by Phil Chard
Joe’s face relaxed into a satisfied smile. This was his passion, his surrogate relationship, the flame burning brightly behind his eyes. Stone was a big fish and his arrest a way of advancing Joe’s career. What would that do to Joe? He’d probably get worse. It was like he had a disease that was spreading. And that only spelled bad news for Juliet.
Chapter XV
The premium cabins on the Delphi Airlines flight to London were one of the reasons that Marilyn Stone enjoyed her life. Life was about luxury and comfort, not the squalor some passengers put up with in their seats. She stood behind some of them now, as they were herded from the plane. A male and female member of the cabin crew smiled cheerily to all passengers as they disembarked and thanked them for flying Delphi Airlines and hoped they had a great time in London.
Marilyn noticed the male cabin crew attendant. He was mid twenties and had a flawless complexion and toned body. As their eyes met, he wished her a good day and his eyes remained on her for longer than they needed to. Marilyn Stone was used to this; at 38 she still had the slim, athletic figure, the honey blonde hair and the high wattage smile that a woman ten years younger would die for. Any areas on her body which were south of flawless could be taken care of by corrective surgery. Life without money was unthinkable. Her husband Tony flanked her as they made their way down the steps and touched British soil. Tony was sullen and she knew better than to even make conversation while he was in this mood. There was an issue with one of his ‘teams’ and he’d have to sort it out while he was here. Marilyn’s agenda was pretty empty apart from the party they had planned for her mother-in-law. She had no friends in England anymore, so shopping, spas, fine wines and dining were top of the bill.
They made their way to passport control and stood in line like all the rest. Marilyn hated queuing. Money normally took this problem away, but not here. There was only one staff member on the passport control desk and progress was slow. Tired passengers made small talk while the queue depressingly plodded along. Tony’s mood was worsening with the wait and Marilyn was desperate to get through this line, out of the airport and into a waiting taxi, before he snapped about some minor mannerism she had displayed today.
When they finally reached the passport control desk, she parted with her passport, took off her sunglasses and traded smiles with the man at the desk. The man scanned her passport. He paused and didn’t seem to hand it back quickly like he had to the rest. He was reading some information from a computer screen. He then looked back at Marilyn Stone; all traces of his smile had gone.
Marilyn looked at her husband, then back at the official. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face before he handed her back the passport and let her through.
The incident had unnerved them both. The man could only have been looking at their travel history, yet their pace through the rest of the airport increased. Marilyn spotted the exit doors in the distance and marched towards them. Tony, older and rotund, fell behind.
“Marilyn Stone?”
Marilyn turned in the direction of the voice, a cocky looking gel-combed haircut in a sharp suit.
“Anthony Gerard Stone?”
A second voice. Tony Stone looked in his direction. Sharp suit two. In the background, surrounding them in the periphery, other sharp suits; watching the action, waiting, ready for trouble. Cops, all of them. Tony Stone cursed. Coming back here had been a big mistake.
Chapter XVI
From an upstairs room in Breybury Hall, someone had watched the police exhume Simon Fell’s earthly body with great interest.
The disruptions were over. The garden was quiet now, his body taken for a proper burial. He watched as a taxi now made its way up the gravel drive to the house. He watched the Necromancer step out of the taxi and walk up to the front door. She just couldn’t get enough of him could she? He checked his hair in an ethereal mirror that he thought into existence. He looked fine.
*
“Trial is next year. Tony Stone is denying everything of course, but Marilyn isn’t looking forward to prison and will do anything to lighten her sentence of aiding and abetting, or whatever it is they have charged her with.”
Simon was staring out of the window; when he turned around to face her, she could see that, like a sorcerer’s apprentice, he’d learned from Juliet some of the rules of the condition. He had imagined himself a new wardrobe since they’d last met: a leather jacket with tassels, cowboy jeans complete with a belt and Stetsons. He was even sporting an abdominal muscle six-pack, which was bursting through his white t-shirt. The crow’s feet around his eyes had even disappeared. A scar on his cheek had also gone and he even seemed tanned. He looked like a Hollywood reboot of himself.
“Why can’t I leave the grounds of this property, Juliet?”
“I don’t know.” she began. “I can walk out of my body anywhere, but some spirits seem to be grounded near the scene of death. I don’t know why. Why do you ask? Were you thinking of going on vacation or something?”
He started to smile but the expression didn’t take. His appearance and manner were worrying her; he circled her, saying nothing. He pulled out a Cuban cigar and then eyeballed her.
“You ready to go Simon? We had a deal.” She tried to say the words with authority, but couldn’t help but think that they sounded a little croaky.
He paused and puffed ghostly cigar smoke into the air. He continued pacing around like a caged lion. He then held his hand in the air, “Watch this Juliet.” He rubbed his hands together and a pattern of lights appeared above his head. When he moved his hand away, the lights stayed, lingering over his head like a halo. With another command from his hand, the circle of light rotated around his head. Eventually the light show faded.
“Can you do that?” he asked her.
“It’s a neat trick.”
How the Hell had he done that?
“Learnt a lot of neat tricks ― oh, thanks to you, the apprentice should always acknowledge the master.” He made a gesture as if he were a gentleman doffing his cap to a lady.
“Simon, are you ready to go?”
He smirked at her and then blew smoke in her direction. “What’s actually in the Light, Juliet?”
Juliet paused, then said, “It’s where we go.” The answer was not going to pacify him and she knew it.
“You’ve no idea what’s behind the Light do you? You’ve no idea what awaits us.”
She paused again, briefly calculating that it would be pointless to lie. “No I don’t.”
“Why do you think I should take the trip then? See, in my human state I didn’t believe in Heaven and Hell, God and the Devil. But I think, given my current predicament, that I may need to re-appraise my beliefs. I wasn’t quite an angel in my human condition, so maybe I’m better off here. What do you think?”
“You can’t stay here.” Juliet replied meekly.
“So I just go to the Light? A Light you don’t understand!” His tone was getting amplified. “See maybe there’s Heaven, maybe there’s Hell, but maybe there’s neither. Maybe there’s nothing out there Juliet, what about that? The greatest act of evolution, God didn’t create us, we created him, we evolved to this stage and nothing more. Behind the Light, there’s just a work in progress, or maybe nothing, maybe it just eats you up into a void of nothingness. Maybe this is as good as it gets for a ghost.”
Now he was circling her, like a bird of prey before the mortal swoop. “Maybe I’m better off like this; you’ve taught me some real neat tricks lately. Maybe this condition is not as bad as I thought. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long while.”
Not expecting this confrontation, she didn’t quite know how to respond to it. The problem was that he was right and she didn’t want to get into a theological discussion with the spook for fear of the outcome. She had no idea what was behind the Light; no one had ever come from the other side ― she had no proof of what life existed beyond that singular point. The truth was she wanted her payday and Simon Fell didn’t matter to her. M
aybe if he saw the Light, if he looked at it properly, he’d be drawn in, like they always are...
Her hand moved to the wall and the Light obeyed her call. Simon stared at it, then turned to her, wearing an expression of outraged fury.
She replied verbally to his expression. “You can’t stay here!” Juliet beckoned the Light inwards and it obeyed, slowly expanding its boundaries; the event horizon maximising out. The portal was now larger than she had ever seen it… and was growing. Simon looked at the portal then at Juliet; an animal anger was evident in his eyes.
Juliet started walking back towards her physical body. Unseen to her, Simon’s hand made a gesture in her direction.
Two yards from a reunion with her physical self, Juliet seemed to smack into an invisible wall and fell to the ground. She stood up and tried to get past it, but with the same result. Frantically she tried again and again, looking like a mime artist battling with an invisible wall.
There was something in front of her, an invisible shield between her spirit-self and her physical body. Her fists banged on the shield and she cried out.
He laughed. “Learnt some good tricks here haven’t I? Like I say, all thanks to you.”
The Light was creeping in behind them both. Simon made frenzied attempts to stop its advance and push it back, but all his efforts were to no avail.
“God damn you!” he shouted to Juliet, who was still frantically trying to claw her way through the concealed shield.
Simon watched, resigned, as the Light continued to expand. He turned to Juliet, anger etched on his ethereal face. She was still desperately trying to find a way past his invisible screen. He lunged for her, grabbing her by the neck. “Don’t want to be clingy or anything, but if you must insist on me taking this trip, thought I might bring a friend along for company.”
Juliet struggled, clawing at the spirit hands which where clamped around her spirit neck. The irony of how two spirit entities could fight, lock horns, grapple and struggle was not lost on her.
Juliet pondered once more the invisible shield that separated her from her physical form. He laughed and held her tighter still. He then dragged her backwards towards the Light. She started to scream.
“What’s the matter? You’ve told everyone else how great this place is right? How can you recommend somewhere you’ve never been yourself Juliet? How can the tour guide not take the tour?”
She could feel the life force of the Light behind her. Memories of her life invaded her. He managed, despite her struggles, to drag her back a further step. She noticed a strange buzzing sound which increased in volume as she got nearer the Light. Her mind seemed to be a kaleidoscope of images all fighting for the top billing. She was facing the Light and the pied-piper had her snared. She felt what they all felt, an overpowering desire to walk through to the other side; she fought the feelings, this wasn’t right, she didn’t want to go through the Light... but he was pulling her back and she didn’t have any power left to stop him. She would soon be in the Light and beyond; the physical world would soon be over for her.
And then she heard something...
A voice...
...broken... not the same as she remembered it...
...but the words were a saviour’s rhapsody...
DON’T−YOU−HURT−MY−BABY!
It resonated. She felt his grip on her loosen and he cried out. Juliet fell back, away from the Light. She turned around to see what had become of her attacker. He was being held and dragged backwards into the Light. It was not just a one-way system. Someone had come through from the other side to help her.
DON’T−YOU−HURT−MY−BABY!
The words didn’t come from any mouth, but resonated around in stereo. The form of this thing was not familiar, not entirely human shaped, but in some features that seemed to have survived on the other side of the event horizon, there were features she recognised. It was too powerful for Simon, whatever tricks he had learned in the condition were dwarfed by the power of this Being of Light.
Juliet heard a last, frantic scream from him before they both disappeared into an unknown world; the Light followed them through and the room returned to its earthly dimensions.
She felt around for the invisible shield, but it was gone. Relieved, she walked back to her physical body and then into it. The eyes flickered; she took several deep breaths, getting used to her physical body once more. She looked around the room and struggled to take in what had just happened.
*
Juliet closed the front door of the property, and locked it with a key. The taxi driver was resting against his car, newspaper in hand. He folded it. “You done?”
She considered the question. “Yeah,” she replied. “I’m finished.”
He made for the driver’s side and got in. The car started up. Juliet looked up at the window where minutes earlier phantoms had fought and dimensions had collided. It was now lifeless. She switched her cell phone back on and let it warm up while she ambled towards the taxi. She got in.
“Where to now?”
Juliet’s cell phone caught up with itself and informed her of several voicemails from Joe.
“Miss? Where we going?”
She was reading an angry text message from Joe. He was demanding to know where she was. He wanted to talk to her. Another angry text followed. Juliet switched off the phone, wound down the window and threw it out.
The taxi driver watched events, but didn’t comment on them. He was only interested in her next destination. “Miss? Where we going now? I think you said before; some hotel, then the train station?”
The Houghtons were at the hotel. She had got them to agree to a further payment once she got rid of the spook. The balance could follow once they were happy it was gone for good.
“Hotel,” Juliet said. “Then the airport.”
She had her passport with her. She took it everywhere. You never knew when you might see a job advertisement for a few days work and it was best to be ready and armed with the proof you were a legal resident here. The down payment from the Houghtons would pay for a trip anywhere. She’d tell them to pay the final instalment to Joe, once they were completely happy that their visitor had left. It would be everything she owed Joe plus considerable interest. It was time to stop trading in souls. Maybe she’d find a job in a bar on the beach in the Caribbean. People would see her scars and see a survivor, not a victim.
Glorious freedom.
Table of Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI