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Mortimer

S he did it.

She actually fucking did it.

I wasn’t alone anymore.

I didn’t know what this meant for me. For her. I didn’t care, because it meant something . Whether we spent eternity at each other’s throats or looked to one another for companionship, I was positively giddy that I was no longer alone .

I was transfixed as I watched her transition. It was like she was simultaneously emitting light while sucking it all into her like a black hole. It was stunning, confusing to witness, but awe-inspiring all at the same time. It pulsed from her, was sucked back in, and then repeated the process again and again. Each time, the pulses became stronger, faster, shorter, until eventually she was vibrating with energy. The same energy she had been attempting to harness as a mere ghost. Now, she would be able to access that power whenever she pleased. She could grow it with each soul she consumed, becoming one of the most powerful entities to exist.

I could taste her potential from the moment I first caught wind of her, the fight inside of her calling to the deepest, darkest parts of my withered soul. She was the first to snag my attention in such a way, the first to prove themselves worthy of the transformation she was so close to completing. The white flame that called to me so persistently.

She was everything .

The pulses of energy finally calmed, so they were no longer attacking everything surrounding her. Instead, they encased her in a cocoon of power that she fed from as her entire being morphed into something new, like a moth. It was an analogy I had used on myself more times than I could count. Going through a metamorphosis that changed the very structure of her being, she would emerge a dweller of darkness, drawn to the light, and consuming power while leaving beautiful destruction in her wake.

I couldn’t wait to see what she would be capable of in her newly elevated state of being.

When she didn’t move, not even a twitch, I settled in for a long wait. I did not know how long it would take. I had no one with me when I underwent my own transformation, and I had never seen it happen myself. My personal experiences were the only ones I could draw information from, but there was no guarantee the girl’s path would be the same as mine. Her power could be different or weaker. Possibly even stronger. She could emerge as an entirely different being than I had, though I hoped that wouldn’t be the case.

The loneliness that I had held off for so long, that I had convinced myself was no longer present, had rushed back into me with a crushing force when I had first discovered my ghost girl lingering over her grave, watching her killer destroy more of his victims. I had come across the other spirits as they moped about, which was typical of them, but she was different. She hadn’t been moping, she had been plotting. Planning. Spewing venom from her glares as if they could harm the man who had wronged her so viscerally.

Yet, despite the hopes I had involuntarily placed on her, she hadn’t figured it out. I still wasn’t sure she had, yet she had blown through my disappointment and had succeeded anyway, purely by accident. But oh, what a beautiful accident it had turned out to be.

My shadows converged beneath me to form a seat, cupping my body comfortably in the icy tendrils as I settled in for the wait. I had a feeling it was going to be a long one, but I wasn’t missing this for the world.