"Tuesday, the lady who had went missing after her trip to Mount Thaed has been found dead inside the old abandoned house on the eastern side of the mountain." Gadalik sat at a small dinner table, pushing aside various old spices and condiments to make room for the newspaper he had quoted. "Locals say the house is no stranger to tragedy; an elderly woman was killed during a robbery in it just last month when her unsuspecting husband allowed the criminals inside. He died from natural causes only a week later."

"Sounds familiar. Is that the same house where that young man was killed in recently?" Glacia asked as she stacked the final clean dish between the kitchen sink and the glass cabinet that was filled with them.

"Yes, and both of them were killed the same way. Like they were..." he hesitated, "...crushed to death."

She shuddered. For a moment they were both quiet. "...And you still want to check it out?" she murmured, approaching him to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Gadalik braced himself, then nodded with determination. "This is the second incident reported at that house since the old man there passed away. These deaths aren't natural, Glacia."

"You're right... They're super-natural." She chuckled at her own pun, hoping to liven the mood.

Gadalik grinned and dismissively rolled his eyes. "I think they could be another poltergeist, like the little girl at the inn I told you about. Except this one is fully aware they're a ghost, and they're taking advantage of their new powers. I'll have to see for myself to be sure, though."

"It sounds more hostile than the one who broke your father's staff," she pointed out with uncertainty.

"Yes, and that's why I have to stop him."

"It doesn't have to be you who stops him... There are other spooks who read the paper, I'm sure." The purple-haired woman leaned forward some to examine the news article. "Besides, look how far away it is."

"We can take your cruiser," he said. Then the teenager turned to smile up at her. "Kind of like when we first met."

Glacia simpered upon seeing her adoptive-son's expression. She quickly looked away from him as the corners of her mouth fell with concern.

Gadalik's keen eyes noticed her frown anyway. He didn't want to upset her further. "Well, it's getting late. I should go to bed now..."

"W-wait. I'll take you to Mount Thaed if that's what you truly want...alright? Just...promise me you'll be careful."

"I will. I promise."

He went through the living room, mindful not to bump into the many cases filled with memorabilia from a kingdom long forgotten, then made his way upstairs, the base and top of the railings marked with flags that took up just a little too much space.

He passed Glacia's bedroom, seeing the second refrigerator among the myriad of different overflowing treasure chests, her bed that had more pillows than mattress with multiple blankets hanging off, and miscellaneous small items like used styrofoam plates scattered about on her floor, through her carelessly left-opened door.

Gadalik was always tempted to clean or organize her room, despite the fact that she unintentionally trashed it soon after the last time he'd done so.

He continued to the end of the hallway and went in his own room. Two of the four walls were lined with bookshelves, a large map of their tri-state area was on the third, and the one by the door had his dresser full of spell-tags, on which leaned his new staff. The head of his bed was against the middle of the wall across from the door, a window above it.

He hadn't had a chance to use it since Glacia and her long-distance boyfriend had given it to him. The chance was coming up now, and he needed to be well-rested for the trip.

Nine-year-old Gadalik followed his mother and father inside a boat rental shop.

"Hey, there," greeted the shopkeeper, an eighteen-year-old female with red irises and light purple hair. "My name's Glacia. What are you looking for today?"

"Nothing expensive. Just something that can get us across that river and back," said the man. "We can pay you after we return it tomorrow."

"Sounds good. But stay clear of that haunted cabin on the other side, especially since you have a little kid. I heard there have been a lot of gruesome murders there recently," she warned them in a hushed voice so the child wouldn't hear. Under her breath, she halfway-jokingly added, "It's been murdering my business, too..."

"Don't worry, ma'am," said Gadalik's mother, "we're aware of the deaths surrounding the cabin. It won't be a problem for us."

The next morning they packed food and other necessities then set out to the docks. Glacia owned a lot of boats that she would rent out to customers until eight years ago, but she mainly kept three on hand for personal use: a canoe, a cruiser, and a pirate ship.

She paused once she was finished putting their supplies in the cruiser. "Are you sure you're alright with this...?"

"Of course," he answered. "It's not like you to worry so much... Have you been there before?"

"...No. I haven't; not exactly," she said with a laugh suggestive of another joke, but Gadalik didn't understand it. She never elaborated.

Glacia made room for him in the cabin of the cruiser, then set the course and took off for their day-long journey.

The shopkeeper checked her calender to make sure she didn't mark the dates wrong. It's been two days since I lent the boat out to that little family, she thought. I could tell they weren't well-off, but they didn't seem like the kind of people who would steal. What could've happened to them...?

She set her sights upon the cabin hidden by the trees of the forest across the river. She had sworn never to go near there ever since the resident of the cabin died, marking the first of many more killings in that area. They wouldn't possibly have gone there...right? She continued to wait but her focus kept being drawn to it. There's only one way to find out, I guess. She got in a boat herself.

"Here we are," Glacia announced. "The base of Mount Thaed. His little house is supposedly halfway up the mountain. Ready for a trip, Gadalik?"

"Always!" he responded, taking off his robe to reveal he had already put on his climbing gear beneath it, showing how his passion for hiking had built up his muscles over the years. That was one thing that gave him the courage to face ghosts who only talked with their fists.

Glacia carried his robe and staff with a duffel bag of camping gear slung over her shoulder, taking the scenic path while keeping an eye on him as he found footholds and launched himself up in time with her ascent.

A quarter-way up she spotted a spring and they took a break cooling off in the water.

It was evening by the time they made it on even ground with the old house, but it was on the eastern side so they still had a little ways to go. He chugged some water and helped set up camp for the night.

Glacia cautiously reached her hand to the cabin's door. A gentle knock was enough to push it open. Great, now I can't use 'being locked out' as an excuse not to go in... She prepared herself for the worst as she stepped inside. There were small muddied footprints leading to a shovel on the floor, and dried blood splatters all over the wall behind her.

The little boy from before was sitting alone in the corner, his face buried in his folded arms which rested on his knees. He was sobbing voicelessly.

"Hey, there," she called with forced optimism.

Immediately upon hearing someone, he grabbed the staff beside him and stood up in one quick motion, shakily clutching the weapon offensively at her in both hands.

She held her arms partly up in surrender. "Hey--it's alright! Remember me? I'm the one your parents got the boat from."

He didn't seem to recognize her at first, his skeptical blue eyes clouded with tears.

"Speaking of your parents... Where are they...? Do you know?"

"...It killed them," he whispered, hugging the staff to his chest and slumping down against the wall. It was then she noticed the mud on his boots.

The morning light leaked in through the tent, waking Gadalik. This was the day to confront the murderous spirit. He pulled on his robe, packed up food and water, and reached for his staff, only for his hand to grip the air. Confused, he searched through his organized tent for anywhere else his exhausted self might've mistakenly put it, but it was gone.

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The blue-eyed teen stepped outside to see Glacia standing in front of her tent, staring toward the rising sun. In her hands was his staff.

Gadalik walked up to his adoptive mother, stopping before he was beside her to follow her gaze. "It's beautiful out at this hour, isn't it?"

She looked back at him, silhouetted, and motioned him forward with her hand. He stood at her side and two watched silently as the pink sky faded to blue.

"Are you ready to go...?" he prompted.

She nodded and lowered his staff to use as a walking stick. He didn't mind it.

By the time the house came into view, he walked ahead of Glacia and held his arm out protectively in front of her. "There's an old man on the porch," he said. "I can't tell if he's a potential victim or if he's the poltergeist unless I have my staff..."

"I can't see him," Glacia reported. "That means he's the ghost."

"Alright... That answers that." He sighed. "I'll try to reason with him, but judging by how brutal he was to the people found dead in his home, I'm not sure if he'll listen. I need my staff as a way to defend myself if he attacks me."

Glacia gripped it tighter even though he wasn't reaching for it.

"You can stay here... But I can't face him without a weapon," he explained.

"...That's the point," she finally spoke.

Gadalik faced her, puzzled. "I don't understand... We've come all the way here so I can send him to the afterlife. Wasn't that the point...?"

"I... I said I'd take you here. I never said I'd let you fight him."

He relaxed some. "Don't worry... You know I won't fight him unless I have to. If I can talk him through his problems, he'll leave without getting violent."

"You can't always go in relying on faith that things will work in your favor, Gadalik. I did, once, and it was the biggest mistake of my life."

"I get it... I made that mistake when a spirit destroyed my old staff before I could get a word in," he agreed. "But I learned from my mistake... And...you seemed to believe that, when you got a replacement staff for me. You were proud when I told you about the ghost at the inn last month. Did I... Did I do something to break your trust...?"

"This is different! A harmless unaware ghost isn't the same as someone with two deaths under his belt in the span of a couple weeks. The one who broke your staff managed to calm down once you were unarmed, but that was pure luck. What if this one won't calm down at all...?" She lifted her head, her bangs falling back to uncover her watered eyes. "What if he's too strong to fight...like the one who killed your parents...!"

Gadalik backed away from her. The latter was a topic she had never brought up before, out of sensitivity. Repressed memories came flooding back to him: the boat ride with his parents to a haunted cabin wherein a spirit known for causing countless deaths won the fight against them. Everything up to the confrontation these few days has been identical... he realized, and for a moment the house became a cabin.

"I knew that cabin was haunted," she went on, "but I let you go there anyway... It--it's my fault your folks were killed. I won't make that mistake with you. I'm responsible for protecting you...!"

Gadalik stood there in shock, processing this. "Is that what this is about...?"

She nodded slowly. Then they both started when they heard a door slam followed by a female's scream. Gadalik let her keep the staff and ran to the house; Glacia was right behind him. He tried the handle, and when it wouldn't turn, he bent back then front-kicked near the knob. The door swung open upon impact.

"What's happening to her?" Glacia cried, finding a girl pinned against the wall by nothing.

"It's the old man," Gadalik said, seeing everything. Despite knowing the ghost was intangible, he tried to tackle the murderer.

Surprisingly, what was left of the spirit's humanity caused him to flinch and release his hold on the girl. Glacia instantly picked her up and took her outside. The spirit and the teen stared each other down. The old man moved slowly, watching Gadalik's partially heterochromatic eyes track him.

"So, you can see me, can you?" the man rasped. "That's a first. I suppose I need not be invisible in your presence."

Glacia hunched protectively over the girl when the ghost suddenly appeared before her eyes.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Walter, and this here is my humble dwelling. All I can do as a ghost these days is defend it from lousy looters...like her." He stretched his arm out the door, past Glacia, and snatched a priceless teakettle from the girl's hand all in the blink of an eye.

"...My name is Gadalik. I'm sorry to hear about thieves... But I think there must be some misunderstanding here." His gaze swept the room.

There were pristine glass collectors' items all around, from figures to dishes. He remembered the mentioning of a robbery in the newspaper, but he was in too much of a rush to recall the details correctly.

"A misunderstanding?" Walter repeated. "What else would you call a person who takes your belongings?"

"I-I didn't know they belonged to anyone," the girl choked out. "I was just looking... I swear...!"

"Silence," the spirit snapped at her. "My wife died for these treasures... I will not let them be taken from this house--and I won't let thieves get away with trying to steal them!" He extended his hand at her again.

"Glacia--the staff!" Gadalik urgently instructed.

She held it between the ghost and the girl, deflecting Walter's strike.

"A spook...? That explains it," the old man said. "...No matter. The only way I'll leave this world is if all of these filthy robbers leave it with me!" He lunged out of the door after them.

"Use a shield tag!" Gadalik called to his mother.

Glacia grabbed a couple from the sack tied around it and slapped them on the staff. A small protective bubble formed around them just as the spirit tried to deal the finishing blow.

Gadalik sighed with relief. "It won't last long. If he really is a poltergeist, he won't be able to leave past the porch, so get as far from it as you can--" he gasped when Walter suddenly turned on him, lifting him by the neck.

"Protecting this criminal makes you as bad as she is," he hissed.

"Protecting those so-called treasures makes you nothing," Glacia retorted.

Walter rotated his head a hundred-eighty degrees to glower at her while still keeping a hold on Gadalik. "What did you say...?"

"I've read the stories in the paper last month," she said. "These belonged to your wife Julia, right?"

He narrowed his eyes.

"Well, Julia isn't alive now... And, frankly, neither are you. Those treasures don't belong to anyone anymore."

"That doesn't give people the right to act like they own them!" He was getting angrier. "Those rotten thieves killed my Julia to get her treasure, so I'll kill them to protect it! They need to be punished for their misdeeds!"

"But who's the one really being punished by this?" she said. "Wouldn't you prefer to be spending your afterlife with Julia?"

"Of course I would... But I can't. Not until I've made up for what I've done."

"I get it now," Gadalik strained. "The one who let the robbers in...was you--"

"Yes, I know--I know!" He dropped Gadalik and floated to the ceiling. His madness dissolved into melancholia.

Gadalik caught his breath, the girl was long gone, and Glacia was on the edge of the porch with the shield from the staff beginning to fade.

"They looked like ordinary people who just wanted a place to rest on their hike... I thought nothing of letting them inside," Walter explained. "But that was when they took Julia hostage... I did everything they asked, and they shot her anyway...!"

"That's horrific..." Gadalik panted.

"Yes... But I've learned my lesson from it. I can't trust anyone, no matter how innocent they appear to be."

"The lesson...being not to rely on faith that things will go your way...?" Gadalik guessed, aiming his question at Glacia.

"That's...your biggest mistake," she conceded.

Walter looked between the two. "...What?"

"You're doing this because you want to make up for causing your wife's death... Because you feel like it's your fault..."

"It is my fault!" he wailed, the sound amplified by his ghostly power.

"You think you're responsible for her death, so you dedicated your afterlife to saving what's left of her... But all you're really doing is punishing yourself by holding on to what...can't...be changed." She exchanged a look of epitome with Gadalik, who nodded.

"Being overprotective of her belongings isn't going to make up for letting your wife die. Killing people isn't going to make up for letting her die, either," Gadalik informed him.

"Then what will? Tell me, what will...? I'll do anything..." His wispy form trickled down despairingly.

"The simple truth is that nothing you do will make up for it...because you have nothing to make up for."

"How not...?" Walter demanded.

"You had no way of knowing who those people were when they came to your door... And, sadly, there's a chance they would've found another way to accomplish their goal even if you had turned them away. The point is: what happened wasn't your fault."

Glacia let those words sink in, understanding he was alluding to her as well.

The spirit fell silent for a little while. "Do you think my Julia would feel the same way...?"

"Of course," Glacia assured him. "And she's been waiting for you to join her all of this time."

"But what about her treasures...?"

"We'll find a place for them to be displayed where they won't be touched again."

Walter wiped a tear from his eye. "...Thank you."

With those final words, he vanished from the world.

True to her word, Glacia submitted the treasures to a gallery in the town below the mountain. She and Gadalik hadn't spoken much about what happened until they were untying the boat to leave.

"Is that the only reason you took me in?" he said quietly. "Because you felt guilty over my parents being killed...?"

Glacia was taken aback by this.

"So all I really am to you is a reminder of your 'biggest mistake.' You only adopted me as a way of redeeming yourself... Is that right?" he inquired, his tone neutral and face devoid of emotion.

"Gadalik... That isn't true," she sternly disagreed. "I would've taken you in regardless of my involvement in your orphanhood."

"Then why are you so against the idea of letting me do what I've always done?"

"Because...I don't want to fail you again. If, next time, your neck is broken instead of your staff...I don't know what I would do."

"It's funny... My neck was almost broken because I didn't have my staff." He smiled slightly.

She let out a huff of laughter. "I'm sorry, Gadalik. I was so afraid of the spirit hurting you, that I ended up hurting you instead..."

"It's okay to be afraid. You don't know what will happen to me when I face the next spirit... And neither do I. But I'm not a child anymore; I'm responsible for what happens if I choose to find out." He held out his hand. "Just like my parents were."

She wiped her eyes and stared at the staff in her arms indecisively. Then she placed it in his palm, but didn't let go. "I'm coming with you next time... To help."

"Deal."

Glacia let him take it, and they got in the boat, heading home.