Kay was getting antsy.

  With

  a gang of unknown size watching the streets for the boy– or the

  boy’s watery form, rather– Kay was scared. But it had been some

  time since he rode around the city as a liquid creature, and thus

  restlessness loomed over him, overshadowing his fear. He could put

  the water form away, but the craving inside him– the desire to

  splash out and jump and rollick throughout the city– it needed to

  get out. No, it was

  that boomed inside of him: the passion to be a water elemental!

  He

  awoke that Thursday morning knowing that something had to give. The

  anxiety screamed so loudly that morning. Ugh, he knew it was going to

  be an issue at school. When he got to class he did his best to

  concentrate but his mind kept tricking him with ghost feelings of his

  body squishing and releasing around. He caught himself in a daydream

  of bouncing himself across rooftops like he used to. Like he used

  to. Even thinking about it made

  it seem like some old hobby he lost and not an activity he enjoyed

  only a week ago!

  By the time fourth period had rolled in, Kay was beside himself with

  frustration. Cooped up at school, cooped up at home. There was a much

  better life to be lived outside of his bedroom! Outside of his

  chemistry class! Why did he even take chemistry? He did not need to

  know chemistry! He chemistry! There was more chemistry in

  his liquid body than their was in the textbox he had to lug around

  his high school halls!

  He was particularly jittery in a way he hadn’t been in some time.

  He was to get out of school, to get out on those

  streets and get running! When the school bell went off and class was

  dismissed, he visited his locker, put away his books, put on a

  sweater underneath his jacket, and sealed his locker. He

  to the door! Those who witnessed his brisk pace figured he was up to

  something special and many students remarked– because of his retro

  fashion choices– that he must have been off to some kind of rock

  concert.

  “Maybe Derek and the Dominoes are playing at the SkyDome,” joked

  one student. It got a good round of laughs, even if no one around

  knew who the band was.

  Kay made it home lickety-split. From school doors to his apartment

  door in record time. But there was a difference between

  water mode while one was in the confines of the classroom and the

  actual once one has been freed from school hours.

  Kay got home and set his backpack down in his room, but then he

  froze.

  Turn into the water elemental? Where was the safest spot? Was

  Thursday a good day for it. What if the gang’s men were out the

  most on a Thursday? Maybe a weekend would have been better? It’s

  been awhile– would pull a liquid muscle if he tried something too

  hard? Could he even transform anymore? What if the clouds parsed, the

  sun beamed down on the water lad and made him evaporate completely?

  For all the hot-blooded anticipation that Kay brewed over the school

  day, his nerves jellied now that he had opportunity to do the deed.

  He swirled for a couple minutes, considered going on the internet

  quick to check the forums, and then sat down on his bed, falling his

  head into his hands. He groaned in frustration!

  “Why is this so hard?” he said with his voice passing air like an

  old dark cave.

  He put his chin on his palm and spiralled in his head. After a few

  minutes, though, he got sick of his nerves. Something had to be done.

  And it had to happen today.

  He got up, took a heavy breath in, and shook out his hands as he

  walked to his bedroom door to make sure it was locked. One last

  glance outside to see if anyone was around the roof, and he returned

  to the centre of the floor to prepare for shifting. He was going to

  become the water elemental. No big deal. It was something he had done

  before. There was nothing new about shifting his form. He had done it

  last night, even!

  But last light– that was so involuntary that it didn’t seem like

  a trial to surpass. But if he could do it so effortlessly, then was

  it a trial at all? No. His reluctance was just nerves. He took

  another breath in and let the energy from his centre spread out among

  his arms, legs, and head. And when he looked at his body, it was

  liquid. Liquid arms, liquid feet, and the weird pseudo-fabric that

  was his clothing.

  When Ghost Thing thought about, he noticed his current situation

  wasn’t too different from when his powers first awakened. He had

  trouble coming to terms with his new abilities, and had locked

  himself in that very room to test out transforming. The situation

  unfolded the same way: nervousness, followed by an attempt at

  transformation, followed by him looking at his body with curiosity.

  The same it was a year ago, it was now.

  A

  year ago, thought Ghost Thing. I

  was fifteen. I was such a kid

  Although in the confines of his tidy bedroom, Ghost was out in his

  water form. No blue ladies or gang members came out of the woodwork

  to attack him. He was safe in his room. Now the trick was if he could

  transform outside somewhere without having a panic attack.

  He reverted back to human form and went through a list of spots in

  his brain that he used to transform; the graveyard, the underpass a

  few blocks away, the list went on. All of those were a little too

  for his comfort at the moment, so he took his mind

  across the neighbourhood. Where was there a good spot for him to

  transform in peace?

  There were a few spots that caught his mind, like a few of the

  abandoned subways in town or, if he wanted to take the long trip, the

  islands. Those islands could be very solitary. His mind kept on going

  back to one place, though: a car park over on Beaconsfield, hiding

  off the main road. The top couple floors were usually empty of cars

  and empty of youths. At least during the weekday afternoons, the

  chances are anyone up there tagging the place was virtually null.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  That was the place, Kay decided. He wasn’t sure if he should have

  taken his wallet. Last night, he transformed with it and it came out

  alright, but would he be fortunate once again? He couldn’t know. So

  he left it, and headed out.

  Sans wallet, he made his way to the parking lot. Who knew? Maybe he

  would have been back before his mom got home. He went out into the

  day, clouds covering most of the sky. Kay made off to the car park,

  passing by Dundas and seeing a bunch of kids goofing off in front of

  a Subway. There were Halloween decorations on the windows, skeletons

  and vampires. The street had its decorations up, orange coloured

  banners with smiling bats.

  He strolled away from the main part of Dundas with all the shops and

  turned right towards the car park. Wait, no, not

  turn. He back-stepped out onto the street and went down

  road. Yep, there was the car park; the tallest building around with

  its four floors. The first floor didn’t have any walls up so people

  could just walk in.

  Kay looked out of place regardless, but that was mostly his own

  nervousness. There were some business-attired adults walking around

  the floor that he tried to ignore to appear inconspicuous. There

  wasn’t a proper staircase of elevator so those that had to take the

  same ramps as the cars themselves. Kay had to assume that was why the

  upper floors were so rarely used.

  Despite the first floor having no walls to box in the lot, the other

  decks had walls, tall enough to rid the place of any balcony views.

  By the third floor, there was barely anyone around. Only a few

  vehicles were stationed on the third floor. This made it easier for

  him to progress upward unnoticed. On the fourth, not a soul. No

  people, no vehicles. Just walls painted with graffiti and a roof with

  few functional lights.

  Kay saw and heard people on his way up, but on the top floor,

  everything was silent. He scouted both ramps one last time then took

  the centre floor. It was like he was about to perform, and in a way,

  he was.

  He clasped his hands together and let out an exhale that could have

  dragged out his soul. He relaxed himself, then stretched out his arms

  and got ready to transform.

  But he thought, What if this place is gang territory?

  What if the guys that attacked me had their meetings on this

  floor? What if this car park is actually their secret base?

  What if this building is actually a giant robot that will activate

  and attack me?

  The worry coursed through him like radioactive waves but Kay got a

  grip on himself. he told himself.

  Gang members weren’t going to attack him... probably.

  He stretched out a battle ready stance and let the energy flow

  outward. His form shifted, and he became Ghost Thing. Just like that.

  Simple as a dot. He looked at his translucent hand and looked at the

  car park around him– the concrete walls and scattered trash on the

  ground. He held up his hand to the walls– the grey concrete looming

  through his see-through appendage. He was He was

  outside while in his elemental form again!

  A chill went down his aquatic spine. Using volume that was loud

  enough to be a shout but not so loud people in the floors below could

  hear, he said, “Here I am! Come and get me!”

  He strutted around and megaphoned his mouth with his hands. “Come

  on! I’m right here!”

  With the amount of gang members spawning out of nowhere and attacking

  being a hard zero, worry draining from Ghost Thing’s mind. He

  giggled. The glow and happiness of being in his water form returned

  to him. He looked at his hands and flexed his arms, hopping on his

  feet and feeling the weight of his body shift. It was time to jump

  again.

  There was an open-air rising on the ceiling, a perfect spot for Ghost

  Thing to jump to. He moved just below the opening, and squished

  himself down into a puddle. It had been awhile since he felt the

  press and tug of morphing into a puddle, the tension of holding that

  energy in. He released and shot himself high into the air, firing

  himself like a spray of water up towards the opening. Though, his aim

  was a little off so he had to reform his humanoid self to grab the

  ledge.

  Then, he was dangling from the ledge unsure how to proceed. There

  wasn’t another bar or rail to grab onto; the window was pretty

  featureless. Raising a leg up to it, though, he got his over and then

  pulled himself up to roll through the opening, landing on the roof.

  He gasped. The sky was still cloudy but while laying on the metal

  sheet rooftop, he brought his gaze down to the city and looked across

  the view. Sounds of jeep horns and crowds echoed across the tops of

  many houses and shops. The churn of street cars drifted by. Birds

  flapped through the air. The clatter of machinery greeted from

  towards the shore.

  Ghost Thing got up on his feet and took a steady gaze along the

  horizon.

  The boy liked music. Enough to wear headphones around most places.

  But it was the symphony of sounds that Ghost heard atop the city that

  took his breath away. The collage of lives that echoed up to where he

  could hear them all. It was a reminder of how big the city– no, the

  was. He could hear the laughter riveting over some

  townhouses and there was the rumble of power tools, someone busy in a

  garage. So many voices, all with their own person. It was hard to

  take in.

  He looked towards downtown, its buildings striking the sky. Dared he

  race around the city? No, not downtown. He was not ready for that

  yet. Besides, the local neighbourhood was beautiful.

  was beautiful, at least to his fishbowled eyes. All he had come out

  there to do was jump out a little bit; he didn’t need to show utter

  defiance and flaunt his stuff around downtown; the spot where he was

  attacked.

  So he hopped around Beaconsfield! It had been awhile since he had

  some good slingshot time! He went to the edge of the car park’s

  roof and bundled himself into a ball, then– He fired

  himself across the sky. Okay, maybe that was a pretty extreme first

  jump of the evening but the nearest building had its roof a couple

  storeys lower than the car park he fired himself off of. He reverted

  back to his humanoid form and braced himself for a mighty thud.

  He hit the rooftop with the force of a dropped tub. His form was

  splattered across the roof and the force was enough to stun him for a

  few seconds. Then, the living liquid receded into one spot and out

  came Ghost Thing. He rose up into his humanoid form and rocked his

  head in a hand.

  “Whoa,” he said, “that hurt.”

  So maybe a cordless bungee jump as his first real hop that afternoon

  was a bad idea, but he looked for another flat roof. Truthfully, he

  didn’t like jumping across people’s houses. Too many times he

  kicked off a shingle and he felt bad for the property damage. They

  were usually sloped as well and landing on them gracefully was

  difficulty. Commercial buildings, with their flat and sturdy roofs,

  were ideal.

  He spotted another flat spot to hop to and fired himself over. And

  then again onto another roof. Crossing Dundas required a powerful

  blast but the week off from being Ghost Thing didn’t dull his

  firing power much. He arced over the street, wires and all, with

  ease. Ghost still had it, and he was excited to see what the rest of

  the town had to offer.