Calypso Slaves - Ghost Story

"Yeah," Amber called from the other side, "I'm fine, I don't see any ghosts, either."

"Do you have all four bones? Pelvic and three straight ones?" Jack asked.

"They're here," Amber said.

"Any of them broken?" Jack asked.

"I...I don't think so," Amber said.

"Good. Get to the cafeteria and set them up," Jack said.

"Jack, I don't think we should leave her alone," Cassie said.

"We're all in danger. Faster we complete the ritual, sooner we're safe. Get to the atrium and set up yours," Jack said. He shifted uneasily on his feet for a moment, then wrapped his arms around Cassie and held her tight. "Be quick. Stay safe," he said, and then released her to jog down the hall with his skull.

"You too," Cassie called after him, and started running the opposite direction. Cassie might not like the plan, but Jack was right. There was no time to argue. Annette did not take long to recover strength.

The lockers began to slam themselves open and shut while Cassie ran through the hall, the rib cage tucked under one arm. She saw a face in the shadows and hammered the trigger on her gun. The face vanished, the lockers behind sparked as bullets tore through them, and Cassie wasn't sure if she'd hit anything or if there'd been anything there to hit.

Cassie fired at the windowed doors at the end of the hall as she approached them. The windows splintered and crumbled and she slowed just a moment to crouch through the frame. The atrium had a fountain in the middle, its waters black as onyx, surrounded by four curved benches that formed a circle. Or perhaps a crosshair.

She set the rib cage down and unpacked the bones, a fearful eye on her surroundings. To one corner she could see the cafeteria. Amber was already inside, looking around fearfully with her weapon drawn. She looked to what should be the other corner of the triangle and saw a classroom with a corridor on the floor above it. The hall was empty, but Cassie could hear the crashing and clanging of objects hitting lockers. A wisp of one of Annette's victims materialized on the upper floor, there were gunshots, the window was shot out and the wisp was hit by a bullet and dissolved into an ethereal fog. Jack ran through the corridor and tore around a corner to some stairs. He appeared in the classroom a moment later, knocking over a desk to make room for the ritual.

Cassie had arrayed the phalanges and stray ribs into the intricate pattern that would abjure the wisps. Jack would be doing the same with the skull and vertebrae, but Cassie couldn't see him once he knelt down to arrange them. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began the ritual chants. The bones began to glow with a pale light. She could feel Amber's chanting as well, vibrating through her bones and echoing into her head. Soon Jack's chants joined them as well.

Cassie could see a flash of white light, not through her closed eyelids but within them, and a half-dozen screams of fury and rage that faded away in seconds. She opened her eyes and got to her feet to look around. The bones were blackened and charred, but Jack and Amber both seemed to be fine. Jack walked through the classroom door and out into the atrium, Cassie began walking towards the cafeteria. And then the doors and blinds on the cafeteria slammed themselves shut.

Cassie sprinted to the cafeteria and tugged at the door. Jack fired a pair of bullets through one of the windows and it shattered, leaving two tiny holes in the blinds. Cassie ran to the blinds and put a finger through one of the holes, then pulled until it ripped wide enough for her to step up to the window frame and through the blinds.

Annette had already backed Amber into a corner near the serving counter, Amber's gun tossed twenty feet aside, and Annette had started beating Amber bloody with a tray. Cassie sprinted towards the two of them while Jack climbed through the window behind her. Annette smacked Amber across the face one last time, a handful of teeth flying out while Amber screamed and sobbed. Then Annette grabbed a butter knife from the utensils cups and shoved it into Amber's eye.

Amber's screams fell silent instantly. Cassie could barely hear while Jack ran past her, leveled his gun with Annette, and fired. Out her peripheral vision she could see Annette stepping backward as the bullets entered her chest, the rage on her face before it dissolved. But she couldn't hear the howl of fury. She could hear, faintly, a decayed voice whispering "I won't go alone."

But mostly, she could see the pain and terror on Amber's mutilated face, her one good eye staring back at Cassie while blood pulsed out of the other.

Cassie was hitched to the ceiling so high that even standing on tiptoe her cuffs dug painfully into her wrists. The whip cut a lot deeper, though, drawing out a gasp and a sob. "I told you specifically not to get any of those three into danger!" Master Enlil said to her, standing opposite her naked body. Mira stood behind her, delivering the blows. The whip didn't cut the deepest, though.

"I'm sorry, Master," Cassie said, head bowed. She could serve up excuses about how he'd technically only told her not to go looking for them, and that since she had stumbled across them herself she had technically followed orders. But Amber wasn't just technically dead.

The whip cut into her back again, and Cassie screamed from the pain. It was up to seven blows already and Cassie wasn't sure when Mira would stop. "How many apologies will it take to bring back the dead?" Enlil asked.

"I...I can't, Master," Cassie said, and then cried out again as the whip split her. Goosebumps had spread out all across her naked skin, legs trembling.

"I trusted you. Ahead of any of the others I trusted you, and the first time, the very first time I let you act without direct oversight you completely ignore one of the very few direct orders I gave you," Enlil said.

"Yes, Master. I'm sorry, Master," Cassie said, and the whip carved into her again, drawing a scream that tapered into a ragged sob. What else was she supposed to say? Enlil's anger cut deeper than the whip. His anger didn't cut the deepest, though.

"Why did you drag them into this?" Enlil asked.

"I...I thought I could keep her safe," Cassie said. Again the whip cut into her and she screamed, tugging against her chains on instinct alone.

"From a poltergeist?" Enlil asked.

"I-I'm sorry, Master," Cassie said, "I swear I really am, I didn't want this to happen. Please...Please let me go back. What's happening to Toluca is my fault, I have to clean it up. I have to, please. I swear on my life I will never disobey you ever again."

"Are you trying to bargain with me, slave?" Enlil asked.

"No, Master," Cassie said, "I am promising you I won't do this ever again. Please. Please let me fix this. I swear I'll do everything you say, exactly how you say it."

Enlil grabbed her chin and pushed her head up to meet his gaze. She swallowed and fought the urge to turn her eyes away. "If anyone is ever so much as bruised as a result of your disobedience again, you will never go back to the surface. Do you understand, cunt?"

"Yes, Master," Cassie said, "thank you, Master."

Enlil dropped her chin and left the room. The door slid shut behind him, and a moment later the lights flicked off, leaving Cassie alone in the holding cell, wrists still hitched so high she struggled to find her footing, alone and sobbing, renewed waves of pain spilling over her with every stray breeze of the ventilation across her tortured back.

But what cut the deepest was that she could still see Amber's face.