My Demonic Ghost #3: Hunters and Creators

by Maree, Jacinta

“During his entire life in that house he was made to feel small, unimportant, and weak. His childhood was tough, and he felt fragile there because that was when he was at his weakest. Perhaps he thought burning it to the ground would remove the fear in him.”

  Tears began to gather in my eyes; out of all the possible hosts, Evan had picked me. He had been dead for over eight years now; I never even met him when he was alive, so how on earth did I become his choice? I hadn’t been to Whitehaven since I was 13, so we must’ve accidentally crossed paths at one point. I couldn’t stop myself from reeling back in my memory, bringing forth all the stories about Evan and his family. They all had just vanished, their oldest son Jordon reported missing and his body never found. Their youngest, Evan, starved to death and was later buried in the backyard; and their middle child - I don’t even know what happened to him. All I knew was that, after the incident with Evan, my Aunty and Uncle were in a lot of trouble and got locked up; which left Nathan to fend for himself. I had always imagined what it would have been like to have known that side of the family better. Evan was my age, whereas the rest of my cousins were either in their adulthood or early teens. Truth be told, I was upset Evan didn’t show that day I went to visit them in Whitehaven. I had been told about them; about him in particular, and how well he played the piano. I had hoped to hear him play one of his songs. And yet he had been here with me the whole time and I was so mean to him. I guess the question that bugged me the most was, ‘why’? Why did Evan even become a demonic ghost? Then I remembered what Gargoyle said, to kill someone or to kill yourself is the one rule no one was allowed to break. Maybe Evan’s death wasn’t a murder, but a suicide.

  “Did he…” My words trembled, why was it suddenly so hard to speak? “Did he kill himself?”

  Jordon cleared his throat and merely nodded his head. “It was an accident.”

  “Why does he look so much older?”

  “An angel once explained to me that the soul doesn’t age; only the body does. In death, we become mere fog that can shape shift to suit our appearance. Most take on the form of their last image, that being the way their mind remembers. Evan is able to change his appearance and no doubt he was trying to keep up with you.”

  “To keep up with me?”

  “He’s probably too stubborn to admit it, but he really values your opinion of him. It’s the one thing keeping him on this plane.” Guilt twisted at my insides. How was I supposed to know that underneath the exterior of his brutish remarks was the brittle heart of a boy? I had to change the topic before I found myself digging in to a bucket of ice-cream.

  “What were you guys doing at the high school? Why did you attack us if you knew who I was?”

  He stood up again and started to pace, “We were fed misleading information by a fellow Reaper who we presumed was on our side. The Reapers are a bit divided; some like the current system, whereas other don’t. We didn’t want to hurt you; we were trying to take you away from them. It’s no secret that we haven’t always seen eye to eye with the Hunters, they are sworn to protect the very God who tries to repress and destroy us. Now that Miira has forsaken them as well,” He motioned towards Gargoyle, “we now have common ground.”

  “Gargoyle does not want to hurt Miira.” I informed him.

  “He’s in denial about his abandonment. I’ve known Gargoyle for a long time; his biggest weakness is his pride, aside from his rage. Seeing himself become a Banished is probably the only thing to stop him from following orders. He won’t let himself be disgraced. Not anymore.”

  I glanced over at Gargoyle sitting on the kitchen bench; his reddish hair was now half black, and his skin gloomy. His one remaining oak coloured eye seemed to sparkle; whereas the amber pupil looked sharp, I had to turn my head away.

  “What do I have to do?”

  Jordon smiled, “First off, we need to get this Creator spirit off you. I won’t repeat the foul things Evan was saying when he got back to base, but let’s just say he’s less than pleased.”

  “Chō isn’t going to hurt me.” I said again.

  “Hopefully not, but he will definitely hurt all of us.”

  I summoned Chō, while the others stood around watching in nervous anticipation. As the butterfly-like creature appeared out of the darkness and perched on my shoulder. The wolf, Raix, whimpered and quickly fled the scene. Even Jordon appeared uptight as if someone held a knife to his throat. I glanced over and he weakly smiled.

  “We have history,” He briefly explained. “Good to see it’s not hostile this time. So… how are we going to do this?”

  “A Royal is the only one strong enough to snap the bonds.” Gargoyle clarified.

  “But Miira isn’t going to help us.”

  “No, but maybe another Royal will?”

  “Like who? The last Royal was destroyed. Miira made sure of that.”

  Chaos chimed in, “Let’s take a step back and think about what the Creator wants. It came to earth to get the blue Spirit, right?”

  “It was kicked out.” Gargoyle corrected, but Chaos merely shrugged.

  “In any case, it’s looking for the Blue Spirit. What if we give it what it wants?”

  “We don’t know what it’ll do.” Gargoyle answered.

  “It’s better than having it sitting on earth attached to Rachael.” Chaos retorted.

  I stepped forward, “Don’t you think the question as to why Miira wants the Creator down here in the first place is worth addressing?”

  “My only guess would be the Blue Spirit. Without the Blue Spirit, there’s no connection between Miira’s power and the harvested souls. She’s running on empty.” Jordon explained. “She knows it searches for the Spirit so she must’ve sent it down here for that.”

  “Nathan had also said the demons were her scapegoat. What does that mean?” I added.

  “I don’t know, but one thing we know for sure is the Creator will not leave without the Blue Spirit. Just for argument’s sake, say we do reunite the Creator and the Spirit what’s the worst that could happen?” Chaos asked.

  “It returns the Blue spirit to Miira and everything we’ve tried to change is undone.”

  “What are you trying to change exactly? What do you want at the end of all this fighting?” Gargoyle turned his head towards Jordon.

  Jordon didn’t slow his pacing, “Revolution. Remove the chains from the Banished and the Reapers so we both can enter the afterlife and find peace.”

  I drew back, “You want freedom? But that’s not what we’ve been told. It looks like you want power and control.”

  “On the contrary, we just want equality. People see demons and automatically think of evil. We look scary, so a lot of people just assume the worst.”

  “Well you are demonic spirits.” Gargoyle quickly jumped in, “Granted a small percentage of you are more good than bad, but a lot of your followers are genuine killers and psychopaths.”

  Jordon sighed, “We can’t just select which ones we want to save. When we break the curse it removes it from everyone, the genuinely bad included.”

  “So, there will be killer ghosts free to do as they please?” I asked.

  “They wouldn’t want anything to do with the living; it’s the afterlife they are seeking. We’ve already removed the Blue Spirit from the equation, so the Banished can’t be soaked up and used for Miira. It’s now just a matter of getting her off the throne so we can all have peace.”

  “What’s to stop one of the Banished from trying to take the throne for themselves?” Gargoyle argued again, “Once the throne is empty it’s just a matter of time before a new spirit climbs on top. More often than not it’s the ones willing to sacrifice others that get to rule.”

  “We already have one corrupted Royal in charge let’s just deal with her first.”

  Gargoyle sighed, shaking his head, “This doesn’t feel right.”

  Chaos perched on the chair’s armrest, angling his head to speak to Gargoyle, “We were played for fools. What are we but just
pawns on the chessboard?”

  “We don’t know that.” Gargoyle replied, “How do we know Nathan didn’t act on his own?”

  Jordon growled, “Nathan. I don’t like how he’s been pulled into the middle of all of this.”

  Gargoyle spoke, “I personally recruited him five years ago. I don’t know what Miira’s plans are with him, but I’m pretty sure she wanted to use him against you. She counted on his hatred to destroy you.”

  “My brother didn’t hate me.”

  “He definitely blamed you for how his life turned out.”

  Jordon scoffed under his breath, “He has a bad habit of doing that. Don’t worry about him; I’ll settle things with the Hunter. You guys brainstorm and work out a solution for the Creator and Rachael.”

  “Hey…” Chaos perked up, glancing around the room, “Where’s Damage? She’ll probably know what to do.”

  Gargoyle shook his head, “The night of your disappearance she took off. I fear she’s returned to Miira to plea. I couldn’t go after her, when I tried to get back into Heaven a wall blocked me. It must be because I’ve become this.”

  “Maybe I should go then.” Chaos suggested, but Gargoyle shook his head.

  “Something is wrong, otherwise she would’ve returned by now. Heaven is off limits to us.” The room fell into a hush just as Raix returned. He nudged his giant wolf nose roughly against the Reaper and he lost his footing.

  “Whoa, whoa there Raix,” He soothed the agitated canine by gently stroking the back of his neck; but the wolf kept up a constant whine, trying to get us to follow him outside. Not two moments later, there was a rapid tapping on the door. Everyone froze. We all glanced at each other and Chō hid. There was another tap, but this time it seemed a bit more urgent. I started to walk over when Jordon held out his hand to stop me, sniffing the air to catch any lingering scent.

  “They’re not spirits.” He looked over, “Just humans.”

  Chaos went to the door and pulled it open. It was a police officer standing with his hand resting on his pistol belt, his other limp by his side. His police car was parked just outside, the lights a blinding flash of red and blue. His partner was digging for something in the passenger console, and quickly emerged with a flash light that he brought up in our direction. The older man looked over Chaos’s shoulder and at us inside.

  “Good evening, sorry to disturb you so late, but we’re looking for a missing female…” He looked over at me and went rigid. He then immediately snatched his pistol, bringing it up to Chaos’ face. “Carl! She’s in here!” He called over and his partner came running, also reaching for his gun.

  Chaos immediately neutralised the policemen’s memory, and he dropped suddenly to the ground. The second officer panicked upon watching his comrade fall before he opened fire. One of the bullets hit Chaos’s shoulder and pierced the woodwork near his head. He was propelled backwards by the force before he reached out his arm and zapped the second man’s mind, also causing him to fall to the ground. Quickly he slammed the door shut. The gunfire scared me enough that I caused the room to shake.

  “Chaos!” I ran to him as he slid down the door, grinding his teeth and inspecting where the bullet penetrated his shoulder. Using some sort of magnetic force, the bullet wiggled free of his body and was spat out onto the floor. The wound quickly healed over.

  Chaos looked around confused, “Why are the police looking for you?”

  Gargoyle teleported to his side, reaching over to inspect the injury. I stepped back to let him see. “I had given her an alibi! They’re not supposed to worry.”

  “Well someone has spilled the beans!” Chaos grumbled.

  “Wait… did you kidnap Rachael?” Jordon asked from behind.

  “No I’m not kidnapped; I’m in hiding for obvious reasons.” I retorted. “We couldn’t tell anyone because we were scared they would reveal our secret. It was just easier. It must be about that YouTube clip. Can’t we remove it?”

  “There are already a thousand copies out there and it’s impossible to erase all their memories.”

  “How did they find me?” I mumbled.

  “I’ll go ask around, maybe someone has heard something.” Jordon pulled the hood of his cloak over his head, spontaneously disappearing and Raix quickly followed suit.

  “He said you were missing…” Gargoyle helped Chaos up before looking back at me. I could only shrug.

  “It must’ve been my parents; they haven’t been able to contact me for nearly six days. They are probably worried.”

  “Even so, why here? How did they know we were here?”

  Not a moment later Jordon appeared reappeared, escorting another Reaper with him. It was a male this time, a handsome tall boy with a tattoo of a giant leaf with vines down the right side of his face and eyes of crystal blue. He looked over at me cautiously before glancing back over to Gargoyle and Chaos. A thick tension quickly filled the room; by the looks of it Reapers and Hunters could not stand being in the same room together. The moment he appeared his pet Goon also stepped out of the shadow, a giant hyena with a cloud of blue smoke forming with each exhale. Raix immediately stalked up to it, at first flashing its teeth warningly at the hyena. It returned the hostile welcome with a sharp bark before they both lunged at the other, biting at each other’s ears. It only lasted a moment as the wolf knocked the hyena over, prompting it to chase him outside into the darkness. No one seemed fazed by the confrontation, perhaps that’s how they play.

  “Rachael this is Elliot, Elliot Rachael.”

  I nodded as Elliot walked forward briskly, “We have a problem.” He carried a laptop which he placed on the kitchen bench. We all huddled around it as he clicked the play button. The sound was muted, but I recognised the area immediately. It was back at the Whitehaven high school where the blonde reporter updated viewers on the case. Clear in the corner of the screen I was standing with my arms crossed looking out at the school. I must’ve really been lost in thought because I didn’t move for a long time before I suddenly perked up, glanced over at the reporter before I quickly exited the scene. I felt myself sink into my shoes. Gargoyle looked at me accusingly, but I couldn’t meet his stare.

  “I’m sorry…” I whispered. I heard him angrily exhale.

  “This is all over the news; they are calling it a freak earthquake and terrorist attack. Whatever lie you told her friends and family, they know it’s not true and they are panicking.” Elliot turned back to face the others. “If you want to keep her hidden you have to move.”

  “But where is safe?” Chaos asked.

  “You can come with us; we have a headquarters protected by Reapers, so there’s no way any humans can find you there.” Jordon suggested, ignoring the sharp glare Elliot shot over to him.

  “You want to bring Hunters back to the headquarters? Are you crazy?”

  “They will be fine.”

  “The others will flip out on you and the Banished will scatter. You can’t jeopardise our entire operation because some girl’s parents think she ran away from home. They were angry enough that you even brought Chaos and he was blind folded, tied up and gagged.” I looked at Chaos as he merely shrugged as if it wasn’t out of the norm.

  “Don’t start with me Elliot; I still call the shots around here.” Jordon stepped up to Elliot and the two Reapers snarled at each other. “Rachael is still my family, the whole reason she’s in this mess is because of me and I will make sure I fix it.”

  “This isn’t your fault…”I started but Jordon shook his head.

  “It is, if it wasn’t for me you would never have become Evan’s host. I chose to sacrifice your life to save his, and I promise I will fix it.” I gulped and stepped back. My life was sacrificed? What on earth happened that I can’t remember? Do I even want to remember?

  “Where are your headquarters?” Gargoyle asked and Elliot whipped his face around.

  “Chaos I can allow, but you are most definitely not welcome.”

  Gargoyle clenched his jaw an
d lifted his chin a little higher to appear taller than Elliot. “You have something you want to say to me?”

  “You smug bastard, you’re the one that destroyed Melissa!” He stormed up to Gargoyle, but Jordon held his hand against his chest, forcibly holding him back.

  “Let it go Elliot.”

  “I was just doing my job.” Gargoyle argued.

  “No, you purposely hunted her down and ensured that she was destroyed. You targeted her and now, because of your petty feud, she is gone forever.” Melissa? The name sparked something inside my memory. It lasted for a brief moment, merely flashed across my mind before it sunk back into nothingness.

  “I said that’s enough!” Jordon pushed Elliot and rattled him by his collar, forcing him to drop his glare. “It’s in the past now, there’s nothing we can do to get her back so getting mad or even with Gargoyle is just a waste of time. Go back to the others first, let them know that we are coming. They can leave if they feel uncomfortable, but they will not stop us from entering.” Elliot pushed Jordon off himself before whistling. The hyena Goon bounced back into the room, bringing its familiar crackling laugh that caused my entire body to tremble.

  “Fine, I sure hope you know what you’re doing. This isn’t over!” He picked up his computer before he disappeared.

  Jordon exhaled and lowered his head into his palms, massaging his temples. “Okay, let’s get going before more cops start turning up.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven:

  Jordon drove us down Ocean’s Highway that followed the seaside. It would’ve been a beautiful scenic drive except for the tension in the car. Both Hunters refused to leave me alone and Jordon was the only one who knew how to drive. It was awkwardly quiet, so much so I was scared to breathe too loudly. I sat in the back with Gargoyle, but he refused to look at me. He was undoubtedly still mad. Chaos was in the front passenger seat looking out the window. Jordon kept checking up on me in the rear view mirror; a few times I caught his eyes meet mine before turning back to the road. I didn’t ask where we were going or how they got the car, but by the choice of floor decoration I presumed this car belonged to a man that enjoyed take away food.