Colorful leaves crunched with each step Gadalik took toward the door of a modest suburban house; silence followed once he halted in front of it. The teen fidgeted nervously with the strap of the duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

He was wearing the same outfit he'd chosen to go on vacation in the previous months--his selection of casual clothes rather slim--but his striped green hair remained in its signature ponytail held in place by a red tie the same color as his plaid shirt.

The teen drew in a breath of the chilly air through his nose, exhaling it in a thin mist from his mouth, as he conjured up a way to greet the girl whom resided there...despite them having been friends for five years. After months apart, a simple 'hello' couldn't express how glad he was to hang out with her again. A hug could, but would that be too intimate? She had been direct about being attracted to nobody, including Gadalik, and he respected that. His crush on her had waned over the past week, regardless.

Before he could make his mind up, the door swung open, revealing the young lady who was wearing a knee-length white dress that matched her short, curly hair: glowing in contrast with her dark skin. Her purple shawl was nearly flung off as she raised her hands and joyfully exclaimed, "Gadalik!"

"Hi, Gretel--" he began, then froze awkwardly when she squeezed him in her arms for a few seconds. He was scared to move, of giving the wrong idea or of overstepping any boundaries.

Gretel hesitated upon his reaction. Then she immediately released him. "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I forgot about your cracked rib!"

"N-no, it's fine! Glacia--err...my mom--wouldn't let me come home until it was completely healed," he assured her.

"Oh! Well in that case, what are we waiting for?" She gripped his elbow and half-guided, half-dragged him into her home. "That bag looks heavy," she remarked. "What did you bring?"

He placed it down and unzipped it, unveiling a first-aid kit and some spell-tags, as well as his spook's robe and staff.

"Are these...necessary?" she questioned him.

"I don't plan on finding trouble," he stated for the record, "but that doesn't mean I can't be prepared in case trouble finds us."

Gretel closed the bag. "Dude. We don't want a repeat of what happened on your last 'vacation,' if you could even call it that. You only have so many ribs!" she pointed out, only halfway joking. "Chances are, if you have your spook's stuff with you, you're going to use it sooner or later... So leave it here."

"I understand what you mean... But I promise I won't use it unless--"

"Gadalik," she sharply interrupted. "Leave it."

"But--"

"No 'buts'!"

Gadalik looked pleadingly into her hot-pink irises. "Can I at least take my staff...?"

She tilted her head, resting a hand on her hip. "Why? You learned how to use that ghost sense now, didn't you? You don't need the staff."

"Well, it's true I've honed my sense enough to know when there's a spirit nearby, but...I still have trouble picking them out of a crowd without my staff--"

"Well you're not gonna be picking them out!" Gretel rebutted.

Gadalik shrunk. "What if a ghost attacks us...?"

"Oh, for crying out loud... We're going to the mall, not a cemetery." She snatched up the duffel bag and marched to her bedroom, tossing it onto the mattress from the doorway and then shutting it in. "We'll be okay."

His striped blue eyes fixated on the door. He began to weigh the risks versus the reality. "I...guess you're right."

"Aren't I always?" She grinned at the solemn boy as if hoping to cheer him up. She took him by the wrist this time and they both headed to town.

Shops were lined up as far as the eye could see. The instant they entered the mass of people in the food court, the indistinct chatter and echoing footsteps engulfed Gadalik. He wasn't used to such populated areas, and the difference between the outside and in was more stark than he'd anticipated; his feet might as well have been glued to the ground.

Then he felt her hand gently squeeze his wrist, reminding him of Gretel's presence. The familiar touch quite literally pulled him free as the girl ducked and dodged her way through the shifting maze of passerbys. Relieved, Gadalik focused entirely on his friend; everything else seemed to fade away.

Their first stop was the seasonal store. Fake cobwebs decorated the ceiling; shelves were lined with ornamental skulls and rubber insects, though Gretel went straight for the hats and masks the next aisle over, end-capped with plastic weapons and miscellaneous props. "Look at these!"

When he caught up to her, she spun around to reveal a black masquerade mask over her eyes and simultaneously put on a pale yellow cowboy hat.

"Uh, cool," he responded uncertainly.

She handed him a headband. "You could be Tonto!"

"...Who?"

Gretel blinked. "Oh... You still don't have a TV?"

He sheepishly shook his head.

She put the items back. "Hey, no sweat. Hm... Oh!" She ran to the more generic costumes hanging on circular racks. She grabbed hold of one and melodramatically gasped.

"What is it?"

"You were right... There are ghosts here!" she teased him, whipping out a cheap white cloth with eyeholes.

He burst out laughing, then noticed the walking sticks on the end-cap and grabbed one, pointing it at her. "Begone, evil spirit! Else I must annihilate you!"

"'You'll never take me alive,'" she puppeteered the sheet.

"Of course not; you're already dead!" Gadalik joked, and it was Gretel's turn to laugh.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Hey, you rowdy teenagers! Buy somethin' or get out!" an older man at the register demanded.

"Is that how you treat your customers?" Gretel huffed. "Or should I say... 'costumers'?" She grinned at Gadalik, and he suppressed a chuckle.

"You ain't a customer if you ain't buyin' anythin'!"

Gretel blew a raspberry at the shopkeeper and inspected the ghost costume. "I could get this, and you can just go with me in your spook's clothes," she offered.

"That'd be fun," he agreed.

She sorted through the available sizes of it. "They don't have any petite," she muttered to herself. She picked out a few different sizes and asked the older man, "Can I try these on?"

"Sure, if it means you'll leave faster," the gruff man answered.

Gretel rolled her eyes and headed for the fitting room. "I'll be right out," she promised Gadalik.

He watched the door close between them, then glanced at the ground. Without his friend, the background noise gradually came into focus. So too did the underlying feeling of a spirit within the vicinity.

Seconds turned to minutes and the sensations seemed to intensify all the while. He couldn't single out any full sentence from any one person, but random words and phrases seemed to pop out at him louder than the rest, from all over the store, senseless without the various contexts he lacked. There were too many people--dead and alive--and he felt strangely vulnerable.

The teen instinctively felt for the staff he'd left behind, despite knowing it wasn't with him. Its absence added to his stress. I need it...! A spirit could be after us right now and I wouldn't know where it is! His heartbeat was quickening. No... It's okay; Gretel's here.

But she wasn't. It had to have been about ten minutes, but the world seemed to be closing in on him the entire time. People stood too near as they waited on others to come out of the dressing room or to go in themselves.

Their voices were fluctuating between too quiet to draw attention and too loud to ignore. He felt the air between them stirred from their movements. There was nowhere to escape to; he couldn't leave Gretel even if there were. He suddenly felt overheated and damp with sweat; his heart pounded and his hands were trembling slightly. He fought to keep his breathing steady. Other shoppers began glancing his way, some concerned and others disgusted.

His fists closed on empty air in place of his staff--which would allow him to differentiate the dead from the living--one thing that would protect him from the intangible. I can't do this--I... I need to get out of here--

"Sorry for taking so long," Gretel said as her door finally opened. "I thought the smaller size would be shorter--and it was--but then I got stuck in it! I'll just get the larger one and cut off the bottom so I don't trip, and..." She trailed off when she saw her friend's condition. "Gadalik?"

"They're here," he whispered. "I don't know where or how many, but we're not safe... I can't defend us without my staff. We need to go..."

Her eyes searched his for any sign of this being a prank. Seeing he was serious, she scoffed. "You're being paranoid. Of the paranormal. Paranoidal? Para-point is, you told me yourself that not all ghosts are dangerous. So what if there's a few here? Are they hurting anyone?"

Gadalik bit his lip. A flashback of facing the monstrous spirit in the cellar with his birth-father's former companion played before his eyes. "Hurry, kid...! Before it...kills us..." she had told him as she bled out. He placed a hand over his chest where the beast had crushed his rib shortly thereafter.

Gretel's gaze softened at the reminder of his now-healed injury. "Come o-o-on... We're fine! Let's just buy some things, grab a bite to eat and then we're outta here. Ok?" she soothed him.

Yet again Gadalik weighed the risks versus reality. The chances of a violent ghost residing in such a populated place without causing a scene weren't very likely. As long as they stayed far from basements or abandoned parking lots and log cabins, they were safe. "You're right..."

"I thought we established that before we left?" She nudged him playfully.

He smiled. "Right again."

"Come on. Let's show those ghosts we're living the life!" She took his wrist and marched toward the entrance.

"EH-HM!" the shopkeeper purposefully cleared his throat.

"...After we pay for my costume," Gretel conceded.

Although less bothered by it, the presence of a nearby spirit was hard for Gadalik to ignore now that he knew it was there. Even as he listened to Gretel prattle on about the TV characters she had initially wanted them to dress as over lunch, he found himself searching the surrounding crowd. Without his staff he couldn't see who was unlike the others, and that made him more reliant on his newly-honed sense, whether he wished to focus on it or not.

"And then the episode ended...on a literal cliffhanger! Can you believe they're making us wait to find out what'll happen?" Gretel was saying.

"Y-yeah," he absently agreed. It's...coming from this way, he realized, shifting his attention to a toy store.

His friend curiously traced his line of sight. "Thinking about getting Glacia a new stuffed animal to add to her hoard?" she guessed.

"W-well, actually..."

She chugged the rest of her drink. "C'mon! I'll pay for it."

"Wait!" he cried ineffectively while she somewhat dragged him there.

Inside, they were blocked by a janitor trying to sweep up a thousand pieces of a trainset, the broken box of which held in a crying child's hands who'd apparently dropped it on his way out. Expensive-looking parts were strewn about on the tile floor, the few pieces the mother had gathered suddenly scattered farther by an older boy who seemed to delight in the younger one's misery.

"Do you know how much this cost?!" the mother scolded her sniffling son.

"I didn't drop it!" he wailed, pointing to the other kid. "Leo did!

The older child grinned wickedly.

"For the last time, Charlie... Stop blaming Leo! You're the only one who could've done it!" the mom practically screamed.

"Hey, give the little guy a break! Everyone drops things sometimes," Gretel butted in.

"What do you know? Every toy he's had since his brother died has ended up ruined in some way! Every single one! Now we can't even leave the store with a toy in one piece!" the woman said, exasperated.

Leo snickered and stomped his way through the mess to leave.

Gadalik instantly held out a hand to barricade him. "H-hey, you shouldn't leave your"--the kid passed right through his arm--"mother..."

The two locked eyes, both realizing what the other just discovered.

Leo made a break for it. Gadalik gave chase.

"Where are you going?" Gretel said, running after her friend.

"Leo, come back to your family," Gadalik called. The name got the mother's attention so she stepped out to see who the teen was talking to.

"Stay away from me! You're a devil, just like Charlie!" Leo roared.

Devil? Right... The younger brother also seems to see through a ghost's invisibility... That's not my concern, though. The spook reached for the fleeing spirit's elbow, putting his all into the lunge. This time his hand connected. Leo struggled violently, but Gadalik could feel the ghost becoming tangible from the point of contact; his grip held firm.

"It's ok... Calm down..." the spook murmured.

"...Leo?" the mother breathed upon witnessing him become visible right before her eyes.

"I told you," Charlie whined.

"Leo!" She ran to embrace her dead son. "You were terrorizing Charlie this whole time...?"

Gadalik released him and backed up beside Gretel to give them space. The young lady was awestruck.

"Whenever I got a toy, you forced me to share it with Charlie. I never had one of my own, and now that I'm dead, he gets everything! It's not fair!" Leo snarled.

"I know, sweetie... but when I heard about the trainset you wanted, I started saving up to buy it for you..." the woman explained with teary eyes. "It was supposed to be a gift just for you, that Charlie wouldn't be allowed to touch."

Leo's eyes widened.

"You died before I had enough to buy it," she continued.

"It was for me...? But... I broke it..."

"Maybe you can put it together with your brother and I," she suggested.

"Really...?"

"Of course. Come help us find the rest of the pieces."

"Mama never saw you break it, but I did," Charlie grumbled.

"That's 'cause you're a devil just like Dad," Leo accused him.

"Don't call them that!" their mother chastised her eldest.

Gadalik saw them off and then stared at his hand. It was numb, barely mobile, and the tingling had slowly crept up his arm the longer he had held on to the spirit. It was recovering steadily, at least.

Gretel took it in hers and raised it like the winner of a medal. "What was that! You said only your staff could make physical contact with a ghost, and you acted like you were so helpless without it," Gretel teased him.

"I've never done that before," he admitted.

"You rely too much on your staff, that's why. You're not as vulnerable as you think you are."

"I...guess you're right."

She smiled. "Always am!"