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"Aren't you even the slightest bit suspicious?" Mary Priscilla asked darkly. "An entire town popping out of nowhere, and that doesn't make you think something weird could be going on?"
"I used to be a human being who could see ghosts," I reminded her tartly, "and I'm now a goddess. Is there anything about my life that's not weird?" I could see Mary Priscilla starting to waver, and I pounced on this, adding emphatically, "There's absolutely nothing to worry about, and you know it.
This is a town full of ghosts, and since I'm LOTUS, none of them can hurt me."
"I guess." Mary Priscilla's tone was grudging, and I didn't hesitate to pounce on this even more.
"Five minutes then," I bargained. "We're not doing fifteen but just five minutes. Let's just take a quick look, and then we leave. Do we have a new deal?"
Several moments passed, and then the eight-year-old ghost finally sighed like she was the mature adult between us. Quite insulting really, but since I did manage to get my way...
Mary Priscilla and I started floating down the road, and it was rather delightful to have everyone nod and smile at us like being in a Chinatown full of ghosts was completely natural.
When we turned to the next block, an even busier-looking night market greeted us, and it was then I spotted something shiny and sparkling.
A silver coin seemed to be winking at me from the edge of the road, and I had a hard time taking my gaze off it. A part of me was just waiting for some other ghost to pick it up, but all the other specters simply glided and floated past like the shiny little thing was invisible.
It was almost as if the coin was for me, and well...maybe it was?
"Where are you going?" I heard Mary Priscilla ask from behind.
"Stop acting like my nanny."
"Then stop acting like a kid that needs a nanny."
I kinda knew she'd say that, but...whatever. I continued floating towards the opposite side of the road, my gaze still glued to the shiny object that was just begging for me to possess it.
"Where are you going?" the brat asked again as she caught up.
"Just a moment..." I bent down, and as soon as my fingers came into contact with the coin's smooth, rounded surface, a strange sense of darkness seemed to swarm around me—-
My gaze jerked up, but all I saw were the same lantern-strewn skies I had glimpsed earlier.
Huh.
It did seem like I had imagined things, but at the same time I couldn't shake off the feeling that I hadn't imagined anything at all.
I showed Mary Priscilla my lucky little find. "It was practically begging me to pick it up—-"
"Don't you think it looks a little too new?"
I rolled my eyes. "Of course you would still find something to question about. It's just a coin—-" The left pocket of my dress suddenly started vibrating, and since it was my private ringtone for Hadrian playing out, I quickly got my phone out and answered the call. "Guess what?"
"Listen, my love," Hadrian began at the same time.
"There's this new Chinatown in Portland," I told him cheerfully.
"I've just gotten a report about a new portal to another realm opening up—-"
"And as if that's not exciting enough, I also spotted a silver coin—-"
"These portals are only visible to those whose lives have been touched by magic, and it's best to play it safe and avoid them," Hadrian went on to caution.
"So of course I picked it up, like duh."
"If you make the mistake of touching any object that belongs to that realm—-"
"Finders keepers, losers weepers—-"
"You could end up trapped in another realm with no way back," Hadrian finished grimly at the same time.
There was a second of silence, and it was then and only then did his words finally dawn on me.
New realm...touch any object...trapped?
"Saoirse?" The tightness of Hadrian's tone made me gulp.
"Um...yeah?"
"Please tell me what I'm thinking is wrong, my love."
I gulped again. "Well, um..."
"Saoirse." Hadrian's voice was pained.
"It was a really shiny coin," I said weakly. "But I guess I could always drop it back—-"
"Don't—-" Hadrian seemed to say something else, but his voice had already started to fade, and I could barely hear a thing.
"Hadrian? Hello?"
With my phone still pressed against my ear, I turned to Mary Priscilla, intending to tell her we needed to leave, like a.s.a.f.p., but—-
Shit.
Mary Priscilla was also starting to fade right before my very eyes.
Shiiiiiiit.
And then she was gone, the world lost its color, and I was all on my own.
Chapter Six
It was like suddenly finding myself in Twilight Zone. Rod Serling's version, and not Jordan Peele's. Everything around me had become silent and empty. The crowds were gone, and with it so had all the colors. Everything here was black and white, and it was so unbelievably surreal, to look down at my hands and not see the actual color of my flesh.
