Once I got the hang of phasing, I noticed that sticking my arms through walls had a slight tickle to it. So, here I went around the house putting my arm through walls. Chasing the thrill of being tickled, an odd feeling, but I loved it. Uncaring for what was on the other side, until I touched something that caused electricity to shoot through me. A jolting feeling for sure, but I couldn’t put into words how good it was. And here I sat, my knees crumbled to the floor and my rump supporting me instead. Mouth agape, I peered into the darkness at the person standing in the hallway.

“W-who are you? How did you get inside the house?” I asked, sensing an uncomfortable urge coming from them.

They said nothing back and continued down the hallway, ah, nearly forgot, normal humans can’t see me.

Following their lead, we went down the hallway. What’s up with the red spots? I wondered. At the end, though I didn’t go back here often, there was a brick wall under the staircase. Standing in front of the wall, they proceeded to take off their black trousers. Underneath were white pajama shorts, along with short white socks.

Taking the trousers in hand, they placed it on the wall. After a few moments of silence, the trousers turned transparent with an ominous white glow around it. They then pushed the trousers into the wall and patted their hands together once it was gone.

“Woah! What a cool way to throw away clothes!” I said, filled with excitement, but then my mind wondered. “Huh, that glow looked awfully familiar.”

They went to take off the hoodie, struggling here and there, they went through delicate effort so the hoodie wouldn’t touch their face. Their head slipped out, short blonde hair flowing down, and I took note of the azure eyes that I’m sure I’ve seen before.

“Ellie?” I squeaked out, confused by the notion. Why is she out so late? I’ve never seen her up at this time.

Sticking the hoodie through the wall and revealing her white pajama shirt. She made for the stairs, stopping at the bottom, and hanging her hand over the wooden railing. She looked at me, the first time her eyes have ever come my way. From the depths of my soul a chill overflowed and as though I had been frozen, I stood unmoving.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

An impeccable smile lit up and she pointed at me, “So, you’re our new friend, how goes it?”

Wow, Ellie noticed me, I tried to open my mouth, wait, I-I can’t speak.

Cocking a brow, she said, “Oh, are you scared, child?”

What! I struggled to break free, shaking my shoulders, I’m no child.

Ellie sighed. “Look, I was merely curious,” She said. She turned away from me and I became able to move again, splaying out my fingers to test if it were true.

“Be mindful and don’t tell anyone what you saw tonight,” She said as her head peaked behind the ceiling.

“That was weird,” I thought aloud, not thinking much on it.

I went back to doing what I was up to before, sticking my arms through walls and picking up the paperweight in Jason’s study. I did it for half-fun-half-practice, and while I was doing this I found a toy mouse.

I picked it up from behind the fridge, though somewhat dirty, I rubbed it against the back of the couch. Raising it up towards the window, the rising sun made it easy to see. “Sam will love this.”

.

.

Ellie was back to her old self when she left for school with Sophie. I searched the house for Jason, but couldn’t find him. That’s right, he left for work earlier.

Since Jason was gone, I instead looked for Sam. I thought it would be in the kitchen with Phraze, but that was a no-go, not even Phraze was there. After some time well spent feeling through every nook and cranny in the house, I found them. It was the last place I would think to see Sam in. The upstairs bathroom, the first room I saw.

There it floated in front of the mirror, so I asked, “What are you doing, Sam?”

Clear that it looked at itself. “Well, I’m trying to figure out how I look.”

“You look like an eyeball, obviously,” I replied

“No, no, when I look into this mirror, that’s not what I see. I see a shadow of a human, man or woman I’m not sure of, but I’m sure I was once human.”

“Ah, Sam you shouldn’t worry too much about it,” I said, swinging around the toy mouse I found earlier. “Look what I found for you and Phraze.” I used the mouse to sway its mind off the subject.

“So, you found his toy that he lost a few months back?” Sam asked.

“Yep! At least, I think so,” I replied, laughing afterwards. Remembering what happened last night, I brought it up. “Hey, Ellie, came in late last night.”

“Did she? Oh, that’s pretty normal for her.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, anyway about Mr. Jerry, you want to try playing with Phraze?” Sam asked.

“…Sure, why not,” I said, reluctant to mess with the cat.

We went to the living room and Sam showed me how the toy worked, “You wind this key backwards and,” Sam put the mouse on the ground, “bam, it runs along the floor.” Phraze followed up with a good swatting of the poor thing.

We spent a large part of the day playing with Phraze, that is until Jason came home. Having plenty of fun, I neglected to mention the bloody clothes, but as Sam said, ‘That’s pretty normal’ and I waved it off.