My Demonic Ghost Book two (The Reapers 2)

by Jacinta Maree

  She kissed Luke Thompson at her sixteen birthday party. There was always the one kid Jordon felt uneasy about. A tall boy built around the shoulders but had study, short legs that stunted his height. That kid was Luke Thompson. He hated Luke and Luke hated him back, convinced Jordon had his eyes after his girlfriend. Which was true, Anita never should have been hand in hand with Luke in the first place. In his imagination, Jordon always saw himself being the one who should have kissed Anita. On her 16th birthday Luke pinned her into a corner until she agreed to see how things would go. Jordon felt robbed. Betrayed by a classmate that he never thought could betray him. Jordon never had the guts to tell Anita the truth, but he felt that his friendship was worth the title of boyfriend. Luke took it with the ease of blowing his nose.

  But I’m a dead man. Anita was a worry that didn’t worry me now.

  But Luke, Luke flickered with an inner blaze that felt alarming. The more I watched him the fiercer the flame seemed to glow inside his skin and the clearer and more detailed the picture seemed to stick. Jordon had confronted him once.

  That’s right; he had called Luke out after school. Jordon was a seventeen year old boy who held his chin as high as any full grown man could. His body was built under his uniform, an athlete’s body that held clothes like they had been made to suit his every curve. Luke had meat riding on his shoulders and swallowing his neck. A buff kid who was bulking more muscle than his body knew where to place it.

  I couldn’t hear what the argument was about but it ended with fists hitting faces and blood staining white tops. Jordon went home with his nose out of place. Ange was put off by the blood but held his head back and cleaned his chin with a damp tissue. Raymond glanced at him when passing through the hallways, but it lasted a second before he disappeared behind a closed door.

  The young boy with mint eyes walked into the picture with Nathan close behind. Nathan looked over Jordon’s swollen face and laughed at the lack of damage, claiming to have gotten both eyes blacked out and his jaw dislocated with his last brawl. Nathan’s hair was touched with the glint of red, the amber fading with his tanned face as if the colour was leaking into his skin.

  The young boy leant over and touched Jordon’s shoulder. He had a look of anxiety wringing his girlish features.

  “Does it hurt?” The boy was probably only twelve or thirteen at the time. His voice was breaking, his body starting to hit puberty. He still had the soft, round cheeks that all young children carried in their faces.

  “Pfft, this… this is nothing.” Jordon sat up but kept the damp cloth to his nose. “Barely a scratch”

  “That’s because it’s not a scratch at all, it’s a broken bone” The boy bit his smile before motioning towards Nathan whom had just left the room, tending to his mobile. “He’s such a jerk-”

  “Hmm… Don’t let him get to you; you know what he’s like.” The boy nodded.

  “Why did you get punched in the face for?”

  “Thought it’ll be fun.” Jordon laughed but the boy seemed unamused.

  “I can take care of whoever did this to you? I’ll show em.” Jordon raised his brows at the defiant courage that stirred in his step brother.

  “I can’t have you fighting my battles for me. What would all the girls think?” They both laughed before the young boy got up to fetch a towel. There were watery drops leaking from the cloth held over Jordon’s nose. It ran freely down his cheek and down his neck, picking up a tinged of red from the dried blood. The boy returned to clear the spillage when Ange grabbed his arm and steered him away.

  “Evan don’t touch-”

  “It’s fine. I want him to stay.” Jordon quickly caught Evan before Ange could run him out of the room.

  “I can’t believe you did this. You were supposed to be the good one.” Ange took the towel from Evan and hastily dabbed the water droplets from Jordon’s face. “You’re a bad influence on him, don’t brag about starting fights. I can’t have all three of you becoming criminals, I just can’t.” Ange had stress written in the crow’s feet that marked her skin and redden her eyes.

  Evan smiled at Jordon’s suggested wink before the image spiralled out of control and I dropped the picture all together. It shattered into fragments before it dissolved back into the darkness.

  Evan…. The boy was Evan. A colour that carried lightning cracked all through me. It was heavy and dragged my conscious down onto the ground as roughly as dropping a full bag of bricks.

  Before I could stop the pictures from whipping across the room a new memory pressed up against my face. It was inescapable; I was back in the shoes of Jordon watching the world through his eyes.

  He was running from something, desperation as thick as the perspiration that ran across his hair line. He ran hard into the forest that overfilled Whitehaven and the further he ran the closer the trees seemed to stand next to each other, creating walls. I could feel the weight of each heavy breath pumping out of his chest. Each leg strained with the ache of his running, climbing up hills and leaping over hurdles of roots and bushes.

  The voices chased him blindingly into the darkness until the open space of an outback road sat at the end of his sight. Jordon kicked back away as if the road was running lava. The voices in the woods were practically on top of him, their torches swinging between the gaps of the branches. Without much choice, Jordon turned back towards the road, running at full speed when a pair of arms shoved him into his back.

  “We got him! We got him!”

  The gravel beneath his hands scratched him when he caught his fall.

  Jordon turned and brought his arms up to his face, stopping the downwards fists from knocking him unconscious. The fiery blaze that lived inside the core of Luke emerged from behind the group of thugs, his face darken as high beam lights of his car spotlighted them from behind.

  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Mr Perfect.”

  Jordon spat the blood from his cut lower lip out and crawled backwards.

  “Get away from me!” He strained to see into the group of dimmed faces and all the boys laughed.

  “I warned you to stay away from her, but you just couldn’t help yourself-” Luke’s leg thrashed outwards and caught Jordon on the chin, throwing his head back and into the ground.

  “If you so much as think of her again I am going to kill you-”

  The beast outside my head snarled and snapped its jaws at Luke but the illusion felt too real for me to see the creature, its howls dismissed as far away thunder. It was so dark, Jordon only illuminated by the car’s head lights.

  Jordon’s hands propelled him backwards further till he felt his palm press up against a rock. Luke towered over him, both hands clenched and held at his waist and his back hunched so he could get a better look.

  “It’s your fault that she broke up with me. Do you know what she called you? Straight to my face? She said you were perfect. Better than what I could ever be…”

  Jordon stopped shuffling backwards, prying the rock up from the ground before balling it into his fist. Luke had stopped advancing so his boot was hitting Jordon’s knee.

  “I’m gonna show her just how much better I am than you, I’m gonna-” The rock smashed Luke’s nose and threw his neck to a hard right. He let out a gurgled yelp and stumbled backwards; cupping his bleeding face as Jordon sprung upwards and started sprinting down the road again. On one side of the road were thick metal railings framing the lip of a deep plunge cliff, on the other side was the woods that gave Whitehaven a hairy green face on their town map.

  The thugs were all shouting and cursing but none of them had the speed to keep up. He felt out of harm’s reach till the point he heard the car screeching to a start. Desperately, Jordon threw himself towards the forest, hoping to lose his attackers amongst the trees but the car took out his legs and flipped him over the bonnet. It scooped him up its nose, tossed his soaring body into the air before breaking his spine on the landing. The car hit him hard, hard enough that his shoulder scattered the wi
ndscreen and dented the roof.

  Jordon’s body crashed to the ground, his spine twisted and his legs distorted in opposing directions. He was face down in the dirt, breathing through shallow breaths against his collapsed ribs. I could see the pain crunch his face together, his teeth clenched and bleeding. Without any hesitation Luke leapt onto Jordon’s back and pounded the back of his head with a rock. He kept going until blood splattered upwards and freckled his dark cotton clothes. Rain started to spit on them.

  “Stop man, stop!” One of the teenagers got a hold of Luke’s downwards swing to stop him, “He’s dead.”

  There was a moment of silence followed shortly by a moment of disbelief, each boy needing to inspect the body to ensure he wasn’t faking. Then realization struck down at the crack of lightning and each one of them panicked, throwing their hands up in their innocence.

  “Shut up, just- help me move him” Luke couldn’t stop wiping his mouth, able to taste the blood that sprayed upwards from each of his blows.

  Two of them hoisted Jordon up before they reached the edge of the forest, throwing his body down the shallow dip and into the bushes. They threw branches and leaves over to cover the body. None dared to step a toe more into the forest, and as if satisfied, Luke clapped his hands together and wiped his mouth again. He may not have noticed the bare cliff on the other side of the road, and to Jordon’s luck, didn’t topple his body down the gorge.

  “The bugs will eat him; let’s get outta here before someone notices us”.

  And then they vanished.

  I remained behind, floating above Jordon’s body as the boy’s eyes fluttered in his struggles. He gurgled on the blood that filled his mouth, neck broken making it impossible for him to tilt his head and spit the build-up out.

  My ears cracked every time I swallowed. I am the dead. That’s for certain, but I am not Jordon. I didn’t die like this. So lonely and broken … twisted around his own limbs. The creature above my head had faded into the walls, its hypnotic breaths silent. The ground pressed up against my steps as I moved towards the boy. He was face up on the black dirt surface and his head slanted towards the road. He looked like he was sleeping despite the lack of a heaving chest.

  His warm brown hair was matted with sweat and there was a smell of energy building off of him. I watched his frozen stare till the rain flooded around his ears and the sun rose to drink it back up. No matter how many times I tried to blink the image away, to throw it back into the darkness where it was created from the boy didn’t disappear. He had no spark in him. Just a bruised dead corpse.

  That couldn’t be it. A life so incomplete. So young, so full of potential and drive that it crashed my will power down to paste. What was the point of all that loving, educating and feeding if he were only to stop one step into his life? Maybe I blamed him.

  Only if he didn’t run would he have ended up with a few bruises instead of … instead of this?

  I stepped toward him. I got down onto my knees. I could feel the damp mud sink under my weight, the wet leaves try to stick to the warmth of my skin. I am a dead man but I’m more alive than what Jordon is now.

  I reached out my arm to close Jordon’s eyes, the distant brown unbearable familiar, when I noticed scales of black move underneath me. My human arm was leather and dark, strong with curved claws as sharp as kitchen blades designed to slice through bone. When I looked down at the rest of my body there were large paws where my arms were meant to be and a skeleton chest that protruded out from my body, heaving in and out with each inhale. The skin was black tar melted over the top of my bones.

  The panic was blinding as all the walls caved in. I shouted outwards in my horror but my voice carried no strength with it. I was pounded into the darkness and flatten across a smooth surface, stopping me from screaming.

  Fighting relentlessly I pulled all my will power into a tight bomb and stuffed it into my chest. It exploded again and again and rained heavy pulses throughout me.

  Ba dum. Ba dum.

  Ba dum… Ba dum… ba dum. Ba dum…

  Ba Dum…. Ba dum….

  Chapter Two:

  The crack of light wedged itself underneath my eye lid, and with the force of its back, arched my eyes open. There was a sheet of haze white washed over a silver sky. A twisting motion of colours danced in front till my blinking set them in place. It was a roof above me, not a sky. I bolted upwards in both a state of unawareness and relief. It was all just a dream. I stretched my arms out to see all my human fingers wiggle under my human skin.

  “Ah, you’re awake.”

  I glanced to my left to see Mark shift himself around in his seat. He had his phone out, mid texting. “Mark? What happened?”

  “Thought you could tell me.” Mark raised his brows before he stood, motioning to the doorway. “Excuse me, Miss? He’s awake.”

  A woman in her thirties rounded the corner, a petticoat of soft pink pulled over her scrubs. “Good evening Mr Hastings, I’m Victoria. How are you feeling?” She sat on the bed next to me and pulled out a chart, “It seems you’ve taken a nasty bump to your head.”

  “Sorry, I don’t remember…”

  “You’re not in any pain anywhere?”

  “No.”

  “No head ache? Throbbing or soreness?”

  “No, I feel completely fine.”

  “Well, still I would feel more at ease if we let the doctor have one more look at you.” Nurse Victoria smiled before setting my chart back and stepping out. She had said evening… I glanced out the window to my right, behind Mark and could see a sky stretched with blue. Mark lent over the bed with both his arms folded under each other, watching me with accusing eyes.

  “What?”

  “You don’t remember anything? Seriously?” Mark asked but all I could do was shrugged my shoulders.

  “I had a weird dream if that helps at all…”

  “I don’t want to know about your sex dreams man, especially if I’m in them.” We both laughed as I threw a playful fist into his shoulder.

  “How long have I been here for?”

  “Since last night so I’ve heard, Ana was here earlier too.”

  I felt my body stiffen at the mention of her name, Anita was in the hospital too and I was probably snoring like a giant the entire time.

  “Anita was here?”

  “Yeah, but she had to go back to school.”

  “Right, then why are you here?”

  “Playing the role of best friend.” Mark scoffed. “It’s a serious responsibility”

  “You’re parents are going to kill you-”

  “Nah they won’t care, they’ve gone back to China for a bit. It’s just Ye Ye here.”

  “Ye ye? Oh, your grandfather.”

  “Plus, I got you some snacks, thought you’ll be hungry”

  Mark bent over to reach for something under the bed, and I could hear him unzipping his school bag and the rustling of plastic. “They’re chocolates; the class even signed this get well card for you. Kinder lame but the girls planned it out-” He handed over a large A4 paper card that had bold GET WELL text decorated in flowers across the front. And inside were the scratchy hand writing of all my class mates. I skimmed over all their names, even Mrs Jackson had given me her best wishes, before I came across Anita’s distinctive handwriting near the lower right corner.

  Jordon,

  Get well soon, I won’t let you back out of our assignment that easily. Call me if you need anything.

  Take care Ana xox

  I smiled inwardly, able to picture her self-conscious smile as I felt the bed lower as Mark lent over my shoulder. “Check out what I did-”

  He pointed to a roughly stretched picture of what I could vaguely depict as an anime style nurse woman bending over with an oversized syringe. Her uniform obviously two sizes too small in the chest area where her breasts seemed to be bulging out. She was winking.

  “Thanks, appreciate it.”

  He moved back to his seat, picking up his phon
e again to finish off his text. “Can’t believe it, you’re in here for half a day and you have all the girls writing xoxo to you. What’s your secret?”

  “It’s called showering.” I laughed and continued to read over the rest of well wishes. He was right, it seemed a bit excessive to organise all this just because I bumped my head and was in hospital taking a snooze.

  “Luke didn’t sign it…” I thought aloud.

  “Skipping again probably.” Mark said. “Why do you even care about what that jock head has to say?”

  I didn’t care at all that Luke’s name wasn’t there; it was just a passing thought. I shook my head to loosen the drowsiness off me, “You’re right, I dunno why I thought of it. Guess it was the weird dream I had…”

  “Again, let me explain this to you more clearly. I don’t want to hear about no sex dream with me OR Luke Thompson in it- kay?” I threw my fist into his shoulder a lot harder this time, but he laughed it off.

  ***

  After ten minutes a doctor came in and inspected my head and checked my temperature. I answered all of his questions as I did for the nurse, and once he was satisfied, he left saying something about getting my parents back on the phone.

  “My parents were here?”

  Was it strange that I thought that… well that it was strange for them to visit me? Sure enough, half an hour later Ange came storming in in her over dramatic way. She folded her arms across her chest, obviously not impressed as she dropped her gaze from catching mine.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be in school Mark?” Mark smiled awkwardly, unable to answer.

  “Hello Mrs Hastings-”

  “- And you too, if you’re fine now you should get back to your classes. Stop making us worry over you for nothing. Is that what this is, you wanted to skip a test you didn’t study for? Homework overdue?”

  “No- it’s not like that.” I groaned into my pillow.