"You mean...this is all illegal?"
"Illegal is such an ugly word. I prefer to call ourselves underground."
"That aside, Darren," Kat interrupted. "I think we all want to know your motivations for joining a cause like this."
"Yup," added Mortie. "And if you're uninterested, no point in you being here."
Darren pondered for a while. Was he interested? These Ghosts were offering him a chance to no longer be dead - to start again from graduation day, go on being friends with Emily, and carry out all those great plans he'd had for the future. All that in exchange for the small con of being on the wrong side of the law - not that he held any regard for the Ghostopia law anyway.
"I...should. I will. I'll join your group."
"Wonderful news! A round of applause, everyone!"
They started clapping for him, making him feel all the more awkward.
"Let me ask," Mortie smiled at him. "Are you satisfied at the way your life ended?"
"Heck, I don't even know how I died!"
"Whoa!" The Ghost called Scarlet gasped. "How is that possible?"
"That's why it's even harder to accept. I was happily at my graduation ceremony, and suddenly I died. Just like that."
"That's not all bad," Kat said. "You could never imagine the agony most of us went through before our deaths."
"Hey, that's strange. Nelson told me the same thing too."
"Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"
Darren couldn't help thinking if she was murdered, like Nelson was. He dared not pop the question, however.
"I'm not concerned with my death, but my present existence," Todd, another so far anonymous Ghost, spoke up. "This whole idea of Ghostopia is a travesty, it's utterly WRONG! We're all being trapped in a bubble, and they'll trap us till they figure out where this blasted place is supposed to be headed!"
"W-what do you mean by that?" Darren asked, stunned.
"You're still new here," he replied. "You haven't experienced the hopelessness that comes from living with nothing to look forward to."
Kat leaned towards Darren. "There's a lot of politicking going on amongst the authorities. Everyone's having their own opinions on how this world should run - issues on second Deaths, suicides, aging...too many to mention."
"So about last year, the authorities decided to freeze all our ages until they've sorted it all out." added Fletcher.
"You mean..."
"Nobody in Ghostopia grows older by the day. We're all just living out eternity."
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