THE JOURNEY OF SHEIRA HART

31 | It Always Starts Somewhere

We didn’t pass out. At least that’s what I know. Everything went black earlier and what happened next was that we were in some street. Or a narrow alley. It was dark and cold. I looked at Mikhael and he was slightly glowing in the dark. And I bet I am too. Perks of being a ghost. Instant flashlight. 

“Where are we?” I asked and I heard Mikhael huffed. 

“That damned geezer. He should have landed us here in a normal way.” He then grinned in my direction as he crossed his arms. “But you told him to f**k himself so that should be enough.” He laughed and I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. I was too scared to care earlier that’s why I said it.

I looked around and realized the main street is just a few walks ahead. Mikhael saw it too. I was about to walk towards it when Mikhael grabbed my hand and pulled me close towards him. Before I could even protest, he pushed my head down as we hid behind a huge barrel full of garbage. 

“What the—“ I didn’t get to finish what I was about to say when he covered my mouth and pulled me closer to him. I could feel his breathing on my nape as his hand over my mouth got tighter. I struggled but then he shushed me and I could see him looking at the side as if observing something. I decided to look at whatever he was looking and I realized he wasn’t looking at something. He was looking at someone. 

It was Sara. 

I gasped and was about to get out of Mikhael’s hold when his grasp got tighter. Telling me to stop whatever I was planning on doing. But I would stop even if he didn’t stop me. Not when what I’m looking at the moment was Sara.  

Unlike us, her glow was faint and I was surprised he didn’t notice us glowing in the corner. But then I realized why she didn’t notice was because she was occupied with something else. I squinted my eyes to see what she was doing but failed. Her back was facing us and she was facing the wall. Mikhael’s breathing was labored and his eyes were laced with urgency as he stared at Sara’s back. 

“Something’s wrong with her,” he said and slowly removed his hand from covering my mouth. I could Mikhael’s chest from behind but I shifted from where I was sitting, not minding our current position. I stared at Sara and realized there was indeed something wrong. She was just standing in front of a wall, and I didn’t even know where she came from.

But then after a few minutes, she started moving. She looked from her right and then left. And when she turned to look behind her, I immediately pulled back causing me to bump on Mikhael who was behind me. I hitched a breath and realized I am completely in between his legs. I could tell he went utterly still, too. 

I immediately scuttled away and looked at Mikhael who was, as usual, not bothered by it and preferred to tease me about it. He bent his knee and rested one of his elbows on top of it as he rested his cheek on his hand. “What’s wrong? Come back here,” he said, tapping on the space I was seated in earlier. 

“Stop that or I’m going to kick you back to the afterlife,” I warned and he just chuckled. 

“Then please kick me, madam,” he said with an insufferable grin on his face that just wants to make me slap him left and right. 

But then after days of being with Mikhael, I somehow developed this necessary skill to control my anger whenever he decides to be an asshole. I never expected I could develop this kind of skill and that was just because of him. Because whether I like it or not, Mikhael is someone I needed to complete this mission. Without him, I wouldn’t have been able to come here. 

So I took a deep breath as I closed my eyes. And for that short amount of time that I couldn’t see his face, I was strangely calmed and in peace. And when I opened it, I looked at where Sara was earlier but she was gone. 

I stood up, frantically looking around for her but none. 

“We lost her!” I said and looked at Mikhael who just stood up and looked around too. He then heaved a sigh.

“Why on earth are we even looking for this soul?” He complained and scratched his head. I stared at him and when he noticed I was doing so, he raised a brow before a grin plastered across his face. Before he could even say something I punched his gut causing him to mutter several colorful curses. 

“Get rid of that grin of yours. You look like you were about to say something unnecessary so I punched you.” 

The look on his face was a mixture of surprise and amusement. When he recovered, he stood straight and rubbed the part where my fist landed. “I wasn’t going to say anything!” he said and I just gave him a bland look. 

‘Well, maybe I was going to but it wasn’t completely unnecessary!” 

I crossed my arms and watched him. “Really.” 

“Nevermind,” he said and rubbed the part where I punched him. “Where are we supposed to look for her now?” 

I don’t know where to, honestly. What Thorien said about her didn’t really give us a clue as to where we could find this girl exactly. But then I looked at the wall and found some graffiti on it. It wasn’t that eye-catching and the colors have faded over the years. Some of the lines have faded too—wait.

Lines?

I walked closer to the wall and squinted my eyes to see what was on the wall. All it took was a single word for me to know what it was. 

“It’s a map,” Mikhael said as he too, apparently, figured it out. I nodded and traced the lines using my fingers. And that’s when I figured the whole wall was painted with the map. And Sara was standing in the center, looking at something before she disappeared. 

We walked towards the center to where Sara was standing earlier and looked closely. 

“She could have gone to these five places,” Mikhael said as he pointed towards the wall. The center part of the map indeed has five cities. 

“But she was staring at the top. Maybe here?” I said and pointed to the two cities in the northern part. 

Mikhael nodded as he stared at it too. He then looked at me and said, “You ready to fly again?” 

***

I don’t normally cling to Mikhael unless we’re up against tainted souls (though he isn’t that useful to these kinds of situations), or when we were flying. 

This is one of those moments.

“Mikhael!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I felt the curtain of wind slapping against my body. 

“What?” he asked and laughed as he closed his eyes and felt the air on his face. 

“What the hell is happening?” I screamed and closed my eyes as I looked at the land below us.

One moment, we were talking about maps and which places Sara could have possibly gone and the next thing I knew is that I—we were already free-falling several feet above the ground. 

“We’re flying!” 

“No, we’re not flying—what the f**k—we’re free-falling!” 

“Same thing!” 

“It isn’t! Oh my god—“ I didn’t even get to finish my sentence when I was cut off by my scream as I felt we’re falling faster than earlier. 

It was when I thought we’re about to definitely die when I felt something catching us. It bounced us a few meters back up. It felt like a mattress. A soft mattress of air. And the next thing that happened is that we’re not free-falling. We’re on the air. We’re flying. 

I swallowed hard, feeling the surroundings. Feeling what’s happening. We aren’t falling now and it was when I realized I was holding Mikhael's arm a little too tightly. I looked at him and he was looking down at me with a smug look on his face. 

“Wipe that grin of yours, Mikhael,” I said and he just laughed. 

I looked down below and I could see the vast ocean and the bad traffic. I averted my gaze towards the ocean as I felt a nauseating pull in my gut. As if the ocean is pulling me. I distanced myself away from Mikhael but I was still holding his arm. I admitted it was kind of easy though scary at first but it was controllable. 

But I still am not trusting this flying mechanism I acquired as a ghost. 

We swerved away from tall buildings and flew our way until we reached a certain kind of subdivision. There were houses of almost the same decoration lining and bordering the road wide enough for two cars to pass through. The trees were scarce and I could smell the smell of freshly cut grass and the smell of the first rain. I looked around and the world was starting to wake up. The neighborhood was quiet and I am not quite sure as to why we were sent here. 

“Mr. Grim didn’t give us any clues but he certainly led us here. This should be the place,” Mikhael said and I looked at him, confused. 

“I didn’t drag us here on my own. Mr. Grim placed us in that dumpster and let us see that graffiti and led us here eventually.” 

I gave him another doubtful look. “How would you know that?” 

He was about to open his mouth when a scream broke out in the quiet neighborhood. I don’t know if it came from a ghost or from a living human but Mikhael looked at me and so was I and we both nodded before we ran towards where the sound is coming from. The scream continued. We stopped running as we heard another scream but this time it came from another direction. It was the same voice that we heard earlier. And as if it wasn’t enough, we heard another scream coming from everywhere and at the time, we both knew the sound doesn’t come from a living person. 

It came from a ghost seeing as nobody in the neighborhood seem to hear about it. I was too confused to even think of what to do when Mikhael just grabbed my hand and we were instantly above the ground. He covered my mouth and looked down below and that’s when I saw the ground seemed to have disappeared. As in it was completely gone and all I could see was an endless void of darkness. 

I suddenly felt nauseated looking at it as if it was pulling me back down. “Let’s get out of here,” I rasped against his palm. 

“Please,” I breathed. “Let’s get out of here.” 

Mikhael didn’t say another word and immediately held me as he flew up and away from there but then we couldn’t seem to get away. It was as if some force was pulling us and not letting us get away. It was as if we were tied on our feet and pulling us back. 

I heard him mutter something I couldn’t comprehend as he looked down below. And that’s when I saw Sara standing just where we were standing earlier. 

And she was looking right at us with a wide smile on her face. 

“Oh f**k,” Mikhael and I both said as we both realized what we will be dealing with in the next few hours. 

Or days.

All I could ever say in my mind was… f**k. 

Fuck. 

Because it was totally f****d up. I don’t know what she looked like before because I haven’t seen her face clearly before but I was certain there weren’t any black lines lining her face down her neck before. One thing is for sure: Sara, whatever she did, is now a tainted soul.  

* * *