigh then stood up from the table and walked back to the corridor with all the rooms. When he finally got to his room he pulled out his key and unlocked the door. The room inside was small, had a medium sized bed and a sink and mirror on one side of it. On the bed was a piece of paper under a translucent card just like Picario’s.

Ethan walked into the room and grabbed the paper under the card and read it.

This card will hold all of the ghost points you earn from official tournaments, battle games, or shops on it. You may check your balance of points using the card anytime you wish. To use this card, after placing the item(s) you desire to purchase on the counter, table, or designated checkout surface place your card into the black cube and the points will be automatically deducted.

If you lose this card, it is stolen, or destroyed a new one will be waiting for you inside your newest room. However should this happen whatever points you accumulated on the old card will be lost forever so exercise caution. The key(s) to your rooms will also be charged to your card if ever lost, stolen or destroyed; Note that the card and keys will automatically disappear when you enter any aspect of the phantom wars and reappear when you leave them.

Enjoy your stay, CARETAKER

Ethan folded the note up then placed it on his bed and grabbed the card. He examined it briefly then placed it in his pants pocket and left the room. After locking his room Ethan went back to the lounge.

When Ethan got back to the lounge it was a bit noisier than before and he noticed there were more phantoms around. Ethan sat back down at the table where all of the stuff Picario bought was and pulled out another bottle of peach juice. When Ethan was over two thirds done with the bottle Picario appeared in the middle of the lounge in the same light he disappeared in.

Picario was carrying numerous medium sized posters and said, “Sorry I’m late, Nessie wanted to play as soon as I got to my room.”

“Is Nessie like your girlfriend?” Ethan asked teasingly.

Picario smiled and said, “No, Nessie is my dragon.”