The Protector of Memories (The Veil of Death Book 1)

by D. K. Manning

‘If you did that then she’ll come back and bleed dry your memories!!!’

  ‘LOL…’”

  Linda decided to stop reading out the messages.

  “Please Linda.” Faith said. “Continue.”

  Linda sighed aloud and did as her friend asked.

  “’I’m going to kill you tonight’

  ‘Not if I get there first_’”

  Linda stopped abruptly when she realised that that was the theme of all the messages – threats that Faith will be killed. “I’m sorry Faith but if you insist on knowing what they say then you are going to have to read them yourself.”

  She closed down the computer’s window and stared at her reflection in the machine’s screen. “I am ashamed to be a part of a race of people that have forgotten the art of kindness or compassion…” Linda’s voice broke with emotion and she stopped speaking altogether.

  Faith put her hand upon Linda’s shoulder but added nothing further to the conversation.

  “I am okay.” Linda said. “I refuse to allow a few words to dampen my spirits. I am much stronger than that.” But her thoughts questioned: Nobody would actually kill Faith to disprove the theory that ghosts exist… would they?

  Linda picked up her now cold cup of tea, but jumped at the sudden noise of flapping wings.

  She grabbed the cup before it toppled off of the saucer but the tea splashed onto her black trousers. “Damn and blast.” She cursed, grabbed a handful of tissues and was cleaning the tea from her trousers, when Brian walked in.

  “Afternoon…” he said, paused and asked. “What’s wrong?”

  “It is frustrating to hear the owl but not see it!” Linda exclaimed.

  Brain looked between Faith and Linda, shrugged his shoulders and glanced up at the glass dome. “I doubt it’ll be an owl Linda. More like a pigeon. Probably a hole in the roof that we can’t see.”

  He picked up Linda’s cup and saucer, nodded at the tea stain on her trousers. “If I get you another cuppa promise you’ll not throw that one at yourself?” He laughed and made his way over toward the café.

  Linda threw the tea stained tissues into the bin and “tutted”.

  The telephone rang and she grabbed up the receiver and listened to the women speaking on the other end.

  When Linda eventually rang off she said to Faith. “That was another reporter, Trudy Dodge from a magazine called ‘haunted buildings’. She would like to bring her photographer and equipment that supposedly detects ghosts…” Linda paused, raised an eyebrow, “If there is such equipment? Anyway my point is that if ghosts are detected by Trudy Dodge from a magazine that has an audience that actually believes in ghosts that must improve the situation.”

  Faith nodded her head in agreement and watched as Brian placed a fresh cup of tea down onto the desk.

  “Brian.” Linda said. “We will need more than two security men today.”

  “Righty O.” He answered and smiled at Faith. “You okay?” he asked and then looked at the other woman with the patch over her eye as she approached the counter.

  “Hope.” Hope said and held her hand out to him.

  Brian shook the woman’s hand. “I ain’t forgotten you. You sure got us all in a right ole lather about stardust. People have got you pegged down as some sort of angel.”

  “What are you talking about Brian?” Linda asked.

  He pointed to the computer. “That man who showed everybody the glowing image of Hope well… he’s posted it on there. My Trace showed me last night. You look like an angel.”

  Brian glanced over Hope’s body and saw that it didn’t shine as it did on the video image.

  He studied the cotton wadding covering Hope’s eye, shrugged and sharing his opinions on angels said. “I guess angels come in all sorts of guises these days.” And was about to share a joke that he knew about a parrot, but Linda interrupted him.

  “Brian. Security_.”

  A whooshing noise sounded out and Linda glanced up to see an owl soaring down toward her. “Ah!” she shouted and jumped at the sight of the owl that had perched itself on her shoulder. “Now I can relax,” she said to the owl. “Being able to hear you but not see you was driving me crazy.”

  She looked at the owl; white coloured feathers edged with silvery specks of grey; eyes that reminded her of marbles with swirling colours of burnt-oranges and flecks of ambers and yellows. “My,” she said. “What a beautiful creature you are.”

  “Linda sees now her owl.” Faith said as she smiled softly at the scene.

  Hope laughed gently, “It seems that the energy of Wisdom also comes in many a guise.” And she smiled at the man called Brian and loved the way his eyes always seem to twinkle with mischief and a smile was never too far away from his mouth.

  Brain stared at Linda then to her empty shoulder, he glanced between the women, shook his head. “My Trace…” he paused, looked at Hope, “that’s my daughter. She’s gonna love this.” He wandered off to sort out the arrangements for more security and tried to recall if he had any jokes in his repertoire relating to owls.

  Linda waited until Brain was out of ear shot before speaking. “Are you the ghost called David?” She asked the image of the young ghost that had just appeared.

  Faith turned and looked at the ghost called David.

  Sadness filled her at the realisation of what has happened. “David,” she said. “Our warnings have gone unheard.”

  His image flickered out of sight and reappeared in the middle of Faith and Hope. “My mum is dead. I watched her body dying and as the last of her life’s breath left her… that monster hurtled out of her and vanished out of sight. At first, relief filled me for I believed that my mum would finally attain the peace and freedom that we receive in the Afterlife. I fizzled with excitement… nervous energy. Knowing that it was about to be made known unto my mum that she was a part of the energies that sparkled and crackled all around her. It never happened.” His image shifted to the energy of resentment.

  Linda heard the bitterness edged in his voice and hesitantly asked. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that her existence is dead.”

  Linda frowned in confusion and was about to ask a question, but the ghost called David continued to talk. “I have discovered the true reason why the Ancestors constructed the Veil of Death. They did it so it would conceal a knowledge until the meaning itself became forgotten within the ebbs and flows of time.”

  Faith guessed. “If a Soul is destroyed then an empty ghost is created_?”

  “No Faith. I do not speak of that.” David interrupted her in mid-flow. His energies shifted from resentment to anger. “I speak of the claim that we all have…” he paused and added, “and I mean all beings have the right to this claim.”

  Faith frowned.

  “What is the ghost saying?” Hope asked Faith. “I can see the auras of his life-flow but I cannot hear…” she trailed her words away and stared at Faith and Linda.

  They were staring intently at the flickering image of the ghost, whose energies were glowing with such an intensity of rage - heat and fire; this does not look good, she thought.

  The ghost called David said. “Your existence has been around long before us… long before the race of humankind. Yet you know not of this right of a claim?”

  Faith shook her head and whispered, “What is it that you speak of David?”

  “I speak of the right of a claim; ‘a Soul for a Soul’.”

  “Don’t you mean ‘an eye for an eye’?” Linda asked.

  David looked into the woman with the owl on her shoulder but ignored her foolish statement.

  A couple of seconds lived and died.

  Hope took the silence as an opportunity to speak. She had worked out what the conversation was about when Linda had mentioned, ‘an eye for an eye’ and understood now why the ghost’s energies were an intense heat of rage. “The mortal who once lived as Phillip has claimed its right hasn’t it? Dawn killed Phillip’s Soul and by doing so, created a
n empty ghost. Her creation has claimed Dawn’s Soul for it is that that has life within it… not crumbled ash.”

  “You know of this?” Faith, Linda and David said in unison.

  Hope heard only the voices of Faith’s and Linda’s.

  “Yes.” She answered and pointed over to the stacks of books piled high on every table and chair in the café area. “I have been looking within all literatures to gain some understanding as to what the particles of grey are within certain people’s auras. I saw them in Charity’s auras and at the time, thought nothing of it. But when I saw them within Dawn’s, I also realised that not all mortals have these particles. It has to be connected with the empty ghosts.”

  “And what are these particles?” Linda whispered.

  “Ash,” Hope answered. “Ash is what is left of an existence when you kill it…” she paused, “existence, life-force, Soul. There are many names but the meaning is the same. The Soul’s ash settles within the aura layers of the person who had killed it and when the killer’s body dies the ash crumbles and becomes a part of Earth’s soil.”

  “’Earth to earth, ashes to ashes… dust to dust’” Linda quoted.

  Hope continued to explain. “There once was a time in history when the empty ghosts existed with all other creatures. And at that time, humans could see the presence of all life after the death of the body. Any creature that kills a Soul forfeits their own and that was the knowledge that became hidden when the Veil of Death was crafted…” she took a breath before adding. “The Veil of Death saves the Soul of a killer and those with no Soul become imprisoned within the Void of Emptiness.”

  Linda glanced around the library. “You found this written within our literature?” she asked Hope in amazement.

  “Not as explainable as I have spoken it…” Hope shrugged, “the mistakes within the translations have altered its meaning. We will never know for sure whether the mistakes were deliberate or simply human error.” She looked at the image of the ghost and added. “The Veil of Death took away the knowledge and Hera has given it back.” She then asked Faith, “Is this where the ghost called David made the discovery… within the literature?”

  “No. I found it in the Void of Emptiness.” David answered.

  He waited until Faith had relayed his answer to Hope before continuing. “When I could not feel the presence of my mum to be anywhere, I thought that that monster had stolen it. Rage filled me. In his life, my father hounded and tortured my mum until her peace of mind and freedom were beaten to a pulp. He raped me over and over again until I felt nothing… until I was empty; a living ghost. That was why I killed myself to escape him. But had I known of this right of a claim, I would have killed my father to save my mum’s existence…” he flickered from intense hatred to cold-blue rage, “I feared him in life I refused to do so in death. I went into the Void of Emptiness to seek him out… seek out the essence of what he is – a rotten, decaying stench of waste. When I did feel his presence, I hurtled into him. But he spat me out as if I were of tissue paper. I refused to give up - not until he released my mum’s existence. With each attempt he spat me deeper and deeper into the Void of Emptiness until I stood before the empty ghost they call the ‘Saviour’. I demanded that no ‘being’ empty or otherwise has a right to claim the Soul of another. It was within that moment that she… enlightened me. An empty ghost residing inside emptiness enlightens me? But it is not empty is it Faith?”

  Hope frowned at the sight of the ghost called David’s auras. “What does David say?” Hope asked Faith nervously.

  “David has discovered that Hera is not empty.”

  Hope stepped toward him and tried to offer some words of comfort. “Our parents meant the mortals no harm. They could not bear Hera to go into the Void of Emptiness without the memory of what it was that she had done unto the children. Our parents were blinded by their own needs…” she stammered as the feeling of shame overwhelmed her. “I’m so sorry.” She whispered.

  “Sorry does not save us.” The ghost called David looked into Hope and saw that she also had the same silvery-grey particles of stardust that he had seen when within the Void of Emptiness. “Who sprinkled unto you this stardust?” He asked her.

  But it was Faith who answered. “It was our…” but she hesitated.

  “Who gave Hope that stardust?” He said to Faith with quiet coldness.

  “It was our mother.” Faith answered.

  “Your mother killed Hera and turned her into an empty ghost and yet she exists whilst mine does not?” He reached out toward the silvery-grey stardust and collected up a particle but it crumbled to soil and fell to the floor. “This Saviour has not the volume of stardust that Hope has. But it is this that she wove into my father. I know this because after my father spat me out I watched as he went into the network of veins that the Saviour is. When he went in, another vein grew.”

  David’s image flickered. “He claimed my mum’s Soul and fed it to the Saviour.”

  “Oh dear God,” whispered Linda.

  “It has nothing to do with God.” David answered but stayed focussed upon Faith. “Only an empty ghost has the right to claim a Soul and they don’t intend to wait until the body is dead to claim it. Stardust allows them to take possession of the body before it is dead.”

  Faith relayed to Hope everything that the ghost called David had just said.

  David waited until Faith had finished speaking and when she had, he continued. “It is your species that has triggered this event but it is mine who crafted the Veil of Death.” And he flickered out of sight.

  Linda in the meantime made her way back around the counter to sit down before she fell down.

  Her mind attempted to adjust to the sight of so many ghosts flickering in and out of the library. “So this is what the world looks like to those who can see ghosts?” She whispered more to herself than anybody else as she attempted again to manage all that she could see.

  The sight of the flickering images floating in front of her face reminded her of the times when she had worn 3-D glasses. But the world that she looked at had many more dimensions than three.

  She looked over toward Faith and Hope and stroked her owl; the owl hooted contentedly.

  Linda felt numb… numb and in shock at the thought of what had happened to Dawn Woodhouse. She stood up, steadied herself and made her way back to Faith and Hope.

  But at that same moment, Sam came running into the library shouting out Hope’s name.

  Linda looked up to see tears streaming down her face but it was the sight of Sam’s auras that were too much for her to cope with. “There’s so much.” She whispered. “Faith it’s too much.”

  Her knees buckled.

  Faith grabbed hold of Linda and helped her over toward the café’s chairs.

  Sam ran into Hope’s arms. “Hope.” she said but the moment she felt Hope’s embrace, she couldn’t control her tears.

  Eventually she explained what had happened to the squatters in the park. “Sarah has your rucksack…” she whispered, “She and Nigel stole their money. Set fire. I told the police but…” she trailed her words away and stayed in the comfort of Hope’s arms. She smelt the soft fragrances of lemon in her hair… the scent of a cream on her skin and tried so hard to focus onto those smells. “I’m so sorry I can’t stop crying…”

  Hope held Sam tight within her embrace. “You are safe now,” she whispered. Her own tears flowed down her face and into Sam’s hair. “Whatever happens Sam you must remember that we are Soul mates. We are bound together for eternity. It is only the body that dies and not the life within it. Please Sam… you must never forget that.”

  Sam remained quiet; her body shook and her tears continued.

  Hope kissed the top of Sam’s head and smelt the wonderful fragrance of apples and when she felt Sam’s body shaking with the experiences that she has endured, Hope decided to say nothing else as she continued to hold Sam within an embrace.

  Chapter 21

  Katheri
ne had arrived earlier than the scheduled meeting time of three thirty.

  She stood waiting beside the main entrance of the library and watched a small, chubby woman, hair dyed in a multitude of colours come dashing past her and into the library.

  Katherine frowned with concern at what she could only describe as ‘a look of terror’ on the woman’s face

  She looked at her watch; 15.30. “Come on Janet,” she muttered. “Where are you?”

  The seconds ticked into minutes and then when six minutes had passed, Katherine was relieved to see Janet Crewmonger making her way up the steps. But as she drew closer, Katherine could see how distraught she looked. “Are you alright?” She asked Janet.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever be alright?” Janet said in a whisper.

  A silence developed between them and after a couple of minutes Katherine suggested. “Shall we go in?”

  They ventured into the library and stood in the centre of its main lobby. “WOW.” Katherine exclaimed and became distracted by the shaft of light that was beaming down into the library.

  It showered the floor with the colours of soft dusky-oranges and peaches. She looked up and stared open mouthed at the dome above their heads.

  “Katherine.” Janet said and pulled at her sleeve. “We haven’t the time for this.”

  “Sorry.” Katherine mumbled but as she followed Janet up toward the main desk, she was distracted by the alcoves that ran along the wall; within each of them were paintings depicting Gods and Goddesses of Greek Mythology.

  When she finally reached the counter, she jumped at the sight of the woman with fiery-red hair and eyes the colour of silvery-white?

  Katherine listened to Janet as she introduced herself.

  “My name is Janet Crewmonger. We believe Charity to be in danger. My friend here seems to think that Faith might be able to help us in some way.”

  Janet gently nudged Katherine.

  “I am Katherine Adams. I was the nurse in charge of Charity. I know without a doubt that that woman has not suffered any injury to her face. I believe it is all related to Janet’s daughter… Alice. Alice was the young girl who was driving the car that crashed into the bus.”