Rule 17

Ghosts Are Invisible & Explore Everywhere

Statement: Some monsters are so nonsensical that even fighting them is a joke. Of course, these jokes are often deadly. Take the serpentine tube monster in the supermarket. It spit acid and left a pool behind when it died. There had been baby tubes that spawned from its innards.

Then there were monsters like this one. Just off from human. I remember reading an article—one which talked about the “uncanny valley”—how creatures that are lifelike and resemble to human can create an eerie feeling. Now imagine it’s a monster, and it wants to eat your heart.

It stood still. I also froze, afraid any aggressive action might break my stealth status. Tipping the tubes over hadn’t been enough but pulling out a knife and driving it into what should be an eye socket might be impossible.

Post Note: You may ask how I knew of my near invisible status. After being in my ogre form, then going back to normal, I could feel a difference between hidden me and visible me.

There was no breath. Its body jerked in quick motions that reminded me of horror show effects. I smiled and wondered how many orbs its dead body would reward.

Sniffing came from the generally featureless white head. The creature wore gloves, obscuring any sign of skin. It might have been a monster, or someone dressed in a Halloween costume.

My pulse quickened, partially from panic and borderline fright. That faded as I wondered if it could be killed. If so, maybe I could steal its movement abilities as a spell.

The lights flickered. Gas continued to distort my surroundings with greens and purples.

“I can feel your heat.” It sounded more like a hiss than proper words.

My heartbeat stuttered, and eyes bugged. The world continued to warp and twist. It felt like being on the best drugs money could buy then attending a soundless dance party. I fought the urge to bob in time to non-existent music.

“Where are you, ghost?” it whispered. “Where are you, sound in the silence?”

I was right in front of it, obviously. I wouldn’t need to steal from it, because any monster I’d looted from was normally dead first. These questions were stupid and the walls were pretty.

The air slowly cleared. I held still despite the swaying landscape and managed to keep an eye on the monster. It had no teeth. That bothered me most of all. Nearly every monster I’d fought had teeth. Gnashing, biting, rending chompers lining their misshapen mouths like garlands on a Christmas tree.

The gas had messed with my mind. I took short shallow breaths and refused to let my eyesight fool me. The walls still rolled as if creatures tunneled along under their metal framing. After a dozen breaths, the distortion lessened.

I continued to hold extremely still and fought fear with reason. The creature couldn’t see me. This was either because it had no eyes or couldn’t see through my stealth. No eyes hadn’t stopped a ton of monsters from attacking the others. It could be a combination of the two factors.

Post Note: Why then, could I hear the others, but they couldn’t hear me? It had to be related to entering separately, or my status as a sneak. I could have learned more if Little Shade had entered as well.

“Poison’s gone,” Callisto said.

“Yeah. Anything else?”

“These ones exploded too. No orbs,” Leon said. “What’s the deal with those creatures?”

“Allie?” Callisto passed the question over.

“I don’t know. Hold on. There’s someone in here with us,” Allegra muttered. “I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.”

The creature’s head tilted as it gazed around. It could likely hear the others. I had no reason to believe that my party’s voices were somehow for my ears only.

“Where?” Callisto asked.

“There, it’s almost still. There, strike that way!” Allegra gave a command. That threw me off.

A bright light lit the hallway. I ducked and sucked in a fresh bout of the poisonous air. My vision bubbled and the walls distorted in a wave as a sharp energy flew in a horizontal line above my head. Marks dug into the walls and a horrible metal on metal sound clawed at my ears.

The creature lifted its hands and darted away, fleeing a hair’s breadth ahead of the partially invisible attack unleashed by Callisto.

“It’s gone,” Allegra said. “Or at least, off my map.”

“How can it do that?” Callisto asked.

“It’s an ability. Hawthorn is”—Allegra paused and coughed—“was the same way. Whenever he was invisible I couldn’t see him on the map.”

“So, are we fighting an evil Hawthorn?” Leon asked.

Allegra rustled paper before answering. “Maybe? It’s something. This whole place is a trap of some kind. Maybe a hunting ground.”

I smiled. That sounded fun. The more I thought about it, the more exciting it was. This entire place was a series of traps for unsuspecting people. Though I hadn’t figured out how that narrow humanoid creature planned to kill. Clearly it could be hurt by Callisto’s moves. That probably meant other abilities could damage it.

“Hold on. I think. I think there…” Allegra trailed off. The silence reigned. I tilted my head, as if listening to the ceiling would help me hear their words with more clarity.

Post Note: It didn’t. Of course. Ceilings rarely have enlightenment to offer. Attics, on the other hand…

“What is it?” Callisto asked.

“I think someone else might be in here too,” the honey-voiced woman said.

The tone of their voices had never really registered before. Now that I had no interest in their bodies and could only hear them, the tones took on a new life. Allegra’s words matched her hair. Callisto had a roughness that reminded me of her unevenly cut hair.

“The ogre?” Leon’s voice floated by. It sounded so close I might be standing on top of him. That bothered me. He had a solid and thick tone. I wondered if those were influenced by the gas that had distorted my vision.

“No,” Allegra responded. “But look. Tracks.”

She must have been pointing down. There were piles of goo everywhere. Only that which had met with moss burned away into fog. I saw the green liquid, and in it were prints that had come from the monster’s distorted toes. They were longer than my own bare feet.

The cold metal flooring caused me to shiver.

Callisto continued, “And that mark, wasn’t there. It doesn’t match my sword strike. I’ve been keeping my attacks restricted to thrusts and downward slashes. This isn’t either of those.”

“These halls are too narrow,” Leon agreed.

I found the mark they were talking about it and knelt to study it. After a moment, I realized I held the star wrought dagger in my hands and had been tapping it against the wall.

Post Note: I certainly didn’t remember pulling the black spell from my book, forming the rune, and drawing the blade from my palm. I can only assume I summoned it out of instinct.

“Hear that?” Callisto asked. Her chain mail shuffled and there was a crisp ring.

I paused tapping and pondered. They could hear me as well as I could hear them. I didn’t like their disembodied voices. They hung in the air and held no clear direction. Our tight confined hallways caused the sounds to bounce. They’d ignored my footsteps but without shoes the sounds I made were muffled.

“Who’s there?” Callisto asked.

This put me at a crossroads. My voice might be rough from disuse. It had been a long time since I’d spoken to anyone besides Little Shade without a disguise. There was a minute chance Callisto would recognize me. That other monster had given me a name, and while I detested being labeled in any way, it could be useful, with a bit of personalization.

A G-H-S-T I etched. Some letters were harder than others. Placing them far enough apart should prevent the magic from shifting them. Lettering curves with a blade might have been easier as Hawthorn but I couldn’t bring myself to put that form on.

After a moment, Leon asked, “You both see that, right?”

There was a smack and Leon grunted in pain. I could only assume that one of the women had smacked him in his head. Likely Callisto. My body hunched in preparation to dodge any additional strikes.

“Those are dashes, right? Allie?” Callisto prompted her companion.

“It’s hard to tell. Like there’s someone there, but not. Another plane maybe? I’ve never seen this.” Paper rustled. “It’s not on my map. But maybe its got a high stealth. Invisibility maybe? Leon didn’t you say something about stealth skills and magical invisibility being different?”

“I’m not getting any stats either,” Leon added. “But if it’s like that mage who left us months ago, then yeah. They’d be different. Remember, we could sometimes see him when nothing was happening, but we couldn’t when he used spells.”

I had no idea what they were talking about. It was possible to infer the redhead as Little Shade. She’d been a strawberry sort of girl. Freckles and bright hair. The mage they spoke of didn’t ring a bell, though I’d seen one neurotic man buying spell book pages during the line forever ago. It might be possible these events were related, but their reaction to my presence mattered more than figuring out back stories.

“With enough levels, maybe it’s possible?” Leon said.

Callisto sighed. I knew that sigh better than anyone else’s. “So, you think it was a spell, and someone leveled it up really high, so much that they’re now invisible?”

“On another plane. Maybe,” Allegra prompted.

That fit well enough. We’d been killing monsters nonstop for a month. I’d murdered more than my fair share while the others rested between dungeons and sabotage runs. Stacks of yellow orbs had to be helping us somehow, like it did for my healing.

Post Note: Once again I wish this world had a manual. Why is it that I’d never noticed this sort of alternate reality as any other form? Do they manifest more abilities differently, like the explosive rune? Are they mutating based on how I use them? Why then, could I see this other figure?

I took stock again while they rambled about the same rogue and mage for a few minutes. Allegra constantly shuffled paper. Leon’s armor clanked. Callisto stopped and polished her sword with steady ringing noises as the whetstone rippled up and down. I’d attempted to figure out where she stored it but never learned. It seemed likely that the items she used to maintain her weapons came from her artifact somehow.

If I could summon wine flutes and nets, she could probably summon stone.

My legs felt better. I tapped idly against the wall with my knife tip. It would take a few more hours of being normal me, before the last of my wounds finally recovered. By the end of this trip I’d probably need to ravage a house for food or raid one of my supply stashes.

“We can use him.” Callisto abruptly drove me out of my inner musings. “We have to. There’s no other way to get through this maze.”

“You think this ghost can see a way out?”

“No.” Callisto probably shook her head slowly but certainly sounded perplexed. “I think he can help us fight the monster in here. Whatever it is. It might be part of the quest you said you got.”

“Wow. Yeah the quest text just updated. I wish you guys could see this like I do, it’d be easier. Anyway it says use G-H-S-T, god it actually spells it out with those letters, to kill The Snark.”

I’d guessed correctly. This place was a maze. We were being hunted by a monster that no one else could see but me. They needed me. It was a good thing I’d entered into this place after them.

“A snark? It actually says snark?” Callisto asked.

Armor clanked in response. I could almost visualize Leon’s shrug that generated the noise.

It was even more exciting to hear about their abilities without needing to ask questions. Due to my distrust of them, I’d been exploring a lot on my own. They clearly knew a great deal about each other’s abilities. Maybe they’d had conversations like this all along but I’d simply ignored them. When I existed as Hawthorn, only explosions, murder, and skirt chasing registered.

I resolved to keep myself juggling the three forms. Each one gave me a different view of the world and had value.

“Ghost, are you there?”

I tapped once, loudly. It reminded me of what Allegra had done on my back while I’d been blinded. Whatever Callisto asked next was buried under brief alarm. There, at the end of one of the mirror-like hallways, stood the scrawny featureless man. It held still and stared in my direction.

Using the blade’s edge, I scratched an arrow on the wall. There were no words but someone coughed.

I took the hint and ducked again. A second ray of light etched itself upon the walls and metal tore. It fled before the attack unleashed by Callisto.

“Allie?” Callisto asked followed by the sounds of heavy breathing. She must be suffering backlash after using that crazy move twice.

“Still alive. And I’m guessing that this ghost can see that snark thing,” Allegra answered.

“Does that help us?” Callisto asked.

There was a ruffle of sound I couldn’t quite place, followed by Leon’s armor banging.

“Yeah, I don’t know either,” Callisto said. “We’ll need him though.”

“Him?” Leon asked.

“It’s got to be a guy. Only a guy can be so stupidly infuriating.” Someone snorted. I frowned. Callisto continued, “And lazy. He couldn’t even be bothered to write out the full word. I mean, G-H-S-T? What is this nonsense.”

That was me not wanting to be labeled by someone else. Midge had warned me of the dangers of letting someone else name me. I technically didn’t even name myself, so much as say I was a ghost. One of many that surely haunted this ruined world. It fit, considering my first title in this world had been [Wanderer]. Maybe that’s what Lance would be. An invisible ghost.

“We can’t even see it. How do we fight a monster we can’t see?” Leon asked.

I C I-T, I etched.

“There’s your answer. Ghost helps us. We kill the monster. The little oozes stop spawning. Life goes on and it’s all sunshine and fucking rainbows until the next death trap.”

“What about…” Leon trailed off.

No one said anything more. They must have been exchanging glances and shrugs. I listened closely for any sign of clothing or people moving. Other than a brief rustle of paper, there was nothing. That reminded me. Allegra could probably pass messages to them without my knowledge.

“All right. Let’s explore some more, see if we can find a way to make this work. Ghost, if you’re out there, tap once if you have any suggestions, twice if you don’t.”

I tapped twice, then hesitated, and tapped once because I did think of a problem.

“Great,” Callisto muttered.

“Maybe we’re missing something,” Allegra suggested.

We were. I tapped once upon the wall. As a collective whole, we were missing a lot but I hadn’t figured out what. Now that I’d seen the monster, how fast it moved, and started to explore its weaknesses, it would be easier to formulate a plan.

And at least I had an idea of what was going on. I had little confidence in catching up with that speed demon of a man. Callisto’s special move could do a large amount of damage. I would probably need to slow it down or distract the beast long enough for her to lop off its head. Then we’d move onto whatever event happened next.

“I’ll live through this too,” I muttered.

That creature wouldn’t defeat me.

“Did you guys hear that?” Callisto asked.

I kept quiet. Speaking too loudly would ruin the fun. There was also the chance she’d recognize my voice. It may have been a year or two in her version of the world, but it’d only been half a year in mine. The car accident, shortly after she’d left, then our time in this new world.

I didn’t want Callisto to know I existed. Not after how she’d treated me and used Hawthorn. Lance could remain a ghost. It might be better that way.