Ghostly

It was nearing 12 am when Elizabeth-Mai Griffis was finishing marking her student's artwork. She just had one last piece to grade and she was done for the night.

A quality and stylized painting of a beach and cliffs laid before her. Milly Rhodes' artwork; there was no mistaking her unique spiralling brush strokes. "Another A," Elizabeth-Mai said and wrote down the letter next to Milly's name on the list.

Then she put the painting with the others in the neat pile and once that was done she put away her pen. Elizabeth-Mai then got up to get ready to leave but first, she walked to the window and looked outside.

The sky is a perfect dark blue, almost black, bright twinkling stars covered it and the full moon was glowing. "What a beautiful night," she stated and closed her eyes for a brief moment, just thinking about nothing in particular and then opened them.

She went to collect her bag, popped in her opaque bottle of blood placed it on her shoulder and headed for the door. Why she had blood was because she was a vampire. In fact a very powerful and ancient vampire. However, she wasn't evil and all she longed for was for a peaceful eternity and maybe someone to spend it with. That last part seemed like it would never happen because whenever she had thought she had found the one, they left and broke her heart.

Anyway, she had now left the classroom and headed down the staircase. She passed the new security office. There had been several attempted and some successful break-ins into the college recently due to the fact that it held some very old, rare and expensive books. To try and keep the books safe the college hired security.

"Ya going now, Miss Griffis?" A man's voice asked from behind her, so she stopped and turned around.

"Yeah, I have a taxi waiting around the corner," she lied.

There was no taxi. She was going to walk home, but of course, she couldn't tell him that. He would think it would be too unsafe for a woman to be walking home alone, at that time of night and he would have been correct if she was mortal.

"Well goodnight miss," he said and entered the office, so Elizabeth- Mai walked outside.

Just as she stepped outside she noticed a figure of a man, so she approached him curiously and worryingly. What if he was a robber come to try and steal the books? But just as she thought it she noticed that he had no mask. Neither did he make any attempts to hide his face. He had an angular jawline, dark brown eyes and black hair and in fact, he wore a suit. She could tell this even in the dark due to her heightened senses. If he was a robber, he wasn't a very good one.

She decided to stop and watch him and admire his remarkable features as he approached her. When he got close she told him, "Sorry Sir, but you can't be here. The college is closed to everyone but the staff at this time."

"Sorry don't mean to trespass, but I need to speak with you urgently. I need to warn you, " he stated.

"About what?" Elizabeth-Mai asked raising an eyebrow.

"You're in danger. You could be killed," he replied.

She tried to hold back a snicker as she replied with, "Thanks, but I think I'll be fine."

"No, they are more dangerous than you can imagine," he said.

"Alright then," she decided to play along. "Who are they then and what do they want with me?"

"They are a coven of evil witches. They are creating a spell to summon a powerful demon and you are their last ingredient. The blood of a powerful and ancient vampire," he explained.

"They could go after any ancient vampire so why choose me?" She wondered.

"I don't know but they have been tracking you for some time and I believe that they are going to attack tonight," he said.

"And how do you know all this? Who are you exactly?" She questioned him, thinking that this was a little too strange.

"Chip Dasher. I'm a secret agent assigned to protect you," he told her.

"Thanks, but I think I can handle a few witches," she said and started walking again.

"Whatever you say," Chip said and followed her.

"Are you just going to follow me?" She asked.

"Yep," was all he said.

When they turned the corner a group of about 5 women approached them. "Oh, no it's them," Chip said.

"Who? The witches?" They were getting close now.

"Yes," he answered.

"So you were telling the truth, Chip," she pointed out just as the group stopped dead in front of them.

"Who's Chip?" One of the women asked.

"The guy stood next to me," Elizabeth-Mai said and then she noticed Chip shaking his head. She was about to ask him, "what" when the witch spoke again.

"What guy?" She asked.

"I think we've got ourselves a crazy one her girls, another said.

"They can't see me. Only you," Chip told Elizabeth-Mai.

"You could have told me that before," she said in frustration.

"Can we get here already?" One asked.

"Bring it on," Elizabeth-Mai replied instead and charged at them.

She managed to take one down, but the others attacked her with magic. Although, she was fast and escaped a few of their spells she couldn't find an opportunity to attack any more of them.

That was until Chip helped. He used his invisibility to walk around the fight and grab one of the witches from behind. The one who had been the quickest with her spells. This witch stopped firing spells and struggled to break free of the seemingly invisible force that had suddenly taken hold of her. It gave Elizabeth-Mai a better advantage, so she ducked and weaved herself around the slower witches magic and pounced onto the struggling witch, sunk her fangs into her neck and ripped into her throat, killing her like the other. Then she threw her dead body towards one of the remaining witches and then ran towards another witch.

After a few minutes, Elizabeth-Mai managed slain all the witches with the little help from Chip of course. The two left the dead bodies on the floor and walked off into the night.

"Thanks for your help, but you can go now," she told Chip.

"Actually no I can't. I still have some unfinished business," he replied.

"What do you mean?" She asked him.

"I'm dead. I'm a ghost. That's why they couldn't see me. Only people I chose can see me," he explained.

"Oh. But I thought you were a secret agent?" She asked.

"I didn't lie. Not really. I was a secret agent before I died. I was assigned to investigate the strange disappearance of a few people. My search leads me to the witches, but it turned out that they needed me for a sacrifice for their demon-summoning spell. They needed a warlock. I wasn't powerful enough against all of them and so I died, but I carried on watching them," he explained.

"Oh, so what is your unfinished business?"

"To help me niece find a better, safer home," he said.

"Then let me help you. It's the least I can do since you saved me," Elizabeth-Mai offered.

"Thank you."

"So what's your real name anyway? Your dead so I don't think it matters if you reveal it now," she wondered.

"William Jones," he replied.

"See so much better than Chip Dasher. Guess we are friends now," she stated smiling.

For the next couple of months, William stayed in her flat, while she helped him find his niece a safer place to live away from her abusive dad. In the end, Elizabeth-Mai grew to like her as much as if she was her own daughter, so she adopted her. The two moved into a two-bed property and that was it her friend passed on. Grieve took her for a while, but she had to stay strong and not let her sadness show to her new daughter.