Spirit was an unusual person. Not because they lived in the middle of a spooky forest, not because they wrote stories that seemed too real, not because they had no connections to the outside world. In fact, it wasn’t even them who was the unusual one. It was whom they lived with.

 

***

 

Spirit couldn’t believe their eyes. They were standing in the middle of an asphalt road, surrounded by tall concrete and metal buildings. Streetlights lit up the path every ten feet or so, sending golden beams of light onto the dark pavement. The road seemed to stretch forever, yet no signs of life were visible. None of the lights were on in the buildings, and the stars were bright… Bright enough to send reflections dancing between the different reflective buildings. 

 

Spirit spun around. Where am I? The place contained a strong sense of nostalgia despite them never having been in a city before. They had only ever seen cities in books from the old library that Ayuna ran.

 

Suddenly, the whole world shifted, and they watched the buildings of metal and glass crumble into dust. Vines slowly began to grow from the remains of the less natural buildings and wind up the stone ones that remained standing. The world tilted even further, and Spirit panicked as they realized that they were slowly sliding down the now cracked road. The world continued tilting; Spirit grabbed onto one of the vines that seemed to be now crawling towards them.

 

The vine curled around their arm as the Earth seemed to turn upside down. The remains of the glass and rusty metal fell off the ground in chunks, causing Spirit to pull their limbs in closer to prevent themselves from getting scratched.

 

The soft sound of windchimes filled the air as the vine holding Spirit up started to reach further down their body, winding around their chest, curling around their neck. Spirit felt their eyes water as their air was cut off. They feebly tried to pull the vine off their neck, clawing at the dark green menace, only cutting up their neck in the process. They could see the end, dark spots dotting their vision when the plant burst into flaming ashes, sending them hurtling towards the sky, burns dotting their body.

 

They didn’t even have enough energy to yell as their limp body gained speed. The wind chimes were now screaming in their ears like an angry cat. It was too bright, too loud, too chaotic. 

 

And then they woke up in their bed with a familiar face hovering over them.

 

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” the translucent figure said with a smile.

Spirit felt their racing heart rate go back down as they blinked the sleep away from their eyes. “Good morning, Clay.”

 

The see-through spirit was wearing a black hoodie and dark blue torn jeans. His dark hair was messy and the slit on the side of his throat was dripping a dark, viscous liquid. His eyes, lacking pupils or irises, were glowing with mischievous energy.

 

The ghost floated over to their window and looked out into the circle of buildings where the rest of their friends lived. 

 

“Connor and Mira were concerned about where you were, but I told them that you were probably just being a lazy butt, and look at that, I was right,” he said, glancing back at Spirit, who was still breathing heavily.

 

“Rude,” Spirit replied, sitting up and swinging their legs down from their bed.

 

“I’ve never been known for lying to people.”

 

“What about that time you lied to me about the surprise party the others planned for my ‘birthday?’” Spirit shot back, tossing a pink t-shirt over the white tank top they had worn to bed.

 

“Alright, fair.”

 

Spirit threw on a light blue pleated skirt that went to their knees and grabbed the tote bag that was hung around the bedposts. They opened the door, sending it flying straight through Clay, who was standing on the other side of the door, still staring out the window.

 

The sunlight filtering through the tall trees brought a warm feeling to the small clearing in the woods. There were five buildings, including Spirit’s house, that stood around the clearing, all of different styles, sizes, and colors. Gravel paths were connecting them and in the center of it all was a fountain made of white stone and different crystals that Mira used to protect the clearing. At the moment, two people were standing near the fountain in what looked like a deep conversation.

 

“I’m still not entirely sure we should -- Oh, hi Spirit!” the shorter of the two people called out to Spirit, who had walked over to the fountain.

 

That was Mira, a wizard who had been kicked out of her guild and had defected to the “good side.” She was dressed in a deep blue belted jumpsuit and a light blue wizard hat. Her dark, tightly coiled hair cascaded down her back and her dark brown eyes sparkled in the spring sunlight. She was the main protector of the clearing, casting spells to hide them from the outside world.

 

The other person was Connor, a werewolf, who had decided to leave the rest of his pack due to the violence that occurred every full moon. He had a scruffy appearance, his light brown hair sticking out in every direction, and the clothes that he wore torn up. His gray eyes seemed to always be darting around, looking for possible threats and his hands and feet never seemed to stand still, always tapping or scratching something.

 

Spirit continued walking over to them, remembering what Clay had told them earlier. “I heard that you two were looking for me.”

 

“Oo, yes we were,” Mira stated. “We were wondering if you perhaps wanted to come with us for our monthly visit to town?”

 

Spirit felt excitement course through their veins. “Yes! I would love to! When is it?”

 

Mira giggled and replied. “We’re leaving this evening, so make sure to pack everything that you might need.”

 

Spirit grinned and ran back to their house, their pale blue eyes sparkling with joy. Clay was still floating by the window when Spirit ran back into the house, practically vibrating.

 

“What did they say?” Clay asked them, quickly picking up on their excitement.

 

“I’m going to the town!”

 

“Wait, really? I wanna go to town!” Clay shot back. “I’m older than both of them. I should be able to go with them.”

 

Spirit, however, wasn’t listening to him. They were digging through their closet in search of their big bag, the one that they would take with them to go to the farm that was nestled even further into the forest. They eventually found it, the leather on it worn away by years of use. Clay continued ranting about how he’s responsible enough to not make a scene as Spirit tossed their favorite clothing into the main pocket of the bag. They grabbed their toothbrush and hairbrush off of the small vanity that also served as their bedside table and tossed them in as well.

 

“Are you even listening to me?”

 

Spirit snapped back into reality as Clay poked them with his finger. He couldn’t necessarily touch them, but the feeling of a ghost going through you is enough for it to feel like they’re touching you.

 

“Sorry, I zoned out.”

 

“Clearly, you’ve been staring into your bag for the last fifteen minutes.”

 

“How would you know? You’ve been ranting about how mature you are.”

 

Clay fumed. “You know what? I’m leaving to go find someone who won’t ignore me in favor of a bag.” He stormed through the front door, leaving Spirit alone with their thoughts and now dwindling excitement.

 

They looked back at the bag. I think I’ve packed everything that’s needed. 

 

“Well, he took that well.”

 

Spirit snapped their head around, looking for the source of the voice, before landing their eyes on a woman dressed in all black, lacy clothing standing at the head of their bed.

 

“Oh, you scared me Ayuna,” Spirit said, grabbing their bag and standing up.

 

Ayuna was a vampire who had found alternative ways of feeding than sucking the life out of humans and had decided to settle down in a town to set up a library. She, however, had been chased out of there after the townsfolk had found out that she was a vampire and fled to the forest, where she had met the rest of them. She still ran a small library full of stolen books from the village and lent them out to Spirit regularly. 

 

“I just saw what happened. So, you’re going to the village?”

 

Spirit nodded.

 

“Well, just in case you get bored,” Ayuna pulled a large book out of her cloak and handed it to them. “Here’s a book from the outside world. It’s based around what regular people think is what a magic system is and I found it quite interesting to see their perspective on us.”

 

Spirit held the book in their hands. It was in bad shape, the purple and maroon cover dirty and coming off, the gold text on the spine peeling away.

 

“Huh, I guess I’ll take it with me,” Spirit shrugged and placed it gently on top of the mess of clothing and zipped the bag closed, now confident that they had packed everything. Ayuna smiled gently before vanishing into a cloud of black smoke.

 

Spirit grabbed a dark gray beanie off the bedpost and shoved it onto their pale white curls, as well as shoving a pair of old, falling-apart converse onto their feet, and slammed their door open for the third time that day. As they ran to meet with Connor and Mira at the magical stone archway that separated the scary part of the forest from their quiet little corner, they spotted Clay sulking in the shadows by his house and Ayuna sitting on the steps of her house/ library reading a book, parasol in hand.

 

Spirit screeched to a sharp halt, nearly crashing into Connor.

“Geez, kiddo. Excited to go?” he laughed  as Spirit tried to right themselves back into a proper standing position.

 

Spirit merely flapped their arms in response, which translated to “Yes!” and they both knew that. Spirit sometimes didn’t communicate with words, and everyone eventually just learned how to read them and their body language. 

 

All three of them walked through the thin film of magic in between the rocky archway, and it left a bubble of protection around them as they entered the dark forest. Through the iridescent film around them, the forest seemed a lot less scary than what they were told when warned about the outside world, and the presence of Mira and Connor most definitely improved that.

 

Spirit felt a warmth growing in their chest. This was their home. They were their home. This was the place that they would stay in for the rest of their life, and if not, they would remember it as a place of safety and family. They would do anything to protect this place.

 

Anything. And they meant that.