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Stupid little mouse.

‘Who are you?’ she asked, then flinched involuntarily when her husband spat on her corpse and proceeded to kick her, screaming at her to get up to make him his dinner. He only became more incensed when she didn’t move, too dumb to figure out he’d killed her.

‘I’m here to take you to where you belong,’ I answered her, enjoying the way she shivered with revulsion at the sound of my voice. It was nothing like the way my ghost girl responded to me, and I was glad for it. The only creature allowed to enjoy my presence was her.

No… Shit. I needed to focus. I needed to purge her from my mind, if only for a moment, and this was supposed to be it. The husband would die soon. It was the only way.

‘Are you an angel?’ she asked, trepidation tainting her hope. She thought she would be carried away to heaven, did she? That wasn’t how this shit worked.

‘No,’ I said, and took even more pleasure when she tried to step away, only to find herself rooted in place, still tethered to her bones.

‘W-What do y-you w-want?’ she stammered, her fear such a sweet taste in the air. Though not as sweet as my ghost girl.

Damn it!

My shadows lashed out in my frustration, latching onto the terrified spirit with their chilling tendrils, wrapping around her, squeezing her, digging in. A few dipped inside of her, using her mortal-shaped orifices to enter her body. She may have been incorporeal without her body as a vessel, but she was tangible enough for me.

I dragged her to me, pulling her close to get a better sense of the energy coursing through her. It was dim, her soul just as broken and battered as her decaying body, and I wrinkled my nose in disgust. She would be more like a bland snack than a full-on meal, but at least she was better than nothing. A tasteless side dish to accompany the shitty main.

Her eyes widened, her fear lapping at me enticingly as I shoved her energy to merge with mine, cutting off her screams.

I breathed in a deep breath that didn’t quite hit the spot, and turned my attention to the worthless waste of space still attacking his wife’s corpse. I didn’t wait.

Even when I materialised in front of him, it took him far too long to notice me. Up close, his stench was even more revolting. His stale breath that reeked of tobacco, beer, and halitosis wafted over me, and if I my stomach had any contents, I would have expelled them immediately.

‘You couldn’t even brush your teeth,’ I muttered in disgust, finally drawing his attention. He stumbled away from his dead wife as if putting distance between them would somehow prove he was innocent, but his shock quickly turned into a threatening glare as he levelled me with a look of pure hatred.

‘Who the’fuck are you, ‘n wha’ you doin’ in my house?’ he slurred angrily.

‘I am your end, you pathetic cretin,’ I sneered, then lashed out with my shadows to gag and restrain him. I didn’t want to hear another word come out of those thin, cracked lips. He struggled weakly, but even if he weren’t drunk out of his mind, he never would have had the strength to resist. I was Power. I was Death.

He was my prey.

I had chosen this territory as my hunting grounds for one particular reason, and that was the river that wound through the land. The majority of the landowners had a section of the river to themselves, and I always killed my prey in the same way. The way I had been killed.

Drowning.

My nerves were wrought enough that I didn’t have the patience to play with him like I might have done. I likedwatching their fright, knowing I was the cause, and that I would feed on it, but now I just needed the rush of the hunt. The reward after the kill. I needed to remind myself who and what I was, to purge these new thoughts and desires from my mind and body. They were nonsensical. Purposeless. What use did I have for that sort of thing now?

I had made a mistake. My ghost girl was supposed to be entertainment. Another being that could keep me sane throughout the endless passage of time. Yet, she had somehow become more.

I didn’t like it.

And so, I took my anger out on this miserable weasel of a man. I let my shadows have free rein as they held him beneath the water, swishing him back and forth, up and down, but never letting his face breach the surface. His limbs thrashed in their grip as he tried desperately to grasp onto something to haul himself out of danger, but it was a useless endeavour. I heaved a long-suffering sigh. Why couldn’t he just hurry up and die already?

Finally,blessedly, the thrashing slowed to a stop. A few moments later, the idiot’s spirit rose above the water, still spluttering like there was some in his lungs. Idiot.

Without any further fanfare, I urged my shadows to drag him closer. This time, he didn’t try to fight. He may have been a little too stunned and was struggling to process, but I didn’t care. As soon as we touched, my energy reached out to encompass his before both sucked back inside of me, filling me with the additional power absorbing his soul granted mine.

I breathed a little easier, the breaths filling my lungs not for oxygen, but peace. It was a familiar action that brought comfort, a reminder of a time when life ran through my veins. It still brought peace, and oftentimes clarity, but I found that despitethat, my thoughts were still drawn to a white-haired ghost girl that had completely and irrevocably captured my attention.

There was no getting rid of her now, was there? I had made my bed, and now I had to lie in it. I had set all of this into motion with my own actions, and now it was coming back to bite me in the ass.

Or… was it? I couldn’t know for certain until everything played out. Whatever the result, I knew I would forever be changed.

The real question was, for better or for worse?

Chapter 2