Kay was getting antsy.

  With a gang of unknown size watg 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 spsh out and jump and rollick throughout the city– it o get out. No, it assion that boomed inside of him: the passion to be a water elemental!

  He awoke that Thursday m knowing that something had to give. The ay screamed so loudly that m. Ugh, he k was going to be an issue at school. Whe to css he did his best to trate but his mirig him with ghost feelings of his body squishing and releasing around. He caught himself in a daydream of boung 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 css! Why did he even take chemistry? He did not o know chemistry! He was chemistry! There was more chemistry in his liquid body than their was iextbox he had to lug around his high school halls!

  He articurly jittery in a way he hadn’t been in some time. He was desperate to get out of school, to get out on those streets a running! When the school bell went off and css was dismissed, he visited his locker, put away his books, put on a sweater underh his jacket, and sealed his locker. He marched to the door! Those who witnessed his brisk pace figured he to something special and many students remarked– because of his retro fashion choices– that he must have been off to some kind of rock cert.

  “Maybe Derek and the Dominoes are pying at the SkyDome,” joked oudent. It got a good round of ughs, 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 differeween pnning water mode while one was in the fines of the and the actual transf one has been freed from school hours. Kay got home a 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 beeer? 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 oer d and made him evaporate pletely?

  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, sidered going oer 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 on his palm and spiralled in his head. After a few mihough, 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. O gside to see if anyone was around the roof, auro the tre of the floor to prepare for shifting. He was going to bee the water elemental. No big deal. It was something he had done before. There was nothing new about shifting his form. He had do st night, even!

  But st 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 reluce was just nerves. He took another breath in ahe energy from his tre 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 ing to terms with his new abilities, and had locked himself in that very room to test out transf. 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 back then!

  Although in the fines of his tidy bedroom, Ghost was out in his water form. No blue dies ang 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 baan form ahrough 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 public for his fort 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 wao take the long trip, the isnds. Those isnds could be very solitary. His mi on going back to one pce, though: a car park over on Beasfield, hiding off the main road. The top couple floors were usually empty of cars ay of youths. At least during the weekday afternoons, the ces are anyone up there tagging the pce was virtually null.

  That was the pce, 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 c 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, e 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 that turn. He back-stepped out onto the street a down another 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 pce regardless, but that was mostly his own nervousness. There were some business-attired adults walking around the floor that he tried to igo appear inspicuous. 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 i, the other decks had walls, tall enough to rid the pce of any baly views. By the third floor, there was barely anyone around. Only a few vehicles were stationed ohird floor. This made it easier for him tress upward unnoticed. On the fourth, not a soul. No people, no vehicles. Just walls painted with graffiti and a roof with few funal lights.

  Kay saw and heard people on his , but oop floor, everything was silent. He scouted both ramps o time then took the tre floor. It was like he was about to perform, and in a way, he was.

  He csped his hands together a out an exhale that could have dragged out his soul. He rexed himself, then stretched out his arms and got ready to transform.

  But thehought, What if this pce is gaory? What if the guys that attacked me had their meetings on this very 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. That’s nonsense, Kay! he told himself. You’re being a worry wart!

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

  He stretched out a battle ready stand let the energy flow outward. His form shifted, and he became Ghost Thing. Just like that. Simple as a dot. He looked at his translut hand and looked at the car park around him– the crete walls and scattered trash on the ground. He held up his hand to the walls– the grey crete looming through his see-through appendage. He was outside. He was outside while in his elemental fain!

  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! e a me!”

  He strutted around and megaphoned his mouth with his hands. “e on! I’m right here!”

  With the amount of gang members spawning out of nowhere and attag being a hard zero, worry draining from Ghost Thing’s mind. He giggled. The glow and happiness of being in his water form returo 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 en-air rising on the ceiling, a perfect spot fhost 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 windoretty featureless. Raising a leg up to it, though, he got his over and then pulled himself up to roll through the opening, nding on the roof.

  He gasped. The sky was still cloudy but while ying oal 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 of street cars drifted by. Birds fpped through the air. The ctter of maery greeted from towards the shore.

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

  The boy liked musiough to wear headphones around most pces. But it was the symphony of sounds that Ghost heard atop the city that took his breath away. The colge of lives that echoed up to where he could hear them all. It was a reminder of how big the city– no, the world was. He could hear the ughter 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 loeighbourhood was beautiful. Beasfield was beautiful, at least to his fishbowled eyes. All he had e out there to do was jump out a little bit; he didn’t o show utter defiand funt his stuff around downtown; the spot where he was attacked.

  So he hopped around Beasfield! 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– SNAP! He fired himself across the sky. Okay, maybe that retty extreme first jump of the evening but the 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 ttered across the roof and the force was enough to stun him for a few seds. 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 a 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 nding on them gracefully was difficulty. ercial buildings, with their ft and sturdy roofs, were ideal.

  He spotted a spot to hop to and fired himself over. And then again onto another roof. Crossing Dundas required a powerful bst 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.