"Alright, big guy," Glacia said to her adoptive son, "Gale and I are having a date night. I'll be staying at his house until noon tomorrow. You gonna be okay alone?"

"Mom, I'm eighteen. I'll be fine," Gadalik assured her. "You and him go have fun. I'll take care of everything here in the meantime."

"Well, okay, then, Mr. Adult," she huffed with laughter. They heard a mare's whinny come from outside. "That's him now. Stay safe! Keep the door locked if you go out on ghost business! I'll be taking the spare key in case you're not home when I get back."

"Of course. Now do you have everything you need? Change of clothes, toothbrush, hairbrush, wallet…"

Glacia froze, thinking it over. "Don't make me second guess myself! I packed everything in my purse. Now I gotta go; he's waiting on me. See ya later."

"Bye." He watched her leave out the door, waving to Gale as the latter helped his girlfriend into the carriage. The two took off and Gadalik went back inside.

The house was unusually quiet without her.

His striped blue eyes looked to her bedroom, the mess within visible through the carelessly left-open door. He'd had the urge to clean it ever since he returned from his most recent job where he and his companion Mira faced two powerful ghosts only a couple days ago. Now that Glacia was gone it was the perfect time, although he knew she'd unintentionally trash the room soon after.

Gadalik went upstairs to her bedroom doorway, then hesitated as a memory struck him.

"...And then there's Glacia's room..." Gale said.

"W-what about her room?" Gadalik asked.

"The last time you cleaned it was after a spirit destroyed your father's staff...and, almost, you."

"Aha--yeah! That was a couple months ago. It's been a long time coming," he brushed it off.

"Well, almost one month ago, a spirit at the resort nearly killed you...and now that we're back you've cleaned that room again. I can't help but see a connection."

The teen looked down. One of the two aforementioned ghosts from his last job had mentally possessed him–digging up his repressed childhood trauma: the day his birth-parents were murdered by a spirit right in front of him.

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What am I doing…? Am I really that desperate for a distraction?

Gadalik shook his head and shut her door, then continued down the hall past the bathroom and to his own room. His spooks' robe and staff were mounted on the wall next to his bookcase, and he sat down on his bed beneath the window in the center of the wall perpendicular to it.

The silence was deafening. He couldn't stop his mind from drifting back to the incidents Gale had mentioned, and the mental possession. The spook wanted nothing more than to forget about all of it and simply go on with his life, but it seemed that the memories were always in the back of his mind, haunting him.

Distractions. He needed distractions. He had to clean–or do something besides sit alone with his thoughts.

"All of this time…I've been focusing on the here and now. I have a good life, Mira–I do. But that's not moving on from the trauma; it's just…running from it." That's the realization he had come to just days prior.

And I'm still running, by way of all these distractions…

"You just have to accept that that's how things happened, and keep going with your head held high," Mira had replied to him.

Accept how bad it is… Gadalik repeated in his mind.

He rolled onto his stomach and propped his chin on the pillow, folding his arms under it.

How can you just accept it? It feels so bad just thinking about it… I don't want to feel bad…! I just want to feel normal. Why can't I just be normal?!

The teen tucked his legs in to sit up on his knees. He once again glanced toward Glacia's room.

No! he stopped himself. No more distractions! Just…accept it. Accept that I've witnessed my parents' deaths. Accept that the spirit had broken my father's staff in its attempt to kill me. Accept that the ghost at the resort caused a broken rib that pierced my lung. Accept that I actually drowned fighting a spirit at the lake. Accept that a witch hunter nearly strangled me to death while trying to kidnap me for my blood.

Gadalik laughed out loud humorlessly.

Just accept it! It's no big deal!

He laughed some more, then fell forward, catching himself on his elbows, his forehead hitting the pillow and hands balled into fists on either side.

His laughter then gave way to voiceless sobs.

It was a big deal…all of it. How often he had come so close to a permanent death was terrifying. Seeing his parents slaughtered before his eyes was horrific. But until now, none of it had felt like it had happened to him, but rather a character in a movie, wherein he watched the events unfold from a safe place. But now he was forced to remember that he was actually there through it all. He had to accept it.

Teardrops from his tightly-closed eyes were absorbed into the pillowcase below. Sobs racked his body and he released a silent wail. All he could do was vent it all out.

Gadalik woke up from a dreamless sleep on a pillow still dampened by tears.

He wiped his eyes and sat up to look out the window, seeing that around an hour had passed.

The spook turned his back to the window and leaned against the wall beneath it, staring at the ceiling. He felt…relieved. Like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

He brought a hand up and inspected it. I'm me, he concluded.