Doodleshipping (Bakura Amane/Rebecca Hopkins)

. . .

"Do you believe in ghosts?"

Rebecca pushed her glasses up on her nose with the heel of her hand. Her hair was falling out of her pigtails, and she had gotten her skirt muddy and torn one of her socks, which she knew her mother would scold her for when she got back. But she had wanted to see if she could find an example of a metamorphic rock to bring home from Japan, and her journey had taken her farther through the woods to the edge of the highway, where she had met the girl.

The girl was a little taller than Rebecca, and maybe a little older; Rebecca was six and a half.

The girl had white hair in pigtails, like Rebecca, only hers were really messy and half falling out, and she had pulled half of her hair over one side of her face, as though to hide something. She looked kinda messy, like her dress was all stained with something brownish-red, some kind of weird clay maybe? And she kept hiding her arms behind her back. Rebecca thought she was a strange girl.

"I think it's scientifically possible," she said. "I haven't read much about it though."

The girl looked nervously up and down the street, as though she thought there might be ghosts watching her right now.

"But do you believe that they exist?" she asked, sounding a little more desperate.

She looked...really sad, Rebecca thought. Her bright green eyes were full of tears, and she was shaking a little bit. It was almost as though the answer to that question was life or death for her. Rebecca considered it for a while, tilting her head back and forth.

"I don't see why not," she said. "Yeah, I do. I believe that ghosts are real."

The girl looked so relieved.

"Oh thank goodness," she said. "Because I think I might be one, and that's why I'm lost. Can you tell me which way Tokyo is?"

Rebecca froze for a moment. The girl was kidding, right? She wasn't a ghost.

Except...

...maybe that wasn't a clay stain at all.

Rebecca thought maybe she should run home and call emergency services, like grandpa had taught her to do in situations she felt uncomfortable in or didn't think were safe. Maybe they could help the girl? But then...if she really was a ghost...

The girl was waiting for an answer, and Rebecca finally pointed down the street.

"It's about five miles that way," she said. "Um...should I call the police?"

The girl smiled widely at getting an answer.

"Thank you!" she said. "And no, it's okay, I think I don't get tired anymore cause I'm a ghost, so I can walk. But thank you very much! I won't forget it!"

She looked for a moment, like she was going to throw her arms around Rebecca, and then hesitated, looking back over her shoulders at the arms she was hiding behind her back. She just decided to smile, bow very quickly, and trotted off very quickly in the direction that Rebecca had pointed out. She tried to move her arms out of sight as she did so, but while she walked away, Rebecca caught a glimpse of them—bloody, mangled, and in positions that arms should never be in.

Rebecca felt bile rise in her throat, and she clapped a hand to her mouth as tears bubbled to her eyes.

When she cleared her eyes free of tears, the girl was gone. As though she had never been there at all.

Yes, Rebecca thought with a growing dread in her stomach. She does believe in ghosts.

. . .

A/N: Getting spoopy up in here lol. Next is Domashipping (Raphael x Valon x Amelda).