"Cool name." She said it offhandedly, but with sincerity, answering his question as he chewed. "As for why I can see stuff ... no one ever really figured it out where I'm from. All I know is that the Handbook For the Recently Deceased said the living tend to ignore the strange and unusual, but ... since I'm pretty much both of those things already, I could see my friends who died in a car crash."

Then he said that thing about the end of the world, and she started looking for a way to get up to him: a fire escape, maybe. This had all the makings of a really good conversation.

"The apocalypse? For real? Well ... I don't know, maybe it's all in the perspective. If everything turns out to be perfect, who knows? Could be hell."