Ways to See a Ghost

And then you’ll have no need to worry, because you won’t remember me, or any of this…

She was deep and warm. Cradled between grains of soil, water seeping through her. She put out a single root, creeping down, searching for more water and the tang of the earth. Anchoring herself. Then, up. Pushing with her leaves, seeking the bright face of the sun.
    A feast.
    The sparkling touch of light fed her, giving her the strength to go further. She unfurled her leaves and burst from the soil, the sunshine tasting of honey as she tracked it through the sky. Light and dark took turns, and in the cold times she pulled herself into the earth, hiding inside her roots. Waiting for the sun’s return and the tingling taste of spring.
    The greatest feast.
    Sap flowed, and she put out a thousand new leaves, her bark thickening, her branches reaching for the sky and the wind blowing through them…
    You are my feast-giver.
    “ISIS!”
    She gasped, her heart pounding.
    “ISIS!” Gray was shaking her by the arm. “Wake up!”
    She tried to look at him, but there was something over her eyes, blurring everything into a dim murk. She could feel him slapping at her, brushing things off.
    Ignore him!
She remembered the command.
Look up. Take me back to them.
    “Isis!” Angel was calling her now.
    She rubbed her eyes and the blur faded.
    “Ugh!” An oily ooze was running down her arm, dripping and coiling onto the ground. Angel stamped on the blue-black coils with her sandals, grinding them into the earth.
    “Come on.” Gray was pulling at Isis. “We’ve got most of it off, but you have to get out of here.”
    Angel caught hold of her other hand, both of them trying to drag her somewhere.
    What was happening?
    Plants brushed against her arms and she tripped on their thick stems. A field? But why was it so bright? Why would there be lights over a field?
    Look back up, lead me to them
.
    She started to tilt her head.
    “No! Don’t!” yelled Gray, pushing her head down. She saw something on the ground, a dribble of oily water trickling towards her feet. It climbed up over her shoe, heading for the flesh of her ankle.
    Stop.
    A breath of emptiness blew into her mind, filling her with hunger.
    There is a feast.
    “There is a feast.” Isis heard her own mouth whisper the words.
    “You have to fight it!” cried Gray.
    “Pease, Isis! Pease!” whispered Angel.
    Gray was dragging her. Her foot took a step, but her legs felt pinned, super-heavy.
    “Come
on
!” he shouted, kicking and stamping at the tendril holding her.
    It was like pulling her foot from a cold fire. She cried outwith the effort of freeing herself, but the tendril lost its grip.
    “It bited you,” said Angel, pulling her along with cold, invisible fingers. “You got to go.”
    They led her away, one of her hands in Gray’s warm grip, the other in Angel’s freezing one. As she ran, she started to remember. Flashes of what she’d just seen and heard.
    “It took Mandeville,” she gasped, seeing again the ghost being ripped into pieces. She started running properly, through dazzling patches of golden-white light and sudden, dizzying shadows. But her legs wouldn’t work the way she wanted them to, it felt like they ought to be burrowing down, holding her to the ground. And her feet seemed so flimsy, so… movable. She kept tripping and stumbling.
    “When the Devourer touched me,” she panted, “it just moved in.”
    “You have to keep fighting!” Gray answered, picking up his pace.
    And now she understood what had happened at the shopping centre. She hadn’t fought off the Devourer, it had let her go. After playing with her like a cat plays with a mouse. It had never wanted Angel, it had only been testing her; plotting the paths of her mind and opening doorways for itself.
    “It’s so strong,” she said to Gray. “Philip said it keeps getting bigger, it never stops being hungry.”
    He looked back at her without speaking, but his wide eyes showed his understanding.
    They ran on. In the sky, almost over their heads, light was swirling together into a blinding, whirling tower. It was impossible not to look up. Gray and Isis together, with Angel binding their sight.
    This time, Isis only saw the blazing column without being pulled into a vision. Gray’s view was her anchor, holding her down. And sharing Isis’s eyes, he saw the golden leaves and silver trees of the ghost-forest, stretching to the edges of the sky. Together they heard the