[?]

I was hidden, watching carefully as Akhet turned a page of the book. Her eyes followed the words on the page, intent enough to not notice me within a bookshelf behind her. Aiko stood next to her, her chin on the wooden desk top as she watched Akhet reading.

"Thwis is bworing," Aiko huffed. She yawned, seeing the sunlight out the window behind her. "Don't we have to gwo to sweep?"

Akhet glanced at her, saying something I couldn't hear.

"Bwut I want you to sweep, too!" Aiko frowned. "It will make you feew bwetter!"

Cute how she cares.

Akhet silently sighed, seeming to say an exhorted "alright" through her eyes as she stood and walked with the now happier Aiko to the exit of the small library.

Once I was sure she was gone I slipped from my hiding place, slowly walking towards the spirit-form book laid open on the table. The language was ancient, unreadable, but I found myself easily able to decipher every word.

Odd, but Akhet could read it as well, so it's probably normal.

I noted the page she was already on and began skimming each page, flipping through the book until I landed on one with a red pentagram drawn in ink under the title. "Ritualism," it read.

I didn't hesitate. I grabbed the two pages with writing and tore them out aggressively. I crumpled the two sheets together in my hands, the plasma material dissolving and merging into my palms. Quickly I flipped the pages back to where they were, phasing through one of the fat walls as Akhet returned through the doorway.

I smirked to myself as I drifted back to my room.

They think they can get rid of me.

They're gonna have to try harder than that.

-=+=-

[Gradient]

My head pounded with a vengeance when I awoke the next night.

I groaned as I sat up, rubbing my forehead as I looked around the moonlit room. The moon was waning now, but it was still close to its fullest.

Not having the will to get up with the headache I felt, I flopped backwards onto the pillow. I couldn't feel it, and it didn't cave to my head's weight, which was weird, but I didn't have to strain my neck to hold up my head, either. There was something solid, but it's like it was air.

Being a ghost is weird.

I exhaled, raising one of my hands to my vision. Grey and normal, as usual. I couldn't help but remember the state they were in last night, black and jagged with sharp claws protruding from the ends. A shiver ran down my spine as the nightmare I'd had returned to mind, that "evil" version of me leaving me to bleed in the dark void. Something's felt... missing since then. Like a piece of me was lost, corrupted by... something.

But that feeling, that feeling... the pure joy I'd felt during the full moon, when I'd taken a life and... I don't know how to describe it.

Consumed it. The word popped to mind as the blank I drew ended. A small smile formed on my face. Yes, consumed. That fits quite well. And I loved it.

Maybe I could try it again...

I shook my head, my smile fading. What are you thinking, Gradient? You can't do that again! You murdered someone. That's not good!

It's not like anyone's gonna know... you're a ghost now, not like you can get in trouble for it.

The thought drew my worries away, the smile on my face returning.

The headache was dulling - maybe I had just needed to get my thoughts moving. Feeling much better than before, I sat up and stood, stretching and walking casually out the door with my hands in my pockets.

-=+=-

[Akhet]

I searched around for Gradient until I found him sitting on the couch in the living room. It seems he must've taken a book from the library while I was looking for him, for he was reading it cross-legged on the sofa. He seemed pretty distracted by the story, however didn't seem to jump when I tapped him on the shoulder. He looked away from the book - I recognized it to be Scythe by Neal Shusterman, a book I'd read as well before. I found it odd that he was reading, to be honest, for he never struck me as the literature type.

I tried to say something, but was immediately met by that translucent, black crystalline wall that blocked me from his mind. I saw nothing through it but darkness and... I didn't even know. What I could see was distorted and murky, too difficult to see to make out.

I sighed silently, looking around before motioning a quick "hold on" to Gradient as I floated up the stairs and quickly ran to the library. Sure enough, there were some old scraps of paper and some dull pencils in the drawers. Swiftly I managed to teleport myself back downstairs in front of Gradient and scribble a note on the paper.

I didn't know how to start, so I took a casual approach.

Found something interesting?

Gradient tilted his head as he read the note, then looked at me with a small shrug.

"Kinda. Just picked this up, thought it seemed cool." He quickly dog-eared one of the pages (to which I bit back my annoyance, for it was one of my own pet-peeves) as he placed it on the coffee table and fully turned around to me. "What's up?"

I gave a soundless exhale as I wrote something else down. Look. I don't know what's going on here, but I'm getting the suspicion that... you aren't normal.

He chuckled as he read it. "Well, normal's a pretty vague term, what's that supposed to mean?"

He's definitely acting differently than when he first arrived, I thought, noting his more sarcastic responses instead of his usual curious or friendly energy.

I wrote, Well, how do I put this... I think there's something "wrong" with how you got here.

He still seemed skeptical at what I was saying. "I seriously have no idea what you're talking about."

With an eye roll I wrote again, You're not a yudae like the rest of us. My theory is that you're a... different kind, if that makes sense. I've heard about them, and encountered one before.

The last sentence I wrote brought back a memory in the back of my mind, an image of a magenta and black figure standing over a corpse. A shudder running down my spine as I recalled the scene perfectly, then quickly shut it out as I turned the paper for Gradient to see.

"Okay..." he read the paper. "Go on."

From what I know, they're called ritualistics. Ritualistic ghosts are named after the ritual that brings them forcefully into Limbo, and they have strange, foreign urges to change into their "killing state" and mass-murder everyone in their path through their ability of soul consumption. It's like an addiction, they don't know what's bad about what they do. And if you're like that...

I inhaled as I wrote the last sentence.

Then you're a danger to us.

Gradient read over the paragraph I gave to him, seeming in thought as he read it over thoroughly. I felt Xyan's and Praxus's presence appear behind me, as they'd seen us here probably while also searching for Gradient (I cursed myself for not getting them before I started this conversation). Gradient took no visible note of them, even as he looked up from the paper.

"Well, I could just... not go into this 'killing state' you're talking about," Gradient shrugged. He seemed very nonchalant about the topic I thought originally would freak him out.

It doesn't work like that! I wrote angrily. The urges pass over to your normal state after you've transformed once. If that's what you did last night, it's only a matter of time before your soul is completely corrupted!

"Hey, hey, calm down!" Gradient said with a light chuckle as he saw my aggressive hand movements. I rolled my eyes again and handed him the paper, which he this time only skimmed over before turning back to me and saying, "Look, I think I can get whatever this ritualistic crap is under control, okay? No need to worry, I don't want to kill you guys!"

Xyan spoke up now. "Gradient, this is not a joke, unlike how you seem to be treating it. You need to see the problem here!"

"I see the problem just fine." His voice was steady and without anger.

Xyan sighed. "Okay. Okay. But you have to promise me - promise all of us - that you won't turn around and kill us all any chance you get."

Gradient smiled, raising his left hand about head-height and tracing an X-shape over his chest as he said simply,

"Cross my heart and hope to die."

Considering he was already dead, I found the statement a little suspicious, but Xyan seemed mostly satisfied, as did Praxus. I gave my tail a lash, staring him in the eye for a moment. His expression never changed, a hint of a smile that made him seem almost smug. I exhaled, averting his gaze after one last, cold glare and walking off to find Aiko.

-=+=-

"Okay, that could've gone worse."

Xyan, Praxus and I stood around the corner now, Aiko by my side as I'd found her in the kitchen. Gradient was invested back in his book, so hopefully he wasn't snooping in.

"Well, what else do you want me to do?" I said to him, relieved to use my telepathy again. "Someone- and I could probably guess who-" I took a small glance in Gradient's direction, "Tore up the useful information. It's gone and I don't know how to get it back."

"A bit of an inconvenience," Praxus muttered, thinking aloud, I knew. His tail flicked in annoyance.

"There's gotta be something else in there," Xyan said.

I sighed in exasperation. "Okay. I can check again, but I've read that book cover to cover a hundred times in the past forty years. I'm not certain if there's anything that could help us there."

"But we have to try, right?"

The memory came back again, this time accompanied by a face - a black-toothed grin on a psychotic, gleeful face.

"Come join the fun, why don't you~?"

I shook the thought away.

"Right. We have to try."

-=+=-

"How's he doing?"

"Well, from what I could gather."

"Great. I assume those murders reported were his doing from the path he took, so he's transformed at least once by now."

"Good. At least he's doing the job properly. And he knows nothing?"

"Correct."

"Just what I thought. Maybe this could actually work."

"Hey. I believe in you. You've come a long way, and now look where you are!"

"Thanks. Now let's get back to it."

"Of course."

-

Akhet lore whawha???

Shorter than the other chapters, but I tried. And this is what we got :D

1854 words