"So you're telling me, that my boyfriend is a psychopath?" I said, raising one eyebrow. Zane and I had been dating for two years and we lived together, but my best friend, Ellie, had apparently seen him act like he was crazy on the street and I didn't believe her.

"I saw him playing with knifes, and balancing on a chair on top of a building. Gen, that is not normal!" Ellie said in a loud voice. She was starting to get frustrated, but I just couldn't imagine my boyfriend doing such things. I laughed lightly from just thinking about it. "Genevieve, I'm not joking!"

"Okay, okay. I believe you." I lied just so she could stop talking.

"You don't." She knew me so well that I couldn't lie to her anymore. At least I was sure that, after the nine years of friendship, she knew me better than I knew myself.

"I do, and I am going to talk to him tonight, alright?"

Her eyes met mine and she tried to analyze my expressions to see if I was telling the truth. I wasn't entirely lying. I didn't believe her, but I was going to talk to Zane either way. We were planning a big party for his mother, and we had to finish the decorations.

"Fine." Ellie finally said. "Gen, it was so nice to see you and talk about your weird boyfriend, but I have to go have a movie date with my normal boyfriend." She joked and we both laughed. My boyfriend was totally normal, wasn't he?

*********************
"I'm home!" I yelled when I walked into the house. My boyfriend was sitting on the couch reading, as usual. He looked up at me and smiled.

"What did you buy?" He asked, looking at the white bags I was carrying.

"These are the fireworks for your mom's party tomorrow, this is going to be massive!" Honestly, I was more excited for the food than for the party itself. It was Zane's mother 70th birthday, so we had to make it awesome. A chef was coming, which meant we were eating good food at home for the first time in years. Neither of us knew how to cook more than scrambled eggs.

"Nice! Can I see them?" Zane asked wide-eyed, carefully marking a page on his book and closing it. I placed the bags on the table and he quickly grabbed them. "You bought bottle rockets!"

"I didn't know you were so passionate about fireworks." I laughed, feeling a little bit scared on the inside. We had never bought fireworks before, and he never talked about them. The sudden liking for explosives was making me think about what Ellie said, but it couldn't be right. My boyfriend was not crazy.

"Can I try one of them?" He said excitedly, ready to take the bag outside.

"They are supposed to be used at night." I laughed lightly and he pouted.

"Alright... I'll save them for tomorrow night." He said sounding defeated and then rolled his eyes.

I sat next to him and started thinking. He was definitely acting different. The mood swings, the explosives and what Ellie had told me. Anyone would believe he was insane, but it was almost impossible. I knew him, and he wasn't always like that. My mind started formulating all types of excuses and explanations, from thinking he was just having a bad day, to actually believing Ellie.

My phone started ringing. It was the balloon company we had hired. Our first idea was to have a few balloons decorating the outside of the house, but we got excited and ended up buying a lot of them.

"Hello?" I said, answering the call. Zane had already stopped paying attention and focused on his book again. I talked to the company, and they said that they were bringing the balloons a day earlier because of another party they had to attend. I had twenty minutes to figure out what to do with 85 big balloons.

********************

"You can put the blue balloons in front of the door and those red ones over there." I said pointing at a tree. The delivery had arrived, and fortunately, there were two workers helping me decorate. Zane was still inside of the house, reading normally, but I couldn't stop wondering why he was acting so strange.

"We have 10 white balloons left and then we're done." One worker said. We distributed them in the front yard and then they left.

When I came back in the house, my boyfriend wasn't in the living room anymore. I looked around confused and then noticed that the fireworks were not there either. For some reason, I was worried. The uncomfortable feeling took over my body and filled it with anxiety. What if he was really crazy? He could probably be dangerous, and I wouldn't have time to save myself. I had to stop him from doing whatever he was trying to do.

"Zane! Where are you?" I yelled as I ran through the house. Finally, I found him. He was in the guest room with the fireworks and a match box. What was he doing?

I screamed when he took out a match. My eyes closed almost unconsciously, not wanting to see what would happen. Then, everything went black.

********************

My eyes opened because of the noise. Balloons popping. What had happened?

I stood up only to see that I was alone in the, now destroyed and on fire, guest room. Zane had detonated the explosives. My heart was pounding out of my chest. I remembered everything. I remembered being hurt, but I didn't have any scratches. There was a big flame coming out of the burnt bed. I looked down and, with a gasp, I stared at what was on the floor.

It was my body, red burned skin and eyes closed. And next to it, Zane's body. Burned too. Was I dead?

It couldn't be possible. I walked out of the room and Zane was standing in front of the large window. Almost the whole house was ruined. It felt like a dream, or a nightmare.

"Well now we have to wait." He said casually. I stared in disbelief, feeling like everything was fake and this was some sort of messed-up prank.

"Wait for what?" I asked, frowning. He looked over at me. Perfect shape, totally healthy. Anyone would have thought that was a living human.

"Leaving." The answer did not help with my confusion. "Afterlife. Wherever we have to go next."

"Zane, what do you mean?"

"We're dead Genevieve!" He almost yelled at me and walked towards me. I could hear the crunching sound of the burning bedroom behind me.

"We can't be. I see you, you see me. We're okay." I said, wanting to believe my words. He stayed in silence. I had never noticed how loud silence actually was.

"We're ghosts. We're already gone. We're waiting to go." He said. I felt like crying, but no tears would come out of my eyes. No words would come out of my mouth either. I managed to mutter something under my breath, something I thought was inaudible.

"It's your fault."

"What was that, Genevieve? This isn't my fault!" He was mad.

"Oh yeah? Then whose fault is it?" I said raising my eyebrow.

"Well if we're playing the blame game, then it's your fault for leaving me alone with explosives in the first place!" He said and I covered my mouth. My cheeks went red in anger.

"How would I know you were going to burn the house down? Normal people don't do that! Can't you think clearly?" I closed my fists. I heard sirens approaching. Zane looked at me and laughed lightly.

"I'm not a psychopath." He truly looked convinced about that, but I knew he wasn't sane. "Routine life has made me want to change it. There's nothing wrong with that."

"Nothing wrong with that? We're dead!" I yelled. The sirens we're getting louder each second. The fire was spreading.

"Well, at least it's different..."

"If you wanted something different we could have moved to another state or something!" I said and he laughed.

"But now, what can we do? We're dead. It's over." He said, sounding a little sad. He was right. Death. There was nothing left to do, and I had to accept it.

"Well what's happening next?" I asked, sounding stupid. Honestly, how could he know?

"We have to wait." He said, calming down and looking at the fire truck parking outside of our house.

"Do you think we'll stay like this forever?"

"Like, ghosts? Maybe." He said. I was impatient. The firemen were putting out the fire in our house. The fact that they couldn't see us confirmed we were actually ghosts.

Zane and I walked towards our bodies. A man trying to bring us back to life.

"I think it might work. Maybe we aren't completely dead." That was my last bit of hope. He could save us, somehow. I was probably just trying to be optimistic.

We watched for a little while. I started feeling like I was going to faint. My eyes closed unconsciously and darkness blocked my vision.