The Ghost district

The tip of his finger almost touched the green mirage that he had tried to get so desperately. 

“Again, I failed,” muttered Henry as he backed up to the main street. 

It was empty compared to the main part of the town. There weren't a lot of people who ventured into the ghost district eagerly. The First Revelation was the beginning of ghosts' appearance. Since then, their visits to the world of mortals increased every day. 

The mirages showed mostly in abandoned apartments or backstreet alleys, full of darkness and shadows. They performed scenes from different ages, and it felt like watching a theater performance. People wore clothes from different periods and had props from their era. When someone tried to touch or document anything, it vanished immediately, leaving only empty air behind. 

Henry put his hands in his pockets and moved to one of the empty apartments. That day hadn't been fortunate so far. For the fourth time he got nothing except some bruises. 

The rumors said that if you touched one of the ghosts, you would get unimaginable things. His searches were only to get his parents back. They'd died three years ago in a car accident on their way to Adventure Park. If the mirages showed people from different periods, he could find them and finally say goodbye. 

He picked up a stone and threw it at the destroyed building's facade. 

“Shh,” the girlish voice scolded him. Miranda was looking from behind the corner, gesturing at him to come. 

She had consistently been walking alone, like most travelers, Henry included. From time to time, they ventured together because they liked each other’s presence. 

“Look at that,” she said when he came closer. 

Her finger was pointing to a scene that depicted a chaotic battle, where multiple men aimed at each other with slingshots. Stones flew very often, so Henry was scared about getting hit. 

“I have an idea. All people try to touch the phantoms, but did anyone try to be touched by them?”

Henry found this idea ingenious in its simplicity. “I thought that someone had already tried that,” he said.

“Well… they had, but not exactly the way I wanted to do it.”

“And that is?”

“From what I know, people had only tried to be touched by the phantoms, never by a prop flying over,” she said excitedly. Flushing on the cheeks, she added, “So I plan to evade all the ghosts in the scene and get hit by the rock from a slingshot.”

Henry wasn't convinced. If it were this simple, someone needed to try it. 

“I'm almost sure it won't work. They'll disappear, as always.”

“There is only one way to find out.”

Miranda had almost sneaked onto the scene when Henry called her out, “Wait—what do you think will happen after the touch?”

“Something incredible, I hope. Maybe I'll get superpowers. That would be cool, right?”

“Maybe flying—can you imagine flying through the district and seeing all these mirages?” Henry said excitedly. 

Miranda got into the scene, swiftly avoiding any phantoms. The room was vast, but there were plenty of obstacles on the way. Her flexible moves surprised Henry, as she got better every time they met. He was fast, but her acrobatic moves were admirable. 

Henry had a thought about following her but resigned in case something would happen. 

A sudden flash of green light woke him up from his thoughts. Miranda was knocked back, and just before Henry looked that way, she started to glow with a green light, similar to that emitted by the mirages. Her legs became translucently green, and the rest of her body followed: stomach, neck, arms, and finally—head. She said something, but no words came from her mouth. Miranda spared Henry the last glance, and suddenly her eyes focused on something else.

The mirages, including the girl, disappeared, leaving Henry alone in the empty, messy apartment.

He shortened the distance to the place where she had stood. Instead of getting superpowers, she'd disappeared. He felt lost. Should he look for similar mirages? Or maybe he should forget about the girl? That wasn't an option. He'd already lost his parents, and he didn't want to lose anyone else. 

He cried aloud. The wind was sweeping through the broken window glass as he squeezed his fists and stood up. He couldn't allow it to be that way; he would drag Miranda even from hell if necessary.

Something caught his attention. A piece of stone that didn't fit into the rest of the rubble; the material wasn’t from this apartment or city. This was a prop from one of the slingshots. It wasn't green-hued as usual but hard and normally colored. That was a clue to what had happened to Miranda and how to get her back. Henry would just need to figure out the connection between those. 

He came out of the apartment into a dusky alley. The imminent night was the part of the day when the mirages appeared more frequently. Revelations occurred on every corner. In the distance, Henry saw a man running and reaching for the green lights. The lights vanished and left the man with nothing.

Nothing extraordinary happened during the night. The mirages could only scare you, so it was unheard of that someone was killed. Henry wasn't scared easily. He pushed forward to find the lost girl.

His hand quivered. An invisible force dragged him into one of the shadowed alleys. Behind the corner he saw the usual green ray. Nothing in particular drew his attention in the scene. A few figures were drinking something at the table—then he saw the label on the bottle. It had Miranda’s face on it. As he got closer to see the details, a ghost’s hand moved in his direction. Without the time to react, he was touched, and the whole scene disappeared.

A few moments ago he saw his friend. Henry was dumbfounded and couldn’t move for a while.

“What was that?” he muttered. 

The slingshot’s stone he'd found earlier was glowing inside his pocket. The hue was dissipating, returning to a normal state.

An idea evolved in Henry's mind. He rushed to one of the places where he knew the revelations were often. The glowing light in the back of an apartment told him that he got lucky.

The stone was silent. He inspected the scene carefully, and there was nothing there like the label. 

He had no luck with any of the mirages he tried after, but he kept going. Until he found her, sleep was not an option. Henry had no idea how to activate the stone. He had a feeling that without the way, he wouldn't be able to find her. It happened only once by accident, and he really hoped that it would happen again soon. 

Finally, after hours passed, he gave up on searching through the places he knew. The Sinner, an old man who remembered the beginning of the mirages, was the one to whom Henry directed his steps.

“Henry…” The deep voice came from the shadows of the building. “What business do you have? I don’t remember you coming here without a reason.”

“I found this. Do you know what that is?” Henry held the stone high in the air for the old man to see. 

“This—where did you find it? Tell me, boy, now!”“It dropped from the mirages.”

“Give me more details, Henry. Everything is important.”

The boy told the story to the Sinner.

“Ohhh, I see. Only once did I find something similar,” said the old man. “It was a long time ago, and it was a rose petal that hasn't wilted till today. I have it here.” He took the still scarlet red item from his pocket, and with respect, he showed it to Henry. The boy wanted to take a look at it closer, but the old man shoved it back into his pocket.

“I can't let you touch it. Not after all these years, I have it. I'm too…attached to it. What I can give you is its story. This may help you with your searches.”

The story of Petal was interesting. The Sinner was looking through the mirages one day when a sudden yell stopped him in place. It stopped as abruptly as it had started.

“...when I got there, I saw nothing. No mirages, no people, only this rose petal lying on the ground.”

For a long time, the petal hadn’t been activated. On one of the colder nights in the year, the Sinner walked around the district when the rose in his pocket vibrated.

The rose petal wasn't red anymore but a ghostly green hue instead. The invisible force dragged the younger man to the place of the scene. It was an aristocratic ball, where people were dancing in some sophisticated dance. There was nothing unusual there. That had been until The Sinner saw a man sitting at one of the tables, eating alongside the rest but not fitting in with them. He wore the same clothes, but there was something futuristic about his facial features. All the men at that banquet had their beards shaved and neatly combed hair. All, except that man. His hair was messy, and his beard was long like the snake hiding within his tunic. He was relaxed compared to the other guests’ stiffness.

When The Sinner moved in his direction, the petal glow increased. As he came closer, the man noticed him. His gaze was locked on the rose petal, as if it were a light in the darkness. The man's face followed every move The Sinner’s hand did. When the old man stepped onto the dance floor, it was harder to avoid dancing ghosts. With an elegant twist, one of them touched the Sinner. Everything disappeared, along with the petal’s glow.

“And that’s it. The petal was reacting to the man and vice versa—like two components connected with a glowing link. It’s never happened again.”

“So, you don't know what could happen after touching the man?”

“I don't know. But if you want advice, Henry, don't waste your time looking for a girl. You'll probably never see her again.”

Henry squeezed the stone tighter in his hand. He had to find her. 

“I'll find her. Soon." 

He wanted to walk around the district, alleys, and apartments, looking at the stone’s reactions.

As he was about to give up for the day, his hand shivered. The stone became light green, and the saturation rose constantly. He let the artifact lead him, and he almost tripped on a curb. The dragging force increased with every step made toward a huge warehouse. The familiar green cookie spread on the street from the small windows in thin rays.

A big iron door was shut, with a huge padlock in the center. On the back, Henry found a dumpster above which, shining with a green light, loomed a window that was big enough for him.

It was tighter than it had seemed. Sharp edges of the wall bruised him, but with the final struggle he felt on the other side. Two kilograms more, and he wouldn’t be able to fit. 

The warehouse's space was full of familiar green shadows. Laborers were busy packing parcels and moving them from one place to another. Compared to other scenes, they looked strangely fitting in the place. Almost like normal workers, except for their outfits, taken directly from a time machine. 

She stood out from the crowd, so he spotted her immediately. Unlike the rest, she didn't have a worker's hat. Her blonde hair was prominent in the crowd of grey.

She was staring at the stone, like nothing else mattered. Only a few steps separated them, so he could reach her in no time. It became a struggle when he realized that it wouldn't be so easy with all these workers bustling around. With the stone dragging him inevitably to Miranda, he was making weird moves to avoid the ghosts. One of them handed something to the other, creating a wall of hands in Henry’s way, making him bend his knees to avoid hitting it. With a few more quicksteps he was at Miranda’s place. Henry covered his eyes with his second hand from the blinding light that shone from the stone. The moment he brushed Miranda with the artifact, her image flickered and exploded with light so bright that it blinded Henry for a long time.

The whole scene disappeared, leaving Henry in a shock in the empty, messy warehouse. 

He opened his fist to see that he didn't hold the stone anymore. The only connection between his world and Miranda's world was severed.

His stomach felt. He hadn't known her for a long time, but he liked and missed her more than he expected. He wasn't sure if he still wanted to scavenge the revelations. 

“Henry?" The faint voice came from a corner.

His doubts, fear, and anger faded like the ghost tapped with the slightest touch. The next thing he remembered was kneeling next to her, comforting and questioning her.

“Miranda? How do you feel? What happened?”

She was examining her hands, flipping them upside down with disbelief. “I—don't know. The last thing I remember is being hit by something,” she flipped her hands palm up and gazed at them. “And then nothing.”

“Nothing? I saw you in the scenes! Twice!"

“Now that you said that. I remember moving from place to place, doing some… things. And then I saw the green light. Nothing else besides it.” She said it all in one quick stream of weird.

“It was the slingshot stone glowing for you. I guess you were exchanged for bringing it back.”

"I don't think I understand." 

Henry was overjoyed. Having Miranda back was everything he could ask for.