October 13th. A cloudless day. I woke early, and the three Blue Wraiths—Wayne Harris, Rose Harper, and The Hanged Man—were in the corner, watching me with manic delight.
"Don’t you ever need to sleep?" I asked.
Wayne Harris, the blind elder ghost, had waited nearly two years on Mount Shade. Rose Harper, the woman in red, was once a courtesan, but Wayne said her beauty never brought her true fame. The Hanged Man’s real name was lost—everyone just called him Lantern.
The Hanged Man was barely lucid, always muttering about his lantern. He’d nearly gone mad after losing it in the feud with Yin Chou. Only Rose Harper’s persuasion brought him to the world of the living.
“Hey, Ethan, we’re ghosts. We sleep when we want. It’s just a leftover habit from being human—doesn’t mean much anymore.” Wayne Harris grinned.
After getting up, I tidied myself and said goodbye to my father.
“Ethan, what’s gotten into you lately? You’ve been eating so much—it’s not good for your health.”
I glanced helplessly at the three ghosts still giggling behind me and managed a smile.
“Hey, Ethan, what’s this? Looks weird.”
Wayne Harris was fingering a horror story book.
“It’s just a regular book.”
“Let me see that.” Rose Harper snatched it and flipped through carelessly.
“Just some trash.” She tossed it aside. The Hanged Man only giggled, showing no other reaction.
After leaving home, I headed to the bus stop. The three followed, chattering about every new thing they saw. I tried to act normal. I’d already warned them not to talk to me until we got home.
I spent the whole day riding the bus. By four-thirty, I reached the university district. I bought a pile of snacks for the three ghosts, then walked forty minutes back to the apartment block.
A man in a gray trench coat stood at the entrance, smoking. It was Walter Wu. When he saw me, he smiled, but the smile vanished when he noticed the three ghosts behind me.
“Oh, Ethan Zhang, you went out and brought back three heavy hitters.”
“You can tell?” I asked quietly.
“They’re from the Hades Circle.”
Wayne Harris walked over to Walter Wu, sniffing the air around him.