Ways to See a Ghost

Calista,” he said, his smile odd and stiff. “You’re a disaster as a parent. It’s amazing Isis is still with you.”
    Gray turned to Isis.
    “What’s going on?” he whispered.
    In a strange kind of answer, Philip staggered a step, his legs bending as he nearly fell. He managed to stop himself, but his head was bowed and his arms shook as if he were carrying some enormous weight. “It’s too big,” he grunted.
    Now Isis remembered. Wearing shoes that were toosmall, squeezing her toes. Putting on a jumper she’d grown out of, squashing herself into a box during a game of hide-and -seek. The Devourer flicked through her memories.
    He is old and small inside. You see much better. I need you, Isis.
    Philip mumbled along with the words, only becoming clear as he said, “I need you, Isis.”
    “What?” snapped Cally, moving in front of Isis. “You’re not coming near my daughter!”
    Philip took a step, jerky and awkward. “I’m so tired of it, and you’re a terrible mother.” He took another step. “I’ve seen Isis’s social services file. She’ll be taken into care, and then she’ll be all alone. Except for—”
    “No!” cried Isis.
    “What are you talking about?” said Cally. “Isis isn’t going into care! And how did you even see her file? Unless…” She flung her hand out, slapping Philip across his cheek. “Are you in one of those
rings
?”
    “Mummy do it!” cried Angel, jumping up and down excitedly.
    “Leave my daughter alone,” snarled Cally. She turned to Gray and Isis. “We’re going back to the others now. And then we’re going home.”
    Behind them, Philip turned his head, blinking and dazed. “Calista?” he croaked.
    Cally glanced back, and his hand was a blur as he punched her. Her head flew backwards, and she fell into the wheat without a murmur.
    “Mummy!” screamed Angel.
    “Come on!” shouted Gray, pulling Isis, trying to get her moving.
    Isis.
    She remembered the word, even as Philip Syndal spoke.
    “Isis,” he said.
    There wasn’t time to run. The long, oily dark tentacle pulled out of Philip’s skull, wavering in the air and seeming to sniff, then it shot over to Isis and plunged down into her head. Pouring in its darkness, washing all her thoughts away

She didn’t scream or anything. She just made this sound. “Uh.” Like all the breath had got pushed out of her. I mean, it just poured in. Like a freezing sea, down through her head, rushing inside her, on and on. There was no way it could do that, no way it could fit! But it did.
    I shouted out, let go of her hand and stumbled backwards. I couldn’t help it! If you’d seen all that stuff, a thousand eyes and mouths pouring into someone, you would’ve too.
    Of course, as soon as I let go I couldn’t see any more. It was a relief actually – in that second I didn’t even
want
to see. Now Isis just looked ordinary, like she was daydreaming or something, and the light in the sky was justlight again. Beautiful and swirling, like the other ones I’d seen with Dad.
    I’d been excited back then, thinking aliens were trying to talk to us. Now I was just scared. And the light wasn’t the same as before, either. There were black specks floating on it, drifting and joining together, like oil slicks.
    Even if I couldn’t see it, the ghost-eater was still there. I could feel the cold of it, and the light in the sky wasn’t growing, like the others had, it was fading.
    On the ground, Cally groaned. She was flat out, blood trickling from her nose. Philip Syndal looked dazed or whatever, staring from Cally to his hand and the blood on his knuckles.
    “I’m sorry,” he said to her. “It wasn’t me.” Then he started this snuffling and giggling, like he couldn’t stop himself. He looked at Isis for ages, his eyes so wide you could see the whites all the way round.
    “I waited such a long time for someone else to come along,” he said to her. “It’s yours now.” He started giggling again.
    I put my hand out to Isis, not quite touching.
    “Isis?”
    Nothing.
    Something cold touched my other hand. This time I knew it was little fingers grabbing onto me. I swallowed down this horrible, shivery feeling, like all I wanted was to run away, and I put my hand on Isis’s. Fingertip to fingertip, that’s all.
    She was the eye of a storm! Darkness was boiling up through her eyes, wriggling out of her like a swamp climbing into the sky, like it was made out of maggots. Teeth and mouths were