I've never been much of a runner. But this whole business with the security cameras had me spooked enough to give it a try.

"This way!" yelled Nils, who was running in front of me.

"Why?" I yelled back.

He tried to look back at me while running and almost collided with a pile of cardboard boxes.

"You are more annoying than I realised!" he shouted, sounding amused.

We arrived in front of a wall. Great.

"There's a door there." Said Nils, pointing at a portion on a wall that had...hinges? Uh.

The door seemed like it hadn't been open in a while. It had been painted over the same colour as the wall; hinges, keyhole handle and all.

I tried prying, pushing the handle, to no avail. It was stuck in place by thick layers of encrusted paint.

"Let me try," said Nils.

"It won't budge."

"It will. I have a way with doors."

His way, as it turned out, was to fly kick the door.

I hadn't seen many flying kicks before, but even I could tell this one was beautiful.

The propulsion, the strike, the fallback. Gorgeous.

In a second, he had changed from a creepy little stalker guy to Neo in the Matrix.

And most amazing of all, the door had opened.

We ran to it, and Nils closed it behind us.

We were on a staircase, going to the street behind the shopping centre.

We were out of the bloody thing at last.

"We have to come with me; you're not safe anymore," said Nils as we climbed the rusty staircase.

"And you're going to keep me safe, uh? How, exactly? Can't roundhouse kick a ghost." I didn't want to show that I had been impressed with his secret martial art skills.

"So you agree, you think there are spirits in the shopping centre?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I sighed. I was walking behind him, not sure what to believe in anymore.

"I...It was pretty creepy in there."

"Yeah, It's the veil; it's opening more and more and letting spirits out."

I suddenly realised that I was exhausted. It was late. I had a run-in with a "spirit" and had to run. The last time I had run was when the amazon guy had rung the door to deliver my PS5. And even then, I had got a side stitch.

"I'm gonna go home. I'm beat."

Nils held my arm.

"You can't go home! You have to come with me."

"Like I said, if you wanted me to go home with you, this is a really convoluted way to do it."

"But. No. That's not..."

"I'm joking, man, let's go to yours; mine is pretty far anyway."

He looked so relieved. He started holding my hand. I took it back quickly.

We walked briskly along the street. It was well lit, which was a relief.

"I live close to here. But you'll have to be cool. My flatmates are a bit 'out-there', you know? They don't like new people."

"So you're the normal one, Uh?"

"I mean..."

We were walking fast.

"Where do you live?"

"Just across the road."

That was very close to the shopping centre. Who'd want to live there? The vibe of the area was miserable. Even more so tonight as it was damp with rain and smelled like petrol.

Nils started walking faster.

"We're almost there."

A sweet smell was starting to creep up between the harsh notes of car exhausts and frying oil from the chicken shops.

"What's that smell?" I wondered out loud.

"You can feel it?" said Nils.

"You too, right?"

"You really are special. I've never met someone like me before."

I stopped and grabbed his jacket sleeve lightly.

"Nils, man, you need to start making sense when you speak to me."

He looked equally excited and embarrassed.

"I knew it since, you know, you heard the spirit too. In your parlour, I mean."

I spoke slowly.

"What do you know?"

He started walking again. I had no clue what was going on but followed him.

"Home is here! It's really easier to show you than to explain."

He started fiddling with a door on the side of a second-hand electronics shop. I halfway expected him to kick it.

Instead, he lowered himself down and shouted through the letter slot.

"I'm here. I'm with Ben!"

"So your flatmates know me, then?"

"You're kinda famous around here," he said with a laugh.

The door opened. There was no one behind it that I could see.

Then I saw something really weird.

There was a girl hanging from her feet from the ceiling.

Nils smile deflated.

"Oh, Nora, I told you not to answer the door."

I was in shock, which is probably why when Nils grabbed my arm and hauled me in the house, I didn't run away.

The door locked behind us.

"Nora" was smiling sheepishly.

She waved.

"Hi, Ben."

My mouth opened, and I found that I couldn't quite close it again.

Nils took off his jacket and hanged it on a dark wooden coat hanger.

He turned to me.

"So this is home. Nora is a spirit. But she's a nice one!" He laughed, his eyes darting back and forth from Nora to my face.

I was about to pass out. The sweet smell was so strong in the house. It was the same smell I had felt on Nils's hand when we first met, and he had shushed me. Also, the girl was still upside down.

But something, deep within me, was telling me that I needed to hang on to the last shard of sanity I had and go with the flow. There was something there, an answer in that house.

I had smelled that smell before. A distant memory was trying to get through the thick pudding of my brain.

Nils held out his hand.

"Are you ready to know?"

I was feeling dizzy, like the floor of the house was about to give out and swallow me.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so."