Heart pounding, Maya rushed to the another Major dorm building after receiving Charlise's urgent plea for help. Yet when she arrived, she found Charlise sitting calmly at her desk, casually asking for assistance with Herbology homework.

The request was clearly a pretext—a lonely girl's attempt to spend time with the only person who understood her predicament. Maya couldn't fault her for that.

But what made Maya's blood run cold was something that could only faze her. Invisible to everyone else, it was a sight that tested her ability to maintain her composure, forcing her to fight back visible reactions to the scene awaiting her.

Charlise sat there with a friendly smile, beckoning Maya to come closer—but the room was… crowded.

The moment Maya opened the door, all the unseen visitors gathered around Carlisle whipped their focus toward Maya without moving from their spot. Their focus quickly returned back toward the sitting girl, watching her closely with unclear intentions. Exuding from them, Maya felt the strange, unnerving energy similar to the abnormal ghosts that haunt the Headmistress's mansion.

Although other people couldn't see the dead, Maya was certain that, in extreme situations—such as this—their energy could be sensed by ordinary humans. Just as some places felt haunted, and as Elena felt chills in the collapsed room of the haunted mansion, Maya suspected it was because of them that Charlise had an urgent need not to be alone.

Even if unseen, people were still sensitive to the eyes watching them. Charlise just wanted a friend to make her feel at ease.

Maya carefully wove her way through the invisible crowd of the dead, maintaining a façade of normalcy as she settled in beside Charlise.

She indulged Charlise's request, and they spent the afternoon together. But the topic of her pregnancy was strictly avoided. Charlise acted as if it had never happened.

Maya didn't want to pry, but not addressing the elephant in the room was becoming more and more uncomfortable. Having to pretend nothing was out of the ordinary, with the undead staring at her from way too close up, was making it even more difficult.

The question of why so many ghosts had fixated on Charlise when there were none before bothered Maya. She understood too little about their behaviour to make conclusions.

It wasn't like Charlise had caused their demise that sparked their grudge. Ghosts present were from different times, and none had particularly resentful expressions toward Charlise.

However, there was one girl out of them whose attention was shifted more toward Maya than Charlise. Her suspecting eyes were staring at Maya as if waiting for her to slip up. She looked awfully pale and drained, and Maya couldn't ignore that Charlise looked like she had lost some weight as well.

Maya's noticeable discomfort couldn't be unnoticed by Charlise, and she caved. "I know you're wondering, and I want to tell you that everything is okay."

Maya's eyes widened slightly. 'Finally, we're addressing it.'

"What did the doctor say?" Maya asked.

"Doctor? No. Nothing," Charlise shook her head.

"You didn't go see a doctor?"

"No. There was no need. It was a false positive." Charlise reassured her.

"You tested again?" Maya wanted to feel relief, but the atmosphere in the room was pointing toward Charlise lying.

"No."

Maya looked at her suspiciously. "How are you sure it's false positive then?"

"I've read about it in a brochure. It's pretty common. I don't need to spend more money on a test. I can feel it was a false alarm."

"You can feel it?!" Maya stared. This was denial—clear as day.

It wasn't a false alarm, not by any chance. Maya realized that the ghosts were particularly focused on Charlise's belly. It was the baby that was growing inside of her that spirits were fixated on. She didn't understand why or what their intentions were.

"Charlise, this is serious. I think you should go and see a doctor as soon as possible."

"I'm fine, Maya."

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"Look at yourself. You look pale as a ghost. You are not fine."

"It's just because I've been feeling under the weather lately. I must've caught a bug. I'll be better soon."

"It's called morning sickness, Charlise." Maya couldn't believe her. How can she be so deep in the denial? "You need to see a doctor about this."

"Maya, I'm fine," Charlise was infuriatingly calm. "I still haven't decided. Maybe Lucas will take me back. He wouldn't abandon his child."

"Charlise…"

"I'll go see a doctor when I decide. I still have time," she was on the verge of tears. "I don't want you to judge me…"

"I would never judge you," Maya said, squeezing her hand. "But I believe you should see a doctor to help you decide. I don't want you to go through this alone and unprepared."

It wasn't like she could just go on the internet to find more information about teen pregnancy.

"It's my decision. I will see a doctor when I'm prepared."

"…Okay," Maya sighed heavily, shoulders slumping in resignation. She didn't want to be too meddling. "It's getting late, I should head back to my dorm," Maya said gently, masking her growing concern.

As she got up to her feet, the ghost that had been staring at her this whole time grabbed her by her wrist. She automatically jerked her arm back, and the ghost realized she could see her when Maya stupidly stared right into her eyes with a terrified expression.

The ghost didn't let go of her arm. If anything, she gripped her tighter and got right in her face, and Maya couldn't pretend she wasn't seeing it.

"Are you okay?" Charlise's brow furrowed with concern, her eyes searching Maya's suddenly pale face.

"Tell her to abort it," the ghost said with a manic expression filled with terror and worry.

Maya was trembling in fear. She got this far, avoiding ghosts noticing her abilities. Was it this easy to make her slip?

"It will kill her," she persisted. "It happened to me," she pulled Maya's hand to her abdomen, which was bulging, and blood covered the lower part of her thin dress.

Maya used every fibre of her being not to scream.

"I'll see you later," she hastily uttered to Charlise and almost ran out of the room.

She ran outside until she reached an empty alleyway, where she stopped, panting heavily and trying to catch her breath. She hated herself for acting so cowardly—she had left Charlise alone in there with them.

'But they can't hurt her… Or at least I don't think they can.'

It's been a while since Maya was this disturbed by the dead. She'd long gotten used to their death re-enactments and disturbing appearances. She was unaware that something like the pregnancy of the living could influence them and found it ominous.

Maya wished to talk to Anastasia, but didn't want to bother her with every little thing. Leo was a bad choice to turn to for this matter, and she suspected Elena would be unsympathetic about the case.

Perhaps it was simply a common thing. It wasn't like Maya had encountered a lot of pregnant women while having this ability.

She calmed herself down.

'I'll convince Charlise to go to a doctor just in case,' she concluded.

Looking back toward her dorm building, she could still feel the chills from when the ghost girl grabbed her.

'…Next time.'

🜺🜺🜺🜺

The following afternoon found Maya wandering through Downtown Amellan's bustling Market Day with Elena by her side. An unusual warmth had settled over the December air lately, making Maya increasingly uneasy about the inevitable cold snap that would surely follow.

While they absentmindedly wandered the streets, it seemed something was occupying Elena's mind, and Maya still couldn't get Charlise out of her head.

While they passed by one of the stalls, Elena casually swiped a cucumber. Without any preparations, and with the peel still on, Elena bit off a chunk of it as if it were an apple. Some guys caught Maya's eye, glancing at Elena with weird expressions that made her feel second-hand embarrassment.

It was behaviour like this that convinced Maya for so long that Elena had no brain cells to spare.

"How about we go there and buy some snacks," Maya suggested, pointing at a food stall.

As they bought some meat skewers and sat down in the nearby park, Maya suddenly became aware of the striking difference between Mellgrah and the old world.

'Where are the children?'

Indeed, this world had no such things as a playground with screaming children, no parents pushing strollers down the street, no elderly cooing at drooling babies, no nurseries. Maya hadn't seen a single kid younger than them ever since she got here.

'What is going on here? Is it possible that none of the townies have kids?'

Suddenly, something slimy got stuck to Maya's face. When the realization of what it was had struck her, Maya screamed and started frantically shaking it off, coiling away.

Beneath the bench they were sitting on, there were disgusting slugs, and Elena used her elemental manipulation to stick one to Maya's cheek without touching them.

Covering her mouth, and using every fibre of her being not to laugh at her, Elena hid from Maya's glare.

'Why!?'

But she already knew the answer. Elena must've noticed Maya being down, and this was her way of distracting her from whatever was bothering her.

"Are the slugs on a list of things you're afraid of?" Elena teased her.

"They're disgusting."

"You're going to hurt their feelings," Elena laughed, picking up another one and sending it Maya's way while Maya used all her power to avoid it.

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