Chapter 6:

My Greatest Blessing and My Greatest Mistake [Part 2]

Red is the Color of You [Short]


     After talking to his mom and reassuring her nothing was wrong, he went upstairs to find Wraith playing with Lala, his clothes magically cleared from the blood stains. He ruffled her fur over and over again and the smile on his face was the widest Izumi’s seen so far, unexpectedly touching his heart. He was sitting on the edge of the bed and for once, his robe was off. It was draped over the bedpost by the backboard of Izumi’s bed. His current clothing consisted of what he remembered when he was a child, a teal dress shirt and black slacks with a dark cyan ebony-patterned belt looped on each hip. 

The only thing he didn’t know was that he wore his dress shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, likely because he was always wearing that red cloak which covered his arms entirely. His black-to-red ombre hair was still wavy and voluminous, reaching to the nape of his neck. Nothing changed about him, but that didn’t surprise Izumi. If he really was a ghost, or even the one from the legends, it would make sense.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Well, maybe send your dog to bed? I don’t want to scare her.”

Izumi got a little off put from his comment, but he listened, motioning for Lala to leave the room and she immediately did what she was told. Closing the door behind her, Izumi pulled out the desk chair and sat facing Wraith.

“Yea..?”

“Hmm...where do I start...how about, why I saved you? I was sitting in the oak tree and really I was thinking about taking a nap when I saw you walking on the road by the field. I recognized you immediately, because you see I never forget a face. It’s been some years for sure, I’m not sure how many exactly I don’t really count the years as they pass, you were only this high then.” Wraith holds out his hand to demonstrate. “Saw me in the tree in that field.”

Izumi shoots up from the office chair in excitement. “You remember me!”

“Course I do, I’m more surprised you remember me considering you were so young.”

“I do because you weren’t in the pictures I took! I still have them wait-” He runs over to the pictures which are mounted above his dresser. Removing them from the wall, he hands them to Wraith, who studies the empty images. “I never understood why I didn’t see you in the pictures and everyone thought I was crazy, but you really are real!”

“Yea well, if I’m honest you're the first human I’ve met that can see me, even when I’m invisible to others.” Wraith hands the pictures back to Izumi and looks curiously at him. “And I honestly have no idea why. I didn’t think much of it at the time, thought maybe I was getting old and I just thought that was concealed, but then some years later I heard rumors about some kid asking around about me, matched your description perfectly. You’ve got balls honestly, if you asked the wrong person you probably would’ve ended up dead.” 

Izumi was well aware of how risky his behavior was but he still shuddered at the thought. 

“I never really felt like trying to find you, as interested as I was, so I just left it to fate. Lo and behold, I see you again several years older walking past the same field. I was debating approaching you but those guys threw you into their car and then I had some moral conflict. I never really help people, just not my thing, not unless it’s for a price of equal value to what they want.”

Like the legends, Izumi thinks to himself.

“Decided not to charge you though since it had mutual benefit. I get to learn why you can see ghosts, including myself, and you get to live to see tomorrow.”

“So you really are a ghost then?” Izumi tries to hide his excitement. He’s long since awaited the chance to ask his overflowing amount of questions to him.

“Of sorts. There’s three different kinds of ghosts: shades, spirits, and specters. What you’ve been accustomed to seeing are shades, normal dead people so by your definition genuine ghosts. I’m assuming you never saw anything outside of that, or I’m sure something would come to mind, right?”

Izumi racks his brain, but Wraith’s assumption is mostly correct. He never really saw a ghost that seemed abnormal, except…. “There was one, some years ago, but it was dead.”

“What’d it look like?”

The grotesque image of the cadaver in the conference room replays in his mind. He shakes his head, deciding to find a way around describing what he saw. “Do you kill other ghosts?” Izumi asks, trying to keep his composure.

He doesn’t seem like he wants to answer the question, but he does anyway. “For reasons.”

“Did you kill one in an abandoned office once?”

Wraith thinks to himself for a moment before visually having an ‘aha!’. “Actually I did, some random spirit picked a fight with me, was that the one you saw?”

A nod in response.

“What a small world we live in. I’m surprised I didn’t notice you were there. But yea, he was a spirit. Spirits are born ghosts, so they’re not humans that died, hence why that one didn’t really look like a human. They have all sorts of weird forms, sometimes humanoid sometimes not, in some cases can do a little bit of magic, that kind of stuff.”

“What about specters? Are they born too?”

“Yea but not from the same source. Spirits are born like normal kids are born, not specters though. They’re born from some form of strong emotion, usually negative like rage or sorrow, and they feed off of it. As far as the food chain goes, specters are at the top.”

“Well, if you have a human appearance, does that make you a shade then?”

Wraith smiles widely. “If only. I never said that specters can’t have human appearances. I’m a specter, specifically, the Specter of Despair.” He places both his hands on the bed and tilts his head to the side. “Do I not look like I fit the part?” Wraith, grinning playfully, clearly wanting to see how Izumi will react, who in turn becomes flustered.

“N-no you do you! I-I just thought-”

“I’m just messing with you. Most of us specters do look mostly human because of our job. We’re the only ghosts that can materialize and become invisible at will, while shades and spirits are always invisible. We can change our form too, but the range really depends on how powerful the specter is.”

Izumi can’t contain himself any longer, letting his questions spill free, “So like the legends then?”

“The legends?”

“You know, you grant people’s wishes for a price and then one day you devour them?” He’s sitting on the edge of his seat begging for a response.

“Yea, that. Do people really have legends about us? Actually I’m not surprised now that I think about it.”

Bursting with excitement, his mint eyes brim with joy. “That’s so cool!!! How do you do it? Like how do you grant wishes? Is it just magic? Do you really need to ask for a price? Why-”

Wraith retracts, gesturing to Izumi to calm down, “Geez kid one thing at a time. I’m sure you have plenty of questions and I unfortunately need to answer all of them if I’m gonna need your help figuring out your situation. So first, yes it’s just magic, plain and simple. Specters can do a lot of things, there’s not too much of a limit, but I can’t do stuff like make other people a specter or make someone immortal or eternal youth or create a person or whatever, stuff that’s obviously way out of our limits, which usually has to do with changing someone too much. Like if someone wanted to be prettier I could do that, but only I really know how to do that. That’s because a specter’s range of what they can and can’t do also depends on how strong and experienced the specter is, but that’s a bit too deep. All you need to know is shades can’t do any magic, spirits in some cases can do basic things but not all of them, and specters can do the most magic but they still have limits.”

“If specters are so strong, there can’t be that many, right?”

“You’d be correct, there’s only thirteen of us, myself included obviously.”

“And where would you rank? In terms of strength and experience I mean.”

Wraith smiles once more and teases Izumi, now knowing that he gets flustered easily. “Where do you think I rank?”

In order to avoid the seemingly inevitable situation, Izumi decides to think before he speaks. He’s done plenty of research on ghosts matching Wraith’s description, and he was the only one in the records who was described, the others were only generally matching the ‘wish granter and devourer’ description. If so, then he must’ve been the most memorable, and therefore…

“I’m guessing you’re the strongest?” Izumi answers, hoping he’s correct or else he’s in for another mocking session.

“Correct.” Wraith responds, a little disappointed. “I’ve been alive the longest, don’t ask me how long that is because I’m way past knowing.”

“So you guys do die?”

“Not the way humans do, as in old age. We basically just live until we’re killed, that’s about it. Only thing that can kill any ghost is another ghost.”

“But why would they do that?”

“Food chain, remember? You said it yourself, we devour humans. Other ghosts too, but humans are usually better. Spirits and specters eat more specifically, shades don’t need to eat. The more they eat, the stronger they are. Sure things like just practicing how to fight and use magic and all that helps but that’s still a core factor.” 

Izumi assumes that means that he’s both the most experienced fighter...and in turn the most seasoned murderer. Thinking back to the previous scenes, both the warehouse kidnappers and the spirit in the conference room, it makes sense, both clearly one way fights.

“But you also said that specters feed off of whatever emotion they were born from.”

“Yea, that too. How do I explain it…” 

Wraith seems to always be smiling widely and he speaks very casually, making Izumi wonder what kind of person he really is once more. That’s the one question he hasn’t really seemed to have answered yet. 

“I’m sure you’re familiar with wagyu right?” 

Izumi nods his head. 

“Super expensive beef well cared for from start to finish. Compare that to ground beef or sausages, just stuff mushed and thrown together, usually pretty cheap. Normal humans are like ground beef to specters, while humans that experience said emotions are like wagyu. What specters do is make the person drown in whatever emotion they’re born from, I suppose I’ll use myself as an example. Since I’m the Specter of Despair, I do whatever I can to make the person become overwhelmed by despair. Sometimes it takes a few months, sometimes a few years, but the end result is worth it to any specter.”

“So why do you grant wishes then?” Izumi tries to wrap his head around it all.

“To lead to that. You remember that politician that died recently? Some years ago he had money laundering and bribery allegations, was on the road to ruining his entire livelihood. Then, I appeared. I promised to make the world forget about the scandal if he would give me his only child, his daughter. Of course, he was hesitant, but he ultimately agreed. I knew that without his daughter, he’d feel constant regret, sorrow, all of which would lead to despair.”

“And then when he couldn’t handle it anymore you ate him?”

“You’re getting better at this.” 

Wraith’s smile was more unsettling this time around as Izumi began to stomach the fact that he eats people. Not just people like Izumi, but his own people. Was there really a world like that and no one ever knew?

Izumi regained his composure, trying to ignore the nausea he felt. “So only specters eat…people with overwhelmed emotions?”

“Yep.” Wraith seems to want to wrap things up as he’s clearly losing interest from the extensive questioning.

“But if ghosts just eat so much, then wouldn’t more humans be dead? Or more ghosts?”

“Well, most usually have blood and the like as a substitute, works just fine for a while. Plus, if spirits aren’t affiliated with a specter, they basically can’t eat humans period. Least in human terms, they ‘legally’ can’t, so some still do since it’s just a rule. Each specter has a territory and their own following of spirits. The specters regulate how much the spirits eat from the human world to avoid humans basically going extinct. But…” 

Wraith gets up and comes closer to Izumi, placing a hand on each of the arm rests, he entraps him. Izumi is looking up to Wraith, his eyes fixated on his sharp teeth. A carnivore. Heart beating out of his chest, Izumi grips his clothes tightly, hoping he doesn’t become Wraith’s next meal. 

“Calm down kid I’m not gonna eat you… Or am I?” Wraith holds Izumi’s right wrist in his hand, feels the pulse, and laughs. “I don’t blame you for being scared, but I’m a man of my word. I won’t eat you, I genuinely am curious why you can see ghosts, so how about this, I’ll sweeten the deal for you. I’ll do anything you want, in fact, I’ll be your personal bodyguard. Someone like you is bound to end up in a tight spot with how much you go parading the fact that you can see ghosts. There’s a catch though, I’ll only protect you without a price, but anything and everything else you want you have to pay for, just like everyone else.”

“But I don’t even have a daughter to give you-”

Wraith starts laughing again. “Man you’re good kid. Unless you plan on asking for something as tall as that politician, you don’t have to worry about that. Most things you can just pay for by letting me have some of your blood, other things I’ll play it by ear. But just so you don’t get all worried, I won’t ask you for anything that’ll harm you, your family, or your friends. Deal?”

It’s incredibly tempting. Izumi still has many questions for Wraith, but he’s inherently dangerous. Although he promised not to hurt anyone he cared about, there was still a chance he could attack others unwarranted.

“You can’t hurt other humans.” Izumi tries his hardest to be firm with his demands.

“And if they’re trying to kill you or anyone you care about?”

“That’s…” Izumi thinks for a second. “You can’t kill them unless I give you the ok.”

“Sure, but that only applies for when I’m with you, got it?”

“That’s fine.”

Wraith holds out his hand. “Then, I look forward to working with you, little Izumi.” He smiles cockily. Izumi hesitates for a moment before shaking his hand. “Ah, I almost forgot. If you ever need me, you just need to say my name, either orally or in your head, both works. I’ll know don’t worry. I’ll see you first thing tomorrow kid.” 

Before Izumi could respond, Wraith vanishes into the air, leaving Izumi in his room alone to process the events of today.