by J E Mueller
I nodded. “Once. It was several years ago, though.” Five years, almost exactly. It wasn’t something you forgot.
“What did it feel like? How did you get there and back?” he replied, trying to answer my questions with more questions.
I shrugged, not sure how to answer but complied, “It was uncomfortably hot, like every fiber of my being was melting away. I was on a mission with the Blessed. I really don’t know how it was done. One moment I was holding someone’s hand, the next they were grasping mine tightly. I wanted to let go, discomfort from the heat was nearly painful, and then we were there.”
“It’s almost the opposite in a way, traveling to the spirit realm,” Danny explained, walking much more leisurely around the room now. “Instead of discomfort, there’s nothing. No hot, no cold, no sensation at all. You are moving from your body elsewhere, so there are no physical receptors.”
“That sounds weird.” I scrunched up my face trying to imagine not feeling anything. Sure, deep grief could make you feel almost nothing, but there was still the air around you, the ground at your feet.
“It is. It’s disorientating,” Danny agreed and continued on, “You’ll be leaving your body behind.”
“Wait, what? I thought this was a different realm.”
Danny smiled and nodded. “That only spirits can access. Your body is not a spirit. It’s a shell. So, it is important to make sure your body will be safe for some time.”
So, I’d be leaving my body behind? Just sitting there? Empty? I stared at Danny, not really sure I liked how that sounded.
Danny just smiled and waited a moment for things to sink in before continuing, “Yeah, it’s pretty crazy, isn’t it? No worries, returning to your body is easy. You’ll still technically be attached to it. It’s not like you’re dead. So, to the outside world, you’re just sleeping very deeply. They can hear you breathing. However, nothing they can do will wake you, so that’s something to consider.”
“Great, so my body is just left behind and you have to hope for the best? Or keep a guard on it? This is too weird.” I shook my head. “Okay, maybe we’ll take a step back. What other crazy things do I need to know?”
“Ummm….” Danny considered as he decided to lay down on a bench in the middle of the room. “Well, there are a lot of weird things. So, I guess we’ll go with some of the basics.”
I adjusted my seat so I could see him better. “Okay, like what?” What was I getting myself into now?
“So, spirits don’t always notice us. They look weird in our world, and we look weird through their view. We have to fight to get the attention of some of them. Aggressive spirits can do physical damage. The more aggressive they are the more they can do, from lifting heavy things to stabbing people. Usually it’s simply ‘clawing’ people with nails, but they are still a menace to deal with.”
“How does one deal with such a thing? Don’t swords just go right through them?”
“Mhm,” Danny replied, agreeing. “Normal ones do. It takes a special enchantment, a special kind of metal, and an even crazier special ritual to have a blade that fights against demons.”
The daggers I had hidden came to mind. “What do they look like?”
“The hilts are some form of deep evergreen with black runes. The blades themselves are pitch black. But it’s been a while since I’ve seen them. Only a handful had them since they were so complicated to make, and normal humans think they’re just plain, low-grade tools and either use them or discard them if they’re found. I can’t even imagine what could have happened to them.” Danny sighed and pulled himself up. He looked exhausted. “It sucks having everyone dead, and all the people who had the answers gone, out of reach, somewhere in the spirit realm.”
I looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
Danny hesitated for a moment, letting his eyes slowly search the room before replying. “So, the gate is super well protected now. Almost everyone important is there, and no one is allowed near it. It just sucks. They might have the answers, and yet they have sectioned themselves off. The only one I can see Mist talking to is you.”
“Because of this purple thing?”
“Exactly. I don’t have all the answers, maybe not even all the questions, but if you can get somewhere, then maybe I can finally know what we’re supposed to do. I hate this. And now I’m trapped at Reawakening.” He grumbled a bit. “Maybe I’m just too tired for all this today. I’m sorry.”
“I think I’m too tired for all of this today too,” I agreed. “Shall we resume tomorrow? Maybe a clear head is what we need to begin.”
“Good idea.” Danny stood up, stretched, and headed over to the door. “Let’s find your friend and show you to your quarters.”
Following, I fleetingly wondered if I should just show him the materials I had. I would tomorrow. There was already enough nonsense for one day.
Chapter 15
The room we were given was fairly cramped. Two twin beds, two nightstands, and a dresser were shoved in tightly leaving little walking space. I didn’t care. There was a bed! No hard ground, no dirt, and no bugs. I collapsed into it and let out a long sigh.
“You really suck at this camping thing,” Lydia teased, sitting on the bed closest to the door.
“I never said I was the camping type. Adventure is loosely in my soul.” I vaguely waved at her, not wanting to actually move to argue. “Why does getting answers mean I have to travel through mud?”
“You could have given up and stayed home,” Lydia mused.
I snorted. “I’m too much of a lost cause now. Damn that Key. She accidentally dragged me into this, defeated her curse, and now I’m still looking for answers.”
“To be fair, she was at it a lot longer than you have been,” Lydia pointed out kindly. “Your answers are here. I doubt Key liked where hers led her at first, but hey, it worked out. This can still work out too.”
Lydia wasn’t wrong. That didn’t mean I had to like the lack of quick answers, or all the camping the last five years had brought with it.
“True. Think we can really survive this?” I asked, finally moving so I could see her.
She hesitated. Her eyes shifted slowly around our small room before she looked at me. “I don’t know. There’s a lot going on. Things at play aren’t what I thought they were. Good and evil are meshed together, and the only thing I’m certain of is that I have no idea where my faith is.”
I sat up, surprised by her words. “Good is still good.”
“I’ve always known they were using us. But being used to fight evil since they would literally destroy our realm, upsetting the balance otherwise, was fine. Now, all these extra details. I just don’t know.” She pulled her legs in close, curling herself into a ball. “We’re just a source for them to survive on.”
“We’re more than that. So what if they live off of these weird energies? They want us alive as long as possible. That is still the greater good for us, even if it’s more complicated than we once knew.”
Lydia shook her head. “They essentially steal infants and force them onto their side. Even if it's to make them good, that just sounds so evil…”
I joined her on her bed and wrapped my arms around her. “This hasn’t been fun to learn. I’m sorry.”
“This is just all an absolute mess.” Lydia shook her head.
“I think we can still agree on a few good facts,” I told her, trying to keep some things simple. “If they are trying to kill someone to steal their soul they are evil.” Lydia nodded and I continued, “Killing someone to fulfill a bargain is also evil.” She nodded again so once more I added, “And a deer trying to eat your hair at two in the morning is horrifying.”
She looked at me and burst out laughing. “You are terrible at this camping thing.”
“It was trying to eat me alive!” I countered.
“It’s a deer! It’s not going to hurt you.”
“How am I supposed to know what’s what when I wake up to find somethin
g massive munching away on my head?!”
Lydia laughed and leaned against me. “Can I join your team instead?”
“I don’t know how. I think you’d hate hearing spirits. They never really shut up.”
“Come on, it’s got to be quiet here,” Lydia replied.
“It is more quiet here.” I stressed the word. “There are less dead here, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.” I looked at her, feeling all the more tired talking about it. “I wouldn’t say they are everywhere, but there are more places they are than aren’t.”
“Oh.” Lydia didn’t seem to know what to say.
I let her off the hook. “But it’s cozy here. And we have beds!” I got up only to flop right back down on her bed. The slight bounce caused her to laugh.
“True. I think we’ll both sleep well tonight.”
“Agreed.” I yawned and moved back over to my own bed.
It was never a surprise when I was woken up by a spirit making too much noise. Usually, they didn't even know that I could hear them. Their cries or rants were just part of their journey… but this one knew. I awoke to a very sharp voice.
“Wake up and free me already,” she demanded.
I tried to ignore it, refusing to open my eyes.
“I know you hear me. Now get up and free me already.” Her voice was low and harsh. No amount of ignoring was going to make her leave.
With a sigh, I opened my eyes and sat up.
I always hated the first impression. Most of the time the way they had died was obvious. This one was no exception. She was in her late teens. Her matted hair looked permanently wet, her clothes dripping water that vanished before it hit the ground. A rope hung around her neck.
“There’s nothing I can do for you,” I whispered, thankful Lydia was a sound sleeper. “I’ve no skill to make you cross, but I’m learning.” I didn’t want to include that it was impossible right now regardless of my intentions. She seemed angry enough.
“Nonsense, the answer is right outside,” she argued.
There was no way an answer was right outside, but I was curious. “What do you mean?” I let my whisper hang in the air for a moment.
She rolled her eyes, the creepy phantom drops of water slowly falling off her hair. “There’s another way. Let’s go. I want to be done with this. I need to be gone from this-” She motioned to our surroundings. “This needs to end.”
It couldn’t hurt to see what she was talking about, could it? I eyed her carefully. She seemed like every other annoyed spirit I had met. Nodding, I got up, fixed my clothes, and followed her out.
We were in a small building. There were maybe six rooms here, but only one other set was occupied. The narrow hall was dimly lit by a few dying candles, not that it mattered. A few steps later I was out the door. The moon hung high in the night sky, already claiming the hour to be just after midnight. The clouds were kind enough not to darken the entire sky, but it felt like a storm was on its way in. Darn that camping for making me think far too into the clouds.
I pulled my attention back to the task at hand. The spirit was only a few steps ahead of me, and I vaguely wondered if I should have brought my sword. A sword wouldn’t do much good in a safe zone. No demons to slay. Would spirits be booted if they had ill intentions? It seemed like spirits didn’t have a rule set that applied to them.
I stopped in my tracks as we neared the border to the forest, the end of the safe zone.
“There’s nothing out here,” I said in a normal voice. No one was around who could hear me, and I knew better than to leave safety.
“Just a little further,” she replied and started walking again, passing through a tree before turning to see I wasn’t following. “Come,” she commanded.
“No,” I replied simply. “There is nothing out here. I will be able to help you soon. I’m working on it. Promise.” It was true that I was trying.
She marched right up to me. “NO,” she yelled in my face. “You are coming with me!” She made to grab my hand but, as expected, it passed through mine.
She stared for a moment in disbelief and I watched as understanding passed over her. Her features turned calm again and I was just about ready to sigh in relief when she started shrieking at the top of her lungs. It was as if her whole form was shifting. It changed from the poor drowned spirit to something sinister. Her features seemed to take on red and orange hues, and her eyes turned completely black and glossy. Her scream seemed to pierce my head, pinning me in place. I couldn’t move. Fear gripped my feet and made them stone.
Finally, she stopped and turned to look at me. “You are coming now!”
I didn’t hesitate this time and bolted back towards my room.
Of course, she was faster. She was dead and had no physical limitations. In just a few feet she tackled me to the ground. Her hands grabbed the front of my shirt, but mine passed through her. Terror gripped me. Danny had mentioned you needed something special to fight them, but I didn’t think it meant that they would have this much of an upper hand. I was helpless.
The spirit understood this quickly and squealed with delight. The sound of it didn’t seem to be coming directly from her – the tone was not like her voice had been before. It was haunting. I tried to get back up but she knocked me back over and tried to drag me by the leg. How could one fight something like this?
Lliam appeared out of nowhere, took one look at me and vanished. Blast him! Couldn’t he fight his own kind? I had no time to think about his actions and instead grabbed onto a bush I was being dragged past. At least this gave me some sort of advantage.
She looked back to wonder what was going on and shrieked once more. Without hesitating she dropped me and went to break the branch. That gave me a chance to run.
Not that I got far. Naturally, she saw her mistake rather quickly and I was back much in the same position I had started in. Dammit. What was her end goal? Clearly she was trying to get me outside the border, which meant the demons would get me, but why? Did they promise her she would cross? Of course, she could but only to their side, but I doubt they had told her that specific detail.
Manipulating a desperate and already tormented spirit was not cool. Not that my rage and loathing of demon tactics was of much help here. Instead, I kept trying to grab onto things. Why didn’t I just wake up Lydia? Not sure what she could have done here, but maybe there was something.
To my surprise, Lliam reappeared and knocked into the spirit girl. Startled, she let me go and I was able to get some feet away before she tackled me once again. Lliam tried to fight her off of me, but she was relentless.
“She is MINE!” The spirit spat.
Lliam didn’t reply but instead worked to pull her off me.
“You can’t have her!” The spirit yelled again at him.
Lliam turned to me. “Sadly, spirits all have the same damn strength.” He looked toward the forest. “And this is going to get bad fast.”
I saw he what he meant and felt my heart drop. Two other spirits in matching red-orange hues were standing by the edge of the forest.
“What can we do?” I cried. I felt the tears bubbling to the surface, me chance of surviving this seemed to go from desperate to bleak.
I heard frantic footsteps heading my way and saw Danny running.
“Well, that was my plan, but I don’t think he can help against two more,” Lliam replied.
I looked over at Danny and to my surprise watched as he suddenly crumbled to the ground. Nothing had struck him. Terror filled me.
Suddenly, he was right next to me in spirit form. “Madeline, knock it off!” he yelled, shoving the spirit girl off of me. With Lliam’s added help, it worked.
The second she was off of me the two other spirits by the forest rushed over, but Danny and Lliam stood protectively by me.
“Really, guys?” Danny said. Disappointment laced every word. “I have told you what is going on. Now you want to sacrifice our help so you can become demons?” He did
n’t hide the facts. I wondered when he had spoken to these spirits before.
“If she dies, we can cross,” one of the new ones spat back at him.
“Not the way you want to, Sev,” Danny replied. “You can only go to hell on this route.”
“No, we’ll cross,” the final spirit insisted, very certain Danny wasn’t right.
“Yes, Patrick, you will. Straight into hell,” Danny said calmly. “Demons don’t lie about the crossing part. You can wait a little longer. I’m sure you would rather go to heaven.”
“I’m crossing today!” Sev yelled, tackling Danny off of me.
I got up to run but noticed Danny was now stuck fighting them, and his body was lifeless and unprotected. Well, this was just great.
“Danny, what should I do?” I yelled, not having many other options.
Danny punched Sev, landing a hard blow on the jaw, causing the spirit to take a step back.
“Psh, I don’t even know.” Danny declared. “We don’t have weapons, you can’t be a spirit, and I’m a guide not trained how to reverse this extreme level of anger.”
Lliam shoved Madeline away. “Can she become one?”
Danny glanced at Lliam. “Oh yeah, totally.” He sounded confident. “Just needs to learn how to disconnect.”
“Good luck, then.” Lliam struck Madeline again, kicked Patrick, and rushed over to me. Danny didn’t even seem upset at being left in such a terrible predicament.
“There’s a thing called spirit’s aid. You’ll hate me, but if you can close your eyes and try to shut down your senses we can do this,” Lliam instructed me.
“Do what?” I asked, not sure I liked his tone.
“Just trust me!” he replied, exasperated.
Sighing, I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the world around me. The shuffle nearby demanded my attention, but I forced myself to tune it out. Suddenly, everything was very cold.
I opened my eyes to see Lliam’s hand on my shoulder and my own body at my feet.
“What the hell?” I jumped back.
“Later, right now we need to subdue these guys,” Lliam said, returning to the fight that Danny was clearly losing.