Once we knew where we were going and, very vaguely, what we were planning to do to defeat the ghosts, it was a lot easier to think in the short term. Riowyn looked up the nearest government outlet, used a reporting site to send them a message and some files about what we'd learnt, and we headed there to explain in person. While we travelled, we put our heads together to decide what to say, how to condense Riowyn's research and express the danger properly.
Well, Riowyn and I did anyway.
Sophie, as per the past couple of days, was extremely quiet. I didn't know what to do about that. I knew that she would find it difficult to talk about and honestly, I was afraid to ask. I knew... some things about her past but not enough to understand just what she was freaking out about. I knew she thought this accelerated situation was her fault, and believing yourself to be the cause of many deaths is more than enough reason to become pale and repressed as Sophie was now but there was something deeper to it. Some past trauma, someone who'd died, something. I couldn't even begin to imagine her suffering – how long had she travelled alone as a teenager through the depths of space searching for her family? – but I could sense her current pain. And I was so so worried for her mental state. Even just what we'd been exposed to between the teleport watch and the ghosts was messing with our heads, so I knew that there was a real worry that Sophie would lose her mind. I missed the bright, energetic and determined girl who'd helped me on Flauraan. I didn't want to lose her in the midst of this.
But, of course, there were bigger things going on, and it wasn't as if Sophie was the only one to worry about either. The gleam in Riowyn's eye that hadn't gone away was worrying me, especially from what we'd learned about her so far. Obsessing over these ghosts had consumed her life. She wanted to be the one to stop it. What lengths would she go to?
My brain was running overtime, but Riowyn and I got our story straight, and I kept an eye on Sophie as we approached the entrance to the imposing metal building with Staarus and Halapatovian insignia projected on its front. We found ourselves being shepherded to a reception desk.
At the sight of us, dishevelled from our few days of ghosts and chaos, the receptionist pressed a button on his desk and called in an officer.
He walked in a few moments later, with furrowed eyebrows and a slight frown. "So you are the girls who reported the source of the recent influx of apparitions?"
"Yes, and if you head there now you should be able to-"
"We don't need to hear any more." The officer lifted his hand and bluntly interrupted. The badges on his uniform flashed as he turned and focussed his gaze on Sophie in particular. I followed his gaze to the watch on her wrist, and I remembered the readings and testimony we'd sent with our report. We'd told them about the connection between the device and the ghosts, and it seemed they'd understood.
Sophie's repressed bubble burst suddenly and she smashed her fist against the reception desk, eyes wild. "Look, you need to do something! Don't you understand how much danger the world is in?"
The officer stared coldly back at her. At the look in his eyes, it seemed as if a nest of flying insects had exploded in my stomach. Oh no, what had we gotten into now. "We are well aware how much danger the world is in," he replied sternly. "Mainly, it seems, due to you."
I watched as Sophie's face slackened and paled. "What are you saying? You won't do anything because it's my fault?"
"Oh we'll do something," the man said menacingly, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. He nodded aside to his colleagues, two equally as menacing women and a man with energy weapons which were raised as if to stun her. A thousand panicked thoughts raced through my already-stressed-to-the-maximum mind. I reacted instinctively, and the screams of a frightened seven-year-old seemed to echo through the years as my hands raised before me and particles of air rushed outwards, hitting with force anything that was in their way.
One long moment later I stood panting, arms going limp, before four unconscious guards. My senses alerted me to the fact that the sounds of breathlessness were not emanating solely from myself and a swift glance around me provided me with the image of Riowyn's offensive stance, and what I assumed was staar matter swirling around her extended fingers, before dissipating into the air.
The tension broke, and we dropped our arms, staring at each other in shock. Then I whipped around to find Sophie curled into a ball on the ground. Panic consuming me, I knelt down and pulled at her forearms, wound tightly round her knees. "Sophie, come on, we've got to get out of here!" My voice came out high pitched as I tried in vain to squash my fear.
She rocked and pushed away my attempts to pull her upright, muttering. "No."
"Sophie," Riowyn moved towards her too, somehow maintaining a state of calm. "it's okay."
At this Sophie raised her head, and I bit my lip when I saw the redness of her eyes, the despondency written on her face. "Is it?" she asked in a choked voice.
Riowyn exhaled anxiously, and knelt down beside me, shooting me a look, to which I nodded. "Come on," I murmured and we hooked our arms under her elbows and dragged her towards the door.
As soon as Sophie had achieved some level of functionality, Riowyn dropped her arm and pulled out a device, hurriedly punching buttons on the screen.
"Even if people won't listen to us directly, I'm letting everyone know to spread the word. The online team has some good contacts so someone should be able to do something, especially if they're not distracted by the possibility of, you know, arresting us." With her last message completed, she slipped it back into her satchel, and I frowned as I watched her face, still gripping Sophie firmly as we stumbled along. I could tell that she felt disturbed about our little attack back there. I personally wasn't even allowing myself to think about it; was there even any point? Sure, we'd actively harmed innocent people, but they'd been going to arrest Sophie, and I couldn't let that happen; we had to fix this ghost thing before anyone was able to face consequences. My mind screamed at me from where I'd locked it up securely inside my head, but I didn't care about reason or logic or anything other than the immediate. I needed this to be over and done with.
As soon as we were a decent distance away I stopped and grabbed Sophie frantically, looking into her panicked eyes. "Sophie, we need to use the teleport watch."
Her eye twitched and she shook her head, spurting out words. "Abi- no- I don't-"
"Sophie, if we don't, we'll never be able to get there. And if we take the teleport watch there, we should be able to stop this for good." Riowyn nodded along with me.
Sophie bit down on her lip, closed her eyes and nodded. She flipped open her teleport watch and we input coordinates, checked them, checked them again. And then she grabbed my hand and Riowyn's.
"This will be over soon." She mumbled, and I nodded, squeezing her hand.
A breath, a thrill of electricity, a moment of blackness and then we stood in the streets of an old halaptovian city, and I realised, with continuing dread, that this was where Sophie and I had arrived when we'd first left Flauraan... That must have been how this all started.
As quickly as she could, Riowyn connected to the satellite network and pulled up a map on her device.
"This way." She pointed to the right and I followed her down the street, pulling Sophie along with me. Together we navigated cobbled streets, with buildings varying in age and state of disrepair the further we traversed through them.
Finally, we reached an abandoned area, with only one light in the street. I glanced at Riowyn's map and then at the houses. There was a large one with a caved in side, and that's the one that lined up with Riowyn's research, so we made a beeline for that one.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and Sophie passed me her scanner, I held it up to the caved in part and she held up her teleport watch alongside it, tapping a few buttons and then waiting with her mouth set in a thin line. With my spare hand I touched her shoulder; she flinched lightly away from me - I should've guessed that would be her impulse. The air was thick with tension, and probably staar matter as well, if this really was the source of the ghosts. At this point, though, I don't think we could deny that last part; Sophie's teleport watch was being affected even more than before and the scanner was showing some strange reading.
An eerie gust of wind blew through Riowyn's golden hair as she squinted at the place. "The trial I read seemed to indicate that his laboratory was in the basement, so we're probably gonna have to break in and get as low in as we can. I'll just send another report." She tapped on her device for a minute and then slipped it into her satchel. "Let's do this."
We spent the next twenty minutes picking our way through boards and rooms and trying to unblock the side of the house that seemed like it would lead to a basement. As we shifted another lot of bricks, I felt suddenly different, and I glanced behind me to see a ghost there. I jumped, alerting the others, but I needn't have worried. The ghost didn't try to attack us, just hovered behind us; albeit hurting my head and causing general unease.
It stayed there as we picked through the final parts of blockage and then uttered a single word - "Soon" – and disappeared. Needless to say, I was relieved, but I still was worried as to what it meant. What were the ghosts expecting to happen? Had we been manipulated? I couldn't even think clearly. I glanced at the others quickly. No one here had a clear head. We'd resisted arrest and made our own way here, assuming that only we would be able to solve this massive, centuries old issue. Maybe this was a mistake.
Even as these thoughts passed through my head and then vanished, Sophie and Riowyn were descending into darkness. Riowyn pulled out her device again and put on a torch, casting light on the stone floor as we reached the basement, and then glinting on the machine that awaited us there.
It was complex, metal and glass and wires and connections, and I knew immediately that this was the cause of everything that had happened. Despite the mechanical parts lying dormant, with no charge running through them, I could sense a low humming at the edges of my senses.
I knelt down and touched the glassy stone, part of the machine, words folding together in understanding in my head. "It's resonating somehow with the staar matter in our dimension and theirs, even though the power is disconnected. Whatever bridges those two worlds has been forced open. We'd need some delicate equipment to manipulate the density of the staar matter here, block the connection... or something, I'm no expert."
"Okay, so what do we do." I looked up to see Sophie's eyes glinting in the torchlight, expression as cloudy as my own eyes could be.
"I don't kno-" I was cut off as the now familiar whoosh of staar matter amassing filled our ears. First one ghost appeared, floating vaguely in our direction. Riowyn gaped, her light filtering through them, casting an even eerier glow than normal on the room. As we gathered together, more ghosts appeared. Sophie gripped her arm, her face gaunt, teleport watch flashing.
"What do you want?" I tried to sound confident as I could.
"It is... so nice... with us." The voices sounded around us. "The... world is... so dark... find rest... with... us."
My eyes flicked between the various spirits, and then I noticed the slight trajectory towards Sophie, as if they were targeting her. With her free hand, Riowyn summoned staar matter into her hand, forming a little bowl of light. The ghosts didn't react at all this time. I pulled my hands up as well and stepped towards Sophie defensively.
"No one here is joining you. We came to cut you off from our world." I told them, enunciating as clearly as I could. "If it's so nice there, you can stay there away from us."
"We... want... to help." The voices continued. "We know... your... pain. So much... death..."
I felt faint, akin to when I escaped the ship on Flauraan. I looked over to see Sophie with a glazed, wistful look on her face. "I- I want-" she mumbled, almost imperceptible. I shook my head. This couldn't be happening. I thought of the stories that Riowyn had told us. The ghosts had targeted lonely and desperate and hopeless people, and we'd brought Sophie, who had been through more than anyone I knew, and as strong as she was, I'm sure she wanted relief. And this is what they offered; and with their sway, I don't know how she could, in this state, resist.
They continued to close in. Riowyn and I aimed our powers towards them, but it only ruffled them for a moment. We were both so distracted and exhausted. I thought I could hear noises above us. Sophie's eyes began to droop. I didn't know what to do. Why had we expected to be able to do anything?
"No!" I yelled as the ghosts swarmed towards Sophie. The ringing in my head intensified and all I could think was, no no no no no no no. Unable to ruminate anything, I grabbed Sophie's arm in a vain attempt to keep her here and as the ghostly projections consumed her, I was dragged along with her, into the ghost world. Riowyn's torch clattered to the ground with a resounding clang.
Suddenly the ringing in my ears wasn't blocking anything anymore, so much as it was the only thing that was real anymore. A blinding light pervaded my senses. I tried to blink, and then realised I had no eyelids with which to do so. This isn't real. Vaguely, I became aware of what must have been Sophie beside me. I'm dead and gone. I wasn't sure how I was experiencing anything, but those were definitely the ghosts in front of us still, except we were like them now... almost. It's over Abigail; we failed. But I knew that wasn't quite true. Authorities were coming, and Riowyn was still there; in an odd way I could sense her, and mine and Sophie's bodies swaying, breath almost gone, suspended with glassy eyes, as if I was watching from outside my body. Well, I was. I wasn't sure how any of this was possible, and then I felt, somehow, a slight tug on myself – whatever that was now – and I saw Riowyn soundlessly screaming, arms raised towards us in earnest. What is going on?
It may have been an eternity before anything happened. I'm not sure. The ghost world was strange. I was reminded to some extent of the trips with the teleport watch, the removal of mind from body. For the most part though it was completely different.
"Sophie!" I tried to yell but it was like I was underwater, thick and sluggish. Or was it really more like travelling with the teleport watch? Being able to feel Sophie secure and real beside me, while knowing at the same time that none of this was real, and she could so easily slip away. How did we get here? Why is this happening? I could, in fact, feel a sense of peace coming over me, just as promised by the ghosts before. What was the cost though? Am I lost already?
The ghosts flickered, the world shimmered; I saw Riowyn clearly now, veins pulsing in her arms and forehead, energy swirling around her. The fog of the ghost light surrounded me once more. This time, though, there was a distinct sense of panic in the ghosts around Sophie and me. I looked at her through the tunnel between us, at the mist in her eyes, or what I thought were her eyes.
The ghosts retreated from us, my mind cleared, but the ghost world remained. A piercing shrill broke the thickness of the air and as if the sky had crashed around our feet, the world changed in a blur of light and colours and Sophie and I fell to the ground, surrounded by darkness once more.
.
.
I lifted my head, vision blurry. What had just happened? I felt around in the dark. "Sophie." I choked out. Sophie. Fear gripped me. The ghosts were nowhere, I couldn't feel them anymore, but Sophie had been so far gone. What if she was dead?
"There's people down there!" I heard a yell from above. I coughed and choked on my words again. "Soph-" My hands found warm skin and I gripped it. I could hear ragged breathing somewhere nearby.
"This way!" I heard yelling again, and footsteps, and then bright light from government grade fluorescent lights pierced my eyes. I turned away from it reflexively, leaning over whoever I was holding onto. I shook her.
"Abi?" a weak rasp came from beside me. Brown curls obscured my vision as she grabbed onto me, shaking horribly. My mind fixated on the one thing neglected in this equation.
"Riowyn, you did it," I called out, shaking Sophie's arm where she still lay below me. "You saved us, they're gone."
"Abi..." Sophie was sobbing. I turned my head to see her pale, broken expression. Why was she next to me, I could've sworn...
My heart thumped loudly in my ears. I finally let go of the arm, and moved my hand to push back the bright, sweaty hair that had covered Riowyn's face when she fell, revealing blank eyes. I fell on her chest again, ear to chest-plate, then to her nose, searching for some sign. But no, I pulled back, and Sophie and I sat paralysed in front of our friend's corpse.