Chapter 26 Chapter 26
Breathing unevenly, she opened her eyes and saw that Maxwell had returned, looking at her weirdly. “What’s wrong now?”
She couldn’t answer him because her attention was drawn by something close by, something she had never seen before. Her breath hitched, and she froze in trepidation.
A peculiar creature stood not far from her, looking straight at her. It appeared like a person, but at the same time, it didn’t. It was a blurry image, translucent and grey. There wasn’t a single color on it, and she could barely make out the blurry shape of its face.
“What is that?” she squeaked. Maxwell followed her gaze, not surprised by the sight that greeted him.
“It’s a ghost. A soul that hasn’t fulfilled its last wish yet. It’s stuck here on earth until that happens. If it doesn’t succeed within one year, it will become an evil spirit, an entity that terrorizes humans until it gets sent to hell by a demon or purified by an exorcist,” Maxwell explained, shooting her a curious look. “It seems you’re no longer blind to the creatures roaming around here.”
She took a deep breath, letting his words sink in. Again, gathered her courage and looked at the phantom not far from her. It appeared to be an old woman who watched them without doing anything. Now that Valerie looked closer, she didn’t seem intimidating anymore.
“I see. Then that means normal ghosts aren’t dangerous, right?”
“No, they couldn’t hurt a fly,” Maxwell answered.
“I want to talk to her. Is that possible?”
“Why would you want to do that? Humans are so strange,” he sighed, but didn’t object when she walked up to the ghost, following her closely. Coming to stand in front of the translucent image, Valerie was hit by a sudden sense of melancholia and felt the temperature around her drop a few degrees.
“Hello,” she said awkwardly, not sure what she was even doing, talking to a ghost, but she wanted to find out more about the supernatural world, and this was the best way to do it. “Um, I was wondering if you wanted to speak to me? My name is Valerie.”
The woman regarded her silently until, eventually, she heard her distorted voice speak. “Hello,” she said, sounding as quiet as a whisper, before her eyes wandered to Maxwell, and she flinched back. “Demon,” she rasped.
“Yeah, yeah. We know that,” Maxwell said, tone dripping with sarcasm. “This is why I can’t stand ghosts. Always pointing out the obvious.”
“Shut up, you jerk. I want to talk to her. Can’t you let me?” Valerie hissed, hitting his shoulder. He looked like he wanted to counter something, but ultimately held his retort back.
Valerie turned back to the ghost, smiling apologetically. “I’m sorry about that. He’s a very rude demon...” Valerie said, her expression turning serious. “I wanted to ask a question. Recently, three women have vanished in this park. Did you see what happened to them?”
The ghost stared at her momentarily and then shook her head, disappointing Valerie. Her shoulders slumped in defeat, and she came to terms with the fact that her endeavor today had been fruitless.
“Thank you, I wish you all the best. Don’t linger here for too long,” Valerie said to the old woman and received a faint smile. The woman gave a nod and vanished into thin air, her body blurring until she was gone.
“Wow. I just talked to a ghost,” Valerie said before her eyes widened abruptly. “Oh wow! I talked to a ghost! That is so awesome.” She got all excited, eyes sparkling and smile widening. Maxwell watched her with raised eyebrows, but he couldn’t hold back the small smirk that appeared on his lips at her bubbly behavior.
“Typical human,” he said under his breath.
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Since Maxwell and Valerie hadn’t found any helpful clues in the area, they made their way back and were about to leave the park when Valerie spotted something else.
This time, it was a much scarier creature than a ghost. It looked like a spider, but with a larger body and glowing red eyes. Its hairy legs were the most disgusting thing Valerie had ever seen, and paired with the huge number of eyes on its head, this creature could have come straight from a nightmare. She had always hated spiders, but THIS took the cake. A strange dark mist surrounded it, and when its gaze fixated on her, it let out a low sound that made her shudder in revulsion.
She quickly hid behind Maxwell, clutching his shirt in panic. “Eww. Make it go away,” she squeaked, horrified by the unnatural being. This abomination was the epitome of disgusting.
“Oh, come on, it won’t dare come near me. Stop being scared,” Maxwell said, turning around to throw her an amused glance. “That’s a low-class demon belonging to the element of darkness. It’s not particularly dangerous… unless you’re human.”
“You’re not helping,” she hissed, glaring at him. “I would have preferred not seeing those creepy things everywhere.”
“Not seeing them doesn’t mean they’re not there,” he retorted, taking her wrist to lead her out of the park, which meant they would walk by the creepy spider demon. She clutched his arm, eliciting a chuckle from him. Her wide eyes were fixated on the spider—it hissed when they passed by.
“So those monsters have been roaming around me all my life without me noticing?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“That’s terrible.” she forced out, looking over her shoulder only to see that the demon had disappeared. Valerie shuddered, shoving the unsettling encounter to the back of her mind. “Would this thing have attacked me if I had been alone?”
“Hard to say. Lower-class demons are unpredictable. They normally keep to themselves. However, when they crave blood, you shouldn’t be anywhere near them,” Maxwell said and shrugged, not caring about weaker demons. “High-class demons, on the other hand are even more unpredictable, and since most of them look like humans, you would only notice the danger you’re in when it’s too late.”