"Indeed, man has two different beings inside him. What devil thought of that malicious touch."
- Stendhal
The girl had no idea how to stop her "Mother" from attacking them, the latter being thrown in a near berserk state at the view of "strangers".
While the monster's blackened half threatened to use those attacks he performed on the door, the sane half struggled to steer the fireball away from the being in front of them.
One fireball was shot, grazing the girl's arm and phasing through the masked specter. The near hit enraged the monster, who reluctantly shot another fireball and missed.
The specter never intervened to protect the girl, simply spectating the sorry state their Queen was in. He probably had a reason not to FIGHT, but the human ghost couldn't figure it out.
There, his female fellow ghost stepped up, whispering the awful truth behind this passive behavior.
"You know, partner, we already killed that monster a long time ago. Them, and many, many, many more after that."
The ghost "shuddered", their worries came true at last. They were indeed a killer, the ones who made the frenzied being in front of them become what they are.
Mere seconds passed, but a million horrible looking things passed through their non-existent mind: The dying girl, their dead mother, a shattered heart, dust, cries, screams, wails, blood, guts, blood, and guts again.
Sins crawled on their back, clutching their neck, and nearly choked them. They wheezed, oddly enough, as if they were about to fade. They looked at their hand, hoping they were wrong, but all they saw were melting limbs drowned in blood and dust.
The female ghost shooked their demented partner to wake them up, pointing at the girl who just took a direct hit. She may be still standing, but the charred flesh and her wincing face did betray her unfavorable state.
The specter continued spectating the scene, wondering what would happen next. He never intervened, not even once, to SAVE the human girl. When she took the attack head-on, he looked at the wound and then said.
"You might not want to die on your way to redemption."
The girl maintained stares at her demented parent, talking to the being behind her.
"Fancy talking, for someone who is not doing a thing."
The specter smirked, approached her, then whispered.
"I'll help only if you're about to die, or they probably will, again."
The human girl smiled, she was seemingly expecting that kind of treatment. Being left alone to fight a frenzied monster, who turns out to be her mother of sorts. Worse, she probably won't take more than two other fireballs before dying.
Just as the little ghost finished processing all of that, the girl was hit again.
This time, it scraped a bit more of her left arm, making it bleed as her flesh was burnt pretty badly. She bit her lip in anticipation of the pain, and she never left a scream.
The human ghost wondered why she would not flee, cry, scream, or do any other thing, someone, their age would do. They wanted to help her but thought they will probably phase through the attack.
Their mind was now even more clouded by hate, the monster fueled their feelings into another flame-based attack. The girl stood there, waiting for the inevitable to come. Death was a small price to pay for her, the abomination she once was had no right to exist after all.
When the attack got close to her, it was intercepted by something. Rather, someone, she thought she wouldn't see again.
A boy.
The ghost had jumped desperately, convinced he would do little yet frustrated by not doing a thing. He was surprised to sustain the hit but immediately phased out of existence as he screamed in pain.
The loud complaint woke the monster from its forced slumber, and the "corruption" slowly retracted from its body. Falling on their knees from exhaustion, they looked at a familiar face, but couldn't recognize the other.
Their golden eyes were still tainted in red, proof they were not fully out of their predicament. The girl looked back at them, walked the meager distance between them, then embraced her mother with her valid arm.
Both stayed in half an embrace, after which the Queen, who now was a little more aware of her surroundings, started healing her child's arm. The girl looked up at her mother's damaged limb, crying at how badly shaped it was.
The specter went upstairs, satisfied that the Queen was saved. He also noted a few things in a journal before heading out, then he disappeared.
A few hours later, the ghost boy was resting on the lap of a skeleton. A female one, judging by her facial expression. She had an annoying smirk and wore some sort of armor set, making her lap quite hard to rest upon.
The boy wondered how he managed to rest at all, he was pretty sure he took a hit and almost passed out because of it. Checking his ethereal body for any marks of the assault was useless, as it was again whole and functioning.
"Where is she?"
The skeleton frowned her invisible eyebrows, not getting what the boy meant.
"Who are you talking about, partner?"
The boy sighed, then spoke again.
"The girl."
A giggle escaped a jaw that was able to make that kind of sound, contrary to what the boy would have thought.
"She left with her mother, they are probably catching up now."
The boy wanted to go and see her, yet his fellow ghost stopped him before asking.
"Are you sure you want to see what you did, #$&*?"
Little she knew the boy saw bits and pieces of the horrible things he have perpetrated.
"I am, I need to know."
Before he left, she patted his head and smiled unusually. He couldn't tell why, but his "partner" was different from what his gut was feeling about her.
"Be careful what you wish for."
Those words made the boy hesitate for a bit, but he still floated upstairs. The house looked different at least, a little warmer and livelier than before. The girl was apparently in the kitchen, helping her mom in making a pie.
The boy wished he still had a mother at this point, but his own was dead as far as he can remember. At least, that girl seemed okay and was happy. He smiled weakly at the scenery of normal family life, then looked for a room to rest.
The girl entered her designated bedroom for the night, as her mother wished her a good night before closing the door. Their meeting was weird, it was not the first either. The Queen had no previous memory of meeting her long-lost daughter, the latter focusing on tending to her mother's bloodied and charred paw.
They did not speak a word for two hours, content with that comfortable silence. The air between them was full of confusion, guilt, and apprehension Yet, that did not ruin the long-standing bond they had with each other.
The Queen scooped her little nurse and rested her on her lap, gazing in length at the human. The girl was a little embarrassed, nobody had ever looked at her that hard. After much thought, the queen finally spoke up.
"How can I tell you are not some hallucination?"
"Well, Mother, I don't think dead people can make pie."
Thus she had brought some pie with her, for a night snack. Her pendant glowed the closer she was to the bed, which caught her attention. As she left the plate on a nightstand, she slowly got into the bed. Human features showed on the other side of the small-sized mattress, one she knew of.
She started crying quietly, wetting the fabric of the bed as her hand yearned to touch the sleeping boy.
/ ^#& was there.
He was certainly dead, but not forgotten.