Ghost

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I watched as the other ghosts galloped and pranced below me. I knew I should just forget, move on, and enjoy myself... but I just couldn't. The way she looked at me, I can't forget that.

Let me back up.

My name is Atlas. And, let's go ahead and get this over with, I'm dead. I'm a ghost. A ghost horse, but still a ghost. And, this morning, my life changed forever.

I was at the top of my hill (it's not really my hill, but the other ghost horses say I spend so much time there, it's mine) and I looked across to the barn near my Herd. There, in the shimmering, dew-covered field, was a girl. She turned to me, and looked right at me. She wasn't afraid. She didn't scream. She didn't run. She just stood there, as pure and perfect as the dew on the grass. Her beautiful brown eyes met my... I actually don't have eyes. This is a good time to give you a picture of how I look.

I basically look like something that belongs in a museum (well, that's what Ember, the Herd Leader, says). I have a pale blue-grey aura that looks like flesh around me, and the rest is simply a horse skeleton. It sounds scary, but it's really not. All of us ghost horses look like that, but with different auras. Ember, for instance, has a bright red-brown aura. He claims it's because he was a sorrel horse in his past life.

Anyway, back to the girl.

She looked right past the ghost part of me and into the part that is still alive. My soul. The only thing I never lost when I died. My most precious belonging. My... my everything.

I knew the girl was meant to be mine. I knew it right then and there, when she looked into my soul.

For the rest of the day, I imagined the girl riding me across the hilltops and taking walks together through the forest and many fields. I imagined her brushing me and singing to me. I loved all those thoughts. And then I remembered.

I'm dead.

The girl will never be mine. It's just not possible.

I watched the barn, hoping my girl would come out. Praying my girl would come out. Pleading my girl would come out, to remind me she's still out there, that there's still someone who noticed me and wasn't afraid.

"Atlas!" Ember called, breaking my train of thoughts. "Hey, Atlas! Come down here!" I grudgingly left my hill as night fell.

"What were you doing all day?" Ember asked as he chomped on some grass. I racked my brain for a lie that would sound reasonable. I definitely wasn't going to tell Ember and the rest of the Herd about the girl.

"I... I was watching the birds today." I lied.

Ember snorted. "Really?" I nodded. It was technically true. I had watched a sparrow for a few minutes before it noticed me and flew away, squawking. Alive creatures don't really like ghosts all that much. One of the Herd horses, Ali, trotted up to us. She had a dark brown aura, and her skeleton looked new. I suppose she recently joined us.

"That's not what he was doing, Ember. I saw him. He was watching a human!" The Herd gasped. Ember's face grew solemn.

"You know our rules, Atlas. Stay away from the humans. It's that simple!" Ember stomped his hoof, kicking up dust.

"What did you even want with the humans, anyway?" Ali asked, her tail swishing.

"You wouldn't get it." I muttered. Ali tossed her auraed mane.

"You're right. I wouldn't." Ali turned around, and cantered away. Ember shot me a stern look.

"Stay away from humans, Atlas. You don't know what danger you could have put us in." Ember walked back to the Herd, and left me standing there alone.