by Jo Ho
“Marley,” he tried again, hoping to finally break through to her. “Get up, you need to get up and get out of there!”
But it was hopeless. She couldn’t hear him or see the ghosts she was unwittingly raising. The ghost roared suddenly, swinging his bound hands at the statue of his tomb. To Christian’s shock, the head of the statue broke away as several pieces of rubble flew past Marley’s head. Startled, she rose to her feet, staring blindly around her.
How did the ghost do that? How could he physically connect with anything when Christian couldn’t?
Around them, the other ghosts became more agitated, as more of them emerged from their graves. They moved towards Marley, each of them desperate for her attention, desperate to be heard and seen after so long being kept in the dark. The chained ghost thundered towards her as he picked up the broken statue head. Cocking his arm back, he hurled it at her.
The stone head whistled through the air and would have hit Marley square in her face if not for another ghost appearing, standing directly in the line of fire. Her hand flew up at just the right time to catch the statue in the air, stopping it dead. Christian stared at the female ghost, awed. She wore a simple dress and no shoes on her feet. A long spill of black hair fell down her back, but it was the thick noose around her neck that caught his attention.
It was the ghost from the Hanging Elm… and she had just saved Marley.
She screamed, launching herself at the chained ghost. Instead of connecting with him, however, she disappeared inside him. He howled with rage as they both vanished.
Chapter 17
The rock floated in the air, inches from Marley’s stunned face.
One minute it had been launching towards her, the next it stopped dead, levitating harmlessly before her. Having just arrived to witness it, Eve could see from Marley’s shock that it wasn’t her own doing. At least, not consciously. Hurrying to her, she stopped beside Marley as they both stared wide-eyed at the suspended statue head.
“I don’t know how that’s happening,” Marley admitted.
“That thing was flying right for you when it just suddenly stopped like that,” Eve revealed, waving her hands above and below the rock to see if she could feel anything keeping it there, though of course, there was nothing. As they both studied it, the head suddenly dropped to the ground, whatever magic that had suspended it there, now gone.
“What does Christian say?”
Marley hesitated, her brow furrowing into a frown. “I don’t know, I can’t see him. I took half a pill earlier to drown him out…”
Eve stared at her, unable to believe what she was hearing. “You drugged up so you wouldn’t be able to see him?” Her voice raised a notch or two at the end of the question.
Marley threw up her hands, caught yet exasperated. “What was I supposed to do? You don’t know what it’s like! He’s at me, all the time! When I’m trying to sleep, when I’m in class. He’s there yelling and bitching, I don’t get a break. You three can’t even see him so you have no idea what it’s like to have people invading your space all the time!”
“No, but he’s the only one who knows what’s happening, he’s a resource and you shouldn’t treat him like that, especially after… you know.” Eve trailed off though her meaning was clear. After you killed him.
As always, whenever that was mentioned, Marley felt a great wave of guilt. Eve was right. Drowning him out wasn’t the way.
“Can you get him back?” Eve asked, stopping Marley dead. She’d been so preoccupied with making him go away, the thought that he wouldn’t come back hadn’t even entered her mind. Now Eve had raised that concern, the worrying thought lingered in her mind.
What if she’d made him go away forever?
“I don’t know,” she finally answered, hating how small and scared her voice sounded.
“Well, try Marley! We need him back,” Eve demanded, surprising her with her forcefulness.
“Now?” Marley asked, feeling such pressure that her temple throbbed.
“No, two weeks from today… of course now!” Eve snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. Marley pushed her fear aside, closing her eyes as she conjured up an image of Christian’s face into her mind. She let her thoughts still, focusing on the breath as it went in and out of her chest. Although she could feel Eve standing impatiently beside her, she blocked her presence out of her mind. It was only Christian she wanted to see.
Holding his face in her mind, she called out to him mentally feeling a surge of energy rush through her. She could feel the presence of others around her, wanting to connect, but she pushed them aside receiving howls of frustration for her efforts. Not yet, she told them. She had to find Christian first. The sound faded around her until Marley could hear only her own breathing tangled up with the others calling out to her. She flitted from one unfamiliar voice to the next, until she finally heard the one she was looking for.
“Marley, dammit! I’m here,” Christian yelled at her.
Her eyes flew open as Christian emerged before her, but he wasn’t alone. Standing all around her were ten or so gruesome spirits, each wailing in pain as they reached for her.
Letting out a yelp of shock, she stumbled away, straight into the path of two ghosts, a woman, and her child.
“What is it?” Eve asked urgently, unable to see the danger.
Marley tried to answer her, but her warning cry died in her throat as several shadowy figures emerged from behind the tombstones. These didn’t have the misty air that seemed to surround the ghosts. They weren’t distressed or crying. In fact, they made no noise except for the crunch of their footsteps as they approached them — fast. These figures were real. Something glowed red on each of their foreheads, a symbol of some kind that Marley could see but make no sense of.
“Who are they?” Eve said, pointing to the same figures coming towards them. Marley’s head whipped round to her. So she could see them too?
“DEMONS!” Christian shouted suddenly.
“RUN!”
Chapter 18
Christian’s warning jolted Marley from the stupor she found herself in.
“Demons?” she repeated incredulously. Despite everything that had happened so far, this seemed a stretch too far for her brain to assimilate right now. Eve whirled around, moving away from them until her back was pressed up to Marley’s. Her eyes raked their faces, searching for the tell-tale signs she had previously witnessed when she had been attacked by them before. She had no problem believing in their existence.
Clouds rolled past leaving the sun to burst forth. Its rays shone down, illuminating the three figures that moved towards them. From this distance, they could have been mistaken as human — if humans moved in a twitching, insect-like manner. Circling the girls, the demons advanced as one, seemingly communicating with each other via telepathic means as they didn’t speak a word. This didn’t mean they were silent, however. A bizarre clicking sound bounced back and forth between them.
“I told you to run!” Christian yelled furiously from across the way.
“We can’t,” Marley responded, eyeballing the one closest to her. “They’ve got us surrounded.”
Eve shot a quick look at her. “Do the thing with the statue head, but throw it at them this time!”
But Marley knew the magic had not come from her. She hadn’t felt a thing and if she had learned one thing by now, it was that, barring the side effect of her pills, magic left its trace in the air. You could feel it both inside and around you.
As if to emphasize her point, Christian spoke up. “That wasn’t you!” Christian revealed, overhearing them. “That was your hanging woman. She stopped that rock from hitting you!”
Marley was so surprised by his comment that she took her eyes off the demon to flick them over to him.
Which is when they made their move.
Barreling towards them, Marley had only a moment to brace herself as her demon launched himself at her, knocking her to the ground. She fell on her ri
ght arm, feeling a sharp pain shooting up it. The demon’s face lunged towards her, and she saw with horror that feelers reached out for her from his cheeks. Instinctively, she pulled back, as a sticky green substance leaked out of the end of them, filling her with disgust. Whatever that stuff was, it couldn’t be good.
“Watch out for their feelers, don’t let them touch you!” she warned Eve, locking her arms against her demon’s shoulder, trying desperately to push him off of her. Turning her face away, she glanced over at Eve to see her struggling with the other two. One grabbed Eve by the shoulders as the other came at her from the front, but she was prepared for this. Her foot lashed out, kicking him in the groin, hard. The demon squealed as he fell to his knees, nursing the injured area.
As Marley watched, Eve’s eyes went flat as she summoned up her power. Suddenly the area grew darker as the sun dipped behind a heavy cloud again. Except, as Marley looked up to the sky, she realized that wasn’t what had happened. A giant black mass of something else was approaching fast. Formed of what seemed like hundreds of things, the cloud surged towards them at a shocking speed until it abruptly broke away revealing hundreds of large black ravens.
Screeching so loudly that it made Marley wince, the birds dive-bombed the demons below, sinking their beaks and claws into the fleshy part of the demons’ heads as they pecked at their eyes. Under attack, the demons let go of the girls, lashing out at the birds but their feathered friends simply skirted out of the way, reeling around to attack from a different angle. Again and again, they dived to attack, until howling in pain, the demon’s retreated as the birds chased after them, leaving a mess of black feathers in their wake. Shell-shocked, Marley took the hand Eve offered to her, pulling herself back onto her feet.
“They came out of nowhere,” she exclaimed, glancing around her for fear others would attack in their place.
“Not nowhere,” Eve admitted, concerned. “I think they might have followed me from that place.”
“I told you it was a stupid idea to go there!” Christian yelled at her, his fury making him forget for the moment that she couldn’t hear him. Whirling around, he spun to face Marley, eyes shooting daggers.
“And you, I can’t believe you did that to me! You see the damage your actions have caused?” He gestured around them, at the ghosts still hoping for an audience with Marley.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know this would happen. I wasn’t thinking,” Marley apologized. Seeing how restless the spirits were, she felt wretched by all the pain she had caused.
“You’re damn right you weren’t. Jesus, Marley, your powers are a gift. They were given to you for a reason, you can’t take pills to switch them on and off, that’s not how it works.”
“I know,” Marley answered quietly. “I realized something today.” She waited for him to calm down, so he could actually take in her words. Eve nodded, encouraging her to continue. “I don’t need pills to do that, I can do it with just my mind.”
“I’m not sure I follow,” Eve replied, confusion turning her eyes dark.
Marley tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she tried to explain. “It wasn’t my pills that stopped me from seeing Christian or the other ghosts. It was me, but I didn’t know I could do that, so when I took my pill, it was like a placebo effect.”
“You thought they would drown him out, so you somehow made it happen? How do you know?” Eve asked.
“Because my pills would have run out hours ago, but I was only able to call Christian when I opened myself up to doing it.”
“At least you’re finally learning something,” Christian offered. Even in this small victory, he wasn’t able to be gracious about his praise. Something from the fight still bothered her that she still needed an answer for.
“What you said before, during the fight. You said that ghost, the woman I keep seeing, you said she stopped that statue from hitting me? How do you know?”
“Because I saw her do it. One minute that piece of stone was flying straight for your head, the next she appeared from nowhere to catch it in her hand. Then she attacked the ghost who threw it at you! The effort it took for her to do that must have been monumental. They both vanished when she made contact with him.”
Marley blinked, taking this information in. “So if she’s not out to get me then what does she want?”
“Apparently, to help you,” Eve finished.
“But why is she so freaky then?”
“I wouldn’t knock it,” Eve replied. “Especially when she just saved your life.”
Marley stood, silent for the moment, trying to take it in. Had that ghost saved her? Staring across the cemetery, the face of the demon who attacked her flashed into her mind.
“Did you see the signs on their foreheads?” Marley asked them both.
Eve shook her head. “What signs?”
Christian frowned. “No?”
“Those demons, they had a glowing red sign on their heads.” She unzipped her bag, taking out an exercise book and a pen. Opening the book to a blank page, she drew a symbol that consisted of three conjoined circles set inside a triangle. “Does this mean anything to you?”
Christian studied the image, but shook his head. “I’ve never seen it before.”
“I’m guessing it must mean something,” Marley continued. “If we can find out what, maybe we’ll learn why they keep coming after us."
Chapter 19
His tongue forced its way into her mouth, hot and slimy like a worm.
It wasn’t the most pleasant thing she had ever experienced, but Cassie endured it for this, her first make-out session. His hands seemed like they were everywhere, touching, stroking, sliding across the bare skin of her legs. She had allowed the guy — whose name was Nick, she had since learned — to lead her to a park, where they sat now, under the large canopy of a cherry tree. White blossoms rained down around them, blown by a gentle wind. The whole thing should be so romantic, so exciting…
Yet she felt nothing inside.
So stunned by her first actual interest from a guy, Cassie had no real recollection of what they had discussed on the short walk here. Nick had boasted about himself, something about how he was the lead singer for a local band, but as he hadn’t asked her any questions, she hadn’t felt particularly engaged by the whole encounter. He had led her to this spot, then proceeded to kiss her.
Nick moaned into her mouth, making so many sounds that Cassie wondered if there was something else wrong with her. This was a super-hot guy, so why wasn’t she feeling it? It wasn’t like she hadn’t dreamed of this moment her whole life, so it made no sense why she wasn’t finding this as exciting as it should be.
“You have the nicest skin,” Nick murmured into her ear. His hand slid up her arm until his fingers caught a lock of her hair. “And your hair smells amazing, like coconuts,” he went on.
Suddenly Cassie realized why she was feeling a little out of it. Marley’s hair smelled like coconuts because that was the shampoo she used. Nick wasn’t into her at all. He was into Marley.
Maybe that wouldn’t have bothered her too much if he’d at least tried to get to know her. As it was, they had barely exchanged two words together, so his immediate infatuation wasn’t directed at her at all. If Nick could sense her reticence, he wasn’t showing it, continuing to kiss her like his life depended on it. He let go of her hair and slid his hand down her shoulder, dragging his fingers along her collarbone with a light touch. He moved them lower, down to the tip of the V in her top. Cassie caught her breath as she realized he intended to feel a whole lot more… and that she didn’t want him to.
This wasn’t the special event she had pictured. She didn’t know the guy, wasn’t sure if she even liked him. Plus there was the fact that she wasn’t even herself! She pulled away from him.
He lifted glazed eyes to hers, confused.
“Hey, come back,” he said, but Cassie moved further away. Reaching for her bag, she rose to her feet as her bag vibrated then chimed. Relieved by
the distraction, she fished out her phone to see an urgent message from Marley. Eyes growing wide by the words on the screen, she shot a distracted look at Nick.
“Sorry, I’ve got to go. It’s an emergency,” she said, already moving away.
Still on the ground, Nick gaped at her retreating back as she half ran out of the park. “Seriously?! You’re gonna get me all worked up then leave just like that?!” he yelled after her.
But Cassie had already gone.
Chapter 20
Water dripped down from the dank ceiling, pooling onto the filthy concrete floor.
The three figures huddled before Michael, their already unfortunate faces now covered by angry welts and scratches. Black feathers fell from them, floating into the water, proof of their unlikely tale. He had been told the group would finish off the girls no problem, yet here they were, their tails between their legs, returning his fee to him in the event of a catastrophic failure as was guaranteed in the newspaper.
Demons with a code of ethics. Whatever would come next?
A block of money sat on the table next to a large wooden bowl that was half filled with water. Together, they formed two of the few pieces of furniture that he kept in this section of the dead-end sewer. Though Michael liked to conduct his business deals here, several feet below the ground, away from cameras and prying eyes, this wasn’t where he lived. Where he stayed, it smelled of freshly laundered Egyptian cotton sheets and vanilla candles. As much as Fink had tried to figure out where Michael lived, his base was a mystery, one he intentionally made sure was kept from them.
Fink moved forward, taking the money back from the mercenaries. Their feelers clicked at him unhappily, what remained of their eyes were glued to the money moving out of their sight. Fink tensed his shoulders, waiting to see if they would be stupid enough to attack him for it. The demons exchanged looks at each other but at a low click from one of them, they spun on their heels, scuttling away like crabs.