“Stop this!” Qi shouted, as Harriet fought her grip. “You’re stronger than this! Calm down!”
Harriet snarled at her, eyes fixed on the owl. But the lightning rope was too powerful for her. Eventually, she ran out of strength and fell still, gasping for breath.
“Look at me, Harriet.” Qi moved closer and held Harriet’s eye for a long moment, searching for something in her face. She must have found it, because she released Harriet, and the rope of light disappeared into Qi’s palm. Her outline throbbed strongly as she reabsorbed the lightning.
Harriet fell back, exhausted. “What was that?” she gasped. “How did you do that?”
Qi didn’t answer.
“Harriet, that was mental,” Kasper yelled, elated. “You’re wild!”
They both ignored him. Qi was still watching Harriet with dangerously rapt attention, assessing her, as though looking right inside her.
Finally, finally, Qi looked away. The breath left Harriet’s chest in a rush. For a second, she’d been certain that Qi had seen something terrible inside her, something Harriet had always feared was there, lurking. Her gran looked at her in the same way sometimes, especially when Harriet was angry. Like she was waiting for her to do something.
It was only then that she remembered to look for the owl. It had disappeared, and in its place stood Rima.
“What?” she asked, shivering now that the energy had died away. “Wait – what?”
Rima shook out her clothes. A few feathers drifted into the air.
Rima?
Rima was an owl?
“Hey.” She brushed a trace of rat blood from the corner of her mouth. “I probably should have mentioned sooner that I can shapeshift.”
In the corner, Kasper chuckled.
“You can what?” Harriet asked. “That’s your power?”
Rima smiled briefly at her but then looked at Qi. “So? What’s your conclusion, Dr Pang? Any idea what Harriet’s power might be?”
Harriet jolted. Maybe she was a shapeshifter, too? She couldn’t immediately think of how that would help her get home, but she could probably work with it.
“Well, firstly, I’ve never seen anyone respond so strongly to energy,” Qi said, looking worried. “Especially not just a couple of rats.”
“She’s fresh,” Kasper pointed out. “She’s brimming over with her own energy as it is.”
Qi nodded, but she didn’t look convinced. “On top of her own energy, yes, I suppose it could have been a little overwhelming for her system.”
“I don’t understand what happened,” Harriet admitted.
“Sometimes people need a little push to help them manifest their power,” Qi explained. “The best way to do that is to inject more energy into your system. A rat’s energy is usually enough to kick-start the process.”
“I had to absorb one, too, when I first died,” Rima said. “I couldn’t quite work out how to shapeshift before then. It was like – I knew what was supposed to happen. Under my skin, like a skill I hadn’t unlocked yet. When I ate a rat, it became instinct. I turned into a rat myself without even realizing it.”
“But … nothing happened to me,” Harriet said, thinking this through. “I was supposed to – to grow leaves or clouds, or turn into an animal, or something? And I didn’t?”
“It’s … unusual, to say the least,” Qi mused. “Most ghosts’ powers normally respond to energy, but you … I’ve never seen anything like it. And I’ve kick-started several dozen ghosts.”
Harriet was struggling to understand what this all meant. There was a sinking, horrified feeling in the pit of her stomach. What if she didn’t have a power? Surely there had to be a mistake.
She must have a power. She had to get home!
“No!” she burst out, louder than she meant to. “This can’t be right! We need to try again!”
“Definitely not,” Qi said firmly. “After your reaction to the energy, this is not up for discussion. Your power will manifest in its own time, I’m sure. It’s early days. You need to be patient.”
“No! You have to try again!” Harriet insisted. “I need to know!”
She looked desperately from Qi to Rima to Kasper. None of them spoke. A muscle jumped in Kasper’s jaw.
Qi shook her head again. “I’m sorry, Harriet. I don’t want to risk attempting another absorption, not today. Perhaps you can come back in a month or two?”
The thought of waiting a month – or two – made her snarl, “Listen! I need to – I need to go home to my family today. You were supposed to help me!”
Qi’s mouth tightened. “How I wish I could have a cigarette right now,” she muttered. “Save me from self-righteous teenagers.”
“We should go,” Rima said, in a careful voice. “Qi, I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“You don’t need to keep an eye on me,” Harriet said, more nastily than she’d intended. “I’m not a child!”
No one spoke. Their silence said that she was acting like one. Harriet huffed out of the room. She hated that they were right.
I think Qi realized why a rat wouldn’t be enough to make Harriet’s power manifest. Sometimes there’s just something wrong inside a person that stops them from being who they are meant to be. A mental block or purposeful denial.
Those kinds of problems can’t be fixed with energy – they need years of therapy and psychoanalysis. But Qi has always been more interested in the science than the story. She doesn’t care about motives if she can analyse the molecules instead.
I think she already knows what’s going to happen here to Harriet. She’s just hoping that there’ll be lots to study when the chaos begins. It’s a shame that it will be too late by then.
RIMA
Harriet walked quickly down the hallway on trembling legs, leaving Rima and Kasper to trail behind her.
Rima shot him a baffled look once Harriet was out of hearing range. “What was that?”
Kasper shrugged. “I’ve never seen anything like it. She went mental!”
“And it was only a rat. That’s not exactly loads of energy.” Rima thought Harriet’s death must have spooked her badly. Firstly, she’d run out of the building, and now this, lashing out at Qi and ordering them all about like servants. She hadn’t even asked them what their powers were yet, even though she was obsessed with finding her own.
Harriet clearly wasn’t all there mentally. She must be recalibrating to her new life still.
Rima said, “We should take things slow from now on. She obviously needs some peace and quiet. Let’s not pressure her about anything.” She shot Kasper a knowing glance. “Tone back the flirting for a few days.”
He looked belligerent, but agreed. “I can be chill.”
Rima doubted that immensely. Kasper was the most dramatic person she’d ever met – except herself, probably. Sometimes their arguments about The X-Files got so loud that Leah would banish them to opposite ends of Mulcture Hall.
Rima had never had a group of friends when she was alive. She’d gone to an all-girls school and spent most of her time with the only other non-white girl there. When she’d started uni, she had decided that things were going to be different. She was going to be bubbly and chatty and make friends with everyone. But making that happen had been harder than she’d hoped. She’d spend an hour talking to someone over lunch in the dining hall, only to never see them again around the huge campus.