Mark Rollins died on a cold, drizzly night in September.  At first, he didn’t realize that he’d died; in fact, he wasn’t truly aware of his death until he saw his own body lying on the concrete surface in front of the convenience store.
It was Monday night, and Mark was settling down to watch the game between the Jets and Raiders.  Fifteen minutes before game time, he discovered he was out of snacks.  If he hurried, he could make it to the convenience store and be back before the game started. 

He parked in front of the store, jumped out of his car, and lowered his head as he ran through the drizzling rain to the store entrance.  As he approached the store, he noticed that something was wrong.  The clerk--a young girl barely out of her teens--was lying on the floor, and a man wearing a ski mask was going through the cash drawer.
A second masked man appeared at the door, holding a handgun.  The man pushed the door open.
“C’mon man.  Get in here, quick.  Do like I say and you won’t get hurt.”
Mark glanced at the clerk and saw a splotch of blood on her blouse.  He spun around and ran.  He’d taken only a couple of steps when his mind seemed to blank out, and he had an odd sensation of falling forward.  But he managed to check his fall and keep moving, although he experienced a momentary feeling of disorientation.
He knew he couldn’t make it to his car, so he ran toward the side of the store and then turned toward a wooded area directly behind the store.  A he neared the woods, he heard the pounding of footsteps behind him and turned his head to see the robbers right on his heels.
He was surprised when the robbers ignored him, passing within inches of him as they ran on into the woods.  He heard the wailing of sirens as he turned and ran back toward the store.
As he emerged from behind the store, he saw the flashing blue lights of police cars in front of the store, and an ambulance was pulling up.  Several officers, with guns drawn, were cautiously approaching the store.  One of the officers warned the paramedics to stay back until the police made sure it was safe to enter.
“You won’t find the robbers in there,” Mark yelled, “they’re in the woods behind the store.”
The officers ignored him and continued moving toward the store.  By now, two officers were entering the store, covered by two officers waiting outside the door.
Mark ran up to the door and stood face to face with one of the officers.  “Didn’t you guys hear me?  I saw the robbers run into the woods behind the store--if you hurry you might be able to catch them.”
The officer, still ignoring him, seemed to be looking right through him.
“The medics can come in now,” yelled one of the officers inside the store.  “The girl in here might make it, but I don’t think they can help the man lying outside.”
The man lying outside?  In trying to get the officer’s attention, Mark had failed to notice the body lying in front of the store.  He walked over to the body.  It was lying face down, a puddle of blood around the head, now diluted with the drizzling rain.  The body looked familiar.  He knelt down for a closer look, and then he knew why the body looked familiar.  And he knew why nobody could see or hear him.  The body lying there was his own.
A multitude of questions popped into his mind.  Was this what afterlife was like?  If his spirit was still hanging around, then where were the spirits of those who had gone on before him?  The world should be overflowing with spirits.
Maybe spirits were invisible to each other; certainly he was invisible to the living, though he could see and hear them clearly.  Maybe spirits hang around on Earth for a while before moving on to a higher plane.  He could only wait and see what happened next.  In the meantime, he would search for others like himself.
                                                 
He went to his funeral.  His ex-wife, his parents, and some close friends and relatives were there.  There were some he hadn’t seen in years; there were even a few he didn’t recognize.
As he stood watching the graveside services, he noticed a lone figure coming through the cemetery.  It was a young woman, and as she approached, he was startled when he recognized her.  It was Julie Byrnes, an old high school girl friend.  But Julie had died two years ago, a victim of a drunk driver.
She came up to him and smiled.  “Hello, Mark.  Good to see you again.”
“Julie!  But...but you’re dead.  That is...I mean...”
“We’re both dead, Mark--at least our Earthly bodies are.  But we still exist as spirits, and we’re still aware of our identities.  Our minds still hold all the memories and knowledge that we acquired during our lifetimes.”
Julie’s mind certainly hadn’t changed, he thought.  She’d always had a cool, analytical mind--the top student in class.  But what mattered now was that he’d found someone he could talk to, and he was relieved to know there were others like him.
“Julie, you don’t know how happy I am to see you.”  He reached out to embrace her, but his arms found empty air.
“Alas, Mark.  We can see and hear each other, but that’s it.  Our remaining senses are gone.  But there’s no time for talking now.  We’ve got to get away from here--this place is dangerous.”
“But...how could we possibly be in danger now?”
“There’s no time to explain.  Just follow me, and I’ll explain as we go along.”
He followed as she walked away.  “If we’re in such a hurry,” he said, “how come we’re walking at such a leisurely pace?”
“Because we don’t want to attract the Ghoulies,” she replied.  “Ghoulies are always on the prowl, hunting for earthbound spirits like us.  They prey on us--they consume our souls.  They can’t harm the living, so we try to act like living people so as not to attract their attention.  It’s difficult for them to find us when we behave like normal living people.”
“I can understand that running might attract the attention of something hunting for us,” Mark said.  “But I don’t quite follow you when you say we should behave like living people.”
“By that, I mean that we should avoid doing things like floating in the air, walking through solid objects, levitating objects, and such.”
“Levitate objects?  We can do that?”
“It’s easy.  All you have to do is will yourself to do it.  But if you try it, make sure you’re not observed.  And acting like the living is not always as easy as it seems.  Remember when you tried to give me a hug?  If a Ghoulie had been watching at the time it would have given us away.
“What are these Ghoulies, anyway?”
“What we know about them is pretty sketchy.  They are also earthbound spirits, but they are souls of people who practiced the black arts, like demon worshipers and evil witches.  They must consume other spirits to sustain their own existence.  Ghoulies are the only thing we have to fear, and we have no way to resist them.”
“Why did you say that the cemetery is a dangerous place?”
“Ghoulies routinely prowl cemeteries because they know that earthbound spirits are always drawn to their own funerals--as you were.  Ghoulies can sometimes spot us at funerals because the clothing we wear is not appropriate. Whatever we were wearing when we died is a part of us--like your denim jacket and jeans and my tank top and jeans--and we can’t change.”
“How did you find me?  Did you know I...I died?”
“My group watches for news of violent deaths and funeral announcements.”
“Why violent deaths?”
“Because earthbound spirits come only from violent deaths.  We have no idea why that is.”
They left the cemetery and turned right, heading toward the downtown area.
“Where are we going?”
“To my group’s sanctuary,” she replied, “the River City bus station.”
“Excuse me...did I hear you right?”
“Think about it.  What better place to hide?  There’s always a crowd of people there, and when the Ghoulies pass by, we appear to be ordinary travelers.  Besides, with some of the characters that hang out around the bus station, it doesn’t get too boring.”
“The prospect of a boring existence had entered my mind.  Are we stuck here forever as earthbound spirits?”
“We can look forward to moving on--Transcending--if we survive the Ghoulies.  The number of members in our group fluctuates.  As with other groups, we gain when someone dies a violent death, and lose when someone Transcends--or a Ghoulie gets them.”
“How can you tell if they Transcended or a Ghoulie got them?”
“Those who Transcend know when it’s time.  They become extremely happy, glow brightly for a few seconds, then just vanish.”
“How long do we usually wait before Transcending?”
“It varies.  For some it may be months, for others it may take years.”
“Something to look forward to, at least.  What’s the idea of forming all these little groups?”
“Small groups are...”  She stopped in mid-sentence.  “There’s a Ghoulie.  It’s just ahead and to the left, floating above the school building.  It’s moving toward the cemetery.  Look, but don’t stare at it--and don’t let it know that you can see it.”
Mark shifted his eyes toward the school building, making sure that he did not turn his head.  A hooded, black robed figure floated above the school.  A snow-white face peered out from the hood.
“Mark!  Look out for the fire hydrant.”
Too late, Mark looked down to see that he was walking through the hydrant.  Terrified, he glanced up to see if the Ghoulie had noticed his blunder.  Luckily, its face was turned away from them.  It continued on its path, floating over them and on into the cemetery.
“That was close,” she said.  “If it had seen you, it would have eaten at least one of us.”
“How does it...eat you?”  He asked.
“It must get close enough to you--about ten feet--and then it simply sucks out the essence of your life.  It must do that ever so often to sustain its own life.”
“Not a cheery thought,” he said.  “Before that thing appeared, you were explaining about the groups.”
“I was about to say that small groups are less likely to attract the attention of the Ghoulies.”
“How many in your group?”
“You’ve just become a member,” she said, “so that makes four of us.  There’s also Maria Valdez and Josh Hansen.  Maria was killed by her abusive ex-husband, and Josh was killed in a hunting accident.”

When they arrived at the bus station, Mark tried unsuccessfully to pick Maria and Josh out from the crowd.  Julie pointed them out to him; they were standing near a cluster of vending machines in an alcove.  They could have been a couple waiting for a bus, he thought, except that prolonged observation would reveal that they never ate, slept, or changed clothes.
After Julie introduced him to the two spirits, Josh gave Mark a briefing on the group’s rules.
“Don’t float, don’t levitate things, and don’t walk through things,” he said, “and remember that living people can’t see you, so watch that they don’t walk through you--a sure-fire giveaway to the Ghoulies.  And finally, never look directly at a Ghoulie.  Only a few days ago, a member of another group made that mistake.  The damn Ghoulie sucked him in while the other members had to pretend they didn’t see what was happening.”
“The other members did nothing?”
“Hell, they did the only thing they could do--pretend they were living people and didn’t know what was going on.”
“It just seems to me that there ought to be a way to resist them, that’s all.”
“Well, if you find out,” said Josh, “let me know.”
“Somebody tried to challenge the Ghoulies once,” said Maria.  “I heard it from a member who has Transcended.  Her name was Emily.  She witnessed the challenge and said it was horrible.”
“Did she say what happened?”  Mark asked.
“According to Emily, the challengers were a pair of twins.  Before they were killed in a plane crash, they were some kind of research workers for the government.  They said that since becoming spirits, they had done some experiments together and found a way to defeat a Ghoulie.
“Emily remembered that they’d said something about using some of their combined strength in their experiments, which made no sense to her.  Anyway, one day a Ghoulie appeared and the twins challenged it.  They just floated up, she said, going straight at it.
“But then a strange thing happened.  As they floated up, one of the twins suddenly disappeared--he was there one second and gone the next.  But the remaining twin kept on going toward the Ghoulie as if nothing happened.”
“Maybe the Ghoulie got the twin that vanished,” said Mark, “and Emily just didn’t see it happen.”
“Emily saw the whole thing happen.  She knew she wasn’t supposed to watch--and she was scared to death--but she couldn’t stop looking.  She knew the Ghoulie didn’t get him because he was too far away when it happened.  Besides, it happened in the blink of an eye, and it would have taken the Ghoulie at least a minute to eat him.”
“Couldn’t he have Transcended?”
“Emily would have known if he did, because he would have glowed before vanishing.”
“So the remaining twin challenged the Ghoulie alone?”
“Yes, and he almost won the fight.  The twin was sending out a beam of light from his hand that seemed to bother the Ghoulie.  The Ghoulie finally swallowed him up, but afterward it was exhausted.  It was so exhausted that it ignored Emily, though she continued to stare at it.  It finally just floated away until it was out of sight.”
The story of the challenge left Mark perplexed.  The twins surely wouldn’t have risked their lives unless they were reasonably sure they had found a way to defeat the Ghoulie.  But what happened to the vanished twin?  And what was the beam of light that Emily saw coming from the twin’s hand?  And they had mentioned something about “some of their combined strength.”  If Emily heard them correctly, what could that have meant?  Was he--and everyone else-- missing something about the incident?

Several weeks later the group learned of a news item about a local burglary.  A homeowner had surprised a burglar in his home, and in a shootout the burglar was killed.
“What do we do in this case?”  Mark asked.  “Do we save criminals from the Ghoulies?”  The memory of his own murder by a criminal was still fresh in his mind.
“I’m afraid so,” replied Josh.  “It’s our policy to help everybody, even worthless garbage.  I personally don’t agree.  It’s a big risk every time one of us goes to the cemetery, and it just don’t seem right to risk our butts saving a damn low-life.”
“We would even help my ex-husband,” said Maria, “and you can’t find a lower life than that.”

The day of the burglar’s funeral came, and Mark volunteered to go to the cemetery.  He was surprised to find a fairly large crowd of mourners there.  But even criminals have friends and relatives, he mused.  He tried to blend in with the mourners in case a Ghoulie showed up. 
He didn’t know what the burglar looked like.  He scanned the crowd for anyone who wasn’t dressed appropriately, and was surprised to see several mourners in street clothes.  But one young man stood apart from the crowd, and Mark decided that this was the burglar.  And then he spotted the Ghoulie.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the black robed figure floating down.  As the Ghoulie landed among the mourners, Mark noticed that the young man was staring directly at it.  Without hesitation, the Ghoulie advanced toward the young man.
The young man, now suspecting that he was in danger, backed away from the Ghoulie.  The young man disappeared as he backed through a mourner--almost as if he had merged together with the mourner--and then reappeared as he passed on through the mourner.  As the young man continued to back away, he passed through several other mourners--each time disappearing and reappearing as he did so.
The Ghoulie advanced, also passing through the mourners, and likewise disappearing and reappearing as it passed through.
Mark caught himself staring at the strange scene and quickly averted his eyes; he hoped the Ghoulie hadn’t noticed.

As he made his way back to the station, he replayed the incident in his mind.  He thought of the young man and the Ghoulie disappearing and reappearing as they passed through the mourners--and suddenly he knew what happened when the twins challenged the Ghoulie.  The twins merged together, making it seem as though one of them had vanished.
The twins must have discovered that a merger of their spirits should give them enough concentrated power to defeat a Ghoulie. And it almost worked.  Even though the Ghoulie prevailed, it nearly exhausted itself.  But the combined strength of the twins had not been enough; the Ghoulie was too powerful.

When Mark returned to the bus station, he told the others of his experience and of his theory about the twins merging. 
“Why didn’t someone think of that before?”  Josh asked.  “It was so damned obvious.”
“In retrospect it seems obvious,” said Julie, “but who would have thought two spirits could merge to concentrate their power on a Ghoulie?  And I think I know something else that the twins discovered.
“According to Emily, the twins mentioned ‘some of their combined strength.’  It’s my guess that the twins found that a merger produced power stronger than the sum of their combined strength.”
“Suppose three of us merged,” said Maria.  “What then?”
“Only one way to find out,” said Mark.  “I say we give it a try.”
“I agree,” said Josh.  “But how the hell do we test our strength?”
“I suggest we try to levitate a heavy object before merging,” said Julie, “and then try to levitate the same object after merging--if the merger is successful.”
“Maybe we could try one of the smaller vending machines,” Mark suggested.
“I’m game,” said Josh, “but we better be careful that a damn Ghoulie doesn’t catch us in the middle of levitating.”
The four agreed that Mark, Josh, and Julie would perform the experiments while Maria watched for Ghoulies.  The three, working together, levitated a candy machine.  They then tried, unsuccessfully, to levitate a heavier Coke machine.
“Okay, let’s merge and try the Coke machine,” said Mark.  “I’ll be the anchor.  Josh, you merge with me first, and then Julie.  Each of you count to fifteen and then exit. Agreed?”
All agreed, and they proceeded with the experiment.  As Josh merged, Mark felt a surge of power, and as Julie merged, he felt a much stronger surge--a surge so powerful that it felt near the limit of his endurance.  He sensed that the power was not coming from Josh and Julie--but was coming through them from some outside source.
He levitated the Coke machine with ease, and on impulse, lifted the candy machine while still levitating the Coke machine.  Seconds later, he felt the power wane as they withdrew.
Mark told them of the immense power surge he felt, and that three would probably be the limit of a merger. He also told them of his feeling that the energy came from an unknown source.
“I felt nothing but a mild shock when we merged,” said Julie, but it was the first time I’ve felt anything at all since becoming a spirit.  It was like static electricity.”
“That about describes what I felt,” said Josh.                     
“Our merging somehow taps this power from an unknown source in the ether,” said Julie.  “The power concentrates in one member--apparently the anchor--and the other members act as channels.  Did you notice anything special, Maria?”
“Only that you and Josh disappeared when you merged with Mark, but Mark did not change.”
“That’s interesting,” Julie observed.  “The merger keeps the appearance of whoever is anchor--and I also noticed that the anchor makes all the decisions.  I knew what was happening, but felt almost powerless.  The only choice I had was to either stay with the merger or leave it.
“But what’s important is we know we can do it now.  I suggest we try it a few more times to get a better feel.”
“Anybody else want to anchor next time?”  Mark offered.
“You’re doin’ a pretty damned good job,” said Josh.  “You keep it.”
Julie smiled.  “It’s all yours.”
They made several more tries, including one try with only two of them--Mark and Josh.  With Josh, he could still levitate the Coke machine, but when Julie was added, he could lift both the Coke and candy machine with ease.
“It’s obvious that we are much stronger than the twins,” he said, “and with only the two of them they came close to defeating a Ghoulie.  I think we’re ready for a challenge.”
“Let’s don’t make the same mistake as the twins,” Josh cautioned.  “The probably tried a similar experiment and thought they were ready.  I don’t know--it’s a hell of a risk.”
“If you don’t want to do it,” said Maria, “ I’ll take your place in the merger.”
“The hell you will, ’cause I’m staying in.  I never said I wouldn’t.  I’m just saying we should proceed with caution.  But I’m ready when you guys are.”

That same afternoon they spotted a Ghoulie floating over the bus station.  They decided it was now or never.  The trio merged and floated up to meet it.
As he floated up, Mark saw the Ghoulie change course, coming to meet him.  Within seconds, he was facing the Ghoulie in midair.  He immediately felt a tug pulling him toward the Ghoulie.  He tried to resist, but the pull seemed irresistible.  He increased his resistance, but the pull remained steady. 
His power did not seem to be having any effect on the pull--the Ghoulie did not seem to be fazed.  At this rate he, along with Josh and Julie, would be swallowed up in less than a minute.
He decided to quit wasting his energy in resisting and immediately went on the attack.  He called on the same potent force that levitated the machines and focused that power on the Ghoulie.  Nothing happened.
What was the matter?  He knew that the tremendous power was flowing out from his body--he could feel it--but it was having no effect on the Ghoulie.                                        
“Idiot!”  He thought.  “You’re not fighting a vending machine--you can’t defeat a Ghoulie by using levitation.”
He recalled that the twins had sent some sort of energy beam against the Ghoulie.  But no doubt the twins had experimented with the energy beam before attempting to challenge the Goolie.  He regretted now that he hadn’t thought to try the experiment himself.  But it was too late to dwell on past mistakes now; he was facing the Ghoulie.
There was but one chance for survival now--he had to try to form an energy beam, and he had to do it in the next thirty seconds, or the Ghoulie would suck them in.  In the meantime, he hoped that Josh and Julie would not panic and break away.
He summoned the same force he had used to levitate the machines, but now concentrated on re-channeling that power into a beam of energy.  He held his arm out toward the Ghoulie, and suddenly the beam formed.
A beam of white light shot from his hand.  The Ghoulie abruptly ceased pulling and attempted to retreat.  But it did not escape in time--it let out a terrible scream and vanished in a flash of light.

“Good Lord, Mark,” said Julie.  “What took you so long?”
Mark filled them in on the failure of the first attempt and on his decision to try the energy beam.
“It was dumb not to think of that before,” she said.  “But we were so caught up in levitating the machines that we thought of nothing else.”
“Anyway, it was good thinkin’ on your part, man,” said Josh.  “It saved our butts.  But it was close, and I’ll admit I had thoughts of breaking away.  If I had a body I’d be sweatin’ blood.”
Julie laughed.  “And if I had one my knees would be knocking.  It would be nice if there was some way to communicate during a merger.  I was on pins and needles.”
“But the main thing,” said Josh, “is that we beat the damn thing.”
“And we don’t have to fear them any longer,” Mark added.  “But now we’ve got to get the word out to other groups...”
“Mark, look!”  Julie was pointing at something behind him.  “It’s Maria.”
Mark turned to see Maria glowing brightly.  She smiled, waved, and abruptly vanished.  She had Transcended.

The next few weeks were busy.  The trio traveled around the area spreading the word about the merging phenomenon.  The word spread out quickly to other groups, and soon a campaign was underway to wipe out the Ghoulies.
Soon after returning to the bus station, however, the trio learned that the campaign had hit a snag. 
“It didn’t take the damn Ghoulies long to figure out what was happening,” said Josh. “They’ve learned to merge, too.”
“The only encouraging thing about that is that their mergers are about equal in strength to ours--sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less.  At least, they can’t prey on us at will now.  And maybe, if we put our heads together, we can figure a way to get the upper hand.”
Mark caught a movement and looked to see a trio of Ghoulies entering the bus station.  He quickly averted his eyes.  “Don’t look, but we’ve got company--and we’d better get ready for a fight.”
But his warning came too late.  Josh was staring at the trio.  He was not only staring, but he did not seem to be concerned.  Was he losing his mind?  The Ghoulies, aware that Josh had seen them, were coming toward him.  He did not react.
But as the trio drew closer, Josh began to glow.  He smiled, waved at the Ghoulies, and vanished.
Mark and Julie were already mingling with the passengers, behaving like normal, living people.