I See Dead People

"I think it would be nice to have your first night here eating with everyone else."

Harry needed to stop believing Ms. Elizabeth; seriously, he really did. This has got to be the one-hundredth time she has been wrong. It was not nice to be sitting with this many people.

At first, the other kids didn't seem to notice that Harry was there, as they quickly dug into their spaghetti. But apparently the adults typically leave the children alone to eat, and since Ms. Elizabeth was hovering behind his back, it unfortunately got the attention of the others.

As quickly as he didn't have their attention, he gained it. Their stares made Harry itchy again. He tried not to look at them, but it was hard because they surrounded him. His hand found his neck as he raked his fingernails across his skin. He really hoped they would stop soon, but he wasn't too sure.

Ms. Elizabeth cleared her throat, gaining the attention of the crowd. "Harry," she said in a warning tone. "I suggest you take your hands off of your neck; you stop scratching yourself right now, young man. I will have none of it, and everyone else! Stop staring at him; he has all the features a child has; he isn't any different."

Harry quickly clasped his hands together, even though he was still itchy. He looked down at his hands, trying to hide behind his unruly hair. The other children gave their apologies and solemnly turned back to their food.

Harry jumped a bit as someone poked his leg. He turned in his seat to meet the face of an Asian kid with jet black hair and brown eyes.

"If I were you, newbie, I would start chowing down." The boy whispered. "They don't like it when you don't eat, and the way you acted earlier—oh, don't be surprised, yes, I saw it—you're on thin ice. I'm surprised she didn't drag you to the quiet room; that's what happened to Tertia the first day she got here."

Harry blinked at the boy; he didn't know what just happened—what was the quiet room? Who is Tertia? Who is this kid? It seemed that the kid realized that he was not having a proper conversation and decided to remedy that, although Harry just wished he would leave him alone.

"Oh, I forgot! I know you didn't ask, but you seem like the silent type, so you probably just don't want to say anything. My name is Kitsugaya Koto, and I'm probably the most knowledgeable person here. What's your name?"

Harry huffed and turned towards Ms. Elizabeth, but surprisingly, she wasn't there. He scanned the room and found her with a tough-looking man wearing white near a television.

"Oh, uh-oh," Harry turned back towards Kitsugaya, raising his eyebrow in question. "You don't know who that is, but that's Mr. Burton; he is a quiet man, but he doesn't need to talk when all he does is give us weird-feeling medicine. You better start eating, I'm telling you."

Kitsugaya opened his mouth to keep talking, but was interrupted by a chubby boy with warm brown skin. He kind of reminded Harry of Dudley in terms of width, but with shiny, smiling chestnut eyes. "Or you could give your spaghetti to me! I love spaghetti; if you swap your plate with mine, they won't notice. I bet I'll finish it before they come back!"

Kitsugaya groaned a bit. "Dennis, no. They will notice, and you know it. Come on, I mean, look at him; he needs to eat. Maybe you can ask for seconds if you really want it."

The boy, Dennis, pouted and stomped his foot before getting up and storming off. Kitsugaya rolled his eyes and turned to Harry.

"That was Dennis Shaham; he is the biggest baby you will ever see. Which is crazy because he is older than me! Even if it's just by one year, he's nine, but he doesn't act like it. If he ever offers to eat your food, you should just go ahead and say no. He likes eating a lot; if you did give him food, you would get in trouble! He is in and out of here a lot; apparently, his parents can't deal with his ransacking of the kitchen and his anger if he is denied food. It's a cycle; they bring him here, and the nurses and doctors help him and send him right back."

Harry stared at the other boy wide-eyed. Kitsugaya grinned at him and moved in closer. "I know a lot; I'm great at getting information; it's really fun to know things about others. In fact, I'll tell you a little bit about everyone while you eat. I can't have you messing with the wrong person; you're really short! Your big green eyes won't do anything against Aurora Owens; speaking of, let's start with her first."

Kitsugaya gestured to a blonde girl with fair skin wearing a pink frilly dress at the other table. The girl was busy daintily dabbing her mouth with a napkin.

"She thinks she is a princess just because she is named after one. She is ten, and I heard that she has something called 'narcist' disorder or whatever; I don't know how to say it. But basically, she thinks she is better than everyone else. She got in here because her mum had a baby a few years ago, and Aurora didn't like it. She did something so mean to her sister that her parents had to send her here for her sister's sake. Her parents still take her out for a day sometimes, which is cool, I guess. It's best to stay away from her." Harry frowned and nodded. Just great, another Dudley, but a girl this time.

The other boy then pointed to another girl across from them; Harry could tell she was older than Aurora. She looked kind of sleepy, sitting at the table. Ever so often, her eyes would close only to quickly open. Harry thought she was rather nice-looking; her golden skin was interestingly caught by the dimming sun.

"This is Aanya Burman; she's fourteen, and she sleeps a lot. Sometimes she will be walking, and then the next moment she is asleep on the floor. Her father got tired of it, and like the rest of us, she is stuck here. But it makes some sense; right before she came here, she fell asleep in the middle of the street!"

Kitsugaya's exclamation startled Aanya awake. Aanya shouted a word in another language that was foreign to Harry, but he couldn't help but think that it was not a nice word, judging by how quickly she slapped her hand over her mouth. Aanya looked between Kitsugaya and Harry before getting up and running away from the table.

Harry looked back at the other boy, and Kitsugaya shrugged before pointing to two more girls. Honestly, Harry thought, How many girls are in here?

"That one over there with the short, curly brown hair is Miriam Delgado; well, she might be; I don't know right now."

Harry raised his eyebrow at him. "I thought you knew everybody?" He said quietly.

Kitsugaya blinked owlishly. "Woah, you speak! Your voice is so soft and baby-like!" The older boy gushed. "And yeah, I do know everyone; it's just that Miriam has imaginary friends that possess her body! You can never know when she changes; heck, she doesn't even notice half of the time. For all I know, it could be Benny in there, although I don't think so because she is sitting really comfortably. If it isn't Miriam and it isn't Benny, then it could be Mary because Mary sits calmly. Miriam is seven, and she is really shy. She likes to colour so if you want to play with her, that's what you need to do."

Harry didn't understand half of what the other boy said. How could there be more people in a body? There is only enough room for one! It didn't make any sense to him at all.

Next to Miriam was a blonde teen girl with her hair in braids. "Just like I would stay away from Aurora, the same could be said for her! Her name is Ylva Andersson. She isn't like Aurora, but she gets mad a lot; she once put Dennis in a trashcan head first because he asked for her salmon. She is thirteen, but she is kind of cool! She is from Sweden, and you know what's a big plus? She hates Aurora a lot. They used to live in the same room, but one day something set them off, and they started fighting each other. It was pretty bad; both had to go to the infirmary, and then after that, they were separated."

Kitsugaya looked around the room, looking for another person to talk about. Meanwhile, Harry's head was spinning with the information. There were so many people, and they all had something about them. He didn't know how he was expected to remember any of it.

Harry noticed that the other boy was oddly quiet. Looking up at Kitsugaya, Harry was surprised to see a disgruntled look on the other's face. Before Harry could ask about what was wrong, he heard it. Well, he didn't know what he was hearing exactly.

Harry quickly turned around in the direction of the strange noises. It was coming from one of the rooms with the green door. Harry tried to look into the room, but the door was blocked by Ms. Elizabeth. The doctor only backed away from the door when two security women pulled a teen girl out.

The girl had black hair with pink highlights, which Harry thought were pretty cool. Her face was really red for some reason, like she'd been doing some kind of tiring activity. The girl had a blanket wrapped around her body, but Harry was sure she was without her clothes, though he couldn't figure out why.

Before Harry could ask what was going on, he was interrupted by Kitsugaya. "And that... is Odette Lavigne; she's sixteen, and she is weird, like really weird. She does these weird things, and the adults don't like it one bit. One time they put mitts on her because she wouldn't stop doing it."

Harry frowned. "Stop doing what?"

Kitsugaya shrugged. "I dunno; I once asked Tertia, and she got all weird and said I'd learn when I got older. It's irritating because I want to know now, but whatever it is, it must hurt badly."

Harry tilted his head. "Why do you say that?" He questioned.

"Well, because her face is always red and she makes painful-sounding noises. Sometimes she screams a bit; it must hurt so much because they always wrap her in a towel. She must have bled a little because I remember that one time when I fell and cut my leg badly, and they wrapped my leg up! It has to be the same, but I'm not too sure."

Harry nodded, agreeing with Kitsugaya. Harry noticed that another door, this time pink, opened. Another girl popped out of the door, watching Odette get dragged out of the room.

"Oh, that's Tertia Osei; she's the same age as Aanya. Hi Tertia! She is really nice; once she let me play Donkey Kong. She also once made an origami dinosaur for me; it was cool, although she made one for Adken as well, but that's different. I actually don't think she should be in here at all, nor do the doctor's. They say that, besides her random twitching and noises, she could live a peaceful life. She has something called 'tuh-rets' and 'as-burgers'. I don't get what that has to do with anything, but they say not to let what she says hurt your feelings. She doesn't really mean it, and she is just having an episode or whatever."

Harry looked back at Tertia; she had dark brown curly hair and umber skin. Her dress was very bright, Harry thought, with red, yellow, green, and blue, all in fun patterns. She seemed nice, kind of like Aanya did; he just hoped she acted nice as well.

"Hello!"

Harry jumped up at the shout of another person. He quickly turned around to be face-to-face with a pale, blond boy. The boy's hair was almost white with how blonde it was, and his eyes were a watery blue that shone with excitement.

Harry could hear Kitsugaya sigh in exasperation. "Adken! Back up; you're too close to him."

The blond boy smiled brightly and backed away. "Oops, I'm sorry! I'm just so happy to meet a new friend around my age! Do you want to colour with me? Oh, how about we play with the building blocks? Or we can-"

"Adken! Slow down; he hasn't even finished his food yet. He can't go until he does. How about you go and start with the building blocks? I think he would like to play with you later."

Adken nodded quickly and ran off to the blocks. Harry turned back to Kitsugaya with a frown on his face. He didn't want to play with that kid at all.

Kitsugaya huffed. "Don't worry about him; he'll forget he even asked in a few minutes. That's Adken Schröder; he's six. His parents got upset with him a year ago and sent him here. He forgets stuff a lot; apparently, he was outside playing and then fell and broke his ankle. His parents ran to him to help him, but he forgot who they were and screamed at them to get away from him."

"It made his mum cry; they said they couldn't bear it if he forgot about them again and sent him here. It's kind of sad; I heard that he has to stay here all of his life because they don't want him to forget where he is when he's crossing the street or anything."

Harry didn't know what to say about that; he kind of felt bad for the blond boy, but he was still put off by his loud greeting. As Harry looked back at the blonde, he couldn't help but scrunch his nose. Adken was making a huge mess. Yeah, Harry thought, there was no way he would play with the boy anytime soon, even if he was the same age as him.

Kitsugaya smiled at Harry. "Well, that is everyone. Now you can't say you were not prepared for the future."

Harry shook his head.

"What do you mean, no? I told you about everyone; I'm sure I did!"

Harry pointed at Kitsugaya and shook his head again.

"Oh," the other boy's eyes widened in understanding. "You want to know about me? Well, that makes sense, I guess. Okay, I guess I can say a thing or two."

Kitsugaya frowned a little but then gave a decisive nod. "Yeah, I'll tell you a bit. I'm Kitsugaya Koto, and I'm in here because of an accident. I got into a car crash, and it hurt my brain. I don't understand why my mum sent me here, but I think it is because of my grandmother. My grandmother is very traditional, you see. She didn't think my mom should have to stop everything for me. I can't walk well; that's why I use these."

Kitsugaya pointed to a weirdly shaped crutch that Harry once saw an upper-classmate use.

"It's my lofstrand; it helps me stand. I also get angry and sad easily. I never did that before, but after the crash, it just seemed to happen. It sucks, but it's okay! My mum visits me ever so often; I just wish she brought my little sister more. She had my sister a few days after the crash. I only got to see her three times in the last two years since it all happened."

Kitsugaya gazed at the floor for a moment before he looked back at Harry with a smile on his face. "Alright, I talked about me and everyone else; now it's time to talk about you! Why are you in here? I know your first name, but what is your last?"

Harry really didn't want to answer, though it was only fair to do so. He sat for a moment to decide what he was going to say. Truthfully, he didn't know why he was here; he was going to say that before he was interrupted by a familiar hand on his shoulder.

Harry gazed up and met the worried face of Ms. Elizabeth. "Harry? Are you alright? You haven't touched any of your spaghetti. I'm glad you have found a friend, but you need to eat. Your food is cold now, and it is bedtime. I hate doing this. Normally, the rule is that no one leaves the table without eating, but I assume you are just a little nervous, so it's alright. I've talked to Dr. Burton, and he gave you a little something to ease your stomach. Here, eat this first."

Ms. Elizabeth presented Harry with two crackers. He slowly reached out his hand to grab them. He felt really bad; he didn't know he had broken a rule; he just wasn't all that hungry. Harry could feel his eyes well up in frustration, but he quickly blinked the tears away. At least he got to eat some crackers; he knew the Dursley's wouldn't let him have any of that.

Before Ms. Elizabeth could change her mind and take them back, Harry downed the two crackers. The doctor smiled at him before producing a small cup with pink liquid in it. Harry drank it but gagged at the taste; it was gross despite its pink colour. Whatever it was, he didn't want to drink it any time soon.

Ms. Elizabeth clapped her hands. "Great! That should soothe your stomach. Now it's time for bed, you two. Harry, if you could follow me, I have to show you to your new room."

Harry followed the woman towards a green door in the corner of the room. Harry turned around and waved goodbye to Kitsugaya.

"I'm sorry, Harry, but if it was just a little earlier, we could have decorated your room a little bit. For now, it is just going to be basic, but I promise soon we can start making your room your own. I also apologise, your room is pretty small, but at least that means you get it all to yourself."

Harry shrugged; it was fine. He wasn't expecting much in the first place. Ms. Elizabeth opened the door to the room, and Harry stopped short. It was nice—way better than his room back home, that's for sure. The light blue walls made him happy. Sure, the bed sheets were white, and there was only a chest of drawers and a small desk along with the bed, but it was his own, and he loved it.

Harry made sure to tell the woman that before walking in and slowly surveying the room. He turned back towards Ms. Elizabeth and gave her a huge smile.

The woman smiled at him. "I'm glad you like it, Harry. Now let me say a few things before I leave. Your clothes are in that chest right there; normally, we come by before everyone sleeps and direct them to the bathrooms over by the television. If at any time during the night you need to use the bathroom, all you have to do is turn on the light in your room and press this green button. I know you are old enough to go by yourself, but we must be notified; pressing the green button does that."

Harry pouted a bit but nodded.

Ms. Elizabeth smiled. "Thank you, Harry. I know this is a big change, but it'll get better, I promise. Now get your night clothes on and let's get you to the bathroom, okay?"