Spirit

by Charmaine Ross

  “Maybe it was put there intentionally. Who would have done that?” I asked

  “Only me,” Elliot said.

  I sat straighter, leaning forward, “You must have put it there for a reason, or remembered it on a subconscious level in any way. Open it up. See what’s in it.”

  Elliot pulled his chair to the desk and opened the notebook. The first page was a hand-drawn diagram of the ruby that was now around my neck. Focussed on the tapered end of the gem was a shining light. The light seemed to glow from within the ruby. Lines had been drawn extending out from the flat top of the ruby to an oval. Beneath the diagram were hastily scratched words that I couldn’t read. I leaned forward trying to see them. “The Light-Stream Portal,” Elliot murmured, as though sensing my thoughts.

  “Do you know what that is?”

  “Of course he knows what it is,” drawled a voice.

  Startled, I spun around and my stomach hit my feet.

  Sam aimed the wrong end of a gun past my shoulder to Elliot. I glanced behind me and saw Elliot already had his hand around one of the rifles. He spread his fingers and laid them on the desk, but not too far from the guns that he couldn’t pick them up quickly if he needed to.

  “How did you find us?” Elliot all but growled.

  “Where else could you go? You like familiar territory. Working so close to you over the years, I got to know the way you think. Even a stretch of eighty years hasn’t made you any different,” Sam added with a smirk.

  I just wanted Sam to go. Leave us on our own. He was torturing Elliot. The look of anger and betrayal on Elliot’s face was palpable. I flattened my hand against my chest as a faint stab of heat touched my skin between my breasts. As though the ruby had sparked. Flickering into life. Feeding off this betrayal.

  “Why are you doing this to Elliot? He was your partner. He would have done anything for you,” I said.

  Sam’s black eyes found mine. They were dull and blank. As though all the life had been taken out of him. Or any goodness that might have prevailed after his death. There was no compassion. No humanity. Was that what this world did to people over time? Took away anything that made them good. It was as though their very souls had been changed here. Twisted. When a man looked at you like that I knew that no amount of talking would ever appeal to their compassionate side. There was no compassionate side.

  The ruby was throbbing with heat now, so hot I barely was able to keep it against my skin.

  “And he did do what I wanted him to do. He died. Made the ultimate sacrifice for our cause. Now he’s back to do more work for me, just the way I want him to. If he’s a good boy, he’ll remember exactly what he promised. He’ll deliver today what he didn’t decades ago.”

  “The Portal,” Elliot gasped. “You want me to open the Portal.”

  I swung around, “You remember something?”

  Elliot’s eyes glinted as he clenched his teeth. He’d remembered all right. And I knew from the look on his face that it wasn’t good. It was something he’d been willing to die and take with him to the grave to protect.

  “Give the boy ten points. Bravo. You’ve got it.” Sam smiled, but there was no warmth in it. “I knew bringing you here would jog your memory.”

  “I’m not going to do it. There’s no telling what will happen if it’s opened. It could mean the total destruction of everything. You know that’s what could happen.” A muscle worked at Elliot’s jaw. His fingers twitched fractionally. I blinked, sure that his hand was closer to the rifle than it had been a moment before. Elliot didn’t look at me, giving any indication of what he was doing, he kept his eyes riveted to Sam.

  Sam sighed, “And yet that’s a chance I’m willing to take. I knew you were going to say that. Always the hero, aren’t you, Elliot? The golden boy. The goody-two-shoes detective. Could never steer you off the track. Too moral. That’s your fault, Elliot. And your ultimate destruction. If only you could turn a blind eye here and there. You would have had a good, long life. And your wife would have, too. That’s why I’m going to shoot her now.” Sam turned the gun to me. There was an explosion and pain ripped through my shoulder. There was a scream I vaguely recognised as mine. I was thrown against the back seat of the chair and collapsed onto the floor with the force of the bullet. I blinked and Elliot was at my side, arm beneath my shoulders, hand over the source of the fire in my shoulder.

  I couldn’t move, couldn’t think. There were no words. Silence stole sound from my ears. I rode the wave of pain. My lungs unlocked and I gasped in a noisy lungful of air. Sound and vision returned. I was aware of Elliot shouting my name, warmth over my shoulder, hot wetness sticking my clothes, to my skin. Elliot’s scared eyes finding mine.

  I held onto his gaze, drawing myself away from the black waves of unconsciousness threatening to engulf me. My jaw ached as I clenched my teeth, willing myself not to go under. I focussed on Elliot’s face, his voice, and the love I found there.

  “I’m okay,” I repeated, my voice weak and shaky as the world slowly filtered back.

  “You bastard!” Elliot growled up at Sam.

  He shrugged, “Had to be done. She shot one of our lads. Just payback as far as I see it.”

  “You didn’t have to shoot her.”

  “The next bullet is going through her brain if you don’t do what we want.”

  “You know what will happen if she dies here,” Elliot whispered.

  Sam sneered, “Better do what we want then, hey?”

  “What will happen to me, Elliot” I whispered. Elliot’s fingers clenched against my skin. I could all but feel the twisted, tortured thoughts racing through his mind. I could tell what Sam wanted him to do was bad. Very bad. They’d gone to great lengths to get to him and now it seemed as though they finally had.

  “Tell me.” The way he looked at me, I knew it was going to be bad.

  Elliot swallowed and a look of deep regret crossed his features. “If you die in the Grey-Mists…you will…cease to exist.”

  I wanted so badly for Elliot not to be here. If I wasn’t here…if I hadn’t insisted on coming to find Laura with him…he still might have a chance of surviving and finding Laura. And Laura might have had a chance with Elliot. Now because of my stupidity, I’d compromised the two people I loved more than life itself. Elliot had made it through decades of nothingness to be pulled right back to where it all started. He’d died to escape it. Hopelessness made me sob.

  Elliot gently clasped my hand. Even now he was trying to reassure me. I’d forgotten I was clutching the burning ruby at my throat until he squeezed my hand around it. The heat was so intense it burnt my skin. I fumbled with my dress, releasing the ruby from against my skin.

  The gem glowed a deep, blood red that pulsated outwards and then merged back into the stone, making it glow brighter inside. There was a sparkle of light around the tip of the stone. The sparkles merged until a thin beam of pure white light touched me where the ruby had nestled between my breasts.

  A warm heat hummed in my chest. It seemed to have a purpose. Seemed alive with intention. As though it wanted what I wanted. The ruby pulsated, growing hotter and brighter.

  Elliot moved so that he blocked Sam from my sight. “The Portal,” Elliot whispered. “You’re doing it, Cassie. You’re making it work!”

  “What am I doing?”

  “Saying your last good-byes? How touching,” Sam stepped into my line of vision. His eyes snapped to the glowing ruby. There was shock, then intent across his features. Uttering a curse, he raised the pistol at me, finger pressing on the trigger.

  The ruby seemed to splinter into a million pieces, throwing off an intense light shining directly onto Sam. He screamed, but his voice became muffled as though he yelled through a tunnel. The gun he held elongated, the nozzle being drawn into the light.

  His arm extended as the gun was drawn towards the light. He turned, grappling to get away, but the pull of the light was too intense. He fell to the ground, feet slipping, but it was a futile eff
ort. Whatever the light was, it was far too strong for him.

  He turned towards the light, terror taking hold of his face, “No! Make it stop Elliot. You’re the only one who knows how to. I’ll tell you how to get out of this place. It was all Black John’s plan. He made me kill you. I had no choice otherwise he would have killed me.” His feet distended, beginning to be sucked into the tunnel of light.

  “You could have come to me. I would have helped you,” Elliot said.

  “He’s mad. You can see that. He wants to be king. This place is not enough for him. He wants to take over the Earth.” Sam twisted onto his stomach, fingers biting into the ground, but his entire body was slipping into the light. He fought a losing battle.

  “Make one last deed be your best then. Make sure the next life you’re going to is a good one. Tell me where my sister is,” I said.

  Sam’s crazed gaze locked onto mine, “The Manchester Unity Building. It’s Black John’s headquarters. The basement. I don’t know in which room, but she’s there.”

  Sam was now waist deep into the light, fighting with everything he had to free himself. I tried shutting down the Portal, but I didn’t have a clue how I’d started it, let alone stop it. “I can’t make it stop, Sam!”

  Elliot reached for him but there was no way he could stop the power of the light. Elliot was thrown back, propelled away. He landed on his back next to me. We were helpless to do anything but watch. The light had too much power. It wanted Sam. I felt its intention through the tail of light that connected it and me.

  “No! No! God! No!” Sam was no longer coherent. He looked over his shoulder, his mouth gaped open, eyes widened. His scream was unearthly, his anguish shattering right through me. He disappeared before my eyes and I heard him screaming over and over again, each scream wrenched from him as though he were facing a thousand deaths until the Portal disappeared and the ruby became a normal innocuous gem resting in my hand again.

  Chapter Nine

  “What. Just. Happened.” I panted, trying like mad to get my heart-rate under control.

  “Cassie, keep still. I need to look at your shoulder.”

  At the mention of my shoulder, a sharp pain stabbed through me from the wound. I gasped and grabbed my shoulder, feeling hot, sticky blood on my palm. I blinked to clear my vision, clenched my teeth to think straight.

  “We need to get the bleeding under control.” Already my voice was weak and shook uncontrollably.

  “Let me move your hand. That’s a girl.” He gently moved my fingers from the wound, trying not to hurt me any more than he had to. He checked behind my shoulder, “Went right through. I’ll stem the blood.”

  “I hope they’re doing the same at the hospital.” From experience, whatever happened to me in the Grey-Mists, also happened to my body back on the Earth Plane.

  “Your mother will take good care of you,” Elliot said. He laid me gently on the ground and went over to his cabinet where he took out what looked like a medical box. He set it beside me and took out a bottle.

  “My mother will be going insane.”

  Elliot pursed his lips and nodded, “She will.”

  Mum would be beside herself. This was her worst nightmare and I was serving it up on a platter to her. She’d be feeling hopeless and useless and I knew exactly how she felt.

  “At least she’s at the hospital. Hopefully,, the staff will be able to deal with a spontaneous bullet wound. Explanations might be a bit harder.”

  “They will keep your body safe and alive. All I have to do is the same for your soul,” Elliot murmured. “I’m sorry, Cassie. I have to disinfect the wound. It will sting. Are you ready?”

  I nodded and clenched my teeth. He poured the contents of the bottle onto my wound. Heat seared through me. Perspiration broke out on my body as the disinfectant wreaked havoc on the open wound. As Elliot worked, he spoke to me. I didn’t know what he said, but I concentrated on his soothing tones. He handled me gently, his touch tender and caring. Finally, he helped me into the chair and offered me two white tablets.

  “Aspirin. I know it’s not much, but it will help.”

  He handed me two tablets. I put them in my mouth and took the bottle he offered. I swallowed the tablets down with a swig. I gasped as heat melted and soothed my throat at the same time, “What is this?” I gagged.

  “Whiskey. It’s the only thing I have here.”

  I nodded, and in fact, I was grateful. It wasn’t the best thing to take with aspirin, but the heat in my stomach was quickly spreading through my system, washing some outer pain away. I took another long swig, enjoying the soothing heat it provided.

  Elliot knelt in front of me, his hands on my knees, “I need to get you back to your body, Cassie. You are seriously injured and your cord is fading. I know you care about Laura, but you are a priority too. I will come back for her once you’re safe. I promise.”

  “No, Elliot, I’m not going. I have to save Laura.” Tears stung my eyes. I couldn’t leave without my sister. Not without Laura. My throat clogged tight, “I don’t think I can live with myself if she doesn’t come back. Or you. What if you can’t get back? What if we can’t get out? What if you get back in and then both of you are stuck here?” There were too many questions and they danced endlessly in my head.

  Elliot squeezed my knees, “I know a way you can get back to your body.”

  “How? It’s impossible.”

  “The Light-Steam Portal can do it,” Elliot said, his voice flat.

  “What is it? I’ve never heard of it. What does it do, other than make men disappear?”

  Elliot sighed. He sank to the floor, resting his back on the cabinets, elbows on upturned knees. “The portal is an inter-dimensional doorway opening into several realities.”

  I gasped, “Whoa. How...why...what?”

  He ran a hand over his face, suddenly looking very tired, “I remember, Cassie. When you opened the Portal through the ruby just then, I remembered all of it. Why I risked my life. What I fought for. And it’s nothing you’d ever guess could be possible.”

  “You’ve remembered? Just like that?”

  “I didn’t just remember, my mind exploded back to me. Everything. I remember everything.” He sounded so, so tired. I wanted to bring him into my arms, but I couldn’t move from the chair. Invisible weights had settled on the ends of my hands and feet, which were getting heavier by the moment.

  I was almost too afraid to ask. By the look he gave me, I knew this was going to be big. The only explanation I could conceive about why he forgot about his life, was that it was the only way he could have coped after his death. He was so traumatised that his mind shut down, blocking out everything that he’d suffered.

  I wanted to make everything better for him. I wanted him not to suffer, but he’d suffered enough from not being able to remember anything. My heart bled, but I also knew sometimes to get over the suffering, you had to face it head-on. “Tell me, Elliot. Tell me what happened to you.”

  “I’m not sure if you’re going to believe it. I hardly believe it myself. It all seems so…implausible.”

  I snorted, “I think you’re safe with me.”

  Elliot paused as though trying to work out where he should start, then, “I discovered the ruby and what it could do. By complete accident. I was investigating goods that Black John had stolen. It wasn’t his usual type of haul. He’d normally go after grog, tobacco, anything he could sell on the black market. This time he stole a shipment that was bound for the National Museum. That was something totally out of his league.”

  “The shipment was bound for an ancient Croatian exhibition of burial artifacts. Part of the “World Tour of Religious Icons” that the National Museum was running at the time. Believe me when I say Black John wasn’t a man who’d be interested in items like that, so I dug deeper. The shipment contained religious items that were used to enable the deceased spirit to depart into the next world.”

  “They were centuries old relics before the church
rose to power. They were more pagan than anything else. At the time, they believed that the soul of the departed needed help to get to their next life. They used these relics to help the soul find its way. But it wasn’t just to lead the soul into Heaven or Hell. It was to other realities too.”

  “Like what other realities?” I asked. This was taking such a different path than I could ever imagine.

  “It depended on the life of the person. If they were from a lower cast, they would find their heaven or hell in one quick step, but if they were more spiritual in nature, they were able to proceed past Heaven. Put it this way. The astral world…the Grey-Mists… leads to more places than just Heaven and Hell. The Grey-Mists are just the space between realities. That’s all. A buffer between worlds. You can touch the far reaches of physical and interstellar space, various alternate parallel universes. By opening the Portal, you can interact with other beings and walk into other worlds. Opening a Portal involves an ancient alchemical activity which the ancient Croatians had perfected, but the art had been lost eons ago.”

  “How the hell did you find out how to use it?”

  Elliot sighed and shook his head. “It was pure chance. I went to an old Croatian priest to ask about the ruby, about ancient rituals using the artifacts. He’d studied them and knew about them intimately. Firstly, I wanted to find out how precious it was. Put a cost on Black Johns haul. But the priest was afraid that if a man like Black John knew how to use the stone, he could effectively bring hell to earth. He told me about a very secret group called the Light-Stream Workers which he later introduced me to. We became…very close.”

  “I had to become close to Black John to know what he was planning. Made me out to be a double agent. I’d let some of his hauls go past to make it seem like I was on his side. His plans were too extensive just to bring him in with the small stuff. We had to learn about his entire network, his future plans, everything. I went undercover and joined his ring of thugs to get the other artifacts he was also acquiring. I worked my way through his ranks, very carefully, speaking in the right ears about the ruby and the Light-Stream Workers. I waited for him to seek me out, and he did. Said he wanted to know what I knew and I told him. I had to make it authentic, so I told him all about the Light-Stream Workers. Their secrets. Everything.”