little ghost

The first time Axel sees her, she is mixing raspberries into her yogurt, the early morning sunlight drifting in through her kitchen window. She's still not quite awake, bleary-eyed with sleep, gunk clinging to the corners of her eyes. She thinks she's hallucinating at first, or that maybe she's still stuck in a dream, because there's a little girl standing in the middle of her kitchen, fingers skating over the breadbox and a wistful look on her face. The girl is tiny, dark hair and dark eyes, waif-like, thin and pale as a sheet of paper.