Free Ghost of a Dream by Simon R. Green

into the curling folds of the fog, becoming a dark and indistinct shape.And then he disappeared from sight completely, as his feet took him over the edge of the platform, and he fell.
    But Melody was right there behind him.
    She’d followed him into the fog, and when he fell, she threw herself forward and grabbed his out-flung hand at the last moment. She slammed facedown onto the platform, driving all the breath out of her lungs with the impact; but still she held on to Happy’s hand with desperate strength.
    “Don’t let go!” yelled Happy, his voice rising from the deep gap between the platforms. “I’m not sure there’s anything here, any more! The fog’s eaten it all up! There’s nothing underneath me!”
    “Oh hush up, you big baby,” said Melody, between gritted teeth. “I’ve got you. I’ve always got you. Haven’t you learned that yet?”
    While they were busy with each other, the fog took advantage of the moment to surge forward, from both ends of the platform at once. A great grey wave swallowed up everything. JC lost sight of Melody, grimly hanging on to Happy’s hand. And when he looked back, he couldn’t see Laurie or Dr. Todd. He was cut off from everyone, standing alone in a great grey sea that was becoming steadily thicker all around as though it was walling him up.
    And then Kim Sterling came walking out of the fog, heading straight for him. His lost love, his ghost girl, striding towards him, smiling. The fog fell back from her, as though intimidated by her presence, as though it couldn’t touch her. Kim came walking through the fog, and her feet on the platform didn’t make the slightestsound. She slowed to a halt before JC, and his unbelieving smile slowly widened to match hers. He took off his sunglasses, so he could meet her eyes with his, and the blazing light from his altered eyes blasted the last of the fog away, illuminating Kim like summer sunshine in a church. She stood tall and easy before him, a magnificent pre-Raphaelite beauty with long red hair, in a shimmering, long, white dress. She had a high-boned, sharply featured face, and her wide mouth was a red dream with a smile always tucked away in one corner. She looked so fine, so wonderful, so full of life…JC reached out to take her hand, and she reached out a pale hand to him…but his hand passed right through hers. Because only he was really there. The living and the dead were never meant to touch.
    “Where have you been?” said JC; but Kim smiled sadly at him.
    She gestured at the sunglasses in his hand, then looked right into his eyes in a meaningful way. JC nodded slowly, looked around him at the fog, and said, very distinctly,
“I can still see the platform.”
The fog rolled back before him, giving up its hold on the station, unable to withstand the otherworldly glare of his eyes. It slowly faded away and disappeared, as though it had lost its grip on the world. JC looked around for Kim; but she was already walking away, back down the platform. By the time the fog was completely gone, so was she. As though she had never been there.
    “I’ll find you,” said JC. “I’ll never stop looking.”

    JC didn’t waste time with regrets. He hurried over to where Melody was still lying facedown on the platform, one hand over the edge, grimly hanging on to Happy. JC knelt and grabbed Happy’s other hand, and, between them, he and Melody hauled Happy back up to the platform. Happy scrambled up onto his feet, breathing hard, then retreated quickly away from the edge. Melody went with him, while JC took his time getting back onto his feet, brushing fussily at his marvellous ice-cream white suit.
    “What the hell did you hear,” Melody said to Happy, “to make you go rushing off like that?”
    “A steam-whistle,” said Happy. “Like a howl out of Hell, getting closer by the moment.”
    Melody nodded, then turned away to look back at JC. “Before you ask. Yes, I saw her, too.”
    “Saw who?” Happy said