Ghost of a Chance

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Blake had been honing his talent for a decade and a half, so he entered the spirit plane in an obscuring, rolling fog. It had taken a lot of practice and focus, but the momentary disorientation of the miasma was infinitely preferable to waking in a familiar place. The spirit plane was a shadow of the mortal one. Familiar would make him want to linger, and that would make his job a hundred times harder.

It took only a minute or two for Blake to remember why he was there. Part of his gift was to not only be aware on the spirit plane, but to direct his movements and intentions. Most spirits didn’t have a choice, and those who got stuck had even less. The majority of spirits moved on as they should, though sometimes it took a bit to manage it. The ones who couldn’t were the ones ghostwalkers sought to help. It was the sole reason his job existed.

As Blake focused, the fog rolled away and he found himself near the playground Shona had included in her report. It was a cheery, sunny day, and though the equipment moved as though it were being used, the place was deserted. At one time Blake would have thought it creepy and disconcerting. But he’d seen so much in his travels that not a lot affected him anymore.

He walked closer and searched until his gaze landed on the little redhead from the file. She was clearly scared. Her blue eyes brimmed with tears and her cheeks were stained with salt. She hugged herself as she turned her head, clearly searching for something—her parents, probably.

Emily was not the first child Blake had had to help cross over.

He approached the toddler carefully. He didn’t want her to find him threatening in any way. The best-case scenario would be that she was open to his offer of help and would follow when he tried to lead her on. Blake knew things rarely went as planned, but he held out hope.

Emily watched him warily, and Blake stopped a few feet away. He gave her his best and brightest smile, and when she didn’t scream, he took it as a good sign. He crouched to get down on her level. She continued to watch him as tears ran down her cheeks, but she didn’t move.

“Are you Emily?”

She stared at him with wide blue eyes, and after the longest moment, she gave a tiny nod.

So far so good.

“Are you lost, Emily?” Blake used her name on purpose, reminding her who she was in life. Sometimes spirits forgot—especially the little ones who didn’t have the benefit of experience to ground them. He needed to keep her in the here and now, such as it was, if he were going to help her cross over.

The girl said nothing at all. Blake noticed her tears had stopped, but he didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. With some kids it meant they were open and listening. With others it meant a tantrum of epic proportions was about to go down. Though Blake had read Emily’s file, he wasn’t sure which kind of child she was. He decided to take a different tack.

The ground was covered with sand to make it softer for the kids as they ran around, tripped and fell, or jumped off the playground equipment. Blake sat down and molded it into a hill while he kept track of Emily out of the corner of his eye.

“It’s gotta be a little scary out here without your mommy and daddy, huh?” Blake chanced a quick glance and found Emily staring at him intently. Good. He went back to playing with the sand. “If you want, I can show you a better place to wait for them.”

Blake didn’t like lying, and he especially didn’t want to do it with spirits. Even though Emily was just a child and she wouldn’t know the difference, he wasn’t about to lie to her and tell her he would take her to them. That was a potentially disastrous situation.

Emily was interested in what he had to say. She stopped hugging herself so tightly and she stepped forward, closer to him. Blake was pleased with the progress. He made his sand pile even higher and smoothed the sides.

“What do you think, Emily? How’s that sound? I’ll show you where you can wait. It’s nice there. And your mommy and daddy will be along soon.” Not a lie. Time moved differently in the spirit realm, and “soon” was relative.

Blake watched as the flashing lights on Emily’s sneakers got closer and closer. She stopped just a foot away. Slowly he rolled onto his knees and looked around. After a moment he spotted what he was looking for. On the far side of the playground, just past the merry-go-round, was an indistinct area of bright light. Perfect.

As Blake reached out, Emily backtracked, and her eyes went wide. Blake immediately dropped back down onto the sand. If she wasn’t quite ready yet, then Blake couldn’t force her. He went back to playing with the sand, glancing up every few seconds to see Emily watching him.

“What’s your favorite thing here?” He asked softly.

It took her a long moment to answer, and then all she did was point. Blake looked up and followed the direction of her chubby finger.

“The slide? Me, too. That’s fun.” Blake scooped up some more sand, added it to his pile, and smoothed it down. “Do you want to play?”

Emily considered him and then took off across the ground. While Blake watched, she climbed the long ladder, took an infinitely long time adjusting herself, and slid down. She gave a shout of joyous laughter as she zoomed down, and Blake grinned.

As soon as Emily landed, she ran around to the ladder again. Blake kept an eye on her as he molded his sand into something resembling a castle. Again and again, Emily slid down, laughing every time. Blake called encouragement to her to let her know she was doing a good job.

Eventually she got tired of the slide. Even as a spirit, she had the attention span of a three-year-old. Blake was relieved when she came over to inspect his sandcastle. Even more so when she sat down in front of him.

“Want to help?”

“Yes,” she shouted. She immediately scooped sand into her chubby hands and plopped it on top of the flat cube he’d created. Silently Blake shaped one of the new mounds into a turret, and Emily clumsily copied his motions. Her little face was screwed up in concentration, and Blake grinned.

He let that go on for a few minutes and then faked a yawn. “Man, I’m getting tired.”

Emily blinked up at him and nodded.

It was exactly what Blake wanted. If she was finally comfortable with him, she’d let him lead her. He brushed off his hands, and when he rolled to his knees, Emily stood up and looked at him expectantly.

He held out his hand again, and she slipped her tiny hand into his. Blake would have sighed in relief if he had any breath to do it. Instead he carefully stood and walked toward that patch of light. Emily went with him, but as they got closer to the light, she dragged her feet.

Blake should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.

“Okay, Emily,” he said gently as he slowed down but didn’t stop. “I know it’s a little weird looking, right?”

She nodded and whispered, “Scawy.”

“Yeah.” Blake nodded. “I get that. But you know what? I promise you, it’s nice there. Warm and comfy. You’ll be happy, and then your mommy and daddy will come along, and they’ll be so happy to see you. They love you a lot!”

Emily gave him a tiny smile and a quick bob of her head. She needed a little nudging, but after a tentative step and then another, she crossed through the light and was gone.

Blake relaxed. It was easier than he expected, and it was a relief the little girl was finally on her way. No more lingering in the in between. That was no place for any spirit, let alone a child.

But the job was done, and it was time for him to head back to the mortal plane. Blake felt the tension again as he made his way to headquarters. This was it. When he got back, Derek would see what a hot mess he was, and then he’d ask for reassignment. Even knowing Derek had the gene, Blake couldn’t see how a man like him would want to deal with Blake in the state he was in when he came back. No amount of training could prepare an anchor for Blake’s reaction.

Shona was in her office, just as Blake knew she would be. It was always easy for him to find her. She was a high-level medium, and her energy called to spirits. Perhaps their connection outside of the job helped as well. They were the same kind of person, with a slightly morbid sense of humor and a love of science fiction movies. They always sought each other out at work functions and occasionally hit up the movies or a late dinner together. And she never made him feel like he was interrupting when he showed up in her space, ready to come back. Technically he could let any of the mediums know, but there were a few who were harder to communicate with.

She was typing furiously on her laptop, so in order to catch her attention, he pushed her coffee cup closer to her. It took her a moment, but she looked up. She couldn’t actually see him, but she could feel him, and when she concentrated on him, he could usually get visuals or a few words across.

“Blake? That you?”

He couldn’t talk to her in the traditional sense, though they’d been working toward that. He just didn’t have enough power as a spirit to make it work. He was hopeful that one day he’d be able to have a conversation with her instead of having to resort to clues.

Of course, he hated her hideous paperweight and never lost an opportunity to tease her about it. It was a glass orb, and the colors that swirled through it mixed in the most unpleasant ways. He was pretty sure she’d made it herself, as she once mentioned taking a glassblowing class.

Blake grabbed the paperweight and slid it to the very edge of her desk, stopping when it was just about to go over. Shona squinted her dark eyes, though her gaze was focused on the back wall and not on him.

“It’s you. You freaking brat.” Her grumble was all good nature, and he laughed. He thought she must have heard it, because she grinned.

“Ready to come back?” She was already reaching for her phone.

Blake pushed the paperweight back onto the desk and shoved a pile of papers over, just to be the brat Shona had accused him of being. She laughed then, promising retribution of some sort, even as she hit the preprogrammed button on her phone.

“King? He’s ready. You can pull him back now.”

Blake left Shona’s office quickly and escaped back to the rolling fog he used when he entered the spirit realm. He braced himself mentally for the sensation of being sucked back into his body. He hated that part most of all. Hated. It was like throwing up. Backward. Through your own nose.

And it was awful.