Non-existent ghost watched the weeping human. Thread textured black hair stuck to her quickening red cheeks. Dusty air clogged her eyes infecting her only real possessions. The color of her lips only now being shown as their natural rosy pink color. A small fan blew air back and forth making the still air shake. Cluttered belongings hid the ugly brown surface of the floor. Hues of purple and blue traced every scattered page, broken glass, and cloth. Vibrations followed a repetitive clicking sound from the door. “Galax” a silhouette of a tall lanky man came in.  

“That’s not my name.” The girls waterlogged eyes blurred together. 

“Not this again. You are your brand. No one would want to listen to someone named Caroline. You are Galax”

“I said that’s not my f*cking name!” The girl picked up a mug filled with cold coffee and threw it towards the door. A crash echoed throughout the room as remaining pieces fell to the floor. The silhouette slowly moved out of the way with barely any reaction, unused to the foreign liquid.

“You know you can easily be replaced. Whatever you do now Galax will live on.” Outlined before her was a blank hallway light. It filled the room with a white glow exposing the surfaces creating harsh knife-like shadows. 

“That’s not my name.” The girl pushed hiccups up from her throat “That…that thing is not part of me.” 

“You are correct. Galax is no longer just a part of you. She is a part of everyone.” 

“Get out of here! Just get out!” The girl picked up a cigarette lighter, but just before she could throw it, hands gripped at her head flinging her brain back and forth. Screams stung the girl’s eardrums.

Letting gravity take her over, her mortal body fell. The floor, wall, and ceiling blurred together into lines of streaky colors. Her pupils shrank rolling back to explore the back of her head. The now remaining white spears began to melt over her face. Remains of makeup mixed into the thick pale colored liquid. The girls pink lips parted wanting to stick together with dried saliva. Her lungs pushed back and forth attempting to calm down their host.  

Silence filled every vein and cell of her body. She got up from the body she no longer called her own. She was translucent, with her organs almost visible through her clear skin. The transformation gave the perspective of two girls. The body on the floor was Galax and another unknown. Gold leaves coated her abandoned skin like fire. 

The girl’s grandmother used to tell her stories of ghosts. “When you speak of ghosts they seem so foreign. No one could ever be a ghost, no one real at least.” She walked into the still hallway. Surprisingly no dread came creeping up her feet up to her spine like the other days. Each door lining the hallway was empty. “Who knew silence could be so loud.” Her feet pushed off the floorboards urging her forward. She stood in front of two metal double doors. They were usually heavy and hard to open but now she could glide through them with ease. Laughs tickled her stomach. 

The dark open space was filled with a low humming. 

Click 

Click

Click

Two stage lights flood in exposing the reality of it all. A microphone stood in the middle of the stage. Still laughing the girl leaped to the middle of the stage. “Testing, Testing, one, two, three” Uncontrollable laughs rawed in the non-existent place. The humming got louder and louder morphing into a static like sound. Flashes of a crowd snapped before her. Guards attempted to remove her from the stage. Crowd members climbed onto the stage in herds. Guard clawed at her arms and fans at her legs. The crowd screaming in unison

“Galax. Galax. Galax” The dirt coated fingernails ripping up her non-existent skin.

“Get off me! Get the F*ck off me!” Her legs moved up and down kicking away air. All the people began to disoriate morphing into living corpses.

First thing to stop working was her legs then her arms and finally she was suffocated in a watery darkness.  

Click

Click

Click

The girl stood on the roof of the stadium. Her eyes were rolled back with streaks of thick white milk dripping down her face. Her sweat coated hand clenched onto the lighter and a tin of gasoline in the other. Only the sound of her own breathing could be heard from her eardrums. A tall lanky flesh covered man came running out of the building. 

“Stop! Don’t do this, Galax” tears fell down his face. His hands waved wildly in the air “Galax, all your fans are down there. There waiting for you” He approached the girl slowly. “Their still willing to give Galax a second chance!”   

“I am not Galax.” Her staggered chest moved up and down unevenly.

“We can talk about this can’t we?” A guard came through the balcony door. “We can talk about this. C-caroline.” The stars looked down in anticipation. The cement stung cold and wet. 

“I am not Caroline.” A match fell from the girl’s hand. “and Galax is dead.”