Ch. 2
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How much time had passed she wondered as she stepped out the doors of the church. There were only a few people busily walking past the church, in the early morning, not taking any notice of her as she stood at the top of the steps. Obviously a few hours at the most had passed and the two thieves had probably taken what they could from the church before trashing it. 'But what about Penny?' she wondered surely the little girl had made it to the police station by now, 'Maybe they didn't believe her and were holding her at the station, after all the money case she had with her was locked up tight they wouldn't know until they got it open that something bad had happened.' Then a flash of the gun pointed at her face flashed into her mind. The gun had gone off, that she remembered, but it must have missed her and she probably fainted from the fright. 'What about the voice, the name, your name?' a little voice in the back of her head nagged, 'the dress? Surely to robbers wouldn't take the time to put this dress on you.' She shook those thoughts from her mind, she had always had an active imagination she probably dreamed up the voice while trying to wake up, and took off towards the station, hiking up the dress to run faster. Penny was her main priority, she had to make sure the little girl had made it to safety before she pondered anything else. The sidewalk was chilled from the fall air and stung her bare feet, but not as badly as she would have imagined. It took a few blocks but she made it to the station with it's round globed lights serving as a beacon in the night. She raced up the steps and through the doors, their was an officer seated behind a desk typing up things on a computer and looking rather bored. "Excuse me," she said hurrying up to the desk, " I'm looking for a little girl, she's four years old with bright red hair, uh freckles a blue, no it was more of a violet, dress, and she's-" She stopped the officer was completely ignoring her. "Hey this isn't a joke she may be hurt," still no response."Look at me!" She yelled furious that the cop wouldn't even glance at her. She reached across the desk grabbing for the officer's arm, only to have her hand go right through her.
Pain, a sharp bone deep ache shot through her body, making her gasp a reel back from the desk. She stared in shock at the officer and then tried again, bracing herself for more pain, again her hand went straight through the woman without her even noticing. The pain still came, but it wasn't as bad as the first time. The doors behind her swung open once more and an elderly man walked right through her to get to the desk. The officer saw the man and immediately responded writing down his report of a break in to his shop. Muse tried to catch her breath as it came in short panicky gasps, backing into a wall. She turned and saw it was the same wall the Art Center had painted with the kids. It had happy pictures of cops and children hand in hand in beautiful utopia bursting with fauna. It had taken them a while to get it done, but the children had so much fun making it, even little Penny had added a scribbly flower at one end. She spotted the flower and next to it was a little golden plate. Stepping closer she read:
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Dedicated in loving memory to Lucille Nest. Courageous to the end.
You'll never be forgotten.
-The West Cambridge Center for Art and Child Care.
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She was dead. All she could do was stand there numb, for how long she didn't know, and stare at the plate. It was polished so brightly that she could see her reflection in it, even if no one else could. She was different, to say the least. Her loose brown hair was now long and bouncy with dark ringlets and her t-shirt and pants were replaced with a long empire waist gown that looked like thousands of stained glass shards pieced together, but flowed like silk across her skin. Other than that she was mostly unchanged, her cheeks a little rosier maybe, but her skin still light and her eyes still a rich brown, from what she could tell in the golden surface. 'So I'm a ghost...' she wondered, ' but if that's so how come I still feel pain?' she pondered this and a thousand more as she began to walk, she had no idea where she was going or if it should even matter as she made her way through the city. By the time she resurfaced from her thoughts she was walking by a playground and the sun shone high in the sky as children played upon the jungle gym. She slowed down running her hand along the wall as she watched the children play. She caught sight of a small girl with similar hair to Penny's. The little girl was so cheerful and was pretending to be a monkey, Oooing while hanging from a bar. Was she really so upset to die for something so sweet? No, she decided, even if it meant an eternity alone in the world she was glad to have saved her.
"Whoa! Look!" a little boy cried out pointing at her. For a brief moment a surge of hope flashed within her as she thought that he saw her, but as she turned to look next to her she realized what had really astounded the boy. From the tips of her fingers flowed a trail of brilliant colors twisting in a pattern like paint upon the wall from where she had first touched. The children stopped playing and came over to investigate the wall. She watched and chuckled as the kids debated amongst themselves what exactly the patterns were. One little boy thought it was the symbols of a lost race like in an adventure film he's watched, while another little girl claimed they were like those she'd seen on an Easter egg, and one particularly snide little boy claimed it was just "stupid graffiti." "Eh I think it's so-so," a much older voice said above her. She looked up and saw a young man in a blue hoodie with a mess of white hair hovering over her head while studying the trail of color. "You new then?" he asked looking right at her. She looked around then squeaked out, "You can see me?" "Yup, and that just confirms my suspicion, you are definitely new," he smirked before landing beside her. "Jack Frost," he said offering his hand to her. "Er Muse, I suppose," she replied shaking his hand. He studied her for a moment," It's not often we get new spirits, I think the last one was about 200 years ago."
"So I'm not a ghost?"
"Not exactly, look I'm really not the one to explain this stuff, I don't get it entirely myself."
"What do you-"
"It's just something we all kinda figure out ourselves."
She stared at him for a moment, running her fingers through her hair. This was... in word weird. Here she was dead, probably murdered, invisible to everyone and talking to some guy who flew around calling himself Jack Frost. She sat down on the ground covering her face, this was too much just too much. "Hey...," Jack kneeled down next to her trying to peer at her face, "look it'll be fine, I should know I've been here for about 300 years now." She looked at him like he was insane, 'so it would be eternity'. "Oh god," she moaned feeling tears beginning to well in her eyes.
"Whoa whoa whoa, don't cry!" Jack looked terrified at the thought of having to comfort a crying girl,
"Um let's see I know, um Bunny! He shouldn't be to busy this time of year" he cried.
"What?"
"Bunny, The Easter Bunny," Jack smiled looking set on something," he might be able to talk you through this everyone else it probably busy right now anyway. North will be preparing for Christmas and Sandy and Tooth will be busy with the East right now. Yeah Bunny is probably the best bet." Jack seemed to be talking more to himself now than her. She waved her hand before his eyes, forgetting her anxiety in the face of his odd behavior. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. "He has a hole near here I think," he said smiling, "hold on tight." Before she could even reply he had launched them into the air, forcing her to cling to him for dear life, er unlife? Spirit life? He scanned the city streets below them before spotting what he was looking for and raced them back towards the ground, with Muse barely containing a scream of terror. She forced her eyes shut as the insane sprite she clung to sped towards a small flower poking out of hard cement.