Guardian

by Matthew S. Cox

  “Incoming!” yelled Abernathy.

  He spun to face the shout and sank into a stance like a Gee-ball goalie watching an offensive player charging the grid. As soon as the tattered phantasm streaked into view, he tried to seize it with his mind. Tingles and pulsating feelings spread over his brain. A sense as though his fingers sank into warm gelatin covered his hands. He grunted; the poltergeist clawed at the air, screeching and twisting like it mired in a bog.

  “Now,” grunted Evan.

  Samantha put her hand on his shoulder.

  An upwelling of courage and desperation exploded in his chest. His desire to protect his best friend grew strong to the point tears ran down his cheeks. Evan let off a war cry and wrenched all the energy he could summon with a twisting gesture that dragged the poltergeist closer before pushing it near the statuette fragments. It thrashed and clawed, knocking a few knives and an old utility belt off the bottom shelf where its hands could reach.

  The broadsword left the ground with a metallic scrape. As the poltergeist surged against Evan’s power and he turned with it, inexplicable anger came out of nowhere. Samantha’s fingers squeezed tighter on his shoulder.

  Evan growled, forcing the spirit two feet closer to the statue fragments. Shani’s levitating broadsword spiraled back and forth, swinging in ways no living swordsman could. After six agonizing seconds, a lucky random swipe sank most of the blade into the glowing mass. The poltergeist’s ‘body’ split in half for an instant and drew whole again. After it reintegrated, it screeched a painful, glassy wail and slipped free of Evan’s grasp. He tried to ‘grab’ it again, but it stretched free of his psionic hold and streaked out of sight into the floor.

  “Ow.” Evan swooned to his knees. All the raging emotions in his head levelled off to bland calm.

  Samantha leaned forward, hands on her knees, and gasped for breath. “Wow. That was an awesome idea… how’d you come up with that?”

  “Mom showed me how to bind a table knife.”

  “No, I mean the emotional surge.”

  Shani set the blade down and walked over. “Is it gone?”

  Evan looked at Abernathy. “I dunno.”

  The old ghost winced. “That looked like it hurt. I don’t think you destroyed it, but it’ll be a while before it returns. Long enough for your mother to get back.”

  “Yeah. Umm.” He looked at Samantha. “They made us watch a video about bullying. Some girl went psycho with TK when she was really mad.”

  “Oh, I saw that.” Samantha biffed herself in the forehead. “I never even thought of doing it on purpose. You know she’s still here? She’s like almost thirty. She’s part of the network ops team.”

  “That’s kinda boring.” Evan scratched his head. “Doesn’t she use her powers?”

  Samantha shrugged. “I guess she thinks about what she did whenever she does… probably doesn’t like it.”

  “Oh.” Evan looked down. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

  “You kids should get out of here now.”

  Evan looked up at the ghost. “Yeah.”

  “Maybe we won’t get in trouble.” Shani jumped up. One by one, boxes floated out of the collapse and glided back to shelves. She got about a third of the blockage back on shelves before swaying, dizzy. “I’m tired.”

  “It’s okay.” Evan took her by the hand. “We should go tell someone what happened.”

  Cadet Peña looked nervous, but nodded.

  Shani cleared a few more containers out of the debris pile, enough to make a path. After taking a deep breath, Evan led the way out of the archives to the stairway. When he crossed the Admin section back to the school without approaching any adult in uniform, Samantha tugged on his arm.

  “I thought you were gonna tell someone.”

  “I am.” Evan pointed at an elevator.

  Shani looked up at him with a doe-eyed pleading face. “Do we have to?”

  “Who?” asked Sam.

  Evan hit the call button and folded his arms. “Someone who will believe me about the poltergeist. Captain Ezzeh, and, yeah.” He looked at Shani. “It’ll be worse to lie on top of it.”

  Cadet Peña gasped. “But he’s an officer… like a high-ranking one. You can’t just walk up to a captain and talk to him like that.”

  “Why not? He’s really nice and he likes me.”

  “But… he’s an O3!” Cadet Peña shivered.

  “Right. He outranks a lot of people who’d be mad at us and not believe in poltergeists.” Evan grinned. “C’mon.”

  “The last time I listened to you, we got in trouble.” Shani pouted.

  “I know… we’re going to get in trouble, but it’s an accident and we can’t keep it secret. If that ‘geist hurts someone, it’s our fault.”

  She hung her head. “Okay.”

  Evan led them into the elevator and hit the button for the Operations level. “Don’t be afraid of him. He’s my mom’s boss.”

  “Then why are you so scared?” asked Cadet Peña.

  He stared at his sneakers. “If I get in too much trouble, I might get sent back to the dorms.”

  Cadet Peña frowned. “That sucks.”

  Shani squeezed his hand. “Nope. I shot her and she wasn’t mad at me.”

  “What?!” Cadet Peña gawked.

  The elevator door opened. Evan walked out, followed by Shani and Samantha at the end.

  “A bad man made me do it.” She sniffled. “I didn’t wanna.”

  “Oh.” Samantha scowled. “I hate suggestives.”

  Evan glared at her.

  “You’re a―”

  “No. My mom is. And she uses it right.”

  “Sorry.” Cadet Peña looked downcast.

  Evan wandered into his mother’s squad room and went over to Captain Eze’s office. He knocked.

  “Come in.”

  The deep voice made Samantha shiver.

  He grabbed her hand and pulled them both inside. “Uhh, hi Captain Ezzeh. Can I talk to you?”

  “Evan.” Captain Eze smiled. “Of course. Your mother has gone to the Moon to help someone.”

  “I know. It’s not about Mom.” He took a deep breath and let it out his nose. “I did something bad.”

  “Oh?” He raised an eyebrow. His broad smile faded. “Is that blood on your cheek?”

  “Yes, sir.” Evan walked up to the desk. “It’s my fault. I talked them into coming with me to help Abernathy.”

  “Slow down.” Captain Eze got up and came around the desk. He guided the kids to the sofa at the back of his office and gestured at them to sit before pulling another chair over for himself.

  “Sir, may I please stand?” asked Samantha.

  Captain Eze gave her an odd look.

  “Ghost hit her in the butt,” said Shani.

  Samantha blushd.

  “All right.” Captain Eze gave Evan a concerned look. ““Go ahead and tell me what happened. Start from the beginning.”

  “Yes, sir.” Evan fidgeted. “There’s this ghost in the school…”

  he DS2 hovered within a foot of the Police Administrative Center roof. Kirsten jumped down from the ramp and rushed away, turning to wave at the pilots once she felt safe enough to do so. They saluted as the belly ramp closed, and the aircraft rose into a banking turn. She squinted at the late morning sky, enough sun poked through the clouds to make it painful to look up.

  She sent a text to Evan despite wanting to call him. At 10:26 a.m., he’d be in class. ‹Back safe. C U after school.›

  A long minute later, ‹K› popped up on her screen.

  He’s probably afraid of getting in trouble for texting. She sighed with a smile and went inside.

  Dorian met her in the hallway of the Operations level. “Welcome back. How’d it go up there, and you were right. You’re not going to like this, but I think you’re going to have to destroy this one.”

  She cringed. “Same story.” A rough explanation of what happened on the Gravion base kept Dorian’s attention all
the way to the squad room. “Destroy him?”

  “Whoever he was, he’s completely batshit insane now. I couldn’t get a coherent word out of him other than enough to know he wants to kill psionic kids.”

  Kirsten glared.

  “Well. Probably psionic adults too, but he’s got a fixation.” Dorian scratched at his hair. “I’m thinking he probably got killed by a child having an outburst. From the looks of it, telekinetic―probably thrown off a building.”

  “Wren.” Captain Eze emerged from his door. “How was the flight?”

  “Okay, I guess.”

  “You don’t sound too happy.”

  She pulled at a stray strand of hair over her right eye. “I could’ve gone to my grave happy if I never went into outer space in a suit. That, and more of the same. Whatever was up there…”

  He indicated his office with a sideways nod.

  Kirsten followed him, sat facing his desk, and rambled about the entire experience. By the time she finished, her face felt as red as a fire suppression bot and she wanted to pull her hair out. “I’m so damn frustrated.”

  Captain Eze tapped his chin, thinking. “Might be a prankster, albeit a vicious one. There may be no connection at all.”

  “Oh, crap. Did my searches ever finish?” She looked out his office window at her desk. “I started a net crawl before I left.”

  “Kirsten… About Evan.”

  Her heart almost stopped. She looked at him as if expecting him to pull his sidearm and shoot her in the head. The din of activity outside faded, swallowed as if she’d slipped underwater. All the moisture in her throat vanished. “W… What?”

  “Calm down, Kirsten. It’s nothing too bad. He got into a little trouble.”

  She laughed. “He… got into trouble? It’s not an adoption thing?”

  “No.” Captain Eze smiled. “He got it in his head that Abernathy needed ‘saving,’ and talked a couple of his friends into sneaking into the Archives in search of the brain. They made a heck of a mess down there, but it wasn’t completely their fault.

  “Thirty-two years ago, Division 0 was involved in a raid on a mass-murder site where a number of doomsday cultists devoted themselves to an ancient demonic figure, Grachiel. The crime scene team recovered a small statuette that got the attention of a clairvoyant. He believed the statue had been infused with some kind of dark energy, and decided to store it away to keep it out of general circulation.”

  Kirsten shivered. “They found it and played with it, didn’t they?”

  “Not exactly. Evan said it was set out on a folding table. Abernathy manifested and startled a cadet, who bumped the table and knocked it over. A poltergeist seems to have been trapped inside… and it’s loose.”

  “Oh.” She exhaled. “That’s all? Only a poltergeist… that’s not so bad. Hard part is going to be finding it.”

  “You don’t seem concerned.”

  “I was expecting you to tell me they let a demon loose.” She exhaled into her hands. “Poltergeist is easy by comparison.”

  “Just be ready for that thing coming up at a bad time. The kids gave it a piece though. Something about a ‘bound’ blade?”

  Kirsten squeezed her knees for a second before curling her fingers into fists. As much as it pained her to imagine him bleeding, he probably felt it the only option. “How much trouble is he in?”

  “Well… He agreed to help clean up all the stuff that got knocked over. A couple of items were destroyed beyond repair, but if you ask me, the stuff’s been sitting down there so long no one will miss it. He wound up with 500 citizenship points.”

  Kirsten cringed. “That’ll take him all year to work off.”

  Captain Eze smiled. “The penalty was 200, but he insisted on absorbing Shani’s share of it, as well as the cadet’s 100 points.”

  She failed at holding back a few tears.

  “He’s most afraid you’ll be upset with him and send him back to the dorms.”

  Kirsten’s heart sank. “He really thinks that?”

  “More likely it’s his worst fear, not what he believes you’ll do.”

  The weight in her chest lessened a little. “I’m not sure how I’d handle it if he really thinks I could do that to him.”

  “How are the investigations coming?”

  “I’m, uhh… Four attacks now without a pattern. I feel like I’m chasing my tail. I did get a glimpse of the spirit, but indirectly. A terrified witness’s memory isn’t the most reliable source when dealing with spirits. He might’ve exaggerated it.”

  “True. Well, you’ll be happy to know the senator hasn’t contacted us again.”

  She fidgeted. “He’s probably waiting for a more annoying time. Oh, I need to deal with something at the school. Evan saw a spirit in the boys’ bathroom that wanted to kill him but it was too weak.”

  He blinked. “All right. I expect you’ll be filing the usual reports.”

  “Yeah.” Kirsten stood. “Reports.”

  “Dismissed.” He smiled and saluted.

  She returned the salute. “I’ll let you know as soon as I have something.”

  “Great. Oh, Kirsten?”

  “Hmm?” She paused at the door, glancing back.

  “Whatever you’re doing with that boy, keep on doing it. He’s inheriting your integrity.”

  “Thank you, sir.” She rubbed her naked right wrist, and wanted to kill Konstantin all over again.

  Kirsten approached the bathroom designated B8, already able to sense the presence on the other side of the door. She glanced at Dorian and nodded at the wall. He walked in, re-emerging a moment later.

  “Two standing one sitting.” Dorian seemed torn between amused and angry. “The spirit is trying to choke the kid on the toilet, but he hasn’t noticed.”

  She tapped her foot. Within a few minutes, a pair of boys a few years older than Evan emerged, looking pale. They startled at the sight of her so close to the door.

  “Uhh, hi,” said the shorter kid with dark hair.

  “Hello.” She smiled. “Did you feel anything strange in there?”

  The taller one gestured at the door. “Yah. Been extraño in there for a while now.”

  Another boy, younger and pudgier than the other two hurried out, coughing.

  “I need you three to do me a favor. Stand here and don’t let anyone come in,” said Kirsten. “I’ll be a few minutes.”

  “Why are you using the boys’ room?” asked the heavy kid.

  “There’s a malevolent spirit in there. How’s your neck?”

  “Sore.”

  “May I?” Kirsten reached toward his shirt. When he nodded, she pulled back his collar, exposing three bruise-shaped fingerprints. “Oh, hell. I’m going to need to document that.”

  “Whoa,” chimed the other two.

  After taking a photo of the bruise, Kirsten slipped past them and went in. She hooked past an L-shaped alcove with wastebaskets and stood in the doorway to the bathroom proper with her arms folded. A row of urinals covered the wall on the right, stalls on the left, and sinks across the far wall. The man wandering around in the middle looked as though he’d lost a bet with gravity. His shirt, pants, and sides split open, oozing fluids as well as mushed up organs.

  “So what’s your story?” Kirsten glared at him as she advanced. “Got a problem with kids?”

  He hissed at her, pointed, and moaned. At first, the tone came off questioning, then angry.

  “Yes. I can see you. My son says you want to kill psionic children… is that right?”

  The man gurgled and snarled. He rushed in, hands raised as if to strangle her.

  She ducked to the side and called the lash as she whirled to face him. The ghost swung his arms together, grabbing nothing, and stopped a few steps past her. Stark shadows shimmered on the white walls, stretched forms of porcelain fixtures illuminated by the scintillating energy whip. Dorian pounced out of the wall and grabbed him in a compliance hold.

  “Last chance. My partner thi
nks you’re insane… can’t be reasoned with. I am not going to let you hurt anyone. If you can be helped, I’ll help you, but you have to tell me what’s keeping you here.”

  He grumbled and growled, struggling against Dorian. The mangled ghost seemed stronger by a margin; the effort to hold him down showed on her partner’s face. Kirsten thrust her left arm out, fingers splayed, and added her energy to the force holding the spirit still.

  “Killed…” The ghost moaned unintelligible words. “Daughter… psionic.”

  “Okay. Your daughter killed you and she’s psionic.”

  The spirit nodded.

  “You’re lingering because she got away with it?”

  “Yrmmm.”

  “Who is your daughter, and why did she kill you?”

  The mangled ghost slapped at the side of his head before twirling his finger around. The next gurgle he made sounded like “Natalie.”

  Kirsten blinked. “Hernandez?”

  He nodded.

  “You’re the guy from that video they make us all watch. You tried to kill her. That was self-defense. There’s no revenge for that.”

  He grumbled. “Kill her.”

  Kirsten closed her eyes, reaching out with the intent to beckon a Harbinger. I’ll know for sure if one of them is interested in him. “Dorian, I think you were right. This guy’s beyond help.”

  The spirit howled, twisted, and launched Dorian into the wall. Kirsten snapped her arm up, raking the last two feet of the astral lash across the ghost’s chest as he charged. The hit resounded with a crack that knocked the mangled spirit over backward. Four of the LED light tubes overhead exploded.

  All three boys she’d left guarding the door ran in. They gawked at the streamer of blue-white light coiling around her legs.

  “Boys, get out. Something’s coming you don’t need to see.”

  The vengeful spirit collapsed into a head-sized orb of green light, which the kids reacted to by gasping. It darted into the middle boy, who took on a dazed look. Kirsten ran up on him, swiping the lash across all three as fast as she could. The shorter seventh-grader collapsed to his knees and vomited, spraying bile and ectoplasm from his mouth and nostrils.