by J E Mueller
“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 something 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 toward 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 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, my 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 crumpled 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 didn’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.
I saw him surrounded, taking kicks and punches without being able to defend himself. My feet felt shaky. I tried to take a step and realized I wasn’t quite on the ground yet. There wasn’t time for an easy crash course so I forced myself forward, finding that the thought alone let me float. While there was a moment of relief, I had no time to dwell on it as I grabbed Madeline, and pulled her away from Danny, and gave her a strong punch in the jaw, sending her several feet back.
“I said I am learning. Patience is a virtue that you are lacking.” She quickly regained composure and tackled me again. This time I was able to actually use the momentum from the fall and wound up on top.
“Drowned girl,” I said, forcing her to look at me. “Your life is over, but your path isn’t complete. You didn’t deserve the death you received, but you can complete your path now. Who did this to you?”
She hissed at me and tried to knock me off but I held her firm. Dealing with demons had prepared me for this.
“Who did this to you?” I demanded an answer from her.
Madeline struggled for a moment. My words working through her memories and I could see her eyes getting less dark. The centers remained black but the whites slowly returned.
“Who?” I asked again, this time in a whisper.
“He did,” she answered, not to me, but to her memories. “He didn’t want me anymore.”
“Why didn’t he want you?” I had no clue what she meant, but her eyes were turning normal, her focus off her anger.
“He wanted her instead. She wasn’t that much prettier. I doubt she could cook or tend the flock. He wanted her more. But I was already here….”
Lover, husband, who knew. Either way, her fate was clear.
“I need you here,” I said.
She looked at me but didn’t seem to see me. “Who would want me now?”
“I do. You’re strong and clever. You can do so much still,” I replied, having seen her tactics in full effect.
“Clever?” She hung onto the question, confusion gripping her.
“Yes, and strong,” I reassured her, not sure if anything I said could re-trigger her anger. “But we need your help. There’s a lot going on right now, and you can actually help with it. Finish your journey before you cross.”
Madeline stared off into the distance. When she didn’t respond for a few moments I got up. She didn’t move so I left her be.
Danny saw me approaching him. “Do you by chance have any weapons?”
“I told him you had Mist’s old things,” Lliam stated as their fight continued.
“Yes,” I replied, looking back at my body. I shivered seeing myself just collapsed on the ground. “But I can’t get it now, can I?”
“You can handle your own stuff, you’re not dead,” Danny replied. “We’ll worry about details later.”
I grabbed the small chest from my pocket - oh how weird it was to root through my own pockets - and brought it over. The word I needed to open it escaped me.
I stared at them. “I can’t remember what word I need.”
Danny shoved Sev away and rushed over. “Oh, crescat,” he said without hesitating. The chest grew, and I set it down. “I guess you wouldn’t know the story behind all of that yet either.” Sev tackled him to the ground. The wind was momentarily knocked out of Danny.
Grabbing the daggers, I noticed how much they glowed. The encryptions were their own dazzling color, matching the purple I had seen at the shrine.
Danny huffed, trying to talk as he grappled the spirit. “Just stab them. It’ll send them to the spirit realm. Don’t worry, they can come back once they’ve calmed down.”
Just stab them? It sounded harsh and I had no way of knowing if they’d come back. But we were stuck in an endless circle of fighting. I wasn’t sure I could verbally immobilize them like I had with Madeline. I still didn’t know what had happened there or how that worked.
With nothing more to lose, I shoved a dagger into Sev’s back and watched him vanish. Danny breathed a sigh of relief before jumping up and going to help grab Patrick, giving me an easy target. Patrick hissed and spat at me, but in a moment he was gone too. The dagger had barely been driven into his spirit form and he was quickly removed from our sights.
I glanced over at Madeline who was still staring off into the distance.
Danny nodded. “Send her too. She needs to rest.”
“She seems harmless now though…” I replied, not taking my eye off of her.
“Indeed. Thankfully, she is, but still, the spirit realm is there for them to heal. I have no doubt she’ll be back much sooner rather than later,” Danny repli
ed.
“Can’t Lliam just take her? Stabbing her seems cruel,” I asked.
Lliam sighed, his eyes showing his exhaustion. “Yeah, yeah I can, but you have no idea how to get back into your body, and I really only have enough energy for one or the other right now.”
Oh. I weighed my options but knew which I had to pick. I needed to be back in my body. So I walked over to Madeline. “Sorry, dear. Hope to see you when you’re feeling better.” It didn’t look like she even heard my words. With a brief moment of hesitation, I sent her off as well.
I sat for a moment on the ground where Madeleine had been, wondering what had happened. The plot, whatever it was, was foiled and I was free to go back to sleep. But I couldn’t. Sleep didn’t sound safe. I didn’t know how to get back to my body - heck I didn’t even know how I had left my body. I could see it a short distance away. It just laid there, motionless, in a heap. My brain couldn’t grasp that I was in a way still alive and I had to try and push back the panic I felt rising in my gut.
“Is this normal?” I asked, not sure which thing I was even asking about.
“It is not normal for spirits to randomly drag you about and attack you unprovoked. It is not normal to be forced from your body without your full understanding of what is going on,” Danny replied, summing up both parts. “It is normal to have to send an enraged spirit off. It is normal for a guide to go looking for the spirit later to send it off. It is normal to return to your body after such a skirmish. It’s been a rough night, but you are well.”
“I don't feel like I am well.” I took in the sight of my hands. “I look dead.”
“You’re a spirit, you’re not dead. If you concentrate you can still see a thread attached to your body. It’s hard to see it, but it is there,” Danny reassured me and offered a hand up, “Let’s get you back. Shall we?”
I sighed, unsure if I was ready to move again.
“Listen to him,” Lliam insisted. “We’ll get you back in your body.”
I tilted my head at him, but Danny responded before me. “Yes, we will.” He rolled his eyes at Lliam and for a moment I forgot what we were talking about.