Ways to See a Ghost

growled Dad, daring me to tell.
    They were like zombies, the way they looked in the light from the computer screens. Sort of grey, with just their eyes and teeth showing up. Then, in a flash, they changed. I could see every line on Dad’s face, every strand of Mum’s hair. A light blazed from the sky right above us, a hanging spotlight. Then another, and another.
    “Oh my God!” cried Mum. “What’s happening?”
    “It’s starting!” shouted Dad.
    “Where’s
Isis
?” I yelled at Dad. “Where is she?”
    “Huh?” said Dad. He wasn’t even looking at Mum and me – his eyes were on his monitors and gear. “Oh, she went for a pee. That way.” He pointed along the hedge line. “About twenty minutes ago.”
    I turned round, trying to see into the newly lit field.
    “Twenty minutes ago!” said Mum. “What child pees for twenty minutes?”
    “It’s only a field, there’s nothing out there.”
    “She could’ve fallen!” yelled Mum. “She could be lying with a broken leg!”
    “Don’t start!” Dad shouted. “Isis has got her own mum!”
    I heard Cally call out, further off. “What is it? What about Isis?” But I didn’t listen to the rest, because I was running along the grass beside the field, the thorny stemsof the hedge whipping at my face. I ran, stopped to look for Isis, ran on again.
    “Isis!” I shouted. “Isis!” I stopped again, peering into the field. The lights were pinging out all over the sky now, and everything was either blinding bright or pitch-black . Crazy, random shadows criss-crossed everywhere. I could hardly see a thing.
    “Isis!” I ran out into the rustling crop, a hundred shadows dancing around me. “Isis!”
    I was so scared for what might be happening to her. Shivering and cold with it. My left hand was the worst, like it was in a bucket of ice or something. Then it went back to normal. Then it started freezing again. I stared at my hand, my fingers looking strange in that strobing light. My hand was warm, then freezing again, like something cold was wrapping around it. Something about the size of a tiny hand.
    “Angel?” I whispered. “Is that you?” The cold seemed to tug at my hand.
    “Do you know where she is?” The cold pulled my hand, leading me.
    It was really weird, getting led by a ghost. We went out of the crop, back to the grass and along the edge ofthe field. I wondered if I was imagining it, but I was going in a straight line, through all the flashing light and patches of black.
    I couldn’t see them at first, what with all the lights and shadows everywhere, but then… Philip Syndal had got hold of Isis. He was tipping her head back, trying to break her neck or something.
    “Get away from her!” I screamed, running straight at them, still holding Angel’s cold-nothing hand. I smacked right into Philip, but neither of them even noticed me, like they were stunned or something. I grabbed Isis’s arm, to pull her away from him.
    And that’s when I saw.
    Because Angel had grabbed hold of Isis too, connecting us up. I could see what Isis could.
    The lights in the sky weren’t just lights any more, they were these glowing leaves. Millions of them. You know the kind of green that leaves are in spring, when the sun’s shining through them? Well those leaves in the sky were like that. But they were other colours too: golds and reds, like spring and autumn happening at the same time. The leaves fluttered upwards, swirling in patterns, and behind them the faint shapes of trees filled the night,speckled with stars. A ghost-forest glimmering in the sky.
    It was so beautiful, like nothing you’ve ever seen. I wanted to look at it for the rest of my life, I wanted to fly up with the leaves.
    But that wasn’t why I started screaming.
“Isis! Isis!”
    Because it wasn’t just her and Philip Syndal, staring up at the silver trees and leaves of golden light. Darkness was wrapped around the two of them. Oily slugs pulsed from the ground into their bodies, wriggling tentacles oozed back out again. Philip Syndal was sicking out this river of blue-black slime. And Isis… had ribbons of blue-dark pouring out of her eyes.
    The ghost-eater was stretching itself out of their bodies. Gurgling and bubbling into the sky, wrapping itself around the golden leaves and swallowing every light it could reach. Turning them into nothing…

    My head hurts. Why does my head hurt?
    It’s because you’re fighting the trance, Gray. Just relax, it will soon be over.