Two Lost Souls Ch. 01

Two things were different this time. First, she noticed it was easier to carry John. Second, the ghosts were more solid. It was easier to make them out. The female ghost was still gone, but hopefully that meant Amber was still alive. That left three near her, only one of which she knew from the coma ward. Sam had been the father of three, sideswiped by a drunk driver while heading back from Niagara Falls. The kids had died upon impact. Sam had clung on for months before his wife pulled the plug.

"Sam." She waved him over. "See if you can help lift John."

Sam floated over to her. Silver-streaked tears dripped along hollow eyes and sunken cheeks, collecting on his jaw before dissipating. "Where's the little ones?"

"Sam, John's going to get the little ones. We just need to bring John to them. Can you help me?"

Sam rotated his head in a circle a few times. "But, but I don't seem them. Why?"

Danielle glanced at the glyph hovering before her; bits and pieces of it were dissolving. "Sam, please, I need your help."

"Margret, where are the little ones? I don't see them."

"Sweet, they are just over that hill. Now come help me carry this."

"Oh. Okay." Sam floated over and picked up John's legs. "Why the legs?"

Danielle hefted John's shoulders and dragged them along the trail. In the Twilight, she could see a giant ash tree. Its branches stretched to the heavens, bone white and radiating cold. The trail they were on wound its way towards it, so she kept on in that direction. She tried to get the other ghosts' attention, but in the Twilight, it was as if they'd gained power while she'd lost it. They would drift close to her but get caught up in their own deaths, most of which didn't make any sense. They droned on about being hungry, unable to move, and incapable of understanding why their wives were ignoring them.

Up ahead, the Appalachian Trail curved under the highway and cut back into the wilderness. In the real world, the trail was less wild, and the passage under the bridge didn't look nearly as dark and ominous as it did here. As they approached, something grunted low. Then two glowing, neon-green pinpricks appeared. The bloody, demonic, ape-like demon from the hospital emerged from the darkness. Its body was pockmarked with burns that exposed etched bone and melted muscle. It let out another grunt and limped forward a few more steps. One of its legs wasn't working at all. It heaved both of its massive arms and then kicked off with its one good leg to keep moving.

None of this made sense to her. Chief on her list was one question: how could such a mangled creature reach her all the way out here?

The demon kept grunting and pulling itself closer. She remembered how easily it had torn the limbs off the possessed coma patients, like a child plucking legs off a cockroach. In the Twilight, she couldn't see if the SUV was there or not. She remembered during the first time that only when she was directly on top of a car could she even make it out. Transitory things just didn't translate here. However, given the lead, she assumed the SUV was close. Dragging John through the thick forest wouldn't be feasible either. Danielle looked behind her again and then back at the approaching demon. She hadn't been paying attention to the black glyph. She noticed its absence right before she was dumped back into the real world.

She blinked, flexing her hands, and then whipped around. John wasn't there. Then she jumped back around when someone called out to her.

The man with the hammer was much farther along the trail than she was. The tall man from the hospital was behind him. They had given her much more credit than she deserved. The SUV was parked near Amber's car. Two men in dark suits hovered near the rear with guns pointed at Amber's face. A young girl Danielle didn't recognize was leaning against the side of the SUV. The girl's eyes jumped around everywhere. Danielle was effectively pincered between both groups. She could feel John but couldn't figure out why he hadn't joined her. She clawed at the glyph that would allow her to return to the Twilight, but nothing happened. She screamed.

The man with the hammer continued turning all the way around. "Necromancer, there you are." He completed turning around and widened his stance. He held the massive hammer in both hands before his body. "I find you guilty of all crimes and beyond redemption. Your sentence —" He raised his hammer and hurled it. All along its length runes flared. "— is death."

She was a damn nurse not some warrior. She flinched, crossing her arms over her face. The hammer struck her with the force of a truck. Both of her forearms shattered, flopping down from her face like limp pieces of string attached to her elbows. The hammer arced through the air. She couldn't help herself, and she watched transfixed as it sailed back in a half circle. The man, who had hurled it, caught the hammer with one hand. God he was a huge, steroid meathead.

The pain wasn't as bad as she would have imaged, with multiple compound fractures all along both the radius and ulna of her forearms. It was the shock, she knew. The pain would catch up when the adrenaline left. She was more concerned for John and what that demon was doing to his body.

"Resistance is futile," The hammer man said. He pointed behind her toward the SUV. "If you do not surrender immediately, we will kill your accomplice as well."

"What the heck?" Danielle panted, bits of foamy saliva dropping from her mouth as she tried to catch her breath. Her arms continued to flop at her elbows. She could feel bone working its way through her skin. She lifted her head and jerked it to get most of her hair out of the way. "You just said you were going to kill me."

"Correct." He said, hefting his hammer. "If you go quietly, she doesn't have to follow."

"Wait a sec." Danielle panted and looked back down at the ground. A plan formed in her mind. It hinged on a few assumptions, but it was the best she could do. She called up the glyphs. They circled around her as little blots of darkness eating darkness. She bashed her head into the one that gave her command of ghosts and empowered them.

"Very well," the hammer man said.

Danielle didn't dare look up until the ghost she'd recalled from Amber's body slingshotted into hers. She felt the attempt at possession warring with some sort of defense mechanism. She imposed her need on the ghost and allowed it inside. Danielle's head whipped up right as the hammer impacted her body. The ghost working in harmony with her made it possible to raise her broken arms and wrap the hammer in a giant hug. She called up the glyphs as the force behind the hammer lifted her body off the ground. Sailing through the air, she bashed her head into the glyph that sent her, and all she touched, back into the Twilight.

Like a popped balloon, all momentum left the hammer. It dropped to the ground like a dead weight. All the runes along its surface went dead.

She fell to the ground, rolling a few feet away. In this place, the pain was even more distant. She also felt the onslaught of the ghost that had possessed her intensify. The ghost's need was fierce and surprising. All it wanted was to have raunchy sex. Memories of John's body surged over her consciousness. For a while, she could do nothing but allow the ghost to relive her first coupling with John. The glyph winding down caught her attention and refocused her. John aside, she wasn't sure if the hammer would remain after the time ran out. She didn't know if it would stay if she left early, but she had to try.

She looked around, but there was no sign of John. There also was no sign of the demon or the bloodbath she'd feared. The ash tree in the distance looked farther away than she remembered. She couldn't get there in time.

Betsy was the name of the ghost. It came to her when she called for it. "Okay, Betsy. If you play nice, I'll give you what you want. I just need your help for another few minutes."

Betsy's head emerged from Danielle's chest. She was an old lady with white hair in a bun and a face that looked like a crumpled sheet of paper. "I expect control of your body to do it, young lady."

Danielle took a deep breath and nodded her head.

"Just tell me what you need then, dearie."

"I need my arms to look like they are uninjured and the pain blocked. I'm pretty sure most of my ribs are broken so you'll need to keep me upright and breathing."

"Mmmm, sure sweetie."

Danielle had suspected for a while that the glyph that allowed her to enter into the Twilight ensured that whatever came over eventually left. When she thought about it, it seemed more like a safety measure. She reached out and caressed the glyph in her hand and then tried to step through it back to the real world.

Danielle reappeared. She glanced behind her to pinpoint where the hammer was in Twilight but didn't see it there in the real world. She straightened and stood up. She looked from face to face. Every single person was painted in different pictures of shock and awe.

The surly young girl by the SUV was the first person to utter a response. "No fucking way."

The tall man joined in right behind her. "That's not...not possible."

The hammer man closed his mouth and then opened it again. For once he was at a loss for words.

"Listen, I don't have all day here," Danielle said. "Obviously you are outclassed." She looked toward Amber again. "Now, I'd like to end this without having to kill you all."

The hammer man cleared his voice and then answered. "The hammer." He was breathing hard, even if his face looked composed. "Is it —" He gulped. "Is it?"

"Yes, well, your hammer has been banished, but I can bring it back if we can agree not to kill each other." Danielle gestured like her arms and chest weren't smashed to pieces. Betsy was doing a great job.

"Those are your terms?" The hammer man nodded. "Very well, I can agree to a cessation of hostilities."

Danielle had been watching the black glyphs swirling around her. She'd call them up as soon as she'd reappeared in the real world. The hammer would materialize shortly. "A full pardon, and both parties go their separate ways. No more attacking. Your word."

The hammer man opened his mouth and then closed it again. His eyes turned into slits. "A pardon for past crimes only, not immunity for future ones." He nodded slowly. "You have my word—"

As the last consonant left his mouth, all the air went out of Danielle, and she collapsed onto the ground. "Great." There was so much pain. A few seconds later, the hammer materialized ten feet behind her.

Betsy floated over Danielle and cocked her head to the side. "Too soon?" A glimmer of malevolence hung in the old ghost's eyes and the cackle that followed.

Danielle closed her eyes. "Whatever."

* * * * *

Runes along the surface of the hammer hummed back to life. Like a puppy running to its owner, the hammer shuddered and then lifted up into the air. It flew back toward Mason Henderson. He snatched it out of the air and hefted it in his hands. A shiver ran along his arms and down his spine. He'd almost been responsible for the loss of one of the Boaz. Its stored power coursed through his body again.

He raised his wrist to his mouth. "Control." He stopped and considered his next words. "Abort." He waited longer than usual for acknowledgment. "Please confirm, over."

Mason Henderson looked at the necromancer passed out on the ground before him. It would be so easy to smite her. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but he knew a trick when he saw one. Still, he'd given his word. God had forged the cosmos with a word. He could not exist with a faulty foundation. Despite the rage he was fighting down, he couldn't proceed. He had to wait. His kind was good at patience. Solomon didn't build his temple in a day, and neither could revenge be had so quickly.

His wrist was still hovering near his mouth. "Control, mission is aborted."

A new voice that Mason Henderson recognized responded. "Mason Henderson, please return with all due haste."

Mason Henderson's eyes were still on the body of the necromancer. "Yes, Grandmaster."

He walked away from that clown, Chesterfield Anderson. He ignored the strangled sputtering sounds uttering from the tall man's mouth. Mason walked over the body of the necromancer without looking down. He continued on toward the SUV. Gesturing at the rear of the SUV and at his two men, who held guns to the head of the captive, he said, "Release the hostage." His men holstered their weapons. One of them unlocked the shackles.

The hostage looked at the men in suits and then back toward the necromancer. She hurtled past Mason Henderson toward the necromancer screaming over and over, "Oh my god! Oh my god!" It was tiresome to be bested by such insects.

"Miss Delphi, your predictions were accurate if lacking in detail. Your service was adequate." He laid a hand on the much smaller girl's shoulder.

She kept her eyes downcast. "Yes, Mason."

"Mr. Anderson, if you please. We are needed by the Grandmaster."

"Ah...umm." Some silence. "That is to say." More silence. "Yes, Mason."

Mason Henderson lifted the hammer and moved it behind himself without looking. One of his men took it and placed it back within its receptacle. Mason Henderson opened the passenger door and sat down. They were all packed up and ready to go within five minutes. No one talked as they headed back to Boston.

* * * * *

"I still think you should have let me slaughter them all."

Aaron snorted. "C'mon Bells. That was epic." He walked from the edge of the woods and back onto the path. He continued along the trail, under the overpass, and toward Danielle. Amber hovered over Danielle's body, crying.

Bellona shook her head. The demon snorted. Bellona looked back at it. "Don't worry. We'll be killing plenty of people soon."

It growled and then dematerialized.

Bellona appeared at Aaron's side in a blur of movement.

They continued in silence until they arrived where Amber and Danielle were. Aaron glanced at the ghost hovering nearby.

"Eh, the little miss, ain't in good shape, Master," the ghost said.

Aaron narrowed his eyes for a moment. The ghost's name leapt to his mind. "Eh, Betsy is it? She took it like a champ."

"Body is broke good." Betsy the ghost hovered closer to Aaron.

Amber looked up at them. "Oh my —" She looked back at Danielle. "She's, she's go-go-goin to to..."

Aaron tilted his head from side to side, assessing the situation. "Nope." His lips twisted up at the corners. "It'll take more than that." He knelt down in the grass beside Danielle. He swept her sweat-plastered hair off her face and stroked her cheek. "Wake up soon, my love." He kissed her lips and then lifted her up.

"Don't strain yourself there, Buzz."

Aaron grunted. "Hey, I'm being romantic."

Bellona barked out a peal of laughter. "You drag my soul back from the Beyond and struggle with this girl? Go figure."

"Yeah well, it's been a while." Aaron's breath came in short gasps, and his face filled with blood. "You know, not having walked in eleven years."

"Wuss."

"Umm," Amber cut in. "I don't think, medically speaking at least, that, that you should be moving her. We need to get an ambulance. Maybe a stretcher."

Aaron stumbled his way toward Amber's car. He called over his shoulder, "Nope." The corners of his lips twitched again. "I think we've all had enough of hospitals."

"But, her ribs are like vaporized. Her arms." Amber shook her head, walking a pace with Aaron and Bellona.

Another faint smile appeared. "Uh, okay, damn it, Bells?"

Bellona grabbed Danielle from Aaron and tossed her over a shoulder without breaking stride. A low moan let out of Danielle's mouth.

"Hey!" Amber shouted.

"Yeah, go easy on my lady there."

Bellona rolled her eyes. "Fine." She rotated Danielle's body so it was nestled across her arms.

They made it to the car. Aaron sat in back with Danielle's head resting on his lap. Bellona took the driver's seat, and Amber was stuck in the passenger's seat.

"So, Buzz, where we headed?"

Aaron looked up at Bellona for a second and then smiled grimly. "West." He paused, stroking Danielle's cheek. "To get some waffles." — He looked back up at Bellona — "Say some good-byes. Then revenge."