It was a Friday afternoon and nobody was expeg anything iing to happen i couple hours of work.

  Then a water elemental flew in through the window.

  Ghost Thing khe sill ing in, toppled on his nding, ao the floor. Seeing the guy pop in got screams and yelps across the room. Ghost looked up to see which party he crashed. It was a rge room with people dressed in grees. Some were carrying chairs off the tre of the floor although the arrival of a water being put that task on hold.

  Getting up on his feet with his head swaying and arms feeling like they were going to fold like cards, Ghost clutched his chest. He sed the room, a dozen pairs of eyes looking at him like he was a vampire or some other horrifyi. Everyone was stunned– uain in what to do. Across from the window Ghost ehere was ahe water d raced to it, stumbling and tripping on his weakened legs.

  No one was going to get in his way. As he ran down the room, everyone gave him a good few metres of space.

  Another person in the hall heard the screaming and peeked his head in the room to see what was going on. “Is that darn ra in again?”

  Then the man saw a water elemental jogging his way and yelped, dug back out the door.

  Ghost went to the window, and got a foot on the frame but wheuck his head out and looked upward. There was Thrash peeking down off the side the roof like she knew he was going to try to escape through that door and had followed him from above. Ghost Thing looked around for any escape and he saw a metal door on the building across the alley below, partially open. He jumped down on a car, causing its arm to go off, but Ghost ig and barged into the door.

  What kind of pce did he break into this time? It was ay hallway posed of tall brick walls and dim lighting. At least he wasn’t sg anyone when he dashed down the corridor. He looked at the walls and saw notices and rge teical bulletins but didn’t have time to read.

  He charged down past some cardboard boxes and when he heard a g, he looked behind to see Thrash smming the door open, menag smile pstered on her face.

  “Gee-ee-eez!” Ghost said. Passing by a row of boxes, he pushed them over as he ran past but they were light and wouldn’t be much of an obstacle for Thrash. He turned a er a up a small hill of stairs into a door with a porthole. He couldn’t grab a good look of the room oher side before he smmed the door open ahrough.

  It was a kit– a rge professional kit with pans and pots hanging from hooks across the room.

  The two chefs at the ovens didn’t expeyone special popping through those doors but when the entleman with a grey moustache saw Ghost Thing, he let out a hhost didn’t have time to expin so he dashed past the chef, the chef swatting at Ghost with his dle like the liquid boy was a rowdy dog.

  Ghost went through another door into another hall and where anrouping of people saw him and panicked. Screams passed around. Ghost was on the run and spreading the chaos with him.

  He ran down the hallway anyway, and as he did, trying to keep away from others as much as they wao keep away from him, Ghost Thing saw his saving grace: a vent. He melted down into his liquid form and slipped into the vent. A warm gust of air took his form as he slid into the silvery escape, but he was safe and he didn’t expect Thrash to be able to follow.

  Thrash barged into the kit and saw the two chefs crowded around a door, looking through a porthole into a hall. Ghost Thing had passed through there, she khe kid had escaped into the publid Thrash thought getting too much attention on herself would cause problems for the gang’s ability to do things discretely. She backed out the door from where she came before those chefs got a look at her. Maybe she would patrol outside the building and see if Ghost Thing would appear.

  Ghost Thing had escaped Thrash’s sight, but now he was stu the walls of an unknown building. He could hear people talking, knowing that he had slipped into the vents. Would somebody try to search for him, or activate some kind of security measure?

  He travelled the vents, going down one corridor to turn into the other. In that puddly state, his vision wasn’t very good but the features of the vents were simple enough to make them out without much problem. He came across a vertical shaft. Climbiical shafts was already difficult when he was feeling fine. But that afternoon, he was weakened by the liquid Thrash had pilfered from him. He reached up and g to one of the walls and then slithered upwards and while coiling around the box. If he was fast enough the momentum helped him stick to the sides.

  But then he lost grip and fell. He would have shouted an expletive if he had a mouth in that state. Gng up, the top of the shaft wasn’t too far for the slime-ball, so he bundled up energy and then fired himself upward! He smacked the top of the shaft, his mass stuck there for a moment, and then hopped off into an opening, finding a horizontal duct to traverse again.

  He hoped nobody heard that thud, though.

  The puddle waddled through the vents until he couldn’t hear the panic he left behind; ba the hallway. The silence was f but also ominous. Where had he had gone? He had no idea.

  He passed by a grate, but then backtracked and looked through it. The room was dark but it didn’t look like anyone was around. He pushed his body through the duct’s bdes to see what was oher side: a lot of shelves and some boxes but nobody and no security cameras. He dragged his whole body through and reshaped into his humanoid form.

  It was quiet, Thrash couldn’t have followed him, and he was safe for the moment.

  The question was: where was he?

  He was in the same building but Ghost Thing wondered if he had travelled into a different unit, another establishment from that kit pce he escaped from. If he went out into the room into the rest of whatever that pce was, would he draw attention? If a kid suddenly appeared in a pce like a bank or something, that would rouse attention.

  And if Thrash was still around, she would know that Kay was Ghost Thing!

  Ghost sighed and sat down against some boxes and dropped his head into his arms, stressed with decision paralysis and trying desperately not to whimper. He had no idea what was outside the walls around him and once slip-up could have sealed his demise.

  He looked around the room. The boxes had “Steelton Corp” on the front but Ghost Thing didn’t know if that was the pany he was in or if that was just the producer of the cardboard boxes. He gazed over at the vent– he could have always tried another vent to escape to.

  He got up and stumbled to the door. He was still weakened by the water Thrash had clipped from him. Putting his eo the door, he heard nothing. He checked once again to see if there was a security camera around the room– clear– and then he morphed bato his human form.

  Immediately Kay was struck with a feeling of thirst and a dryness in his throat. The liquid he had lost in his Ghost Thing form had parallels to his human form: a need for hydration. It was very unfortable and gave him a mild headache. He thought of looking around the room for a stray bottle of water but saw nothing.

  It was time to leave. He took the handle and tur downwards but it fought back. It was locked.

  “For heaven’s sake!” said Kay, his face furrowing with angry disbelief.

  He sighed. Maybe he should have given up, he thought. Maybe the superhero life wasn’t for him after all. It souempting, but the realities of it were not for someone like him, let alone a person as young as him. All the vilins that attacked him, all the trials he barely survived: they were all warnings that he was entering a world he couldn’t fun in.

  There was a crader the door. Kay thought he could turn bato Ghost Thing and slip uhe door and then turn into a human outside, but what if someone was there and saw him do the deed? Then everyone would know. His cover would be blown and then Thrash and whoever would be able to do whatever they wanted with him.

  The worry and dehydration bio make Kay very dizzy. He never regretted his as as much as he did in that room.

  Then Kay noticed the handle had a lock dial. He tur and there was a click. He then opened up the door.

  Well, that was one problem solved.

  Stepping out into the halls, he looked around the hallway. It reminded him of his aunt’s book warehouse: bnd colours and a tile floor with lightning fixtures a touch too dim. He should have rexed his face, looking around with wary eyes made him look suspicious, but he was alone in that hall.

  All he had to do was find his way out.

  He walked down the hall, in a dire that felt “frontal” like there would be a door outside somewhere in that dire. Soon he would hear voices, chatter. There was also beeping and the sounds of an office. He turned a er to a door: no windows so he couldn’t see what was oher side.

  He went up to it and turhe handle, slowly opening the door to see what was in the room. The room was rge, lit with simir ceiling lights, and was crowded with cubicle walls. Kay had wandered into an office, it had seemed. He could hear people but only a few were seen across the sea of cubicle walls. Kay went into the room and walked doathway and looked into some cubicles to see people at puters.

  Kay groaned. His headache made him dizzy. Not terribly dizzy, but dizzy enough. That’s when he saw a refreshments table across the room. Keeping out of sight from anyone who could wonder what a teenager wearing a leather jacket and sungsses could be doing there, he walked around the edge of the workpce towards the refreshments.

  He didn’t want to be there a sed he didn’t have to but at there was a water cooler and paper cups on its side so he took a cup out of the dispenser and put it uhe nozzle, the water cooler making deep gurgles as it filled the ical goblet.

  Sarah had worked there for seven years and knew everyone well. The woman sed the offiake sure everything was w correctly and spotted the leather-cd tee the water cooler. Leather? That wasn’t proper office attire. She walked over to him, already crossing her arms and ready to berate the very-probably-an-intern for showing up in unsuitable dress.

  Kay didn’t even hear Sarah ing up behind him. He chugged dower and the back to the nozzle for a sed round. As he filled his cup, the water passed through his body and took away a lot of the disfort. His headache flickered out.

  “Excuse me.”

  Kay turned around to see a woman staring down at him. This was bad news. He thought of something to say. “Uh... hi.”

  Sarah looked at Kay’s shirt. It wasn’t even a colred shirt; no, it was a T-shirt! With a band logo! She sighed. “I’m guessing you’re from tennial. They never educate interns on dress code.”

  Kay had the fht not to start every senteh some utterance. He put that box of ums and uhs in the drawer. He cleared his throat, thinking of something that sounded like he belonged. “I-I was told it wasn’t a big deal.”

  Sarah shook her head. “Maybe some workpces are more casual about that sort of thing, but in my office? We dress for the occasion.” She sighed. “But since you’re here already, I’ll let it slide. Where’s your work station?”

  “I brought other clothes,” said Kay. “They’re in my car.”

  The tension drained from Sarah’s face. “Oh? Oh, go get ged then.” Her tone was softer.

  Kay nodded politely, finished he water, and tossed the paper cup irash. He walked off, before stopping. “Where’s the exit?”

  Sarah sighed. Interns. She poi a pair ss doors down the wall. “That way.”

  Kay walked off briskly.

  Going through the doors, Kay entered another hallway but nearby was a set of stairs and going down them had to have brought him closer to a door to outside. He went dowairs, passing by a couple mislevelled adults chatting over a railing, ao the ground floor where a natural light shone across the room. Kay looked over to see the door out of there, afternoon lights gleaming in.

  Kay walked out and was blown for cold. It wasn’t an issue in his elemental form, but it was a cold day in the middle of October and a jacket and shirt wasn’t going to cut it. He zipped up his jacket and put the colr up and hoped the temperature stayed away from the single digits.

  The sidewalks were full of people of all kinds so Kay didn’t look too out of pce walking dowreets, even with his rockstar getup. He gazed around, almost afraid to look upward to see Thrash still lingering around. It didn’t seem like she was in the area but then Kay looked down the sidewalk to see the blue woman standing out in the crowd.

  Her presence didn’t go unnoticed by her fellow pedestrians. A blue woman in a catsuit carrying a staff got a lot of puzzled looks. Kay? He didn’t know what to do. She was ing his way and if he turned around and fled, he would have looked suspicious and Thrash would iigate.

  So he kept his pace forward.

  Kay focused off of Thrash and stared into space as he walked with the flow of the crowd. Thrash closed in within a couple metres and Kay’s throat locked up. If she heard his voice, she would know Kay was Ghost Thing. Kay’s heart drummed as she approached. A kid wearing sungsses and a leather coat? Never before had Kay regretted his standout fashion choices. Anything to draw Thrash’s eyes towards him was a nightmare.

  Thrash walked right on by, though, not even fog on Kay for a sed. Kay took thirty paces and then turned around– as slow as the Earth rotated– to see if Thrash hadn’t noticed him. He watched Thrash walk off into the distance, crossing a street and leaving his sight.

  He was safe, but then other troubles came to mind. Where hilly? He left the backpack up on the roof. Thrash could guard that pd wait his return. He couldn’t go back there!

  As he took a couple blocks away ahe dense crowds, he noticed the cooler air more. He did up the bottom snap on his jacket to seal in all the body heat he could keep. Without a wallet on him with a bus pass, it was going to be a hike towards home.

  It wasn’t a getaway. Things had fallen apart quite easily. Kay wasn’t certain what he could do, so he retreated to home base.

  If it wasn’t a long walk bae, it felt like one anyway. Kay kept his coat zipped up tight as su approached. He passed through the old suburban districts of Baldwin, watg cars drive down narrow roads and trying to keep himself looking normal for anyone passing his way like he wasn’t just attacked by a superpowered blue dy.

  Having walked escape from that battle hiding in his human form and him losing his fox friend and backpack; Kay hadn’t experienced a defeat like that before. Even if his human body was in okay dition, he had chills riding his spine like aor.

  He couldn’t help but look about the neighbourhood, cheg to see who was around– whose voices were chattering across the street. What was he looking out for; he didn’t know. He was worried that Thrash wasn’t the only o out to attack him that day.

  But no oacked him. No one knew he was Ghost Thing.

  Kay passed by a small patch of grass off of an acute interse, oh a couple trees and a bench. He didn’t think anything of it until a bush rustled. Who to pop out but the boy’s favourite fox!

  Kay smiled. “Philly!”

  “Shhhh!” said Philly, holding a paw up to his mouth like he was extending a finger over it. “Keep it quiet. Just showing you I’m okay.”

  “Did you get the backpack?” said Kay.

  Philly looked at him like it was a ridiculous question. He wouldn’t answer an unimportant question. “We shouldn’t be talking. If someone saw us, they’d tie me at the fight and pin you as Ghost Thing.” He lowered his void ducked into the bush. “I only came by to show I’m alive. Now I’m gone.”

  Philly didn’t give Kay a sed to question anything. He dashed off into an alley between some houses and the fox was gone, leaving Kay alone. Kay watched the fox hustle down a crete passage.

  How often hilly that stark? Not often. Something to keep Philly quiet? Things were serious. Kay didn’t know what to do but go home. In human form. Walking the sidewalk. Cold had started to sting his cheeks.

  As he walked, though, he looked back towards downtown, buildings stretg over the horizon– Tower toug the heavens. The e of dusk crowded around the silhouette.

  All Kay was doing that afternoon was just enjoying himself. And now that was uhreat, too. Was the city off limits for him now? Would appearing anywhere as Ghost Thing put a target on his back?

  Kay sighed. Being a superhero had taken more than he was willing to give.