Thea awoke to the greatest headache she ever felt. There was no frame of reference she could think of that even came close to what she felt. It felt like her very existence was being ripped apart. Even the worst migraine she ever had was a joke in comparison.

Trying her best to see through the blinding pain, she slowly remembered what had happened the last time she was conscious. She had died, then somehow reincarnated into a child whose soul she was slowly suffocating or something close to that.

Then I decided to go all the way and leave her body. Is this the consequence of my actions? Does that mean that a soul outside of a body is doomed to an existence of pain?

Even through all of that thinking, the pain never left her. Still, she steeled herself and tried to look once more around her to see if there was anything that could help her. Maybe now that she was out of the little girl's body, she would be able to interact more freely with her surroundings.

As she spun around, she noticed a brightly glowing thread that went out of herself and through the wall of the slightly messy room. As she concentrated on that thread, she realized that it was the source of her pain. Or at least it was part of the reason.

She felt a huge pull from the thread but instead of it being physical, it pulled at her very existence while not dragging her towards it. If it had a physical pull she would probably be flung at full speed along the ground. Although with her being body-less, maybe it wasn’t completely true.

Deciding that the thread was her best option in addition to being her sole option, she tried to get up and follow that thread. After a few seconds of trying to learn how to move as a disembodied soul, she finally got enough of a grip on her new form to start walking toward the pull.

Walking in that form was really strange as she could feel the ground under her feet, the walls against her hands but she wasn’t able to push the doors or the windows. It was as if they were as immobile as the walls or the ground. Thankfully, all the doors to the outside of the house were open.

Since the other doors were closed, it crossed her mind that this was probably not a coincidence. Still, the pain that flooded her body didn’t really let her ponder about it. She went through the doors and rooms without really paying attention. Once out, she went as fast as she could around the house as the thread came straight from the opposing direction of the doors she had taken. It seemed that while, even as a disembodied soul, she couldn’t go through walls, the thread wasn’t bound by such consideration. She then followed the pull hoping that it would give her a solution to her situation.

Well, at least I can say that if dying sucks, reincarnating sucks even more.

Following the thread, she quickly left the premises of the small house. She vaguely heard someone on her left as she sprinted ahead, heedless of any obstacle. Still, she ignored it, only the possibility of ending the pain filling her mind.

The following minutes flew by in a flash as the whole of her concentration became fixated on the thread and its pull. Once she finally got out of that trance-like state, she realized that the pain had lessened considerably. It was closer to a really bad headache coupled with the pain from not stretching before or after a very intense workout.

Still the worst but not as bad. Or I guess not The worst.

Now that the sensation was far more manageable, at least in comparison to what she had to go through before, she tried to take in her situation. She still continued to follow the thread as this wasn’t something that she wanted to go on but there wasn’t any desperation in her actions anymore.

First of all, since her attention was still mainly directed at the thread, she realized that it had dimmed a little. Not much but enough for her to notice it. She also realized that she was stark naked and made of light.

I guess it’s kind of logic that clothes are not part of the soul but I’ll have a hard time explaining that when someone sees me like that… I guess being made of light comes with being a ghost too but this can wait until I deal with the pain and this thread.

Continuing her trek through the forest, she started asking herself other questions, like where the little girl whose body she had hijacked was.

Perhaps she was the person I heard when leaving the house? Or maybe it was one of her parents. This also raised the question of how much time has passed since I left her body. If my other bouts of unconsciousness are anything to go by, probably quite a long time. But then wouldn’t they have freaked out by seeing a naked woman in their daughter's room? Or maybe they can’t see me? Souls aren’t really known to be visible, although if I’m basing things on Earth’s knowledge, souls aren’t really known to exist at all.

As she continued to follow the thread, the pain slowly lessened until it completely disappeared leaving only the pull behind. With her mind not distracted by the pain anymore, she started to think about what she should do in the future. While she was happy to have another chance at existing, being a disembodied ghost for the rest of eternity wasn't really on her top list of things to do.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

First thing is to find out what is pulling me. After all, the only thing worse than being a ghost is being a ghost stuck in one place. But all of that will have to wait until I find the source of the pull. The other thing is finding clothes, or ghost clothes I guess. When you think of a ghost, at the very least, they have a bedsheet on them and most of the time, they have the clothes they had when they died.

Just as she finished her thought, clothes appeared on her body. They were the same clothes as the one she wore when she got into the accident. The only difference was that they were bloodied and shredded in a lot of places.

What happened shocked her so much that she stopped moving altogether. Starting with her arms, she looked at the clothes that now covered her body, almost in disbelief.

Wait, it doesn’t make sense, my clothes shouldn’t be this shredded. I was in my car even after it did a barrel roll. Even if I was hit directly by the car, at worst only one side could be that damaged…

Again, following her thoughts, the clothes changed and only one side was now shredded, the outfit still bloodied.

Is it responding to my thoughts? Then how about before the accident? Clean and undamaged.

Again, the clothes changed and matched the state they were in before the accident. In the following minutes, she went through the different clothes she owned trying different combinations of them. This was followed by trying clothes and outfits she had only seen in movies or on the internet. She finally stopped when while trying a dress straight from a celebrity on the red carpet, she realized that her hair had been done according to the image she had of her wearing it.

I am not changing the appearance of my clothes, I’m directly changing my own appearance…

After a few more seconds of thought, she started to try different things, starting with changing the texture of her skin to something bark-like. I worked but it didn’t change the glowing issue. She looked like a tree-lady made of light. After that, she continued with more and more daring changes until she was a huge wolf just a bit smaller than the trees around her. This one, in particular, allowed her to realize the limits of what she could do.

While she could increase her size, it also made her even more see-through. Like she stretched herself thin. The opposite was also true and if she tried to turn into a child version of herself, she would become brighter than she already was. In terms of appearance, however, she was only limited to her imagination. She finally settled on her original appearance with a comfortable and good looking hiking outfit.

If I’m going to explore a new world, I might as well do it in style! Although, I wonder… If I’m influenced by the way I see myself this much, maybe…

Not finishing her own though, she went toward a tree and pressed her hand against it. Then, she imagined herself more ghost-like and thought of her hand going through the tree. For a second, nothing happened, then her hand went through the tree, followed by herself until she faceplanted on the ground behind the tree.

Standing up and dusting herself, she acted like nothing happened even though it didn’t look like anybody had seen her fall.

But then I wonder, if I imagined going through the ground, would I fall straight to the core of this planet? Is it even a planet?

Lowering her gaze to the ground, she looked at it. For a second, the thought took root in her mind and she imagined going through the ground. She felt herself start to sink and had that feeling you feel just as you are starting to fall on a roller coaster. The one you feel in your dreams when you fall from the sky despite never having fallen from such a height.

This was still enough for her to fall to the ground in fear only to realize that it was just as solid as it had ever been.

I guess the fear of falling and the need for something to hold on to was enough to make the ground solid again. Let’s stay away from such a thought from now on.

Turning her attention back to the pull, she resolved herself to continue toward it. However, she still wanted to try one last thing. She concentrated and imagined herself floating off the ground.

After all, floating is like one of the main powers of a ghost.

When nothing happened, she closed her eyes and tried again. After a few seconds of concentration, she opened her eyes and saw that she was floating about 20 centimeters off the ground. There was no indication of it on her surrounding like the grass bending from an unseen wind or force. She was just floating.

Taking a bit of time to get herself used to moving in this state, she finally turned back toward the pull and flew straight toward it, not considering any trees on her path as she flew straight through them. An exhilarating feeling was flowing through her whole body and she realized that at some point, she had started laughing uncontrollably. If anyone heard her, it would probably sound like maniacal laughter but she didn’t care, this was the best she had felt in what seemed like forever.

Unfortunately, this distracted her enough that she didn’t realize that the thread had become fully transparent. And that there was no more pull from anywhere.

Well, great job me! Now what?

Deciding that her best bet was to start looking around, she began to search for anything that looked like it could be the source of the pull or that felt connected to her in some way even though she wasn’t sure how she would recognize such an object.

After some time looking around aimlessly, just as she was starting to lose hope, she heard what sounded like a deep growl. Something you would expect from an animal that is at the very least as high as you are even on all four.

I mean, I don’t really have any better options, do I?

Going toward the source of the growl, she tried to make herself discreet even if she thought that nobody could see her.

After a few more seconds of floating, she finally arrived at what looked like a small clearing and in the middle of it was a little girl on the ground.

Of course, it’s her! Why didn’t I think of her as a source of the pull?

Unfortunately, she couldn’t even be happy to have found the girl because just about a dozen meters in front of the unconscious girl was a bear. It was about the size of a normal bear but compared to a child it looked huge. As she was immobile like a dear caught in the headlight, she saw the bear walk cautiously toward the girl. She realized that she had to act fast otherwise, she might not be able to act at all.