Page 7 of Ghosts and Ginger Tea

We made sure mother was as comfortable as she could be, though her sickness made that nearly impossible. We left ginger tea and other comforts by mother’s bedside, then closed the door to our little one-room shack behind us and sprinted down the path.

I don’t know how long we followed the moonlit path, cutting through the forest here and there, sweat pouring down our foreheads. I held the lantern to keep the path lit, hoping that the firelight would deter, well… them.

But I knew better. They were carrying their own lights the last time I saw them. How could I expect them to stay away from my light?

Everything seemed to go smoothly… too smoothly. Kiki did not miss a beat as she ran behind me when, normally, she lagged. She had never been the outdoors type, and even when father tried to teach her how to spearfish, she nearly drowned only a few feet from shore.

Kiki spent her days at home. She would make a great homemaker and mother; there was no doubt in my mind about it.

But homemaking was the farthest thing from my mind at the moment. All I could think about was getting to the kahuna’s shack for medicine as fast as possible. As we reached the path where I had encountered the night marchers the first time, my hair stood on end.

They’re not coming for you, I told myself over and over, though this road was an ala hele. People would come and go down this path all the time. Surely we’d bump into another human soul, and we would laugh to ourselves at the fear pulsing through our veins.

But it was night. People weren’t out at night…

“Oli?” Kiki froze behind me, grabbing my arm. I gasped as my momentum almost made me trip.

I turned to chastise her when I realized why she stood still. In the distance, the pounding of a drum sounded.

It’s just my heartbeat, I thought. I was breathless from our sprint, realizing it wasn’t my heart. There really was a noise in the night.

The sound of the conch shell filled the air.

“We have to run–” I said, when Kiki’s fingers dug into my arm.

“Oli… too… late…” Her voice was hoarse as she pointed to the path behind me.

I looked back and all the blood drained from my face. It left my body, for all I knew.

Something–no, someone–was approaching us. Unlike the last time, when there were multiple lights bobbing in the distance and a group of specters marching towards me, there was only one person coming forward.

My hair stood on end. My toes curled. Every inch of my skin prickled, as if I were getting poked by a hundred sea urchins.

But before I could take a step, uprooting us from our place, a voice sounded. “Don’t move!”

Frozen and speechless, I stood there. The voice was confident, deep, and intimidating all at the same time. My legs were shaking like leaves in the wind beneath my dress as I held up the lantern, revealing the specter.

“You must be Oliana.” The night marcher stopped several feet in front of me, and iciness seeped into every muscle of my body, causing my bones to feel as though they were rattling against one another. How did he know my name? This solidified the truth that the night marchers, indeed, had been looking for me.

The man held up his torch to illuminate my face. I knew I shouldn’t be looking at him, but I couldn’t stop staring.

Every part of him was terrifying and so unearthly. He truly was something not of this world. With a surprisingly young face and toned physique, he was tall, much taller than me. Also probably not more than a couple of years older than me. His dark hair was effortlessly tousled, and he wore a lavalava around his waist, leaving his chest bare. A strap fastened around his waist, and a leiomano hung from it. The shark teeth surrounding the long wooden weapon looked unnaturally sharp.

A traditional feathered cape sat on his shoulders, tied at the front with a whale's tooth. Tribal tattoos covered his muscled chest and arms, signifying what tribe and ancestry he came from, though I knew nothing about symbols or any of that.

If I had been born into royalty, I would have been able to recognize his tattoos and identify exactly who this man was, what island and kingdom he came from, and from what generation he hailed. Was he hundreds of years old? I would never know. I was not royalty. But did it matter?

I was just a drunken fisherman’s daughter. And I was terrified.

His transparency spooked me most. His entire body was a grayish color and somewhat see-through, as if I could put my hand through him and it would go through thin air. A faint light illuminated his body too, as if there were a dim luminescence about him.

But even more unsettling were his eyes. His eyes glowed as golden as the sun during a deliciously ripe sunset. Not that I was admiring them while also feeling absolutely petrified.

“You’re coming with me.” He smiled a dazzling smile, then reached forward. Just as he was about to grab my wrist, my instincts kicked in. I stumbled back, realizing that Kiki had prostrated herself on the ground with her eyes shut tight.

“Oli!” she screamed, hearing my boots crunch on the path and a gasp escaping my mouth.

The man frowned. “We don’t have all night.” He stepped again towards me.