Ghost and the Writer

Choices

Shadowy black huge dog-like creature well over four meters had just come out from a park nearby. From its neck there came four long tentacles fluttering in the air. And Mandy's eyes were drawn to its head without thinking. But before she could linger on it, her eyes were hidden behind a hand.

"No crossing eyes," August reminded. "Especially not with this type."

Mandy nodded, turning her eyes to a safe space - August. She realized that they were awfully close to one another. Not a wonder considering August had arched his arm around her from behind to hide her eyes. You had to be pretty close to play 'who's there' after all. She felt oddly conscious of this presence, despite the fact that she had just seen something terrifying and this was certainly no time for trifling matters of that sort.

"What is that?" She asked, forcefully switching her attention away from silly matters.

"A thing that chases down and eats those who slipped out from the boundary between two worlds," he said. "Its name is hard to pronounce. But it does at times attack others."

"Not crossing eyes prevents that?" Mandy asked, although... 'two worlds'? Two Worlds? Something big was dropped once again.

"That's the first one, second is not touching it, third is not attacking it to save someone it is targeting," August listed, moving back a bit.

The pressure from behind had eased, so Mandy carefully glanced back only at the feet level of the said creature and what she could see is it running away down the street.

Mandy let out a relieved sigh. "Thanks." She didn't want to imagine what might have happened had August not been here.

"Be careful," August said, all the while holding his phone by his ear. He had made some odd gestures just now, but at least he wasn't 'talking to himself'.

Now that the creature had gone, however. The boundary between... "two worlds?" She voiced the question. What about there not being another hidden reality... Her eyes squinted.

"Ah, that's a long story," August said.

"I don't mind it being long," Mandy said with a smile that had force behind it. 'I'm not going to let you slip out of this' it said. What about her previous disappointment, huh? Wasn't that the time to mention something like this, not let her be disappointed at reality.

"Then let's walk through the park," August said, giving up. Shouldn't be that many people there at this time.

The story went. "There are two interconnected worlds - Ahea, the land of immortals and Urea, the land of mortals. There are stories in almost any culture about there being something like the realm of gods or the stories of someone slipping away to it only to return a century later. There's some truth to that, but no consistency, since that world is just as diverse as this one. The 'gods' one person meets will be different 'gods' another meets for geographical reasons."

Mandy nodded at that. "So beings like Odin or Zeus actually exist?" She asked.

"Probably... You would need to be in Sweden or Greece to slip through to meet them and... have a way to either evade or defeat that tentacle dog, though," August replied. "Unless they passed over to this world, and in that case, they might have died. Aheals are only immortal in Ahea, after all. In this world, anyone can be killed."

"Even ghosts?" Mandy asked.

"Of course," August said matter of factly. "What do you think you risk by crossing eyes with astrals?"

Urk. Certainly. Although she had a feeling August told her to be careful for that reason. Returning to the topic of gods, though... So they might be dead as well. But the bit about geography did explain the variety in religions kind of. Wasn't it the same thing with cultures, though? No one set of tradition was ultimately 'best' for everyone, since people were different, so no one set of 'gods' could suit all either way.