by Dale Mayer
An idea formed in the back of his mind. Was there a way to take that huge mess of little parts and pieces and finish them for good? Most were collected at one place – at least from what he could sense.
Focusing was getting harder. He was so out of time. If only he could find the answer for one last push.
Had someone interfered in his process? He wasn’t sure what else it could be. He wasn’t doing a great job lately – he’d thought the last one should have been a shoo-in, but there appeared to be a tiny little bit of him left there. As if the job had only been partially completed.
That shouldn’t have been possible. The aftermath should have finished the rest.
And somehow it hadn’t.
That couldn’t be allowed, but someone had stopped the burn. He could sense that bit of himself still there but it was fading quickly. Something had happened. Someone had happened.
He needed to cut out one of the biggest drains now. He’d held off, thinking the kid might be an alternate landing spot. But it wasn’t to be.
And now he needed to fix that one and fast.
He had to have all the power he could find for that final blow.
*
Eric sat up in bed and waited for the lady to put his food in front of him. He sniffed the air experimentally and brightened. Burgers? He was starving. There was something that looked like a pudding. His stomach settled lower and some of his appetite waned.
His mother stood up from where she’d been sitting at his side. In an overly bright voice, she said, “Lunchtime. Open it, it smells great.”
“It smells terrible,” he muttered. He took the lid off and a half grin popped back up again. It was a burger. Just a little dull, flat, burger – but it was a burger. And fries. Now he smiled. Lifting one, he happily bit off the other end. “Hey, it’s pretty good.”
“Great. So maybe you’ll eat today?” she asked hopefully.
Eric nodded. “I’m hungry.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful.” She sat back in her chair and watched him as he worked his way through the burger and fries. By the time he got to the pudding he was hitting his stride. Too quickly it was all gone. He frowned as he checked over the tray. “Mom, do you think they have any more?”
She gasped in happy surprise. “Why don’t I go and look?” She almost ran out of his room.
He pushed the small mobile table away to lean back. He wanted to go home. He hated it here. Hated the stuff he’d been through. He wanted it over.
Too bad. It’s never going to be over for you.
Eric froze.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were gone,” he whispered. Oh no. His gaze darted around the room. He needed the dragon slayer.
“Stefan?” he managed to croak out. “Stefan,” he cried louder. But only silence was his answer.
Until the dragon in his mind started to laugh. Say goodbye, little one. This time no one will be there to help you.
The scream that ripped from Eric’s mouth echoed throughout the hallway of the hospital. In the background he vaguely heard the sound of running footsteps.
Then he heard nothing more.
Chapter 31
“This is delicious.” Celina ate slowly, savoring the novelty of having someone else make her a meal. She enjoyed cooking but this was a treat.
“Thank you.” She loved the smile in his voice. “After lunch I’d like to see if Jacob is awake. I’d like to go visit him if he is.”
“Sure. He’s doing much better now, so maybe this afternoon we can head over there.”
Enjoying the food, she took another bite and froze as Stefan took a harsh gasp of air. Then his arm hit the table with a thud and the fork clattered onto the plate. “Stefan? Are you okay?” No answer. And she thought she knew. “Are you having another vision?” she asked hurriedly. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Worse. Back soon.”
But he sat in front of her, frozen in place. She reached across and covered his hand with hers. He didn’t need her. She needed him.
“You shouldn’t touch him when he’s in a vision.”
Celina snatched her hand before she realized she was taking instructions from a ghost. A teenage ghost at that. “Lissa?”
“Yes. Stefan has gone to help someone.”
“How can you tell?”
“His energy raced off almost in a panic. He does everything for everyone. No one does much for him.”
Celina tilted her head. “He’s very self-sufficient. I think most people imagine he doesn’t need anyone. Or they might not know how to help him.”
“And you – where do you sit?” Lissa challenged.
Ah. Time to embrace this. “Why don’t you like me, Lissa? There are few ghosts that I’ve met who have your abrasive personality.”
Lissa laughed. “I’m only abrasive with you.”
Bewildered, Celina said, “Why? I didn’t even know you before yesterday.”
“No, you didn’t, but I recognize what you’re doing and I don’t like it. I don’t imagine any ghost does.”
Anger rose up. “Look, you don’t have to like me. That’s fine, but if you’ve got a problem with me tell me.”
“You think you can talk to ghosts.”
“I do talk to ghosts,” Celina snapped. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you.”
“And you have a lot of ghosts in your world, right? Been there for a long time.”
“Too many of them, yes. But it’s a gift I can’t refuse. If I can help them, then I try to help them. They should be crossing into the light. You should be crossing into the light. Not sitting here and haunting Stefan.”
Lissa sucked in a deep breath.
God, what a conversation. “Look, I’m sorry. I understand that Stefan is special for you and that you…” Celina waved her hand helpfully, “evolved somehow. That is seriously cool. But just as I try to help my ghost friends to cross into the light to continue their journey, I feel I have to tell you to do the same thing.”
“I can leave anytime,” Lissa snapped. “Can you say the same thing about all the ghosts in your world?”
Celina sat back. There was something edgy in Lissa’s voice. Something brewing. Something important. She really wished she could see her cleanly, but the edges of her form waffled and sparked as if from the emotion pouring through her. Whatever she was bothered about was really upsetting her.
“Yes. They are all free. I don’t keep them with me.” She waved her arms around. “There aren’t any here with me now. They come and go as they please. I presume they come to me because I can see them and because I can help them.” Celina kept her voice gentle, calm. Realizing how cocky that sounded, she quickly amended her words. “I can help some of them.”
“Only you don’t. You call them to you with your music, with the promise of being able to talk to you, and then you bind them to keep them at your side.” Lissa spat out the last words. “Forever.”
*
Stefan dove into Eric’s energy system. The screams of terror had brought everyone within hearing distance into the little boy’s room. That was only going to make Stefan’s job harder.
The predator was there.
And not there.
Stefan raced to the injured site, to the tiny cadaver bone, and studied the depth of the blackness. It went right through. The best answer would be for that bone to be removed. Eric was correct there.
But they didn’t have time to make that happen right now.
He needed the predator’s energy to be separated from that piece. As he stared at the heat level rising from the actual organic material, he finally realized that’s exactly what this predator was doing. He was killing off the bone and the boy with it, by raising the temperature of the surrounding areas, the membrane, the walls of the veins melting, letting the boy bleed out.
He was killing off the bits and pieces of himself that had been given to other people to help them live.
Why he’d do that Stefan
had no idea.
He wished he could communicate with the man.
You can, but it won’t help you save the boy, the predator snapped. And who the hell are you?
Stefan ignored the question, asking his own instead. Why would you kill him?
Stefan couldn’t see any one specific soul to communicate with so he sent out his thoughts in a surround-sound pattern. At the same time he pulled one of Dr. Maddy’s tricks and slipped a tiny bit of energy inside the actual bone. And carefully, with as little pressure as he could, he let the cool healing energy work its way into the bone at the DNA level.
Dimly in the outside he could hear nurses and doctors working on Eric, but Stefan knew the real battle was right here. Right now.
He needed to know why this asshole was doing this.
Connected as they were, Stefan heard the harsh laughter in his head.
I had no choice. You try living like this. Splintered. Fractured. In a million tiny pieces waiting to be transplanted so other people can be healed.
So other people can live better lives, Stefan murmured.
What about my life? What about my horrible existence?
Stefan slipped more and more energy into the damaged bone. Fighting for possession of something long dead made no sense. The doctors would say the cadaver bone was just a tool to help rebuild Eric’s leg.
But there was life in that bone long past the point there should have been. Somehow, this man had continued to exist in the various parts and pieces as his body was dissected and used in organ transplants. Just the thought made Stefan’s stomach heave. God, what a horrible existence.
Damn right, the other man said bitterly. I can’t do this. Then I realized that several of my ‘pieces’ had more consciousness than others. I started to gain in strength a little bit at a time. Maybe enough of me had been transplanted out that they could all find each other here – wherever here is. Do you know how lonely this has been? To think of this going on for decades and decades? I couldn’t do it.
Until? Stefan prompted. He poured more and more energy into the bone, filling the cells and slowly moving out the blackness. Replaced it with light, healing blue. He worked from the very center out, gently pushing the other’s energy to the edge. He didn’t try to shove it completely out yet – he needed the bone to be full of vibrant energy before he made that last transition. The blackness appeared to contain a residue left in it. Or rather, someone left in it. Used pieces parceled out to others in need. Which then made him more victim than anyone could know.
God, that sounded horrible.
It is horrible.
More energy poured and pulsed. A light-blue core glowed deep inside. More energy. Feverish, and knowing the predator – and how could he call him that – would understand what he’d done soon enough.
The blue glow brightened, swelling outward and filling the bone. A glow lit up behind the blackness. Stefan didn’t want to envelop the black energy. He needed it to disappear completely, but he didn’t know how to do that…unless the man could separate on his own. And he’d have to have damn good reason to do that.
What’s happening? the man cried. It’s not supposed to do that. Is that you? What are you doing?
I’m healing the bone so the little boy can live, Stefan admitted. You can detach and go to wherever it is you need to go.
No, I need the energy from here, he cried.
For what?
For her. To make her pay.
Stefan’s heart froze. Pay for what? How?
For killing me! For forcing me into a lifetime of tortured existence. He laughed, but it was harsh, pained, agonizing for Stefan to hear. Imagine how I felt when my consciousness had collected together enough to understand what had happened and by whose hand. I want her to see me. To know what she did to me.
She couldn’t have known that you would be conscious through this process. Hell, who could know?
She must have, he snapped. I was perfectly healthy and I was with her, then nothing. She killed me. I will kill her. But not yet. Not until I’ve made her suffer first. That same laugh ricocheted in the air. Then I’ll take her out – but leave her as a shell to be cut into a million pieces forever.
Christ.
Stefan shook off his restraint and poured as much energy into the blue volcano as he could. The temperature was rising as this asshole turned up the heat. That’s how he’d managed to kill off his separate organs – by utilizing his anger, his hatred, to focus on one spot, and that rage had created enough heat that he could destroy the tiny piece of himself. And like any rage it was always looking for an outlet. Hence, the need to take out as many people as he could while killing off himself. And if the organ recipient had any rage for him to draw on, it made him that much more powerful.
Stefan still needed answers. He had to save Celina.
You won’t save her, the predator screamed, rage flowing through him, but Stefan was stronger and the more rage the man sent out the more loving energy Stefan poured in to protect Eric.
No, the predator screamed. I will win.
Then it was as if a bomb went off inside the child’s leg.
The final massive blast shocked through Stefan. Frantically he poured more energy and realized it was no longer his energy. Dr. Maddy was there, calmly securing the rest of the child’s leg from the damaging rays and systematically, with the loving touch she was so well known for, wrapping up the last bits of heated energy and cooling them down.
It was over.
Eric was safe.
Stefan collapsed.
*
Brandt picked up the phone for what had to be the fiftieth time this morning – as soon as he’d exited his meeting with the captain. That had been a hard sell. Yet the look on his face as if something crawled over his skin when he’d understood – priceless.
God, how horrible.
He knew that the chance of getting the information he needed without a warrant wasn’t good, but he’d also found this morning that Dr. Maddy’s name opened doors, windows, and probably safes if he tried. He shook his head and waited for the clerk on the other end of the line to answer.
“Yes, we have records in that name. Tissues were collected on June seventeenth – almost a year ago.”
“That’s a match. Is there any chance that any of that tissue is still here? I understand you are always short, but just thought I’d ask.”
“No, sorry. Some of it was deemed not viable when it was taken for transplant, and the rest was used about ten months ago for a Vanessa Coller.”
“Perfect, thanks. That matches my records.”
He hung up the phone and realized it all lined up. A horrible, nasty line that made him reconsider the possibility of something like that happening again. He had the organ donor system set up in case anything happened to him, but the last thing he wanted was to wake up fractured like that into an existence of only time and space – and endless awareness.
He shuddered.
Now to check with the organ bank. Maybe it was a good thing that there was always a shortage on organ donors, as it would mean all this man’s body parts had been placed in people already. According to the chart on the wall, most were dead too. The few he knew to still be alive were Eric and Vanessa. Thankfully. But what he couldn’t do was connect Celina to the same man. Then again, he hadn’t been able to get any information from her eye surgeon either. He’d contacted Dr. Maddy for that.
If she could confirm that it would be perfect.
But he’d learned a long time ago that nothing in life was perfect. And as he looked at what this man had gone through he realized death was no final answer either.
*
Dr. Maddy got off the phone and considered the information she had on file with the information Dr. Jorgensen had provided. Both matched and provided little that was new. The car accident had broken several of the occipital bones around Celina’s eyes and there’d been some damage to the surrounding tissue from the swelling. One optic nerve had parti
ally detached and was successfully reattached. Even then she should have had vision in the other eye. Instead, she was blind in both.
The bottom line was that Celina had never had a transplant.
That surprised Dr. Maddy. She’d been sure that something of the predator had been given to Celina. But apparently not. The surgery had been simple and shouldn’t have affected her eyesight at all. She’d had poor eyesight going in, but after the surgery, when the swelling had gone down her sight should have returned.
So they were still missing that one bit of information.
Why her eyes? Why had the predator settled in her eyes?
And that deep into her system. Unless it was someone she’d loved. Who’d once loved her. Who was in her heart chakra already.
Because she’d loved him.
Because he’d loved her.
And why her eyes?
She realized it was likely very simple.
Because he could.
She’d been injured, but the facial injuries had been the worst. Therefore the weakness.
Giving him more power. More control.
The accident gave him an opening and he took it. Settling into the one area he, with his stronger energy, could dominate.
And once he’d grabbed hold he’d been able to control everything – except what was around her.
Because she couldn’t see.
Now, at least, Dr. Maddy knew why she couldn’t.
Chapter 32
Celina heard Stefan’s loud groan as if from a long way away. Then again, she’d been in a fog herself since Lissa had delivered her hefty blow. It certainly explained Lissa’s animosity towards her, but nothing in that explanation made Celina feel any better about herself. Was she trapping ghosts? Was she so lonely, so unstable, that she’d had to trap people who didn’t want to be here beside her so she wouldn’t be alone anymore?
She leaned back, her mind consumed with the number of ghosts she’d kept just out of reach. Had she brought them in only to push them away? Chained to her at her own convenience?
