Esther Hollow's Arc

Chapter 1 of 8

Esther Hollow had been dead for eleven years, and no one had looked them in the eye once. They drifted the halls of the old hotel every night, testing strangers. Esther stood in doorways. Esther waved. Esther shouted their own name until the words wore thin. The living guests only shivered, zipped their coats, and walked through them. Esther wanted one thing before they could rest: to finish what they left undone. But you cannot ask for help when no one can hear you. Tonight a new guest checked in. A young woman set down a single suitcase and a small potted plant. The blossoms were not real flowers. They glowed pale blue, translucent, like petals cut from fog. Esther had seen those blooms only once before, in the hands of another dead thing. "Careful," a voice said behind Esther. "You're staring." Esther spun. Another ghost hovered near the stairs, small and round, wearing a battered cap that had followed them into death. This was Jessica, the only other soul who haunted these halls. For years they had drifted past each other, two lonely shapes trading nods and little else. Jessica was the one friend Esther had, and even Jessica could not carry a message to the living. "That plant," Esther said. "Those flowers glow like we do." Jessica floated closer to the guest. "They only grow where the dead linger. People who keep them tend to feel us. Sometimes see us." Esther's chest tightened, though they had no chest to tighten. Eleven years of shouting at empty faces. Now here stood a person who might turn and answer. "Test it," Jessica said. "But gently. You scare her, she leaves." Esther drifted to the woman's shoulder. Every failed attempt pressed on them. Esther did not shout this time. They reached out one thin hand and brushed the glowing petals. The blooms swayed. The woman went still. She looked at the plant. Then she looked up, straight at Esther, and her eyes widened. "You're really here," she whispered. "I can see you." Esther froze. For the first time since dying, a living person had met their gaze. The silence of eleven years cracked open. Esther could have wept, if ghosts could weep. "You can hear me," Esther said. "I hear you." The woman's hands shook. She stepped back, knocking her suitcase over. "I've been running from things like you my whole life. I came here to be alone." Jessica winced. Esther understood at once. They had found their one guide, the single person who could carry their unfinished business into the world of the living. But that person was already halfway to the door, terrified, wanting nothing to do with the dead. Esther had a voice again. Now they had to keep this frightened woman from walking out and taking it away forever.