(Amanda Winn Lee) Everything is… dark… So dark… Where am I? I tried to move my arm, but there is resistance. I try some more and still I cannot move. My right arm is there, I can feel it. It's under me… What if…

I tried to move and still there is resistance. Pushing from under, I can feel I'm buried under something. It's so heavy it hurts. I can't breathe in this wet dirt. Why am I here? What happened?! I start to panic, hyper ventilate, my orange eyes darting around and I shake violently.

"..!" I heard a noise. I think. I freeze, waiting for any sort of clarification. "..ld on… sec…" I couldn't make it out. A moment later, a white light illuminated my vision and instinctively I pull my arm to cover my eyes and manage to dislodge it easily. Bewildered but feeling somewhat stronger, I try lifting myself again and the debris rises and falls apart revealing the world around me.

It's just dull and grey. Uneven mass of trees just as far as the eye can see except this large tree standing behind me. A bright light cuts my vision again and I shield my eyes, waiting for it to fade again. When it didn't, I try to move my fingers to see in the sliver of light and the light changes to a softer hue.

(Michelle Ruff)"Oh thank goodness!" A female's voice exclaimed behind me. Whipping around, I still don't see anything. "Up here." I look up and floating there is some… ball? A metallic red sphere the size of a baseball is staring at me with a blue diamond shaped eye and 4 more metal diamonds surrounding its body. "I finally found you. Phew, it took a long time but every ghost finds her partner eventually. Oh that's right, I am a Ghost. YOUR Ghost now. And we have many missions to carry out and…"

She droned on and on and I tried to ignore it, pulling myself out of the rubble and metal. I still felt weak, everything is still one note colors of black and white, collapsing to me knees as just trying to stand tired me out.

"Oh! I've got you." Ghost says. The diamonds around its body spread away from its body and began to glow white, particles of white light coursing around my body. It felt so warm, comforting me and urging me to move. I stand again and with new found energy stretched my arms as if I haven't in years., colors of orange, green, brown and others restored to me. The forest around me is much more vibrant than I could imagine in a book. "Anyway…" Ghost says, returning to shape and pulling my attention. "I have so many more things to say. First, we-" I grabbed its face, or body, whatever, forcefully and brought it to my face.

"Shut up." I commanded. It just stared up at me through my fingers and I let it go. It floats there, not saying anything. "One thing at a time. Okay?"

"Ok." She responds. "We… I guess from the start. I am a Ghost, your Ghost. I've been looking for you for a long time."

"Me? But I…" I paused.

Who am I?

I can't remember anything. What's my name, what I do, what I look like is all unknown to me. "Who am I?" I ask her. She stared back at me for a moment.

"I don't know." She replies.

"What? What do you mean you DON'T KNOW?! How can you look for someone you don't know? You just said-"

"I don't know your past life." She says. "You… you've been dead for a long time. I don't know what you did or anything about you. But when I found you, it felt right. I, a Ghost, am made to find and guide my chosen someone to a new life. Preferably with the Traveler, but not all Risen agree with it..."

"…" I stood there, trying to absorb this. I've been dead? A traveling thing? A Risen? What does all that even mean? I sat in the cold dirt and looked down. My vision must have been bad as well, the landscape was not a baron gray land, but a vibrant forest healed by the thing. The Ghost. Somehow I had died here, I just can't imagine anything. While trying to imagine anything, a menacing clicking rings in the air.

The Ghost looks around, turning away and flying upwards scanning the area. I don't move, I have no reason to. What's the point of being snatched from death to sit in a forest? Maybe it's Hell? Possibly.

"We have to go." She says, looking back at me. I look at my skin for once, I must have been tanned out here or something… Oh well… What about my clothes? Looking down, it's just some black top but it goes past my waist. It's totally destroyed from my hips down, such a waste. I was covered in dirt and grime too, though it didn't disgust me.

"Hey!"

Maybe there is something else in that rubble… Scooting back to it, I rummage through it. It's a lot of bars and rusty shards… maybe to a vehicle. Buried further is a neck chain made of…silver? Maybe.

"Hey!"

Taking the chain and blowing it off, it has a ring on it and 2 long bars on it. It must have meant something to me, er, the old me.

"Get down!" She yells at me.

"What is your problem?" I respond, a rifle barrel gunshot ringing in the air and takes out my left shoulder. Blood spatters all over the rubble and sand, grabbing myself screaming in pain. It burns so much the hole was too big and I crawl the best I can to the other side of the heap. More clicking is heard, inching closer to me. Tears stream down my eyes and I try to keep composer but it just hurts so bad. If I die here, will it be so bad? I was just dead anyway. My heart pumped faster by the second.

"At least… let me see it…" I say to myself. I looked around the heap and walking to me is some bipedal creature with 4 arms walking right to me. A brown gun with protruding spikes and a long barrel held carefully within its arms. It looks like a spider head but… not the same. It even has on a blue cloak like a person. Turning back around, I bury my hand in the dirt and rubble and find a piece of metal that still holds together, somewhat. It's a jagged piece, but it'll do. As soon as it comes around and points its barrel, I stab it's skinny legs and slashes it out, forcing it to buckle and wail. It quickly recovers and smacks me with the barrel, but even injured, I grabbed the gun and stand, holding it above me. It was just as tall as me and overpowered me, using a free hand to punch my injured shoulder. Crying out I began backpedaling to a tree, staggering a bit then charging at it again. It holds its rifle up and I jam the blade right into its skull, and it fires at my chest point blank.

…

Everything is dark. Cool. Silent. Like a dream to me. It did not last, as I suddenly am sucked out of this trance and sit up in the grass, gasping for air and gulping it in. My hair wildly twists and then I feel a pressure on the end of it. Looking back, I see it dead.

"But… didn't it…" Looking down, my shirt is still bloody, dry but bloody and a hole in the shirt under my right breast.

"That wasn't so bad." Whipping around, my Ghost floats there. "It was just 1 Fallen Vandal, but there could be more on the way."

"Fallen?" I look back at it, it did kill me but my Ghost healed me somehow, like the first time.

"Don't you go dying on me all the time now." She says. I can even hear it laugh at me. I pick myself up and pick up the Fallen's gun. It has a trigger and resembles a sniper but not as heavy. Ghost snaps around, more clicking heard. I aim my gun up the large tree, waiting for a sign. As soon as I see the head of another Vandal, I shoot, blowing it back and killing it. The second and third come over but are on all 4 hands AND legs, sprinting at me. I manage to shoot the third but the second had no gun, but a large spear. Once in range it tries to jab its blade at me and I jump to the side, electricity racing through it.

It pulls back and lunges again and again, missing its mark but getting ever closer. As though on instinct, I get in arms reach and pull on the spear as it lunges and I raise my hand. Everything stops.

Everything is silent. Dark. The silence is deafening. Cold and hot. Everything and nothing. From this nothingness, a shape forms around my palm. Clutching it for life, it formed into a handle and a blade. Blinding purple light sang in the air and the blade explodes into reality and I slice the Vandal's arm off, then cut its head clean off. Just as quickly as the blade came, it was gone. Purple particles sit in the air, dancing on the winds in front of me.

"You can use the Light…" Ghost says quietly. "And so soon! This is awesome!" Although she is joyous, I just stare at my hand, It felt natural to hold that knife, but I haven't used one until now.

Right? Just who was I?

No matter what I think, I'll just have to search. After all, my Ghost won't let me die anyway. What do I have to lose?