Ways to See a Ghost

Isis!” she pleaded. “Stay.”
    And she wanted to answer, but the ice was too thick on her face. Dimly, she noticed the bright wheat falling into circles, and shapes of people in the field. Then her eyes froze over, dazzling the world into a kaleidoscope of stars.
    Her heart stopped.
    “Isis!” Gray was calling her name from somewhere,but she didn’t answer. She was only a leaf rustling in the forest, only the speck of a bird circling into a wide and empty sky.

It was like an electric shock or something. When all the light blasted out of the ghost-eater, I got thrown clean off. I landed with a thump, somewhere down in the wheat. I think I was knocked out for a few seconds. And I’d let go of Isis, so I couldn’t see the Devourer or Angel, or anything.
    Just Isis, lighting up the field. Light pouring out between her hands, like she was made of it.
    I tried to stand up, but I was shivering so hard I could hardly move. My legs and arms were all rubbery and useless with it.
    “Isis!” I shouted at her, but she didn’t notice, didn’t move. I heaved at myself, and stumbled to her on dead legs. She was shimmering, sparkling, like she was made of glassor something. But it wasn’t glass, it was ice, covering her from head to foot. Her hair glittered; every part of her shone back the light still rushing out of her. She was dazzling. She was a winter fountain.
    “Isis?” I could feel the cold off her, shaking me into shivers. “Are you all right?”
    Under the ice, her skin was starting to crack, like she was drying out or something.
    “Isis?” I reached out, touching her hand.
    She was still holding onto Angel, so my fingers caught both of theirs. And I could see then.
    The light pouring out through their hands was a golden tree, as tall as the sky. Like Stu said, the ghost of any species is millions of lives over millions of years, and this one was free again, going up and up into the night, wider than the world. Gathering up the stars.
    At their feet, the Devourer looked all shrivelled and tiny, not scary any more. A blue-black sag with wings, flopping about on the ground.
    I kicked at it, and it scuffled away. Flapping a little, skidding above the plants towards Philip Syndal, who was just standing up out of the crop, hand to his head. He screamed when he saw it, and started running. It shotright into him, and he fell down. I didn’t see him after that.
    “Stay!” Angel cried. I thought she meant me.
    Then I looked back and Angel was gone, the shining tree was gone.
    There was just me and Isis in the field, with the rustle and crack of the wheat, and the sighing of the wind. And a massive, boiling sphere of light, right over our heads, pulsing white-hot, and each pulse getting a bit bigger.
    “Oh no,” I whispered. I’d never been anywhere near as close as this before. I didn’t even know what would happen.
    “We’ve got to get out!” I shouted at Isis. She didn’t move, so I grabbed her under the arms, trying to drag her backwards. It was really hard, you know? My arms and legs were hardly working, and she was solid and heavy, like a lump of stone.
    “Please! Can’t you just try and walk?”
    BOOM!
    I was flattened by light, caught in waves of it. I crawled on, scrabbling and trying to hold onto Isis, trying to get us both out of there. I didn’t know which way to go, I didn’t know which way was up.
    “Gray! Oh my God, Gray!”
    Someone grabbed me. Mum was hauling me outof there. Saving my life, probably.
    But I screamed, fighting her, trying to keep hold of Isis. Mum wouldn’t let go, wouldn’t stop pulling me out. Because she couldn’t see Isis in all the glare. And she didn’t know Isis was so slick with ice, that she just slipped through my hands.
    You wanted to know what seeing a UFO had to do with Isis dying? Well it’s this. I left her behind in all that. I left her behind, and she died.
    That’s all there is, really. The burning ball of light did what the others had, the times before. Unravelled into a blinding line across the night, and flew off to the stars. Not UFOs heading back to their mother ship, like Dad said, but the biggest ghosts in the world. Maybe if I’d been with Isis I might’ve seen where it was going, what it was doing. But I wasn’t.
    It went with her, that whole way of seeing.
    Mum got me to where Dad was, and when it was safe he ran out into the field and started searching for everyone who’d got caught out there. He found Cally first, half-cooked