• Outside, the night was cool, the clouds as thick as ice cream.
    I sat, staring out of the window.. Admiring it all and letting myself get attuned to the sound of the night, slipping out of my body into the ether, my body became light, lifeless, utterly still, an empty shell as I searched.
    the clairvoyance was strange, I could see nothing... but then everything at the same time. I could see cats, pale white and ghostly, slipping into alleys,
    Men, wrecked and torn apart by life wandering aimlessly through the street.
    And women, constantly grieving for their living sons.
    and everything was so clear,
    I could almost talk to them, and have conversations.
    I withheld myself, 'no' 'It's wrong to communicate through the ether.

    All of a sudden, the blinding light of the living world struck me. Knocking me dazed, as someone patted me on the shoulder,
    I looked up, to see my mum, with the biggest mug of hot chocolate I had ever seen.
    She quivered under it's weight, she'd filled it to the brim like she always does, then... smothered gallons of whipped cream and marshmallows on top.
    "Mum... leave it will you, I'm working here." I complained, grumpily.
    she sighed and looked at her feet glumly, a sheepish expression on her face. "You can't Not be hungry Oli, you've been up here for hours..."
    I grunted
    "What've you been doing anyway?" she asked, tilting her head to the side quizically.
    I shrugged, and scowled. 'Shut up' I thought to myself 'I don't need you here, let me get on with it myself'
    "Oh come on, your homework can't have taken...." she stopped to look at her massive watch "3 hours"
    Again I grunted "It was hard work, I had to do an essay."
    She made a sound like a deflating car tyre, and walked over to put my drink on my bedside table.
    Her clumsy hand found the lamp, and knocked it to the floor with a massive crash.
    “LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE NOW!” I bellowed, trying not to curse. I saw her turn as white as a sheet.
    ‘oh crap’ I swore under my breath as she picked it up again rapidly.
    “Sorry. there’s your chocolate, see you later.” She quickly apologized as she skipped out of the door.
    And then I was completely alone again, apart from the spirits which drifted around my head.
    “Okay” I whispered to myself, and took a huge breath.
    then the process began again.
    *
    It took a few moments before I could focus properly again, there seemed to be an odd kind of noise in my brain, almost like static, blocking anything (in this world, or the other) from my sight.

    “Dammit” I muttered a couple of times, before finally I could concentrate.
    ‘here we go’ I got down on my hands and knees, my feverish eyes scanning my surroundings like a hunter.
    Again making notes of everything I saw.

    and then all of a sudden, I saw HER.
    Not simply a spirit, all wispy and intangible.

    she was solid, as far as I could tell, and very, very lonely.
    A hard, bitter knot formed in my throat, as I watched her, it was a strange sensation.
    As if she wanted to tell me something.
    Then, as I looked closer and inspected her pure white body I came into contact with the same disturbance, but much much louder this time.
    It fuzzed and confused every one of my senses, and gave me the biggest headache I had ever experienced, the sound filled my head, numbed my already drifting body and calmed me, in an odd way. I was angry, and puzzled at exactly how or why this was happening, but... it was like she’d pacified me, put a dummy in my mouth to stop me screaming out.
    and then her eyes, flashed in front of my own. Open, too wide, that her very eyeballs seemed as if they’d pop out.

    They were, as well as her, pure ice cold white.
    They stared blindly at me, and once, just once I saw a single icicle drip from her eye.
    And then she showed me her mouth, a ghostly cut-out of a smile played on it, but something about it, made me shiver. Was it the cut which ran down the right side? I didn't know
    her lips were slightly apart, her teeth peeking out from under her top lip.
    A kiss on the wind.
    She was... I realized at that precise moment... beautiful.
    I smiled back at her, and her face brightened up instantly, a new sense finding a place in my brain ‘hello’ I heard a voice.
    I stopped dead, to frightened and dazed to reply.
    ‘hello?” she spoke again, the same beauty in her voice as her body. The words were like windchimes, earthy, yet unnaturally chilly.
    Still I refused to reply, waiting for her to continue.
    ‘Is anyone there?’ I gasped, was she talking to me?
    ‘I-I-I’ I stumbled, stupidly over my words like a bashful lover.
    I was met, with a warm kind laugh, and I instantly relaxed. ‘Hello there. I knew there was someone around’ she continued, dazing me with her glorious voice.
    She stopped, I assumed to let me talk. But no words left me. My numb mind was getting dimmer and dimmer all the time.
    ‘Oliver... is that your name?” she asked politely, and, even in the pitch darkness of night I saw her curtsey.
    I struggled to piece together a response. Beginning to feel stupid, and enthralled by her bizarre ways, all I was able to sputter was ‘yes, th-that’s me’
    she giggled like a school girl, playing me like a master gambler. She knew she was winning.
    ‘Will you protect me sir Oliver?’ she asked airily, rolling her head around like a glamour model, her long hair dancing around in the wind
    ‘wha-wha-wha?’
    ‘please?’ she demanded, more seriously.
    Scarily.
    her eyebrows were now furrowed, her frosty expression burning at my chest.
    she let me talk, releasing her strange grip on my mind. 'from what?' I questioned her, as a shiver trickled down my spine,
    'from this' she stopped, her eyes empty now.
    Her body quivered, her mouth dropped open. a tendril of light weaved out from the very depths of her mouth, taking the last tiny bit of colour from her lips, it glided, across the air towards my bedroom window.
    I didn't think about closing it, I was frozen solid. My eyes the only things moving, following the flowing piece of light as it came toward me. I was entranced by the sight. It came closer, and closer, until it was right next to my head. I even forgot to close my mouth, and all of a sudden I was choking... my lungs filling with smoke, my eyes glazed over.
    My veins ran cold, chilling my blood as it ran through me.
    numbing me to the bone.
    A spectral shriek poured into my ears. Booming around my head, dizzying me.
    then blankness overflowed, I was gone.

    *
    I opened my eyes, ‘hello old friend’ I stated, ripping through this body so futilely protected, taring down the mental barriers this fool had created, rip tear SMASH!
    “THIS IS THE MIND OF A YOUNG MEDIUM?” I roar to thin air “REALLY?” I had wished for a bigger challenge than this.
    I’d expected to have to fight, to jam my foot in the door... but to stroll right in? Really?
    I suddenly paused, my senses picking up something, someone else.
    This idiot’s parent.
    So I quietly tiptoed down the stairs, trying to be as... teenage as I could. Trying to imagine what a immature medium would behave like.
    Hoping that it would be enough.
    I pushed the door lightly, slowly, opening it to reveal the mother.
    She looked young, and weak... crushable. She would never be right as a host, I would crush her under my power in mere moments.
    I chuckled, and coughed an irritated greeting to her.
    “Hey Oli” she mumbled, wearily, in her small, skeletal hands she held a cup of hot chocolate.
    With a tonne of cream and marshmallows on top.
    I went to sit next to her, and grabbed her hand lightly. “Hi mum” I spoke politely, knowing that any mother would appreciate that.
    “y’ok? I assume you’ve finished your homework now?”
    Homework? Oh god, I don’t want to go to school.
    Not again, after the last time.
    “yeah” I assured her, now squeezing with my hand. Trying to avoid contact incase she got suspicious.
    “Good good, now don’t cha think you should be off to bed soon? It’s nearly midnight.”
    I nodded and obediently walked to the stairs.
    Stepping into the warm light of the hall. “Wait!” she called, her voice shaking. “are you okay Oli?” I looked over my shoulder at her, her rosy cheeks wilted into a terrible pasty colour.
    the colour of fear, if I remembered correctly. “You don’t look well, are you ill?” she accused, shivering, staring at me... right in my eyes.
    Her mouth formed an ‘o’ as she quivered “y-y-yo-your eyes.”
    I went to the mirror, and looked at this body.
    The kid’s eyes were no longer there, instead they were... strange.
    Even I could appreciate that.
    inside of them, a weird green light swam around.
    It made me look alien.
    It unnerved me.
    “i feel fine” I lied through gritted teeth, ignoring the nausea which rose in my stomach.
    “Get to bed now... and I’ll see how you are in the morning.” she wrung her hands together, and squeezed her eyes shut.
    ‘dammit’
    Still I trudged upstairs, almost drowning in my new found humanity.
    I undressed and looked myself up and down in the mirror, admiring every lump and bump of this insanely immature character. Trying to make me fill this shell up.

    I planned a few things in my head there and then.

    1. don't be stupid,

    2. listen.... get to grips with what this person was like

    3. Stay undetected. Wear sunglasses.

    I felt silly as I rummaged through the draws, trying to find some dark tinted glasses.
    "bingo" I congratulated myself, pulling some cool looking spectacles out from a box at the bottom.