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By Root 757 0

was picked out in a different colour or was stationary when everything else was moving. The shrouded figure was slowly separating her from the world, reaching towards her, spreading a frozen loneliness across the ground between them. She was trapped there. She couldn't think of what else to do.

Chloe turned her head more quickly. She almost saw it that time. It was closer. She got up from the bench and moved to the next one. She turned her head the other way. It had anticipated her and again it was behind her.

She glimpsed it; just glimpsed it; almost glimpsed it.

'What is the matter with you?' a voice asked. 'What is it that you are afraid of?'

Chloe snapped out of the spiralling trance of her terror and looked at the face frowning into hers.

'What is the matter with you?' Leela repeated. 'Why are you so afraid?'

The rush of relief Chloe felt made her momentarily light-headed. 'Leela,'

she said. 'Just when I think there's no way out you keep turning up and saving me.'

Leela rested her hand on the handle of the big knife she carried on her belt.

'What have I saved you from?' she asked, and then unexpectedly she glanced back over her own shoulder.

Chloe's relief vanished. Have you seen it too?'She squinted in the direction Leela had looked. 'Is that where it's coming from? I thought it was behind me. Is it behind you?'

'It is not following me,' Leela said.

'What do you think it is? What did you see?' Chloe asked anxiously.

I saw a demon,' Leela said. 'Then I saw a man who had the same face the demon had.'

'Who was it? Do you know who it was?'

Leela shook her head. I fled,' she said flatly.

'I can understand that,' Chloe said. Her anxiety was subsiding again. There was no doubt Leela was strange, but she was tough and she was self-reliant. With her help Chloe knew she could face this ghost that was haunting her. With her help she could be tough and self-reliant too.

'I cannot understand it,' Leela said. 'Warriors stand their ground unless there is a good reason not to.'

'You were afraid.'

'That is not a good reason,' Leela said. 'My actions shamed me so I went back to face my fear, but he was gone. I searched for him but I could not track him and I could not find him again.'

Chloe thought, I went back to face my fear. That's what she needed. She needed that attitude. She needed to stand her ground and face her fear.

You weren't afraid when you went back?' she asked.

'I had no cause to be.' Leela smiled. 'I did not find him. What were you frightened of?'

Chloe was suddenly embarrassed by the way she had been acting. 'I think I imagined it,' she said sheepishly.

'Most fear is imagined,' Leela said. 'What was it you imagined?'

Chloe said, 'Look behind me.' She gestured at her chest with her thumb.

'Directly behind me. Is there a figure in a shroud watching me?'

Leela looked past her shoulder at where she was indicating. 'A figure in a shroud?'

'You know like a corpse in a burial wrapping?' It sounded ridiculous as soon as she said it out loud.

Leela said, 'I can see nothing like that.'

'I thought something like that was following me.'

Leela frowned a sceptical frown. 'Why?'

Chloe thought, guilt, alcohol and autosuggestion, that's why. 'I saw it in a graveyard,' she said and then corrected herself quickly. 'I thought I saw it in a graveyard.'

'You let your imagination run away with you,' Leela said matter-of-factly.

'Yes, I expect so,' Chloe agreed. 'It seemed real.'

'Walking corpses are for children to fear,' Leela said. 'You are not a child.'

Chloe was irritated by the criticism, especially as it was justified. 'Neither are you,' she snapped, 'but you thought you saw a demon. And it scared you.'

'What I saw has to be called something,' Leela said. 'Demon seemed closest to what it was. I know there are no ghosts or demons.'

'You're saying it was imaginary.'

'No. It was real.'

Chloe snorted. 'You saw something so it's real. I saw something and it's just imaginary,' she complained.

Leela nodded. 'It is for you to