Keith awoke in a white room. His brain felt foggy and his vision was blurry. Sitting up, he was surprised his limbs felt so light. He couldn't remember a time when that ever happened to him. But that didn't matter, where was he? He squinted as he looked around, waiting for his vision to clear. After a few seconds, it did and he found himself in a hospital room. Memories from the night before hit him like a punch in the gut. Had it been the night before? How long had he been there?

"Effie." He said aloud. The truck hit her side. She got the brunt of the impact. Was she okay? He had to find out. Luckily, that was the moment she decided to come through the door. Literally. "Effie. What- how ━?"

"Oh wonderful. You're finally awake." She walked to his side and sat in a chair left there. For people who visited, he thought.

"You just ━"

She did jazz hands, "Ta-da! I'm dead."

His heart stopped. His breathing stopped. Everything stopped. It didn't matter what he had seen. His closest friend could not be dead. That's...what?

"But you're right here." He finally said. "Why would you say something like that? Don't joke about it, Effie."

She shook her head, smiling sadly. "The truck hit us pretty hard, Keith. I died instantly. I'm just a Soul now."

"But you're right here," he insisted. A small part of him wondering why she would be talking about her soul at a time like this.

"I am here. For now. To explain and say goodbye to you and my family. But I'm not alive anymore. One hundred percent dead."

"If you passed through the door, how are you sitting on that chair?"

"I'm not actually. I'm hovering half a centimeter above it. When I walked too. It's pretense to make it easier for you. I know this can be a little hard to get used to." Keith looked at her closely. She was...see through. She shimmered like mist in the sunlight.

Tears threatened to spill over. "How long has it been?"

"Two weeks. My funeral is next Wednesday. I leave when it ends."

"You can't stay?"

She gave him another sad smile, "I'm dead, slug. I don't belong here anymore."

"Of course you belong here. You're my friend."

"Shiro visits everyday." She changed the subject. "He brings Allura and Matt sometimes. His parents came by last week. But they had to go back. They didn't have enough money to stay and hospital bills aren't cheap."

The tears spilled over. At least he was awake now and they wouldn't have to pay anymore. But his friend was dead. "Effie. I wish you weren't dead."

She chuckled, "You aren't the only one."

"You're a great friend you know that?" Were. She no longer is. It made Keith upset to notice his mistake.

"Oh I know. I had to beg them to let me talk to you so you would understand your situation. I wouldn't want you to get stuck an Eidolon."

In his confusion, his tears ceased falling. "Them? My situation? Eidolon?"

"Well, as most people call them. Ghosts."

"What?"

She frowned, "Haven't you noticed? Keith, you're a ghost."

"What are you..." Keith looked down at himself. His legs looked fine. They were under a blanket but he felt them there. To make sure, he reached out to remove the blanket and that's when he noticed his arm. It shimmered, just like Effie, and if he focused- his torso, through it, he saw...himself. More specifically, his upper half. There he was, laying on the bed. He looked up at Effie. "I'm... dead?"

The thought of himself being dead didn't hit him as hard as the thought of Effie being dead. Keith had almost no one. While he wasn't particularly glad he was dead and he quite liked being alive, there wasn't much for him there. Sure there was Shiro and his best friends, Allura and Matt, had been warming up to him but really, Shiro was the one who had everyone. Keith was one of those people but Keith could be okay as long as Shiro could live out his life. He didn't want Effie to be dead though because she had so much ahead of her. She was a comic artist and was working on a graphic novel and now that was gone. Although a small selfish part of Keith was happy he wouldn't have to go through his death alone.

But Effie shook her head. "Not yet. You're in a coma Keith."

"Then why ━" He made a face, unable to form the rest of his question.

"Let me explain." It seemed she took a deep breath but if she was dead, Keith didn't know how that worked. "When someone is in a coma, their body is asleep. Obviously. But sometimes, if something has been plaguing the person long enough or if they feel they have something to do, the Soul remains awake, or in your case wakes up later, and does the thing. The Soul is not corporeal which is why no one can see you but because there is still a lot of action going on," she points from my head to my feet, "You're thinking, you're still moving and cameras can pick up on the energy and sometimes they get captured so while you do whatever, I suggest you stay away from cameras." She chuckles, "Well, mostly people's pictures. And once you separate completely from your body, you won't be able to go back in until you've accomplished what you woke up to do. Once you return though, you'll wake up."

"But I touched the blanket," he looked down, at the blanket bunched at his waist from when he sat up. "If you can't touch anything, how can I?"

"You aren't in the Soul Realm quite yet. You're a Soul amongst the Living so you can still interact with things. The Living can't see you do it though, so be careful with that too."

"What happens if I never do what I woke up to do?"

"That depends. Sometimes you go on to the Soul Realm but other times, something goes wrong and you get stuck here. That's where ghosts come from and what you are now. An Eidolon."

"All ghosts can't possibly come from people in comas."

Effie nodded, "Yeah no. Sometimes they just refuse to say goodbye and so they're stuck."

"Why do you keep calling them that?"

"What?"

"Soul. Eidolon."

"That's what they call them. We I guess."

"Who's they?"

"Can't tell you."

Keith's eyebrows rose but he let it go. It didn't seem like something she would disclose. He changed the subject. "So what do I have to do?"

She stood. "Ah that. That. I can't tell you that either. You have to figure that out on your own."

"How?"

Effie smirked. She knew exactly why. "Considering it's the reason you woke up as an Eidolon, shouldn't you know already?"

"Effie, c'mon."

"Sorry slug," she started walking backwards, "can't tell you. Not allowed."

He reached out to stop her but she was too far. "When will I see you again?" She only smiled and a second later, she was gone.

He sat there in disbelief.

Effie was dead. He wasn't. But he was a ghost. A Soul. An Eidolon, as Effie called him. And he had something to do if he wanted to wake up in his body anytime soon. What did he have to do? How would he figure it out?

Well he wasn't going to figure out anything sitting on that bed. He reached for the blanket for the second time since he had woken up. But he stopped, again, when the door opened.

It was Shiro.

"Shiro, Effie's dead." He said it before he remembered Shiro could not see him. And he probably knew already.

Shiro walked to the chair Effie had just been sitting in. He looked at Keith's face. The one on the pillow. Keith looked back his own face. He looked peaceful, not like he was stressing over what he had to do to wake up. He looked at Shiro then. He looked worried and pained to be seeing Keith there. He wished he could do something to let him know he was okay but he didn't want to scare him.

"Hey Keithster. I don't really have anything to tell you today. Other than the fact that we all miss you and hope you wake up soon." He sighed. "So I came to keep you company and read to you I guess." He pulled out a book from the bag he had with him. There was a girl in a pale pink dress and the title the Winner's Curse. "Coran recommended it. He said it was good so I thought why not. Keith likes this war stuff."

He started reading and suddenly Keith felt guilty. He didn't think he would be there to listen to the entire story. But while Shiro was there, he listened and he found the story very interesting. He could tell Shiro liked it too. He stopped a couple times to make comments. He made theories and whooped when he got them right. And when a nurse came in to tell him visitation hours were over, he promised to come back the next day and continue the book.

Keith thanked him, even if he couldn't see him. Or hear him. 

When the door closed, he planned on getting up and doing something to help his situation but he felt sleepy all of a sudden and he wondered why ghosts had to sleep if they didn't have a body to tire out. But when his eyes started closing on their own, he stopped questioning it and let sleep take him. He could figure things out tomorrow.