“…we did it…” Raleigh said in disbelief. He couldn’t believe that the ghost was properly exterminated. Even if he used all of his power, he wouldn’t be able to exterminate the ghost. That was why he couldn’t believe it.
“…we really did it?” This time, his tone was full of clear confusion. He looked around him, but there was no trace of that female ghost in a wedding dress.
“We really did it!!” Raleigh shouted in his excitement. He was relieved that not only he didn’t have to die, but he also didn’t have to marry a ghost too!
“Mir, you… you are really amazing! I can’t believe we can defeat that ghost!” Raleigh grabbed the phone and the camera he dropped earlier and ran to Mir.
He, however, noticed that something strange was going on. He slowed down and observed Mir carefully. Besides the scratches all over her body, she didn’t seem to have visible wounds. Her spiritual power was exhausted, as there was only a trace of it now. Physically speaking, she should be alright. However, Raleigh noticed that her eyes were clouded by something. It was as if she was unconscious despite her opening her eyes wide.
“Mir? Are you alright?” Raleigh asked worriedly. He grabbed her shoulders and gently shook her body while observing her eyes.
“…” Mir took a deep breath and closed her eyes. After three full seconds, she opened her eyes again. This time, her eyes were not clouded. She looked normal. Just tired.
“…fine.” Mir replied softly. Her shoulders were heaving with every breath she took, however. It clearly showed how tired she actually was. But she didn’t want to say that she was tired.
“…actually, let’s take a short rest.” Raleigh spoke decisively. Mir looked at Raleigh, dissatisfied.
“Sorry, I’m tired. See? My legs are trembling. I’m gonna faint if I walk for another five minutes, not to mention if I have to fight ghosts.” Raleigh said bitterly. He was not lying. He was exhausted. He spent a lot of his spiritual energy earlier, though not as much as Mir.
Mir looked down when he heard him. She reluctantly agreed with him. She also understood that if she had to fight more ghosts like the female ghost, it would be dangerous. So, they returned to the barrier Raleigh created earlier.
Mir sat down and leaned against the backstage. She hugged her knees and buried her head. She noticed it from earlier. She was tired. She was deadly tired. However, she started to feel irritated as well.
She wanted to go home as soon as possible. She didn’t want to make her parents, specifically speaking her mother, worry about her. That was why she wanted to continue.
But on the other hand, not only she was tired, even Raleigh was tired. She was sure that something bad would befall them if she rushed to go home. That was why she agreed to have another short break. Though it wouldn’t calm her heart down.
“Mir.” Raleigh suddenly started a conversation. Mir raised her head a little. Only to the point where she could see him.
“What do you want to do next? Do you want to break through the ghost and escape this place? Or do you want to save your ghost friend?” Raleigh asked with a serious expression.
Without hesitation, Mir replied to him. “…save.”
After that, she buried her face again. Mir closed her eyes. She remembered everything. When she ‘killed’ the previous female ghost, she had memories of the female ghost. Unlike before when she only received the memories of their last moment, this time, Mir felt like she was living the life of the female ghost’s entire life.
It was as if she became that person. She felt not only what the female ghost saw or she touched. Mir also felt her emotion. She was happy when they were going to be married. She was happy when they came to this amusement park. And when she was killed, all the frustration, all the hatred, and malice, they were all accumulated inside Mir’s heart as well.
Fortunately, she still had her sense of self. Even though she felt like she lived more than her age because of those memories, she still knew that she was Mir. It was as if she was watching a documentary video. A video of the whole life of someone. But in the end, Mir still knew that she was Mir and all she did was watching a documentary video.
But the emotion… the frustration, the hatred, the malice, everything was still accumulated inside her heart. She tried to calm down, but it was almost impossible to calm her heart down. Not to mention that she didn’t only have memories of when she was alive. Even after the female ghost became a ghost, Mir watched her entire memories. And her entire grudge was transmitted into Mir as well.
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“Why do you insist on saving that ghost? I mean, it is just a ghost, right?” Raleigh asked this question.
Mir raised her head again. Raleigh involuntarily gulped when he saw her eyes. In her usually expressionless eyes, there was a hint of anger, which suddenly subsided when Mir took a deep breath.
“…first friend.” She said softly.
Mir didn’t notice it, but Raleigh who observed her noticed. Mir was gripping her arms tightly. It was as if she was trying to endure something. Raleigh didn’t know what she was trying to endure, but he prudently decided not to ask about anything else.
And so, they rest their body, but not their minds.
“…ngh.” Mir suddenly groaned. She raised her head abruptly and looked around. After a while, she breathed in relief.
“Are you alright, Mir?” Raleigh couldn’t help but be concerned. Her face was as pale as ghost, though she was not as translucent as them.
“…nn.” Mir nodded. “…nightmare.”
“… I see.” Raleigh nodded in understanding. It must be her first life and death experience. Actually, it was also his first life and death experience. He had been training a lot of time. He had fought ghosts a lot of times. However, previously, he always had the support of his teacher. It was the first time he did everything alone. Well, Mir was an amateur, so he didn’t count her. Not to mention the ghosts here were stronger than anything he had fought before.
“…Raleigh.” Mir suddenly spoke, startling Raleigh. She was not bothered though, as she continued. “…ghost… what?”
“…Uh, you want to know what ghost is?” Raleigh was confused by Mir’s lack of words. Fortunately, he guessed right as Mir nodded.
“You’ve known them all your life and you just ask this question now?” He really couldn’t believe it. But Mir nodded nonchalantly.
“Ah, well, whatever. Ghost is… the remnant of souls… is the closest I can think of. Human needs the energy to live. To move your body, to move your heart, to breathe, you need the energy to do everything. However, when you die, it means you don’t have enough energy to maintain your life. You can’t move your heart strong enough to send blood all over your body. Or you don’t have enough energy to breathe. But it doesn’t mean you don’t have energy at all. You just don’t have enough energy. So, what would happen to this minuscule of energy?”
“…ghost?”
“You are only half right. The energy doesn’t become a ghost. Besides your body, something else uses this energy. That something is your soul. When your soul knows it cannot use the energy left in the body to maintain the body’s life, it detached itself from the body, together with the minuscule amount of energy it had. That is why most of the ghosts are weak... no, we don't call them ghosts. We call this state as spirits.”
Mir nodded in understanding. She urged Raleigh to continue with her eyes.
“It is the instinct of every living being to keep their life no matter what, right? In the form of spirits, souls keep their lives with the minimum amount of energy. However, there are exceptions. Your friend, for example. I don’t understand it at all, so let’s forget about it. And the next example is the spirit that is tainted by evil and so, they turned into evil spirits. This is what we call ghosts. Like the female ghost from earlier. Or other ghosts in this place.”
“Do you know that emotion is energy? When you are happy, you spread positive energy and when you are sad, you emitted a negative aura.”
Mir nodded. She understood it better than anyone else.
“And negative energy is easier to gather than positive energy. Some spirits that enjoyed the negative energy for the first time, will try to gather more negative energy. That is why they cause harm to humans because that will be the easiest path to get stronger for the spirits. Oh, we stop calling them spirits at this point. After they have a taste of negative energy by harming humans, we called them evil spirits.”
Raleigh paused and pondered for a moment before he continued. “If we let them be, this world will be full of negative energy and before long, the world is going to be destroyed by negative energy. To strike a balance to the energy in this world, we, ghost hunters exist. Ever since the ancient age, we always try to balance the energy in this world by banishing evil spirits. That is our mission. And that is why a place that is full of negative energy like this place is our main priority. Unfortunately, with the advancement of science and technology, those who believe supernatural beings become less and less…”
He sighed tiredly. “…anyway, that’s all I know about ghosts.”
“…understood.” Mir nodded and she returned to her thoughts.
Actually, all she wanted to know was whether it would be fine to just ‘kill’ ghosts, no, evil spirits. After receiving the memories of the female ghost earlier, she thought that those evil spirits had feelings as well. They were not entirely evil, especially in a place like this. Mir thought that perhaps, the ghosts in this amusement park were victims to the main evil spirit.
However, in a situation like earlier where she had to fight or she would be killed, she still wanted to fight with all her might, even though it would kill the evil spirits.
…but killing evil spirits… isn’t that not different from killing humans? No matter what crimes they do… no, I shouldn’t think like that… no, but it’s really like that. I just kill someone… she lived happily until she became a victim of this amusement park. Just like the other… ghosts, I guess. So, I shouldn’t kill them? What should I do?
“…Raleigh.” If she didn’t know the answer to her question, she should ask someone. “…killing evil spirits… is alright?”
“…I don’t understand your question.” Raleigh sighed. “But first, we don’t kill evil spirits. We banish them. As long as the soul has energy, it won’t be able to go to the next world. When we fight against them, they spent their energy. When they are wounded, some of their energy will be lost. But our attack won't damage the soul at all. It is almost impossible to damage the soul. That is why we attack their energy so their soul can go to the next world to be reincarnated. We send them to the next world… is what I want to say, but that’s like a villain’s lines in movies, huh?”
Raleigh chuckled a bit. However, his face turned grim one more time. “That’s right. As long as they don’t have energy, they won’t be able to stay in this place. But… if we are going by that assumption, as long as they can get more energy before they are sent to the next world… they will be able to return as many times as they could. That is why…”
He stopped talking as he looked in a direction. It was where Mir defeated the female ghost. Mir understood immediately. He meant that the female ghost might reappear if they stayed in this place for too long. After all, there was black miasma that gave power to the ghosts in this amusement park.
“…” Without saying a word, Mir stood up. It was enough of taking a rest. They should move as fast as they could now. They had to save their friendly ghost and escape from this place as soon as possible.
Even without saying a single word, both Mir and Raleigh understood the gravity of their situation. The two of them nodded at each other and they started walking to the only exit… which they just found after they explore the area one more time.