Smart arse.
I flicked my eyes sideways to get a better look at her. Wearing bright blue shorts and a loose yellow tank with the words ‘MADE LAST CENTURY' embroidered across the chest, she barely reached my shoulders. Wait a minute. Her chest wasn’t rising and falling from breathing hard, only from the swing of her arms … and she looked a bit hazy around the edges. She stopped moving her legs and turned sideways, but her body continued to move along with me.
Oh. She’s a spirit.
I slowed down again. She had an advantage over me. Smart Arse was unavoidable. As I passed the Wheel of Brisbane lying in wait for its first volunteer, I wondered who she was with so I could tell them to put a leash on.
As if they’d believe me.
"Gonna be a beautiful day," she yelled with enthusiasm as she jogged beside me. I wanted to smack it out of her.
I continued to ignore her and sped up again. Not many people could keep up with me once I got going. I really should do a fun run or two. Hmm, running in a crowd. How horrific. I suppressed a shudder.
"You are super fit, aren't you? How often do you run?"
I pointed to my ear buds and shook my head, mouthing, "I can't hear you." Punching the volume up, the music beat against my eardrums like my head was between two clashing cymbals. When she reached over to take out my ear bud, I stumbled to a stop, grabbing at the cord.
Damn, she knew how to move things.
"Hey!" I yelled before thinking.
"Would you stop for two minutes, Elektra?"
"Pfft! Elektra. Good one. Too bad I don’t carry a Sai or you’d be a goner." I hissed the words under my breath while fiddling with my earphones.
"I've been watching you for weeks. I really need to talk to you," her pretty eyes pleaded.
She looked young; late teens, maybe early twenties. Her family must’ve been devastated that she was taken so young. Reluctantly, I softened towards her, but only a little.
"Okay. Just a tip. If you're trying to make a friend, it's probably best not to admit that you've been stalking the person, first."
"Lol," she said with a smirk and a lift of the eyebrow, flicking her bronze ponytail back over her shoulder.
"Oh God, she speaks in text.” I snorted and turned back to the path. She followed my lead. Great. My shoulders slumped as I let out a sigh. “If you really need to talk to me, you're going to have to run."
I turned off the music and tucked the ear buds into the pocket of my running shorts, before I took off at a jog. Everything felt thinner, my skin, my clothes, the oxygen content in the air. I had the irrational urge to duck for cover in the garden. But I pulled the brim of my hat lower instead.
"Cute shorts. Where'd you get 'em?"
With an exaggerated eye roll, I answered, "The Op Shop."
"Ooh, I used to love op shopping," she sighed.
That was unexpected. She looked a bit too pampered for the second-hand-shop scene.
The whoosh of air from being overtaken by the exercise crowd grated on my personal space. It was one of my pet hates. I ground my teeth and chewed on the flesh of my cheek, wiping the trickling sweat off my brow.
"Are you going to get to the point any time soon? I have to get ready for work." My lips barely moved. I was so good at it; I could do a side gig as a ventriloquist.
"Okay, okay. I need you to find my brother and give him a message for me," she half mumbled.
My jaw and hands clenched in unison. I’d heard some version of this question for as long as I could remember.
I need you to tell my kids I love them and I’m Okay.
Tell my son I buried five thousand dollars in the backyard, in a Milo tin.
My wife doesn’t know I had a son.
I didn’t want anything to do with anyone’s family bullshit.
"Can’t you find him yourself? You can walk through walls, you know."
"I haven't lost him, obviously. He's just ignoring me because I did something stupid."
“Like die?” I glanced at her and watched her face fall as the words left my mouth. I wanted to suck them back in and crunch them until they were dust. Swinging my gaze back to the path, I resurrected my hard exterior. I couldn’t let her get to me. I wanted to keep my sanity. "Can't help you," I said curtly, omitting the word ‘sorry’ on purpose.
"Wait! Hear me out, " she pleaded.
"No."
"Oh, come on, you're starting to sound like your flatmate."
My head whipped around and my feet faltered. "Stop stalking me!"
"I'm sorry, but I've seen you around on campus, and my brother starts his degree there this week.” She twisted her hands together before dropping them back to her sides. “What if I told you your life is about to change for the better because of me?"
Change? No, I didn’t like the sound of that at all. I wiped my hands on my shorts, erasing any trace of panic as I rolled my eyes. "Unless you can tell me the lotto numbers, I'm not interested."
"I’m going to save your life," she said soberly.
Her expression made me pause, turning my thoughts back to the dream, and the visitor I had this morning. I wiped my hands again as the chill returned to my foot, winding its way up my leg. My heart rate sped out of control. I did jumps on the spot, jiggling my shoulders to dislodge the bad juju.
"Look, whatever you’ve heard about me
