Niram sighed as he turned around. "What are you doing out here, Sisi?" And out of the silvery-lit night came the figure of a child.


    Sisi had been a seven-year-old girl when she''d been murdered. She and her family had been fleeing the war to the east when they''d been unfortunate to come across bandits in the woods a few miles from here. That was about fifty-something years ago, as was told by the victim herself.


    "I was bored," she grumbled. "And you? What are you doing in human town?"


    "I am human, Sisi," Niram replied with a smile.


    "Not looking like that, you''re not."


    "What?"


    "Nothing!"


    There were different kinds of Ghosts. Most of them preferred the unnatural cold embrace of the graveyard to that of a human town, but there were some outliers who were mostly curious to see what a human-populated community looked like. The wayward ones were always carrying out one kind of mischief after another, scaring some unfortunate human out of their houses. And then there were those who were simply curious, having forgotten their human lives as the years went by. It was the former that usually gave the ghosts a bad reputation. That was why Niram''s kind was always in demand. They could see and speak to ghosts.


    Sighing, Niram bent down, going low so he could come face to face with her. "Sisi, you know you can''t be out here? It''s dangerous for you."


    "Why?" She cocked her head in confusion.


    "Be..." He hated having to say this. "Because, the humans are afraid of your kind. They don''t want you in their homes or anywhere near them."


    "But they can''t see me, right?" she said and then waved at a sober man passing by with a passed-out drunk lady in his arms. "See? They can''t see me. How would they know I was there?"Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Niram ignored the scared look the man sent his way, focusing on the ghost girl In front of him. "Some humans can... Some humans like me, and not all of them are nice to the ghost people."


    "Listen to him, Sisi," Kiesh said, flowing out of the locket hanging over Niram''s chest. "Humans can be cruel, especially to things they don''t understand." He lowered his voice, even though nobody could hear him. "They could hire a ghost seer to banish you back to your place of rebirth."


    Sisi gasped, eyes widening. She looked around and then shuffled closer to Niram. "You''ll protect me, right? Niram. The humans fear you."


    He smiled, patting her white glowing hair. "Let me let you in on a secret," he lowered his voice down to a whisper. "I''m not as powerful as the humans think I am. I can''t do any of the things they say all ghost seers can. But don''t worry, I''ll still protect you, okay?"


    "Okay." She giggled.


    "Let''s get back to the yard." He said and the little girl immediately agreed.


    Ever since he became a Ghost seer seven years ago, Niram had heard so many absurd rumors about his kind that he struggled to comprehend how those came about. Though, recently, he''d come to think some of those rumors were the work of some mischievous GhostSeer with a knack for scaring humans.


    Mothers were fond of scaring their children into doing the right thing by whispering to them that a ghost seer was going to send them to ghost land if they were bad. That was a lie! Niram didn''t have that kind of power. He sighed to himself as he remembered one a few months back. A child had boldly run up to him, asking him whether he could summon ghost soldiers to beat up his abusive father. Niram hadn''t had such at his beck and call, but he''d known two Mischiefs who were eager for a haunt.


    Last he''d heard, before he''d left the town, was that the man had bought his eye swollen wife a nice dress and a bouquet, alongside a bag of toys for his son.


    "Keish, what other mission do we have remaining?"


    Keish manifested a glowing paper on his hands, a pen appearing an instant later as he began ticking off the list. "We''ve cleared the one at the healer''s home, the one in the church basement, and also the mischief you scared off in that tavern." He stopped. "And now we have only one remaining. The haunted house behind the butcher''s shop."


    "You think it''s a mischief?" Niram asked.


    "Nahhh, this one''s different. I don''t know why, but I just know it."


    Niram nodded. "Okay, we''ll take Sisi to the graveyard first and then make our way there."


    "I want to come with," the young girl said as she skipped alongside Niram.


    "No, Sisi," Keish said. "This one is probably going to be dangerous, we don''t know yet. But," he said as he saw the downturn look on her face. "We''ll take you to go catch some mischiefs after we''re done with this, alright?"


    A big smile immediately erupted on the girl''s face. "Okay."