She needed her body back. He needed to be able to see her, smell her.
However, the moment she willed for her body, she would begin to sink through him again. She’d fret, wanting to stay ghostly, and she’d begin to float again.
She could also separate from him as she floated, but she needed to stay with him if she wanted to stop him. He was moving too fast for her to get in front of him and the one time she had, he’d run through her midsection without actually seeing her completely.
And the sounds he made to anything she tried to do to in order to stop him made her realise she was haunting him. He didn’t realise it was Reia, and most likely thought it was just a trick of his mind.
She wished she could become physical and land on top of his back but no matter how she tried, she kept sinking through him instead.
What do I do? she thought, resting her cheek on her folded arms as she lay over him while facing down.
A large white bird came into view in their path as it stood there, halting Orpheus completely as if he was afraid and making him shuffle his feet to stop. It turned to them, its eyes seeming to meet Reia’s rather than his, before it flew off.
The Witch Owl? It had looked like the human-sized owl that had once dance-walked across their yard in the rain.
Orpheus was huffing loudly, panting misting breaths through his nose hole and fangs. He stepped forward slowly now that she was gone.
He was moving again. This is my chance!
Before he could start running, Reia floated in front of him.
His head reared back as he stumbled away. Then he twisted his head at her ghostly form as she floated there with her feet hovering above the ground by an inch.
“Reia?” he asked in a voice that was so full of hope it was damning, as he leaned in to sniff her.
His snout passed through her and he whined, shaking his head before turning away.
“Orpheus,” she quick said, stepping in front of him once more. “I’m here, please don’t run.”
“But you are not there.” He reached his claw forward to show that it went through her body. “You are not real. I must find you.”
Her gaze swept over his from entirely, and she felt so much pity for him. Oh, Orpheus... His body was quaking and trembling all over like a frightened, injured animal, but it was his glowing orbs that had her sad for him.
It looked as though the bottom of them were broken, like they had been made of glass, and a glowing liquid was slowly trickling out of them. It dripped into the empty eye holes of his skull before going down the sides of his cheek bones to drip into the air, almost floating before they disappeared.
It looked as though he was weeping.
“I’m here.” She placed her hands around his snout while trying to make them not go through him. “I can’t be with you right now. You’re in the forest, it’s too dangerous.”
He stepped away from her and lowered himself with confusion.
“But I cannot hold you like this. Where is your body? You’re a ghost, Reia. This isn’t what I wanted.”
She refused to allow him to get away by following him.
“Can you take me home, Orpheus?”
He shook his head. “I already searched there.”
“I promise you everything will be alright. Only when we are home can I be with you.”
He whimpered lightly in response, his head turning to look in the direction he’d been heading like he wanted to keep searching.
“Please?” His head turned to her once more at the sound of her plea. “Don’t you want to keep me safe?”
Actually, as Reia was right now, she was as safe as she could possibly be in the Veil. Nothing could ever harm her like this.
“Home?” he asked, hesitantly stepping forward slightly. “You will be at home with me?”
“Yes. At home I’ll turn physical for you.”
He tilted his head at that, but started to walk. He stopped if she wasn’t in front of him, like he wanted to see her, stare at her, look through her, as he made his way back to their cabin.
It was slow, and he stayed low as though he was uncertain.
“I miss you, Reia,” he said softly, reaching out to touch her again before bringing his hand back when he couldn’t. “How can you be with me if you’re a ghost?”
Am I a ghost? Ghosts couldn’t turn physical.
They were humans that were so desperate to live after being eaten by Demons that they haunted the places they were killed. They were trapped within the borders of their homes or the forests, stuck there forever.
But Reia kept returning to him, and she could turn back to normal.
What am I then? She tried to think on what else she could be.
Then a section in one of the books the Witch Owl gave to her came into her memory, the one about creatures – both real and mythical. She’d recently learned that Elves were real, but from another world, and there had also been a page about Phantoms.
Creatures that lived on the cusp of life and death; a spirit being who had a human body if they wished. They were usually anchored to something, and she turned her gaze to the floating flame above his head between his horns.
But it wasn’t a flame.
It was the little spirit she’d pulled from her body. She was curled up in the fetal position, facing forward. Her ankles were crossed, her knees to her chest as she hugged them, while her face pressed against the nook of them. The flame hair was still floating.
From afar, it looked like nothing but a rounded flame, but up close, it was easy to see it was her soul.
She looked comfortable, as if it was only sleeping while being wrapped in the black, goopy string that threaded around its legs, its body, and even throat, that then attached to his horns.
He is my anchor. Orpheus had tied her soul to him, literally.
“I think you made me a Phantom,” she told him, not looking behind her, trusting that he would lead them back.
“What is a Phantom?”
He didn’t know this would happen to me? She explained what she thought over the time it took them until they were passing over the salt circle.
He took them inside and she was greeted by the chaos of him searching inside the house.
The dining table was skewed from where it usually rested, her chair turned on its side. The chairs in the living room were parted with the little table between them knocked over. Items on tables had been scattered to the floor, as if he’d lifted the object they rested on to check underneath in places she couldn’t possibly hide.
How silly, she thought with a sad smile.
She looked to him to find he was crouching in front of her, staring and waiting. She wondered if he would have patiently sat there for eternity for her to turn physical for him.
All she had to do was will for it, as if she’d done this a million times, and her incorporeal body began to sink. Her toes were the first to feel sensation as they touched the timber floor before she sank to her heels. Pressure trailed up her legs, her hips, her chest, and then her head.
Placing her hands forward, she gave Orpheus a warm smile when she cupped her palms underneath the jaw of his snout, touching the warmth and hardness of the bone.