by Gareth Otton
“Choose,” he said.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she answered, ignoring his request. “I didn’t want to go mad.”
“I know. It’s hard being a ghost without a Proxy. But you don’t have that choice anymore. You need to move on. I don’t want to destroy you.”
“Will I go to that warm place?” she asked. The pull on Dream was growing more intense as Tad forced her to stay sane, but he could manage for a little while yet.
“Have you lived a good life?” Tad asked.
“I think so… Though, when I went mad I… I…” She took a breath that she didn’t need and said, “I wanted to kill people, to eat their life and make it mine… I—”
“It’s okay,” Tad interrupted. “That wasn’t you and doesn’t count. If you’ve lived a good life, you don’t need to worry.”
The woman trembled under Tad’s fingers.
“I’m scared,” she admitted.
“I know, but there’s no need. You just felt that warmth. That’s what’s waiting if you move on. Warmth and acceptance. That can’t be so bad, right?”
“I suppose not. But I don’t want to go yet. I want to say goodbye to my mum, and my—”
“I know,” Tad interrupted again, his patience slipping as the strain of holding her was starting to tell. “But you have to go. You can’t remain as a mad ghost and I can’t fix it so you can stay. I’m sorry.”
She sniffed back a tear and wiped her eyes.
“Okay. But if my family comes looking for me, can you tell them I’m sorry? Can you tell them… well… Just tell them I loved them.”
“I will,” Tad said through gritted teeth as a headache formed with enough strength that it felt like someone was stabbing toothpicks into his brain. “It’s time to go,” he said.
With one last sigh, she made her choice, and the rest played out as it had a moment earlier. The second she was gone Tad staggered back, rubbing his temples to sooth away the pain, but a better pain remedy arrived a moment later when the warmth accepted this new soul.
“They were so scared,” Chakikra said as the feeling passed. “None of them meant to do this. It wasn’t their fault.”
“I know,” Tad said, thinking exactly that and knowing why she brought it up.
Tad had destroyed mad ghosts before, but always they were evil people who would prefer destruction to whatever punishment might be waiting. He never had a choice but to destroy them as it was before he could force a ghost to move on. But even without a choice, it stained his soul. To put such a permanent end to something, to wipe it out of existence, it tore away a part of him every time. Tad held the opinion that there were only so many times he could do it before he had nothing left of his soul to give.
When Tad thought of that scared woman being ended for something as simple as being too terrified to move on, he felt sick to his stomach and furious beyond anything he’d felt since he’d faced down Joshua King for doing the same thing. He was glad Trevors men weren’t with him right now because he wasn’t sure what he’d do.
He was rescued from dwelling on that thought as more ghosts spilled from the darkness, and he had to start the process all over again.
8
Wednesday, 16th November 2016
19:45
Stella yawned and rubbed tired eyes, ready for this day to be over. When she looked up again, she found Kimberly staring at her like she was seeing something amazing.
“Did you just yawn?” Kimberly asked.
“Busy day,” Stella said.
“Must have been really busy for you to be tired. Are you okay?”
Stella smiled, touched by her concern but not knowing how to answer. There were a lot of questions fighting in her head about what she had done and why it exhausted her. Leon had answers, but she sent him home when Lizzie showed too much interest.
Thinking of the reporter made Stella look around, trying to find her. She hoped she hadn’t left because Stella needed to talk about her footage. She soon found her, moving through the now brightly lit reception, interviewing as many people as she could find.
“I guess not,” Kimberly said.
“What was that?” Stella asked, turning back to her friend.
“I asked if you were okay, then you spaced out. I suppose that gives me my answer. You should go rest.”
“I don’t have time,” Stella answered. “How are you doing? This must be an enormous setback.”
“We’ve been preparing for this day. But I won’t lie, this hurts.” Kimberly sighed and leaned against the reception desk. It was her turn to rub tired eyes. “We haven’t been getting the best press anyway, as people don’t like ghosts. But I hoped we were turning things around. I think this undoes that.”
“I’m sorry,” Stella said. “I wish I could have—”
“No. This isn’t on you. Something like this was destined to happen. We just need to find a better way of dealing with it going forward.”
“You should speak with Mitena,” Stella suggested. “Her dreamcatchers stopped those ghosts from leaving the building, and she has new ones that can trap nightmares. Maybe she can make similar designs for ghosts.”
Kimberly frowned. “I saw that on her show. I don’t like the thought of that happening to one of my ghosts. They won’t come here if we mean to trap them.”
“Maybe Mitena could design a system that’s dormant until activated in a crisis. I don’t know. But I’ll put you in touch.”
Kimberly glanced to where the Dream Team tactical units were finishing up a quick meeting, and nodded grimly. “Yeah, that might be a good idea. I don’t want a repeat of today. The cost was too high.”
Stella winced and nodded in agreement. “Do you know which ghosts were…” She couldn’t bring herself to finish her sentence.
“Not yet. We might never know for sure.” She looked away from the Dream Team to something else, and her frown deepened. “I’m not sure how happy I am with her doing that after what happened today.”
Stella followed her gaze to see Lizzie had moved to another interview, and this time she was talking to a ghost. Considering it was an interview with Lizzie that started this mess, Stella understood Kimberly’s reluctance.
“I’ll talk to her,” she said.
Kimberly thanked her, then moved on to one of the thousand tasks waiting for her to get this place back up and running. Stella made her way over to the reporter.
“…know the names of the ghosts who moved on today?” Lizzie was asking the frustrated ghost.
“For the last time lady, no. I haven’t had chance to catch up with anyone.”
“Please call me when you know more? Your friends deserve to be remembered.”
“Lizzie, enough. Let that poor man go,” Stella insisted.
Lizzie turned and the ghost used that distraction to escape. She started to follow, but Stella held her back.
“Leave him alone,” Stella insisted.
Angrily, Lizzie shook off Stella’s grip.
“I was just talking, there’s no law against that.”
“There’s also no reason I shouldn’t make you wait outside with everyone else. The only reason I haven’t is because I thought I could trust you to behave, unlike those animals outside. Do I need to rethink that?”
Lizzie’s expression didn’t soften, but she bit back her automatic response and shook her head.
“I thought not. Now, please leave the ghosts and staff alone. They’ve been through enough.”
“Fine, I’ll talk to Trevors and his guys. They look like they’re brooding about something and… Hey. Stop grabbing me.” Lizzie shook free of Stella’s grip for a second time and glared at her. “What? You going to stop me speaking to them too? Who isn’t off limits? I’d speak to that guy who looked an awful lot like you if you hadn’t sent him away. I want to talk to the ghosts, but that’s not allowed. The staff are off limits, Trevors’ guys are off limits. Is there anyone I can talk to so I can do my job?”
“You can talk to me,” Stella said. “And then you can go. I think you’ve done enough for one day.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means your pushing is what caused this, and you aren’t learning your lesson.”
“Don’t put this on me. I came here because the ghosts were already acting strange. This would have happened regardless. You’re just trying to make me feel bad because you’re scared of what I’ve got on this.”
She lifted her camera and waved it like it was a smoking gun.
“I’m telling you a hard truth,” Stella disagreed. “This is a shelter to help ghosts with troubles. It stands to reason there would be strange things happening. That’s why the staff handle things delicately, to stop this powder keg from exploding like it did today because you marched in with your camera and a bullish attitude, walking over anyone who wouldn’t give you what you needed.”
Lizzie rocked back like she’d been slapped and moisture collected in her eyes.
“This wasn’t my fault,” she protested.
“This was the result of a lot of things going wrong all at once,” Stella admitted. “But you know as well as I that your questions were the spark that set off the explosion. I know you didn’t do it on purpose, but you need to take responsibility for your actions. I’ve given you a lot of leeway for everything you’ve done for Tad, but don’t let that get to your head.”
Lizzie wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as she tried to look affronted, but her tear-stained cheeks undercut that expression.
“You’re right, I have done a lot for you and Tad, which is why I’m getting fed up of you shutting me out. I have earned the right to more respect than that.”
“Earned?” Stella asked. “You think that’s how this works? Everything me and Tad are doing is to help people. Your aid with that is appreciated, but it’s also the right thing to do. Don’t start thinking we owe you something, especially when it’s only for personal gain.”
“Personal gain? I’m informing people. You don’t like to hear it, but people have a right to know about this. If journalists didn’t exist to keep people like you honest, this would be a darker world.”
Stella opened her mouth to argue, but realised she was getting nowhere. She also saw Trevors’ guys getting ready to leave, and needed to end this conversation so she could speak with them.
“You know what, Lizzie. I’ve changed my mind. There’s no reason to keep you around when you get like this. I’m going to go speak with Trevors and when I’m done, I want you gone. I suggest you think about your attitude if you ever want another scoop from the Dream Team.”
She didn’t give Lizzie chance to answer before walking away, headed for Trevors. She could feel Lizzie’s eyes burning a hole in her back the entire way, but she ignored it. Already her mind was shifting to her next confrontation. This day couldn’t be over quick enough.
“Trevors, wait,” she shouted when the Dream Team started activating their dreamcatchers and vanishing. For people she had to force to travel by dreamwalker on multiple occasions, they had taken to it quick enough now they were the ones in control.
Trevors looked up, then swore under his breath before saying something to one of his men. That man nodded and suddenly Trevors’ men disappeared even quicker, going three at a time until only Trevors and Harry remained.
“Didn’t want me to talk to your men?” she asked, her tone frosty.
“What the hell do you want? It’s been a long day already and if it can wait, we can talk about it in the morning.”
“No, it can’t wait,” Stella snapped. “The Prime Minister will want to talk to me tonight and I want to tell him I have addressed this situation.”
“What situation?” Harry asked, his voice dripping with hostility.
“The situation you caused when you thought it was okay to murder ghosts,” Stella snapped.
Trevors rolled his eyes and Harry looked at her like she was crazy.
“How can you murder something that’s already dead?” Harry demanded.
“You know what I mean. You destroyed those ghosts without giving them a chance to move on.”
“We were doing our jobs and protecting the public,” Trevors answered, his voice only a little less hostile than Harry. “That’s what we’re supposed to do in case you’ve forgotten. Or did you want people to die today?”
Stella ignored the question as she recognised it as a way to distract her from her point. He didn’t think she wanted people to die, he just wanted to put her on the defensive.
“You were doing your job?” Stella asked. “So you stuck to the guidelines we created together and brought a dreamwalker with you today?”
“What for?” Harry demanded, pointing to the black tattoos on his arms. “With these, any advantage those freaks gave us is long since gone? Now they’re just untrained idiots and liabilities.”
“I agree,” Trevors said. “They only make every situation worse and thanks to these dreamcatchers we don’t need them anymore.”
“So you can calm a mad ghost to give it the chance to move on without needing to be destroyed?”
“You know we can’t,” Trevors said, prepared for this question. “Which is why I’ll talk to Mitena to upgrade our dreamcatchers to make up for that.”
“You’re missing the point,” Stella said. “The reason dreamwalkers are so important is that they can adapt to any situation. Those things you were tattooed with are only good for one purpose. You don’t have to put them out front, but dreamwalkers are your backup. And don’t feed me shit about them not being trained. We’ve had the team together for half a year. If they needed training, then why aren’t they trained?”
When neither of them could respond she added, “You used to know this, Trevors. That was why you insisted they be part of every team. I don’t know why you’ve changed your mind, but I suggest you get your head strait. Today was a disaster. I’m tempted to fire the lot of you and start over from scratch. If I could, I’d arrest you for what you did today. That was an abomination.”
Harry looked like he might explode, but Trevors held him back and sneered at Stella.
“No, the abomination are the freaks you want us to work with and the situations they keep getting us into. You keep forgetting that this is your boyfriend’s fault. Freaks like him cause nothing but trouble, and when we clean up the mess, you have a go at us for it. We were doing fine before you got here. It wasn’t ideal, but we were saving lives. You forcing us out only took longer and put more lives at risk. I can’t wait for this law to pass and for us to handle this properly. There’ll be no hiding behind the Prime Minister then. The law will be very clear on what we can and can’t do, and we’ll be able to protect the public, just like we were always meant to. Not protecting the interest of freaks like that.”
He pointed across the room to where Tad was looking awkward as he spoke with a group of ghosts who were crowding around him. Stella could read his guilt from across the room. Every one of those ghosts was desperate for a Proxy and Tad wasn’t ready to do that. She sympathised. After experiencing what it was like to merge with someone, she couldn’t imagine doing it even once more, let alone the hundreds of times necessary to help these people.
“What happened to you, Trevors? You never used to think this way?”
“That’s because I was naïve and woke up to what a danger they really are. Once that law is passed, we will be free to do what’s necessary to protect people from them.”
“Well, it isn’t law yet, so if you want to keep your job and those dreamcatchers, then I suggest you and your men think about changing your attitude. I can’t work with a team who hates the people we’re trying to help.”
“Trying to help?” Harry exploded, and he was about to say more when again Trevors stopped him.
“Don’t. She’s got her pet reporter filming this. It’s not worth it mate.”
Stella followed his nod to where Lizzie was filming their argument instead of l
eaving like Stella had ordered.
“She’s not my pet reporter,” Stella argued, but again Trevors just rolled his eyes.
“Whatever. Come on Harry, let’s get out of this place before the stink of this shit show becomes permanent.”
Before Stella could stop either of them, they vanished, leaving her with no outlet for her rage.
How has it come to this?
The trouble was that she could guess at an answer, but it didn’t help. Trevors had never been the same since the night he took Jen from Tad, and thanks to arseholes like Harry, it grew worse with every passing day. The Dream Team looked up to Trevors, and with him changing his opinion, they were quick to follow.
Stella didn’t know how to get a handle on this, and that helplessness only made her angrier. She needed an outlet for that rage, and out of the corner of her eye she found the perfect source.
Spinning on her heel, she marched to Lizzie, growing angrier with every step.
“I told you to leave, not film a private conversation between me and my men.”
“You forget, Stella. You’re not my boss,” Lizzie snapped, packing her camera away in her bag.
“But I am in charge of this crime scene and you’re not leaving with the footage on that camera.”
Lizzie laughed and shook her head. “You’ve got another thing coming if you think I’ll delete my footage. I’m fed up of you telling me to bury stories. I’ve played nice until now, but you know what, go to hell, Stella.”
Stella stepped close to Lizzie, fighting the very real urge to strangle her.
“I won’t ask again. Give me that footage. Releasing it will only cause more trouble and fear. It doesn’t help anyone.”
“It won’t do you any good,” Lizzie said. “I back up all my footage to the cloud, so even if you delete it, I’ve got copies. I’m done with you silencing me, and I’ve learnt my lesson.”
Stella stared at the reporter like she was seeing her for the first time.
“What’s wrong with everybody?” she asked. “When did you all forget why we’re doing this and that we’re all supposed to be on the same side?”
