While I explore the famed Loch Lomond, an insect darts over my head, and whispers. “Hello, mortal.”

It’s a she: wings and tiny antlers. “Am I crazy?”

“No. You entered a haunted zone.”

“You’re a ghost, then.”

“Only sprites and water fairies, here.” She whistles softly. “And I’m your guide.”

Russell Hemmell is an alien from Mintaka snuggled into a (consenting) human host. His fiction has appeared on Gone Lawn, Not One of Us, Strangelet, and elsewhere. See more at earthianhivemind.net.