#dad phantom

And it did find them. There were so many, even if they were sometimes very far from each other. They were each very interesting. Some were cold, some were hot, some were kind, some gentle, some caring, some even mean. It loved meeting them all, all but something was wrong. It needed to keep looking for someone. So it played happily around its new friends before zipping off.

The Ghost Zone wasn’t an entirely safe place, however, especially for such a little, helpless creature. It hid often, the best it could when it could. Most of the Zone was just empty space, however, and the best it could was run whenever it sensed something dangerous. It had gotten lucky so far.

But today was not so lucky.

One of those monsters was there, out in the middle of the emptiness, and it had gotten really close. Too close for comfort. The little orb was fast enough to just stay ahead, searching for signs of anything else. Luckily, it could just make out the signal of something big, like the other islands, out in the distance. It could hide there, if it could just keep up the pace.

It put all its energy into it’s mad dash for safety, though that wasn’t saying much. It could feel the monster behind it, so close, inching closer. But safety was also getting closer.

It reached the island, dashing through a hole just in time. It wasn’t a millisecond later that the monster slammed into the structure. The little orb could feel the beasts rage burning like a fire and, though it couldn’t get in, the orb flew as far away as possible, down further into the structure.

It sensed someone nearby. They could protect it if the monster got in, so that’s where it went.

The other flared at it’s approach, radiating comfort and protection. The little orb had been right to come to them for help. It stayed by, humming an appreciative tone that it hoped they could hear. Not everyone did. Most didn’t respond at all. Thankfully, this one did. They hummed back in acknowledgement and went back to work. It couldn’t tell what they were doing. That was beyond what little it could sense of the world. It wanted to know, flying about them as if it would give them some sense of what was going on. It didn’t, of course, but it was worth a try.

It finally stopped, hovering close to its new friend to rest. It had spent a lot of energy running away from the monster and needed time to recover. This new friend could protect it for a little bit until it was better enough to continue it’s search. It liked them, but they weren’t right. They weren’t the one.

It settled into what could pass for sleep.

-

It was time to go. It didn’t want to go. The new friend was so nice. They always hummed back, radiated a gentle kindness unlike the others, one that seemed to come with their great age. They were by far the oldest ghost it had met. That was interesting, too. It liked interesting things.

But it needed to keep looking. There was someone it needed to find, and the new friend was not it.

It gave a goodbye hum, but they didn’t hum back. They didn’t do anything for a moment. It concerned the little orb. Had it done something wrong? Were they mad at it? No, they hummed back that they weren’t mad. They wanted to help! That was exciting! They knew of it’s search and knew where to look!

The person it was searching for was here, somewhere nearby. It just had to wait a little and they would be here. So it did. It did it’s best to hold still and wait, but it wasn’t very good at it. It couldn’t help it! It was just so exciting!

The person they were searching for would be here soon! They would protect it from all the dangers that had been chasing it. They would take care of it and love it and it would get the chance to grow and get stronger! It had the impression that there was a very real chance it wouldn’t make it this far. There was always the chance that something would have happened. A monster could have gotten it or it could have just run out of energy and faded away. But it had made it! It would get the chance to exist!

And the new friend had been right. It wasn’t long before another person was approaching from somewhere deeper in the structure. And the new friend had told it to wait, but it couldn’t!

It rushed forward to the new person. They flashed with surprise and anger when it got close, so it stayed back a bit. This person was very angry, they thrummed with it like the monster had. It fluttered back a bit in surprise, hovering close by but far enough that they couldn’t reach it.

Was this really the person it was looking for?

They tried to leave, but it wasn’t done looking at them so it followed, humming in confusion.

Because there was something underneath the anger, it just needed to look closer, try to unravel the energies of this new person.

There! Just below the anger was a great and terrible sadness, one that almost hurt to be close to. And underneath that was something very different, something warm and perfect and just right.