Page 117 of Castings & Curses

The alleyway behind the Science Center was wide enough for two cars to squeak past each other. Security lights along the back side of the building housing the Center and other businesses illuminated generous stretches of cracked asphalt. Some were bright enough to splash light upon the brick building on the opposite side of the alley.

Priya was grateful for the lights. Without them, she would have slipped on the ubiquitous splotches of ice and fallen. As it was, she walked like a drunken sailor trying to avoid the bigger patches of ice. Her eyes were on the ground when she felt a familiar tickling sensation. She glanced up, relieved to see a blonde-haired child wearing pink jeans and a tie-dyed short-sleeved t-shirt. Her form was more translucent than Levi’s. Her features were washed out but still discernible, making Priya wonder how long the girl had been a ghost.

“Hello.” Priya stopped walking when the girl backed away. “I’m Priya. Levi sent me.” The ghost tilted her head. A golden blonde pigtail spilled off her shoulder.

“Do you remember Levi? He told me you tried to help him.” Priya pointed behind her. “At the Science Center.”

The ghost waved her arms.

“Yes. That was kind of you.” Priya chanced a few steps forward.

The girl turned sideways, tilted her nose up in the air, and walked toward the brick building. She stopped and whirled around, waving her arms. Then tilted her nose up in the air, turned again, and made a swishing motion with her hand, as if shooing away flies, as she started walking again.

Not wanting to startle the girl while she reenacted her encounter with Levi, Priya slowly edged around another icy spot. “Levi is sorry he didn’t listen to you.”

Turning to face Priya, the child spread her arms wide in a What are you going to do? gesture.

“He wanted to thank you for staying with him.” Priya edged forward. “Having a friend with him meant a lot.” She halted the instant the girl held up a hand, clearly signaling Stop. “Levi wanted me to make sure you were okay.”

The ghost’s form rippled like rain disturbed by a gust of wind. Crossing her arms over her pink and orange tie-dyed shirt, she pursed her lips and studied Priya.

“I helped Levi talk to his parents so he could move along his path. If you let me, I will try to help you too.” Priya wouldn’t lie. She learned the hard way that sometimes, no matter how hard she tried, nothing could help.

Seeming to come to a decision, the child uncrossed her arms and crooked her finger at Priya.

“You want me to follow you?”

A nod.

“Don’t go too fast. It’s pretty icy and I don’t want to fall on my butt.”

The ghost silently laughed, then nodded her agreement before making an impatient follow-me gesture.

She allowed Priya to walk alongside her, waiting while Priya dodged more ice. The street they turned onto teed off from the alley. Parked cars lined both sides of the road. There were no security lights or street lights. The ghost looked at her expectantly. She flicked her fingers, then placed her hand over her eyebrows as if shielding her eyes from a bright light. She turned her watery blue-eyed gaze on Priya and waited.

After a moment, she flicked her fingers again and scowled at Priya.

“Oh! You want me to cast an illumination spell.”

The ghost grinned and bobbed her head up and down.

Interesting. Either the child was a witch or grew up around witches and knew about illumination spells.

“My spell work is, uh, shaky,” Priya confessed. “I can see well enough.”

Shrugging, the girl moved to the sidewalk, which someone had sanded, and continued leading the way. A block later, she turned onto another alleyway. In addition to being darker, this one was land mined with ankle-twisting potholes along with icy patches. Several large industrial dumpsters lined the asphalt alley.

A cutting wind whipped between the buildings, slashing at Priya’s face. Hunching against the bone-chilling assault, she wrestled her phone out of her pocket, pulled off her glove, and thumbed on the flashlight app. She quickly stuffed her hand back into the glove.

An inky ball of fur, the size of a small cat or very large rat, darted away from the light and slid beneath a dumpster. A shiver slid down her spine. Priya sped up.

They approached another street that intersected the alley. Priya expected to turn again, but the child continued straight down the alleyway. The potholes became more frequent the farther they went. Before they reached the next cross street, the ghost veered off the poorly maintained asphalt and hurried over to a two-storied gray sandstone building. Snow crunched beneath Priya’s feet. All the windows were dark except the far left one on the second floor. The ghost crouched down next to a basement window half covered in snow and jabbed her finger at it.

“What’s in there?” Priya asked, immediately regretting it when the little girl rolled her eyes and raspberried her lips. “Oh, sorry.”

The child jabbed her finger at the window again. She turned her hands over, made a gripping movement, and yanked her hands toward herself.

“You want me to open the window and … go inside?”

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