Ghost Story

by J G Jerome

  I shrug and reach for the nearest bolt. I grasp it and sense not only the life energy of the glyph on it, but the aura of a soul! I murmur to myself, “Why is there a soul in this bolt?”

  I give the soul a gentle push - about the amount of pressure of a gentle breath on a dandelion. I hear a quiet but clear, “He-ey! What are you doing?” It sounds like an old college friend, Kory Standish.

  Kory was a jock in high school and came out of the closet immediately upon showing up at college. It was funny to see the star tight-end of the football team queen around the dorms in a bolo hat and hot pants. It was fairly unusual back then, and Kory got jumped by various groups of jocks that weren’t comfortable with his preferences. I ended up jumping into the fray more than a couple of times to even the odds, so we became friends. My parents died in a car wreck at the beginning of my sophomore year, so I dropped out at the Christmas break and joined the army as an MP. Kory wrote me more frequently than my sister, Allison, did. That voice definitely reminded me of my old friend. ‘Get back on task, William!’

  I speak to the soul. “I can sense you in the bolt. I’m guessing that was uncomfortable.” I don’t hear an answer, so I give a gentle push again.

  I hear a gasping response. “Yes! It is horrible! Please don’t!”

  I answer, “I’m going to try something else, let me know if it’s an issue.” I look at the angel. “Did you hear that Gwen?”

  It shakes its head. “I heard something like a whisper. I’ve heard it many times over the years, but I can’t make out what it’s saying.”

  I turn the bolt over as I murmur, “Hmpf. I can hear him clearly. Must be a necromancer thing.” I look at the nut. There is a glyph of death energy overlaying another of life energy. I tell the soul in the bolt, “I’m going to push you deeper into the bolt, and then remove the two glyphs on the nut. Then I’m going to try to remove the nut. Holler at me if I’m hurting you past the point it’s more than uncomfortable.”

  I hear a murmured, “I will.”

  I gently push the soul into the bolt, and then I start absorbing the death energy from the top glyph. It fades until it finally pops when there isn’t enough energy to keep it together.

  I look at the remaining glyph. I get the feeling I shouldn’t mess with it. I tell Gwen, “I’ll be right back.” I dash up the ladder and run to the garage. I use the light from my phone to slide the key into the lock and hurriedly grab a couple of adjustable wrenches from my toolbox. I lock up and hurry past a pile of rubble. There is a bucket of metal bits at the edge of the rubble pile. I use the phone flashlight to see what’s in it. I see six bolts that look similar to the ones holding Gwen. I pocket them before I head back down the ladder.

  I confirm I’m working with the same bolt by checking for the life glyph on the tail of the bolt. I use the two wrenches to attempt to remove the nut. I hear an immediate, “Hey!”

  “Sorry,” I respond. Then I gently push the soul towards the head of the bolt and try the wrenches again. I just about give up when I feel the nut budge a bit. I don’t hear anything from my little ghostly friend, so I try it again. It moves again, so I persist and slowly work the nut of the bolt. I put the wrenches in my pocket, and then I remove the washer and slide the bolt out of the chain.

  I ask the ghost in the bolt, “You still there?”

  I hear a murmured, “Yes.”

  I ask, “I suppose I should leave the life glyph.”

  He responds with a gasped, “How would I know? I am a sorcerer’s apprentice.” Then I hear a sob, “At least I was until my master’s necromancer friend cut my throat as a sacrifice to hold this angel.”

  I assure him, “I’m rather new to magic, but we’ll see what can be done about a second chance for you. So, I saw blue, black, and violet glyphs on this bolt. Blue and black are life and death energy, and they were on the nut end. I think the life glyph is holding you in the bolt. The violet glyph dissolved when I pulled the bolt from the chain. Let’s see what happens with the rest. I’ll hold onto you in the meantime.” I slip the bolt into my back pocket.

  I try the next one. “Anyone in there?”

  I hear a quiet female voice, “Yes.”

  I tell her, “Please be patient with me. I’ve done one of these already. Hopefully I can do this without causing you too much discomfort.” Then I notice there is a red glyph on the nut of this one.

  I think, ‘Oh shit.’ I ask, “Hey, Gwen. I’m assuming the purple energy is sorcerous. I know blue and black as life and death energies. What is red?”

  The angel says, “I can’t see them, so I don’t know for sure. However, I would guess it is demonic. The group that killed the Leuvenfelds and took over my contract had an elf and a devourer with them.”

  “Elves and devourers are demons? Of course. And they do magic. Well, let’s see if this will work.”

  I push the ghost gently into the bolt head, and then try to trickle a little death energy into the red glyph. I don’t have the control I want, so I end up pushing a shit-ton of energy into the red glyph. It dissolves quickly. The life energy glyph also pops.

  “Shit!” I exclaim. “Are you still in there?”

  I hear a fearful response. “Yes.”

  “Great! Stay in there.” I pull out the wrenches and work the nut. It comes off easier than the other. I pull the bolt out of the chains, and the violet glyph dissolves. Suddenly there is a misty figure standing in front of me. Since I’m using second sight, I see the ghost has eddies of death energy running around its form.

  “Can you get back in there?” I ask.

  I hear a murmured response, “Yes, but I don’t want to. I’m tired of living like this. I’m ready to move on.”

  “I ask that you stay for now. I’d like to talk to you and find out what happened. I won’t try to force you, but I’m asking as a favor from the person that freed you from captivity.”

  I hear a whispered, “Okay, but I want to move on.”

  “Once we’ve talked, I will wish you well with my blessing,” I assure the disembodied soul.

  The misty figure dissolves, and I place the bolt in my back pocket. I do the same procedure on the next two bolts. I do the red glyph first - this time managing not to dissolve the blue one underneath. Then I do the final one.

  “Well Gwen, the chains aren’t an issue. What do you think about the ring? I don’t sense any souls in it, just glyphs in four colors. I’ll remove them, and then you can burn it open?”

  The angel nods. “That sounds as good or better than anything I have managed so far. I’ve tried to heat it and break it, but all the energy was absorbed by some kind of ward on the ring.”

  “Okay, I’ll go brute force and either absorb them or dissolve them with death energy. Here we go,” I tell it. I start by absorbing the blue and black glyphs first. Then I dissolve the demonic ones, and finally I do the same on the violet ones...they are more difficult than the demonic ones. I’ll have to ask Rebecca about that later.

  I sigh, “Try it now, Gwen.”

  The angel pinches the metal ring between its thumb and index finger. Light shines, and the ring breaks. ‘Damn! That’s impressive!’ It pulls the ring open and pulls the ring from around its neck.

  I say, “Gwen, please weld it closed again.”

  The angel throws me a confused look. “Whatever for?”

  I explain, “Rebecca said that necromancers can extend their life if they are powerful enough. I’d rather make it look like everything is still connected as it was. Ideally no one notices anything before the construction crew digs it out.”

  Gwen says, “I need some more metal.”

  I pull out the six bolts I pulled from the bucket of rubble. I hand one to the angel. “That enough?”

  Gwen nods. “Yes. I think so.” It heats the bolt to molten slag and uses it to fill the gap in the ring. Then it heats the whole ring until the metal glows.

  Gwen says, “Bath it in your death energy. Coincidentally, my people call it entropic energy be
cause it is the driver behind entropy. It doesn’t cause death directly, it causes death as a result of the breakdown of life. If you bathe the ring, it will give the metal a light coat of rust. Don’t do too much if you want it to match the chains.”

  I follow its suggestion, bathing the ring in a light coat of death, or entropic, energy. As the glow fades, it leaves a uniformly shaped metal ring with a light coat of rust that matches the chains pretty well. I wrap the chains over the ring as they were before, and use the original washers and the salvaged bolts to fasten the chains back on the metal ring.

  I stand and brush the dirt off my hand. “Gwen, we’re going to head home. Would you care to join us? We can fix you something to eat. Maybe you would be willing to tell us how you came to be here?”

  The angel shrugs. “I suppose that would be okay. I am grateful that you released me, but I am eager to go home. Plus, I don’t think I should walk down your streets in my natural form. I can stay here to tell you my story. Eating does sound good. I don’t suppose you would feed me those souls from the bolts.”

  I look at it with my head tilted. “Uh no...unless they are willing to.” I beckon for Gwen to follow me before I head up the ladder. As my head clears the dirt I notice a pair of bare, clawed feet standing next to the ladder.

  I look up to see the angel standing next to the ladder. I dismount the ladder and look up at the tall being with a smirk. “You flew up.”

  Gwen shakes its head and scoffs. “Not for that little bit. That’s an easy jump.”

  I look down into the cellar hole and back at the angel. “I need to get on your fitness program.” The angel chuckles.

  I tell him, “Let’s all step into the garage so the neighbors are less likely to see us.”

  17 - Angelus Gwenefron

  I unlock the garage and usher the ladies and Gwen inside.

  Gwen smirks at me. “As I’m not female, you don’t have to show me the same courtesies that you would offer a lady.”

  We all chuckle a bit as I close the door. “Well Gwen, it is a little confusing given you have parts for both. You would make a beautiful woman if not for that one prominent exception.”

  The angel chuckles. “I’ve been to this dimension six times. All but one time I was asked to assume a male form or inhabit a male body that has no soul.”

  Marissa asks, “You can choose?”

  Gwen nods. “Usually it’s negotiated as part of the contract. The sorcerer that summoned me, Shimon Leuvenfeld, never got that far. I’m assuming I would have been contracted to present as female. We had just agreed that I would be the guardian angel for his wife Sara’s student, Rebecca Silberschmid. Apparently, Rebecca’s life was in danger.”

  Rebecca interjects, “I was in danger. My father locked me in the cellar and left me to die after I rejected his amorous advances. Eventually, I did die.”

  Gwen looks stricken.

  Marissa says, “Will mentioned it before, but I’m still horrified to hear it.” She hugs Rebecca close.

  Gwen continues, “Let me start at the beginning. I was on duty at the employment hall, when a call for ‘Angélus Cústos’ came in - a request for a guardian angel. I had only been on ‘Angélus Núntius,’ or messenger angel, jobs before. There were no experienced guardian angels available. I had a good record as a messenger, and I had been trained on the guardian protocols. So, I was selected to answer the summons. I was happy to take it, as it’s considered a prestigious duty.”

  “When I arrived on this plane, I found myself in a sorcerer’s circle engraved in salt in the dirt of a stone cellar. A kindly older couple were standing there smiling at me. Shimon exclaimed, ‘it worked.’ Then he negotiated for me to become Rebecca’s guardian until such time as she left her parent’s house or died. I was promised the soul of her father in payment - which was kind. Sorcerer’s don’t frequently offer payment.” Gwen looks at Rebecca. “Apparently your father was the get of a dog.”

  Rebecca frowns for a second before confirming. “Son-of-bitch. Yes. That fits my father better than I realized until he tried to rape me.”

  Gwen continues, “About that time we heard a thumping upstairs that was followed by footsteps running down the stairs into the cellar. I learned later the first two were Laurence Clement and Julius Lafayette, the two magicians. They were followed by two un-souled males that were possessed by an elf and a devourer. The demons were carrying two gunny sacks between them.”

  “Laurence Clement immediately started murmuring in Latin, and then Julius Lafayette pulled a pistol from his coat pocket and shot Shimon in the center of his face. I felt my bounds begin to loosen and then suddenly tighten again as Clement grinned. Clement exclaimed, ‘I have it.’ Apparently, he was the sorcerer. Then four young people came down the stairs.”

  “The first youth was a slender, pretty young man of middle height dressed in the latest fashion of the time. The second was a tall skinny middle-aged man with intense eyes dressed in a somber black suit. The third was a stocky young woman with pale skin who was nearly as tall as the second man. She had shoulder-length hair, fearful eyes, and she was dressed in a rather plain frock. The final one was a shorter, slender red-headed girl with long hair running down her back dressed in a fashionable dress. Each focused on me.”

  Gwen pauses before continuing. “Lafayette nodded to the tall girl, and she pulled four bolts and a sponge from her bag. She wrapped the bit of sponge around the bolts and murmured as her eyes flashed with a bright golden light. The other youths watched her in fascination as the demons moved behind them. While that was going on, Clement cursed and whined, ‘I don’t understand! You killed Leuvenfeld! The contract should be broken!’ I despise whiners, so I grinned and taunted him by telling him that Shimon being alive wasn’t a term of my contract. Clement looks at the two young men and sends them to find Shimon’s notes. The tall one goes upstairs and the other roots through an armoir in the cellar. Clement then nods to Lafayette.”

  Gwen shivers before continuing. “Lafayette had the two demons tackle me. They wrapped the iron ring around my neck, and then Clement pushed his will on me to have me weld it shut. Lafayette ordered the tall girl to build the pillars. She handed him the bolts and sponge before she laid out four small oblong pieces of stone. Then she laid the end of a chain across each one. Then she took a smaller fifth stone from her bag. The demons allowed me to sit up as she began to mutter and her eyes began to glow. The stone in her hand grew until it was about a foot long and about three inches wide on a side. The larger stones grew proportionally. Then the girl placed the four large stones with the chain now embedded in them around the cellar. She dusted off her hands and then picked up the smaller stone and made it grow until it was four times the size it was - taller than her waist and as big around as my wrist. The four larger pillars had grown with it until they were twice the height of the cellar - pushing up through the floor of the house.”

  Gwen has a faraway look on its face. “While she was doing that, the demons put runes on the metal. I could feel them heat my soul as my body began to fade in and out of phase with the reality around me. While they worked, the stone worker took a moment to collect herself. She visibly focused her attention. She then pushed each pillar through the rock wall by moving the smaller stone in the direction she wanted each of the larger ones to move. She caught her breath for a minute before pushing the smaller pillar into the ground - the larger pillars followed. Then Lafayette cut her throat.”

  We all gasp as Gwen continues. “He pushed the poor girl’s soul into one the bolts, scribed a glyph in on the end of it, and handed it to the elf. The elf ran the chain through the ring around my neck and used the bolt to secure it. Meanwhile Lafayette butchered the redhead and the pretty boy. The devourer ran up the stairs as Lafayette shoved their souls into bolts and inscribed a glyph on the end. He handed the other girl’s bolt to the elf and fastened a chain himself onto the ring around my neck. As they finished with their casting, the devourer dragged the tall male down the st
airs by his feet. Lafayette cut his throat and possessed the fourth bolt.”

  Gwen collects itself with a couple of deep breaths. “Clement told me the plan as he and Lafayette inscribed glyphs on the heads of the bolts and the ring. He said that the demon glyphs were to keep me hidden from sight except for on nights of a new moon. The life glyphs on the ring kept me from dying while the death glyphs absorbed entropic energy and funneled it into the retaining wall around the property. Clement’s glyphs are to bind me so I can’t attack the ring, chains, or stones. The demon and death glyphs on the bolts were to punish me if I overcame the wards on the ring and to bind the spirits into the bolts. Supposedly, they were to energize the life and death glyphs. He said when my contract ended, he would come for me. He never said what he wanted from me. The way the devourer was looking at me, I assume I was to be coerced into being a meal for a devourer lord.”

  Gwen takes a breath, its impressive bosom drawing my eye. “At that point I faded out of existence. When I woke at the next new moon, the house was charred embers above me. I could see the sky. I screamed for Rebecca, but heard nothing in return.”

  Rebecca hugs the angel. “I was too far gone. I heard you once as I was fading. You calling for me is the last thing I remember when I was first alive. It was nice to know I hadn’t been forgotten.”

  Gwen nods, “I felt the contract break just before I faded out of existence again. When I came back, I was buried in dirt. I lost count of how many times I phased back into this plane only to find myself buried in dirt. Today is the first time I returned surrounded by air.”

  Rebecca explains, “It has been one hundred twenty-eight years since I died, Gwen.”

  Gwen murmurs, “By all that is holy…”

  I hug the large being. “Gwen, thank you for sharing your story. I can’t begin to imagine how you have suffered. Is there anything you need before you go home?”