The hut came into view rather quickly. It didn’t look different in any way, so I calmed down, slowing my steps. 

I tried phasing through the wall, but I couldn’t. I kept trying, but it felt as solid as if I were alive. I thought about it, coming to the conclusion that it must’ve been because of the bracelet. It had to be, since it was the only difference from before.

With a sigh, I walked around the hut, expecting to see someone, but I couldn’t find anyone. Thinking about where they could be, I tried reaching with my bond without thinking. But all I could feel was an emptiness I hadn't felt since I became a spirit. I forgot  I had no bond anymore.

I suddenly got anxious, so I rushed to the door and tried opening it. But then I remembered that Kiandra always closed it with a key. She became paranoid after a burglary back in the US. As far as I know, it ended with the guy taken by the police. But it was still a fresh memory for her .

Since I never needed a key before, I didn’t know where she could have a spare one. Then, I thought that maybe I could phase while being in the Sea of Will.

I prayed once more for the bracelet, but it only gave me a little zap. After one or two more tries, I projected my urgency on the prayer, and I finally made it into the Sea of Wills.

I never thought those words would come from my mouth.

Since I was in my spirit form, I began to phase through the door. That made me release the air I didn’t know I was holding, or the whatever equivalent I breathed in this form. But the calm disappeared as fast as it came.

Once I was ready to enter the house, I saw more people in the Sea of Wills; human people. Not ghouls or mannequins. But then, as I took another step to search inside the hut for Arlott and the others I noticed I knew the people over there.

I quickly approached them and realized that they were Arlott and Kiandra and both of them were in some kind of grotesque and grim looking bubble. Breena was kneeling some steps farther away.

I ran at them, feeling a fear I had never felt before. And when I tried touching the bubble, my hand couldn’t get closer, as if it was pushed out by an invisible force. Kiandra looked at me and said something. But I couldn’t hear her from inside the bubble.

Kiandra gestured to me to step back. Then, she signaled to Arlott and herself and gave a thumbs up. I calmed down a bit before I noticed her pointing to Breena.

I approached her and realized she was saying something. It sounded like she was imploring someone.

“Mr. Saxen, please let them leave.” She was almost gasping. “I will go with you but let them go to the living world. Please.”

As I tried to get closer, I noticed there was a sea of the mannequin monsters, mixed with a bunch of ghouls. And in front of them all, there was a guy holding something that seemed to be Breena’s body.

“If they continue in this world, they will get hurt.”  I heard Breena say. “Please, let them leave.” Tears ran down her face.

He was an imposing 6”7’ man. Looking at him made my gut turn, almost as much as how my parents used to make me. But then he looked at Breena with a sadistic glee and I felt cold all over. He was no man, but a monster.

While Breena continued her pleading, the man approached her. He made a strange gesture with his hand, and the bubble around Arlott and Kiandra began to shrink. 

I started to freak out. I had to do something, but the sea of monsters would pounce at me without a doubt. And I didn’t even know what that man was capable of. If he managed to hold Kiandra down, what the hell could I do to him?

Out of instinct, my body launched itself at where Breena’s body was. I wasn’t really sure what I was thinking, if I was even. But luckily , that distracted the man enough to leave the bubble be.

“Stop!” A grim, deep voice said. But I wasn’t really thinking, so I didn’t even think about obeying him.

As I got closer to Breena’s body, the monster around us also got closer. But I was a half-cat spirit, faster than any ghoul or mannequin. 

I finally managed to grab the body, but it looked awake. Whatever was controlling her, was still in control. She punched me right on the face.

I fell to the floor, grabbing my nose. It would be totally broken, if I had a physical body that is. From the floor, I looked at Breena’s body. It was looking directly into my eyes, but her eyes were empty. Even more so than my aunt’s when I found her dead in my room the time I was forced to lend it to her.

The emotionless eyes kept looking at me, but the body didn’t move an inch. It didn’t need to, as the sea of monsters were already over me. 

I screamed, trying to get the roar I used before. That one that made me feel so much rage and power. But only a feminine shout came from my throat. It was a surprise how, even in times like this, a sound like that coming from me made me smile.

When the monsters threw themselves over me, I could hear the man crackling into a laughter that could easily come from any man. Yet, despite being entirely human, it filled me with terror.

Out of fright, I could only slash at whatever I had near. I felt stupid at first, but my claws were sharp enough to be effective at keeping the things away.

Using the small window of time I got doing that, I quickly got up. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the bubble, Breena and the man. At last, my brain had an idea. But with my record, I knew it must’ve been a bad one.

I dodged my way through the wall of ghouls in front of me. Despite some of them scratching me, I kept moving.

Soon enough, I got to Breena’s body again. But I had a new approach this time.

With the little knowledge I had of martial arts -about two month of it- I got to dodge her punch, and punched her back, full force into the chest, ending her back over the floor. At first I was happy that my plan worked, but when I felt how light it was on the other side of my fist. Something was wrong.

I soon realized it wasn’t a problem. It was just that my body was that much stronger. So, I had just punched my friend's body with a force that could surely break it. 

My eyes got to a size that a doe in front of headlights would envy. I felt an urge to look at Breena, but knew that nothing good could come from that so I just rushed to where her body landed.

“Sorry Breena!” I yelled as I got to the now unconscious body. I mean, I couldn’t be sure it was conscious to begin with but-- the unmoving body.

I picked the body and began running, hoping  the man would follow us. But soon I heard another laugh before clashing against an invisible wall.

“You will not be able to flee from me,” the man said with a confidence that convinced me it was true. “And you will feed me, little spirit.” 

The last thing he said made me tremble as I turned at him. But what I saw made my gut cringe again, and the roar came from deep down once more. 

My eyes filled with anger when I saw the man grabbing Breena by the hair and pulling her away from me. I let another roar, an even louder one and at a speed I thought impossible, I moved in their direction.

The man got a surprised look at first, but it changed to a smirk in an instant as a wall of his monsters put themselves between us. But it was useless. My speed and momentum made it impossible for them to stop me. Even the few of them who managed to grab me were sent away, flying in pieces.

The ghouls kept coming by the hundreds, but my rage got them all out of my way until I was right in front of the man.

“You think you can stop me?” He said, laughing again. “Look at yourself, you can only continue on your feet because you are not human anymore. But it can not last long.”

When he said that, I looked down and noticed that my body was sliced all over. It looked like some pieces of me were trying to fly away, or something like that. But as long as he has his hands on Arlott, Breena and Kiandra, I would continue.

More and more creatures surrounded me, and I kept sending them flying in pieces. But then I heard some weird speech coming from the man.

I looked at him, and I felt a little relief when I saw he had released Breena and she was running away. But watching him letting her run away also made me doubt.

When he stopped his chant, the world began trembling.

At first, it was weird. All the ghouls and mannequins stopped moving. Then, they slowly began merging. As they did so, the shaking got so violent that I fell to the floor.

Trying to get up, I saw the different masses of monsters become a skeletal giant form, with enormous scythes on their hands. They became the natural hunter of ghosts; a reaper.

I could only look at the man with fear. He looked back at me with a smile that broke what little strength I still had left. The ground had stopped trembling

There were five reapers, all made out of ghouls, that began approaching me. I looked at them and got on my feet. At the very least, I wanted to go down fighting. 

They brought their scythes up at the same time. I braced myself, but then I felt my wrist get burnt by the cold a bracelet was emitting.

Wave after wave of frost fire began pulsing from the bracelet Cailleach had given me. They were not strong enough to kill the reapers, but still kept them from getting closer.

A woman materialized beside me. It was an image of Cailleach made from the same frost fire, standing by my side. It looked at me first, then it gazed angrily at the man.

“Crawl back to the guts of the monster that sent you here!” Cailleach’s image shouted.

After the last of her words stopped resonating, the bracelet exploded in a blue fire that consumed everything it touched except for me. 

The mannequins and the ghouls vanished instantly. The reapers tried to resist it, but they also vanished soon after. Yet, the man was still there.

He fought the flames back. Despite getting burned in some parts, he remained there.

I got worried when I realized he didn’t vanish like his monsters, but I got the opportunity to get the body of Breena and try to escape with the others.

When I got to where they were, I saw that the bubble had disappeared. Arlott, Kiandra and Breena were on the floor near each other, seemingly unconscious.

When I was halfway to reach them, I felt a hand grab me. I looked at it and saw the man with part of the body almost necrotic from the frostbites he got. The power Cailleach had put on the bracelet was all spent, and he was still alive.

I tried to shove him aside, but he was still really strong, even in that state. He slapped me, making me drop to the floor, letting go of Breena’s body .

“You will pay for this! Your own spirit will become my body.” His voice didn’t sound like anything human anymore.

He grabbed me by the neck, and I could feel all of me being absorbed through his hand. 

My ears and tail left me first. I could feel them vanishing. Then, my body began to shrink, as if going back into the petite body I had when I first turned into a human form.

Then, out of nowhere, a plant hit the man square on the chest.

As he dropped me, I looked at him. He looked back at me, his body almost completely healed by then, but I could feel he had no energy left. As Kiandra ran at us, he grabbed Breena’s body and vanished.

I looked where Breena and Arlott were, both still unconscious. I then felt Kiandra’s arms around me. I could see her lips moving, but couldn’t hear a thing. Then, everything went black.

When I woke up, I was back in my petite body, on a bed inside the hut. Arlott was hugging me while sleeping, and Breena was sleeping all curled up at the bed’s feet.

I was finally back at the living world again, but I still felt awful.

Kiandra entered the room eating some snacks and drinking a cup of tea. She looked surprised when she noticed I was awake. She took another sip of the tea before speaking.

“We are not safe here anymore.” It was the last thing I heard before falling unconscious again.