Ways to See a Ghost by Emily Diamand

Author:Emily Diamand [Diamand, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 1848778317
Publisher: Templar Publishing
Published: 2013-06-30T22:00:00+00:00

“What’s up there?”

Isis could see Gray was struggling to understand. She tried again.

“I’ve seen it before at the theatre. It sort of dropped onto Philip Syndal and grabbed away this ghost he’d called up to the stage.”

“Hang on, I thought you said Philip was a fake?”

“He…” Isis faltered, trying to think. “Mandeville said he was using tricks, but he’s psychic too.” She wavered. If Philip Syndal had any talent, why hadn’t he spotted Angel in his own home?

“Mandeville the ghost?” asked Gray, looking more confused.

Isis nodded. “He was at the theatre too. Inside a woman.”

Gray opened his mouth and shut it again. He squinted up at the glass roof. “And now this… ghost grabber is in the shopping centre?”

“It’s at the top of that pole,” said Isis, “by the glass.”

“Up there?” Gray pointed.

“Don’t!” hissed Isis, slapping his arm down. “It might see you!”

“Are you winding me up?” said Gray.

“No! That thing is stalking Angel. Mandeville called it a Devourer. He said it eats ghosts or something.”

Gray paused, then turned to look up at the escalators. “And is Angel still up there?” he asked.

Isis nodded. The teenagers were bunched together at the entrance to the coffee shop, getting told off by a security guard. “Legitimate shoppers feel intimidated with you here…” he was saying loudly.

“We’re legitimate shoppers,” said one of the boys, waving a drinks can. “I bought this.”

Angel, the pale sprite, was still playing amongst them, unnoticed by everyone. Except for the blue-wash creature above, watching her with its many eyes, and gathering itself to strike.

Isis stood still at the bottom of the escalators, hesitating.

“Go on then,” said Gray.

The ridged metal steps trundled up with a constant rumble. At the top of the escalators, the teenagers moved just enough to placate the security guard. Angel went with them, and the slime of blue slipped along the ceiling, keeping track.

Isis turned to Gray.

“I can’t get to her without them noticing,” she said.

He shrugged. “So?”

So they’d see her talking to the air. Then they’d see her arguing with the air, grabbing hold of it and dragging it away. Her stomach tightened at the thought. The insults and laughter, the sly punch to put her in her place. She faced it every day at school – she didn’t want to face it here as well.

“They’ll think I’m a freak,” she said quietly, hating herself for being afraid.

But the overhead blue was spreading now, getting deeper, as if the whole shopping mall were a submarine descending into water. What the teenagers might say didn’t matter, nothing mattered but Angel.

Isis took a breath. “You stay here,” she said to Gray.

“Why?” he said, his heavy eyebrows shadowing his eyes. And he stepped onto the escalator, rising smoothly away from her, his hand on the moving rail.

Isis stared, then jumped on after.

“They’ll think you’re a freak too,” she said.

Gray shrugged. “I don’t care.”

“What shall we do?”

He shrugged again. “I don’t know. Something.”

They were carried upwards, the air thickening and flickering into a blue only Isis could see. As if she were really, dizzily, diving down into the sea.

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