Meeting The Ghost of You

Page 2: Glimpse

Page 2: Glimpse

A few days pass before I decide to  give Phantom Secrets Online another shot. Once again, when I log in, I’m in for a surprise. The game is nothing like the last time I logged into it... In fact, it looks like what it should be; what it looked like when I played it with all the other beta testers. Did the game merely glitch? Could my copy of the game be infected with a virus? I suppose it doesn’t matter... I can just pretend all that happened was just a bad dream. Angry at myself for wasting so much time just thinking about what happened, I harden my resolve and vow to get something accomplished today. Lingering by people just long enough to hear a rumor of a quest, I quickly head out, looking for the NPC offering the quest. 

As I walk, I repeat to myself all the I remember overhearing. Phantom Extermination... Rich NPC... Big Mansion... Mansion found in... Shoot! Where is the mansion supposed to be? Kenji, you idiot! You should have paid better attention! After around ten minutes of walking in circles, I stop. I take a deep breath, and try to calm myself, try to help myself think clearly. If I were rich... Where would I build my mansion? Would I want to live near a town? Would I want some space to myself? Would I like a place with a view? Would I want a lake-side mansion? Ugh! There are just so many options! As I think, the wind ruffles my hair, feeling like some sort of pat on the head. 

“Thanks wind,” I mutter, annoyed by the fact that the wind is causing my hair to fall in front of my eyes. I let out a sigh, a sigh just powerful enough to make my silver hair fly up out of my eyes. Silver... Mayuri loved the color of silver.

“It is simple, but beautiful,” she would often tell me, looking out the window at snowflakes tumbling down from the clouds, “Just like me...” That is when I would argue with her, try to make her realize just how great of a person she is...Was... I still can’t figure out what tense I should use. Sometimes... Sometimes I just can’t believe that she’s dead.

The wind dies almost as suddenly as it appears. I find myself in a different place than where I originally started. When did I start walking?

“You’ve seen through the Mist, well done,” a voice says, praising me. I blink, truly seeing my surroundings for the first time. I’m standing on stairs, spotless stairs, stairs decorated with gold engravings. A few steps above me stands a middle aged man, dressed in suit. The suit is spotless, not even one wrinkle, not even a single piece of lint clinging to the fabric. “My unwelcome guest have been using their despicable powers to make a magical mist to hide my mansion from humans. You are the first to be able to see through it. You must be quite the powerful Phantom Hunter,” all the while he motions for me to follow him inside. His ‘unwelcome’ guests must be fairly powerful... Most lower phantoms can’t create the Mist he mentions. The privileged man leads me through a lavishly decorate hall before disappearing around a corner. I don’t even get a chance to try to catch up with him before the lights go out.

A cackle fills the air, a cackle so strange that only a phantom could make it. “Foolish boy...” the voice says, using the same voice as the old man, “You should have been able to tell that this man is being possessed by me. I was once a lowly, weak phantom. But if I use this man’s life force to power myself, and your life force, I’ll be UNSTOPPABLE!” he laughs once again, but this time he never stops. He must be a Shadow Phantom... A phantom type that can only become a formidable foe if it posses a human. Once it posses a human and continuously consumes life forces, it can be nearly unstoppable. I curse at my unluckiness... I thought I was going to get RICH quick, not DIE quick!  

Unsure of where the phantom is hiding, I slip on my gloves that increase the speed of how fast you can cast spells. I blast sparkling blue orb after sparkling blue orb into the darkness, hoping to somehow make the phantom come out of his hiding place in the dark. I know he must be near... The laughter has gotten louder, sounding like thunder in my ears. 

Unexpectedly, the shadows near my feet lash out and grab hold of my ankles, and cause me to fall to the ground with a thud. I aim at the dark hands that grab and claw me, getting so caught up in freeing my feet that I don’t notice the hands reaching for my arms until it’s too late. The hands furiously claw at me, as if they are trying to rip me apart, limb by limb. Luckily their progress is slow, so it gives me time to try to get myself out of the unfortunate situation that I am in. 

It all happens in a blur. A downpour of fragments, fragments that dig deep gashes within the shadows. The shadows curl and scream, and the phantom is no longer laughing. In fact, it sounds like it is crying, pleading for it all to end quickly. In a flash of light, in a series of lightning strikes, the phantom is reduced to fragments. The shadow phantom’s fragments are swept away by the wind, the same  wind that causes the fragments that saved me to form themselves in the likeness of Mayuri. The phantom that looks like Mayuri looks me in the eyes, with a look that is like that of a puppy. She says one word, in a hurried, pleading whisper, “run.” Before I can respond, before I can ask why I should run, I am logged out. I didn’t log myself out... Someone, something FORCED me to log out. Having the urge to write about what happened, but unsure of how, I write one word once more in my diary. I open up to the second page and write: 

Glimpse.