Kada walked the entire perimeter of the estate and nothing spooky happened. She had vehemently fought to be the one to take the outdoor shift. Ghosts wouldn’t haunt her if she stayed outside the entire time, right? There was nothing terrifying about a wide open space. Yet she still glanced over her shoulder every time there was so much as a whisper in the wind.
Once she’d done two full laps, she found herself drawn to the pond in the garden behind the mansion. Cosdammit, don’t do it Kada, don’t look! She tried to talk herself out of staring into the pond. You’re going to look down and see your dead friend, and then you’re going to zjik your pants! So don’t even look!
She looked. First came a sigh of relief when she was only met with her own reflection. “Oh lordy Cosmos!” But the regret came when the reflection turned into Bosef, the dead friend and crush that she’d killed to become a Fiend. Her arms flailed wildly in front of her as she fell back on her butt and scooted back as far away as she could until her back bonked into a statue.
The ghost of Bosef rose out of the water and hovered in mid-air. He looked down at her and grimaced. “Great, now I have to deal with you again. The one nice thing about dying was that I didn’t have to deal with your annoying ass every day. Oh Bosef, walk home with me. Oh Bosef, eat lunch with me. Oh Bosef, pay attention to me or I’ll die!”
“There was a reason I was your only friend, Kada. That’s because you were insufferable, and I was the only one nice enough to put up with you! Then you dared to hold yourself higher than me!”
“You were drowning puppies!” The words jumped out of Kada’s mouth. She felt a flash of anger from a mostly-repressed memory.
“Says the girl who stalked me,” the ghost threw shade right back. “Sure I had a quirky little hobby, but I had to find some way to deal with the stress. It’s all your fault, really. You and everyone else only saw me as this cute little boy when all I wanted was to be treated like a man! I couldn’t stomach it anymore, and wanted to wash away all the cuteness from this world.”
“But what’s the matter?” Bosef flew over to her, getting right up next to her. “Why do you look so scared?” He got even closer to her wincing face. “You used to love looking at me, like I was some cute little pet. Do yOu ThiNK i’M NOt cuTe AnYmoRe?!” His voice became distorted and screechy as his appearance shifted for just a moment. His body went blue, his skin bloated—his drowned self.
It only lasted a moment before he turned back to normal and floated away, giggling to himself. “Even if you don’t find me cute anymore, it’s so sad that you never outgrew them. You still ogle every cute person and stuffed animal you see. Hell, you’re even treating that fluffy girl like your pet and cuddling with her almost every day.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t need to outgrow the things I like,” Kada finally said something to defend herself. “I am who I am, and I like what I like. I didn’t outgrow cute things, but I definitely outgrew you!”
“So she finally gained a spine,” Bosef stared back mockingly. “Well go ahead then, get rid of me. If you’re so big and brave now, it shouldn’t be a problem. You’ve got that fancy anchor, right? So blow me up or chop my head off. Or do you want to drown me again?” He vanished for a moment and reappeared in the water.
The boy started flailing around, splashing wildly. His head kept bobbing up and down, submerging under the water only to resurface a second later and gasp for air. He was obviously trying to bait her. And even though Kada felt no obligation to assist him, she wandered over anyways. It was best to get this over with so she could be free of this spooky nightmare—not quite as spooky as she thought, though.
She bent down and held out her hand to the boy, but he vanished. Before Kada could move back or look away, a statue came crashing down, pushing her into the water. The massive slab of stone followed her, pushing her body all the way down to the bottom of the pond and pinning it in place. It was pretty dark down there, so the goggles on her headband automatically flipped down so she could see.
“Ahahahahaha!” the boy ghost appeared next to her, somehow his evil laughter wasn’t distorted by the liquid. “Finally, I’ll have my revenge! Just like you drowned me, now I get to watch as the light leaves your eyes as you plead for air! It will be marvelous. It will be spectacular. It will be… why’s nothing happening?”
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“Oh yeah, I can just like breathe underwater now,” Kada garbled, her words pushed through bubbles of pond water. “So I can hang out here all day, and I can also free myself at any time.” She melted the statue, and the new liquid started floating towards the surface of the pond.
After Kada pulled herself out of the water and shook her hair dry like a dog, Bosef appeared again, staring down into the water. He was clearly distraught and devastated that his plans had failed, so the Fiend decided to leave him alone. She should probably investigate that glass crashing noise she’d just heard anyways.
◆◆◆
Phon tried several different rooms first where she expected her father to appear. The map room was obvious since it was where he spent most of his time in life when they weren’t out on a campaign, but there wasn’t so much as a paper being rustled. She tried the meeting room next, study, offices, library, nothing.
Only when she visited the kitchen, and pulled out a knife to see if it was in good enough condition to be worth stealing, did she see her father behind her in the reflection of the blade. “Of course I find you in here, the room where you’re wasting your life.” What a wholly unfair comment since she’d literally just gotten there.
“Cooking of all things. With your talents and the power I gave you… yet you put all your ambition towards something anyone can do. Let Mallea handle the cooking or any of the other staff you’ve acquired. And it’s not even a passion for yourself. You do it for your brother since you never shook your obsession.”
“That I can understand at least. Everything is for those we love. But you’re going about it all wrong. To help Drim, you need to be doing what only you can do. Your power can be used for much more than your limited scope. With the proper application, you could bend the world to your feet in a week!”
“Go dethrone kings, go assassinate your enemies! Topple the Central Peace and make them beg on their knees for forgiveness for ever dreaming of going against you. The world is at your fingertips, so take it for yourself! Your brother may disagree with some of our ideology, but he’ll forgive you when you hand him exactly what he needs for his plans.”
“And most importantly, Phon… my daughter… You must fulfill our legacy! You must get revenge on her! For us, for all those who have suffered by her hands! Only then can your brother’s dreams fully come to fruition.”
“Wait, her? Like her her?” Phon had been taking the verbal lashing like a champ and was planning to ignore her father entirely. But that was one tidbit of information she couldn’t ignore. Her father nodded in response. It seemed he wasn’t quite as restricted as their mother when talking about her.
“Who is she? Can you tell me her name?” If Phon only had the Draz’s name, she could use Phontext to look into her. Or that was the hope. She hadn’t been able to find a single connecting thread, but maybe that’s because it wouldn’t be possible to begin with.
“No, your mother could never tell me,” her father looked genuinely remorseful while he dashed her hopes.
“Damn, kudos to you though for believing her in the first place if she couldn’t even say the mawhgers name.” Phon started thinking of what else she could ask him while she had the opportunity.
“Well, I was unfortunate enough to experience her wrath firsthand—the only other person who ever did. We never told another soul about her, not that there was much we could say. For everyone else, we sold the lie of world conquest. But the truth of it is that everything we did, the war, all those deaths, they were all because of her. All that bloodshed is on her hands and hers alone.”
“Jeez, just what did she do to the two of you that you’d conquer the world because of it?” Phon was unsure how much she should actually believe him. The chain of events didn’t really seem to add up. Plus, he was a ghost that was supposed to be hostile towards her.
“She… I can’t say…” the ghost of Relyk Drazah started to look distressed.
“Oh, got the same affliction as our mother then?” Phon was starting to lose interest if he wasn’t going to be of any further help.
“No, not that,” the look on her father’s face changed. “Whatever’s controlling me, they’ve forbidden me from giving you any more help. They are very angry, and it’s passing along to me, clawing at my enmity that I have long since forgiven. Soon, I will not be able to control myself,” his ghostly body started to shake.
“In a moment, I will try to choke you, as you choked me to death. Please, take this moment to flee before I have to dirty my hands. Just remember, your mother and I loved you two with all of our hearts. We are proud of you in whatever you do, just do not forget my words and heed my warning. She must be stopped, or Rathe will never know peace!”
Relyk’s hair stood on end and his eyes went manic. His hands raised into claws and he charged at his daughter. Phon vanished before it was too late, teleporting to the other side of the mansion. Even after she walked back to the kitchen, he did not return.