Story of a Ghost

At first, she ignored the feeling of being watched. The mansion was old and creepy, with old portraits of long dead Kamishiba staring down at her, their canvas throats torn open by the claws of an angry Lopdiemis. There were signs of said Lop all over the manison, constant reminders that she was watching. Not to mention her unsavoury habit of slinking out of the shadows when Skyla least expected it. And add in the fact that, during her first few months of relative freedom, Tevlen was ordered to spy on her and you could forgive Skyla for being used to the feeling of eyes on her at all times.

But when she started having that feeling while she was on a mission in the middle of nowhere with Tevlen, that's when she started to grow suspicious.

The Shourinokobi did not help her nerves.

When she brought up the strange feeling he stared at her with an expression of pure confusion. He didn't have the same unsettling feeling. She was on her own in this mystery.

Her concerns only grew once she started to see something in the corner of her eye. 

At first it was just a flash of white or grey in her peripheral vision. Something she could chalk up to just a trick of the light or perhaps a speck of dust. Or even a bird if she was out in the woods. Annoying but harmless. Nothing to worry about really.

But then it got worse.

Flashes of grey became a haunting face. Streaks of white became a body that lingered longer than it should have. She never saw it for more than a second but it's presence was always undeniable, as it left a strange chill in Skyla's bones.

Once more she brought it up to Tevlen, hoping against hope that the Shourinokobi had seen strange things too.

But he hadn't.

Instead his expression twisted as if she was the strange thing lurking in the mansion.

"Are you alright lass?" He asked slowly as if he was afraid to anger her. "You've been acting… Odd recently."

Great. Now he thought she was crazy.

She grumbled a low 'never mind' and moved on before he could attempt to question her further. 

In that moment she was sure of two things; that the feeling of being watched and the strange things in the corner of her eye were linked, and that Tevlen would not help her - did not even believe her. 

Things started to go missing in her room. And then they would return in truly bizarre fashion.

A roll of bandages was the first thing to go missing. She brushed it off at the time - probably just Tevlen taking them to patch himself up or put them in a med kit for their next mission, nothing unusual. 

Then it was a dagger, a short list of books she had written down for future reference, a god damn sock. They would go missing for a few days, sometimes a few hours, then she would find them again. The dagger she found in a boot, the sock in the pages of one of her books. At first she tried to blame Tevlen or Bastet - an accusation that earned her a lovely new scar - but she found no solid leads or proof. She felt like she was losing her damn mind. 

The final straw came when she found her list, laid on top of her pillow one day after she came back from a mission. Someone was mocking her, she was certain of that. And she had never intention of taking that laying down.

She planned to spring a trap on whoever was testing her this way - perhaps a trip wire or a classic stick-and-box trap. Anything to capture the one behind it. She was no trap master but she was determined to catch them in the act. 

Turns out a trap was completely unnecessary.

She was settling down for the night, shedding her armour and weapons. Average routine for a normal night.

Then she felt it.

The prickle on the back of her neck when she felt she was being watched. 

This was her chance to catch the culprit.

She continued with her routine - not giving away any signs that she had detected their presence. Armour was stored away, weapons stashed alongside them. Messy fur was ignored in favour of slipping between her sheets as she did every night. Her mysterious stalker would have known this was her normal routine and thus not suspected that Skyla was onto them. 

Whoever they were, they were extremely stealthy - Skyla would give them that. Despite the fact Skyla was certain they had entered her room (from the increased feeling of being watched and the way her fur prickled) there was no noise. Her door was creaky and the floorboards weren’t exactly quiet either. Even Tevlen, light footed as a mouse, couldn’t avoid making some noise when he entered her room. Had her intruder been trained to a higher level than even herself and Tevlen? That didn't bear thinking about.

She kept her body stubbornly relaxed, eyes closed but not pinched, breathing even. If one looked closely they might be able to tell that Skyla was conscious but she hoped the intruder was not so stupid as to risk 'waking' her up just to check she was truly out of it. 

She just had to keep an ear out for what they chose to steal this time.

…

…

…

She heard nothing.

Had she been noticed? Or was the intruder just… watching her sleep? Somehow that thought was even worse. If something didn't happen soon she was gonna snap and attack-

Something moved under her pillow.

Not on it.

Under it. 

Like some creature had slipped under it.

She kept still. Biding her time. Waiting for the intruder to make their next move.

Under her cheek she felt something being pulled from underneath her. Not the pillow. Not the thing in her room.

No.

It was trying to steal her book.

That was the final straw.

With the speed of a striking viper, one paw slipped under her pillow and pinned the book to the sheets. The other was used to push herself up sharply. Her lips pulled back in a snarl. Teeth snapped, seeking flesh.

But they never met any.

Instead they snapped together with an audible noise. The air felt warm, as if she had attempted to bite a ray of sunlight - which was impossible given that this was in the middle of the Gloomy Forest and it was the dead of night. Her eyes flew open.

It was brighter than she had anticipated - so bright it was as if the source was right in her face. With a growl she shut her eyes once more, pulling away and taking her book with her. She overestimated the distance she had to work with and her back slammed loudly into the wall that barricaded her bed. A low hiss of pain escaped through gritted teeth as slowly she regained her calm and senses.

She opened her eyes.

Skyla wasn't really sure what she expected to see. Maybe a normal Kamishiba, maybe a Pocket - shit maybe even a Shourinokobi like Tev. But what she got was a whole different brand of weird.

They were a Kamishiba, Skyla could tell that much. But they were not normal by any definition of the word.

For starters Skyla could see straight through them. As if they were made of glass. Feathers decorated their legs and back of their neck, with a fan of feathers replacing the typical tuft of long fur at the end of the tail. Their fur (was it even still fur? Made of light as it were) was primarily a pale grey, cut through with dark stripes. Their eyes were… haunting. No pupil, no iris. Just pure white staring out. Staring at her. 

What the fuck?

Remembering her senses finally, Skyla flexed her claws, bared her teeth, and lowly growled.

"Who the fuck are you?"

The apparition blinked. Their head tilted to one side. Visible confusion crossed their face.

"You can see me?"

 Anger flashed across Skyla's vision. Was this fucker serious?

"Yeah, I can fuckin' see ya." She snarled as she pulled herself up, squaring her shoulders. "Who the fuck are you?"

She got no answer. The Kamishiba wandered away, walking to the other side of the room. Anger grew to rage. 

"Don't turn your back on me!" 

Admittedly, in the heat of the moment, Skyla wasn't thinking as much as she probably should have been. As the fire of anger raced through her, Skyla lunged towards the intruder. Anyone not caught in the waves of wrath might have had the foresight to see that a semi-translucent being was not going to be the best target to attack.

It was almost comically predictable how her paws passed through the other. Warmth slipped between her toes as she fell.

She hit the floor with an echoing THUD! Pain raced her chest and spine. She was barely able to suppress a groan of pain. Above her she was faintly aware that the intruder was amused by her failings. A growl built in her throat and she was prepared to give a piece of her mind.

When - thanks to her position close to the floor - she heard the unmistakable patter are paws heading towards her room. Skyla barely had time to gather her wits before her door was thrown open.

"Skyla!" Tevlen called out.

He sounded out of breath, as if he had ran all the way. But she had not heard the heavy thuds of sprinting paws.

… Then again, Tevlen's room was on the other side of the mansion and he had got to her's surprisingly quick. 

"Are you okay?" He asked, knocking her from her thoughts.

Right she was still laying on the floor where she fell. His bright eyes darted around the room, seemingly random and sporadic but Skyla knew better. He was searching for an attacker.

Her blood ran cold as his eyes passed over the intruder without a reaction - as if the damn Kamishiba wasn't there! Was she losing her goddamn mind?

"What happened?" Asked Tevlen, his muscles tense even with his relaxed posture.

 "..."

Skyla glanced briefly at the intruder, who had by now turned their attention to Tevlen. There was something… melancholic in their expression.

"... I tripped." She finally answered.

Ignoring the intruder's snigger was difficult, especially combined with Tevlen's skeptical look.

"You tripped?" He repeated slowly.

"You as dense as you are ugly?" Skyla snapped back as she got herself to her paws. "I'm fucking exhausted and so I tripped, big deal."

Despite her harsh, biting words, Tevlen smiled and gently shook his head.

"Well, at least you are okay." He said. "Try and get some sleep, lass. Wouldn't want to trip again now."

His laugh echoed down the hall as he quickly retreated, chased by Skyla's shouted curse.

Only once she could no longer hear his laugh or footfall did she finally turn back to the intruder. An unreadable look was plastered on their face. Yet Skyla could still detect the same sorrow and regret from their earlier expression. 

But that didn't matter, she needed answers.

"What the fuck was that?" She hissed, careful to keep her voice low lest she invite more unwanted visitors. "He didn't even see you."

The stranger scoffed, turning away from Skyla and moving towards her small window where the moon shined through. Able to see the moon through the ghostly visage of the other Kamishiba. It hung in the sky, in the centre of her forehead - almost like a third eye.

"He can't see me." The intruder finally responded. "No one has been able to see me for years."

"How is that possible?"

The other Kamishiba hesitated in her answer. They could've been thinking up any excuse or deflection - Skyla knows that fact intimately - but she doubted that was the case. It seemed far more likely to her that this was the first time the other had ever addressed this question.

"I am… not sure." They shook their head as they turned back to face Skyla. "Perhaps it is some kind of curse. Perhaps that is just the nature of ghosts."

Ghosts? Yeah right. Skyla scoffed quietly to herself. She had seen a lot of bizarre things in her life, many things that weren't physically possible. But ghosts? Yeah she was drawing the line there. There was only so much nonsense she could believe. Something else was at work here.

"I can see you doubt me." The intruder interrupted her thoughts. "Believe me, I once felt the same as you. But when the evidence is part of your… existence forever, you can't deny it any longer."

They walked towards the door - now shut after Tevlen's departure. A backwards glance was not spared to Skyla. Not that it mattered, she could see her expression through the back of her head - creators, wasn't that disturbing. It was neither smug nor melancholic. Their expression was simply… resigned.

Their voice once more brought her into the present moment.

"Ask Tevlen about Artemis." 

With those parting words, the other Kamishiba slipped from her room. Walking quite literally through her door.

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