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available to her, okay?”
    “I understand. What are the words?”
    “All you have to say is ‘I offer up this gift out of love. May it help you on your journey.’ And that’s it.”
    “How often do I feed her?”
    “She’s not sure, but we both agreed that you should leave her something once a day, and as much as she’d normally eat. She can get back in contact with me if it turns out to be too much. Whatever you do, don’t eat any of the food you place on the altar after it’s been offered up. It’ll upset your stomach. And don’t remove the food until the next meal, just to be safe. And all that should do it.”
    “That’s it?” Grandma wrote down “eat offerings” and drew an oval around the words with a diagonal slash across the middle.
    “That’s it. Set up the altar and start feeding her as soon as you can, then get on a regular schedule in the morning.”
    “I don’t have any incense or white sage,” Grandma said, glancing at the kitchen.
    “Don’t worry. Those two things are just precautionary, but don’t wait too long. And don’t hesitate to call my cell number if you have any questions or concerns. I’m here for you.”
    “Thank you. As strange as her situation is, I’m so glad to hear she’s alive.”
    “Me, too. You’ve got a wonderful granddaughter. And I don’t mean to draw this conversation to such an abrupt close, but I was in the middle of a meeting that I need to get back to before people start getting worried.”
    “I understand. Thank you again and good night.”
    “Good night, ma’am.”
    Grandma hung up and stared at her phone, and then at her notepad. She got up and hurried down the hall.
    Roxie meant to follow after her, but Sekiro’s alarmed voice stopped her.
    “Roxie, I need to take you back to the spirit world immediately. We’ve got new problems.”
    “What problems?” Sight of inside her house faded to darkness. She felt Sekiro’s hand slip out of her skull and her forehead tear away from hers. Fatigue and hunger clawed at her, and her headache returned with incessant blows to her temple. All that discomfort paled in comparison to the ring of dead people closing in on her, their eyes boring into her with hungry stares.

 
    Chapter 4
    Pursued by Darkness
    Sight of the dead people gave Roxie goosebumps and a lump in her throat, choking her ability to scream. The people were more shadow figures than anything, yet half of them still had pronounced faces. The rest were just black, humanoid outlines. Roxie drew her sword and lurched to her feet, propping herself up against the lighthouse. They were closing in on her from all sides, and from probably the other side of the Buffalo Main as well.
    She would’ve simply flown off, but her pounding headache was making her vision blur. She gritted her teeth as she held out her sword, fully aware that she had no idea how to fight with it. Sekiro stood beside her, eying the shadow people with trepidation.
    “Roxie, we need to get out of here. Start flying already!”
    Roxie clutched at her temple and the shield latched to her left arm blocked her vision. She unwillingly let go and held the shield out protectively in front of her. “Wait for my headache to subside a bit. It’s making me feel nauseous. I don’t want to throw up what I just ate.”
    Sekiro whined and fluttered her wings, but stayed put.
    The shadow people were only several steps away, but closing in on her slowly, more drifting than walking. “Should I run or fight them?”
    “I don’t know,” she said, her voice on the edge of tears. “I’m experiencing so many firsts with you. I’m going nuts not knowing how to help or guide you.” She fluttered her wings again.
    “Do you think it’ll be a bad thing if I hurt them with my sword? I know they’re dead, but they’re still people, right?”
    “They are. Very lost people. We Numina can do nothing to help them until they snap out of their current state and seek help.”
    Roxie could reach