Ghostlover Ch. 01

Jane occasionally read Literotica, and when she read "Ghostlover Ch. Zero", a bell rang.

"John, there is a real problem with this story!"

"Darling, it's just a ghost story."

"I'm afraid not. Can ghosts change their sizes, or the size of their body parts?"

"Ghosts are fictional beings. Authors can endow them with whatever characteristic they like."

"John, a literary tradition may be as binding as a handbook of biology. There isn't much leeway for the authors of a ghost story.

Apparently, ghosts preserve the semblance of the dead, and cannot sire with women – if they do, they employ human semen wilily collected, and the children aren't the ghosts' exact replicas, but resemble their human parents."

"Perhaps the author of the story was so reckless as to write a ghost story without reading any beforehand."

"Good point, but the five ghosts there described seem shapeshifters like me, who took on Paul's identity, and for whatever reason, decided to have sex with Elizabeth."

"Hmm ... a question unrelated to that story: did you mean that shapeshifters like you may sire with women, but the offspring will be their exact replica?"

"No. I didn't say that. Shapeshifters like me neither sire nor bear – they actually don't reproduce. They are the offspring of something which can be compared to a Queen Ant, and are themselves sterile.

Since they are nearly immortal, sterility isn't a big problem; and, as you have seen, our society is opener than an anthill – and probably than most human societies."

"Thanks, but ... if shapeshifters like you are sterile, how could the lesser Pauls and Paulas have been born by Elizabeth?"

"They, so to say, ... came out of the closet. The pregnancy was simulated, and allowed them to appear and join the orgies between Paul and Elizabeth.

I was 'born' in a similar way: not all human zygotes successfully implant in the womb, and I replaced one of these; as it was a female embryo, I took on a female body and adhered to the feminine gender."

"Are you shapeshifters so oversexed as to join whatever orgy they come across?"

"Darling ... you know that we are as sexed as the partner we pick up. And the more partners we get, the more sexed we become in order to please them all.

Therefore, I think that it was Elizabeth the oversexed, and the Pauls simply pleased her.

The problem is ... why did they take on the identity of a ghost, and did they eventually become Elizabeth's lovers?"

"Hmm ... what does the Queen Ant say?"

"What should she say?"

"Human technology allows people going abroad to stay in touch with the authorities of their country, and ask for rescue. Isn't it the same for you?"

"We communicate telepathically, so if we are in real trouble we can be rescued in the blink of an eye.

If the five 'ghosts' of the story actually are shapeshifters, they haven't asked for rescue so far; but I know that five shapeshifters were part of an inquiry team on ... ghosts."

"Tout se tient ... human scientists sometimes concoct the very subject they are supposed to study."

"Nonsense. It have been they who have proved that ghosts are fictional.

Something else has happened, and we must discover what."

"Perhaps we should first trace the author of the story – and I'm nearly certain that Literotica webmasters won't help us – and perhaps cannot."

"You're right, but there is another way to act. I don't think that there are plenty of women named Elizabeth, born in 1876, dead in 1978 after bearing 30 children, in Scotland.

Even if some details have been altered, we should be able to trace her."

"How do you know that she was Scottish?"

"Paul studied in an Edinburgh boarding school. Even though Tony Blair studied there, the Fettes College isn't Eton.

Can you book two seats in the next plane to Edinburgh?"

"Why just two? Won't Veronica come with us?"

"She doesn't like Scotland very much, and she has already agreed to replace us as the janitor of the Astarte Nunnery while we are abroad."

"Ok, so we will save some money. But, before going overseas, we should do some research to ascertain that the 'memories of Elizabeth' are factual, not fictional. The Web could be a good starting point."

Jane did that, and discovered that a woman named Elizabeth really lived in Scotland between 1876 and 1978, and had 30 children; moreover, she discovered (after a few e-mails and paying for the costs of archival research) the boarding school Paul studied in.

John was convinced, and they flew to Edinburgh, where they rented a camper, so they could make love anywhere along their route.

John asked, "Why are we driving straight towards Elizabeth's house? Wouldn't it be better to contact her kin before?"

"What if either the cistern doesn't actually exist or Paul's corpse has already been recovered and properly buried?

Better not to disturb Elisabeth's kin in these cases."

After a few hours' trip, they reached Elizabeth's maiden house. It was a two-story building that had once hosted a farm, and now hosted a fashionable golf club, incorporated as a PLC.

"PLC?" wondered John in amazement, "It's unlikely that a family enterprise has been incorporated as a Public Limited Company".

"Right. We'd better look up the local Chamber of Commerce archives," Jane replied, and they actually showed that the PLC was incorporated in 1980, in 1981 it bought the farm from Elizabeth's heirs, and in 1984, after extensive rebuilding and landscaping, the golf course was opened to the public.

"The body must have been found then," John said, "We better stop searching and enjoy the trip."

"No, darling," Jane replied, "before coming to Scotland I also read the digitalized old issues of the local newspaper, and I found no news of the retrieval of a corpse here for two centuries. Perhaps we should look up the Scottish Land Registry records."

John demurred, "We've already spent a lot of money doing archival research; we are now on the spot, and perhaps we should look at the actual reality in front of us, and not at the way it has been interpreted and written down.

In a word, perhaps we should survey the estate – not just read what archives say about it." Jane agreed, and they found a way to legally enter the club – buying a couple tickets for a golf competitive round due the next afternoon.

John didn't love golf, but Jane was able to survey the course and ascertain that no cistern was there; but an old building, which might have been a poultry pen once upon a time, was just beyond the course border.

She asked about it to the club janitor, who answered, "It was once part of the farm, but before our rebuilding and landscaping, a group of five people forked up quite a lot of money to buy it and the neighboring courtyard."

"Did they pay in cash?" Jane asked, and the janitor answered, "Right! The owners were astonished at that, and talked about it for weeks, but the law of the time didn't forbid them to accept the money."

"How could I meet these people?"

"They meet there on Sundays for a kind of religious rite. Nobody is allowed but them, but you could talk to them after the rite."

All pieces fell into place in Jane's thought: the five buyers were most likely the shapeshifters who once impersonated Elizabeth's ghost lovers; shapeshifters prefer to pay by cash (and if they operate in countries in which a piece of ID is required to open a bank account, they may have no choice); and the only reason a group of people may overpay a poultry pen and its surroundings is to conceal a secret.

"John," Jane latter asked his husband, "Would you like to park the camper in front of the poultry pen until Sunday?"

"Until tomorrow morning? Ok."

John filled the tanks and parked the camper in sight of the poultry pen, which had been turned into a house surrounded by a high wall. The gate had a tiny hole which allowed Jane to peep into and see the manhole of an old cistern in the courtyard.

She also felt that the premises were fenced in a way only a shapeshifter like her could detect – it was the equivalent of the tape marked "Police line – do not cross," but in this case it meant "Scientific research # *******-551.5-4 underway – do not interfere."

The number "551.5" implied that it was a research on meteorology, and the number "4" that only experts could raise objections; but it was customary to write a false subject number in order to deceive less knowledgeable people – in a word, an expert could prove his competence by inferring the right subject number from the limited info available to the general public.

Jane contacted the Queen Ant proposing to change the subject number from 551.5 to 133 (necromancers), and the Queen Ant let her contact the director in charge of the inquiry.

"Hi, Jane," he said, "What's the matter with this scientific research?"

"Humans know that necromancy doesn't work. How much time have you already spent in such a fruitless pursuit?"

"To refute necromancy, we need about forty years' worth of statistics. Humans have never attempted that."

"Sir, we can only make inquiries with little chance of success when the dignity of nobody is in jeopardy. When there is such jeopardy, only inquiries whose likelihood of success is prima facie millions of times greater than yours could be approved – and if the success doesn't materialize soon, they are interrupted."

"What's the being whose dignity is being hurt, Jane?"

"Paul, the dead. He's awaiting burial since 1894, it's high time he gets it."

"He's dead, so his time preference is zero. Being buried in 1894, now, or in 2021 makes no difference for him."

"But as a live man he wanted being buried as soon as he was clearly dead."

"Humans say that Paul's right to burial may be balanced against other interests – for example, to forward science. Human doctors perform autopsies, thus delaying burial, in order to learn more about the causes of death."

"You're right, but autopsies are far more successful than necromancy, and they don't benefit just the doctor.

For example, if somebody is murdered, the autopsy proves that and points to the murderer, it prevents him from gaining from the murder and ensures him punishment.

Autopsies may avenge unjust death – they don't just satisfy the doctor's scientific curiosity."

"Organ transplant is a way a human corpse is used to benefit the living, and not every transplant is successful."

"Explantation is only performed on people who assented to it during life. Organ transplant is not a kind of legalized robbery, but a highly prized gift.

Paul didn't assent to be used for necromancy, did he?"

"No, he didn't."

"Why did the five researchers impersonate Paul's ghosts? The stole his identity."

"You must have noticed that Elizabeth's farm isn't far from a castle renowned for its works of art – and its presumed ghosts.

When Paul was killed and thrown into the cistern, the researchers thought that a ghost was about to issue from him, and watched him closely for a week.

Then they realized that ghosts didn't exist – they saw none in the castle, and Paul didn't bring forth one.

They felt pity for Paul and for his girlfriend Elizabeth, and wanted her to know what had happened to him, and bury him."

"But they didn't take into account that disclosing her that he had caught a venereal disease would have led her to deny him burial – and to conceal her father's murder.

Now you know why humans think that lots of details about one's life should be kept private."

By the way ... how did they know that Paul had caught syphilis?"

"You must already know the answer: they were able to read Paul's engrams – his memory as a collection of data stored in his brain – before rot began.

Not only did they learn about his health, but also about his biography and personality. Impersonating him thereafter was, as humans love to say, a child's play."

"I don't think they'd behaved correctly towards Elizabeth."

"They wanted Paul to be properly buried, Elizabeth to mourn him, and ... to learn how a human would react to a ghost, if he or she would see one for real.

Elizabeth's reaction was quite unexpected, and they found worthwhile to keep studying her behavior until her demise."

"That's why I didn't find any info about this part of the inquiry – it was classified under the heading 'Psychology' in lieu of 'Pneumatology'."

"Yes. Had you guessed that, you would have learnt what I'm telling you without coming to Scotland."

"I'll be more careful. But the researchers lied to her, and for 86 years.

What did they do after her death?"

"Necromancy books say that the most suitable corpses are the ones of people who have died young and have been really disappointed after death.

Paul was multiply disappointed – killed young, insulted and hidden by his murderer; his surviving fiancé refused to bury him and was ready to find solace at the hands (so to say) of five 'ghosts' impersonating him even in bed; after the death of Elizabeth, her kin disbelieved her and didn't even try and search her estate before selling it.

It seemed to be a perfect candidate for necromancy, and in 1981 we began experimenting with him."

"What are the results so far?"

"Pretty well disappointing. The inquiry is due to end in 2021."

"What's your opinion on the immortality of the soul?"

"We have been observing humans for twenty-six centuries, and haven't been able to prove the existence of the soul so far."

"The actual existence of ghosts and the effectiveness of necromancy are based on the belief that there is actually a soul. If you can't prove that, you can't prove that necromancy works. No experiment was needed – just formal logic sufficed.

You're wasting time and resources in a fruitless pursuit, and hurting the dignity of a being who once upon a time was alive, and desired to receive a funeral after death.

Such a desire can be construed in all humans – and there is no reason to think that death nullifies the will of a person."

"I understand. But there is a problem – the promises of necromancy were so big that the five researchers were promised that the inquiry won't end before 2021.

If I were you, I'd wait another 13 years before burying Paul."

"You're crazy – or you fear being held accountable for approving flawed research, and for hurting the dignity of a sentient being."

"13 years are next to naught in the life of nearly immortal beings like us, or of one already dead like Paul."

"You don't understand. Continuing the research until its due end would imply that Paul or any other being can be sacrificed for the sake of science – even though science itself can gain nothing from their sacrifice.

Stopping that research, even just a second before its natural end, would prove that this is not the way we inquiry about the universes beyond ours, and that the dignity of their inhabitants is prized by us.

I'll appeal your decision before the Higher Ethical Committee."

"You won't succeed; by the way, you are enjoined not to disrupt the experiments, so you may not try and enter the property."

"I may not," Jane mulled, "But John can."

The next morning John waited for the five shapeshifters, dressed like business men, to assemble at the property gate, and introduced himself as a metapsychics enthusiast who had read an article the local newspaper had devoted to them a few years ago.

"Dear sir, we have a rite to perform," one of the shapeshifters answered, "Would you be so kind as to interview us later?"

"Could I watch your rite?"

"Why not?"

So John saw that the five shapeshifters sat around the cistern manhole, tracing circles around it, around themselves, and around him, telling him, "These circles are for our protection. Don't venture out of yours until the rite has ended."

After that, the shapeshifters began warbling ancient spells in several languages; when they stopped, one of the shapeshifters said, "You can get out of the circle."

"Has anything happened during the rite?" John asked, and one of the researchers replied, "We should read the recordings of the instruments in the house to answer your question.

It takes about a week to do that – that's why we are performing the rite weekly and not daily."

"You've sung some lines from ancient necromancy books," John noticed, "Are you necromancers?"

"No. We are using these formulae because we think that they're effective even if they aren't recited upon a tomb.

Actually, ancient necromancers borrowed them from sources unrelated to their activity."

John bade farewell to them, entered the camper and let Jane listen to the tape recorder in which the shapeshifters' words were recorded.

"Wonderful!" Jane said.

"Not at all," John replied, "They haven't admitted to their actions."

"John, even if they had confessed criminal acts, they would have flown to our universe before being apprehended.

Your tape recording witnesses that the shapeshifters have lied to you, therefore they are ashamed of what they're doing – and will be challenged by the Higher Ethical Committee.

The inquiry assumptions were that necromancy could be performed without violating human laws – but their lie shows that their actions are questionable at least."

The recording was forwarded to the Higher Ethical Committee, which therefore convened in the courtyard and summoned the five researchers, the inquiry director, Jane and John.

The head of the HEC proclaimed, "This is the first time we convene outside our universe, but since one of the witnesses, John, may not survive there, we had to convene in his planet and don the bodies, dresses and wigs of human judges in order to inspire reverence in him.

Let's talk the director of the research being challenged first."

"I'm only going to say that no living being is being hurt in this research. The man we're using for our experiment, Paul, has left no surviving relatives (the last of them died in 1956), so nobody is crying for him.

His corpse hasn't been damaged or defaced in any way, and at the end of the research, due in 2021, we'll have him found by the police and buried."

Jane replied, "Human laws say that, if you know where is a dead body, and it isn't in a cemetery, you should promptly inform the police.

The researchers didn't do that, and entered into a slippery slope, stealing Paul's identity, deceiving Elizabeth, and now using him for a research on necromancy which may not succeed.

We should stop this folly – the researchers' lies prove that they are aware that their behavior is indefensible."

"What would humans think of us if we persevere?", the HEC chief asked, and John answered, "Since I'm human, I can say that the whole humankind would sneer at you, because so intelligent beings as you proved unable to discern factual from fictional human writings.

Moreover, they may think that you're ready to sacrifice anybody, any human being, dead or alive, for the sake of science. Humans have worked very hard to prevent being so abused by their fellow humans, and they won't like to fear being mistreated by beings like you, against which they have no defense."

"Is there a way to stop the experiment and save our face, to borrow a human expression?", the HEC asked.

"The best way is to let the police find the corpse," John answered.

"What was your plan to have the corpse retrieved in 2021?," the HEC chief asked the research director, who in turn answered, "To have the cistern collapse. The corpse should then become visible."

The HEC members deliberated in a room, and after a few minutes they announced that the experiment was to stop, and that Paul would have been retrieved by the police within next Friday.

The HEC, the five researchers and their directors would immediately come back to their universe; Jane would arrange things in order to have Paul found and buried.