Interlude ~ Ghosting

It had been days. I hadn’t seen him in days. So to find him on that rooftop was a surprise in many ways. I was met with relief but confusion. Why had he gone for so long? Why not contact me, of all people? Why just disappear?

“Soul?” I saw him tense as I said his name. He began to turn and suddenly disappeared. The next moment, I found myself on the ground, the wind knocked out of me. Soul had just attacked me.

I was too surprised to react with any other emotion. Sadness and anger, the most applicable at the time, seemed foreign to me. All I could do was stand on my feet. As I stood up, I could see him streaking through the city, flashes of red getting farther and farther away. Rather than try to process, I leapt down from the top of the building. I couldn’t see the look on his face before I was knocked down. I didn’t know if he was under someone’s control or if he had gone rogue. I had nothing to go on but what had just happened, so I did what was only natural.

The light, this familiar light, enveloped me. It was always like an embrace as my appearance changed. I glowed in my descent, leaving a trail of light behind me. As I touched down, a slight breeze blew across my body, my scarf flowing in the wind. Through my costume, all I could feel was its touch, but not its reprieve. Before I lost sight of Soul, I sped after him. I felt very little but to catch up to him, to make him explain everything, to put this right. My expression stern, body tense, I ran as fast as I could.

His image was becoming much more clear. He was always quick, but not quite fast enough to outrun me. As the distance between  us grew smaller, I noticed him stopping to pick things up. I could not see what they were and had no idea what to expect, until he appeared in the air, seemingly suspended, and yelled, “STAY BACK!”

His arms curled and whatever he was holding disappeared. I’d seen this in action before. Just like he could ‘ghost’ himself, phasing himself and using quick bursts of speed to pass through matter or gain the advantage of distance, he could ghost objects. I couldn’t stay still or risk getting hit by whatever he’d just thrown, so I flew. I looked behind me to notice bricks where I stood. I looked forward to catch his location and noticed him running toward the fields outside the city. I increased my speed again, cutting the night air to try my best to reach him.

Keeping up with Soul was never easy, especially when he didn’t want it to be. It seemed as though he could ghost forever, eventually circling the globe. I had never seen the upper limits to his abilities. As these moments drew on, I hoped he wouldn’t show me. I strained myself to stay on top of his streaking image. I finally reached a point where I could touch down and pursue on foot. I landed with abandon, not wary of the potential hazard I could cause to others with such recklessness. I didn’t notice the crater I left in my wake, and I didn’t stop to think, even of the slight pain the impact caused me. Instead, I thrust myself in Soul’s direction, using both my augmented speed and strength to take off after him.

I still had no idea how to gauge the situation. I didn’t know what kind of force, if any at all, to use. More than anything, I just wanted Soul to stop so we could talk, so we wouldn’t have to use our powers on each other, though he already had. Was I breathing? Was I putting anyone in danger? I was so intent on catching up to him that I was being far more careless than characteristic of myself. Where I once went out of my way to prevent casualty, I wasn’t even sure if I was causing any.

“Soul! Stop!” I yelled in his direction. It was as though my words didn’t even register to him. He just kept pressing forward, giving neither of us any break. As I got closer, any time I’d reach for him, it was as though he reflexively knew where I was going to grasp. He evaded at every attempt. I thought of trying to block him, but I knew he’d go around me or go through me, and the latter, from experience, was a painful kind of disorienting. I looked above him for a moment to notice that we were reaching a forest. Plenty of hiding spots for Soul.

“I’m so sorry…” I said to myself and to Soul. I readied a ball of energy while I was running, paying attention to how Soul was moving. Before he reached the edge of the woods, I launched the ball in front of him. Luckily, it surprised him as I thought it would, leaving him to jump in the air. It gave me enough of a window to take action.

I immediately flew to him, grabbing his arms.

“What is going on?!” I screamed at him. Now my emotions were starting to come to the surface. My eyes were glowing out of both fury and desperation. The tears that rolled down my cheeks had traces of the glowing energy to them, a reflection of the clarity, the focus of my emotions. I kept flying us higher, wondering when he’d finally speak. His eyes were wide open in fear and confusion. In that moment, we were both a bit lost as to what to do. Or, so I assumed.

As he turned his head away from me, I could see his pain. A tear began to roll before he faded away. I think we had both remembered at that moment that he could phase. For another time that night, I had no time to react when he attacked me.

He ghosted around me, kicking and punching with each shift. That moment for me was so many things. It was fear at wondering if I could protect myself. It was despair at Soul attacking me. It was also the same beauty, the same poetry I saw whenever he used his powers. He was a silent force of nature. His movements spoke to me in a way nothing ever did.

I tried my best to block each movement, which, unfortunately, gave Soul a few openings. I tried to catch his face whenever he fully came into view. All I could see was sadness. Maybe, I held on in hope, maybe he didn’t want to do this. So, I asked myself, why was he?

Tired of the constant barrage, I created a small field around myself. Soul saw it moments before his next attack. His face came into view again in shock, then resolve. He sped through me, which took the breath out of the both of us. I guess the field affected him in a phasing state, too, not just a physical one. The disorientation came into effect, causing me to fall. I couldn’t connect with my mind as I descended. All I could do was turn my head to see a falling body of blue. It put things in perspective.

I brought myself together; I pulled through the pain to fly to him and collect his body. As I cradled him into my arms, my tears fell onto his body. This was putting a huge strain on me. I wanted my mind and my world to reflect the clarity of that night’s sky. A huge, silver moon hung above us, casting us in light. No clouds, nothing to obstruct its glow. Yet, I felt a huge storm inside my chest. I felt him stir and held him closer. Now we’d get to talk. I looked down to see him open his eyes.

“One day, you’ll know I did all this for a reason,” he said, life coming back into his voice.

“Whatever this is, you can tell me. None of this tonight was necessary,” I responded in a serious tone.

“I really think it was,” Soul told me before he disappeared, only to reappear ahead of me. He stood for a moment, then faded away again, further ahead of me.

I couldn’t contain myself. No answers. All of this was far out of character for him, and I wanted to know why. I wanted to understand what could lead him to attack me. I wanted to know if I was going to lose this love forever. So, again, I did what was natural.

I fell slave to my anger, allowing my power to flow. My eyes glowed violently as my emotions took over. There were no words. There was just my rage, my anguish, my burning questions. I was going to get answers. So, as I sped toward him in a streak of violent light, I feared that my pain would overtake me. I feared that, once the dawn finally intruded upon this night, might I wake up without answers. Without Soul.