My Demonic Ghost: Banished Spirits

by Maree, Jacinta

  Now that I was alone, I beckoned Lock out of the shadows. I looked up into the corners of the room and called for him softly, “Lock... hey Lock can you hear me?”

  Slipping out of a spiral of ash, the young boy stepped forward, standing secluded in the one patch of shadows at the back of the room.

  “What?” he spat, his back pushing up against the wall as his large green eyes cautiously darted over towards the sun’s rays. I glanced over at him, and then followed his stare back to the sun, smiling weakly as I noticed him squirm in discomfort.

  “You can’t go into the light?” I questioned solemnly.

  “No...That’s not it. I can, I just... I hate it.”

  “Come on, its fine,” I whispered but Lock remained hesitant. I delicately leaned forward to take a hold of Lock’s arm but my palm slipped through him. Instinctively, I pulled my hand back. Lock’s eyes immediately dropped to the floor as if annoyed.

  “You can’t touch a ghost, idiot.”

  Swiftly, I linked my fingers around the cord of the blinds behind him and yanked it open, covering him completely within the silk of the sun. Lock was so immobilized in a state of shock that he didn’t even try to fight back, frozen within the rays as the heat shot over him, lighting up his pale face and causing his vibrant eyes to glow, if possible, even more vivid and wild. I softened my grip on the cord as the blinds dropped shut after only a few seconds, Lock now stumbling back into the shadows and bumping his back into the wall breathlessly.

  Laughing, I grinned a toothy smile at him. “You try doing what you did yesterday; I swear you’ll be tan from all the sun light you’ll be getting.” Instead of getting angry and throwing a tantrum he just bit back a frown and looked shamefully to the floor. Well, he looks like he’s sorry for what he did, I guess. Whatever he was, he surely wasn’t a monster. “But really, I wanted to talk to you about this whole ordeal.”

  Lock kept his mouth closed while I spoke to him, his eyes not breaking connection with mine, like an obedient little puppy. “I need to know what’s going on; I need you to tell me about what you want...”

  “We don’t usually talk to the Hosts, but I suppose it can’t hurt,” he mumbled, “I’m trying to get my way into the Third Realm. I did something bad and now I need to get the Staff so I won’t be punished for it....” He didn’t seem to really understand what he was saying, his forehead scrunching up in concentration.

  “The Third Realm?” I questioned softly, straightening my back as I spoke. Always calm, always careful.

  “Yeah. You know, where you go when you die.”

  “Oh, you mean Heaven?”

  “Kind of, but not really. I’m not allowed in Heaven, but I can get into the Third Realm if I get the Staff.”

  What could’ve a young boy like Lock possibly have done that wouldn’t allow him to enter heaven?

  “So, where is the Staff?” I asked.

  “You have to find it, one of the Hunters has it, and you have to beat them to get it.” Lock clenched his fist in enthusiasm, grinning with an arrogant smile while I laughed awkwardly, shaking my head. A smile did suit his face better than a snarl; I was pleased to see such a genuine grin.

  “Hunters? What are the Hunters?”

  “Just as the name states, they are hunting for us. To take us back to where we belong.” Before I could ask any more questions, Mum walked into the kitchen and dumped two more bags of groceries onto the table.

  “Here you go honey, just some more food to tie us over for the next couple of days.” Next couple of days?? I spun on my heel to face her, Lock already having disappeared back into the shadow; not that he needed to, he was invisible to her eyes, but I suppose he didn’t enjoy her company.

  “Why are we staying a few more days, Mum?”

  “You’re father had requested that we bury him here, so we’re staying for the funeral.”

  “But, but...”

  “Now Rachael I know it’s upsetting for you, but this is what he wanted. Plus, this house isn’t so bad once you clean it up a little bit.” My shoulders dropped in failure. I didn’t bother to argue, even if I was to be in this house or back at the apartment in the city, Lock was going to be following me regardless. Defeated, I sighed and nodded my head. Only a couple more days. I can do that. Only a couple more days, and then both Mum and I will be back to normal. Just a couple more-

  “It’s such a beautiful day, why don’t you head off and check out the area while I unpack,” Mum insisted, cutting off my thoughts, already digging through the bags and storing the food into the fridge. I mumbled an obedient okay under my breath, dragging my feet up the stairs where I got myself dressed.

  I kicked up the leaves across the drive way as I walked, the tail of my scarf tapping against my chest as my tied hair sat in a twisted ringlet down my side. The sky stretched out in front of me further than I had ever imagined; the clouds sprinkled across the blue sky like dashes of smudged paint and the trees huddled beneath, yearning for its warmth. I followed the verdant lushness towards the main road where I took a sharp right, slipping down the streets in mindless wonder. It was a relief to be finally out of that house. Being completely surrounded by dust, darkness, and other infestations had grown very bothersome.

  I re-entered the edge of the bush again, nothing but thick trees sitting in front of me like jail bars, when my ears caught a small giggle coming from my left. Turning my head, I spotted the peroxide blonde curls of a young girl ducking her head out from behind a tree, her face covered by her hand as she snickered, her shoulders shaking as she did. Surprised, I stopped in my tracks abruptly, my eyebrows scrunched down as the stranger started to slip back behind the trees, giggling into her palm the entire time.

  “Oh... no wait,” I stretched out my arm, reaching forward, but the girl had already hidden herself back into the forest, and before I knew it I was tracking the trail wisps of the girl’s blonde locks and echoing voice. I ran after her breathlessly, like chasing down the only person who held a cure for a fatal disease. It was strange how I felt compelled to pursue her. I would just catch a glimpse of the girl’s yellow sun dress fanning out behind her, or the bounce of her long curls swinging off her shoulders, as I weaved in and out and around the trees and bushes. Ducking underneath branches and jumping over roots, I tried to gain speed but couldn’t catch up. It wasn’t long until she had disappeared altogether and I was left panting, looking around myself in disappointment.

  “Where did she go?” I wheezed, standing in a patch of light that leaked through the gaps in the trees. I was surrounded by chirping and buzzing, the choir of the forest life. I turned around, hands on my hips. In my struggle to collect my breath, I was stunned to see the little girl only a few metres ahead. Standing with her back towards me, her eyes directed forward, watching something off in the distance so intently that she didn’t even flinch when the twigs snapped underneath my creeping footsteps.

  “Hey, excuse me...”

  Before I could plant my foot a heavy thump exploded into my stomach, sending my body flying into the air and crashing into a tree. The pain erupted only a few moments after impact and I inhaled a harsh breath. It came out of nowhere, the low grumblings of a hideous creature as it dragged its self towards me, drooling and chomping the air with large vicious teeth and powerful snaps of its long jaw. The little girl had disappeared behind the shadowy frame of the monster, its shoulder blades popping out from its scaly flesh so tightly that I could see the sharp edges of its skeleton turning with its movements.

  I screamed and kicked back hard against the tree, pulling my head up from the large hind claws to the expanded chest, its large gorilla arms with its knuckles scratched along the ground. On the beast’s head was a deformed mix of a boar and rabbit, its long ears tapering back to a dark greyish brown that continued down its back. Wrinkles were etched permanently across its nose from the constantly snarling and baring of its teeth, its long sabre-like fangs protruding past its lower lip with a large bull ring pierced right throu
gh its snout. I wanted to scream but I was stunned into silence, like paralysing venom, as the animal let out a furious roar, tilting its large, thick skull into the air as pools of its saliva poured from its gaping mouth. I had never seen anything like it.

  A feathery touch of wind skimmed my leg and without hesitation, a coil of ash spun in front of me. As Lock jumped from its shadowy depths, his arms held out in front of his body with his fists tightening to a fighting stance.

  “Stay down,” he ordered as the beast rocked forward, roaring, spit flying from its open jaws. Lock flinched as he was sprayed with the bodily juices and quickly spun his arms into a windmill loop while kicking upwards twice, sending a disk of black shadows slicing through the monster’s belly. A growl erupted from its stomach as it stumbled backwards, using its thick, pillar-like arms to shield its chest before lurching forward in a lunge. With its head lowered, it charged at Lock but was reflected. Lock, jumping into a hover above the ground and spinning out a flying kick, sent out two more dashes of black wind that slammed into the creature’s oncoming head.

  “What’s going on?” I screamed as the wind around me grew with speed, whisking anything loose on the ground into the air and oscillating it around into a tornado. Lock dived into the dirt, just barely avoiding a claw that shot out, smashing the tree above my head into a storm of splinters. I cowered and covered my head as the howls grew louder and more ferocious, Lock now flipping over so he was on his stomach, looking up at me. He had a panicked look on his face which shifted quickly to calculation.

  “Over here you big, fat oaf. That’s right you stupid troll, look at me! Look at me!”

  Teleporting with two quick bursts, Lock bellowed out at the top of his lungs, mocking and chanting so the creature had no choice but to turn its beady eyes over to him. He punched the air twice, firing two missiles of dark matter, one shooting over the creature’s shoulder and the other smashing into its neck before stretching out a large black shield with his palms, the dark rubber capturing the animal’s powerful punches as it swung its fists madly towards him. It looked like some sort of beautiful dance; Lock’s movements were swift and agile, every twist and every leap, spin and jump was perfect and avoided each powerful punch the monster threw at him. I couldn’t tear my eyes away for a single second, watching his arms thrust forward as he harpooned power balls from his fists. I lost any sense of fear I may have felt, overwhelmed with awe and absolute wonder, it was like watching a circus act with flaming torches, acrobats and no safety nets or harnesses underneath. A part of me even felt… anaemic. Just as I was watching him spin into a back flip, his spine bending in ways I had only seen cats perform, I felt a vicious slap across my face, a branch shooting past and slicing my cheek, thumping my head so hard that my neck snapped the other way.

  I let out a high shriek, cupping my cheek. I caught Lock’s attention as he glanced over at me, fear written across his young face before he too received a powerful hit, knocking him head first straight into the tree trunk. He toppled over in a heap onto the ground; his beaten body shaking under the tremendous strain before collapsing only after a few moments of struggle. He was quiet and still, stretched out like a rug.

  I felt myself instinctively leap to my feet, watching in distress as the creature limped towards its defeated prize. It didn’t even react to me as I started yelling and taunting it, hurling rocks and twigs at its head and back.

  My feet start moving on their own, sprinting as fast as I could, growing closer and closer to Lock, just as the beast’s enormous hand grasped for him. Its wretched stench burned my nostrils. I would’ve dry retched if I had the breath.

  “Stop! Go away!” I was panicking; watching as this thing dragged its ape-like arms across the ground and towards Lock, ready to lift its brutish fists to crush him; to hammer down on top of him like a bug, to break every bone in his body, and I could do nothing. Nothing but watch in blind horror. And what...what will happen then? It’s not like I hated Lock so much that I could just stand by and watch an eight foot giant clobber him to death. But what could I do? What could I possibly do to save him, to save us both?

  I skidded on my knees and held both my arms up, praying that the power of my open palms would shield us both from the demon. In my final breath I could only think of the pain, the explosion of pain I would experience as every single bone in my body was crushed and shattered inside me. My second thought shot immediately to Mum... Time ticked on, yet nothing happened, and in disbelief that my plan may have actually worked, I didn’t move when I heard the howling of the beast as it recoiled. I sat still for just a moment, my heartbeat so loud in my ears that it almost over took the booming claps of the creature’s feet, stumbling backwards as another silhouette leapt into the air from overhead, kicking powerful bursts of black and electric blue shadows in large sweeps. The monster swiped twice before unhinging its jaw and screeching in a high, ear-splitting pitch, so loud that I was left with ringing in my ears, before it exploded into a mushroom cloud of black smoke. The monster vanished, leaving behind the mass of its destruction. My arms dropped back to the ground, panting and crying, as the stranger landed with a steady thump on all fours in the middle of the clearing dust cloud.

  The entire forest seemed to settle down as the dust was carried away. I was still sitting in my own tears, too shaken up to move my body but still aware of the struggling breaths of Lock who lay unconscious behind me. He‘s already dead, so he couldn’t possibly die again, right? My mind raced in frantic swoops. What if he wasn’t really dead at all, but now he is really dead and I just left...

  “That’s not how it works,” a feminine voice spoke up from the centre of the dust pile, her tone drenched with dominance that I felt shivers run down my spine. Oh, no wait... this isn’t a woman at all. A man approached me slowly, looking about 24 years old, he was wearing a plaid top and dark blue jeans.

  “Who are you?”

  I must be hallucinating if I believed this guy had such a feminine, sleek voice. He stumbled for a moment and clutched at his forehead, his lips peeling back in a painful grimace, before a hot burst of ash ruptured out of his chest and vaporised into the shadows beside my body. The cloud spiralled in tight circles before forming the body of young woman. She looked only a few years older than me standing dressed in sleeveless adult pyjamas, a silk nightie framed with delicate black lace. The colour was of a dusty, fog blue with splatters of blood droplets staining the silk, both of her wrists marred with long, deep, thin gashes. The low V of the nightie dipped down her chest, revealing well-rounded cleavage with a small tattoo of a butterfly over her heart. She had long, black hair, waving heavily down to the middle of her back. The darkness of it curled against her white skin like silk. But what didn’t match her bed time attire were her stern, erect high heel shoes, like she had forgotten to remove them before changing her clothing.

  She was beautiful, so breathtakingly stunning that I couldn’t help ogling her, not in jealously, but absolute admiration. It must have been a Banished soul trick to be this breathtaking.

  “How did this happen?”

  The female ghost glared down at me. Across her right eye was a large bandage and down her face crossing the arch of her nose was where a dash of black makeup was smeared, similar to Lock’s.

  “I’m... I’m sorry it just... it came out of nowhere and I didn’t know what to do...” I started to mumble, motioning towards Lock, then to the patch where the creature once stood, with weak gestures of my arms.

  Her heavy stare intimidated me through my sluggish mumbles. I was quickly silenced as the woman held up a slender arm, looking down with that same haunting stare. At least I know where he gets it from now...

  “Save it!” She stepped over my body and knelt down beside Lock. As she lightly touched his back, a handful of black sap leaked from her fingertips and into his skin, parting and spreading through him like veins. The man walked slowly towards us, head bowed; his glassy eyes lifeless voids, more robot than human. He didn’t look at me
, nor did he look towards Lock or this other female, he kept his eyes directed at his feet, his head bowed obediently.

  “W-Who are you? And what was that thing??” I stuttered breathlessly while rolling myself out of the female’s way. The enchantress soaked the black fluid back into her finger tips before flicking her wrist. Her eyelashes were thick and long, artificial-looking and her eyes were stained a deep, juicy pink.

  “So you’re the new Host, are you?” I couldn’t answer, I didn’t want to answer. She took my silence as a yes and continued on, “That was a Goon you just saw.

  “They are stupid but powerful creatures. Goons usually only appear when there’s death or a loose spirit waiting among the living. It must have sniffed Lock out somehow. He was very lucky that it didn’t get him...” Running a hand down Lock’s, back he shifted under her touch, his back muscles tensing as he softly groaned.

  “As for me, my name is Betrayal, and I advise that you don’t pull my little brother back into the sun light again. That is how they find us, that's how we’re exposed to the hunters.” Betrayal’s words whipped me like a warning kiss as she stood, breaking into a cloud of smoke before diving back into her human capsule. She was his older sister, so they’re family....

  The male straighten his back, peering towards me with a smirk that didn’t fit the maturity of his face. He abruptly turned and fled the scene.