The Specter's Guardian • jhs✅

02

The white smoke under Vera's feet faded while the specter beside her coughs.

"Why are you coughing? You've turned into a specter or a ghost, as what you humans call it." She says, hands moving as she speaks.

"Where are we?" Hoseok asks, looking up at the trees around them, then to the Guardian who's just waiting for him to finish observing his surroundings. As the cold wind blows, Vera crosses her arms to provide warmth to herself with the crunching of leaves resounding in the background as it flew lightly in the air. A forest? Hoseok thought. His gaze lands on the tall and large structure made of white marbles with a tinge of gold not that far from them, it was floating meters from the ground with the help of the cotton-candy-looking clouds.

"Welcome to the the spirit world." Vera gestures for the specter to follow her as he mindlessly did (not literally, boy is a ghost), still in awe.

The two began to walk in the middle of the forest, leaves crackling underneath her boots and echoing on each corner of the place. Hoseok felt like having goosebumps.

The specter looks around, anxious if an evil spirit will just suddenly pop out of nowhere and pull him down to the depths of hell, the thought made him wince. His attention soon diverts to the tree that stands out among the rest for looking huge and ancient yet its leaves were dead.

Hoseok stops on his tracks as soon as he noticed that Vera stopped, too, the structure in front made him frown, "Humans believe that the spirit world was above. Never thought it was just on the same ground as us."

"Thought humans were brainless, finally got something right."

Vera enters the place with the new specter, Hoseok's lips forms into an O upon seeing how huge the interior was than the exterior. He frowns when he realizes that there were so many floors but he couldn't see an elevator or stairs anywhere.

"There are so many floors yet no elevator or stairs?"

The guardian nods, "Yeah, we use a different method to go up."

Hoseok looks at the guardian curiously, "How?"

Vera steps forward and encircles her arms around the specter's waist which made his eyes widen, "Y-you can hold me?"

She smirks and looks up at the spirit, finding it amusing when he's flustered "Yeah."

Hoseok almost screamed right into his guardian's face as they flew into the air like a rocket being sent to space.

The specter's knees weakens when his non-existing feet landscon the floor. If he was still alive, he would be extremely pale.

Vera steps away from Hoseok and casually wipes her black coat, her heels clicking on the tiles as she turned around.

With widenening eyes and flushing red cheeks out of embarrassment, the spirit realized that there are three pairs of eyes looking at the two of them in disbelief.

"Superior," Vera greets and glances at the specter she brought before taking out a black card from her coat's pocket, "Jung Hoseok, born in February 18, 1994 at Gwangju Province. Cause of death: Murder." She reads aloud.

White mist surroundd the card she was holding as it floats in the air, and lands on the Superio's palm.

Superior looks at Hoseok with his eyes squinted, "Do you remember the things that has occured while you were being attacked?"

The specter frowns and tries to think of that night. He couldn't remember any of it, all he could remember were the things before and after the incident.

"No. Is that normal?"

The Superior nods, "Yes."

"Then, is that the reason why I have a guardian?"

The said guardian makes an eye contact with the Superior. He gives her a warning look and she just shrugs.

"Vera will take care of you. Dismissed." The guardian turns around and immediately drags Hoseok out with her.

A pang of dizziness hits him when he saw how high the floor they were in was. Noticing this, Vera takes another route and the Specter sighs in relief.

Entering the dark hallway, Hoseok almost sang a hallellujah aloud when finally, there were stairs, each stairs light up in every step they take which amazes the specter, keeping him distracted from his nyctophobia.

Upon reaching a huge room, they were welcomed with a bunch of busy guardians—some were in front of their computers; some were just minding their own businesses.

"What is this place?" Hoseok asks from behind.

"Sediu, this is the headquarters. We monitor spirits or whatever that's happening in the spirit world. Also, there are assigned guardians sneaking into the mortal world." Vera gestures him to follow her and towards her working area which was at the front, looking bigger compared to others.

"Are you the boss here?"

Vera smiles a bit with the specter's innocent question, "You can say that," She pulls her swivel chair, "Sit down."

Hoseok hesitantly settles his ass down on the chair as she leans closer to him, her right hand reaching for the mouse as she began to click things on her computer which was too fast for the specter to catch on.

"Guess you're curious why our world is on the same ground as your world." She reaches for her glasses to protect her eyes and Hoseok, who was expecting one for himself, chuckles after realizing that he doesn't need it at all.

He leans on his seat comfortably when he notices that she wasn't moving, he turns to her and frowns when she was just staring at him.

"Ms. Vera?"

Her eyes widens and mutters a curse, ears turning red which confused the specter. "Are you alright?"

Vera stares right into his eyes and Hoseok didn't even bother to avoid her gaze, "I prefer being called Vera, Hoseok. Just Vera."

Weirded out, the specter nods slowly before dragging his gaze back in front and Vera finally begins to move after taking a deep breath.

Hoseok was surprised when the video flew out from the computer and floated around him.

"Did you find out who took the key?" He asks after the video ended and the hologram disappeared.

Vera shakes her head, "The investigation is still on-going."

The two falls silent and after a while, she decides to break it, "Let's go."

"Where?"

"I'll tell you once we're out of here."