The forest clearing was bathed in the soft glow of lanterns, a large bonfire cracked at the center, some students gathered around it with blankets wrapped around their shoulders and half-cooked marshmallows skewered on twigs.
Tents were scattered messily across the field, some barely standing like the one he'd sleep in tonight. Shadows danced around faces and every gust of wind had everyone on edge.
Laughter echoed around him, few genuine, others forced. The forest felt alive, the occasional hoot of an owl hidden in the darkness punctuated this fact.
"There are no bears in this part of the forest, you should keep those tasers away!"
"You can never be too sure. They're pretty handy..."
"Just be careful okay?"
Distant shouts from a camp interrupted their scary story. Based on true-life horror tales.
Somehow, He—Seven had found himself in the midst of the last people he wanted to be around. His fault—he had failed them.
They didn't seem to care, which baffled him. More times than once this evening, he searched their faces, waiting for their mask to slip, but there was nothing.
And where he sat, he had no idea how to feel about it.
"Seven your turn!" He heard his name being called and immediately, he disapproved...
"I'll pass," he said politely, giving a small smile.
"Common man!" Dice lowered his voice and whispered:
"Bet you have some interesting stories from your past." He winked.
Still uncomfortable, he shook his head slowly only to be attacked by a barrage of pleas:
"You have to open up sometimes...
"What about the story about how you found out you were clairvoyant
"I thought I was going crazy..."
"I was exorcised twice!"
"I was tied on a stake!"
"You must have kicked some transparent behinds, I know I did..."
"Everything is not about you, let him speak!"
The idea didn't sound so bad once they all kept quiet and looked at him expectantly. With a particular scene coming to his mind, he ghosted a smile...
---
"Run faster!" Zephyr shouted, running through the dark path frantically and occasionally looking back.
The sight of his accomplice gave him the motivation to continue, but the encroaching darkness behind them that they couldn't seem to lose dissipated it as quickly as it came. The thud in his bones only convinced him to run faster.
"What was that?! You could have killed us?!" Seven screamed following Zephyr closely.
He watched his fast retreating figure. His dark long hair dancing in the wind encouraged the adrenaline coursing through his veins to increase their effort.
Rushing through the dark pathways of the abandoned industry and stepping on puddles without stopping, beads of sweat fell freely from their faces leaving remnants that were dried with the cold wind against their face.
They zipped through corners with everything around them turning a blur...
The faster one—Zephyr, like the starless night sky, seemed to be moving on invincible platforms in short speed boosts. Looking closely, one could see that his feet weren't touching the ground.
Seven, however, with his disheveled white hair, had an exasperated expression on his face as he tried his best to keep up.
A sharp pain constantly shot at his ankle, and his legs threatened to give in, but unfortunately, stopping wasn't an option. Pushing himself off the walls, his lungs burned but he persevered.
With a chain-linked gate drawing close to his view, his face grew paler as he saw the man with long black hair fly over the fence like it was nothing.
With his heartbeat already escalated, he tightened his heart and braced himself to do the same.
Getting to it, he grabbed onto a space after an intersection, and using all the strength he could muster, he lifted his weight and threw himself over.
Waiting for him beyond the fence was the Zephyr, his chest was heaving up and down. He bent over with his hands on his knees preventing himself from falling over.
"I could see ghosts, but that doesn't mean I could phase through spiritual attacks; what were you thinking setting me up like this?"
Seven complained, taking pauses in between to leave enough oxygen for his lungs, which were almost blue with suffocation.
Unable to get words out, Zephyr just shut his eyes in an attempt to ignore the heated gaze he was getting from the sidelines.
"You almost killed me. Just because you can't be killed again doesn't make it alright to put my life at stake. Why won't you just move on to the afterlife?" He spat coldly, whispering to himself.
"If you invested this much energy, you could have killed that wraith you ungrateful brat!"
Zephyr spat back, the sweat on his face almost forming a puddle beneath him.
"You dare infiltrate and disrupt my peace. The audacity!" An extremely disturbing voice that sounded rotten filled the air, startling the two stupidly tired men.
With nowhere else to run or hide, they stared at the glowing eyes of an old woman who was dressed in an ancient rotten robe with sparse white hair and close to zero teeth on her yellowish gums.
Her glowing eyes intensified and blinded the scene...
---
Seven concluded his story, his face lowered and his tone low.
"Turns out, she just wanted us to help her with some unfinished business. The jump scare wasn't necessary but she looked like she knew what she was doing..."
He concluded, raising his head to find the team watching him with their mouths agape:
"Of course, she knew what she was doing, she's a Lost!"
Seven was confused...
"From what you described, you encountered a Lost and didn't lose!" Dice said, chuckling disbelievingly and sarcastically.
"Lost?"
"You know a border demon...tied to a place kind of ghost. It could be mistaken for a form, but in reality, they're just extremely old ghosts, corporeal, short-tempered, and just spend of their time slumbering..."
"I have never heard of such before..." Seven said honestly, feeling he was in for a good lecture soon.
"Then you probably don't know Seven Tiers of Corrupted Ghosts"
Shaking his head, he heard someone clear their throat.
Turning towards a rather dark corner of the camp, he saw Zed slowly put away his headphones. She always had that on and he knew why. She barely talked only when necessary.
And currently, it looked like she was going to be his teacher this evening.
Her voice stern and cold as usual, she began:
"Seven tiers: Echoes: Residual emotions of dead people, harmless, non-sentient, usually tied to places and caught repeating certain actions endlessly like screeching of nails against a board every 3am in Class 6E."
Seven listened attentively, raising an eyebrow which everyone nodded in response.
'Past case, got it!'
"The shadows: Sentient, relatively harmful, cause minor disturbances and can appear in dreams."
"Then we have The mourners," Priscilla interrupted, earning a glare from Zed.
"Do you want to bore him to death?" she asked and focusing on Seven, she continued:
"As the name implies, mourners are very much aware they are dead. They are well known for their anger issues and tantrums. Slamming doors, moving objects...they retain human emotions, just sadness, and longing though"
'Jason's evil equivalent I see..."
"My turn!" Cordis said drawing closer so the bonfire reflected clearly through her amber eyes.
"Lurkers! You'd hardly find these. They love the dark, stalk people, and cause paranoia. Very similar to Vengeants, but less dangerous. Vengeants are capable of possessions, very demon-like because they can imitate voices and appear as loved ones..."
Her voice trailed off, the atmosphere turning a little somber.
"We suspect that this is Dancing Phantom's tier, but clearly, he possessed more strength and powers, bringing us to the next tier, Wraiths. Extremely dangerous but it doesn't come close to The Lost."
"They are independent ghosts, corporeal and very independent. We have never encountered one and just heard stories from the master. We treated them as myths because of his exaggerated their strength was, their will distorting nature itself. Good thing they were pretty territorial"
"Each ghost starts from an Echo and as far as we know, their evolution ends in the Lists. They feed on fear, life force, and soul essence to evolve. Elias was already a wraith, albeit a low-level one else. You wouldn't have survived that tussle."
"Of all the tiers, the Lost can either be good or bad. Fortunately, the one you encountered was nice. We've heard of her before. The last priestess of an Egypt temple dating BC. Honestly speaking, it just shows his much grace you have."
Looking around, Cordis smiled and added...
"And we could use such lucky charm. What do you say Seven? Please be a part of us?"
Under the weight of their gazes, he sighed and nodded slowly, doubts weighing on his soul.