𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐇, Clarisse la Rue

𝐢𝐢. capture the flag games suck

He began to choke, trying to pull whatever had grabbed hold of his neck off of him. Nabi backed away against a wall, her hand still raised and aching as she commanded the shadow to stay wrapped around the man. When he tried to take a step forward, she closed her open palm, the darkness seemed to tighten around his neck. He was growing pale — losing oxygen, as he dropped to his knees.

"Shit, kid!" He choked, "Stop— stop! I'm sorry!"

Her heart thrummed loudly in her chest, and throughout it all, she had realised that her crying hadn't stopped. Tears were streaming down her face as she watched his face form into one of desperation.

Suddenly, undead people with translucent forms emerged. They drifted toward Nabi with bodies made of mist. They circled around her, some of them mumbling incantations of sorts. Her eyes widened, and as they surrounded her, her body felt less painful. "What— what are you?"

One of them responded calmly, "We are your father's people. You did not summon us, but he did. We are ghosts sent to ensure your safety — if we were not here, you would not have such strength to... defeat this man."

Her father's people?

Garrett couldn't seem to see the ghosts. Instead, he looked at Nabi like she was crazy. For speaking to herself; for creating some sort of inexplicable force to harm him with. Nabi felt like he was right — maybe she was going insane, and this had to be her imagination or something.

He pleaded again, but his words came out like a croak, "I'm sorry, make it stop!"

A ghost, the one closest to him, hummed. "I thought he didn't want apologies. Did he not say that?"

Another one laughed. "He'll join the undead soon. There won't be any apologies there."

Nabi tried to release the shadow's grip on Garrett, but she accidentally tightened it further. She tried to fully control it, stop it somehow, but she didn't know how her powers worked, how any of this worked. If she was powerful enough to understand, then maybe she could've prevented it from going any further.

But she couldn't, and eventually, he stopped breathing.

"No, no, no!" Nabi cried.

"She is fine." One of the ghosts, the one who had first spoken said, "We must go now."

She blinked, and the ghosts, the darkness that had trapped Garrett, all of it was gone. Nabi wiped her eyes, her vision flooded with tears and her breathing erratic.

His lifeless body was the only thing still there. The only reminder that what had happened was real.

She stared at her hands, then scrubbed them on her jeans like she was wiping away dirt — wiping away the guilt and the death on her hands. Nabi trembled, and weakly murmured, "I... I didn't mean it. I didn't—"

"What did you do?"

Her head shot up to see Aunt Lisa. She was staring at her in the doorway, struck with horror. Nabi's heart stopped. Her aunt uttered words that she'd never forget; that would forever haunt her like the ghosts she'd summoned. "You... you killed him. You're a monster."