Avenger

by Su Halfwerk

  “It’s a pet name for the spirit I was trying to entice into possessing me voluntarily since she obviously was out shopping for a body,” he said. If a spirit was without a body—in which case the spirit-hunting dagger wouldn’t work—Luke could either inhale it or invite it to possess him. Since none of the pests allowed the inhaling, it was always option two.

  Celestine had warned him spirits were organized and very much aware of the existence of the celibate Spirit Hunter. Now they’d enlisted the aid of someone he knew. Damn it to hell, he was seduced by a spirit whose hobby while growing up was stealing, just for laughs. Being a pickpocket was a hobby of hers, but she always returned what she took. For her it was like a coin trick presented to impress small children.

  “Luke, Stop!”

  The alarm in Celestine’s voice pulled him out of his reverie. “I’m going to lose that yellow baby.”

  “There was no spirit with you. You were talking to yourself when I arrived.”

  ****

  If Celestine were capable of giving side-glances, Luke thought he would have given him one. As the Spirit Guide, Celestine should be able to see and hear the dead and the living. Why not Pru?

  “You have been using the drugs you sell to others. They cloud your thinking and I am not sure how they will affect the Spirit Within you.”

  Since becoming the spirit hunter, Luke hadn’t touched drugs. He’d tried only once and they gave him kaleidoscopic purple and yellow hippie dreams. Besides, the Laymour crowd controlled his existence, and he wouldn’t risk irritating them this much. “I haven’t been using. I was talking to a spirit who was standing right next to you.”

  Celestine’s incorporeal form shifted and hovered around in silence.

  “Dammit. Fine, don’t believe me. Like I care.” The balls on these Domines. First, they gave him a deadly ultimatum, then they offered him a risky existence—one without the joys of rubbing hips with willing females—and finally, they hijacked his body to do their bidding.

  The woman wheeled the stroller through the mall’s double doors, bringing Luke’s attention back to her and the baby. “We’d better continue our argument later. Have you ever seen this before?”

  “A possessed infant? Never. However, there is a first time for everything.”

  “What can that spirit do as a baby except drool and shit itself?”

  Celestine was silent as Luke approached the door. Fortunately, black was always in fashion. His getup of black t-shirt, black jeans, and dark blue sneakers wouldn’t attract attention.

  “While serving with the previous Spirit Hunter—”

  Luke huffed. “Here we go again. I get it, he was decent, he was honorable, and he never touched drugs.”

  “Yes, that is the one. While with him, I marked a possessed prisoner on death row. In both cases the host is incapable of causing mischief.”

  Nothing made sense anymore. Possessed babies and aura-less Pru? To add to his confusion, at night, he should be able to distinguish auras. How come it wasn’t the case with her?

  Or something was wrong with his vision. Celestine hadn’t seen her.

  Luke tagged behind the woman as she visited several shops and tried on hats, scarves, and flip-flops. He maintained a decent distance between them, until she entered a boutique.

  “This store has several exits,” Celestine said.

  Which meant Luke might hang about the wrong way out. With a sigh, he strolled leisurely into the shop and pretended to examine a dress.

  “May I help you?” A bored teenaged shop assistant asked.

  He flipped the label on the dress and asked, “Yeah. Is the shop organized by size or brand?”

  The girl smiled understandingly, her eyes gaining interest as she did a quick appreciative scan of him. “By brand. I can help if you like.”

  Something about his darker side intrigued women into thinking they could tame him. He returned her smile with a sheepish one. “I still haven’t decided what to get my girlfriend for our anniversary. If I’m stuck, I will call on your experience for a safe choice.”

  His too polite tone didn’t go with his dark outfit and bad-boy persona. The girl would have suspected him but he had pushed through her mind a plausible thought, his gaze focused on her eyes. What harm could he do beside maybe anger his girlfriend with a shitty gift? He looks lost and will definitely ask for help if I leave him to his own device.

  The salesgirl nodded and returned to hanging tried-on outfits back in their places.

  From the corner of his eye, Luke caught a glance of the mother on her way to a fitting room, a couple of dresses folded on her arm. There were two regular size fitting rooms and a larger one to accommodate a wheelchair or a stroller. Lucky for him, the mother paused long enough to examine a purple swimsuit. With long strides, he entered the large fitting room, which had a small alcove next to it. Three mirrors adorned the alcove to reflect different angles. In the room, he cloaked himself in invisibility and stilled.

  As the woman pushed the stroller in, one of its wheels rolled over Luke’s foot. The motion startled him, especially when she rolled the stroller back and forth several times to pass the protrusion in the floor. Shrugging, she hung the clothes on a hanger and pulled the curtain closed.

  This is highly inappropriate, Celestine said telepathically.

  Where else will I get the baby alone? Luke snapped back.

  At least avert your gaze. Disapproval lent Celestine’s telepathic response a dry note.

  The mother was fine in her own brunet-with-average-figure way. Luke was a celibate by force and suffering every moment of it. A chipmunk could turn him on.

  He glimpsed a fair thigh and his heart somersaulted in his chest. He gritted his teeth and shifted his gaze before he was tempted to touch. He allowed the yellow aura to draw his attention to the carrier. Like an angel, the baby napped, chubby cheeks glistening with something sticky.

  Will you be able to do it? Celestine asked.

  Luke wondered the same. This was a mere infant, what if he stabbed too hard? He wasn’t even sure the same possession and exorcism rules applied here. His hands felt clammy, a bad taste filled his mouth, and a nauseating feeling nettled in his chest, burning.

  Changed, the woman paused. She regarded her son tenderly, a soft smile stretching her lips. Mothers did that at times. Somehow, and for some unknown reason, they would stare in adoration at their children. Moments of tenderness, Luke called them. Unfortunately, he didn’t think he enjoyed many. His father had skipped ship during the pregnancy, leaving his mother to struggle to secure their next meal. She had no time to squander gazing at him. Luke squeezed his eyes shut on the memory of his mother’s slow lumber after his empty casket. No mother should bury her child. It broke her heart and spirit and she didn’t live much longer after his funeral, passing away in her sleep. Her broken heart had stopped trying to mend itself after his death.

  Now in the dressing room, the woman bent to her sleeping baby and pecked his cheek. Her sleeveless white dress embellished with small roses fell below her knees, hugging her figure where it counted. Since it was a summer dress, its neckline did a poor job of hiding her cleavage.

  Focus, Luke admonished himself and squeezed his eyes shut. He would do his best not to harm the baby and break the mother’s heart.

  I need you, he called upon the power in him, the Spirit Within.

  At hearing her step out of the room, Luke opened his eyes. She was in front of the room, her attention on her reflection in the mirrors fitted outside. As she stepped closer to the mirrors, she disappeared beyond the half-open curtain.

  I believe someone is waking up, Celestine whispered in his head.

  Indeed, the infant smacked his lips together and slowly opened his eyes. Like any guiltless baby, he blinked around, innocently until his gaze landed on paled-Luke. Angelic face turned ferocious and red rimmed the irises. Despite the baby’s aggressive expression, Luke hesitated.

  As though he read his mind, Celestine said, T
his is the same as other extractions you performed. Make the stab swift and true while keeping your hand light.

  Luke swallowed hard at the knowing look in those baby brown eyes. They narrowed into slits, and then the baby opened his mouth in an ear-splitting shriek.

  In a blink of an eye, the mother was back in the room and a blink was all it took Luke to render himself invisible again. The mother cooed to her son and held him, patting his back. After few sniffles, the baby quieted down and she pulled the curtain to change, her back toward Luke and baby.

  I can’t do it, Luke said.

  Look at those eyes, Celestine said.

  Yes. Babies didn’t have red-rimmed irises. The mother couldn’t see the savage way with which the babe stared at where Luke stood. The spirit couldn’t see him, but it knew he was there. Still, that didn’t reduce how wrong this exorcism felt.

  As soon as the mother exited the fitting room, Luke strolled toward the exit. Luckily, the mother was at the cashier so she didn’t see him. Unfortunately, a shop assistant saw him step out of the fitting room.

  “Sir!” She called after him. He didn’t pause. “Sir! This is a respectable outlet, we don’t’ allow this type of shenanigans in our shop.”

  He ignored her. Surprisingly, Celestine didn’t nag at him for the failed extraction.

  Outside the mall, Luke rounded a corner into an alleyway and leaned on the wall.

  “You should strive to avoid situations that could lead to your corruption. A woman in a state of undress is one such situation,” Celestine said sourly as Luke jogged back to Pru.

  He frowned. “You’re not angry that I couldn’t do it?”

  After a moment of hesitation, Celestine said, “Your reaction is understandable, however, we must find a way to handle this situation in the future.”

  “You don’t think it’s one off?”

  “I do not know. What concerns me the most is your purity.”

  “Let me worry about my purity, you should focus more on finding out why a baby was possessed. How about asking your Laymour buddies about this oddity?”

  “You are right. If you are not hunting tonight any more, I will travel to the Laymour.”

  Something held Luke back from discussing his intention to find Pru again. He shook his head. He knew too well what held him back. Celestine, an ethereal entity, hadn’t seen, heard, or sensed her, and until Luke confirmed he wasn’t imagining things or going insane, mum’s the word.

  “No more hunting tonight. I promise.”

  Chapter Four

  Having cleared the matter with his charge, Celestine shot through the planes toward the Laymour to update the Pit Keeper on earthly spirit hunting matters. Serenity, tranquility, and hushed telepathic whispers calmed him, drawing him into the peaceful fold of his peers’ existence. Walking among humans tended to draw on his peacefulness, and working with Luke pulled all his strings and looped them into one tight knot.

  With a sigh, Celestine glided on the white surface towards the levee. He nodded at one of his brethren and continued to the Dome. Naiten, the Pit Keeper, welcomed him with a nod and studied him from his high perch on the Watching Point above the pit. “You appear disheartened, Celestine. Are you still struggling with your ward?”

  “It is more of a challenge than a struggle. Luke is unsettled and reminds me incessantly of the circumstances surrounding his acceptance of the spirit-hunting task.”

  Naiten rose and descended the steps leading to the granite slap where Celestine stood. “We are aware of his disposition. It is difficult to give guidance to someone as stubborn as he.”

  Celestine nodded. “He carries out his job well, in that regard I have no complaint. Nonetheless, he is not careful with his body, using it whichever way suits him because he knows Lidwien is within him to heal his wounds.”

  Rubbing his beard, Naiten peered at Celestine. “Are you still confident he does not indulge in stimulants that cloud the judgment?”

  “He never used any in my presence and upon questioning him, he denies it. Drugs are not my concern. Knives, bullets, and other methods of harming the body worry me more. He takes unnecessary risks.” Celestine shrugged. “I do not know how to bond with him.”

  “You cannot have a solid relationship with all your wards. Perhaps Luke, with his tempestuous nature and wild ways, is meant to remain as your charge only.”

  Celestine agreed, Luke might be the exception. As the Spirit Guide, though, Celestine hung in the middle, not with his brethren in the Laymour and not with any human on Earth. It was a lonely subsistence. Furthermore, Naiten’s predecessor, Keigan, had frowned upon the closeness Celestine shared with the previous Spirit Hunter. Perhaps she had discussed those worries with Naiten.

  “We are having a situation on Earth,” he announced, steering the conversation to the reason for his visit.

  Naiten glanced at the Pit’s turbid surface to gauge the level of the liquid. Previously, the liquid on the Pit’s surface had reduced and weakened the enclosure. As a result, the spirits escaped. Those spirits then allowed the Spirit Hunter at the time to capture and send them back to the Laymour. It took Celestine and the Domines sometime to figure out that the escaping and returning were means of communication between spirits on Earth and the ones in the Laymour. The Domines united their powers and came up with a better approach to securing the Pit. Now, beside the Pit’s enfolding liquid, mystical and unbreakable shackles were added to their security. The removal of those restraints required the presence of two Domines simultaneously.

  Celestine said, “It is not another rush of escapees but incidents of unexplainable possessions.”

  “Explain,” Naiten said.

  “A possessed man on death row and a possessed infant are abnormal possessions. The first one took place during the previous hunter’s time. I cannot fathom what the spirits gain from residing in and bonding with imprisoned or immobile hosts.”

  Naiten ran a finger over his lips and paced. As the convergent thinker among the Domines, Naiten weighed a problem’s consequences from all angles to develop a solution. Only then he would act. “How many of these incidents are there?”

  “So far, I came across two. I am sensing it is a pattern of sorts.”

  “Hmm. Patience is our best recourse. This could be a coincidence, a transit reckless spirit in an infant or a prisoner until it settled in a more suitable host. However, if you encounter more anomalies, we will have to develop a strategy.”

  The possibility that the spirit might move to someone else eased Celestine’s guilt at not sharing Luke’s inability to extract it out of the baby. “You do not think this is part of the previous breach?”

  “I will need more evidence to answer your question. What did Luke think?”

  Celestine shifted uncomfortably. “He did find it odd that a spirit was within an infant, but we did not discuss it in details.”

  Naiten asked, “Why not?”

  “He was having an odd session, speaking to himself. Then he proceeded to explain he was conversing with a spirit. I heard and saw no one with him.”

  Facing the Pit, Naiten entwined his hands behind his back. “If Luke is not using drugs and he is carrying his responsibilities without fail, I do not see how this can be explained.” He turned, facing Celestine. “Keep an eye on Luke. I do not think him a liar, but he might be deceived.”

  Chapter Five

  The public park’s small artificial lake was part of a breath-taking view. The reflections of lights from the other side danced off the water’s surface as though drifting gently towards the shore. Pru enjoyed that view as she sat on a wooden bench overlooking the lake.

  Sat wasn’t the right word, for she hovered over the bench. It was either that or go right through it. She was too stubborn to let go of that semblance of real life. Pru considered her options. She couldn’t keep on wandering about, alone for the rest of her life. A soft meow drew her back to her friends and she smiled at them. A couple of cats surrounded her, while occasionally
a squirrel dashed in and out of trees. Few dogs barked and pulled on their leashes as they passed her by with their owners. She wasn’t truly alone. Her connection with animals remained even in this state. She didn’t lack companionship, she lacked communication with someone. Anyone.

  She reached out to a cat. “I can’t ask you to sit on my lap, you’ll fall through, but how about you come closer?” The cat purred, stretched out, and finally swaggered toward Pru, without any fear or hesitation. In midstride, however, the cat went still.

  “What’s wrong?” Pru asked, smiling. A crunch of leaves made her jump and turn around. Leaning on a cherry tree, Luke twirled a dry leaf between his fingers as he studied her silently.

  “Oh, you,” she said with dismay and settled back on the bench, her gaze fixed on the lake. She wasn’t that desperate.

  Without a word, Luke took the seat next to her and studied the same view.

  Why is he here?

  Reminiscing was out, since he still carried that sour-lemon expression on his rigid face. But, God, his sandalwood earthly scent was heady, he must’ve been running or something.

  “So, what will it take to let me exorcise you?”

  He just had to open his mouth! Since when did a hoodlum exorcist require permission to exorcise a ghost? That was beside the fact that she wasn’t some goddam ghost. “I should bribe you to exorcise me out of what? How does it work for you, really? Tell me.”

  He twirled the leaf and leaned back further. “You know damn well you must stay still and allow me to inhale you to send you back.”

  Of course. How else would it be? Okay, so he had some ability to see the…whatever she had become, that didn’t give him the right to pervert the whole situation. “What am I? A fix? Look here, no one is going to do any snorting.” She paused as a thought occurred to her. “Or you know what? Go ahead. I give you my permission to inhale away.”