As Evelyn walks home while ignoring Jake's constant protest , she sees an oddly familiar ghost in the back ground, and stares for a bit.
You know her?
No.
You sure? You were staring pretty intently, unless… don't tell me your into gir-
He shuts his mouth as he feels Evelyn's face frowning a bit due to being in her body even though her facial expressions usually remain mostly emotionless, which is a good sign to keep quiet.
Chill, it was a joke.
She just looks familiar.
How do?
Let me recall… I'm don't remember, oh well, too bad.
Than follow her.
Why would I?
You have anything better to do?
No.
So, follow her, it's better than staying in that home of yours anyways.
She starts following the girl she saw just now agreeing with his words, but will never admit it.
There she is. Evelyn peeks from behind a corner and sees that she is a ghost too.
It's the woman from the car crash we saw before.
Oh it's a ghost, but something seems different about her.
Oh…
Hm?
Best not to get involved with her, she's a deranged spirit.
What's that?
Some people experience deaths traumatic enough that they'll never forget it even in death, most are dealt with by the A.N.I and are dangerous to humans as they possess more soul energy due to not needing as much to sustain themselves so they can throw it around anyhow without needing control.
But she died in a car crash, you got mailed by a bear, wouldn't yours be more traumatic?
Yes, if you want to know more, you could go near her and listen, most deranged spirits constantly mutter the same phrase, usually muttering the reason they are deranged.
Wouldn't it attack?
Not if it doesn't notice you it's basically in a trance till something disturbed it and then it'll try killing everything nearby before using so much soul energy that they themselves die, or re-entering the trance.
Could I run?
You could hide temporarily before running if it comes down to it, they only see the soul energy in a person, not being able to see the person themselves.
Why?
So if I hide my energy I'll be safe?
Temporarily, they're rather sensitive to soul energy, and you have extra with me being in your body, so you could run before it notices you again.
Good enough for me. She starts slowly walking up to the ghost and walking beside it slowly.
My baby… it was my fault… I should have paid more attention…
Evelyn keeps listening while walking beside facing forwards without looking.
Oh, it's child died. Evelyn says indifferently like talking about the weather.
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That means it probably died slowly, and got to witness its child's death or its child slowly dying before the mother herself died.
You said its eyes were special or something right?
Yea, but you better hurry up and back off soon, it may notice you eventually.
Yea, stop being such a coward.
Evelyn, still standing beside it turns over to look at it to see eyes filled with black goo with the black goo slowly leaking down and dissipating upon falling off her face before even reaching the floor.
Oh wow, this is… unexpected.
Hey Evelyn…
What? She replies still looking curiously at the deranged spirit
Are you walking?
What kind of a question is that? Of Course I am. She realizes she stopped walking to look at the spirit.
Okay, maybe I'm not walking, why does that matter?
And yet the spirit isn't going away either, so it's not walking either. Your currently hiding your soul energy as much as you can right now, so all my senses are affected right now. Is it still muttering?
No why?
Well, now your gonna squeeze your soul energy into the size of an insect.
Why?
To pretend that your an insect.
Why?
Because it's gonna kill you the second it finds out your not an insect or just human.
Oh. It's not in a trance anymore and is staring at me. Ohhhhhh, I see it now.
Wrong place wrong time to be realizing this.
What do I do? I can't squeeze energy for too long.
Slowly back up while moving your squeezed energy randomly and quickly around like a fly.
She tries to do it, but it's easier said than done. It feels like carrying wet moulded sand in my hands without letting any overspill.
Well, our life depends on this so you better not lose control.
How long is it gonna stare at me? Im already a couple feets away.
It can sense soul energy up to 100 meters minimum.
I can't hold on that long.
I've got a method but it's a bit risky.
Anything works.
Run, but release all your energy as wide spread as possible so that as little remains in your body, but enough to keep you alive. It'll make you harder to spot and the soul renegy floating in the air acts like a smoke screen. If it fails your dead, if it succeeds, you gotta ditch before the A.N.I reaches because the deranged soul will release even more soul energy combined on top of yours. Don't worry about cameras, deranged souls naturally let out enough soul energy to screw with cctvs and cameras to the point of no return, but realising too much soul energy at once could have backlash.
What type of backlash?
I don't know, I'm not human.
…
Well, not much of a choice. Evelyn turns around facing away from the spirit as she release as much trying to make a wall of soul energy to act as a smoke screen as she runs away and continues running for a couple hundred meters ignoring her own exhaustion.
Is it gone?
Yea, the A.N.I distracted it and is probably dealing with it.
So what was the weird black goo? Evelyn asks panting as she sits down on the nearby bench.
What weird black goo?
The one from it's eyes, or where it's eyes are meant to be.
Oh that. It's a form of soul energy in liquid form, it's the main reason why it naturally gives out so much soul energy, for normal ghost and loving brings, trying to use that form of soul energy will allow you to see soul energy without the vessel, like ignoring the person and focusing on the soul energy.
So why did she have so much?
It's probably due to crying her eyes out before dying.
Why is it bad?
It corrupts any other soul energy in proximity, so using it will chase all your soul energy to turn into the black goo, it is technically still soul energy so you wouldn't die, but…
But?
You'd only see soul energy, and due to the characteristic of the black goo, you would also feel a desire to attack other people to corrupt their soul energy, turning them into another monster, here's no proper term seeing as your alive but also similar to a deranged spirit, so this soul energy cannot regenerate naturally, so if you don't atys k others, you'd die eventually.
Why did it dissolve in the air when it dropped off though?
It tired to corrupt the nearby air but there was too much air and too less of whatever dropped off, so it dispersed to try corrupt more. Which also makes it a pain for the A.N.I to purify.
Wow, how do you know all this stuff?
I was living in the area where the council of ghost lived, most ghost do, the council provides protection as they are made of the strongest ghost and provide free information.
So why did you leave?
It was boring.
Oh.
Is it possible for a deranged spirit to gain sentience again?
Technically it should be possible but too risky to try to help.
Why?
The black goo increases the desire to attack humans overtime, so if you want to fix the spirit, you have to touch the go which is basically instant death for most ghost and almost an instant death for humans too.
Oh, wonder if your friend would pay money to buy one of these.
He would.
Really?
Don't try it.
Why not?
Even the council can't catch them.
How does the council deal with them?
They use soul energy
Doesn't soul energy get corrupted?
They use very dense soul energy which takes much longer, and the deranged spirit is also a ghost, so injecting them with. enough soul energy will cause them to basically pop like a balloon due to an excess of black goo.
By the way tomorrow the A.N.I is coming back to the school for a secondary check up due to the deranged spirit being within a mile to the school.
Huh?
Evelyn ignores him and starts walking back home.
Hey, what about me?
What about you?
I'm stuck in your body.
So?
Soooo… if you go to school I'll be in trouble
I don't care, can't afford another skip
Come on, I can't control my energy that well.
You can't control it at all. Evelyn says and ignores his continued protest while continuing to walk back home to turn in for the night.