Chapter 11. YUSUF'S GRAVE

I watched my body being dumped in a hole. My mom was screaming at the top of her voice, calling my name. Mitchell and my dad walked behind her comforting her. It was a sad moment for everyone, including me. After they buried me, the pastor said a short prayer, and everyone left. I was now alone in the cemetery with Yusuf.

"Now can we find my grave?" Yusuf asked. He had maintained his silence during my whole funeral that I almost forgot I had him.

"Where were you buried?"

'"I don't know, but it's somewhere here. This is the only cemetery in town."

"There are a lot of graves in here. How am I going to find yours?"

"I don't know. You just find it. I don't care." Yusuf responded.

"You don't care? This is your problem, not mine."

"It's your problem as much as it's mine. If you don't find my remains, I'll have to live inside you forever." Yusuf said and laughed hysterically, and I groaned. He was right; it was my problem.

I walked through the cemetery between the graves, looking for Yusuf's grave. There were a lot of graves. I spotted a few graves of people I knew, and I could not help but wonder where they were now. I had not seen them on side B, which meant they were possibly trapped. I spotted my grandma's grave. She had died a long time ago when I was young.

"Rest in peace, grandma," I mumbled as I removed the old flowers. Some memories ran into my mind. The good times we had with my grandma.

"We don't have time to waste on your dead grandmother. Hurry up and find my grave."

"Shut up, Yusuf," I spoke. However, I stood up and continued walking around. After a while, I saw an old dirty grave. "Yusuf Ahmed Brown " was written on the gravestone.

"Yusuf Ahmed Brown?"

"My mom was a Muslim. She named me after his father." Yusuf spoke.

"Okay," I said and walked around looking for something to use to dig up the grave. In the cemetery, there was nothing I could use. Yusuf suggested that we steal some from the cemetery guard's house. The guard's house was just near the cemetery. I was nervous about the whole idea. I was afraid the guard might be well-versed with ghosts, having guarded the cemetery for years. Luckily, when I walked into his house, he was dead asleep with a bottle of alcohol beside him. I quickly grabbed a few tools and stormed outside and back to the cemetery.

I started digging up Yusuf's grave while he talked to me. I was not paying attention to his boring stories.

It was not an easy task to dig up a twenty-four-year-old grave. My body was sweating tremendously, and I had to remove some of my clothes.

Eventually, I reached the coffin. I jumped in and opened it.

"Shit! Dude you stink." I exclaimed.

"I been dead for decades, what do you expect?"

"How are we going to do this? This is just a skeleton." I said, looking inside the coffin.

"Just get the skeleton and I'll jump into it. Just move out of the grave." Yusuf said. I took his skeleton into my hands and stepped back to the ground.

"Then get the hell out of my body," I spoke, and immediately my body started shaking. After a few seconds, a figure covered in fog jumped out of me and into the skeleton that I was holding tightly in my hands. My body stopped shaking, giving me relief.

The skeleton jumped from my hands and started rolling furiously into the ground. After a while, it started developing into a real human body. The rolling began slowing down. After a few seconds, it stopped shaking. The skeleton was now completely turned into a mid-aged man.

"Yusuf is that you?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah. It's me. I am back to my young form. This is how I looked before I died. Thank you for saving me, nephew."

"I knew you had a ghost." Someone spoke behind me before I even contemplated what had just happened. I recognized his voice; it was nosy, Robby. I turned around to face him, wondering why on earth he could not stay the hell out of my business.

"R.....o...Rob...Robby." I called with my lips shaking. I was so worried.

"I can explain. Robby please."

"I knew you had a ghost even before we got here. I smelled it when we found you in the woods." Robby's words rang in my ears. It was impossible to believe what he was saying.

"You mean you knew I had a ghost and you didn't say anything? Not even to Billy?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. Billy is crazy. He would have left you to get trapped with him." He said, reminding me that I had Yusuf.

"Where did he go?" Robby asked with his eyes widened.

I turned around, and Yusuf was not there.

"Shit! That bastard ran away." I said. " We need to him, Robby."

"Who the hell is he?"

"Yusuf, My uncle."

"Your uncle?"

"Yes, as he claimed. He claimed to be dad's half-brother. I never knew him but I believe him. He shared the last name with my dad. He also knows everything about my family."

"Is that why you allowed him in your body?"

"I had no option. He forced me to help or else he was going to trap me with him. "

I said.

"Can you not tell anyone about this?"

"I didn't tell anyone before what makes you think I am going to tell them now?"

"Um....thank you, Robby."

Robby agreed to help me look for Yusuf. We walked along the streets, following a scent. Robby had collected some hair from Yusuf's grave to help us track him down. Robby was being so nice to me. We talked a lot as we looked for Yusuf. I explained to him how Yusuf had threatened to go after my dad, and he said he was sorry. After all, he was not so bad. I could even make him my friend now. I thought.

The scent led us into one of the town's bars.

"What the hell is your uncle doing in a bar?" Robby asked as we walked in.

"Don't call him my uncle. I have not accepted him as my uncle yet."

"You said you believed him."

"Yes but that does not mean I have to call him uncle."

We continued talking as we walked around looking for Yusuf. A sudden yelling from the counter caught our attention. It was a woman screaming, and there was a bleeding man on the counter. We walked over to the counter. I looked over at the bleeding guy, and he was gasping for air. It did not take him long to stop breathing.

I looked around, and there was no sign of having a killer around.

"He was just standing here.....serving beer and all of sudden he was on the counter bleeding." The woman who had been screaming spoke.

"I didn't see anything. No one touched him." A waitress said. She was crying.

"It's your stupid uncle," Robby spoke, and immediately I spotted Yusuf sitting at one corner, comfortably sipping his beer. We walked to where he was.

"What the hell, Yusuf?" I asked angrily.

"Had to clean some mess I left uncleaned." He responded and laughed.

"You can't go around killing innocent people because now you are free," I said

"Innocent people " Yusuf repeated my words and then laughed sarcastically.

"No one is innocent, Chase." He added.

"It was a mistake freeing you. I thought you wanted to come to see your family?"

"Family?" Yusuf asked and laughed hysterically. He was being a nuisance and starting to grow on me.

"Yes. Family." I said firmly.

"I don't have a family. Never had one. No wife no kids."

"You lied?" I asked.

"That's what we do to get what you want." He said.

"What about my dad? You being his half-brother?"

"Your dad happened to be my perfect bait. I knew him before I died. We shared our last names. So, when I saw you back on the other side I knew it was one of those good days. You were everything I wanted to finally get free and cross over. You were my perfect bait too, Chase." He explained.

"Thank you for helping me, nephew, " He added and laughed sarcastically. I could not believe I had been played. I felt a wave of great anger and an irresistible urge to hit him develop in me, and without warning, I punched his face.

"A punch is not going to change the fact that he played you. I'm sorry but we need to go." Robby spoke.

" We need to stop him from going after my dad."

"I am not going after your dad. I have no business with him. He owes me nothing."

" I will make sure I entrap you myself if you touch my family." I threatened.

"I just said that I got no business with your family. I am not going to touch them or even see them." Yusuf reassured.

"And you can't trap me. There's no way to do that." He added and then walked away.