My Demonic Ghost #3: Hunters and Creators

by Maree, Jacinta

  Within moments of my freedom, the tiger Goon charged, its monstrous roar enough to freeze me to the spot. As it leapt, jaws open ready to bite down, I managed to scramble out of reach, tripping over my own feet and dodging its powerful bite. Nathan’s laughter sounded over the top of their barking, as the mole swiped its claw at me, hitting my stomach and throwing me across the pitch. I felt every blow as I bounced along the concrete, before eventually hitting the brick wall.

  Taking advantage of my disorientation, the Tiger rammed it head into my stomach. My ribs pressed against my lungs, forcing my breath out of me as I tumbled to the ground. Dots clouded my vision as I rolled onto my side, cradling my chest. All I could see were its two paws positioned near my head and the vast warmth of its body standing over the top. A tingle hit me as power surged through my body. I rolled onto my back as the Tiger lunged. I managed to slap its face away before it made contact.

  “Good! Good Rachael!” Nathan cheered. I could feel the fear streak through my nervous system and the fire burn into my neck again.

  “Go away!” I bellowed and catapulted the tiger across the yard with my flat palms. As soon as the tiger was off the bat swooped down, hooking its clawed feet around my stomach and hoisting me up. I squirmed in its grip pathetically as its ginormous bat wings whipped the air past my ears with every flap. Chō snared my leg from underneath and tried tugging me back down. The mole then swung at him, knocking him to the side. In panic and frustration, Chō leapt onto its snout before hammering two fists into its head. Chō’s tiny hands caved in its skull, but it raised its claws attempted to frantically slap Chō off. The Reaper howled before teleporting to the Goon’s side. He took a hold of it and they disappeared. Without missing a beat, Chō turned to the bat, ripping me away from its claws and pain shot through my entire torso.

  “Come on Rachael, embrace the power. Use it to protect yourself!”

  With the tiger attacking Chō from one side and the bat on the other, I managed slip beneath their radar and ran. I had barely gotten five meters away when the bat landed in front and slashed across my chest with its wing. I flipped and hit the ground just as a wave of dark magic spiralled down on top of it causing the bat to retreat. A shadow appeared in front on me, and swung a punch outwards; his body twisted like a pretzel before he cut through the bat’s torso with a whip of dark matter.

  The Goons stopped advancing and Evan appeared, power radiated from his broad shoulders and confident stance. “Back off, Nathan!”

  More amused than surprised, Nathan approached him. “Ah, do my eyes deceive me or is this really you, baby brother?” Nathan laughed as Evan’s knuckles tightened. “What kind of joke are you playing now? Pretending to be a man when you’re a mere boy? Do you really think you’re fooling anyone?” He shoved both palms into Evan’s chest causing him to stumble backwards. “The unloved boy. The forgotten boy.” Nathan kept advancing, shoving Evan with every step, “Did you at least enjoy your last moments of life alone?”

  “You can’t bully me anymore! You are nothing!” Evan roared.

  “You’ve always been so pathetic.” Nathan laughed, “Now that big brother Jordon isn’t here to protect you, what are you going to do? Huh? Are you going to stop me?”

  “I’m not scared of you!”

  “Nothing has changed. I’m stronger than you are. I always have been and I always will be. Now be a good boy, and step down.” When Evan refused to budge, Nathan kept his fists coming until he finally caught Evan under the chin and knocked him to the ground. I blinked twice to clear my eyes. Evan’s tall and lean body had flickered for moment into that of a boy, a young teenager still dressed in his school uniform. It happened in the split second, Nathan landed his blow. Nathan stepped up to Evan and drove his foot down into his torso; and like a faulty hologram, Evan’s body shifted between the two bodies again.

  “Stop it! Stop it!” I scrambled up, only to have Nathan shove me back down.

  “You and I both know deep down inside that hollow cold heart of yours that you’ll never be good enough. Why do you even bother to get back up?”

  “Don’t listen to him, Evan!” I shouted. Evan curled in on himself, protecting his face from every one of Nathan’s verbal and physical blows. “Just leave him alone!”

  “Shut up,” Nathan snapped, throwing another punch in my direction. Evan growled and kicked upwards, swinging his fist forward and Nathan caught it without falter; twisted his arm, so Evan buckled before backhanding Evan across the face. The final blow caused Evan to switch to the body of the young boy again, who struggled to breath in the painful arm lock. He kept his head bowed and his shoulders slumped, the look of a defeated fighter lying down to die. A foggy memory pressed against my mind. It was of Evan, young Evan, and he was falling. His body was small and weak, starved to the point of collapse. My heart went out to him, his meadow green eyes fluttered wildly; toasted brown hair dampened with sweat caressed his face till he hit the ground with a loud crack. I jerked my head away from the image. That was how he died. My eyes sank down to Evan who laid on the ground. He looked so small, just a mere kid who had been pushed too many times into the dirt.

  “Let him go! I’ll do what you want; just leave him alone!” I screamed. A hot draft spiralled around me in a raging tornado and the fatigue kicked back in. Nathan raised his eyebrows.

  “If you want to save him so badly, come and get him!”

  Panic hit my chest like a punch. Nathan shoved Evan onto his back, took out a blade from his pocket and towered over him. Noise faded until there was nothing but my raspy breathing, the scrunch of my shoes scrambling up from the ground, and my pulse pounding loudly in my ears. In a snap, my consciousness faded.

  Chapter Thirty-Four:

  The burning marred the skin along my neck suddenly felt dry and solid, as if the wound had suddenly crusted over with a type of volcanic rock. Before I could move, I was lifted up so quickly I was stunned. . As if in a lucid dream, I moved without control or restraint. My arm moved upwards, stopping Nathan mere inches from driving the blade into Evan’s chest. He was thrown across the yard and the Goons charged from either side to attack me. In the next moment I was falling. That was the only way I could really describe what was happening.

  I was spinning and turning, flipping head over heels completely and utterly confused and out of control. Blurred and distorted images flashed before me and my insides felt heavy with dread. I could remember particular moments in time. The walls surrounding me crumbled. Smoke darkened the sky. There was some sort of noise, an ear-splitting siren assaulting my ears like a broken record stuck in an annoying loop. What felt like split seconds later, a cold sting dragged me out of my fog, and I found myself on my back, panting hard, dripping with sweat and the rain hitting my face.

  Hands as cold as ice were on my cheeks. Evan was there, his face drawn with exhaustion. He was back to his original self, to the man with a strong jaw and piercing domineering eyes. His hand on my throat preceded the familiar touch of the cold cuff, which tightened around my neck and pulled me out of the hallucination. He rolled over in relief. When I finally sat up, we were still in the prison courtyard, except it was different. I looked over to find Evan sprawled on the ground, his body stinking of ash and burning coal.

  “E-Evan?” He opened his eyes, rolled his head towards me, exhaling shakily.

  “We’re okay…” He pushed himself up, “But we have to leave.”

  “What on earth happened?” I touched my head tenderly.

  “It was a set up. They timed the ambush as a way to distract us and get you out into the open.” The storm above battered us with needles. I glanced around at the devastated prison, the ripped up ground and the surrounding walls bulldozed over.

  “It worked?” I whispered, bringing my hand to my neck. Evan was silent for a moment.

  “We have to go. They will be here soon.”

  “Go where?” I glanced over at him. His face tightened, unable to answer me. “How did you find me?” I a
sked again.

  Evan shook his head. “Gargoyle said something about the woman Hunter and a Banished coming to your room...” Suddenly a blinding light shun down on us, followed by a whir of a helicopter’s propellers.

  I looked skywards to see four giant spotlights, each positioned on a corner of the yard. They swung towards us, lights powerful enough that dots spiralled in my vision. Evan lashed out, managing to smash the bulb on one of the light before turning and attacking the remaining three. Before he could dowse the final light, the helicopter lowered into view, a voice barked at me through a microphone. Evan created a long lasso out of the darkness and tied it to the helicopter’s tail, and pulled it towards him causing it to go into a tailspin.

  “Evan! Evan stop!” I shouted. I felt a sudden, sharp prick in the neck. Evan jerked back towards me as I pulled out the poisoned dart. The venom moved quickly and I crumpled into unconsciousness.

  Chapter Thirty-Five:

  When I woke, I was in a white room. My wrists and ankles were bound in leather shackles. Soft pads were wired onto my body, monitoring my heart rate, my temperature and brain activity. Was I in a hospital? I wiggled in my restraints. A man concealed within a large, white body suit and helmet stepped up to me, shining a torch in my eyes. I leaned my head away.

  “What’s going on? Who are you people?” I demanded.

  “Doctor? Sir, she is awake!” He called over as another man walked up to my bedside. He was older, dressed in a grey suit and wore a surgical mask across his nose and mouth.

  “Thank you, Walters, I can take it from here.” Walters quickly exited the room, which was left relatively bare. The Doctor pulled a chair up next to my bedside and sat down; his hands loosely clasped and watched me, waiting for me to say something.

  “You’re in safe hands here Miss, my name is Doctor Alex Hearth. How are you feeling?” He finally asked.

  “I don’t trust him.” Evan growled from my side. I flinched and whipped my head over to where Evan stood against the wall, arms crossed and lips curled disdainfully.

  “You’re here too?” I mumbled.

  “Of course.” Evan smiled wickedly. “Someone has to look after you.”

  “Who’s here too?” The Doctor asked. I shook my head. Of course, they can’t see him.

  “No-No one.”

  Evan walked closer and pointed to the restraints, “Don’t worry, we’ll get out of here as soon as my strength is back.”

  “Can you explain exactly what happened last night?” The Doctor asked.

  I glared at him; his gaze coldly met mine, “What do you want?”

  “Right now we just want the truth.”

  “And what about later?”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. We’ve looked into your file. Rachael Hastings, 21-year-old female from the Inner city. You live with your classmate, Ms. Humming, near your university. Seeking a Journalism degree, and you’re in your second year.” He seemed to list my details as if reading it off the back of a piece of paper. I nodded. “Last night something happened at the Counter Vale Prison. Can you tell me about it?”

  I wearily glanced over at Evan, but he was too busy glaring at the Doctor. When he didn’t look at me, I shook my head. “I don’t remember.”

  He sighed, expecting the answer. “I want to show you something.” He fetched a laptop out of his suitcase that he set up on the edge of the bed facing the screen towards me. He pressed play, and what appeared to be a sketchy surveillance video recording of the prison court yard began to play. I stiffened, because I already knew what was going to happen, but, at the same time, I didn’t. The Reapers that had attacked me appeared in the film to be guards, the monstrous Goons that scooped me up and threw me around were invisible, making it look like I was thrown around by some sort of invisible force. I cringed every time my body bounced along the concrete, I didn’t remember the pain because of my adrenaline rush, but it looked nasty. Then Nathan walked onto the screen, challenging an invisible Evan. Although I remembered the fight, it appeared as though Nathan was arguing with a vacant patch of concrete. Suddenly I was screaming. I kept trying to get up only to crumple back down; my energy drained. I begged and screamed, my arms reaching out to him. Then I snapped. Something happened, a power hit my body that gave me the ability to rend earth from the ground and hurl it across the courtyard. I bought my hand to my mouth, watching the erratic struggle between me and whatever was attacking me. Within moments, I tore down the brick walls, and created a lightning storm that consumed the sky until the screen suddenly blacked out. I felt sick. I almost couldn’t bear to watch the rest, when a flicker of green appeared next to me on the ground. An unnatural darkness collected by my body until the spotlights turned on me. The old me, not controlled by Chō looked around, disoriented. This was when Evan had smashed the spot lights before pulling the helicopter down. Then the dart hit my neck and I collapsed. I gulped with unease. Thank goodness Evan had stopped me.

  “That’s… I err…umm…” I didn’t know what to say, I just lowered my head.

  “I’ve looked into your history Ms. Hastings, there’s no black mark next to your name, not even a single parking ticket. I need to know what a girl such as yourself was doing at locked down prison camp and exactly what happened that night.”

  “It wasn’t me who did all that.”

  He nodded sadly, “There’s behavioural differences. It’s like you become a completely different person, you could even say you were possessed by something, couldn’t you?” He stressed the word possession. He shifted forward and rewound the clip till the point Nathan appeared on the screen. “Who is this person?”

  How could I answer him? It’s my dead cousin Nathan? “I don’t know.”

  “What were you doing at Counter Vale Prison?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Is this the first time this has happened to you?” I looked over my shoulder again hoping Evan was there to help me answer. “How about that scar on your neck?” I brought my hand to my neck and he handed me a metal surgical bowl. I turned it around and studied the marking imprinted just above my collarbone. There was a scarred red patch burnt into the basic outline of a butterfly.

  I vaguely remembered a burning sensation during my blackouts, but it was just a fleeting moment. “I don’t know.” I answered truthfully, handing the bowl back.

  “Who is Evan?” He then asked and I jolted upwards. The Doctor was writing notes in his book.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You screamed out, Evan, Evan stop! Who is Evan?”

  I pressed my mouth shut, refusing to answer. “I don’t know.”

  “We’re here to help you Ms. Hastings. We can’t help you if you don’t tell us what’s going on.” He sighed, then stood up, taking the laptop with him, “we’re going to keep you here under surveillance until we can figure out what went on down in that prison.”

  He left the room and everything went quiet again. I nervously glanced around, struggled against my restraints, and then looked back at the door. There was a mirrored window, which I could only presume was one way, and about three cameras nesting in the corners of the room and another over my bed. Evan stepped back to me, drumming his fingers against his chin as he walked around the bedpost.

  “Interesting choice of words...” He noted. I glanced nervously at the mirror then at the cameras. “Why do you look so scared?” He asked.

  ‘They asked about you’…I replied telepathically, hoping Evan could still hear me.

  He smirked, ‘don’t worry we’ll get out of here soon. I’ll go get the others to help.’

  ‘Do you know where we are?’

  ‘Not exactly; but I have the connection between us, so I can track you easily.’

  I nodded my head briskly, ‘thank you for stopping me last night.’

  His smile waned, “I shouldn’t have left you in the first place.” He dissolved into ash and tried to escape through the walls, only to be thrown backwards. He crashed onto his ba
ck with a loud humph.

  “Evan?!” I sat upwards as he rolled himself over onto his stomach and crawled on his hands and knees.

  “What the hell?” He growled, glancing at the wall. He ran at it again, only to slam against the plaster and bounce off. He slowly turned around at the sound of movement and voices coming from the other side of the mirror.

  “What’s going on?” I asked in an urgent whisper.

  “Holy crap…” He muttered, “They can see me.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six:

  He paced the room, fumes of ash and anger radiating from his body, his attention returning back to the cameras watching from above. I remained trapped to the bed frozen in disbelief.

  “What do you mean they can see you?”

  Evan growled, “This is impossible! They’ve trapped me here.”

  “How can they trap a ghost?”

  A voice spoke over the PA system in a static crack. The one way mirror screen flickered for a moment before the illusion dropped, revealing the cluster of scientists and doctors in the room behind. Doctor Hearth was by the microphone, “Evan… I assume?” Evan charged at the glass in his foggy form, smashing two fists against the window as it rattled against the frame. His sinister snarl and sharp Banished eyes pierced through the light, causing them to cringe away. He growled like some sort of animal.

  “Calm down, Evan.” The Doctor said, “There’s no point in struggling.”

  “Let me go!” Evan demanded, hammering his fist again against the window.

  “I can’t do that.”

  “How is this possible?” I said and got to my feet.

  “You are not the first demonic spirit we’ve captured and you won’t be our last. You’ve been showing clear signs of demonic possession, Rachael. There’s been a massive increase in possessions since that apocalyptic incident where more and more innocent people are spontaneously fall sick and lost their sanity.”