by S Mays
A loud thump came from the other side of the room as he looked back to see the man getting up from the ground. Apparently, Jessica wasn’t done for just yet. The man staggered back to her and smacked her loudly. The spark in Sverre’s eyes turned into a blaze.
His teeth bared, he clenched his fists and pulled forward. A faint glow formed around him as his chi levels rose. He pushed harder. The spirits holding him looked at each other in confusion. A growl escaped his lips as he shoved forward again with all his strength. The cinder block wall cracked. The spirits howled in pain as he burst loose. He swung on the one on his left.
To his surprise, it felt as if he had connected with a physical object. He swung again and again. Fear overtook the specter’s visage as he attacked it. On the final blow, an inhuman howl of anguish rang out in Sverre’s ears as the ghost dissipated into nothingness. He whirled on the other spirit and struck with an increasing fury that obliterated it instantly. He turned to see the man’s backwards head looking at him again.
“Stop looking at me with that stupid face!” he screamed, rushing across the room. He grabbed the creature by the neck and swung him away from Jessica. His next blow sent the ghoulish figure across the room and through the wall he’d just weakened. He then whirled on the figures holding Jessica and unleashed his fury upon them. In seconds, they were gone as well.
“S-Sverre?” Jessica stammered, feeling the spirits fade.
“M-mine…” Sverre heard behind him as the man rose from the rubble of the wall.
The exposed torso where its shirt had torn revealed the creature’s bare skin. Lumps and shapes moved under the flesh, as if people were trapped inside a sack of skin, unable to escape. Sverre spun at the sound, dashed across the room, and leapt at the creature through the hole in the wall. Mercilessly, he pummeled the figure.
Cinder block pieces shattered, along with muscle, tendons, and bone. He could see what appeared to be several similar spirits crammed within the body, attempting to flee in terror. Their screams of pain were drowned out by the downpour of blows from Sverre. Moments later, only Sverre’s ragged panting could be heard. The glow around him faded. He sat on his knees in the rubble, looking at what was left of the figure below him.
Besides a few identifiable pieces, one would have a hard time determining that the mix of tissue, bone, and brick was ever a human. He looked down at his fists and noted the blood soaking his arms and legs. The skin was flayed off several knuckles, bloodied bone protruding.
Jessica put her hand on his shoulder. “My God. What have you done, Sverre?”
“I saved you,” he whispered. A weak grin spread across his face as he continued to look at his hands. “I saved you.”
“You…you destroyed them. You destroyed their souls. It’s as if they never existed. No afterlife, no redemption, no penance — nothing. They’re gone forever. It’s-it’s horrific!” she said with terror in her voice.
Confused, Sverre turned to regard her. She returned his gaze, a look of fear on her face that matched the one she’d displayed only moments ago at the hands of the monstrosity.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Is Gregory going to be okay?” Jessica asked, staring out one of the windows of her grandfather’s study.
“He’ll recover. He’s lost a lot of blood, but he’s in the best of hands now,” Bilford replied. “Are you sure you are okay, my girl?”
“I’ll be fine. A few bruises. What about Sverre?”
“He’s mending well. Some fractures and strains, but you know he’ll be back to normal in a day or two.”
“Grandfather, about what happened…”
“Yes? I know it had to be awful. A multiple poltergeist possession in a single body is unheard of. The hope of living again antagonized the other spirits into manifesting fully on our plane as well. If not for Sverre, I fear you all would have had your spirits driven from your bodies and become hosts like that poor caretaker. To be forced out of your own body and driven away… horrible. We’ll have to return once things calm down a bit to see if the trauma of the event caused his spirit to be linked to the property as well. We’ll take a full team in this time. I’m sorry I sent you with so few agents,” he apologized.
“It’s fine, Grandfather. You know as well as I do that you never know what to expect on any mission. In our line of work, a momentary lapse in judgment can be fatal.” Her eyes drifted away, thinking.
“You wanted to tell me something else?” he prodded after a minute.
“Grandfather…there’s no reason to send a team in. They are gone. All of them.”
“How can that be? Maggy wasn’t there to help guide them on.”
“It was…Sverre.” She hesitated. “He destroyed them.”
“Destroyed?” He chuckled. “I think you’re mistaken. Perhaps he drove them far enough away that you could not sense them. You cannot destroy ghosts. They are the manifestation of our souls in between our plane of existence and the afterlife. You know this.”
“No, I saw it, Grandfather. In his rage, his spirit-energy began to release from his body. It allowed him to touch them. The sheer power of it…I saw…I felt them cease to be. They are gone forever.”
“I’ve-I’ve never even heard of that. I mean, theoretically it’s possible, but the level of power required would be unfathomable,” he muttered, stroking his beard. “You are sure of this?”
“I am.”
“I need to consult some of my peers. I’ll have Hilda bring me The Soul Manual and Reygon’s Afterlife Compendium,” he muttered to himself, gathering materials from his desk.
He paused at the door and looked back. “I think I felt it. I thought it was merely my old age, you understand, but I felt the cries out into the ether. It sent a shock wave throughout the spirit world.”
Jessica gently closed the door behind her as she entered Sverre’s room. He’d insisted on staying there to receive treatment instead of the medical ward in the barracks. Difficult as usual.
Nurse Gon smiled when Jessica entered. The nurse looked over at Sverre, removed his chart from the wall and exited the room.
“Amazing recuperative abilities,” she commented to Jessica as she left.
Jessica sat on the edge of the bed. Sverre looked at her, then glanced away.
“I’m sorry I reacted that way, Sverre. I know it must have been hard for you. I really do appreciate what you did.”
He turned toward her, his countenance softening. “I know. I just don’t know what came over me. Seeing you there, in danger…it’s like this feeling poured out from deep inside. Those things were hurting someone I cared about, and I wanted them gone. I snapped.”
“I understand. It’s part of what you are. What makes you special. The souls of all those warriors who have lost loved ones or faced injustice in the world drive you. Your own nature is akin to theirs. You see the pain and hate in the world and want to do something about it. Many good people do. In your case, you have extraordinary abilities that may have…consequences.”
“I don’t care about the consequences. People — things like those do not deserve life or pity. There are so few good things in this world, and then there are those who just want to corrupt or snuff them out…” His fists clenched as the monitoring devices in the room started beeping.
“Calm, just calm. Find your focus,” she whispered.
He looked at her again and smiled. The machines quieted.
“Sverre, I don’t know if you realize what has happened. You’ve taken some of the basic building blocks of reality, souls, and…removed them. Those people may have had a chance at redemption or something in the afterlife. We don’t fully know what the afterlife is, except that there is one. Another realm that souls travel to after their time on this plane has run out. Up until today, we had thought souls were immortal. You’ve shown otherwise.”
“I don’t care. They got what they deserved,” he said.
She looked at him with sorrow in her eyes. He couldn’t believe that.
<
br /> “Grandfather will want to discuss this in-depth when you are feeling well. He may want to commune with you to see what the souls within you have to say about this.”
“Fine, whatever,” he said, turning away again.
She put her hand on his arm for a second, then left the room. Once he’d made up his mind about something, it was better to let him simmer.
A few days later, Bilford knocked gently at his door.
“C’mon in, old man,” Sverre called out.
Bilford peeked in around the door. “So, you knew it was me? Did the spirits tell you that?”
Sverre looked away from the video game he was playing. “No, you’re the only one in the building who wears flip-flops,” he said, nodding toward Bilford’s feet.
Bilford looked down and chuckled. “Yes, well, when you get to be my age, you sometimes decide comfort comes before style.”
He sat at the foot of the bed but quickly jerked his hand back from the growl that emanated from under the blanket.
“Watch the hand, or you might lose a pinkie,” Sverre laughed. A lump worked its way up from his feet, and Chewy emerged. He gave Bilford an indignant look and crawled under a pillow.
Bilford laughed again before settling on silence. It was obvious he was trying to find an icebreaker.
“I suppose you’re here to tell me that destroying souls is bad and all that,” Sverre said without turning away from the TV.
“No, I believe you’ve already discovered on your own the severity of that matter,” Bilford answered. “I’m just here to see if there’s anything you’d like to talk about. You’ve barely left your room in days.”
“I’m fine. Not going crazy, except maybe stir-crazy,” Sverre replied.
“You can leave any time you want. The doctor has given you the okay. You’re completely healed, despite the fractures and lacerations you had days ago. One benefit of being what you are. So…is there any reason you haven’t associated with anyone since you’ve gotten back?”
“You’d think I was one of the bad guys from the looks I’ve been getting from some of my visitors,” Sverre responded.
Bilford thought for a moment. “She’ll come around, m’boy. You have to understand, she’s not used to being saved. Needless to say, she’s never seen anything like what occurred that night. It’s shaken her faith a bit. You know how important that is to her, even if she doesn’t discuss it.”
Sverre put his controller down. “I don’t understand what happened that night, Bilford. I don’t understand why I slept through that creature attacking. I’m supposed to have these keen warrior senses, and they didn’t do jack.”
“From the reports, it looks like it was a rather sophisticated trap. While the group slept, spirits slowly drained the energy from your perimeter defenses, leaving them inactive. Several of them entered your dream state, attempting to steal your body while you slept. I believe they were attracted to the most powerful members in your group, so most of them focused on you. Your innate souls were confused by this invasion, not knowing how to handle these interlopers. It took a few minutes for them to organize a defensive mechanism, but you were likely comatose, unable to wake while this happened. Meanwhile, the group was attacked by both unseen poltergeists and the abomination that the caretaker had become — I think I’m going to call it a Multigeist. Poor Maggy was killed in her sleep at the start of the ambush. The fight spilled out into the hall, down into the room below. With the equipment drained and Casca left in the camp, Jessica didn’t have an effective weapon against ethereal enemies.”
“She put up a good fight, but the spirits could hold her while she couldn’t touch them,” Sverre confirmed.
“Normally, you wouldn’t be able to touch them, either. Yet you did. How did you do that?” Bilford asked.
“When she was in danger, I felt this power flowing into me. I could sort of see the ghosts. It’s like my vision shifted into another spectrum. And then I could feel them.”
“I believe you siphoned spiritual energy from the souls within you, shrouding yourself in their power, letting you affect the attacking poltergeists. Very few can do that. It usually takes years of training just to be able to see them. Yet your concern for others allowed you to do so instantly, even unaware of what you were doing at the time.”
“I don’t know. I just knew that Jessica needed my help,” Sverre answered.
“You care for her, and she cares for you. In our line of work, this can be a strength, or…a liability. We are an organization built upon the human spirit, for the success of our species. Nothing is more paramount to those objectives than love and sacrifice,” Bilford explained. “She misses you, even if she would never admit it. You’ve been a good friend to her.”
“I think that’s all I’ll ever be to her,” Sverre lamented.
“That may well be. Or not. You never know. Just be there for each other, and who knows what could develop over time? Jessica is not one to depend on others. If nothing romantic develops, a good friend is still to be cherished.”
“I’ll talk to Jess later,” Sverre said, picking the game controller back up. Bilford rose to leave the room.
“Bilford?” Sverre asked, mashing the controller buttons furiously.
The old man turned in the doorway. “Yes, m’boy?”
“Umm…thanks.”
Bilford grinned, nodded toward Sverre, and left.
***
Jessica dodged the blade and swung back with the knife in her hand. Her thrust was parried. She responded with a knee that doubled her opponent over. A quick elbow to the back of the head brought her foe down to their knees. She brought the knife down again, into the back of her downed foe. It was as fluid and precise as clockwork — one might say predictable.
“You’ll never get any better playing with that toy,” Sverre said.
Jessica looked down at the sparring droid she’d dispatched. “It’s programmed with the abilities of several of the top swordsmen and fencers in our database,” she responded.
“You practically know its every move,” he remarked, grabbing a sparring sword from the wall. “You need a live opponent.”
“I don’t recall asking for assistance,” she retorted, grabbing a towel from the floor.
The training droid slowly rose, then asked, “Is the training session over, Master Stalker Luvkrafft?”
“Yes. Head back to the repair bay,” she said, turning her back on Sverre and the droid.
Her statement was followed by a loud clack. The training droid’s head rolled past her. She turned in surprise. “Do you know how long it takes to repair the heads on those?” she asked Sverre.
“Not my problem,” he said, bringing his sword up to replicate the same pose she’d used the night they met.
“Maybe some other time, Sverre. I’m tired, and you need to rest up after your injuries.”
Her statement was followed by a stinging sensation as Sverre smacked her rear with the flat of his sword and jumped backward, smiling.
Her face instantly flushed red. “That’s it!” she screamed and spun around, flinging her knife at Sverre. Startled, he deftly dodged it. Another few inches, and it would have struck him in a rather tender area. Unlike his training blade, this blade was the real thing.
“Whoa, watch it!” he cried, looking at the blade embedded in the mirrored wall behind him. The mirror hadn’t shattered. It wasn’t glass, as he’d expected. Suddenly, he was on his back as Jessica swept his legs and put her other blade to his neck.
“Hard to escape death at this range, isn’t it?” she taunted.
Sverre was startled by the speed and viciousness of her attack. He’d only been playing around, but she didn’t seem to be.
Jessica leaned hard against his throat with her blade. The weight of her body pushed down on his, making movement difficult. “I guess even super-humans can be brought down with simple methods when surprise is used. No flippant comment? No jokes?” she asked, leaning closer. Her hair brushed acros
s his face gently.
“Um, Jess, could you get off of me?” he said.
“That’s really pathetic! I was expecting some sort of long-lost Greco-Roman wrestling move, yet you ask for me to let you up,” she laughed. Sverre simply stared at her chest as her mocking continued.
She looked at his eyes, following his gaze to her chest, then slapped him. She rose.
“I’m not sure I can work with you if this continues.”
“You can’t tell me you don’t feel anything for me, Jess,” he prodded.
“We are friends, and that’s it. Even if a stray thought slips in now and then, it doesn’t change that. Your cavalier attitude will get someone else killed.”
“Else? Wait, you are blaming me for Maggy?” Sverre asked, incredulous.
“No, no. I’m not. Grandfather says there was nothing you could do about that. We couldn’t wake you, Sverre. I thought you were dead. We needed you, and you weren’t there. Your attitude that night was deplorable. What we do isn’t a game. I’ve seen many people die doing this. You have to take this seriously.”
“I was like…being held in dream space or something, Jess. I couldn’t wake up! I helped you in the end! Is that what this is about? Is that why you just tried to neuter me?”
“Don’t play coy, Sverre. Your reaction time is forty percent faster than the velocity of that blade I threw.”
“I just got out of medical treatment!”
“Maybe you should have stayed there.”
“The enemies in my game are friendlier than this!” he exclaimed.
Jessica stared at Sverre a moment, analyzing him. “You know, it is impossible to take you seriously. I have no idea when you are joking or telling the truth.”
“Yeah, well…it’s hard for me to tell the difference most of the time, too,” he said, sitting down. She came over and sat in front of him.
“I know you probably don’t feel the same way, but I see you and just…I can’t help the way I feel about you,” he said.
“I think you’re a decent person as well,” she offered.
“Ugh, that sounds like the lead-in to ‘we can be great friends,’” he said, grimacing.