by Hunter Shea
“Show off,” Jessica said low.
“I’ll let that slide. I know what you saw last night was intense, but I can assure you that its ultimate intentions are way more vile than simply scaring her, which is why we have to find it fast.”
“And we do that by taking a nap? I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but I kind of like to take action.”
“You’re going to get more action than you realize. I’m going to entice the EB back into the room now, using your latent capacity to attract it so it can pull more power from you.”
Jessica moved to her side to face him. He looked at peace. His eyes were closed without so much as a flutter under his lids. “And how will you entice an EB to come to you when it wants Selena?”
“I’m going to make it think I am Selena.”
Chapter Forty
Eddie was pleasantly surprised that Jessica didn’t pepper him with a million questions and doubt. The whole process could take some time and he didn’t want to waste what little they had.
“So, here’s the last important thing,” he said. She had rolled onto her back and moved her hand next to his. “When it gets here, I’m going to funnel as much as I can to you. That’s why it helps to have our hands touch. You won’t need to just take my word for what this EB is all about. We’ll both experience it together. I need you to tell me you’re willing to do it, because it can get pretty intense for me, and I’ve been doing it all my life. Plus, this EB is about as nasty as they come.”
Jessica didn’t hesitate to answer. “Do it. I want to see.”
“All right. Just stay still. You’ll know when it’s here.”
They took deep breaths. He could feel the heat of her body resting just inches from his own. The rain came down in earnest, peppering the window with hundreds of tiny taps while the heavy, comforting scent of the storm carried itself throughout the room, riding on the wave of escalating winds.
Eddie had been around Selena enough now to conjure up a perfect image of her in his mind. He imagined her on the bed, sleeping peacefully, and superimposed it over his and Jessica’s forms, using it to mask their presence. To make it more enticing, her image was dressed in a small, tight night shirt and panties. The covers were pulled back, revealing the olive skin of her legs, hips, exposed belly and arms.
He built a cocoon around them, projecting a softly breathing Serena over it to bring the EB out of hiding.
That was the easy part. What most people didn’t realize was that ghosts didn’t always see the world of the living the same as they had with their eyes when they had been alive. Jessica was right in calling them Energy Beings, because they lived on as pure energy, seeing and reacting to the emanating vitality of the world they had left behind but couldn’t entirely escape from.
Infusing that image of Selena with a replication of her life-force was the harder part, but not impossible. He had quietly absorbed enough of her essence over the past few days to give power to the mirage. It was very much like an impressionist donning makeup and adopting the speech and mannerisms of a celebrity for a play, except everything was done within his strange and unique psyche.
Like all girls her age, Selena was at times invincible and fragile, eager to grasp the infinite possibilities of the world yet afraid of leaving the comfort of her home, her family, behind. She was young and beautiful and possessed a charisma that drew people to her. It was that same charisma that had attracted the EB, igniting its twisted fascination.
The sounds and smells of the storm faded into the ether as Eddie concentrated. He didn’t feel the sweat as it poured from his scalp and down his neck. The light touch of Jessica’s hand was his only tether to his true self.
He was Selena now.
There was one more thing to add.
Fear.
He made the image of her sleep fitful, imbuing the atmosphere of the room with a sense of hopelessness. The EB liked her scared. It fed off her terror. He knew it had cultivated its taste for trembling awe during the course of its life. It had done bad things and was held prisoner to its vices. Death hadn’t stopped it at all. It simply gave it free reign to find more victims without the threat of being seen.
When he had made brief contact earlier, he had felt its desire to be in the shadows. To wait and watch and plot. To build excitement until it literally exploded.
He channeled Selena’s fear and heard Jessica gasp. Her fingers twitched, lacing within his own.
Eddie was afraid. There was no way to separate his own internal doppelganger of Selena from his true self. The transformation had to be total in order to work. His heartbeat galloped and his mouth became dry as if he had taken a mouthful of sand.
The skin on his arms burned with the start of pins and needles and his hairs rose as if pointing to the source of the impending doom that had set off his body’s claxons.
It was close. Not in the room just yet, but cautiously approaching like a predatory animal. He increased the pressure on Jessica’s hand, could feel it grow cold as the blood retreated to her core.
His eyes were closed, but he could see the EB melt into the room with perfect clarity, its hunger savage and thick, infusing the atmosphere with its unholy animus.
Keep coming, you son of a bitch, Eddie thought within the small part of himself that he kept locked from the invading beast.
The EB hovered over them, watching, debating what to do first. It absorbed the fear Eddie generated like a vampire, sating its need.
It was new to the spirit world, having crossed over very recently, still unsure of its powers, shocked that it could interact with the object of its obsession with such ease. Eddie couldn’t get a sense of what it had looked like in life. This spirit wanted no connection with its former self. All it wanted to retain was its demented lust.
The EB didn’t know how it had transformed from watcher to participant, but it was delighted with its newfound ability. It intended to use it to finish what had started…when? Eddie struggled to grasp on to its history without breaking the trap he had set. There was something more here. This was far bigger than either of them thought.
The EB growled, a soft ululation of almost demonic pleasure. Eddie prayed that Jessica wouldn’t react and break the spell.
It came closer, hovering just centimeters above their faces, exploring the depths of what it thought was a discomfited Selena.
The spirit had no form, no phantom mask that would betray its characteristics when it was alive. It had lost its humanity far before the last beat of its heart, so long ago that it could no longer resemble what it once was—a living being.
An icy, ethereal appendage extended outward, dragging across Eddie’s neck, lingering around Jessica’s mouth.
Eddie felt it pull back in confusion. His impression of Selena faltered for just a split second, but it was enough.
An angry moan reverberated within the room. It dove into them with terrific intensity.
Oh my God, make it stop. Eddie tried to shut his totemic barn doors but it was no use. The flood of emotions and images was too strong to resist.
Dark, horrid pictures flashed through his brain. Twisted fantasies with Selena as the star attraction, the center of its obsession. Her naked flesh tantalized. Her moans turned into screams, terror scratching her throat raw.
Eddie felt the EB’s desire as his own. Shame flushed through him as his cock grew hard. There was no way to control it. He wanted to look away, but visions of a breathless, wanton, tortured Selena were everywhere.
You sick fuck! Eddie spat at the terrible darkness that had hijacked his soul.
He struggled to shield Jessica from the EB’s baser aspects. She didn’t need to see this, to feel this…filth. No one did.
Using every ounce of strength he had, he conjured a gale force wind, pushing the EB out beyond the door of his subconscious. It tumbled back, pealing with wicked laughter.
He slammed the doors shut.
A burst of energy exploded in the room.
Ed
die was catapulted off the bed, smashing into the wall, narrowly missing the window.
Jessica was raised up onto her feet as if she had been attached to a well-oiled pulley. Her eyes were wide and wild and she fought for control of her arms.
“That’s right, you bastard, we tricked you! Now you’re toast!” she bellowed.
Her bravado angered the EB. It lifted her higher, until her toes dangled above the bed. Eddie could see the fabric of her shirt bunch up as invisible hands pushed her up higher and higher until her head hit the ceiling. Jessica continued to fight.
“Show yourself, you coward!”
Eddie stared at her with astonishment. She had no fear of death, was almost reckless in her abandonment of self-preservation. She knew that death wasn’t the end.
But she had no idea what she was up against. Death was only the beginning.
He rose to his feet on legs that felt as if he had just come home from a month’s tour at sea. Between the pounding his back had taken when he hit the wall and the strength he had used up to get the EB here, then out of his head, he wasn’t sure how long he would be able to remain erect.
Leaping onto the bed, he passed through the crackling field of static that surrounded the EB and grabbed Jessica around the waist, pulling them both into a heap on the bed.
“Get back!” he shouted at it. Jessica squirmed under him.
“Let it take me on,” she protested. “I can handle it!”
“No…you can’t!”
It was a matter of seconds before the EB retreated. Lashing out at Jessica had drained it considerably.
“Oh shit,” Eddie murmured. He felt the blow a moment before it hammered into him.
A blast of white-hot light buried itself into the center of his brain. He recoiled with a pained grunt. Jessica rolled out from under him and pushed herself up on his chest.
They both turned their heads when they heard someone yell, “What the hell is going on here?”
Chapter Forty-One
Eddie could only groan in reply. Jessica saw the drained look on his face and awkwardly slipped off of him and onto the floor.
Greg Leigh stood in the doorway, his eyes half-closed with the telltale, faraway look that said he had had a few drinks too many. He gripped the frame for support.
“This is what you two do when I give you the run of my house?” he blurted, his words running together in a sloppy bunch.
“It’s nothing like you’re thinking,” Jessica said in protest. She bent over Eddie to make sure he was all right.
He grabbed his skull with both hands and his eyes were pinched shut. He stammered, “Oh, this is bad, Jess,” before turning to his side, away from Greg’s angry stare.
“You have one minute to explain yourselves,” Greg said.
“Greg, I need you to calm down, please. We just made contact with the entity that’s been in your house.”
“I’m sure you made plenty of contact,” he mocked.
Jessica rushed to his side. “Look, I know what you must be thinking, but you’re way off base. We just had an intense experience with a male presence that has been stalking your daughter. It assaulted me. You came in right after Eddie broke its grip on me.”
Greg eyed them both, saw that Eddie was in obvious pain. He stepped into the room, collapsing into the desk chair. It seemed like an hour before he said, “Go on.”
Jessica returned to Eddie’s side on the bed. He had maneuvered himself so he was on all fours, attempting to get right-side up. “We’ve got trouble,” he said through gritted teeth. “It’s nearby. It’s always been close.” He seemed to be talking more to himself than anyone in the room.
After helping him into a sitting position, she said to Greg, “I think I need to start with Eddie. He’s more than just my assistant. Eddie is also a psychic-medium.”
She waited for Greg to say something negative, but he only stared at them with withering patience.
She continued, “Until I met Eddie, I didn’t believe in psychics myself, but he’s proven me wrong on more than one occasion. He just introduced me to a special technique of his where I was able to see and experience what he could see. There’s a male Energy Being that’s attached itself to Selena. Something is very wrong with it, both in life and now in death. I think it knew her in some way when it was alive.”
Greg closed his eyes and stretched his neck like a prizefighter before stepping into the ring. He buried his head in his hands and said, “How am I supposed to believe all of this? First there’s some thing in my house that looks like my daughter, and now you’re telling me there’s an evil male ghost too? I hope you can understand why I feel you’re stretching the limits of credibility here.”
Jessica said, “Trust me, I do. Confronting situations like this is something I face all the time and even I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this one. All I know for sure is that Selena is in danger and we need to do everything we can to eliminate this threat.”
That’s when Eddie finally spoke. “That won’t be so easy.” His face was drawn and he looked as if he were short two pints of blood. “The spirit found my weak spot, went right for it. While I was connected to you, you were vulnerable. It knows all about you, Jess. More importantly, it knows your gift now, which means there’s no chance in hell it’s about to give you what you need.”
Jessica felt the walls closing in. It seemed no matter what she did, the multiple EBs were one step ahead of her. To make it worse, now she knew that her mere presence only increased its destructive energy. She was beginning to regret ever thinking she could help this poor family, but stopped herself from saying that to Greg. There had to be another way. Her father wouldn’t have sent Eddie into her life without good reason. She needed time to figure out what to do next.
“You both sound nuts,” Greg said, staggering to get up. She wondered how he managed driving to the house without killing anyone. Now that things had settled down, her nose twitched at the sour scent of alcohol coming off him in waves. “You’re going to have to give me more than just crazy talk to keep me from sending you back to New York, again.”
Eddie said, “You can’t deny what you all saw the other day in this room. Even though you didn’t see what just happened here, there’s no way you can explain away what you and your family experienced.”
Greg opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
“And you saw Selena’s doppelganger in your garage. None of that was imagined. We’re telling you the truth, and we have nothing to gain. There’s a real threat to Selena, and it’s not from the doppelganger. In fact, I doubt you’ll see it again. It fulfilled its purpose, which was to get help. If you don’t want us to be the ones, fine, but you can’t ignore this. We can’t let you do that.”
Jessica cringed inside, hoping he hadn’t pressed too far. Greg’s pride as the protector of his family had been dashed to tiny bits. Taking orders from a couple of kids wasn’t going to make things any better. She needed to step in, fast.
“We’re not asking anything of you other than your permission to do whatever we can to help Selena. In fact, you may be able to lend us a hand.” She caught her image in the mirror behind his head and stiffened. Gingerly, she pulled the sides of her shirt down past her collar bones and saw the deep bruises in the shape of fingerprints on either side. In her struggle, she hadn’t felt any physical sensation other than a hot desire to break free from the EB’s grasp. The purpling marks on her body were proof that it had considerable power and malicious intent.
Greg saw the bruises as well, sobering at the reality of the situation. That derailed his train of thought. He pointed at her, paused and said, “What do you need me to do?”
The tension that had built within Jessica finally eased and the thick atmosphere in the room deflated.
Eddie preempted her, saying, “This spirit, or EB, knew Selena very well when it was alive. It hasn’t been dead very long, but with each passing day, it’s learning how to adapt to its new incarnat
ion, getting more substantial. If we’re going to find it, we’ll need your help. Do you know of anyone close to the family that recently passed away?”
Jessica hoped it wasn’t a family member. What she had sensed was putrid. It was hard to imagine a relative or friend wanting to do things to a teenager like this EB.
“Her grandmother, Rita’s mom, died a year ago.”
“This is definitely a male,” Jessica said. “Is there anyone else you can think of?”
Greg shook his head. “No one. Not even any distant family or friends.”
“Anyone in the school or neighborhood?” Eddie asked.
“I…I’m not sure. I know a few of my immediate neighbors, but that’s about it, and they’re all alive and well.”
Eddie prodded him. “There has to be some connection, a passing that meant nothing to you when it happened but left some unresolved issues in its wake. We’re going to have to talk to Selena, too, but if there’s anything you can think of to spare her that... I got a very strong impression that the answer is very, very close to your home. Every neighborhood has a person who knows everyone’s business. Growing up, we appointed the old woman next door, Marnie, the unofficial mayor of our block. If someone farted in their sleep, she somehow knew about it. You have to have someone like that here.”
Sighing, Greg looked like a man about to break. A burst of thunder shook the house in tandem with a flash of lightning. The storm was as much outside the house as it was within.
Greg bumpd the wall with his fist and said, “Wait, I know exactly who you mean. Come with me.”
Selena was the first to wake up and notice her father was gone. Assuming he was out at a store or getting an early dinner for them, she stretched, put on her sneakers and walked outside. The narrow awning was no match for the rain that blew sideways, drenching her in seconds. She’d wanted some fresh air and a chance to escape the cooped-up hotel room, but this was too much.
The wind caught hold of the door and slammed it shut behind her when she jumped back into the room. Her mother snapped wide awake at the sound, relaxing when she saw Selena, dripping wet.