She couldn’t remember her name. She felt sure she had one, once. It hovered just at the edge of her mind, tantalizing, but out of reach. The sound of it, the feel of it eluded her. She could almost taste it on her tongue when she tried to speak it out loud. But the emptiness hurt too acutely if she spent too much time trying, so she mostly tried not to think about it.

It seemed much like the city she wandered, indecipherable. She had no memory of anything different, but felt quite certain that at some point she had seen the city before its current ruined state. And it was ruined, clearly the site of some massive cataclysmic disaster. Metal beams poked out from broken skyscrapers, crushed glass at their base, concrete walkways crushed under some giant pressure, revealing the innards of the city beneath. Everything was in disarray and crumbling, roads littered with abandoned vehicles broken apart by massive trees, vines crawling up whorled trunks, warped metal in their embrace. Despite the damage the city was still incredibly beautiful, with its graceful arching glass spires towering high above, glittering.

Clearly it had been decades, perhaps even centuries since the destruction given the amount of vegetative growth. Bright birds fluttered through the canopy overhead, small rodents and jewel-like insects skittered about along undergrowth roots and stone alike, the small hum of life alight in the hazy morning air.

She could see in her mind’s eye what it might have looked like, apparitions of cars thrumming and fluorescent lights along walkways, and the people, so, so many people. People walking, laughing, calling to one another in a loud cacophony of vitality. Occasionally she found herself turning, about to say something to someone over her shoulder, before whatever fleeting memory slipped away again.

She passed through a knot of vines so thick it would be impossible to navigate around for a corporeal being, the sensation of their tangled shapes a viscid sensation through her ghostly form. She wondered why there weren't more human ghosts. It seemed improbable that she would be the only one when there had clearly been so many people, once. There were smatterings of animal and plant ghosts, apparitional deer bounding gracefully, spectral flowers blooming, phantoms of fish floating in the air as if it were water.

Maybe all the others were at peace? She felt like she had heard that somewhere, that ghosts were only those beings that had unfinished business in the world. Something about strong lingering emotion leaving an imprint, but she couldn’t quite come up with what her strong emotion might be.

She wondered if perhaps there was some purpose she could have had in staying, some essential unfinished business keeping her here, and if that meant she should make more of an effort to remember. The negative thoughts never stayed for too long, there was too much to see, to explore. Distractions, really. But she had time. She could always try to remember later.

It had taken her a while to fully manifest. She had spent so very long, stuck both mentally and physically. Her mind had been a slow sludge of thought, each moment of consciousness a herculean effort. She had eventually fought free, slowly yanking herself into existence, tearing her spectral body free from the bones she had apparently been adhered to, growing, like some sort of polyp. She had taken to visiting the site of her ghost birth frequently, checking to see if another ghost would come out too. So far none had, but they might, in the future.

Since then she had enjoyed traveling the city, delighting in the ability to see and experience new things, the novelty of mobility. She had found plenty of places exciting to explore, though only a few she made an effort to repeatedly visit. A particularly beautiful white oak tree with a small family of raccoons, what had once been a flower shop now bursting with living bouquets, a preserved bus still with people’s bags left aboard for her to examine like an anthropologist, searching for meaning in civilizations past.

There wasn’t much else to do, besides explore, but she enjoyed it, too curious about the place that must have been her home once. She hoped, passively, that her path might bring her past some place that would trigger a memory, something that would bring back the flood of recollections that she was sure was just waiting, locked away in her mind.

She stopped to admire a church, small but majestic, with massive stained glass windows that had somehow been spared somewhat from the destruction, missing only a handful of panels, the lead they had been set in still in place holding the shape up tenaciously. The image depicted a massive dark bird in flight, its wings spread wide touching both sides of its frame, surrounded by a smaller choir of birds flocking around it. Sunlight filtered in through the glass, throwing colorful mosaics across the dilapidated wooden floor from where it passed through the birds’ feathered wings.

She sat in the mostly rotten, mossy pews, fragile flowers just beginning to bloom timidly at her feet, enjoying the morning light. She would head back soon, to the massive bird skull she had made her home in the downtown, but for now she was content to bask in the brilliantly colored light.

There was a sudden muffled clamor from behind what was left of the pulpit. Something dark and shadowy emerged, bounding over to her before she could get a clear view of what it was.

A black cat plopped down in front of her. One eye swirled milkily as it looked up at her. It meowed loudly, echoing in the empty hall, before winding its way around her legs, with some difficulty, passing through them slightly, but the overall gesture was conveyed.

‘Hello there,’ she crouched down, attempting to pet the cat as it seemed to be requesting. ‘I’ve never seen you around before.’ She hadn’t seen anyone here before. But that was a bit besides the point. It leaned up into her stroke, interlacing somewhat into her hand. It tickled. He meowed again, plaintive, perhaps discomforted by the sensation.

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After a couple strokes, he trotted off, out of the church, pausing in the doorway to look back at her. ‘Should I follow you?’ She asked him. He blinked. She took it as an affirmative. It was comforting to have a companion, and she was rather lacking in that area.

She had taken on animal companions before. Well, that was a little generous, she had followed animals before in an attempt to cultivate companionship, but they mostly ignored her. She had previously a little speckled bird that she had followed for a whole day before she lost sight of it. She had gone back to the same location for several days afterwards, hoping it would come back. It had such a pretty song. And outside her bone home there was a pale striped green lizard that allowed her to bask next to him on occasion. So, even if it only ended up being a short while, it was nice to be acknowledged.

She followed him for a long time, past the skyscrapers of downtown, following the elevated railway that bisected the city for a short while before veering off down what appeared a more upscale neighborhood, what likely used to be magnificent gardens now a wealth of blossom and foliage, while the homes they corralled crumbled within their embrace like mournful lovers.

He paused at the entrance gate to one such house, perhaps a bit more grand than the rest, looking back again to make sure she was still following. The house seemed to be the site of some sort of explosion in the back, but the front was still so grandiose it distracted from the back almost entirely. She caught up to him just as he was entering the gapping double doors, walking between the once imposing marble pillars, now with moss creeping up in the cracks. He looked up at her, head tilted, before continuing inside.

They entered the dwelling, her a half-step behind. He passed a grandiose set of stairs, down a hallway with large beautiful windows, now crawling with morning glory and datura, and into a glass room filled with plants. It smelled overwhelmingly of flowers; oleander, brugmansia and azaleas. Fragrant herbs sprung up at her feet. She followed the pathway, leading to a spindly table and chairs set in the center. The cat hopped on top and aggressively began cleaning between his toe pads, gnawing at the fur there which seemed to have collected some sort of spiny seed pods, while she walked around breathing deeply through her nose and enjoying the lush greenery.

Who had lived here, she wondered. Someone who clearly loved exotic plants, the sheer variety surpassed what she had seen so far in the city. Though was that one bodega that had previously homed an extensive fruit stand which now sprouted her favorite array of fresh fruit. But that was still nothing compared to this. One wall was devoted entirely to orchids with other similarly elaborate flowers blooming, some even appearing to have teeth or other carnivorous features. Every color of green was present, deep husky forest greens to pale subtle pastels and every vibrant shade in the spectrum, flowers of color bursting between them.

‘Why did you bring me here, I wonder,’ she mused as she walked around the circular glass house. ‘Does this place mean something to you?’ She directed her questions loosely to the cat, uncaring at the lack of answers. There were too many unanswered questions already in this mysterious city, what were a few more.

The last light of the day glittered through the glass, and she turned to head back. It was beautiful, but she longed for the familiar, and as of yet, only the giant bird skull she had made her home aroused some sense of familiarity. The black cat trailed her back quietly, to her delight. Maybe this companion would last. Maybe he wouldn’t leave her too.

Her bird skull home was roomy, the beast must have been massive. The rest of the skeleton was strewn across the city, buildings crushed beneath it indiscriminately. She had decorated her space in its cranium with beautiful blooming plants and various trinkets she had collected from the rubble. She had several pretty stones, some sort of twisting musical instrument that made a low mournful humming sound when she blew into it, colored wiring that had drawn her eye now braided and woven into draping vines hung with lanterns she had made from patterned paper, and a small stuffed animal doll she had found miraculously intact, only missing a single button eye, string trailing from the socket where she had failed at trying to resew it, her bone sliver needle too dull to complete the task.

The bone between the brain case and the orbits had deteriorated, allowing her a beautiful view across the city to the beach, and if she squinted, the far shore across the water was just visible on a clear day. She had draped some gauzy fabric across the cavity, allowing soft red light to filter in when closed, and lighting up her ghostly form a pretty pastel pink in the mornings. Ash from some long gone tragedy had precipitated into the cavities and fissures in the bone, opalizing and keeping out any rain from above. Not that it caused any sort of damage to her person, it was just uncomfortable. Sharp and cold, the rain drops passed through her form leaving a lingering pierced feeling behind. Unpleasant.

She woke with the first light of morning, warm red sun beams streaming across her face. She stretched from her soft messy bedding nest. She had a niggling feeling that it shouldn’t be necessary for ghosts to sleep, but regardless, she enjoyed it, and the occasional dreams she had. Dreams of seeing the city above, soaring over it, like a bird. She loved her dreams, in them she wasn’t alone, the city full and bustling with life.

The cat uncurled from his position at her feet with a yawn. ‘You're going to show me something new again today?’ She asked him fondly. He looked at her primly for a moment before turning his back and curling up in the warm spot she had left in her bedding with a soft dismissive snort, tail flicking out to wrap around his face.

She laughed and opened the curtain, admiring the view contentedly. It seemed like a good day to climb up and see the city from above. She picked up some berries she had collected, she couldn’t quite taste them, but holding them in her hands felt almost sweet, and she liked the slightly drunken feeling she got from them as they aged and fermented. ‘I’m going to climb, I’ll be back maybe midday, maybe later.’ She told the sleeping cat. He continued to ignore her in response. She set out.

They had developed a sort of cadence, where she would explore during the day and he would find her to bring her home in the evening, often through a circumvent path she would have not taken of her own volition. It was nice. Having someone to walk with. Someone waiting for her at home.

She circled to the back of the skull, where it connected with the spine. She had done this walk many times, but it was always a little precarious. The porous material of the bones had opalized and the surface became more compact and slick. Luckily nature had interceeded, and many vines and other vegetation had crawled up from below, interlacing with the bone and giving her more secure footing. She jumped the sections of missing vertebrate, occasionally climbing the building debris that had been taken down with the bird’s fall.

She eventually came to the bird’s ribs, spire-like structures twisting up towards the sky. Over many visits she had made notches in the bone with a small sharp stone, creating foot and hand holds so she could ascend. The wind picked up as she got higher, whipping her ghostly hair across her face and shoulders.

She made it to the top, where the curve of the rib became parallel to the ground below, making a flat space for her to perch. She had built a hammock up here while back. She had tried sleeping in it, but being up here at night tended to make her feel too lonely. The still emptiness of the city, devoid of all human activity seemed even more potent at night. Only one out of place ghost left to remember what might once have been.

She loved coming here during the day though. Being high up above the buildings, looking across the city to the shimmering sea.

In the distance, something glittered, approaching on the winds.