Ethereal Flames

Job

Pini glanced up at the sky.

It had been a while since she had been well, anywhere near the ghost-dimension of the human world.

The sky was dark grey, only reflecting a black-and-white version of the normal blue sky, as it was for every ghost dimension.(ghost dimensions are like spy glass. The beings in the ghost dimension can see everything in the original dimension, but the originals cannot see into the ghost dimension.)

Pini looked around swiftly before settling on a bright yellow colored ghost.

This one wasn't who she was looking for, so Pini just decided to leave that one alone. She turned around and prepared to leave when she felt a small tugging at her leg. She looked down and there was the little bright yellow ghost, smiling brightly at her.

"M' name's Lilly." She smiled sweetly. "What's yours?"

"Pini." Pini answered, surprising herself. /why am I answering the ghost? Why did I tell her my name?/ "how old are you?" Pini asked. /no, stop. Don't initiate conversation with the ghosts!/

"'M 8, I think." Lilly answered. /but... She's so sweet. No one is hunting her, I think. She wasn't on the posters. No one can see us. It'll be okay./

"I'm around... 12, I think." Pini smiled at Lilly.

"You look like an angel." Lilly said sweetly, hugging Pini's legs. Pini was temporarily taken aback.

"What do you mean?" Pini asked Lilly curiously.

"'M papa always said that Angels had big, big wings and funny thingies on their heads." Lilly gestured with her hands how 'big, big' Pini's wings were. "Papa never liked Angels, though. He always hated them for some reason. Him and mama fought one day, about the Angels. He said, 'no angel would allow this to happen' or something like that. One day him and my mama fought and then mama turned a pretty color and was able to hug me again!" Lilly looked so happy at the last part.

"That's so sweet of her." Pini said with fake joy. Her mother had died and turned into a ghost, just like Lilly had. It made Pini very, very sad, way deep down within her chest. "Could I pick you up, Lilly? I'm looking for someone very important."

"Sure!" Lilly opened up her arms and Pini gingerly lifted Lilly up into her arms.

"One day papa came home too! He was also a weird color, like mama!" Lilly squealed. "He hated the Angels even more then." Lilly explained with a small frown. "He said that they weren't Angels, they were day-mons. He said they were going to kill us so never trust them because if one saw you they would kill you. I don't know what day-mons are or what 'kill' means. Could you explain it to me?"

Pini almost sobbed. The ghosts thought that the Drakons were hurting them? What could make them think such a thing?

"Well... Demons are evil creatures that have big wings like angels and weird thingies on their head like angels, but they are not as nice as Angels." Pini tried to explain without crying. "Killing is when somebeing makes another being dead. And dead is almost like asleep, but they sleep forever and never, ever wake up."

"That sounds very sad." Lily stated simply. "And I know you are an angel because you are nicer than the other people around here." She added quickly.

Suddenly a large crash sounded from in front of them. Pini didn't even know she was walking forward while she listened and talked to Lily. She just did. And now she had no idea where they were.

She had an idea.

"Hey, Lilly?" Pini said, nearly sobbing with the effort to keep the fiery nervousness that tore at her insides out of her voice.

"Let's play a game of hide-and-seek. Whoever made that big sound is the seeker and we have to hide from them and also try to stay together." Pini almost choked, tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes.

Pini felt deep inside herself that she had to protect Lilly at all costs, for some reason.

Lilly quickly pointed to a small indent inside of a wall and Pini ran over to it, immediately setting Lilly down next to it. Lilly crawled inside at almost lightning speeds and Pini quickly got in beside her.

Pini finally got a good look at who made the big sound.

It was the Steamer.