Ways to See a Ghost

hold of Angel again. Soon as I touched her, the normal world faded and I was staring straight at that night-watery monster. And it was scary. I mean, wet-your self-scary . Not because it was huge and freaky and trying to eat Angel. It was scary because…
    Well, there was this time me and Dad got caught in a thunderstorm, out in this really big field. The lightning hit a nearby tree with this massive crack, and it exploded into flames and smoke. We watched it burn, the thunder crashing around us, and I knew there wasn’t anywhere to hide. Then Dad said, in this really calm voice, “We’re goingto get down on the ground, Gray, and make ourselves as small as possible.” And I curled up next to him, nearly burying myself in the dirt, while the rain pelted my back and the thunder boomed on forever, shaking the ground under us.
    The thing in the shopping centre was like that storm. You knew it’d roll right over and kill you without even noticing.
    Me and Isis pulled on Angel, trying to get her out. The monster let out this roaring, and the ripples glopping around Angel’s feet turned into waves. She slid through our hands, sucking further into the monster. I tried to pull her back, but my feet were slipping on the floor, my fingers so cold I couldn’t even feel them.
    One of the monster’s whirling eyes slid down its body, until it was right above Isis. Staring at her, like it hated her. She gripped harder around Angel, and made this crying, grunting noise, heaving even harder. From where Angel’s feet were, all these sploshes and ripples started spreading out across the thing’s body. It let out this gargling scream, and all the shops and people, everything that was normal, they all got even fainter. Like it was trying to pull us out of the real world. It was really, really cold. Our breath was puffing frozen in the air.
    I was terrified by then. My heart was hammering, my arms were going numb with cold.
    “Let her go!” Isis screamed, heaving at Angel. The monster shuddered in slow-motion ripples, and, just like that, Angel’s feet popped right out.
    She pinged through the air, straight through Isis’s arms and into mine. Like getting a bucket of ice chucked over me. For one weird second, I was back in the sunshine, back in the real world, then Isis ran at me, and as soon as she touched Angel, we were all three into the underwater blue again. Angel was crying and gasping in my arms, one hand around my neck, one hand reaching for Isis.
    The monster roared – it was like getting hit over the head. It reared up, into this tidal wave of blue. A wave filled with eyes and mouths, like a school of sharks crashing in. Everything got darker, the real world faded into foggy shapes.
    “Everything’s still there,” Isis whispered. “Remember, everything’s still there.”
    Except, we weren’t.
    Above us, the monster’s mouths and teeth were collecting into this huge, jagged circle. Champing, gleaming and licking its lips. What wasn’t mouths, was its eye.Spinning, circling, trying to suck us in. I wanted to throw myself in it.
    “Turn around,” cried Isis, “Stop looking at it!” But I couldn’t, I couldn’t even speak. “Turn around!” yelled Isis, yanking me round by my arm.
    I was able to think again.
    “Run?” I gasped, and we scrambled for the escalators, sort of hugging each other around Angel, trying to protect her. We must’ve looked crazy – clumsy-running down the steps, barging past a woman with her shopping. But we got away from the dark fog of the monster, slipping out from underneath it.
    At the bottom, we ran into the crowd, which was still hanging around Cally’s psychic mate. There were hundreds of people in front of us, milling about like idiots.
    “’Scuse me, ’scuse me!” I shouted, trying to push us through, but no one even moved.
    “It’s following us,” cried Isis.
    I looked up. The monster was blue-oozing across the ceiling, covering the sky like a storm.
    “It want to bite me!” sobbed Angel. She was so cold, sucking the heat out of me. All the hair on my arms was stood up straight, every one in a goosebump.
    “What do we do?” I asked Isis.
    She looked at Angel, and you could see how much she loved her. “Can you leave?” she whispered. “Can you hide?”
    The little ghost shook her head.
    “It bited me,” she said. “I too tired now.” I could see right through her, like she was made of glass.
    I started to shiver, Isis was shivering too.
    “Can’t