Zack had to wonder if the planet and the lifestream got a good laugh out of the fate they subjected him to.

Chased and felled by Shinra, left to wander the mortal plane for the rest of his ghostly days. It sounded like a bad joke, with him as the unwilling punchline. There were no other ghosts like him, no people who could see him, and he couldn’t make his presence known no matter what he did. He was little more than a draft in a room, a sudden chill in the air.

At least the chocobos could sense him, even if his presence often startled them. That’s why he visited at night, when they were sleeping and he could get close enough to pet them. Or, pretend to, at least. His hands went right through them. But, If he tried hard enough, he could still remember the feeling of their feathers under his translucent fingers.

“Why did the chocobo cross the road?” Zack spoke into the night air, letting the question linger. There was no one here to listen to him, but he had to speak. If he didn’t, he would surely forget how.

That would be the day he gave up. Zack wasn’t ready for that. He’d already died once, he wasn’t sure his soul could handle it again. He didn’t want to think about it. “So it could take a wark!”

The long-suffering sigh that followed had him nearly jumping out of his skin. Zack was quick to whip his head around, disbelieving as he saw another person in the chocobo stalls. This was that new hire, wasn’t it?

Zack tried not to invest himself in the lives of people anymore; it hurt too much to be reminded of the normal life that he could never have. But he remembered what happened at this stall, because he liked the birds and cared about what went on with them.

“Hey!” He exclaimed, his voice just a little too loud. He couldn’t find it within himself to be ashamed of the hopefulness in his tone. He hadn’t spoken to anyone in… how long had it been now? Months, nearly half a year? “You can see me?”