Moonspear stage 1: denial

Then, stillness.

Mou, like a breath against the nape of his neck.

A whisper in his ear.

He craned his head one way then another, and if he saw the ghost he did not speak a word to it; this would not have been the first ghost he'd ever encountered. Not the first hallucination, or the worst by a mile. How often was Titmouse haunted by his past? More and more these days, if he saw anything at all, he barely registered it. His life was one of walking death.

The old man rose up to his haunches and then to his feet. He refused to look at her — he refused to acknowledge this most recent haunting at all — and turning, continued to bungle his way through the halfdark of the woods.

No, no, no. Maegi was dead; she had been dead a long time.

Why did he see her now? He didn't, he wouldn't.

He ran.