Awakened Souls - Chapter 3 - Father Figure

He ran and ran and ran. Faster than he ever ran in his entire life. Why can't I move faster?! Malachi thought to himself. He looked behind at the town, and saw no one following him. After the knight's mistake of calling him a "beast", he was expecting to have a mob of villagers chasing after him. He had to get home quickly.

The boy stumbled into the graveyard, and hid behind a tree. He put his hand to his chest to calm himself down, and to slow his breathing a bit. Malachi slumped down a bit, but then jolted up after hearing a noise. He looked around. Just a bird, he thought. He got up and looked around, making sure no one was going to follow him.

"Dad? Daaad?"

He wandered around.

A wisp appeared behind him, following him. Malachi tried to look at it, but it appeared in front of him. He tried looking at it again, but it kept switching places.

"Hey! C'mon!" He exclaimed. He tried catching it with his hand, but it disappeared.

A ghostly figured appeared with a large red cape.

"Moshi! You look paler than the ghosts here!" The man laughed. "What's wrong?"

Malachi explained, out of breath. "Dad! I-I was in the dungeon, and I got the guard to get me a gem to eat, and I ate it, and-and he called me a monster or something and pointed his sword at me, and-and, I had to run!"

"Oh, Malachi. It'll be alright." The ghostly father reassured him.

"I-I'm sorry Dad, I was just trying to g-get food on my own and-"

"Shush now. I hear someone approaching."

Malachi rushed behind a bush, and the Ghost Dad disappeared. A group of guards entered the graveyard.

"Search the tombs," The leader commanded, and the rest of them started searching. The wisp started to appear around the graveyard, startling and confusing the guards. One of them reported back to the leader.

"Sir, I think there's something.. strange here."

The leader laughed. "Ha! Like ghosts? They don't exist." The wisp appeared above his head, and the guard hesitated.

"U-Uh.. S-sir.."

"What is it? Speak up!"

The wisp started to form into a figure.

"T-there's.. s-something be-behind you.."

The leader turned around, coming face to face with the Ghost.

"Who are you!" He exclaimed, jumping back, pushing the other guard down.

"Who am I?" The Ghost asked, "Well, I'm Darren Ratorre, Ghost King!"

The two guards looked at each other, then at the ghost.

"Boo," Darren joked.

The two guards ran off screaming, and the others soon followed.