"What an interesting world the devs have created. Not necessarily a new concept or anything extraordinary but still pretty impressive," mumbled Bao whilst observing how a small spider captured a fly in its thin white strings, laid out in a corner of the ceiling.

He laid in a rather uncomfortable small bed but at least he had his own private room, not to imagine how the night would have been if he stayed with Morell and all the others in the community room.

After dinner, he had quickly left the table before anyone of the others could have invited him for a drink. He had yet to recover from his wounds which some had even started to bleed through the bandages wrapped around them. Not to mention that Elincia strictly forbid him to do anything besides resting, so he accepted the offer with pleasure and threw himself on the way to small bed.

The yelling of the guards having a drinking contest below could be heard through the cracks between the wooden floor. Despite the loud chaos his eyelids started to feel heavy and forced their closure without his consent.

Before he even knew what was happening the shimmering candle on the small table beside his bed turned upside down and transformed into a normal lamp on the ceiling of a modern home.

Without even blinking he recognized the run down and old fashioned lamp.

"... Another storm ploughed through northern America leaving a trail of destruction and over three hundred thousand victims, far more than the one, two weeks ago...," told a monotonous voice.

"Hey brother, what is it? You look so pale." Cuifen, who sat right next to him, had already finished the steaming soup and ogled at his still full plate.

"Don't you dare, you little glutton," said Bao with a smile on his face while scurrying through her hair.

"He's always so pale Cuifen. After all, he's locked up in a room all day long just playing video games. How could he ever get some colour this way, I even start to think that he might have forgotten how the sun looks like," grumbled father.

Bao's mouth corners went from the highest point deep down to the lowest, even reaching the jawline.

"What your father really wanted to ask, was how your grades are in the new semester? ", asked mother nonchalantly.

"I... I thin... think ever..." While Bao was busy trying to finish his half baked sentence, the lamp over their heads plunged the room into darkness. "Hey, what happened?! Cuifen? Did we miss the deadline for paying the electricity bill again? Ma'?"

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

But no response could be heard from the three, only his own echo which answered through the pitch-black room. Even the table and the rest of the furniture, which until a moment was still there, had disappeared.

"He... el... help...," sounded a voice through the vast emptiness, followed by the ear-deafening tone of a screeching floorboard.

Bao's instincts screamed, he jumped up and drew the sword in the exact same move.

The candle had gone out but he could still see the rough silhouette of someone standing in his room.

"Calm down David, it's just me Elincia," she sounded shook but not by the tip of his sword pointed at her neck.

"Elincia?", he wandered. "How did you even come in here? I'm pretty sure that I locked the door behind me."

"That doesn't matter right now, something is wrong here. Didn't you hear someone whispering for help?"

"I thought that was in my dream or maybe you." Bao lowered his sword. "Why did you come to me, wouldn't Morell be the better choice if you need protection or it would come to a fight?"

"Psst," Elincia put a finger on her soft cushion-like lips.

"He... p... help me." They could only hear the voice when no one made a single tone and even then he could only hear half the words.

It didn't seem to come from any specific direction, rather it appeared directly in their heads. Bao and Elincia looked at each other, their eyes spread wide open.

Soon the voice fell silent and turned into a high-pitched sobbing, it sounded like that of a little girl crying and begging for help.

"Hello? Can you hear us?", asked Bao with a muffled voice. "Where are you?"

"So... someone ca... can finally hear me?"

His eyes crossed those of Elincia yet again, as she answered: "Yes, yes we can. Can you please come out here, where we are?"

"But... but you're gonna get scared, just like everyone else did and run away from me."

"No... no, we're definitely not gonna run away, I promise we are staying right here where we are."

The mysterious voice remained silent as both eagerly awaited a response.

"And you don't have to fear us either," added Bao quickly.

A glaring pure white girl emerged from the floor, right between Bao and Elincia. Her dress fitted her short stature as if it has been custom made matching even with the snow-white colour of her transparent skin and hair.

Bao's mouth remained wide open as only a single wort stuttered out of it: "G... g... ghost?!" He had suppressed every single muscle in his body which screamed at him to turn around and jump out of the window.

Ghosts were probably nothing unusual in a fantasy world nevertheless, seeing one face to face was enough to give him a heart attack.

"D... don't be ridiculous David, g... ghosts don't exist," stuttered Elincia to Bao's big surprise.

"W... what?" A fantasy world where ghosts don't exist, he didn't even think about that.

"Are, are you gonna run away now?", asked the little girl with big watery eyes.

Both their mouths were still gaping wide open as they couldn't believe who or rather what stood before them. And as they were doubting the existence of the small ghost child the door opened with a loud crash, startling everyone in the room and making them turn their eyes to the entrance.