by Jo Ho
She was his only connection to the world, yet she’d cut him out without giving him a second thought.
The guilt that flooded through her was almost more than she could bear. Marley had never pretended to be perfect, God knew she was far from it, but she had always considered herself a good person. Yet her actions of late didn’t seem to match up to this. A dark thought entered her mind, one that caused her stomach to plummet.
What if there was some truth to what Christian had said the first time they had met? What if it wasn’t only Michael? What if they were also the bad guys? It would make their twisted powers make sense at least.
Not liking where her thoughts were taking her, Marley shook her head to clear them away. She had to focus. The others were starting to get a handle on their powers. It seemed she was the only one who had no clue about how to use hers. If she didn’t want another Christian-sized mistake, she needed to learn what it was she could do… so that if nothing else, she would never repeat it again.
Moving along the path, she studied the tombstones until she found the perfect one. Freshly-cut flowers sat in a vase in front of the grave. The water in the see-through vase was still clear, letting her know that it had not sat there long. While many of the graves surrounding it were overgrown, this one was neat. Someone was coming here on a regular basis to take good care of it. Her eyes flicked over to the words inscribed in the stone.
“Here lies Heather Forrest. Beloved wife, mother, and daughter, champion for the good.”
The date on the inscription was only a few months old; Heather was only recently deceased, but it was the latter part of the sentence that drew her attention. Heather was an all-around great person it sounded like. It made sense then that she would also be a good ghost. Lowering herself onto her knees in front of the grave, Marley closed her eyes then pushed out her thoughts. She mentally called out to Heather, trying to picture a female figure in her head. Eve had mentioned the others before, how she could feel her mind connected to other beings around her when she used her power, yet Marley couldn’t feel anything. Clenching her fists, she dug her fingers into her palms, forcing herself to try harder. The air changed, and Marley felt her hair lift away from her shoulders. It was working! Opening her eyes, she looked around her.
There was nothing there. No ghost. No feeling of any other minds touching her own.
She couldn’t contain her frustration. Why couldn’t she do this? Not bothering to stand, Marley, shuffled over to the next grave. This one wasn’t as neatly kept as Heather’s, but she rationalized that it probably wouldn’t matter anyway as she wouldn’t be able to summon anyone. Leaning forward, she brushed the ivy that covered the name on the headstone. Robert Sullivan. The rest of the inscription could not be made out, having long eroded away by time. Clasping her hands before her prayer-like, Marley closed her eyes. Pushing out her thoughts and energy, she called out to Robert, her brow furrowing with the effort.
Again, the air felt different, charged with electricity. Like it had felt in the church that first time. Her eyes flashed open expectantly.
Still, no ghost stood in front of her.
She felt the bitter sting of tears as she wondered why she couldn’t command her powers to work.
Chapter 14
Shame overwhelmed the car, threatening to suffocate Eve.
She wove through the traffic, driving automatically, unable to wipe the image of Cassie’s shocked face from her mind. She knew it was a low blow, that it was a terrible thing she had done. Cassie was the most insecure person Eve had ever known, even if Eve could have given her a run for the money in that department before. She should have never said those things.
Eve hoped she would give her the chance to apologize.
She’d called a bunch of times, left several messages, but Cassie hadn’t returned any of her calls. Eve would have followed her in the car, but Cassie had seemingly disappeared into thin air. Eve bit the edge of a black painted lip. Unable to assuage her guilt, she pulled up Marley’s number, hit call, then activated the speaker. Eve did not make it a habit of calling while driving; even if it wasn’t a finable offense, she knew it wasn’t a smart thing to do. But right now, the need to talk to someone else overtook that. Marley’s dejected voice answered after a few rings. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Are you OK?” Eve asked. “You don’t sound very happy.”
“I’m just trying to figure out how to use my powers, but nothing’s happening,” Marley answered with such despair, Eve could almost see the droop of her shoulders even without being there.
“It’s a learning curve, I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually. We all will,” she offered, hoping that she sounded optimistic even if she didn’t feel that way right now.
“What happened to you guys? I’m guessing you didn’t find out much since you haven’t said anything about it?” Marley asked, surprising Eve with her question. Marley’s intuition was sharper than even she seemed aware. She would make a great journalist if she were ever given the chance.
“We didn’t get any leads, unfortunately, our questioning came up short.” She would tell her the whole story, just not now, not while she was driving, Eve rationalized to herself.
“That’s a shame,” was Marley’s short response. Despite only knowing her a short time, Eve knew this wasn’t usual. The girl she was growing to know was sunny and bright, so she must be feeling really low.
“Where are you? I’ll swing by,” Eve offered, surprising herself. The thing with Cassie must have really thrown her as she wasn’t usually so friendly.
“Mount Auburn Cemetery,” Marley answered.
Eve didn’t bother to hide the shock in her voice. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, you couldn’t even handle the one ghost before…” She stopped talking, wincing at the tactlessness she had just displayed. Luckily, Marley didn’t seem to take offense.
“It only matters if I can summon them and since I can’t…” She trailed off, drowning in a wave of failure.
“Just hold on, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Eve said, stepping on the gas.
“OK,” Marley answered before hanging up.
Eve gripped the wheel as an uncomfortable feeling crept up her spine. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something did not feel right.
The rusty van had been stolen from a florist the night before.
Since then, they had driven across the city, searching for fun, draining the tank until it was almost empty. Once it was, they would replace it with another uninteresting vehicle, some other rust bucket that wouldn’t draw any attention to them. Empty food wrappers and soda bottles littered the seats, all that remained of their earlier meals. They had been planning on hanging out at a bar, maybe shoot a game of pool or two, when the two girls had appeared.
They had known who they were the instant they had arrived, having fit the descriptions they had been given to a T.
The figures hunkered down in their van, several cars behind the oblivious girl. They wanted to go after the other girl at first, the one on foot, but she had taken a path where cars could not follow. Now they wove behind the Corolla with only one thing on their minds…
Chapter 15
The streets blurred into one.
Cassie wandered the town aimlessly with no idea where to go; she just knew she couldn’t go back to the dorm. She wasn’t ready to face any of the girls right now, especially Eve. All she had wanted was to impress her, to be her friend.
But friends don’t say the kind of things Eve had said to her.
Her put-downs ran through Cassie’s mind again, a twisted replay that echoed on a loop. As if her own internal negative soundtrack wasn’t bad enough, she’d have Eve’s to cope with now too. The worst of it was, she knew Eve was right. She had behaved stupidly; she had put them all at risk just to make herself feel better in the moment. For what? Eve had seen straight through her. She felt hollow inside, like she wasn’t a real person, just an empty shell that people saw through.
A group of girls walked past, discussing their latest boy band crush. The prettiest girl tossed her long blond hair over her shoulder, glossed pink lips curving into a grin at something one of her friends had just said. She wore a short flowing skirt that hit mid-thigh, showing off toned, tanned legs that narrowed into delicate feet. Cassie couldn’t stop herself from staring at her perfect feet, immediately comparing them to her own wider-than-normal ones that often caused her to struggle with finding shoes that fit well. Just once, she’d like to try on an outfit — and shoes — and have them fit amazingly.
Looking up, she saw that she had arrived outside a clothing store. The window display showed a tall, slim mannequin wearing a cropped vest with a pair of denim hot pants and a pair of wedged sandals. The mannequin sat on a hay bale on top of a floor strewn with straw. Apparently farm chic was the in thing this season. Cassie stared at the mannequin, her eyes turning dark from her scrutiny. There literally wasn’t anything on the mannequin that she could wear.
The cropped vest with the frayed hem was super low cut, so she’d need a decent pair of boobs for that to work. Then there was the length. Cassie for sure didn’t have the kind of flat, toned stomach to pull that off. And the hot pants? They were almost indecently tight on even the rake-thin model. She had enough junk in her trunk that there was sure to be butt spillage, which wasn’t a good look for anyone.
Her eyes lingered on the outrageous outfit, wondering what kind of girl would actually wear something like that, when her mind flicked over to Marley. From what she’d seen, Marley was the casual, dress-down type, so this getup would never be found in her wardrobe (and Cassie would know, having gone through it pretty thoroughly). She definitely had the figure to carry this off though. Eyes fixed on the clothes, she pictured Marley wearing them and tried to feel how it would feel to be her, wearing this get-up. In the back of her mind, she knew she wasn’t dealing with the problems at hand, but she didn’t care. She needed a break from all that pressure and the inevitable disappointment that would come from just being her. Closing her eyes, Cassie felt her energy begin to build like a hurricane inside her chest. When her eyes flicked open again, she saw her reflection in the shop window.
Except, she wasn’t herself now. She was Marley — her face and body… and she was wearing the outfit in the window display.
A gasp escaped her lips — Marley’s lips — as she looked down at herself. Yep, those weren’t her boobs at all: these new ones were bigger. Running her hands over her new body, Cassie marveled at how amazing she felt. She had been right, Marley could pull the outfit off. She turned this way and that, admiring her new look, even if it was kinda slutty. It was the first time in her life that she could call herself sexy, so she would enjoy this moment for however long it would last.
Tossing her new hair over her shoulder, mimicking the girl she had seen moments before, Cassie started strutting down the street. She kept her shoulders back, chin up, boobs out, swinging her hips from side to side. It was a completely alien walk to her normal one, but she figured she was doing something right as she noticed a man throwing her an admiring glance.
The bolt of thrill his glance sent made her lift her head even higher, pointing her nose to the sky.
She walked to the edge of the curb then waited for the lights to change. Traffic flowed past, metallic finishes gleaming in the sunlight when a car slowed right down as its owner, a guy with a mohawk, wound down his window, sending her a low wolf whistle. Cassie froze, not knowing how to react to this new experience. A blush of pleasure spread from inside, rising to stain her cheeks. Lifting her arm, she waved shyly at the driver, causing him to stick his head out of the window.
“Hey, sexy! Where did you come from?”
Where indeed. Smiling happily to herself, she half crossed, half floated across the street to the other side, almost able to feel the admiration being sent her way. Cassie strolled past a coffee place with an outdoor terrace that spilled onto the sidewalk. Two girls looked up from their iced coffee drinks giving her the full once over, their eyes flat with envy. Cassie couldn’t believe it! The girls were jealous of her, of how she looked! It was the cute guy in the corner that caught her attention, however. His brown hair was gelled up in that messy just-got-out-of-bed style that she knew actually took hours to do. He wore a stud earring in one ear and was dressed in a sleeveless black wife beater that showed off muscly arms. A heavy metal chain hung around his neck. At her arrival, his eyes honed in on her, raking up and down her body as his mouth spread into a lazy grin.
“I hope you didn’t have any plans today,” He said brazenly, his tongue darting out to lick his lips.
“Why?” Cassie asked, confused at where this was leading.
“Because you’re going to be spending the rest of it with me,” he replied coolly.
Cassie felt her cheeks blush. The guy was coming onto her! Her mind flittered across all the things she could say, the things she had watched her mom say whenever these things happened. Instead of her cool retorts, her mind went painfully blank. Seeing the blush only seemed to make him more confident, if that were possible. He stood up, revealing all six feet of himself as he towered over her. Stepping around the table, he offered his hand to her.
“Coming?” he asked simply.
Cassie froze, a dozen questions entering her head. What, just like that? Where was he asking her to go to? Who was he? She didn’t even know his name, this was complete madness, wasn’t it?
Unless this was how girls who looked like current-her behaved.
Eve’s insults flashed into her mind again, cutting into her like a knife. She glanced behind the guy, into the window but instead of her new reflection, her mind saw her real state. Saw the downtrodden, ugly girl that nobody wanted to be around. The girl she never wanted to be again. Tossing her hair over her shoulder again, she reached out and took his hand.
“Why not?”
Chapter 16
Gathering in his breath, such as it was, Christian yelled with as much force as he could manage. “MARLEY! YOU NEED TO STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!”
But the stupid girl still knelt there on the grass, dejected… completely oblivious to the chaos she was causing.
She had no idea he was there, had been there for the last half an hour. She couldn’t see the elderly male ghost standing before her, growing more irate by the second by her not being able to see him. Dressed in a brown suit, the suit he had been buried in, he lowered his face until it was even with Marley’s, but she looked right through him. Flanking either side of her were two more ghosts, one a woman, the other who must have been her child. They held hands, joined together for all eternity by the accident that must have killed them. Christian knew it was an accident as half of the woman’s skull had caved in. The boy too showed signs of trauma, his small chest crushed by a great weight or collision. They hovered beside Marley, crying, desperate for her attention.
He was conflicted, feeling sympathy for all they had gone through, yet he also couldn’t hide the finger of fear that slid up his spine. Could they be dangerous? Would they hurt Marley if she continued to ignore them? On top of her fear, there was his own confusion to contend with. His mind couldn’t relate the fact that he too was a ghost, just like them. Most of the time he felt as he always had when he had been alive. It was only when he tried to touch something, or when he was pulled away, that the reality of his situation would hit him.
Watching the other ghosts, he noticed something different. They seemed… less human somehow, particularly the ones who had obviously been dead longer. He wondered if that was the natural process of the afterlife. That the longer a person had been dead, the more of their humanity they lost.
The thought made him cold.
He couldn’t afford to turn feral. He needed to avenge Eric, to see this thing through. He was interrupted from his thoughts by Marley’s voice as she sighed in frustration, moving to another grave, this time a large tomb with a crumbling statue on top. It was the most
overgrown of all the graves in the current area, with several of the letters inscribed on the tombstone having long faded away. Like it was a crossword puzzle, Marley was able to fill in the gaps without much difficulty. Kneeling before the grave, she focused on the name.
A thunderbolt of fear shot through him as his eyes flicked over the ancient grave. With the ghosts moaning around them, Christian realized that if he was correct, this ghost would be the most feral of them all, having been dead the longest. He raced towards Marley, arms outstretched.
“NO! Don’t Marley! Don’t call him!”
The words had barely left his mouth before the ground shook beneath him. The air changed next as a metallic smell filled his nose. He knew what it was immediately, having long studied the strange scent a supernatural event or being often left behind.
Sulfur.
Then he heard a familiar clinking sound but couldn’t think what it was until the towering black shadow appeared before Marley, his hands bound together by thick rusty chains.
Overgrown hair covered the ghost’s face, hiding much of it away, except those piercing eyes that took in the sight of Marley and Christian as he tried to make sense of what was happening. He moved a step forward with his bare feet, stepping into the light. Christian could see his bare chest and the torn pants that were his only clothes. Vivid scars crisscrossed his back, a visual history of the many times the ghost had been whipped as a human though the punishment had clearly not deterred him judging by his unrepentant manner.
“Marley, back away from the grave.” Hearing him, the ghost turned his eyes to Christian. Suddenly he half laughed, half growled as he understood the situation. The menace he exuded was palpable. A knot of fear blossomed in Christian’s stomach, sending a cold chill inside as he became suddenly afraid for Marley’s life.