The Ghost

Chapter 1

I didn't leave the safety of our apartment often, but her favorite diner was close and usually safe. So, once a week I'd venture out for dinner—a treat. A tin shack covered in patchwork corrugated siding sat at the end of my trip. Plywood covered the windows, matching everything else in the area. A neon sign flickered over the front entrance. I left the comfort of the shadows long enough to be bathed in a pink glow before slipping through the door. The familiar jingle of the brass bell grated my ears. I knew it would, yet it always startled me. Dingey light cast a clinical sinisterness over the room. Before I could reach the counter, mere steps from the door, a hulking figure lumbered to the register.

The Coalescence had changed everyone in one way or another. Some visibly, others not. It altered Bernard visibly. Large in every sense of the word, the behemoth looked rough but was as gentle and warm as ever. I didn't speak with many people, and I liked even fewer. But I liked Bernard.

"I started to worry. The usual?" the deep voice filled the room, startling me again.

"Yeah," true, I was running a bit late, but only by a couple of minutes. Was I so married to my routine that a few minutes worried him? Sweet?

Before I asked though, he shuffled back into the kitchen. I stood in the small dining area. A few two-person tables stood in the dim, pale green light. Not long after he left, Bernard returned carrying a paper bag filled with two aluminum food tins. I paid, he handed it over, and our transaction ended. One step closer to home. One step closer to safety

With my hand on the door, he called, "Stay safe, Charlene!"

I spun around in a panic, but I regained myself quickly.

"Close!" I said with a sly chuckle. Too close, in fact. It wasn't my name, only Zhilan knew that. But it sounded close enough to catch me off guard.

I pushed the door open and stepped into the neon shrouded street, a beacon under the pitch-black sky. While light signaled safety, it also drew them to us, where they'd hide on the edge of our periphery. Swirls of green, pink, blue, and orange flooded my vision. Every week they grew dimmer. Each week it seemed more shops and apartments stood vacant. Their occupants, victims. If not to the monsters we didn't understand, then to the ones we did. As our nightmares slaughtered us, our own neighbors turned to violence.

I walked in silence. Each step came fast yet cautious. I held the bag securely, and I listened on high alert. Very few people filled the large streets. Those who did moved just as fast. Wind was non-existent, so nothing rustled, no birds chirruped, and that was good.

My building rose into my vision, dark against the fading sun. With a few blocks to go still, it sat closer to the wall than anything else in the city. The wall stopped shy of the top five floors of the twenty-five-floor building. No one lived in the units facing the wall. Few lived in the ones that didn't. As I neared my home, the neon faded, replaced by white street lamps. My building's entrance entered my view, sparse windows lighting up the front. A few more blocks and I'd be in assured safety.

Suddenly, an unusual scruffing caught my attention. Footsteps shuffled, staggered, and made too much noise. They drew attention, and this far from the bright lights, that spelled disaster. Ready to brush it off and put distance between me and the sound, a whimper cut through the air. A barely audible, insidious growl followed. Great. I eyed my food, then the direction the sounds came from. Another snarl told me this situation wasn't going away. I looked at my food again, sighed, and sat it on a bench. It was most likely safe.

I edged closer to the sound, sticking to the darkest shadows I found. Chunks of concrete and rusted beams littered the area. Good for cover, but fickle for battle. Once the figures came into view, I ducked as far out of sight as I could while still spying on the scene. One pale figure took cover as two medium creatures closed in. The creatures were slightly taller than a human. The lankier one, with six spindly limbs, stretched tight, and moved in jerky, unnatural motions. Seemingly unaligned with realities frame rate. His spine protruded in grotesque spikes, many puncturing the mottled grey flesh. The shorter one's body housed bulbous muscles, bulging in unusual places. The snarling emanated from her. She moved slowly, but her strike would fall hard. I needed to take her out first. A medium creature inside the wall was strange, but not uncommon for the small ones.