by Gareth Otton
She didn’t look back until she was out of the graveyard and in the shadow of the church once more. Her reprieve was over and the ghost was coming for her again. It had abandoned its human form and was flying, a wraith of trailing shadow and true ghostly appearance. It was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen.
She could have stopped and screamed, tried anything to defend herself, but she wasn’t interested in trying something new. She just wanted it to be over. She kept running as fast as she could, out past the end of the church, down the path and finally reaching the gate.
Just as she was about to get her fingers on the iron latch it reached for her again and the cold spread through her other shoulder. She thought it had her, but there was a thump and it was gone, the cold leaving before it had chance to truly take hold.
She didn’t bother looking back, just ran through the gate as fast as she could. Jen never thought of direction or even cared. She simply had to escape.
She ran until she could barely breathe and there were stars in her eyes. She drew attention this time, and by the time she had five streets between her and the church she was bumping into people as they went about their business.
Finally, panting hard and sweating, she stopped and dared to look back.
There was nothing behind her but rows of cars and startled faces. The ghost was gone, lost at the church, and she was safe.
Tears of relief filled her eyes, and she started to shake. What had she been thinking? This wasn’t her. Skipping school was a bad idea. Going after a ghost on her own was even worse. Even Tad took the others with him when he went to deal with mad ghosts. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t known the ghost had been mad. She should have expected it.
Her tears flowed freely, and most of them were from self loathing. How could she be so stupid? And why was she so useless? One ghost attacks her, and she loses her head. She should have fought it, proved that she was strong like Tad. Prove to him once and for all that she was ready.
Just the thought of fighting that thing was enough to make her panic rise again.
She needed to get back to school. Better yet, she needed to go home. She would never admit it, but all she wanted was to see Tad again. She would be safe with Tad.
Decided, she tried to figure out which direction home was, then walked toward it. Three hours later she was lost. In that time she had been turned around so badly that she couldn’t even find the graveyard yet alone her house.
Her fear was constant and she knew things had gone too far. It was time to call for help and let the chips fall where they may. Tad would be furious, but she could deal with that. She just didn’t want to be lost anymore.
She reached for her bag and her phone. After turning it on she was alarmed to find that there were a huge number of missed calls from Tad, Kate and a few of her friends.
She rethought her actions yet again. She hadn’t expected that kind of response. Suddenly the prospect of calling Tad seemed worse than ever and she hesitated.
That, when she was most absorbed in her inner turmoil, was when the hands grabbed her. These were not the cold hands of a ghost. They were strong, and they were warm. They were human.
This time when she screamed, they didn’t let go.
15
Friday, 20th November 2015
13:00
As Dinah climbed to her feet, she struggled to identify this strange emotion. She hadn’t experienced it in so long. At least eleven years.
It was pride.
Strange that the first time she felt it for her own actions was the one time she was so stupid. She was there to capture the girl, not save her. Now this long-forgotten emotion made everything worse.
She had grown numb to the evils she perpetrated to keep her family safe. She had even grown used to not being able to face her family and having lost contact with them. She was used to it all, but now her carefully crafted walls were crumbling.
Faced with this one good feeling in eleven years, her deeds felt darker than ever. And to think, she started the day intending to kidnap a twelve-year-old girl.
On her feet again, she shivered to fight off the unnatural cold and looked around the graveyard. It was once more a reflection of the peacefulness of death, not the more violent aspect she had grown familiar with thanks to her employer.
The girl was the latest in a long list of jobs. There had been so many faces over the last decade, she had long since lost count.
Not the kids though.
Those faces would haunt her until she died. Thirty-three. Thirty-four when she took Jennifer Larson.
She had been putting it off as she always did when she went after kids. Adults she was not so picky about, and would take them at the first sign of their talent. For kids she wanted definitive proof. She was enough of a monster handing over children anyway, but ones who didn’t have the power would be that final step into madness.
She was close to losing it after she took her first child. Her depression following that was the last straw for her family and she had not seen them since. She was glad. Even though they knew nothing of what she did, she always imagined judgement in their eyes.
She was not the same woman she had been a decade ago. Only one thing remained of the old Dinah Mizrahi, her love for them. It was why she had not ended it years before. She dreamed for so long about killing her employer. She had no illusions that she was capable of it; she doubted anyone was. But she would happily die trying.
Save that the attempt would cost her family their lives. That price was too high. So she kept taking his calls, accepting his contracts and committing acts of evil.
Three nights earlier she travelled to Cardiff at his request. Her employer sent a local gang after a woman investigating Proxy disappearances. The woman was not close to solving them, but she was looking in the right directions and Dinah’s employer was nothing if not careful.
However, someone had intervened. In doing so they revealed that there was another Proxy in Cardiff. He sent Dinah in response.
She arrived as the police were finishing up. She had a picture of the woman her employer wanted dead and followed her to her car. There was only one other person waiting, a young girl.
There had been a time when she would never have considered the girl was the one her employer wanted. That a girl so young could be so decisive in a fight was ludicrous. But that had been before she was exposed to Proxies, before she had seen the impossible so many times that nothing surprised her anymore.
She had been following the girl for a few days, looking for proof she was a Proxy and hoping for proof she was not. When she followed her to the graveyard, there was no longer much doubt.
She watched the girl walk through the graveyard as though searching for someone. The girl was excited when she spotted something Dinah couldn’t see. Dinah watched the girl talk to herself and saw the moment the girl realised something was wrong. The girl’s panic invoked her gift which showed Dinah the ghost she was trying to engage. It was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen, and she was standing hundreds of feet from it, outside the graveyard. The girl stood directly in front of it.
In that instant her professional mind vanished and all she could think was how unjust the world was. No child should have to deal with such things. That it happened in the shadow of a church was further proof that if God existed, He had no interest in their world.
Dinah watched in fascination as the girl ran from the spectre. She was quite a little runner, but Dinah knew it would be no good. She had to dodge the gravestones, but the ghost went through them.
When it grabbed her shoulder Dinah was sure it was over. She wondered which end was worse for the girl. No one should die at the hands of her employer, but to be killed by that thing…
She was debating the point when the girl screamed and Dinah got another surprise, this one not so shocking. The girl’s scream blew through the creature like an explosion, tearing it apart and freeing the girl to run again. It was the first time Di
nah had seen a Proxy do that. However, Dinah was used to Proxies doing the unexpected.
The child was running again, heading for the edge of the graveyard. It was a mistake. When you find a weapon that can hurt your enemy, you keep pulling the trigger until they’re dead.
The ghost was reforming, coming for the girl again, and it looked worse than ever. The girl sprinted for the gate as though somehow that was a barrier the ghost couldn’t cross. Dinah knew different.
The ghost would not be the reason for this girl’s death, it was her innocence. She hadn’t been in enough danger to know how to keep her head clear.
Dinah was half way across the street before she realised she had moved. She was acting on instinct, never stopping to think about the logicality of her actions. All she cared about was that no one should die at the hands of something so evil.
It was almost on top of the girl as she reached the gate. Dinah was almost there as well.
The spectral hand landed on the girl’s shoulder, but in that instant Dinah reached the edge of the cemetery. She launched herself over the wall, onto the shape behind the girl.
In hindsight it was stupid. She wasn’t a Proxy. She should have gone right through the ghost and made no impact. But she didn’t.
She collided with it as though it was made of flesh and bone and the impact forced the ghost from the girl.
An incredible cold spread through her before they hit the ground and rolled. She had felt it before, but only briefly. She had been warned of it and knew it came from contact with a deranged spirit. Her employer said that to touch it too long was death.
She continued to roll, forcing herself away from the ghost and rising into a crouch. She was on her feet just in time for the ghost to strike again. It hadn’t rolled like her. It had dissolved into shadow and reformed facing her. The girl was forgotten by both of them as they faced off. The ghost was enraged that it had been forced from its prey. Dinah was sure this was the end for her. She was debating whether to welcome it with open arms or fight as always.
Either way, she wasn’t paying attention to the girl as she escaped.
The ghost came right at her with speed she could never match even if she wanted to. She didn’t want to. She was ready for death no matter how it came. She stood tall and opened her arms, welcoming it.
It never came.
An instant before it hit, the girl moved out of range and her influence over the ghost ended. It disappeared just before striking, no longer able to do more than make her shiver.
The realisation that she would be denied the release of death she so desperately wanted drove Dinah to her knees. The pain, bitterness and self loathing of the past eleven years washed through her in a flood and she sobbed.
It was too much. A moment of weakness after so long being hard.
Now, ten minutes later, cried out and feeling herself again, she debated her sanity. What made her act like that? She knew the cost of failure and risked it all for a girl she didn’t even know.
There were two kids, one of them not much older than that girl, who she knew intimately. Their lives were the cost of failure. That could not happen.
She turned in the direction the girl had run and got hold of herself. The girl could be anywhere by now, but Dinah didn’t let that put her off. She would do what was needed.
Pulling herself together, Dinah once more hunted her prey. She hadn’t failed to deliver yet, she was not about to this time.
She’d have the girl to her employer by nightfall.
16
Friday, 20th November 2015
13:12
Tad left the poor head teacher in tears. He put the blame of Jen’s disappearance on the school, even though they didn’t deserve it. If Jen wanted to play hooky, she’d have found a way sooner or later. He also knew that if she had been taken like the other Proxies, the school couldn’t have protected her.
By the time he got back to his car he was in a foul mood.
He had sent Tony and Charles out looking whilst he dealt with the head teacher. He had sent Miriam to find Maggie and enlist her aid. As he arrived at his car, he found Miriam waiting. He knew by the look on her face and the way her aura flickered between red and purple, anger and irritation, that something was wrong.
“What is it?”
“She’s not coming.”
He took a few seconds to register what she said. Slowly the words sunk in and he felt his anger rising.
“She said what?”
Miriam looked equally annoyed. “She said she wasn’t coming, that she doesn’t know Jen very well, has no idea where she’d go and wouldn’t be of much help. In the meantime, she won’t give up following Mark.”
Tad swore and had to stop himself from hitting the roof of his car. He couldn’t believe it. He knew Maggie was annoyed that he hadn’t gone with her to Mark’s, but to not help find Jen…
The old Maggie from five years ago wouldn’t have hesitated. At the mention of Jen being missing, she would have been the one organising the search.
“Fuck her,” he said out loud. “I haven’t got time to worry about this. Any news from Charles and Tony?”
Ghosts could move much quicker than humans. It was another of those perception things. The laws of physics meant little to them. They were as quick as they had the imagination to be, and a motivated ghost could be quick indeed.
Tad expected Tony or Charles to be back by now. At Miriam’s shake of the head he felt something snap. He was waiting for someone to tell him they had found her, that he didn’t need to worry. Every missed opportunity for that to happen was causing him pain.
“Never mind. Let’s get looking. You coming with me or—”
“I’ll head out on my own,” Miriam interrupted. “Divide and conquer.”
Tad hesitated before nodding. Miriam going alone would leave Tad on his own. Since he met Charles, he had barely spent a moment of his life alone.
As uncomfortable as it made him, Jen came first. If he had to be vulnerable while they found her, then that is what he would be. At his nod Miriam turned and ran toward the tree line. She moved quicker than a normal person and by the time Tad was in the car, she was long gone.
“Bloody hell, Jen. Where are you?”
He shook his head to clear it and pressed the button on the dash to start the engine.
Three hours later, after he had driven down what felt like every street in Cardiff, his phone rang. He thumbed the answer button on the steering wheel.
“Jen?”
“Uh… No. Stella.”
Stella. He didn’t have time for her right now and was about to tell her so, but she beat him to the punch.
“Tad. Jen’s with me.”
“What?”
“I found her—”
“Hang on a second, Stella,” Tad pulled the car to the side of the road and parked up. He wanted to listen to this, and he didn’t want the distraction of driving while he did so.
“Right, I’m parked now. What did you say?”
“I was on my way out of town and I caught sight of Jen.”
“Oh. Thank God. Is she there with you now? Is she okay?”
“Yes, she’s fine. She’s shaken up and hasn’t told me much. I thought I should call you to let you know I have her.”
Tad breathed a huge sigh of relief. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the headrest, suddenly exhausted.
“Thanks Stella. God, I was so worried. Where are you now? I’m in my car anyway so—”
“Actually, I'm in a serious rush. I’ve got a lead to chase up in Llanelli and I need to be there by five or I'll miss it.” He looked at the dash, it was quarter past four. If she wanted to get to Llanelli in that time then she would need wings. “I haven’t got time to wait. Any chance I could keep her while I go see about this and drop her off with you later?”
Tad hesitated and looked at the clock again. He desperately wanted to see Jen. It was one thing knowing she was safe and another to see it with
his own eyes. On the other hand, Stella had done him a huge favour just by finding her.
“Are you sure she won't be in your way? I can follow you to Llanelli if you want. Just give me the address and—”
“No. She’ll be fine, I promise. So long as you’re okay with it I’ll keep her with me and drop her off at your place later tonight, maybe eight-ish.”
Again Tad hesitated, but finally he let out another sigh. Jen was safe, that was the important thing.
“Okay. So long as she won't be in the way. If you wan’t I’ll put you up some dinner for when you get back.”
“You really don’t need to—”
“I insist. I owe you big time for this. You eat lasagne? I make a mean lasagne.”
There was a slight hesitation on her end and finally she said, “Okay. You’ve twisted my arm.”
“Right. I’ll see you then. Any chance I could speak to Jen before you go?”
“Of course. Hold on.” Tad heard that muffled silence that was the sound of a phone been pulled away from someone's ear, and in a much more muted tone he heard, “Jen. Your dad’s on the phone. He wants to talk to you.”
“I don’t want to talk to him. He’ll just shout at me.”
“He wants to know you’re okay.”
“No. Please. I don’t want to speak to him.”
The argument went on for a few minutes and became harder to hear as Stella must have covered the phone with her hand. Tad got the gist of it. It was typical of Jen to put up a fuss. He had been worried sick about her and no doubt she had been off having the time of her life.
A moment later he heard the popping and crackling as the phone was picked up again.
“Tad. It’s still Stella. Jen doesn’t want to talk right now—”
“I know. I heard. I’m so sorry about her, Stella. She’s normally better behaved than that. Just let me know if she’s too much and I’ll—”
“No. Honestly, she’ll be fine. I’ll have her back to you in a few hours. I’ve really got to go now, Tad.”
