The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker

by Lauren James

  It was only then that she remembered to look for the owl. It had disappeared, and in its place stood Rima.

  “What?” she asked, shivering now that the energy had died away. “Wait – what?”

  Rima shook out her clothes. A few feathers drifted into the air.

  Rima?

  Rima was an owl?

  “Hey.” She brushed a trace of rat blood from the corner of her mouth. “I probably should have mentioned sooner that I can shapeshift.”

  In the corner, Kasper chuckled.

  “You can what?” Harriet asked. “That’s your power?”

  Rima smiled briefly at her but then looked at Qi. “So? What’s your conclusion, Dr Pang? Any idea what Harriet’s power might be?”

  Harriet jolted. Maybe she was a shapeshifter, too? She couldn’t immediately think of how that would help her get home, but she could probably work with it.

  “Well, firstly, I’ve never seen anyone respond so strongly to energy,” Qi said, looking worried. “Especially not just a couple of rats.”

  “She’s fresh,” Kasper pointed out. “She’s brimming over with her own energy as it is.”

  Qi nodded, but she didn’t look convinced. “On top of her own energy, yes, I suppose it could have been a little overwhelming for her system.”

  “I don’t understand what happened,” Harriet admitted.

  “Sometimes people need a little push to help them manifest their power,” Qi explained. “The best way to do that is to inject more energy into your system. A rat’s energy is usually enough to kick-start the process.”

  “I had to absorb one, too, when I first died,” Rima said. “I couldn’t quite work out how to shapeshift before then. It was like – I knew what was supposed to happen. Under my skin, like a skill I hadn’t unlocked yet. When I ate a rat, it became instinct. I turned into a rat myself without even realizing it.”

  “But … nothing happened to me,” Harriet said, thinking this through. “I was supposed to – to grow leaves or clouds, or turn into an animal, or something? And I didn’t?”

  “It’s … unusual, to say the least,” Qi mused. “Most ghosts’ powers normally respond to energy, but you … I’ve never seen anything like it. And I’ve kick-started several dozen ghosts.”

  Harriet was struggling to understand what this all meant. There was a sinking, horrified feeling in the pit of her stomach. What if she didn’t have a power? Surely there had to be a mistake.

  She must have a power. She had to get home!

  “No!” she burst out, louder than she meant to. “This can’t be right! We need to try again!”

  “Definitely not,” Qi said firmly. “After your reaction to the energy, this is not up for discussion. Your power will manifest in its own time, I’m sure. It’s early days. You need to be patient.”

  “No! You have to try again!” Harriet insisted. “I need to know!”

  She looked desperately from Qi to Rima to Kasper. None of them spoke. A muscle jumped in Kasper’s jaw.

  Qi shook her head again. “I’m sorry, Harriet. I don’t want to risk attempting another absorption, not today. Perhaps you can come back in a month or two?”

  The thought of waiting a month – or two – made her snarl, “Listen! I need to – I need to go home to my family today. You were supposed to help me!”

  Qi’s mouth tightened. “How I wish I could have a cigarette right now,” she muttered. “Save me from self-righteous teenagers.”

  “We should go,” Rima said, in a careful voice. “Qi, I’ll keep an eye on her.”

  “You don’t need to keep an eye on me,” Harriet said, more nastily than she’d intended. “I’m not a child!”

  No one spoke. Their silence said that she was acting like one. Harriet huffed out of the room. She hated that they were right.

  I think Qi realized why a rat wouldn’t be enough to make Harriet’s power manifest. Sometimes there’s just something wrong inside a person that stops them from being who they are meant to be. A mental block or purposeful denial.

  Those kinds of problems can’t be fixed with energy – they need years of therapy and psychoanalysis. But Qi has always been more interested in the science than the story. She doesn’t care about motives if she can analyse the molecules instead.

  I think she already knows what’s going to happen here to Harriet. She’s just hoping that there’ll be lots to study when the chaos begins. It’s a shame that it will be too late by then.

  RIMA

  Harriet walked quickly down the hallway on trembling legs, leaving Rima and Kasper to trail behind her.

  Rima shot him a baffled look once Harriet was out of hearing range. “What was that?”

  Kasper shrugged. “I’ve never seen anything like it. She went mental!”

  “And it was only a rat. That’s not exactly loads of energy.” Rima thought Harriet’s death must have spooked her badly. Firstly, she’d run out of the building, and now this, lashing out at Qi and ordering them all about like servants. She hadn’t even asked them what their powers were yet, even though she was obsessed with finding her own.

  Harriet clearly wasn’t all there mentally. She must be recalibrating to her new life still.

  Rima said, “We should take things slow from now on. She obviously needs some peace and quiet. Let’s not pressure her about anything.” She shot Kasper a knowing glance. “Tone back the flirting for a few days.”

  He looked belligerent, but agreed. “I can be chill.”

  Rima doubted that immensely. Kasper was the most dramatic person she’d ever met – except herself, probably. Sometimes their arguments about The X-Files got so loud that Leah would banish them to opposite ends of Mulcture Hall.

  Rima had never had a group of friends when she was alive. She’d gone to an all-girls school and spent most of her time with the only other non-white girl there. When she’d started uni, she had decided that things were going to be different. She was going to be bubbly and chatty and make friends with everyone. But making that happen had been harder than she’d hoped. She’d spend an hour talking to someone over lunch in the dining hall, only to never see them again around the huge campus.

  By the time she’d died, she was still the lonely girl who read while she ate dinner, and spent her evenings watching The X-Files in her room or going on the net in the empty computing lab.

  Everything had changed when she became a ghost. Leah, Felix and Kasper had been the group of friends she’d been waiting for her whole life. She wasn’t lonely any more. She had found people who really knew her, well enough to tease her and laugh at her jokes before she’d even finished them.

  Rima hoped that they could be the same for Harriet, too. The girl needed friends just as much as Rima had.

  HARRIET

  Harriet dropped onto the top step of the fourth-floor stairs, resting her head in her hands. She couldn’t even begin to process everything that had happened. She shuddered, mortified at the memory of dropping to her hands and knees, sucking up a dirty rodent while Rima and Kasper stood watching.

  The last traces of energy were still fizzing in her chest, but the feeling was numbed slightly by shame at the way she had behaved. The possibility of getting more energy had sent her out of her mind. She’d thought she had more self-control than that, but the angry thing she had always buried deep inside herself had nearly burst free.

  “It’s OK,” Rima said, approaching Harriet as gently as if she were calming a spooked horse. “It happens to the best of us.”

  She sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Harriet automatically tensed, then carefully, painfully, made herself relax into the touch.

  Harriet choked back a laugh. “Really? That happens to all of us?”

  Kasper dropped to a crouch in front of her. “Trust me,” he said, in a more serious voice than she’d heard from him before, “we all lose control sometimes.”

  It had been a long time since anyone had treated her so gently. Not since her par
ents had died, really.

  “You don’t want to see Kasper when he’s angry,” Rima whispered in her ear. “He’s like the Hulk.”

  Kasper let out a gasp, nudging Rima’s shoulder in affable outrage. “I didn’t come here to be disrespected.”

  “You’re disrespected everywhere you go,” Rima replied. She stuck her tongue out at him, hamming it up for Harriet’s benefit.

  Harriet’s friendships had been nothing like this – no in-jokes and silly comedy routines. In sixth form, she’d once spilt her drink down her shirt during lunch. Georgia, the girl she always sat with, had looked away in embarrassment on her behalf. Harriet couldn’t imagine Rima being embarrassed about anything Felix did. She’d be more likely to make a joke out of it. Kasper would probably pour coffee all over himself too in solidarity.

  Was that what friendship was supposed to be like, when you found people who really understood you? Or were these people odd because they’d spent over two decades trapped alone together? Maybe they were all crazy, and she was the strange one, for being jealous of them.

  Kasper folded his arms. “How dare you?! I am the backbone of this group. I deserve respect.”

  Rima literally snorted with laughter. “Backbone. You’re a fumbling baboon.”

  “RUDE? So, so rude!”

  Harriet couldn’t help it; her lips curved into a smile.

  “I thought you were the backbone, actually,” she said to Rima. “You seem to run the show.”

  “Yeah, I do,” she said, preening. “Leah says I’m the mum friend. I think she meant it to be an insult, but, you know, I own it.”

  “You are the mum friend,” Harriet said, with dawning realization.

  “Kasper can be the dad friend,” Rima added.

  “Er—” Kasper stuttered, flustered. “I, Rima – I’m flattered, but I don’t think of you…”

  Rima’s cheeks turned pink. Harriet thought she was really pretty when she was flushed and laughing. “I didn’t mean like that! I meant you try really hard to look after everyone, but you’re kind of bad at the emotional stuff.”

  He shifted, looking bemused, like he wasn’t sure whether to be offended. “Are you saying that I’m clumsy?”

  “You have no idea how to handle social situations, is what I’m saying.”

  Kasper huffed a sigh. “OK, that’s it. I’m out.” He turned and walked away.

  “Dad, wait! I’m sorry. Don’t ground me!” Rima called after him, laughter in her voice.

  Kasper waved a hand at them over his shoulder, not looking back. He stopped to say hello to a ghost that Harriet didn’t recognize – a boy in a rugby shirt and boxers who was carrying a hedgehog spirit under his arm.

  Kasper and the boy chatted for a bit, but they weren’t joking around like he’d done with Rima. His behaviour seemed a lot less relaxed. Clearly, this boy was just a neighbour, rather than part of the inner circle.

  It surprised Harriet that they seemed to have invited her to join their little group, when there were so many other ghosts around the building. What could they see in Harriet?

  Rima turned back to Harriet, and her amused grin disappeared. “Seriously, though, are you OK?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’m OK. Thanks, Rima.” Harriet bit her lip. She should use this opportunity while they were bonding to try and get Rima to help her. If she had managed to get rat spirits for Qi, there was no reason why she couldn’t get them for Harriet on her own. Then Harriet would be able to find her power without Qi’s help.

  She remembered her gran’s advice again – to get people on your side, find out what they want and give it to them. What did Rima want? She seemed to value friendship more than anything. It was clear that she loved Leah, Felix and Kasper, and showed her affection by teasing and bickering with them. She wanted people to joke around with her and have fun. Maybe Harriet could give her that, too?

  She wasn’t sure she was brave enough – the idea of inviting ridicule made her feel too exposed.

  But she could show affection in other ways. She could compliment Rima.

  “You know, you’re not just the mum friend,” Harriet said. “I think you’re really funny.”

  Rima plumped up with pride, her eyes going bright. “The funny one. I like the sound of that. Thank you, Harriet.”

  Harriet smiled back, then pictured her gran frowning at her, and her smile disappeared. She was losing focus – this was about getting Rima to help her.

  Harriet tilted her head, pretending something had occurred to her. “How did you kill that rat, by the way? I thought we couldn’t touch anything. Is your animal form corporeal?”

  Rima shook her head. “I don’t need to touch the rat’s body. You can kind of – grab the spirit and tug it free of the body. Any ghost can do it, but most humans aren’t fast enough to catch them; rats are kind of speedy. I can only do it in owl form. Kimaya on the first floor has these, like, tentacle pincers, so she’s way better at it, but—”

  “So the rat dies?” Harriet interrupted. “And you absorb its energy, or give it to someone else to absorb?”

  “Yeah. Some of the energy from the death gets released into the atmosphere, like when you died. But most of it stays in the spirit, which makes it easy to trade with. It’s a small amount – not enough to do anything useful, like bring a Shell out of stasis. It’s just a little pick-me-up. I tend to swap the spirits with other people most of the time, rather than absorbing the energy myself. I get a little hyperactive if I have too much extra energy.”

  Harriet squinted at the ceiling, considering this, while Rima went off on a tangent about someone who had never paid up after a trade.

  Did it only work with rats, or could you kill a larger animal that way? Surely the bigger the animal, the more energy it would release? If she’d felt that good after consuming the energy from a rat, how might a squirrel or a fox make her feel? Something so huge would surely be enough to help manifest her power.

  Rima had stopped talking, so Harriet belatedly made an impressed expression. “That’s really cool!”

  “Honestly, I mainly use my power to talk to animals, not hunt them. That’s how I got Cody to be friends with me – by turning into a fox. I started training her in that form, but it still took absolutely ages. She kept getting distracted by random things like dust and bumblebees. It took a few years before she would even sit down on command.”

  “Wow.” That made sense of everyone’s obsession with the fox. But it was taking them off-topic. Harriet gently steered the conversation back in the direction she wanted it to go. “You’re so talented. I’d love to see you in action. Do you think that you could get me another animal spirit? Something bigger than a rat would be amazing. It would be a massive favour. Please?”

  Rima’s smile dropped. “I’m sorry, Harriet. I don’t think it’s a good idea. Qi was right – your reaction to the energy was too strong. If things went wrong, I wouldn’t be able to control you like she did. I mean, you nearly tried to consume me too.” She laughed, then added, clearly worried that Harriet would take that the wrong way, “Not that you actually would have done it, if you’d known the owl was me, of course! It was an involuntary reaction. You’re just too fresh.”

  Harriet smiled stiffly. So much for the power of friendship. Even when she was nice to her, Rima wouldn’t help her out. “No problem. I totally understand.”

  She’d have to find someone else.

  Rima squeezed her shoulder. “I really am sorry. Shall we go and find the others? Kasper and Felix are about due for their daily argument, and we want to get front-row seats. It might cheer you up?”

  “Actually,” Harriet said, standing up, “I’ve got something to do. I’ll catch up with you guys later, OK?”

  She hurried off, trying not to feel guilty about Rima’s hurt look. She had to use her time wisely, and there was no point making friends with people who couldn’t help her get home.

  It was like her gran always said: Take what you need and move on when you’re not get
ting it. People were valuable until they weren’t – and Rima and the others had stopped being worth the investment.

  Chapter 6

  HARRIET

  On the stairs between the second and third floors, Harriet stopped next to the scrawny dreadlock guy she had seen before. She realized now what he’d been doing – hunting rats for energy.

  “Er, excuse me?” she said.

  He held up one hand, listening to something inside the wall. After thirty painful seconds of silence, he stepped away and turned to her, grinning toothily. “It’s gone. You must have disturbed it. Hi, newbie.”

  “Hi. I was wondering if you could get me a rat?”

  “You’re quick off the mark, aren’t you?”

  Harriet exhaled through her nose. “Sure. I mean, I guess. I’ve been here for almost a day, so…”

  “Hey, I’m not judging. Have you got something to trade? What’s your power?” He tugged up his trousers, which immediately slipped down again. Their clothes all seemed to come along with them when they died, which Harriet thought was interesting. It was as if people’s clothing was an extension of their spirit. Or maybe it was just that people always imagined themselves in clothes, so their physical form mirrored how they saw themselves?

  Harriet frowned. “My power hasn’t manifested yet. That’s why I want a spirit. To see if I can make it happen. What do you want for one?”

  The guy let out a laugh. “Not anything you can offer, princess.”

  Harriet swallowed a sigh. Time to turn on the charm again. She twisted a curl of hair around her finger, tilting her head sweetly at him. “Please?”

  He snorted. “Goodbye.”

  “But—” She stopped. Her instinct was telling her to back down.

  “Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it,” she said instead, as sweetly as possible.

  “Whatever,” he muttered, and stuck his head into the plasterboard.