Gadalik finished the day's chores. With his little sister's help, they had gotten them done early, and so decided to take his horse for a ride through the forest surrounding their home.

"Let's go faster," Adya prompted from the front of the saddle, her brother steering behind her.

"Heh, alright," he chuckled, changing gaits from a trot to a canter.

"Faster!"

"Okay. Hang on," he instructed as their speed increased to a gallop.

The girl whooped as they raced past the trees, leaving a trail of dust in their wake. "Can I have a turn steering?" she asked as they slowed to a stop after a lap around their property.

"Sure. Just be careful." He let her take the reins, giving their steed a gentle squeeze with his legs to start at a walk, then escalating to a trot.

Adya made for a fallen log, and Punsiv jumped over it with ease. They kept going straight until suddenly the dappled gray stallion's ears pinned back and the horse stopped in his tracks, stamping the ground nervously.

Gadalik instinctively reached to take the reins from her, but in that split second Punsiv reared and they were both thrown off.

He held his sister securely in front of him as he landed back-first on the ground, his body shielding her from the impact at his expense.

"What's wrong with him?" Adya cried, scrambling off of him to her feet and offering her hand to help her brother up.

That's when Gadalik's ghost sense alighted. He accepted her help but was barely able to straighten up from the pain in his back. His striped blue eyes searched in the direction he detected it in. We have wards around our property, but we've gone past them… Punsiv must sense it, too.

"Gadalik?" Adya tried again to understand the situation.

"Uh… Punsiv is upset. Let's get him home," he instructed, grabbing the reins in one hand and taking his sister's in the other to guide them back toward safety.

The horse refused to budge for a moment, but reluctantly followed them.

"I've never seen him this scared," she continued. "And you're acting weird, too."

"...You're right. But there's no time to explain. We just have to get home, okay?"

Her magenta eyes stared him down, as if she suspected he wasn't honest. "Is it a ghost?"

The spook's hands tightened their grip.

"I knew it," she said, glancing behind them. "Where is it?"

"It's getting closer. Come on." He picked her up in one arm around her torso, wincing from the strain in his back, then continued leading Punsiv with the other, power-walking to keep his horse from getting more stressed and to get home quicker. He didn't think he could run with his injury, anyway.

They made it back to the property and Gadalik tied his horse outside before placing Adya down…then collapsed, breathing hard, as his back gave out.

"Mom, Dad! Gadalik's hurt!" she called from the doorway.

Their parents rushed outside and Gale picked his son up. "What happened?" Glacia demanded.

Her daughter explained as they brought Gadalik inside, setting the spook on the couch.

"My back…really hurts," the young man breathed.

Glacia checked Adya over for injuries while Gale removed his son's shirt to inspect his back.

The little girl watched worriedly. "Is he okay, Dad?"

"He's got a big bruise," Gale reported. "I don't know if there's any damage to his spine, though. Maybe he should see a doctor to be safe."

"N-No," Gadalik quickly dismissed the idea.

His parents exchanged an uncertain glance.

"We'll rest it first and see how it heals. If I get any worse, I'll go, alright?" he compromised.

"...Okay," the mohawked man agreed.

Adya sat on the couch in front of her brother when something else caught her eyes, which then shone with excitement. "You have scars, just like Dad! Did you have cool fights with bad guys, like he did?"

Gadalik averted his gaze, not wanting to think about what caused them. They had been injuries sustained from his unsuccessful attempts to help spirits. Unlike his father, the spook wasn't proud of them.

"Adya, why don't you move so your brother can lay down?" Gale suggested.

She pouted but got off the couch.

"Lay down on your belly. I'll bring you an ice pack," Glacia told her son, heading for the kitchen to retrieve it.

Gadalik did as told. It hurt to straighten out like that, but he endured it. Stretching it might help, he convinced himself.

"So, there was a ghost out there?" his mother asked as she came back in with the ice pack, crouching on the floor beside him to put it over his bruise.

He winced from the cold and pressure, before it eventually numbed him. "Y-Yeah."

"You don't plan on going after it, do you?"

He didn't answer.

"Gadalik," she stretched his name into a warning.

Her son flinched. "W-Well…I can't–not right now. I don't think I can stand up."

"Do you have any numbness or pain in your legs?" Gale pressed.

"No… And I can move them fine. I'll be okay."

Even so, his parents doted on him for the rest of the day.

Night fell before they knew it, although Gadalik couldn't sleep. The pain every time he moved didn't help, but the ghost weighed on his mind more than anything.

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He forced himself up and carefully ascended the staircase to reach his bedroom. Once there he changed into his light green shirt and pants, tying his darker green, hooded robe over them. Then he grabbed his speared staff and went back down.

Just as he reached the living room, Adya was leaving the kitchen with a cup of water in her hand. They both froze when they saw each other.

"What are you doing up?" they said simultaneously.

"I was thirsty," she justified it. "What do you think you're doing in your spook's clothes this late? Are you going after the ghost?"

"Uhh…"

"Does that mean your back is feeling better?"

"Well, um…"

The six-year-old shook her head, knowing from the multitude of similar conversations they'd had before, that when he didn't answer, it was because he didn't want to lie. "If you don't rest it, you'll only hurt it more," she warned him, repeating what their father had told her when she'd sprained her ankle.

He looked away. She has a point… But I'm not sure how much longer the spirit will stay in the vicinity. If it leaves, I won't be able to help it; if it stays, it poses a threat to us. Either way I need to act now. "You're right: I should go back to bed," he conceded. "But you should, too."

Her magenta eyes narrowed skeptically at him, but she made her way back to her bedroom and shut her door between them.

Gadalik waited a few seconds to be sure she stayed put, then he left.

Gadalik hadn't gone very far before his back pain worsened. Thankfully he could use his staff as a walking stick this time. Following his ghost sense, he continued on the same path they had ridden on, except farther along it until his keen eyes spotted someone sitting on the roadside.

It was a boy, maybe sixteen years old, whose unkempt dark blue hair matched his eyes, which focused on Gadalik as he approached. "A spook…? So you've come to put me out of my misery, huh?"

Gadalik carefully kneeled to his level. "No… Annihilation is a last resort. You don't seem like a threat."

The teen looked away.

"My name is Gadalik," the young man introduced himself. "What's yours?"

"...Pete."

"So what are you doing out here, Pete?"

"Beats me. I've been here ever since I was run over."

"What were you doing before you died?"

"It doesn't matter… Nothing matters."

"Of course it matters," the spook assured him. "Your life matters."

"My life…? What life? I died before I could start living."

Gadalik winced. "What about your family and friends…? I'm sure you mattered to them."

Pete laughed humorlessly. Then he stared into Gadalik's eyes.

Suddenly the spook was younger, playing out in a yard.

Then he heard yelling coming from an unfamiliar man in the doorway of a house: "Get in here!"

The next thing he knew, he was standing in the dark corner of a living room while he heard two adults chatting behind him. His legs were sore from standing for so long. Instinctively he crouched to relieve the pressure on them.

The cracking of a belt near enough that he felt the air stirred by it startled him to his feet once more.

"What did we tell you, Pete? You have to stand there until your punishment is over," said a gruff man's voice.

"How much longer…?" The child flinched when the belt struck again.

"It was an hour… But since you're talking back, I'm making it two hours."

The child opened his mouth to protest, but with the realization that anything he said would prolong the punishment, he stayed silent.

"That's better. Learn your place."

Gadalik snapped out of it. He possessed me…? He shook his head. "I'm sorry you were treated so badly…"

"I wasn't allowed to live," Pete explained. "All my life I've been punished for the most trivial things…until I decided to run away. For the first time, I had a shred of hope that things could get better for me… And then I was killed in a hit-and-run."

"That's awful…" the spook sympathized. "But just because you're dead doesn't mean it's too late for things to get better. You're still here; you still exist. There's a reason you're here, and maybe I can help you find what it is."

"There's no point," Pete shut him down. "Every time I try to do anything, I get punished for it, so why try anymore? I thought death would finally be the end of it all, but now I'm still here, still miserable…! Why?!"

Gadalik placed a hand on the ghost's shoulder. "Calm down…"

Pete stood and backed away from him, shaking his head.

"Pete…?" he tried again, standing to pursue the spirit, when the pain in his back stopped him.

"I'm sick of hurting," Pete cried despairingly. "Don't I deserve to be happy? Am I cursed?"

"Of course you deserve to be happy…" Gadalik assured him. "And this is your chance to be…! Nothing can hurt you anymore."

"Shut up! Just…shut up…!" Pete's face became enveloped in shadows, and his wispy form enlarged, his fingers conjoining and lengthening into whips. Slowly, silently, he raised one hand…then lashed at the spook.

The green-haired man dodged out of reflex. That's when his back flared up from the motion and he hunched over in pain, immobilized.

"Gadalik!" sounded a young girl's voice as he heard footsteps grow closer.

"Adya?!" her brother cried with shock. "Get out of here! Now!"

The ghost rose its other hand.

Gadalik forced himself up with his staff, placing a disfigurement spell tag on it. When the spirit lashed again, Gadalik caught the whip around his weapon, the tag's activation dispersing the specter's form into a cloud. "Pete, this isn't you…! Get a hold of yourself!"

The ghost reshaped, though even less human now; its whole body was cast in shadow and the legs were gone. Still silent, it lashed at him again, faster than before.

The spook placed a shield tag on his staff, and the encompassing bubble protected him. Pete continued the assault.

"Leave him alone!" Adya growled, drawing her father's silver-bladed sword that, despite her training, was too big for her to wield. She charged at Pete, leaping up and slicing through his hand; the whip was cut off, if only temporarily.

The girl misstepped the landing as the added weight of her weapon threw off her balance; she fell too far forward and skinned her knees on the ground.

"Adya, run," Gadalik tried again, panicking at the sight of her blood.

"I'm okay," she promised, standing unsteadily before widening her stance and taking aim at the spirit once again.

This time Pete was prepared and dodged by floating around her, lifting its remaining whip in preparation to strike her.

No! Gadalik threw his staff expertly at the ghost, knocking it off-target. Desire to protect his sister overcame his back pain as he took the moment it spent recovering to use a confining spell in his hand, grabbing hold of the spirit until its body became tangible.

Pete isn't responding anymore… There's no point in trying to save him when he's this dangerous. My main priority is keeping Adya safe. With that in mind, he tried something he never thought he would.

Gadalik focused his magic in his hand, still holding the ghost, until he felt its spiritual energy. Then with all of the power he could muster, he split the energy from the ghost's physical body.

Pete was still silent even as he was exorcized by the spook.

Its body dissolved into annihilation.

Gadalik stood there, panting, his back killing him, before turning to face his sister, who was staring wide-eyed back at him.

His striped blue gaze rested on her bloodied knees.

"I'm okay," Adya repeated, sheathing the sword and standing straighter. "Are you?"

As if in answer, he staggered, hunching over and resting his hands on his legs. His sister retrieved his staff, handing it over for him to lean on.

"Gadalik! Adya!" Gale's voice sounded at a distance.

His kids froze.

The clouds parted to reveal the moon just as curtains would a spotlight; the dark-skinned man spotted them and rushed to their aid. "What are you two doing out at this hour?" His light blue- and red-violet eyes noticed the blood on his daughter. "What happened?!"

Adya crossed her arms with indignation. "I'm okay," she said for the third time.

"We took care of the ghost," Gadalik explained.

"What? " Gale exclaimed. "You should've at least waited until your back was better! And what were you thinking, taking your sister with you for this?"

"It's not his fault… I snuck out," Adya confessed.

Her father shook his head dismissively. "Gadalik, can you walk?"

His son nodded. "I'm sorry… If I hadn't left, she wouldn't have followed." It's easy to forget how much influence we have over kids…

"We'll discuss punishments when we get back. For now, let's just go home."

Punishments…? "W-Wait!"

"What is it?"

The image of the house from his possession came to mind. I've passed by that house before… I had no idea about the cruelty of the owners. But now's a chance to set them straight. "Dad, since you're a bounty hunter, do you think you can take care of a few…bad guys…for me…?"