As they were going down the stairs, Lyra whispered to Meilie, “So, how do you eat your food?” Meilie shook her head a little and stretched her cheeks to give her a smile. Lyra’s eyebrows pulled together as she tried to understand what she was saying.

  After they descended, Tarin said, “We should be careful now. Walk slowly.” Arix followed him slowly, and so did Lyra and Meilie. When they got out of the house, they faced the ghosts face to face. All the ghosts scattered, maintaining a safe distance from the group. While the group faced them, the ghosts stopped walking. They stood there, staring at the group.

  Arix was confused. He walked toward the father and son’s ghosts on his left, but they went farther away. Lyra also tried approaching the ghosts, putting her hand on her needle. The ghosts went farther away again. Facing Lyra, they were not coming near her.

  Meilie was standing in the middle, noticing all of their actions with her completely white eyes. “We should not scatter away,” Arix shouted, looking behind him to find no one–only ghosts who circled around him from a safe distance. He had come too far from the group. “LYRA… TARIN…” he shouted, but there was no answer.

  He started walking toward the house, hoping that everyone would be there. But every house looked the same. Arix forgot to notice the house in which his camp was settled. After walking among the ghosts for about ten minutes, he saw Meilie standing there in the middle of all the ghosts. Her posture was straight and both her hands were behind her. Arix approached her, hoping she would know where everyone was.

  She noticed Arix immediately and stayed still, letting Arix come near her.

  “Where are Lyra and Tarin?” Arix asked immediately after coming close to Meilie.

  She shook her head, not knowing where they were either. Everyone had gone in different directions, and now they couldn’t find one another.

  “Fuck!! Where did they both go all of a sudden?” Arix’s jaw tightened, and his lips pressed into a thin line. He turned around, only to see ghosts standing there in a circle without making any movement.

  Arix noticed a tree in the distance. “Come on, maybe they gathered there,” he said, holding Meilie’s hand and walking toward the tree.

  “Tarin…” he kept shouting while walking at a fast pace. Not long after, he reached the tree and found Tarin and Lyra standing under the parallel trunk, looking all around them.

  He approached them quickly. “Where have you two gone?” he asked.

  “We were looking for you and came to this tree, hoping you would be here,” Tarin answered, his voice carrying a little annoyance.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Hey, look there.” Lyra pointed toward the ghosts who were standing far away from the tree, together in a line.

  “They are not coming close to this tree,” Arix said, noticing the son-and-father pair standing among the crowd. The ghosts didn’t make any sound, nor were they coming toward the tree.

  “This tree has some power, which is keeping those ghosts away,” Tarin said, looking behind him at the tree, its long branches shooting into the sky and waving around. Arix and Lyra looked too. Meilie kept looking at the ghosts with her calm presence.

  “Do you know anything?” Arix turned toward Meilie, hoping for an answer.

  She shook her head.

  A gust of wind passed through everyone, making Lyra shiver as she wrapped her arms around herself. “We should leave, guys. It’s cold here.”

  Everyone agreed and decided to investigate in the morning. They started making their way to the house where their camp was settled. While walking through the crowd, Arix was looking at the ghosts, who had pale and sorrowful expressions on their faces.

  Upon reaching the camp, they sat down quietly for about an hour, staring at the flames and thinking about their next plan. They went to bed afterward.

  Tarin stayed awake, keeping his eyes on Meilie, who was sitting quietly in the corner of the room. Arix was half asleep, and Lyra slept as if she hadn't slept in a year.

  Arix woke up early, noticing Tarin closing his eyes and Meilie staring at him from the corner. He went to the window and looked down to see that there was no ghost presence right now. “Was that a dream?” he thought to himself, shaking Tarin to wake him up and then going to Lyra. They all looked around and found no ghosts.

  “We can’t all be dreaming the same thing, right?” Tarin said. “And that girl is still here, so I don’t think it was a dream.”

  “Maybe they only come at night,” Lyra and Arix said at the same time. Meilie made her way toward the group and nodded, confirming their suspicion.

  “Let’s go and find a way out of this village. I don’t want to spend another night here.” Tarin packed his bedroll into his bag and started making his way downstairs. Lyra and Arix followed.

  After wandering for about an hour, Arix and the group reached the tree again. They wandered around the tree, hoping to find something, but found nothing. Arix went to the other side of the tree and looked at the road, which stretched far toward the houses. He could see the end and the big mountain with an icy tip in the distance.

  He gathered everyone and announced, “We should move in that direction. We haven’t found anything here. Maybe we will escape that way.” Meilie showed no expression and followed along with the group.

  They all took the path, hoping to find the exit. Arix was in front of everyone, making sure there was no danger ahead. After a while of walking, he noticed birds flying and clouds moving above him. He took a deep breath and kept moving forward toward his destination. “I wonder how Mom is doing.” The clouds made him remember his mother on the island.

  Upon reaching the end, they could see the mountain, and nothing stood between them. “I think we found the exit, guys,” Lyra said while walking ahead of them.

  She was looking behind while walking forward. “This was easy. Now we have to head to the moun—” Her words stopped as she crashed into something.

  Arix reached her location and put his hand forward. He couldn’t get past something. But there was nothing.

  Tarin tried forcing his way through, but he stopped too. There was an invisible wall in front of them which they couldn’t cross.

  Meilie was standing behind them, letting them try before coming forward to put her hand on the invisible barrier and shaking her head, indicating that they couldn’t escape this village.