She dubbed herself Goldie.
Maybe because she didn't like the other name she thought of, or maybe it's because it just felt right, but she dubbed herself Goldie.
Goldie remembered her entire childhood. How her father wiped away her tears when she gets pushed around in school, how her mother laughed when Goldie got too excited and give her father a hard time by running around the house, and how they both were all there for her no matter what.
They stopped appearing a few months after she turned seven, which frustrated her greatly. Either they were dead, or they abandoned her, which wouldn't happen. They both loved her dearly in her memories… but she couldn't imagine them dead…
Goldie also remembered a few other things. A fuzzy memory of herself and three others playing a card game, with the three screaming curses and herself cackling madly, and "I win, bitches!" for some absurd reason. The people in her memory were so blurry, she couldn't make out their features.
She still couldn't remember her name, which was insanely frustrating. If she finds her true self, whatever that was, she was going to find the long-nosed man, and punch him in the face for making her life difficult and for not returning her memories. If he wanted Goldie to find her true self, he could have given her a list of directions.
Goldie really wanted to punch the long-nosed man. This time, after punching him, she'll stick her rapier so far up his arse, it'll be sticking out of his mouth.
Okay, maybe she should explain.
Goldie met him again after narrowly escaping a giant ball with teeth and a disgustingly slimy tongue that liked to lick literally everything. He told her to trust her instincts and accept her true self. Then he knocked her out and sent her to darkness.
As she screamed bloody murder about very interesting threats to the long-nosed man (That rapier looks very interesting in his arse), she landed in a creepy room. Hard. She cursed and tried to get up when she looked at her hand and almost jumped ten feet in the air in surprise and shock. Her hand was gold and kind of transparent… and so was the rest of her body…!
Goldie cursed and floated (yes floated) up. She quickly searched for a mirror shard she found in the fog world, being careful not to cut herself, and looked in her reflection. The mirror shard wasn't the cleanest mirror, but it did come in handy. Her face was dirty and scratched, and her hair was messed as usual, but her whole body was transparent. Gold, yes, but transparent. It was incredibly weird.
There was a boy, no,man, in chains, with a gigantic cat prowling around him, for some reason. Goldie noted his eyes were green, kind of like celery.
"Hello?" She called out. She got no answer, so she poked him in the arm. Goldie can touch him, which was weird since she was literally a ghost, but the man didn't react at all, which was even weirder. Goldie looked up and floated around the room.
There was another man. He was prancing back and forth, biting his thumb. Unlike the other boy, he had black eyes, like coal, but it looked as though it used to be filled with laughter and mischief. Now it was worried and afraid.
"Hey, Aiden?" The black-eyed man said, which almost made Goldie jump out of her skin (if she even has skin). "Look, I'm still mad at you for what you did to… you know… yesterday, but come on, man, just say something."
'Aiden' didn't answer. He merely looked down. Goldie floated around the cage. She didn't know what Aiden had done, but he looked really guilty about it. Plus, the black-eyed man talked as though he was going to die, and Aiden looked as though he thought he deserved to die. Goldie doesn't want him to die and if he felt really guilty about whatever he did, then he's forgiven.
Goldie slipped through the bars of the cage and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. She doesn't know if he could feel her, not to mention, she doesn't even know him, but he looked like he needed a hug.
She felt his muscles tense, then relaxed, so she assumed he can. She was proven right when he lifted up a hand and grasped hers gently.
Then it happened.
"Time's up! Ooo, so close! So sorry, but I'm afraid you are too late."
The voice sent a shiver down Goldie's spine. Somehow, she got the feeling that the voice wasn't human. It reminded her of the monsters she fought against in the fog world.
Goldie suddenly found herself being forcefully ripped away from Aiden by some sort of wind. Aiden twisted around, looking confused by the sudden lack of contact, and made eye contact with her. His eyes widen, and Goldie knew he saw her.
She tried to float towards him, but a white flash blinded her for a second. There was a loud scream. Aiden's chains and cage had vanished and to Goldie's horror, the cat lunged for him, its claws sharp and deathly, and pointed straight at Aiden's neck—
The black-eyed man screamed in despair as the cat sank its claws into Aiden's neck. Goldie found herself crying for the man she had hugged in comfort and forced herself to look away because even if she wanted to help (and she definitely wanted to help), she couldn't. She tried and failed because the cat only passes through her, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't block out the screams of pain and misery.
When she looked back, Aiden's body was laying on the ground, celery green eyes blank, the last of his shock of seeing her fading, and his neck and chest ripped open. Goldie felt like she was going to be sick from the blood.
Goldie heard hurried footsteps, so she turned around and saw a huge group of people running into the room. One of them, a beautiful woman with long black hair pinned back with a yellow chip, started sobbing.
"AIDEN! NO!" She screamed. She tried to get to Aiden's body, but a man with blonde hair step forward and wrap his arms around her waist.
"Jesse, we're too late, h-he's dead!
"No! We just lost Maya—we can't lose him too! I don't care what Aiden did yesterday, he doesn't deserve to die!"
Goldie frowned. There was it again. What did Aiden do? Goldie floated around the room and listened in the conservation, hoping to get some information.
A woman with black hair in pigtails looked down, her lips forming into a thin line. "He didn't even get to say anything…"
A man about seven feet tall with messy black hair growled. "That bitch! She knew that our grief will make us faster… she sent more of those monsters after us! Gugh—!"
Goldie yelped in surprise when she felt something pass through her stomach, which happened to be a knife. She followed it and saw it nearly stab the big guy in the neck. If he didn't duck, he'll be killed instantly.
"Axel—!" A woman with auburn hair yelped.
"Oooh, good dodge~" The voice from before spoke up. It seemed to be coming from all over the room. "But you might not be so lucky next time~"
A man with brown hair and emerald eyes growled. "Grrrr…"
A girl with brown hair in a ponytail frowned. "How many more of us are going to die…? How many of us are going to be slaughtered until she's satisfied?..."
Another girl with black hair and glasses put her hand on her shoulder. "I don't know, Seri… I don't know…"
There was another girl with vibrant red hair. She gritted her teeth. "How cruel can she be to have him be murdered by the same thing that killed his girlfriend?!"
Goldie pursed her lips and floated over to Aiden and fished out a silver coin from her pocket. She didn't even remember having the coin, but she pried open Aiden's jaw and gently tuck it under his tongue. Most of her recovered memories involved her parents, but she remembered doing the same thing at a funeral. Whose funeral, she didn't know, but tucking the coin under Aiden's tongue just felt right. The coin involved something about Hades, but other than that, nothing.
Goldie heard a sharp gasp. She turned around and saw the black-eyed man staring at her with wide eyes. That's when she knew he saw her. Goldie tilted her head at him and pulled her hand away from Aiden's mouth.
She startled when Aiden's body was abruptly dragged away from her the moment she pulled away. She watched the body go with a frown and anxiously checked to see if anyone saw that.
A person (because she couldn't tell what gender they were) with brown hair pulled in a ponytail and several strands of hair covering their face pointed at Aiden's body."Cruel enough to do this. Look, that body's already being dragged away."
A woman with long brown hair and royal blue eyes twisted around and snarled. "Did you have to point that out?!"
"The Order are already suffering the loss of three friends!" A man that looked similar to the royal blue-eyed woman scowled.
"Pointing that out will make it worse!"
"And we don't want that."
A girl with short brown hair with magenta streaks frowned at the person with the ponytail. "They're right, Mase. Come on. Let's get out of here. I need to discuss something with the twins and Rin."
A woman with long black hair and pale skin snapped into attention. "Huh? Oh right, that thing."
Soon, everyone started walking out of the room, except for Gill. He was still staring at her. One of the girls, a black-haired girl with purple and red streaks in her hair (the bottom half being a grayish-blue) turned around. "Gill, are you coming?"
Gill… so that was his name,Goldie thought. She watched Gill nod slowly, his eyes still on her. "Yeah, just give me a second."
The girl stared at him, frowning. Then, seeming to have come to a decision, she nodded. "...alright then."
Goldie floated over to him and stopped a few feet away from him. Gill reached out to her but to her surprise, his hand just passed through her. Gill frowned, but brushed it off and looked up at her.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Call me Goldie," she said.
Gill tilted his head. "Goldie, huh? You're a gold ghost, so it suits you… You kind of look like someone I know… but I can't put my finger on it… "
"Well, I… I don't know who I am, so I'm going by that name for now. And no, I'm not a ghost."
Gill frowned. "You don't know who you are? That's sad… but are you sure you're not a ghost? You look like a ghost."
"I'm sure. Er, I'm sure I wasn't before. If it wasn't for that long-nosed man, my body wouldn't even be this way."
"Long-nosed man?"
Goldie scowled. "Yeah. He knows me, but he wouldn't say anything about my past and it's super irritating… that aside, Gill right? That girl called you that."
Gill pursed his lips and nodded. "Yeah, it's Gill. Anyway, I saw you put that coin under Aiden's tongue, assuming you know his name, why is that?"
Goldie shrugged. "I dunno… it just felt right." She glanced at her hands, which were fading, and frowned. "Hey, those monsters your big friend mentioned… Axel, right?... what are the monsters called and what do they look like?"
"Yeah, that's Axel. The monsters are Shadows from what Ann and her assistants told us. They're big blobs of black goop that sometimes form into creatures, why?"
Goldie paled instantly. The long-nosed man may be an irritating one, but he did taught her all about Shadows, so she knew exactly what kind of Shadows Gill and his friends are dealing with. "They're dangerous!"
Gill snorted humorlessly, "Yeah, we got that."
"No, you don't understand—they can eat your psyche, or soul, or whatever. You'll be reduced to a vegetative state—"
Gill's eyes widened. "What?! Wait, how do I know you're telling the truth? If they can do that, why haven't they done it by now?"
"You can avoid and fight them as long as possible, but if you're off guard, they can easily eat your psyche. You guys look like a tough lot. You can take of yourselves but the best thing to do with them is to avoid the shadows — they can travel through them! I'm sorry, I would tell you more, but I don't know if I have much time—"
"Wait, Goldie, will you come back and explain more to us? To all of us?"
"I'll try!" Goldie cried out. "I don't know how but I'll try!"
And she faded into darkness, curling into a ball as the cold washed over her. When she gets back, she was going to punch the long-nosed man in the face. And punch whoever caused Aiden's death while at it too.
"Stop! Let me go!"
"Oh Eliza~ I'm sorry, but you're treading on thin ice~ Very thin ice for that matter~ I have your precious sons and I'm not afraid to hand them over to the killers~"
"Please! I've played those stupid games! Just let us go!"
"You have failed six of those games… I'm afraid I can't, sweetheart~"
"Don't call me sweetheart! You killed my parents, my sisters, my husband, I won't stand for any of this 'sweetheart' nonsense!"
"I said you're treading on fucking thin ice, sweetheart."
"Gaak!"
"Goodbye, sweetheart."
"No… m-my sons…"
"Don't worry, sweetheart~ Your sons are in good hands~"
"N-No…"
