Ever stood on the peak, letting the wind blow through him. The sun was all but gone, yet he was still able to see. As a soul himself, shadows and darkness had depth to them. They were almost like curtains hanging from the sky in long swathes.

  He looked up to the gray cloud cover. Surely Peter wasn’t sitting up there? He had already come this far, might as well check. Ever floated up, swaying slightly. The clouds allowed him to pass through them without any friction. Seconds later, he had broken through. The sky was vast, the stars countless. It was a different world up here: tranquil and serene. Again, there was no one up there but him.

  Maybe I missed him on the way up? Ever started moving down back through the clouds. A few minutes later, he could see the mountain directly beneath him again. In a moment of madness, he decided to switch back to human form.

  He fell. This time wicked fear gripped his frail, human body. The wind buffeted him and suddenly, he was rotating head over feet in the air. Air rushed into his lungs and he couldn’t get it out. His eyes weren’t able to acclimatize to the darkness. As far as he knew, he was falling into an abyss.

  Using his last ounce of clarity, he switched back to soul form. His plummet slowed right down to a float. His senses weren’t assaulted by the free fall anymore and he could make sense of the world through ghost eyes again.

  “Hey there.”

  “Aaargh!” Ever yelled. He summoned Death’s scythe and held it up in front of him.

  “What’s the matter?” The guy was wearing a vest that exposed his lean arms and muscular shoulders. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he chuckled.

  “Wait,” Ever said, “are you Peter?”

  “Mmhmm,” Peter said, “you found me.”

  “How did you know I was looking for you?”

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  “I didn’t know you were looking for me specifically,” the ghost of the climber said, eyeing the scythe in Ever’s hands. “But I know my family was - and they found me. Or my body at least.”

  “I heard about your death on the news,” Ever said. “I’m Ever by the way, Death’s apprentice.”

  “Pleasure to meet you,” Peter said with a nod and a smile. “Didn’t know reapers also listened to human news.”

  “I work at an ice cream shop on Lygon Street as well.”

  “Two jobs, huh? Damn, the economy must be pretty bad, hey?”

  Ever smiled faintly, then looked around. There were no shadows here, just completely solid darkness. “Where are we?”

  “We are inside of Mount Kragg.”

  It finally dawned on Ever: he had fallen through the mountain in soul form and found Peter inside.

  “I was looking for you at the top,” Ever said.

  “I already made it to the top a couple weeks ago. Had a bad fall unfortunately, rookie mistake, but you already knew that. Now being inside a mountain? I’d never experienced that, and now I have.” A slight smile on his ghostly lips as he spread his arms open.

  “I’m here to take you to the Underworld, but only if you’re ready to go.”

  “Are there mountains down there?”

  “Ummm…” Ever scratched his head.

  The scythe pulsed and came to life, surprising Ever. What did the scythe know that he didn’t? He studied it and its menu appeared:

  SENSES

  —--

  —--

  Touch

  —--

  —--

  Ever selected the ‘Touch’ option. The scythe shrunk until it became… a hunk of rock. Peter wrapped his hands around it gently, a big grin on his face. “This is sedimentary rock, from a mountain! Not from around Australia though. I reckon it’s… European?” He had just started to fade.

  “How are you so happy, even in death?” Ever asked.

  Peter looked up from the rock to Ever. “I’d lived everyday my way, there wasn’t much left for me to -”

  The rock changed back into the scythe. Ever collected it and began slowly floating back towards the city, faintly illuminated by tiny lights.