Forgive me for resurrecting such an old image.

Gem pressed her face and hands up against the cold, wet glass and gazed at the mysterious objects that lay behind it despite her mother’s protestations that they keep moving

“Come on girl, it’s getting dark and we need to get away from here” her mother implored. glancing anxiously over her shoulder.

All around them on the streets, the phantoms drifted by in the drizzle, indistinct yet so similar to Gem and her mother. There were fewer now the sun was setting and for the most part moving with determination to some unknown goal. When she was a little girl Gem enjoyed letting the phantoms drift through her. She would grasp fleeting impressions of feelings, desires and unfathomable thoughts as they carried on their way, oblivious to her. Over the years though the glimpses has turned colder and more unfriendly. They all seemed so unhappy now.

Gem took one last look at the her favourite object behind the glass; a deep pink shape made of smooth curves and a long handle of light brown protruding from the top. Along the handle lay 6 thin strips of what looked like silver anchored into place by 6 pegs at one end and a silver plate set into the warm pink body at the the other. On the body itseld was an image. It looked like the phantom that used to visit her in the dark shelter where she and her mother used to live.

The shelter was in a sea of rubble outside of the phantom-haunted city they were in now. Gem supposed the shelter was once part of a building in the city that had been destroyed or left to rot of its own accord. The shelter was below ground level and occasionally when her mother left her to forage for food a small phantom would sit at the entrance and look down into the darkness. Gem often felt that the small four-legged ghost was dimly aware of her but she couldn’t be sure. The phantom would come regularly to the shelter and one day even looked as though it might venture in much to Gem’s delight but it seemed to lose its nerve and galloped off across the rubble. Gem climbed up to the entrance of the shelter and tried to see where it had gone but she could see no trace of it. As she scanned the sea of debris though she caught a flicker of movement. A black shape seemed to flow over a broken wall in the distance. It was shaped like her and mother but it had no features whatsoever. It looked like a shadow come to life as it flowed over the broken wasteland. It seemed to be unaware of her as it moved this way and that but Gem had the feeling it was looking for something and with mounting fear she thought it might be looking for her. Gem darted back into the darkness of the shelter not daring to move, hardly daring to breathe until hours later when her mother returned. As Gem spilled out what had happened her mother’s face darkened. They left the shelter the next morning and had never stayed in the same place for more than a few days ever since.

Now years later they moved closer to the city than ever before as their occasional sightings of the shadows grew more frequent. Gem’s mother refused to be drawn on what she knew about the shadows or what one might do if it found them only telling her that she should never let the shadows see her and to run whenever she saw one.

All had seemed quiet since they had moved to this part of the city. They sheltered in a small, narrow alleyway between two tall buildings away from the noiseless parades of phantoms in the streets. Gem’s mother had been allowing her more freedom these days and it was on one of Gem’s frequent walks that she’d first seen the beautiful pink object behind the glass front of one of the many mysterious buildings. Gem would spend hours gazing at it trying to fathom its purpose as, from time to time, the phantoms would pass through her. Staring at the object she didn’t mind the fleeting anger, resentment and desperation. One time a phantom had also lingered at the glass. Gem thought it too looked like a girl of her own age and it too seemed to gaze at the object. When Gem stood where the phantom stood she was filled with an intense longing that was not entirely unpleasant.

An hour earlier Gem had been on one of her regular walks when she was surprised by her mother rushing along the street to meet her.

“The shadows, they’re here!” The panic in her mother’s voice was enough to convince Gem to follow without question and they fled leaving their meagre possession in the dark ally

“Come on Gem , we have to go” her mother’s voice snapped her back to the present. Gem gave one last lingering look at the beautiful pink object and she hurried after her mother.