I checked my phone again.
The number was still there.
Luna's number.
It hadn't vanished, and I hadn't imagined it.
I locked the screen and placed the phone face down on the bed.
Sitting alone in my room, the house felt bigger than I remembered.
It wasn't like I had been gone for long.
Just a single night.
Still, something about the silence felt heavier than usual.
The walls seemed farther apart.
The ceiling felt higher.
I leaned back and stared at it, letting my thoughts drift.
I remembered the day before.
Olivia's café.
The noise.
The warmth.
The sound of people talking and laughing.
Olivia and her family.
The night we spent together upstairs, how crowded it felt, how loud everything was.
At the time, I had found it exhausting.
Now, sitting here, I realized I missed it.
That surprised me.
I had never felt lonely before.
Not really.
Feeling jealous of people with friends or big families was not my type of thing.
I didn't envy them when they talked about trips or birthdays or gatherings.
I preferred being alone.
But now, something felt missing.
"I'm not going to help you," Luna had told me flatly.
At the time, I couldn't understand what she meant.
'She is not going to help me?'
Did she mean she wouldn't let me stay the night, no matter how much Olivia insisted?
Or…
Did she know why I was really there?
That thought made my chest tighten.
She took a long puff and finally turned toward me.
She stared at me.
It felt wrong.
'She's not looking at me.'
It was not me that was her focus.
But something else.
Her gaze didn't feel like it was focused on my body or even my eyes.
It felt like it went straight through everything on the surface.
Like she was looking at something buried deep inside.
It felt like her eyes were piercing something far more personal, something private.
"You can do it."
Selena's voice echoed faintly in my head, uninvited and sudden.
I swallowed and pointed upward.
"Did you make this?" I asked, gesturing toward the floating ring above us.
The strange symbols were still there, forming a wide circle around the building. The words floated calmly, protecting the house from ghosts like an invisible wall.
Luna looked up briefly, then took another puff.
"It doesn't matter who made it," she said. "You won't get what you want here."
She leaned back against the wall again and turned her gaze toward the street.
I followed her line of sight.
The city stretched out in front of us.
Streetlights flickered on one by one. Cars moved slowly through traffic, horns honking here and there. Groups of people walked past us, laughing, talking loudly, completely unaware of anything unusual.
Ghosts wandered among them.
Some clung to strangers, drifting behind them like shadows. Others stood near street corners, watching the world without really being part of it.
It was clear she wasn't hiding the fact that she could see ghosts.
And even clearer that she knew I could too.
That realization sent a chill down my spine.
'How?'
How did she know?
We had met less than fifteen minutes ago.
There were no ghosts in the café for me to accidentally react to.
I hadn't slipped up.
And yet, she didn't flinch when I pointed at the symbols. She didn't question it. She didn't act surprised.
And Selena.
How did Selena know?
What were they seeing that I wasn't?
I had looked at myself in the mirror countless times.
Nothing ever stood out.
No marks. No glow. Nothing strange.
I shook those thoughts away.
They could wait.
Right now, something else mattered.
"What do you think I came here for?" I asked, keeping my voice steady.
Luna scoffed softly.
"You're not the first," she said. "People come here all the time looking for some 'great power' or some shortcut to fame. You all act pitiful, thinking that will hide your real intentions."
Her words stung more than I expected.
It had crossed my mind before. That others must have noticed the story, the details, the strange parts.
I couldn't have been the only one.
But still, there were no other incidents. No similar stories. Nothing that felt as real as the one I found.
"You people are worse than ghosts," she continued, her tone sharp. "At least ghosts don't pretend to be something they're not."
She sneered and took another drag.
I stayed quiet.
Part of what she said was true.
I hadn't come here with noble intentions.
Rick had been good to me. I would feel bad if something happened to him, sure.
But that was it.
I didn't care deeply about strangers.
And for the other students in my class, I couldn't care less even if something happened to them.
I knew, deep down, that no one would actually die.
At worst, Rick might get seriously hurt.
But that's it.
A Khumya couldn't kill.
That much I was sure of.
"I don't want to learn any skills from you," I said finally. "And I don't have some sad story about wanting to protect everyone."
She turned slightly, her eyes narrowing.
"I just want to know about myself," I continued. "Why I can see ghosts. And how you knew that I could. I want to move forward."
For once, I didn't hide anything.
The symbols were impressive. The story was disturbing. But those weren't my real reasons.
Knowing that people like me existed was enough.
Proof that I wasn't alone.
I let out a long sigh.
"I want to understand myself," I said quietly. "And you're the only person who can help me."
'You can do it.' Selena's words still echoed.
But for me, that can wait.
This was a starting point for me ,and I didn't want to mess it up.
Luna stayed silent for a long moment.
She studied me carefully, like she was trying to decide something.
Finally, she spoke.
"What do you know about ghosts?"
I told her everything.
About Dumbo ghosts. About how they wandered aimlessly, clinging to people for energy so they wouldn't fade away. About how some ghosts were dangerous, and others were just lost. What I think happens after death. Everything.
She listened without interrupting.
When I finished, she stared at me for a second.
Then she burst out laughing.
"Dumbo ghosts?" she repeated, laughing openly. "That's what you call them?"
Heat rushed to my ears.
"I—well—" I started.
"You really are a baby chick," she said, trying to control her giggles. "That's the cutest thing I've heard in years."