~A/N~

Fantasy. Lot's of imaginary names and concepts. There's something about it that makes it feel very well-written for me, idk. This is also a draft I have had for very, very long. It used to be published but I unpublished it since it was incomplete and writer's blocked. ~PBJ

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|| The Special ||

"Cassy, I'm bored. Let's do something fun, eh?" I heard Sadie whisper mischievously, her voice echoing along the narrow alleyway. We were all wearing black for the occasion, school had let out a few hours ago and we were finally free from rules. The night is only for the free Roamers and a few brave others like Sadie or Lauren, not for timid people like me. No matter how much I wished to be like Sadie and Lauren, I couldn't build up the confidence. The only thing that bound me to them was my stupid Special Spirit essence that flowed through my blood. I was respected for it, loved for it, hated for it, too. It gave me power that I'll never learn to understand or control. Nonetheless, I tried my best to make the most of that power.

"I'm not sure what we should do. Why ask me, anyway?" I replied with a lower tone as to prevent my voice from echoing like Sadie's - the Roamers were on alert and everywhere. The last thing I wanted was to get caught.

"Yeah, why ask her?" Lauren sneered, then nudged me on the shoulder. "Just joking, kiddo."

"She's part of our little team. She's been here for more than a week, I'm sure she'll learn our ways." Sadie started, then looked my way with a bob of her beautiful head, "You're a fast learner."

"Hey, waaaait." Lauren's eyes were wide, her teeth spread into a goofy, wide grin and she grabbed my shoulder. I bobbed at the sudden action, then immediately calmed in case of humiliation.

"What is it, Lauren?" Sadie's eyes had the same sparkle of excitement and she leaned forward, exaggerating her curiosity. "Have you got a new activity that might be... currently operational?"

They both looked at each other with glee swimming in their blue eyes, whereas my pink ones held fear and anxiety for what Lauren had just thought of. What is she going to do this time? Or worse, what's she going to make me do this time? I panicked as a remembrance of last week's Picnic night wandered into my head.

Please don't let this be as bad...

"You remember when we stole Roamers' robes from the Impersonation BM?" Lauren giggled ignorantly. The sound of her voice tripled its volume as it repeated Lauren's girlish laugh along the brick alleyway several times.

Sadie nodded emphatically and shook my arm. I nodded slowly, eyeing Lauren.

"Let's do it again, but with the Handlers!" Lauren squealed with excitement, but Sadie frowned and her face paled.

"We can't." She said blankly.

"Why not?" Sadie gave Lauren a wide-eyed glare, then Lauren paused her smiles to understand what Sadie meant by 'we can't'.

"Oh." Lauren realized her mistake and silenced. We continued our way along the alleyway, realizing that we had all stopped walking since Lauren's outburst.

We turned a corner down an even smaller alleyway, the sides barely keeping from brushing against our arms.

"Hey, wait a minute. I didn't know this was here. Did we miss something?" Sadie stopped and so did we, there was a crooked green gate leading to a small staircase that went downwards, standing to our left. Here, there was always a door which read 'Handlers' Business' and a 'No ghosts allowed' scrawled below that sign, but now it was a cheap old gate - which was strangely unlocked and slightly inched open as if someone had passed through recently.

The alleyway continued ahead of us, leading to our usual night-time hide-out, but Sadie seemed intrigued by the new entrance.

"Nope. It's new, obviously. Let's check it out." Lauren took hold of a small piece of wood that was attached to the gate and swept it with one of her palms, revealing the faded words 'Miff's Market' along with a smaller line reading 'No ghosts allowed'. "Oh, it's just a market."

"Yeah. Cassy doesn't have to worry this time, no?" Sadie shrugged and smiled at me reassuringly, but I was more tensed and scared than they tried to make it seem like.

Lauren took hold of my arm gently and motioned for Sadie to follow as she pushed open the gate. It made a slight creak but silenced once it stood against the side of the brick wall, an inch away from bumping onto it.

"Stay innocent. Don't make too much noise." Sadie whispered with a cheeky face, her blue eyes were too bright to describe. This was literally what she was born for - breaking the rules and running passed the limits as she wished. Either way, both of them were at an advantage from the other ghosts at school or maybe even from the whole of Spirit's Center town.

They had me. I was a walking key to everything. Literally.

The stairs were really small, so we had to take each step two at a time, but quietly.

Halfway down, we could see a landing close by, but it was too dark to see anything more. Sadie had her hand caressing the brick walls which were cold and wet, the sewers must be nearby since on top of that, the air smelled horrible. Lauren was no longer holding my arm and was already ahead, almost at the bottom of the stairs.

Before I could see where I was stepping, my feet slipped on a small puddle of water on a step and went flying forward as my head went backward. Luckily, Sadie was quick and she caught me with both her hands under my arms.

By now, I was terrified and my chest was heaving up and down, my dress was wet with the water that had splashed on its hem while my face was most probably pale and sweaty.

"Shh!" Sadie hissed from behind me and lifted me upright.

"Sorry. I slipped." I murmured and wrapped my hands around my arms to keep me warm, the place was chilly and got colder as we descended down the stairs. I looked up behind us and saw a bit of moonlight and the shadow of the gate a bit far away.

What if we get stuck down here?

"Hey, guys!" I heard Lauren whisper-shout at us, from the landing, her echo sounded as if we were in a cave. "There's another two markets down here!"

Sadie immediately started hurrying down the stairs, careful of the small water puddles while I cautiously made my way down like the tortoise at the end of the race.

"Wait a second..." Sadie held a finger up and scrunched up her face in confusion. "Why aren't we floating?"

"Gosh, haven't you ever bothered to get to know your own town?" Lauren huffed and shook one of her feet, sending droplets of water flying off. "Ghosts aren't suppose to come in here, so there's no need to reduce the spirits' power on this place. The people will just be spending more essence. So of course, even with a lack of spirits' power on a place, the Handlers and the Roamers don't get effected since they have their own Spirits' Essence injected in to them for their job. Whereas we," Lauren made a circle with her finger, referring to us, "are highly exposed in this case."

Sadie and I looked at her in shock. Then I grabbed her, trying to pull her to go back up the stairs and out of here before we shrivel into spiritless souls.

"We're going to lose our spirits, Lauren!" I exclaimed in a loud whisper. "Don't you get that?"

"Oh, no we're not, silly!" Lauren pulled her hand out of my grasp. "Remember? You're a Special . You're born with an endless supply of essence, so even if you can't control you're ability to float or any of the other crap, you won't lose your spirit since it's completely protected with the essence flowing through your blood."

"So what about you guys?" I stared at them questioningly.

"Well... we'd have to be here for hours to lose our spirit so I'm pretty sure we'll be okay." Lauren was only 'pretty sure', which meant she had no idea what she was saying.

"Sadie? You're in with this?" I glanced at Sadie.

"I'm not sure." For the first time, Sadie actually looked nervous.

"Look, this could only be a black marketplace, right? I'm sure they have some essence to gamble." Lauren tried to sound reassuring, but it seemed as if she was even having trouble assuring herself.

"Come on, let's see if Miff has something for us." Sadie whispered and started to walk along the path, away from the bottom of the staircase.

"If Miff." Lauren murmured and giggled, lightening the mood.

We all stopped between two entryways. One was a small wooden gate like at an old-fashioned bar, with a black door ahead of it. The other was just like an ordinary shop's wooden door with a wooden doorknob.

The last shop was at the dead end of the small corridor, a grey-coloured door which looked like a plank of wood morphed to look like an entry.

We decided to go into the ordinary shop, since a chain necklace sitting on a black velvet cushion through the small window next to the door had caught Sadie's attention.

Plus, the other two had a closed sign hanging on a nail atop their door, attached to the brick wall.

Once we entered, the door banged behind us on its own and a faint white glow appeared to spread inside the small shop. Sadie was eyeing the chain necklace sitting on the cushion nearby, facing out towards the window.

"We're here to buy some raw essence, how bout it?" Lauren called out, her face was masked with a relaxed expression, whereas I could tell all three of us were scared at least a little.

No answer.

"Is there a Miff around here? Or is he in one of the other two?" She called out again, building up her confidence as she spoke.

No answer.

"There's no one here. Let's just hijack the place, eh, guys?" Sadie joked nervously, but Lauren smirked and strutted over to the chain jewellery, grabbing the necklace from its black manniquin.

"Let's do." She sang, swinging the chain of the necklace on a long, pale finger.

"I was just joking!" Sadie cried, then tiptoed toward Lauren quickly and snatched the necklace off her finger, it clinked loudly and I winced at the loud sound of the metal as she rested it back around the manniquin's shapely neck.

"I'm sure you know your violating several rules at Spirit's Center, girls." We jumped, even Lauren squeaked as her confidence fled from her... for a moment.

"Why the hell didn't you answer me before?" Lauren shouted and strode towards the small counter, it was made of black marble.

"You three are ghosts, you're not supposed to be here. I can call on the Roamers for you, if you like?" The lady at the counter sneered, her red lips thin and threatening.

"Okay, don't do that. We have valuables that might interest you, so it wouldn't be your best move for your business would it?" Sadie started, straining the confidence into her voice and face.

I just waited.

"My business? Oh, dear. This isn't my business. Old Miff's off for the week. Did you really think I was called Miff?" She asked disbelievingly, then laughed mockingly.

"How bout you just do your job, old lady." Lauren scowled at her and jutted a thumb at the black chained jewellery at the other side of the shop. "We want that. How much?" Then she added, "And don't you knock up the prices just coz' we're kids. We're not stupid."

"First of all, I'll give you the real price and it's pretty expensive, anyway. Second of all, that isn't just any necklace. There's a catch to everything you buy here." The woman said blankly, her arms folded up on the counter as she leaned forward. "But I can't say what the catch is."

Then she smirked viciously, her red coated lips contrasting with her white teeth.

"What do you mean there's a catch?" Lauren asked with curiosity rather than fear.

"If there is, just give us a hint of what the catch is for my necklace." Sadie glanced at the piece of jewellery longingly.

"Let's just say, it has great power."

"Awesome. I'll look nice and I'll be powerful. Cool, huh?" Sadie was practically in love now, there was no way out of this; we are going to have to get that necklace. Somehow.

"What's the price then?" Lauren squinted accusingly, unsure of whether to trust the woman or not.

"Weren't you looking for raw essence when you first barged in here?" The woman raised an eyebrow and examined her nails which were coated with dark green nail polish that contrasted with the black surroundings.

"Oh, yeah." Sadie dragged her words, talking more to herself than to us.

"Is this chain jewellery, let's say, gunna fix our spirit mishap?" Lauren questioned, meddling with a silver bangle lying on the table.

"Actually, yes. Its magic will completely erase that problem for you." The lady smirked, but then she would be giving away that she was lying. Was she lying?

"Then forget the essence, what's the price for the necklace? Spit it out already!" Sadie urged on, irritated at the lady's questions.

I was still speechless.

I just watched the situation like an invisible audience.

"Hey, I have a question, do you know how to extract essence?" Lauren whispered, her voice lowering and she leaned further onto the counter.

"Yep. Sure do." The lady smiled. Her eyes were purple, I realized. I've never seen purple eyes.

Was that even possible? To have purple eyes?

"Do you perhaps have other jewellery of the same value?" Sadie interrupted, she looked as if she had been thinking hard for a while.

"Well, I have a bracelet, a pair of earrings and a diamond studded ring." She replied, her eyes looking up in thought.

"Great!" Lauren looked ecstatic.

"Um. One thing, though. We haven't got a lot of valuables that you might be interested in. Suggest what you'd like as payment, I'll see if I have it for you." Lauren said, pretending to look strategic instead of petrified of what might be the lady's reaction.

I was still arguing in my head; how and why did she have purple eyes?

"Well, since you mentioned essence, I'd love it if you paid me with some spirits' essence. I seem to be running out. But I'll need more than that, especially if you're buying the whole set." She then started to walk around in her little space behind the counter, pulling out drawers and opening large and small glass cupboards filled with mysterious artifacts.

"Hey, guys. I need to talk to you for a sec." Lauren seemed to be whispering to me rather than the both of us, but we both nodded anyway.

"Give us a minute to talk things over, missus." Sadie called to the lady who was hunched over, peering into a wooden box on the floor.

"Just so you know, the name's Georgia. Don't ever call me anything else. And yes, you may have a minute. I need one, too..." Her muffled voice came out from behind the counter.

"Thanks, Georgia." Lauren emphasized on the lady's name and strutted her way to the side of the shop, making sure Georgia was out of earshot.

"Cassycanweuseyouressence?" Lauren whispered what sounded like one word with my name attached to it.

"Huh? Cassy what, again?" I said, turning my head so I could hear her clearly.

"Can we pay with some of your essence?" She said carefully, making sure to expose her guilt.

"What? Lauren, we can't do that! It's what makes her special!" Sadie gasped and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. Her face was covered with honest shock and guilt, whereas Lauren, I wasn't so sure.

"It's just essence, she'll still be popular and special. Anyways, we're only gunna give some of it. Not all. Stop being such a sissy, Sadie!" Lauren waved a hand at us, her head flying back as if to say 'silly girls'.

Wait, purple eyes come from somewhere...

"Hey, lady! Wait, I mean Georgia!" Lauren sprinted up to the counter, her feet thudding on the hard brick floor.

"So, what's it gunna be?" Georgia appeared from under the countertop.

Purple eyes is a mixture of spiritual and special DNA...

"Our friend Cassy over there," Lauren nodded her head in my direction, "she's a Special. You can have some of her essence for the whole set."

"I'll take that!" Georgia looked astounded, her face showed pure greed and elation. "You sure you'll take the deal? It's quite the trade, actually."

At that moment, the shop's door thrashed open, making the whole place tremble. The sound of bottles, boxes, metals and jewellery clashing together filled the room.

A Handler stood at the doorway.

Blue and pink makes purple...

She's a Witch from the Other Town. We learnt about them in Spiritual Studies class.

"We'll take it." I heard Lauren say, but the world was a blur for that moment. This was a huge mistake.

-end-