What was that thing she saw yesterday? Was she insane? These thoughts plagued Miya's mind as she walked home at a brisk pace. She wasn't twenty meters from her house when she saw it again. Blurry, transparent, faint, scarlet red blob. And it went into her house. Where her mom was. Where her brother was. She sprinted to her house.
"Honey! You're later than usual, did something happen?" Her mother said as Miya came through the door. Her mother was on the couch reading a book. Her brother was playing video games on their Yboy series Y.1Such clever naming scheme. No copyright issues here, no siree. Take your lawyers elsewhere. Nothing was wrong. "Oh, I just, uh, took a little rest in the park." Miya replied after a delay, her heavy breathing making it painfully obvious that she had run quite a distance in not much time. "If you say soooo...."
Miya flopped down on her bed. Today had been stressful and exhausting. It wasn't over yet though, she had to figure out what the scarlet blob was, and fast. She sat up and closed her eyes. There was nothing but void. Blackness and nothingness rules all. All, that is, except for the boy sitting criss cross in front of her. He would have been right on the bed, but she couldn't see the bed.
"Boo." He yelped, laughing to himself after. It was the same boy as earlier, but now he had two arms and no injuries. His eyes were scarlet and his teeth were pale white. His skin was slightly slightly slightly transparent, but not much at all.
Miya opened her eyes with an inhale and a jump backwards. She was either not crazy at all or mad as a hatter. She closed her eyes again. "You people have the best reactions, you know?" the boy said, his nose not a half inch from hers. This time she stood her ground. "W-Who are you?" she sputtered. "Me? My name is Ambrose.2Greek for immortal. I'm just your friendly neighborhood ghost."
"Ghost?" Miya asked in a soft tone so as to not allow her mom or brother to hear, not that they would be able to from downstairs over the T.V.
"Yep, died quite a while ago. Not a fun experience, I got hit in the head with a lawn dart."
Ambrose was very expressive and laughy. He moved his hands with every word and made exaggerated motions to emphasize words. "Anyway, that's hardly important. You need to come with me." Miya looked at Ambrose in confusion. "What? Why? I don't even have a reason to trust you!" Ambrose's expression got dark. "You know that monster I was fighting earlier? There are more of them. A lot more. If you don't get out of here, they'll kill you in your sleep." There wasn't a gram of cheer in his voice. "Pack a tent and some food, we're going camping."
Miya struggled to get her bike to go up a hill. It was bumpy in California. It was spring, so the air was very comfortable. She was going rather fast, but every time she closed her eyes it was apparent to her that Ambrose was having no trouble keeping up. "Those monsters are called phantoms. They're everywhere, but they mostly stay in populated areas. That's why we're going to the nearest unpopulated area. There's a great camping spot right smack in the middle of Wallingrane Grove, two miles from the road and four miles from the nearest house." Ambrose had said. "You head out there and I'll explain what's going on."
"What about school?" Miya asked. "If you go to school as you are now you'll be gutted while your friends watch, so get moving." Ambrose snapped, serious once again.
Miya, sour to the idea of any of her internals becoming externals, complied.
And that's why she was where she was now, biking into a forest at 4:12 in the afternoon. She had hiking boots, tough pants, a warm coat, a tent, food, assorted magazines. Ambrose had insisted she bring her phone and a battery brick for it. The brick he procured himself, seemingly out of nowhere.
Miya stopped at the clearing Ambrose had made her mark on her phone's map app. She closed her eyes and asked, "So why did you have me come out here?" "Well it's pretty simple. I'm going to teach you everything you need to do in order to survive the next 3 months of your life in the next 48 hours." Ambrose had a slightly sadistic grin, like a toddler who had been given a barbie doll and a cheese grater.
Before Miya could change her mind and go home, Ambrose started explaining, "You have developed psychic powers. That's good, right? Wrong. The 'phantoms,' as we call them, will attack you now that you're a psychic. Before, they were harmless. Now, they're deadly. You need to learn how to fend them off."
Miya was sceptical and confused. Ambrose leaned over and picked up a stick, apparently ghosts can do that, and threw it to her. "First things first. Defend yourself." Miya looked at Ambrose. He was scrawny. He was shorter than her. He had nothing but his fists and she had a stick.
He beat the stuffing out of her.
Miya's everything hurt. Ambrose had punched and kicked her everywhere. He dodged every swing of the stick and executed incredible kicks out of nowhere. He seemed one with the ground and slided wherever he wanted to go. While Miya lay on the ground in pain Ambrose said, "Get up, if I were a phantom you'd be very dead by now." Miya stumbled to her feet. She was angry. Angry that this arrogant scrawny bitch would drag a girl to the woods and beat her. She took another swing at him with her stick.
If Ambrose had looked in poor shape after the fight with the monster, it was nothing compared to now. His ribcage was open wide, his left arm was red dust in the air. His entire body was deformed and his head was bent at a disturbing angle. Miya looked at him in horror and dropped her stick. Then all of his missing internals snaked their way back into his body. The bloody air condensed back into his arm. His limbs unbent and his bones unbroke. He shot Miya a charming smile.
"Now that's what I call self defense! Not many can hit me that hard on their first try!"
Miya, at a loss for words, turned her back to him and threw up.
