Through The Ghost

Chapter Two

Ghost slept three hours that night. Her brain wouldn’t let go of what she did to Stephan. The look in his eyes haunted her. She wished she could disappear for good.

The thing no one would ever understand about her curse is that when she commanded people to do something, a little piece of her died. It was like a disease. So, not commanding people was selfish to want to live. The only way to break that part of the curse was by a true love. Something Ghost would never have. The curse made life hard, but she wasn’t going to complain. Very strange things happened when she did that.

At 5:50, Ghost’s phone lit up.

‘Meet me by the fountain. Ben’ Read the text. She re-read it many times before slowly creeping out of the dorm and into the darkness of the morning. She hadn’t bothered to change so Ghost was ready to go.

There he stood. Mr. Ben Rikter.

She stood and waited. She wasn’t overly shocked when he started speaking to her through their minds.

“I’m surprised you showed up.” His smooth voice said

“Oh? Why’s that?” Ghost replied, staring into the blackness of his eyes

Ben took a step closer and Ghost took a step back, “You are a ghost in everyone’s eyes. Sometimes I hear people whispering that you could walk through doors.”

Ghost shook her head and looked at the ground, “Do that once and you are labeled for life.”

Ben’s soft chuckle filled the crisp air around them, “Yes. True. Anyway, as you know by now, I’m one of you. We have two others like us in this city. They wanted me to tell you they want to meet you.”

“Meet me? Why me? I’m not special.” Ghost said, her thoughts drifting to her mom

Ben suddenly appeared right next to Ghost, he put a hand on hers and said gently, “You are though. You’ve been through a lot and you haven’t gone to the leaders to have your gift removed. You just stay silent. Your gift is not an easy one to bare.”

Ghost nodded, looking at their hands. The ring he wore resembled hers. The bright silver never dulled even in the darkest night. The dark lettering meant Forever To Be Different.

Ben continued, not letting her hands go, “They are coming this afternoon. They will be disguised as students, but they are as old as the mountains. I’m sure you’ve heard of these two?”

Ghost nodded and said softly, “Will you come? I’ve only faced them with my parents before. And that was…a life time ago.”

Sensing her pain, Ben gently led her to the bench and nodded, “I wouldn’t leave you. Not for a second. I promise.”

Ghost nodded and took her ring off her necklace and pressed it to his, a warm glow surrounded them. She swiftly slid it back on the chain and back around her neck. That was all she needed to prove his honesty.

Ben looked to the sky and saw the sun rising over the horizon, “We better be going. Unless we want to make rumors.”

Ghost smiled cynically, “It would be fun to see this robots churn at the rumors of the odd girl going with the goth boy.”

Ben nodded, “They would eat it up.”

Ghost smiled genuinely for the first time in a long time. She touched her grey hair and looked away from Ben’s face. She would not fall for anyone. She never wanted to put anyone through the heartache she felt daily because of this curse.