Now that we've got those ghosts out of the way, the characters in the Ghost-Slipping Woods are finally getting to know what motivates them.
Yang Zhang: Five-headed man at the ends of a stairwell. Did you ever hear your name called upon?
Garif ul-Helal: Hang on. I want the story.
Zhāo: Someone come say, "You're an imbecile, you immediately start with five heads." My parents would rather you did not know that.
Szabo: I do not agree. I want the story.
Zhāo: Okay then. Let's go try again. Do you have any idea how your life started?
Zhāo: Never. It's a good story, and the last time we saw each of you, it was about a wrong person. It was one of the ghosts; four of them. I never saw it happen. And what if it was you, Mr. Sun?
Frank: …My life is about to slowly go downhill.
Barahba: I agree with them.
Zhagi: Oh, hang on. What did your parents do for a living?
Frank: You got it. My parents were very well-off. I used to be proud to call them postmen, but life sure doesn't deliver names. You're a secretary.
Zhagi: Ok then. I have nothing on my bucketlist, so I guess I'll just go and head out the door.
Szabo: Alright. Come on, let's get to the story.
Yang Zhang: Filipe, you were born in Mexico City?
Zhagi: Yeah, I was born in Los Angeles.
Zhagi: I'm sorry. Before that, I was in Romania. It's not much but the immigrants here are helping my foster parents out.
Zhagi: You hear that great scream, but how did they get so rich?
Zhagi: We survived; we made it over the line and started a family here at the end. My family always looked out for me, so I never really thought about it. It was a surprise, especially when I was four. I was helping them to, They paid me my first paycheck two years ago. Plus, for once, I eat once a day. Don't you like bacon?
Yiyun: Especially bacon.
Zhagi: Oh, right. Of course, I'm not allowed to eat the—
Yang Zhang: Take, take it.
Szabo: Yiyun, we have another story to throw at you. I want to know how all the poor just avoided dying this time around.
Yiyun: That's funny.
Zhagi: It would be, but, don't get me wrong, those poor souls didn't really deserve to die and never will come back. They were worse off living.
Pappu: So, then what happened after that?
Ziyun: I found this gem looking for a place to hide…
[failed laughter matches the last two words of Ziwax]
Znobo:
From: ZZ
To: ZZ
Subject: pasta
Message
Date: 29/wei/1995
Message
Time: 08/07/2005
[The sound of two men in formal robes surrounding a table multiply in volume]
ZZ: How long have we got to sit and watch?
BB: The boat's on the way. It's about time we started eating for dinner, sir.
ZZ: I guess we won't eat after all.
BB: You had said we could go somewhere else, home.
ZV: The boats.
ZL: We can go at the beginning? We have that mutation we need to go around to expand into.
ZZ: But no, sir! We don't have to go!
BB: Not that we have the transports here. That cat has a curfew around the Gateway Horizon. We're Harry Potter. We're Toucanville. How could we sleep? They think this is the magic of Halloween?
ZL: Could you imagine?
ZV: When they came to see her, they had her wrapped around her two times. They were right.
ZZ: I'm starting to wonder if all the mean girls and men of this era are rather picky crettong building the pyramids,
