TRICK 2: LITTLE ALPHA GHOST TAKES A PHOTO

26 FEBRUARY FRIDAY BEFORE DINNER

The Alpha House was empty and still. I had never noticed how large it was until I floated through the narrow long corridor in my tower. I've always called it my tower, but it was more like a wing extension, I guess.

I found a shortcut through the linen closet at the end of the second floor into the main family house.

It was quiet here too. Nothing like the tons of fun I thought I was going to have as a ghost. It was like I was going to end up as one of those stuffy boring ghosts that wandered around empty hallways. Boo! How disappointing!

And then I saw it, the slit of light under Savy's door. Yay! I was so excited, I completely forgot to walk - shooting across the hallway to Savy's door. I could hear Sabre's high pitched crazy laughter. The kind she makes when I tickle her. Lizzy was here too. I could hear her snorting the way she did whenever she laughed too hard. I popped my head through the door, big grin on my face, and was greeted by Sabre's laugh suddenly escalating into an even higher pitched shriek.

My hair flared at the attack on my ears and Sabre pointed and shrieked even louder. Like she didn't even need to breathe anymore. I covered my ears and stepped through. Lizzy and Savy were seated around the room, their hands on their ears.

"Ghost! No! Sam!" Sabre screamed and pointed.

Eh? The little human can see me?

As if to confirm my suspicion, Sabre jumped up and down on Savy's bed to make her point, "SAM! SAM! SAM!"

Lizzy and Savy looked around bewildered while moving towards the frantic little human.

I waved at them and smiled, but they continued looking about nonplussed for what Sabre was desperately pointing at.

Sabre stopped jumping and screaming when I waved though. She stared at me for a second and then lifted one hand and waved back. Oh. Wow, she could see me! I always knew my little human was special.

"Calm down, Sabre." Savy reached her other hand over to rub Sabre's back. It was an action Mum liked to do when she felt one of us were over-excited, "We can't understand you."

"Yeah, speak.slowly." Lizzy instructed.

"SAM.THERE." Sabre obliged. Hahaha. I laughed out loud but of course Lizzy and Savy couldn't hear me. This was when I actually realized I didn't need to creep around at all.

By now, Sabre had also calmed down. I guess she realized I was just Sam.

"She's laughing at you." Sabre informed Savy and Lizzy.

"Who's laughing?" Savy asked.

"Maybe she wants to see Sam." Lizzy reasoned.

"But Sam's sleeping and Mum says not to disturb her." Savy said. Her mouth turned down, "Did Ben tell you anything?"

"Not really." Lizzy shrugged, "He's not answering my mindlinks. All I can sense is he's really moody."

"At least they're home safe." Savy sat back on the bed. She patted the space next to her so that Sabre would sit down too.

"Oh, I heard Jonah's shifted." Lizzy reported.

"Really? Cool." Savy said.

"I wonder when's my turn." Lizzy sighed wistfully, "It's like all of you are shifting without me."

"I haven't shifted yet." Sabre offered kindly, "I won't ever shift cos I don't have a wolf."

"Yeah, well, okay." Lizzy shrugged it off.

I quickly pointed out, "But you are really special, Sabre. You can see ghosts. Savy and Lizzy can't see me."

Sabre's eyes widened, "But I can see ghosts!"

"What?" Lizzy looked taken aback.

And then the two older girls laughed.

"Oh, Sabre." Savy shook her head. Maybe it was just me, but Savy acted a lot like Mum when she was talking to Sabre, "There's no such thing as ghosts."

"Yeah." Lizzy affirmed, but she hesitated a split second before deciding to agree.

And suddenly, I had the most brilliant scheme.

"Tell Savy and Lizzy that Sam's ghost is in the room." I instructed my innocent accomplice.

"Sam's ghost is in the room." Sabre announced.

Savy and Lizzy froze.

"Like in this room?" Lizzy asked.

"Like our Sam?" Savy asked.

Sabre nodded.

"Where?" Lizzy demanded.

"When?" Savy demanded.

Sabre pointed to me, "Just now, she came in through the door. Her hair flew everywhere."

But because Sabre was a sensitive and nice girl, she immediately tried to reassure the two older girls, "Don't worry. Sam's a friendly ghost."

"Okay..." Savy looked like she was trying to figure out how to deal with this.

"Okay, I'm spooked out now." Lizzy was quicker to decide.

"There's no such things as ghosts." Savy maintained to her best friend. I pretended to be hurt, placing my hand on my heart and giving Sabre that beseeching look Jude had used when he wanted my pity, "Savy says I don't exist!"

"You do! You do!" Sabre immediately tried to comfort me, "Savy, don't say that! It made Sam sad!"

Now Savy was beginning to look unsure. She turned to scan the space that I was supposed to standing.

"Okay... Can you ask Sam why she is a ghost?" Savy asked the little girl.

Sabre nodded and turned to me, "Why are you a ghost?"

The other two girls watched her carefully, as if looking for a clue or sign that the little girl was bluffing.

"I woke up and my body didn't." I explained.

Sabre repeated my answer to the other two girls. Lizzy shrieked - just as loudly as Sabre did when I first came into the room, but only for a moment, "Okay, now I'm officially spooked out. Savy... What should we do?"

Savy was trying to stay calm, she took a steadying breath and said, "Okay, now ask Sam if she's okay and if she wants us to tell Mum."

I flared in alarmed at the mention of Mum.

"No, no need to tell Mum." I quickly said, "I'm having fun right now."

Sabre laughed a bit.

"What? What's she saying?" Lizzy asked. She was hugging a throw cushion as if she were watching a scary movie.

Sabre repeated my words word for word in a very serious expression.

"OMG." Lizzy gasped, "The hair on my arms are standing. I'm seriously freaking out, Savy. What do we do?"

Savy frowned, "I don't know. Maybe we should ask Ki to check on her... You know... Just to make sure she isn't..."

Lizzy gulped.

"Isn't what?" Sabre asked.

"Dead." I explained, "They're worried I'm dead."

"Are you dead?" Sabre asked me seriously.

I shook my head, "No. I don't think so."

"Sam says she doesn't think she's dead." Sabre announced.

Savy stood up, "Okay, let's go get Ki to check."

"Ah, yeah, let's all go together!" Lizzy decided.

Savy nodded, "Knowing Sam, she probably wouldn't even realize she was dead until it was too late."

Hey! Now that was just insulting!

I followed the three girls out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen.

Ki was working in the kitchen, but it was more of the kind of work that required frowning at the laptop screen than whipping up a magical dinner.

He looked up with an apologetic smile but didn't stand up to greet them, "Sorry, my ladies. I'm unable to cook today. I believe the packhouse kitchen will be delivering our dinner shortly though."

"We know Ki." Lizzy brushed it off, "Actually, my mom has tasked me to fetch the food over to the Alpha House at dinner time."

"Thanks in advance then, my lady." Ki proffered one of his practiced smiles.

Lizzy smiled back. It was reflex, I know. I did it a lot too.

Savy was undistracted by my betas' killion dollar smile though, "Ki, can you check on Sam, please? Sabre says her ghost is in my room."

Ki paused, "In your room?"

"She here now. She followed us here." Sabre pointed to me.

Ki stood up and look around, "Where? Could it be that she is dream traveling?"

Sabre shook her head, "She told Sabre she's a ghost."

Ki narrowed his eyes at the little girl, "I see."

Why? He didn't believe her? How could you not believe such an innocent child?

"I know it's kinda hard to believe Ki. I can't really believe it myself, but Sabre has never lied about this kind of thing before."

Ki nodded then, and produced a gentle smile at the girls, "Don't worry, I'll go check on her now."

Actually, he was the one who looked worried imao. He was so worried that he left his computer on to follow the girls up to my tower.

My betas ALWAYS locked their screens when they moved away from it. Data security protocol and whatnot.

Sabre looked back at me, but I waved her off, "Go on, I'll catch up."

How could I let such an opportunity pass me by?

I sat down at Ki's chair and continued the email he was writing to Harvey about the convergence of timelines and the files he attached with the legal proceedings and historical records Willow had found on the absorption of minor packs in recent history blah blah blah...

He was just about to continue a new paragraph, so I helped him by typing, "By the way good beta, I must confess that I have been secretly in love with..."

I pressed enter a few times and then added in a bracket, "Scroll down"

And then I pressed enter a lot more times before finally typing in caps, "YOUR TRUCK."

"I wish I had a truck too."

I laughed out loud because I could not picture ki as a truck guy at all. I'm so funny.

Then I signed off at the bottom on the email, "With all my love (for your truck), Ki."

Hahahaha. I'm so funny. Send.

Just then, two smart raps on the glass door and Ben stepped in without looking, "Ki, have you checked on Sam... Ah, f***. Where's the dog?"

I quickly tapped the power button to lock the screen.

Ben walked right past me just sitting with a grin plastered on my face because HE CAN'T SEE ME!

And then he went behind me and got himself a coffee from the machine on the counter.

When Ki returned, Ben was nochalently sipping coffee by the kitchen counter just behind the table, "Is Sam alright?"

I quickly moved through the table and chairs so that Ki could return to his seat without sitting on me, "She's fine, beta. I just checked."

"Okay." Ben put down the empty coffee cup on the table next to Ki's laptop, "See you."

"Did you come here just for that, Beta?" Ki smiled.

"That and coffee" Ben said as he left, "Packhouse's coffee is diluted today."

"Understood, beta." Ki beamed with false lightness at Ben's departure.

And then he returned to his screen. He didn't seem to notice that it had been locked for him. I waited for him to login again and see the wonderful email he had just sent to Harvey. But I was disappointed because he didn't even notice it. He just went on answering whatever email on top of his inbox. Did he forget he was only half way through the last one?

Sigh, I did want to see a good reaction, you know.

I watched Ki typed for a while. This was boring. I decided to go back up to Savy's room to play with the girls.

Upstairs though, Sabre was crying, "Nobody believes me."

"We believe you." Savy lied as she stroked the little girl's back.

"But you said there were no such thing as ghosts!" Sabre accused.

"Well, yes." Savy tried to explain, "But I believe you weren't trying to lie on purpose."

"Right. Like Ki said, little kids have big imaginations." Lizzy shrugged. And then she smiled at Sabre, "We get it now, you were just really missing Sam, so you pretended she was here with us. It was pretty funny that you managed to spook us like that!"

Wow, sometimes I forgot that Ki was a real adult. Adults were really good at reasoning away scary stuff like that.

"I didn't lie! I'm a good girl!" Sabre screamed, "I wasn't making it up! She was really here!"

"We know you're a good girl, Sabre." Savy soothed.

"But where did she go then?" Lizzy challenged.

"I don't know..." And then Sabre saw me watching from behind the standing lamp and pointed, then she changed her mind and sulked, "You won't believe me even if I told you."

"No, I'll believe you." Lizzy said, "Is Sam here now?"

"Stop it, Lizzy." Savy said.

"Why not? I think it's fun." Lizzy said, "Since we all miss Sam, we can pretend Sam is here with us together."

"Okay, fine." Savy allowed, "So let's get on with our first date makeover session. It's almost dinner time."

"I'm really not looking forward to bangers and mash though." Lizzy made a face, "I heard it was bangers and mash all day today."

Savy smiled, "The guys like it, and since almost all our warriors are guys, the kitchen wanted to thank them this way."

"Whatever." Lizzy decided. She took our her phone, "Let's take a before selfie."

Sabre looked at me and waved me over, "Sam, you wanna join us?"

"Yeah," Lizzy grinned, "Come join us 'Sam'."

Okay. Why not? I came over to where they were. Since I was in ghost form and all, I decided to hover above them and put out peace signs over Savy and Lizzy's head.

"Say cheese!" Lizzy said. I gave my usual wide smile.

The girls laughed, and Lizzy tapped the screen with her thumb to take the picture.

And to all our horror, I APPEARED RIGHT THERE IN THE PHOTO. Floating and barefooted. In my silk pajamas with the bunny prints. Smiling with peace signs making bunny ears on top of Savy and Lizzy.

We all scary movie screamed. Even me. "G...g...gghooossttt!!!!!"

To which Sabre replied matter of factly, "I told you."