3 Ghosts of Our Fathers

by Michael Richan

  Chapter Two

  Daniel arrived promptly at 9 p.m., just as he said he would. Of course, Steven thought, he’s obsessed with time. Lateness is probably a cardinal sin.

  Steven gave him a quick tour of the house, pointing out the spots where the figure had appeared the night before. Then he showed Daniel the guest bedroom next door to his bedroom. Daniel thanked him, threw his duffel bag on the bed, and began to set up shop.

  “Would you like to see the knife?” Daniel asked.

  “Sure,” Steven said, watching him remove various items from the bag. Daniel pulled out a cloth covered item, stuck his hand under it, then removed the cloth. Daniel’s hand was in a grip shape, but what he was holding wasn’t visible.

  Steven slipped into the flow. The knife became visible immediately. It was about nine inches long, had a curved edge, and tapered from the sharp edge to a thicker top edge that was about a quarter of an inch thick. Daniel demonstrated by waving the knife in the air.

  “I’ll slice into the shell like this,” he said, “and afterwards, remove what it collected here.”

  The thicker top edge of the knife had a removable cover. Daniel slid the cover back and turned the knife towards Steven. Looking down into the knife from the top Steven could see that it was hollow. “The slice picks up all moments in time – that’s what’ll give us the history of this thing. It’s stored in this chamber until I can sequence them properly and analyze them.”

  “Wow!” Steven said. “Where did you get this?”

  As Daniel continued to unpack, he told Steven about how he’d gathered time-related instruments over the years. Some of them were just collector’s items that had some historical value, others were regular tools he used frequently. As he finished they moved into the living room.

  “Some of the items I’ve found,” Daniel said, “I’ve never been able to figure out. I know they’re related to time, I can sense it, or I’ve seen reference to them in a book. But knowing what they do and how to make them work is a lost art in some cases.”

  “You’ve got books on this subject?” Steven asked. “Where did they come from?”

  “A couple of them came from my uncle. One or two came from friends. They’re hard to come by and quite valuable on their own.”

  “Did your uncle have the gift?” Steven asked.

  “Yes, and he kept a book about the things he’d run into, as many of us do.”

  “My father Roy introduced me to his book several months ago,” Steven said. “I was having a problem here in this house with a different set of visitors that were scaring the shit out of me. Roy stepped in to give me a hand and in the process he shared the book with me. Goes back five generations.”

  “Jesus,” Daniel said. “Do you know how rare that is? My uncle’s book is just about him, his experiences. I’ve heard of some that include a grandparent. I’ve never heard of one that goes back that far within the same family.”

  “I didn’t realize that wasn’t normal,” Steven said. “I’ve only recently met others who have the gift, and the subject hadn’t come up. I’ll have to ask my father if he realizes how important that makes his book.”

  They talked a while longer about Steven’s recent exposure to the River and Roy’s tutelage, and about the haunting that Roy had helped Steven eradicate. Then Steven quizzed Daniel more about his past. They talked for an hour, Steven absorbing the new information Daniel offered. Steven had never thought of specializing in a specific area of the gift like Daniel had, and hearing him talk so passionately about his interests fascinated him. He began to wonder how many different aspects of the gift there were to specialize in.

  Eventually the discussion drifted back to the matter at hand.

  “Did it wake you?” Daniel asked. “When it appeared?”

  “I had a sense that something was in the house,” Steven said. “That’s what got me out of bed.”

  “What worries me is that it was able to grab you while still in the cage,” Daniel said. “If you hadn’t been awake first, it might have strangled you in your sleep.”

  “Well, thanks for that thought,” Steven said. “Maybe I shouldn’t even go to sleep. If he’s going to appear, why does it have to be at 3 a.m.?”

  As if on cue, a figure began to materialize next to Steven on the couch. Steven kept on talking, but Daniel interrupted him.

  “Steven,” he said, “to your right. Look.”

  Steven turned his head and saw the vertical shafts, slowly thinning. The dark form was back. It was sitting still, looking forward. Steven stood and walked to the other side of the room, away from the figure.

  “I’ll get the knife,” Daniel said, running out of the room.

  Steven entered the flow and saw the glass shape with the man inside. He was twisting his head, fighting against the rigid glass form that restricted his movement. His lips were moving, spitting out words that Steven couldn’t hear. His eyes were laser focused on Steven, and he could feel the man’s anger towards him. There was pure hatred in the man’s eyes, and it scared Steven. If he ever gets out of there, Steven thought, he definitely has a bone to pick with me.

  In a blink, the glass form was now standing by the sofa. Steven hadn’t seen it rise, it went straight from sitting to standing with no movement in between.

  Daniel! Steven thought, You better hurry!

  He saw the man smile at him from within the glass chamber. Then it disappeared.

  He felt the pressure around his neck, like the night before. But this time the hands were coming from behind him. He struggled to turn within the grip, raising his hands to tug at the glass fingers constricting his windpipe. He tried to yell again for Daniel, but nothing would come out.

  Steven raised his foot and tried kicking behind. His foot met no resistance as he missed, kicking at air.

  Daniel entered the room holding the knife and ran to the glass man behind Steven. He sliced the knife through the figure; it gave no resistance.

  It’s done! Daniel thought. They both immediately left the flow.

  Steven kicked behind him again, and this time he connected with the figure, which released its grip and fell backwards. He turned, gasping for air.

  “Are you OK?” Daniel asked, grabbing his arm.

  “Yes,” Steven said, croaking on the word.

  As they both watched, the vertical bars appeared again inside the form, and within a few seconds the image was gone.

  “I’ll get you some water,” Daniel said, releasing his grip on Steven and heading into the kitchen. “I have the sample. The knife worked.”

  Steven followed Daniel into the kitchen and took the glass Daniel offered. He let the water slowly trickle down his throat, soothing it.

  “That was worse than last night,” Steven said after he had regained his breathing. “For a moment I thought he had me. I couldn’t see him move. He went from sitting still to standing still, and then from standing to behind me, and I couldn’t see any movement.”

  “He’s jump cutting,” Daniel said.

  “Jump cutting?” Steven asked.

  “Means he’s got a little more control over time than you or I have. Very dangerous, you saw why.”

  “So now I’m really concerned,” Steven said. “What’s to stop him from coming back in an hour and surprising me again? Is there anything I can do to protect myself?”

  “Yeah,” Daniel replied, “there’s a couple of things we can try. The main thing is to get this sample analyzed. It’ll tell us more about what we’re dealing with. Let me see what else we can do.”

  Daniel walked into the hallway and Steven heard him rustling in the bedroom. Steven walked into the hallway to follow him, but decided instead to visit the bathroom.

  He stared into the mirror over the sink, looking at his neck. It seemed normal, but it was extremely painful. He rubbed at it, trying to feel through the surface skin if anything was broken or out of place.

  He felt the urge to enter the River, so he slipped into it. He was horr
ified at what he saw.

  Large blue and green patches appeared under his jaw and over his throat. They looked like bruises, but he knew they were more than that. He moved his face closer to the mirror to inspect the discoloration. The surface flesh was moving, shifting places with other flesh around it. At first he thought it was the colors shifting, but as he watched he saw hairs and freckles physically moving. He swallowed and saw his Adam’s apple rise and fall, and was disturbed to see the skin over it rearrange itself.

  “Daniel?” Steven called.

  After a moment Daniel entered the bathroom and looked at Steven examining himself in the mirror.

  “Yes? What is it?”

  “Enter the River, if you would,” Steven said.

  Daniel entered the flow and drifted over to Steven.

  Jesus Christ! Daniel thought.

  Check closer, Steven thought, in the mirror. Daniel moved closer to the mirror and examined Steven’s skin. He saw it shift and twist, as though something underneath was rearranging the surface.

  My god, it’s moving, Daniel thought. What the fuck did he do to you?

  Steven exited the flow and Daniel followed.

  “I don’t mean to scare you,” Daniel said, “but I’ve never seen anything like that. Did it happen the night before?”

  “I don’t know, I didn’t check.”

  “I didn’t notice anything like it on your neck when you entered the River earlier, when I first showed you the knife,” Daniel said. “Your neck looked fine.”

  “Maybe it heals up,” Steven said.

  “Maybe,” Daniel agreed, though not enthusiastically.

  “Any luck with the analysis?” Steven asked, wanting to change the subject to something more optimistic.

  “No, in fact I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news,” Daniel said. “Come, let me show you.”

  Steven followed Daniel into the bedroom next door, where he produced a small box that had a slit about the size of the knife.

  “I transferred the sample into this box,” Daniel said. “It both holds and analyzes it.”

  “What’s the bad news?” Steven asked.

  “When you enter the flow, you can see the symbols here,” Daniel said, pointing to the top of the box. “You can then interpret the symbols to discover the make-up of the sample inside. The problem is I’m only getting half the symbols I’d expect. It’s confirming that it’s a soul cage, and that it’s about three days from being completely dissolved, but it’s not sequencing the history properly. The symbols that would tell me more, like who it is, why it was bound, they’re not showing up. The cage is more complex than this box can decipher. I can’t even tell how long it was bound.”

  “Three days?” Steven said. “And it’s dissolving? That means the next time it appears it’ll be stronger?”

  “I expect so,” Daniel said. “But until it’s completely free of the cage it doesn’t have a lot of energy. It’s only able to appear to you now because of the anger of the man inside and the deterioration of the cage. It’s better off waiting until the cage is gone, then it’ll be free to attack you without restraint.”

  “Oh great,” Steven sighed. “Given how my throat feels now, I’d hate to see what it’s like without restraint.”

  “To get the rest of the information we need on this guy,” Daniel said, “I need to take this sample back to Spokane. I have a device there that is more sophisticated. I’m sorry Steven, but it was far too large to bring with me tonight. I’ll start back now.”

  “It’s a five hour drive and it’s after midnight now. You’ll go in the morning, after you sleep some. It won’t help me to have you wrecked at the side of the road.”

  “Well, let me at least give you this,” Daniel said, handing Steven a small object.

  Steven looked at what Daniel had given him. It was a smooth rectangle, about three inches long and half an inch thick. It was pure black and felt like stone. Light didn’t reflect off its surface, and it reminded Steven of a miniature version of the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

  “That’ll stop the jump cutting,” Daniel said. “Keep it on you all the time from now on and don’t let him steal it while you’re sleeping. He won’t be able to fuck with time if he’s within ten feet of it. Let’s go back to the mirror, I want to try something.”

  They both went back to the mirror in the bathroom and entered the flow. Steven noticed the rectangle looked the same in the flow as outside of it.

  Place it on the skin of your neck at the bruises, Daniel thought.

  Steven did as Daniel instructed. When he removed the object the discoloration was still there but the shifting of the skin had stopped. He repositioned the rectangle over other patches of skin, achieving the same effect. After he had covered all of his neck they both exited the flow.

  “Well, that’s a relief, thank you,” Steven said.

  “I’m still not sure what your skin was doing,” Daniel said.

  “Well, I’ll take no shifting over shifting any day. Doesn’t seem to help with the bruising though.”

  “And the bruising is only visible in the River,” Daniel noted. “You look fine normally, at least right now.”

  They walked out of the bathroom and Daniel returned to his bedroom.

  “There is one more thing I want you to have,” Daniel said. He handed Steven a quart size jar of clear liquid.

  “Protection?” Steven asked.

  “Yes,” Daniel replied, “but not ordinary protection. This is special stuff, designed to resist time-based attacks.”

  “I’ve had my father’s protection,” Steven said, “but it hadn’t occurred to me that there might be different…flavors.”

  “What kind does your dad make?” Daniel asked.

  Steven shook his head. “I really don’t know. I just assumed that protection was protection, all the same.”

  “Everyone has their own recipe,” Daniel said. “Your dad’s is probably his own personal preference. Do you have some around?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” Steven said, walking to the kitchen to find the bottle. He located it hidden behind the cereal boxes in a cabinet.

  “Would you mind if I sampled it?” Daniel asked. “In addition to my time studies, I’m a bit of a protection connoisseur.”

  “Sure,” Steven said, handing him the bottle. Daniel raised it to his lips and took a mouthful. After a moment, his eyes went wide, staring at Steven. Then he swallowed it.

  “What?” asked Steven. “Too strong?”

  Daniel left the room and returned with the collector knife, invisible in his hand. “Could I pour a little into this?” he asked, removing the top and exposing the hollow inside.

  “Why?” asked Steven.

  “I want to analyze it. I’ve never tasted anything quite like yours.”

  “OK,” Steven said slowly, wondering what oddity Roy was using. Daniel took the bottle, entered the flow, poured a tiny amount into the top of the blade, then handed the bottle back to Steven. He left the room and returned to his bedroom.

  Steven followed him. Daniel raised the knife to the box, but stopped.

  “Oh,” he said. “I can’t analyze this without losing the sample of the glass man. I’ll have to wait until I get home and get this sample transferred, then I’ll take a look at the makeup of your father’s protection.”

  “So it tastes unusual?” Steven asked.

  “Everyone’s recipe is a little different, so there’s always slightly different tastes. But this one is unique. It doesn’t taste like most of them.”

  “Probably too much vodka,” Steven offered.

  “It’s liberal on the vodka, yes,” Daniel said. “But it’s not just that. There’s something else very interesting going on.” He stretched his arms, extending his fingers, feeling the protection moving through his body. “It feels like a general protection, but it feels different. Stronger, more intense and focused. Whoa!” Daniel spread his fingers wide, then curled them into a fist. He smiled.r />
  He turned to look at Steven. “Your dad makes some good shit, my friend!”

  Steven smiled. Roy hadn’t yet confided his recipe to him, but with Daniel’s help he might be able to needle it out of him.

  “You realize you won’t be going to sleep now for at least another hour,” Steven said.

  “Don’t care,” Daniel said. “I have other work I can do. Why don’t you try to sleep? I’m going to leave as soon as I wake up in the morning.”

  “Wake me up before you go,” Steven said, “and thanks for your help Daniel. I don’t know how I would have figured any of this out without your help.”

  “Oh, no problem,” Daniel said. “And let me tell you, this shot of protection was worth the trip!”

  Chapter Three

  Steven saw Daniel off the next morning and decided to spend some time with Roy’s book, which was at Roy’s house. As he drove over to Roy’s, he imagined his father and Dixon blissfully ignorant of what was happening here at home. He deserves a break, he thought. I can handle this on my own.

  At Roy’s he let himself in and put on a pot of coffee. Then he sat at the kitchen table where Roy’s book had been sitting for quite a while. Steven began leafing through it.

  It was composed of several sections, each one newer and bound to the previous sections. He was the fifth generation of Halls to be reading it, and he expected some day he’d add his own section onto the end. It was already a few inches thick and a little unwieldy to carry, but after hearing Daniel describe how rare such a book was, he resolved that when it passed into his hands he’d make sure it was freshly bound and any delicate pages preserved. Maybe he’d even digitize it as a backup.

  As he turned the pages, he kept an eye out for sections that he might understand. Most of the book seemed written in a cryptic way that made no sense. He knew the words were English, but when he read them he couldn’t piece together a meaning. Once he had some experience with a subject it gave him a personal context and he found the words began to click in his mind and their meaning cleared. Several sections had opened up to him after he’d been exposed to ghosts and some of the creatures he and Roy had come across recently. He was hoping now that he’d had a brush with the glass man he’d be able to find something in the book that helped him.