THE TURNING AWAY
by Casy Dee

He trudged through the streets, head down, hands shoved into the pockets of his black wool jacket, loosely curled dark hair obscuring his face; all the better to avoid catching anyone’s gaze. Now and again his head would come up, scowl firmly in place, his eyes scanning the horizon listlessly. He didn’t much care where he was going; he just wanted to get as far away as he could. He had definite plans to walk until he’d worn himself down to oblivion, and then to rinse and repeat until Arizona became waterfront property and his only company was cockroaches.

The bars installed over the broken windows of every building he passed, or the vacant eyes of the derelicts, druggies and prostitutes on the corners and alleyways should have clued him in that he was in one of the worst parts of the city. Had he been concerned about his safety, he might have paid a little more attention, especially after nightfall. Luckily for him, he wasn’t. He liked the night, and the denizens of old city didn’t scare him. Safety was no longer an issue for Gabriel Camden; he was already dead, and no living thing could touch him.

He thought it appropriate that he walk about at night rather than full day. He’d watched enough movies and television to know that pop culture dictated that proper ghosts haunted at night, but he wasn’t exactly a proper ghost. Gabriel Camden wasn’t sure what he was, other than dead. Rules that governed other spirits didn’t always apply to him; he was something different.

He had developed a few theories over the past hundred or so years; he’d had plenty of time to think on it. He’d not exactly been normal in life; as a spirit-talker he’d used his connection to the dead to guide restless spirits to the other side, so it followed that being different would continue after his death. His other theory was that the way he’d died was to blame. His soul had been permanently bound to his skull; the magic involved in the binding could be responsible for the differences between him and the average restless spirit.

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