Chapter 6 - My Name is Ghost

A biting cold was the first sensation that registered in my mind when I finally came to. That and I felt squished. I squirmed against the weight pressing me down, and strangely enough it eased off. Groggily I opened my eyelids, taking a moment before they could focus on the metal bars that my face had been resting against.

I felt heavy. And for a moment the world spun as I pushed off the metal bars, clutching my head in my hands. A faint sniffle that was not my own caught my attention.

Immediately I tensed, my gaze zeroing in on a little girl standing in front of me. The white dress she wore was dirty but new. Pink and yellow flowers laced along the edges and she held a well loved bear within her arms.

She gave another sniffle, holding the teddy bear in front of her protectively as she watched me take notice of her. She must have been no older than four, I noted.

It was then that I noticed that it just wasn't us in here. There were more than a dozen young kids all around me, packed together and trying to stay warm by huddling. I didn't recognize any of them as kids from the orphanage. And Natsu was not among them.

"Where's mommy?" The little girl whimpered, drawing my attention back.

"Mommy?" I questioned.

She nodded, speaking into the bear in her arms. "The man said he knew where my mommy was and that he would take me to her." So she wasn't an orphan like me.

I looked around at this, noticing the room that our cage was in. The room was dimly lit. Difficult for anyone to see in, but there again I never did need light to see other people. Beyond this cage and the children in it, there was no else. We were all alone.

"She's not here." I answered her.

"Where is she?"

The girl was persistent, I'll give her that.

"How would I know?" I grumbled, getting to my feet and painfully scrapping the top of my head against the plated ceiling of the cage. I gave an angry hiss, rubbing at the spot. I did not have time for this. Natsu was missing and I had to find him quickly.

The girl backed away fearfully. Tears were threatening to spill over and she clutched her toy tighter to her.

My hiss had gained the attention of the other children, and suddenly I had more than a dozen pairs of eyes upon me. I froze like a deer in headlights, my hands still tending to the tender spot that was developing on my scalp. I noticed then one important thing - I was by far the oldest one here.

Suddenly I was swarmed by tiny hands reaching out and grabbing onto my shirt, my pants, even my shoelaces - whatever they could get a hold of. I stumbled backwards into the metal bars painfully as the kids started crying out - each wanting answers to their questions as if I was the one with those answers.

"Where's mommy?"

"Where am I?"

"I want to go home!"

Their cries rang out harshly throughout the room, deafening my ears by their sheer volume. I clenched my eyes shut, clamping my hands over my ears to try to drown out their voices.

"Pipe down, ya brats!" The door to the room banged open, allowing a lanky blonde hair man to swagger inside. A cigarette hung limply from his lips and he had his hands stuffed in his pockets. He walked over to the cage where we were, swinging a kick out and violently hitting the metal bars. The whole thing rattled, instantly quieting the kids into a fearful silence.

The man bent down, taking a long drag of his cigarette and blowing the smoke into our faces.

I coughed when the offensive smoke entered my lungs.

"So you woke up, huh?" He said, peering at me over his sunglasses.

I snapped out of my stupor, wrangling myself out of the reach of the children's arms and flinging myself to the cage's edge.

"Where did you take Natsu?" I snarled at the man.

"Who?" He breathed another cloud of smoke in my face, not intimidated by my ferocity.

"My friend." I coughed, my eyes and throat stinging with the cigarette.

"Oh, the brat with the warp quirk. Lucky bastard is already long gone." He stood up, taking one last drag from his cigarette and dropping to the floor to be smothered under his boot.

"Gone?"

"Yah, with a quirk like that he was snatched up real quick. Made us quite a good sum of money on commission too."

Snatched? Commission? None of it was making any sense to me. But then I looked behind me into the eyes of the scared children whimpering silently and something clicked.

I turned back to the man, gripping the bars so tight that it cut into my skin.

"What the hell is this place?" I emitted a low growl.

"Haven't figured it out yet? God, you're slow." The man bent down again so we were eye level once more. "This is an auction house where we cater to the desires and wants of the elite and criminally inclined. Anything and everything can be bought here for the right price. Including kids like you." He shoved a finger into my chest through the bars.

I looked down where he had touched me as if I had just been stabbed.

"Though I doubt you'll fetch as high of a price as your friend did," He sighed, standing back up and heading towards the door. "But let's see how high of a price we can squeeze out of you tonight, yeah?" His hand paused on the door as he looked back towards me, "Look sharp, kid. You'll get your time to shine on the stage soon enough. You're up next."

The door closed with a clang, throwing us back into the darkness.

With the man gone, the whimpers and soft cries started up again behind me, but I couldn't hear them. The man's words were echoing over and over in my head, as I processed all that he said.

I was going to be sold. And Natsu was gone.

Where did we go wrong? Natsu and I had spent months, years even in preparation to escape from that place only to have our efforts torn away. If only we had left a day sooner, then none of this would have happened and we would still be together. If only…

I felt a tug on my shirt and it broke me out of my thoughts. The little girl from before was clutching my shirt tightly, looking up at me with tears in her eyes.

"A hero is coming to save us, right? I want to go home."

She had a point. Where were the heroes? I had seen so many new reports of their heroics on the television that I honestly believed that there was nothing that they couldn't do. They had to be on their way to rescue us, right? They had to know that we were down here. There were far too many missing children for them not to take notice and not do something about it. Right?

"Yah, a hero is coming to save us." I responded back, reassuring myself at the same time. This seemed to stop the sniffling and tears as the other children heard my proclamation.

"Really?" A boy perked up. "Who do you think is going to come?"

This sparked a discussion among the group as they argued over which hero would arrive first, and ultimately which of the heroes was the best. At least they were distracted for now.

I climbed back over to my corner of the cage and the little girl followed me, huddling into my side as I sat on the cold floor. As the seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes turned into an hour, my hope continued to fall. I kept my eyes pinned on the door, desperately wanting a hero to burst through at any moment and save us all. When the door finally did open again, it was not a hero who entered.

A different man from before with a far greater build stalked towards us, reaching inside his pants pocket and withdrawing a key fob. He held it up the door of the cage and it gave a beep before unlocking. His eyes scanned each of us until he landed on me.

"You're up first." He said with no emotion, a hand reaching in and seizing hold of the top of my head.

I was forcefully dragged out by my hair and made to stand up as the cage door clanged shut behind me. The electronic beep signaling that it was locked once more.

His callus hand pushed me forward, almost making me stumble several times as I was marched from the room and out into the lit hallway. I glanced behind me towards the cage and the eyes that watched me there. They were up next, and the fear in their eyes told me that they understood this too. As the door closed behind me, I threw them a silent promise that I would save them. No one was going to come and help us, so I would have to. I just had to figure out how.

The hand on my shoulder directed me down the hallway and towards a heavy wooden door with the word 'Stage' written across the front. Beyond it I could hear someone speaking loudly to a crowd, enhanced by a microphone. My handler pushed the door open and shoved me forward. We left the lit hallway and were thrust back into darkness once more.

We were backstage in some sort of auditorium. There were left over props for plays and stage equipment strewn about, long forgotten by the looks of it considering the layer of dust that coated everything.

The booming voice was getting louder, and I knew it was behind the curtain directly in front of me. With no preparation or word, my handler moved the curtain aside and forced me through before I had a chance to consider a plan of action.

"Lot number 459!" The announcer exclaimed as I was led onto the blinding stage and into the spotlight. I winced, temporarily blinded by the harsh light in my eyes. My eyes adjusted slowly, but it made little difference as the audience before me was shrouded in darkness. All I could see was the glint of their eyes as they studied me. I let my eyes flash briefly so I could better see what I was dealing with. If it was just a handful of adults, then I knew I could take them on easily, but what I saw before me made my stomach plummet.

Too many souls twisted and danced in front of my eyes. There were simply too many to count - too many for me to take on my own. My half-baked plan of escape died before I even had a chance to try.

"Lot number 459!" The announcer repeated, gesturing to me. "Quirk: Sleeping Beauty. She has the ability to fall asleep anytime and anywhere." He explained out to the crowd, his eyes briefly consulting the pieces of paper on the podium in front of him. He continued. "Has possible applications in the pharmaceutical world for sleep enhancements or knock out drugs. Starting the bid at 30,000,000 yen."

The silence was palpable as no one bothered to raise their hand to bid.

"Perhaps a demonstration then." The announcer nodded to my handler.

There was a pressure on my back as I was shoved forward.

"Show them." He gruffed low enough for me to hear.

I stumbled forward, catching myself before I could go over the edge of the stage. I looked out into the abyss of twisting evil, and I knew it was staring back into me. A deepening chill of dread and despair tore through me and pierced straight into my soul. Automatically my feet took me as far away from the stage's edge before my back crashed against my handler's legs. His large hands clamped down on my shoulders, rooting me to the spot and preventing any further escape. Tried as I might, I couldn't control the tremors that had taken hold of my body.

"Kid's got a case of stage fright." The announcer sighed, shaking his head exasperatedly. "Very well, if pharmacy isn't what you're looking for," the announcer quickly moved on, trying to salvage the devolving situation, "then can I suggest organ harvesting, or being put into service as a training dummy for your force? Small kids like this can be used in more ways than one to suit your needs. Starting the bid at 300,000 yen."

This time there were takers and the bid slowly increased. I didn't hear how high the bid went, but nearly jumped out of my skin when the gavel slammed into the podium.

"Sold! Thank you, sir!" The announcer pointed to someone out in the audience.

"Next item on the docket - lot number 631. You do not want to miss out on this, ladies and gentlemen! This kid is sure to unlock your hearts and your checkbooks!" The announcer's voice faded as I was led away from the spotlight. I looked up and saw the familiar girl in the white dress standing with another one of the handlers. Her eyes were red and her teddy bear was nowhere to be found.

"Quit crying already." Her handler hissed, shoving her forward.

We passed each other and she suddenly reached out to me, latching onto my leg.

"I don't want to go!" She cried into my leg. "Help me, please!"

"Damn kids!" Her handler and mine moved quickly to try to tear her off of me, but the girl had a death grip on me. In the scuffle I fell to the floor, and she crashed on top of me.

"NO! NO! NO!" She screamed as she was pried off and tossed under her handler's armpit. She reached out to me, fingers outstretched pleading with me to save her.

"Sorry about that folks. Children these days simply have no manners." The announcer shook his head apologetically, speaking out to the audience. "Now where were we? Ah, right. As promised, here's lot number 631..."

His voice faded as my handler delivered a kick to my stomach.

"Get up." He ordered.

Clutching my stomach, I obeyed. Arms wrapped around my torso, I moved at a snail's pace, glancing behind one last time to the little girl and whatever fate had instore for her.

She stared back at me from under her handler's arms, still struggling in her handler's grip.

"Don't leave me!" She whimpered, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Something inside of me snapped. In that moment I didn't see the little girl before me. I saw Natsu. And for Natsu I would do anything.

My body froze on its own and nearly caused my handler to trip as he bumped into my back.

"Keep moving." He growled, a hand already poised on my shoulder.

I twisted my head up to look at him.

"No."

"No?" He lifted an eyebrow, slightly amused that it was now that I had decided to show some backbone.

I had no time to brace for the impact across my face that sent me tumbling to the floor and into a pile of discarded rope. My handler lowered his fist to his side, a smirk on his face.

I sat up, spitting out the blood that pooled in my mouth. It was the shock that I needed to clear my head, painful as it was. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, a small smile on my lips.

"You're going to regret that."

I let my body fall backwards into the piles of rope, the collision not even registering in my head as my soul shot from my body like a bird freed from its cage. Releasing a piercing shriek into the air I vaulted myself at the man's head, twisting over his shoulders and taking hold of the back of his jacket. Shock was clear as day on the man's face as he tried to move to counter me but found that his hands touched nothing but air. In one swift movement, aided with the use of my quirk to make the man float, I tossed him over my head and back hard onto the floor. He bounced once, and then twice - the air leaving his lungs in a sharp gasp. There was a clear snap as something within him broke. But I didn't stop there. I couldn't stop. With invisible strings I picked him back up, slamming him over and over again into the floor.

The sound of his body repeatedly crashing to the ground had attracted unwanted attention and soon the noise of several pairs of footsteps rushed to our location. In a huff I severed the man from his puppet strings with one final throw into a brick wall. His body slid down with a groan, fingers twitching, but he did not get up.

The new arrivals rounded the corner of the stage in that instant - some with guns drawn, others with quirks at the ready. They quickly surveyed the scene before them and found their friend lying lifeless on the floor a few feet away from me.

"Holy shit! How did a Pro get in here?" One of the newcomers hissed, pointing his gun towards me.

"Pro?" The question rang out in my mind. For a moment I was hopeful that I was not alone, that a Hero had finally come to save us all.

"Oh, they mean me. I guess I do look like an adult in this form." I thought as I looked down at my hand. Natsu had certainly made enough comments on my ghost appearance over the years to hammer the concept into my head. The funny thing about my soul was that it looked nothing like my real body. It was an entirely different person. Hell it wasn't even the same age. As a ghost I looked to be in my mid twenties which is why Natsu always teased me by calling me "Mom" - well that and the constant lectures I made him listen to.

"Hold it!" One of the others ordered, "Don't shoot while you're on the stage. You could hit the customers!"

But the warning fell on deaf ears. "You're going to pay for that!" The man yelled.

The bullet shot forth from the round with a splitting crack. It was deafening, making my blood run cold. For a split moment my life flashed before my eyes - a mixture of images that were familiar, while others were not. I was playing tag with Natsu and a few of the younger kids at the orphanage. We were four and Natsu had just discovered his quirk, using his quirk to pop all around the play yard to avoid being caught. Suddenly the memory of Natsu twisted and shifted into the form of a fluffy black dog in a large snowy backyard. I was feverishly packing the snow around the dog's fur willing it to stay put while I built an igloo over the dog. The dog happily panted, enjoying the cold weather with its thick warm fur for protection. I finished my creation, leaving only the dog's black head poking out from under the mound of snow.

"All done!" I clasped my hands together, and at the command the dog leapt out, shaking the snow from its fur and giving me a lick. The memory faded into white and was gone. It was a nice memory, but there was only one problem.

I never had a dog.

I couldn't even make sense of the unrecognizable memories, as I was thrown painfully back into the present. My eyes focused once more on the guards before me and settled on the smoking gun. Cautiously I looked down at my torso and then behind me to see the small impact crater the bullet had made within the brick.

For a moment there I forgot that in this form no one could touch me unless I wanted them to. The gun had startled me, but I certainly remembered now.

"Right." I huffed, giving myself a good shake. I looked back at the men and vanished into the thin air.

"What the fu-" One of the men loudly muttered before I cut him off by suddenly dragging his legs out from under him and tossing him beyond the stage curtain. The rest scattered, blindly shooting at the empty air in a frenzy.

One by one I tossed the men about like dolls, launching a few up into the catwalks for them to hang and a few others into the brick wall knocking them out on impact while also being careful to avoid sending them near my body. The last thing I needed was for them to find and take notice of my sleeping form.

I worked quickly through their ranks until there were none left standing. A chorus of groans and grumbles was the only thing that I heard. The announcer beyond the curtain had long since fallen silent.

"Speaking of which..."

I passed through the curtain and out onto the stage once more. This time the light did not blind my eyes and I noticed the audience that was there only minutes before had vanished. Several doors had been opened around the room, allowing light into the arena and for the buyers to make a swift exit.

I did a quick search of the stage, finding the announcer crouching in front of the podium with a phone in his hands. He was muttering quickly to whoever was on the other end but stopped when he noticed me. He was unarmed and didn't try to approach me.

I ignored him for now and laid my eyes on the little girl. Her handler laid behind her face down, a pool of blood slowly oozing out from under him to stain the wood floor. One of the stray bullets had killed him.

The sight of blood and the dead body brought me down from my temporary flush of endorphins, and suddenly I was very much aware of the state of the girl that I was trying to save. She was looking up at me tentatively, unsure if I was friend or foe. A cut was sliced across her check where a bullet had cut into her, and blood was still trickling down her face to her neck. Beyond the cut, she seemed to be otherwise unhurt.

"Umm," She twisted and balled the front of her dress in her hands.

I took a step forward towards her, reaching out. Instantly she flinched and stepped back, slipping in the warm blood and tumbling over the man's corpse.

I froze at seeing the clear fear in her eyes. I was scaring her.

"Hey," I called out, kneeling down to show her that I meant no harm. "Are you ok?"

She peered out from behind the corpse, slowly getting to her feet.

"Are you a Hero?" She asked tentatively.

The question struck me painfully. Being a hero was Natsu's dream, not mine. Anyone else looking at the scene around us would see that the busted up bodies of the guards and the pool of blood from the dead handler was not the work of a hero. It was the work of a criminal. But this little girl needed me. She needed me to be a hero for her at that moment. It was the only way to even offer a hope of escape from this place - for all of us. Being a hero held significant power.

"Yep." I lied, even plastering a smile on my lips.

I held out my hand, "How about we go get the others and get out of here? Yeah?"

She nodded and took my hand. There was a spark in her eyes that wasn't there before - a hope reignited.

"Alrighty then." I stood up, making sure to solidify my form so the little girl could take hold of my hand. "Let's go get the others."

Briefly I glanced around only to find that the announcer had slipped away without me noticing.

We began walking away back behind the curtain, when the girl spoke up.

"What's your name?"

"Eve." I answered.

She yanked hard on my hand. "No, your hero name."

I switched her body to be on my left side to shield her from the sight of the various carnage I had wrought. Even I winced and momentarily felt ashamed for the pain I had inflicted, but now was not the time to reflect on my actions. There would be plenty of time for internal beratement later when I was out of here.

"Umm, my name is Ghost." The name popped immediately into my head. It was the name Natsu had given me long ago.

"I haven't heard of you." She said without skipping a beat.

"I'm new."

"Oh."

We paused before my sleeping body, and I knelt down, thinking quickly. I could be more of a help in my ghost form than in my physical form, but touching my body as I am now would only mean that I would be sucked back inside. Yet, I had to get my body out of here as well. What to do...

"Is she ok?" The little girl asked, releasing my hand and poking at my sleeping body's cheek.

"She'll be fine." I stood up, looking around the space for anything I could use. "She's just sleeping, but we need to move her and take her with us."

My eyes landed on a wheeled cart.

"Bingo."

Taking hold of the cart's handles, I wheeled it over my body. Now came the tricky part.

"Hey, can you help me?" I caught the little girl's attention. "Do you think you can get her on here for me while I go check the hallway?"

"Ok!" She nodded exuberantly, glad to be of help to a Pro Hero.

I gave her a thumbs up and walked away as she began grunting and huffing, trying to pull my body's weight onto the cart's platform. I didn't need to check the hallway to know that no one else was out there, but I needed some sort of excuse to give to the girl so that I wouldn't have to explain why I couldn't touch my body - uh, I mean the sleeping girl.

I gave it a few moments before I heard an "All done!" from behind me.

"Great job!" I congratulated her as I walked back, grasping the cart and pushing it out into the hallway. The girl followed closely behind me as we made our way back to the room where the others were being held. My head was on a swivel for any signs of approaching people, but there was no one. It seems they all had either fled or were out cold - courtesy of yours truly.

We reached the door where I knew the children lay just beyond. The girl raced forward and opened it for me, running inside and over to the cage.

"Everyone!" She clapped her hands together, getting their attention, "Ghost is here to save us."

At this the children clamored to the edge of the cage when they saw the little girl stop in front of them. I entered the room after leaving the cart and my body out in the hall.

"Wow! A real hero!" One of them exclaimed.

"I need to pee!" Another one cried.

"We'll all get out of here really soon." I spoke as I knelt before the door of the cage.

When I had been collected from the room, the man had used some sort of electronic fob key to open the door - something I had completely forgotten about while we were back on the stage. I could go and get it, but something told me that in my frenzy of slamming his body about the place, that the key fob had been destroyed.

I scowled in irritation at the realization of my lack of foresight. I shook my head. Beratement later. Saving now.

"Come on, get us out of here!" One particular boy excitedly yelled, swinging his body back and forth from the bars like a deranged monkey.

"I'm working on it." I grinned through strained teeth.

"Let me help!" The little girl beside me cried out, eager to rush forward and place her hands on the door. She closed her eyes and her face took on a look of deep concentration. There was a soft click of a lock being released followed shortly by the electronic beep of the door opening on its own as the girl stepped back.

"My quirk is that I can open locks." She explained happily to me.

"You couldn't do that before?" I questioned, my eye twitching in annoyance.

Thankfully she didn't hear me as the children rushed out of the cage, whooping and yelling as if this all had been some big game. With a hero here they had nothing more to fear. They raced each other out into the hall where they found the cart and my body.

"Hey, it's that girl from before." One of them noticed.

A few climbed onto the cart and started poking my various body parts.

"Why is she sleeping?"

"HEY WAKE UP!" A particularly annoying child yelled into my body's ear.

"Hands off!" I yelled at them, swatting them away from my body.

My sudden outburst tore a shock through the impressionable children, and soon enough they were standing back whimpering. Full on tears were only moments away and I did not need a half dozen crying children on my hands. Not now.

"Look," I spoke softly, trying to defuse the situation. "Let's just get out of here, ok? Stay close to me. I think I saw an elevator around here somewhere." I grabbed the cart and proceeded down the hallway.

The children followed closely behind me while the little girl took up her position at my side, proclaiming herself my temporary sidekick. With some searching we came across the elevator doors and for the first time that night I could actually taste freedom when those doors opened and emptied us out onto a brightly lit lobby.

Immediately there were eyes upon us as our ragged and odd group stepped out onto the floor and I swear you could almost hear a pin drop as everyone in the vicinity froze.

"Stay with me." I whispered behind me. I was already tensing for another fight, but I didn't need to.

"What's going on here?" A loud voice rose above the crowd and a large man in a police uniform pushed his way forward.

He stopped short of our group, eyes growing wide at the sight of my body being pushed on the cart and the deep cut to the little girl's face. It didn't help matters that her once white dress was now splattered with crimson.

"Dispatch I need an ambulance over here now! I have several hurt civilian children and one adult female. Send some Pro Heroes too! Possible kidnapping victims!" He quickly called off into the radio by his shoulder.

A gasp ran through the crowd and several figures ran forward to lend us a helping hand. But to me those hands reaching out were as threatening as the men I had just faced off a few floors below. I flinched, immediately shoving the kids back behind me and protectively placing myself in front of them.

The police officer at seeing my display threw out his hands to the crowd, pushing them back.

"Back off! Give them some space!" He cried.

When the crowd was somewhat subdued he turned back to me, addressing me.

"Ma'am can you tell me who you are and what happened?"

"Her name is Ghost!" My sidekick popped her head out from behind me, exclaiming resolutely, "And she's a hero! She saved us from the evil men."

"A hero?" The cop took a second glance at me and seeing something I know not what, he visibly relaxed. "Sorry, about that ma'am." He chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. "I'm new to the force so I didn't recognize you."

"T-that's all right." I cleared my throat and straightened a bit, not believing my luck. "These kids," I took a step to the side, ushering the children from out behind me, "were kidnapped and were going to be sold. You'll find an auction house several floors down and some men unconscious. I would suggest arresting them before they have a chance to wake up." I tried to straighten my back, making myself appear more "hero-like".

"Understood, Ghost." The police officer nodded to me. "Please take the children to the front over there." He pointed to the grand revolving doors that led outside. "An ambulance will be here soon to tend to you all. I'll head down now and see what I can find."

With that said he headed past me and down in the elevator.

"You heard him." I spoke to the kids. "Let's go wait outside."

The crowd gave us a wide berth, allowing us past and out into the night air. Several ambulances pulled up stretching to the sidewalk just as we stepped outside, their blue and red lights casting revolving shadows off the surrounding buildings. Men and women rushed out of the ambulances, quickly surrounding us and getting to work on assessing the states of the children.

"Hey! What's the situation?" A fairly tall man ran up to me, bending over slightly to catch his breath from the sprint he just did. From the eye catching hero costume I knew that he had to be a hero. A real hero. Someone I was not.

"Several kidnapped children to be sold in an auction house a few floors down from here." I turned towards the hero, speaking quickly. It was getting easier and easier to perpetuate the lie that I was a hero, and so I continued. "A police officer has already gone down to assess the place. I warned him that several dangerous men were unconscious and should be arrested promptly."

"You took them out all by yourself? Amazing! You must be really strong!" He declared, giving me a once over.

Out of the corner of my eye one of the ambulance officers was inspecting my body carefully.

"Ma'am, what's this child's injuries?" The officer asked me curtly.

"She was knocked out by a force to the head." I replied in a half truth, but added on quickly as he lifted my body off the cart and towards the ambulance, "But she's okay, seriously. You can probably leave her be."

"We'll check her over with the others at the hospital just in case." He replied as he disappeared with my body inside the ambulance.

"By the way, what's your name?" The hero spoke in front of me, catching my attention again. He jabbed a thumb to himself, "I'm Vision. I haven't seen you around here before."

"Yah, I'm new here." I said hurriedly, constantly glancing to the place where my body had disappeared too. "Listen, it was great to meet you, but I have to go now."

I backed away and turned, but found my wrist caught in his grip. I looked down where his hand held my wrist and then back up into his face.

"Sorry about that." He quickly released me when it became obvious of my dislike of being grabbed. "But I do need your name for the report later if you don't mind."

"It's Ghost."

"Ghost, huh? That's an interesting hero name. What does it mean -"

I cut him off, "I got to go now, Vision. See you later."

"Alright, then. It was nice meetin' you, Ghost. Maybe we can team up together someti-"

I didn't let him finish as I vanished before his eyes, effectively ending the conversation there.

"What the-" He blinked, waving at the air where I had been moments before.

"That's different." He grinned, unperturbed by his sudden dismissal. "Alrighty then! Time to get to hero work." He declared, heading inside the building.

I breathed a sigh of relief and rose off the asphalt to go find my body once again. Approaching the ambulance, I found my body spread across a gurney, an oxygen mask over my mouth and my body hooked up to various monitors. Several of the paramedics were hovering over me with anxious expressions.

"She's not responding to anything." One of them spoke.

"Must be in a coma from the force of the blow. We'll need to get her to the hospital immediately for a scan." Another nodded, jotting something quickly down on his clipboard before heading over to the doors. I realized that they were going to take my body away, and dove inside the cramped compartment. In the sudden commotion I touched a portion of my body and slipped back inside.

My eyelids flitted open, making me wince at the glaring white lights that shone above me. I gave a groan and attempted to sit up, a hand shooting to my temple where I could feel a bruise forming.

"She's waking up!" Someone to my left cried out in surprise much too loudly.

"Lay back." A hand pressed against my shoulder, forcing me back against the gurney. "You're safe now. Can you tell me your name?"

"My name?" I spoke groggily, turning to face the speaker.

"Yes, your name."

I gave a frown, my mind turning. If I gave away my name, would I be sent back to the orphanage? Would I be placed back into Matron's perfectly manicured hands only to be sold off yet again to the same men? If that happened, I would never find Natsu. Only I could find him. Only I knew how.

After all, we're partners through and through.

My mind made up, I closed my eyes.

"I don't remember my name." I breathed. It's always easier to lie if you don't have to look the other person in the face.

"It's alright." They breathed sympathetically, patting me on my shoulder. "Don't force it. It'll come to you eventually."

I opened my eyes as they exchanged a quick conversation above me, muttering something about amnesia and maybe needing to get a Pro Hero involved for a memory dive. Two of them exited the doors while leaving one behind to keep tabs on my status.

I breathed steadily, waiting for the right moment to enact my plan. I waited until the paramedic was distracted and slipped back out of my body. The monitors gave out an alarm and the paramedic swirled back to me, noticing that I had gone limp and unresponsive.

Standing to the side of gurney, I watched as the man checked the monitors before giving a curse and tearing through various drawers, pulling out vials and a syringe. I winced at the sight of the needle.

"Time to go."

Before he could line up the needle with my body's arm I plunged my ghost hand through his head. The needle fell from his hand, bouncing across the metal floor with a clang. Immediately the man slumped forward, almost landing on top of my body before I could catch him and set him down on the ground gently.

"Sorry." I apologized to the sleeping man. I kicked the syringe into a corner away from anyone accidently stepping on it.

Straightening back up I successfully slipped back inside of my body and the monitors went silent once more. I sat up quickly, the room spinning for a moment as I tore off the oxygen mask and various wires they had attached to my head and torso. The monitors sparked to life again, sounding the alarm when they were removed unceremoniously. Not wasting any more time, I slipped out of the ambulance and scanned the surrounding area.

More heroes had arrived on scene along with a squad of police officers. They were geared up and ready to storm the building. But more importantly they were all preoccupied and blind to the form of a single girl that slipped out beyond the police tape and vanished into the night.

As you probably gathered from this chapter, Eve doesn't do well around other people. This is going to be a main theme going forward as I try to express her introversion, and her struggle to be part of the world. I think a lot of stories out there don't have characters that can represent the introverts within our society fully or very accurately, so I wanted to make an attempt to correct that. There are varying levels of introversion, I know, so we'll have to see where Eve falls on that scale. She's not going to be meek or entirely weak, but there will be mental scars that hold her back and keep her on her guard. We all have experienced some sort of trauma in our lives that we live with every day, and I wanted a character that we could all relate to in some small way. Hopefully, I can express that in the upcoming chapters.

Please continue reading on as we jump forward in time to an adult Eve within the next chapter :)