by A L Fogerty
Willa threw an illusion around Kayla, but the tornado did not slow or change course. Lightning charged into a run, the tornado gaining behind them. The wind touched Lightning’s tail.
“Faster, Lightning! Faster!” Kayla urged.
Lightning screamed as the ghost wind swirled up his tail. Kayla reached down and placed her palm on Lightning’s flank, willing her alpha strength into his body. Even though he had used too much of his strength during the journey, her magic filled him with power. He kicked up his speed, and they raced down the road, catching up with the rest of the group. Mackenzie screamed for them to take a left off of the road, and they veered into a residential neighborhood. They slipped between the houses, zigzagging back and forth until the spirit wind disappeared in the distance. Finally, they stopped, their horses panting and breathless. Lightning grunted and pawed at the ground, distraught.
“That was too close.” Mackenzie slipped from her horse.
“My magic isn’t working against them.” Willa stood beside her, and they embraced.
Riddick wrapped his arm around Kayla, holding her close to him. “I was worried there for a minute.” He chuckled. “I should have known you’d be okay.”
“I fed Lightning my alpha power. He was able to run faster.”
“Is that new?”
“It is,” she said.
“Necessity is the mother of invention,” Felix said. “That’s a common proverb that originated in England with the Latin mater artium necessitas—”
“That’s very interesting, Felix,” Kayla interjected. “What did you learn from the zombies, Mackenzie?”
“There was so much information that it was hard to sort through it. Their minds are incredibly well-preserved. Some of them have been here since the beginning.” Mackenzie was shaking.
“Just take deep breaths.” Willa stood close by, her focus never wavering from Mackenzie’s face.
“I think I know how the treasure hunters lost the spirit box. They were overtaken by zombies not far from here.”
“Let’s go,” Riddick said, mounting Dart. “If we find the box, we’ll have time for looting. Isn’t Graceland in Knoxville?”
“That’s Nashville,” Felix corrected.
“What is Graceland?” Kayla asked.
“It’s the home of Elvis, the king of rock and roll,” Riddick said, as if that explained everything.
Kayla looked at him blankly. “Elvis?”
He made a funny voice, and his lip curled back.
She shook her head. “It doesn’t ring a bell.”
“Kayla lived a sheltered life on Smoke Mountain. Not nearly as many visitors as we had in Mist Valley,” Felix explained.
“Didn’t your father teach you anything about music?” Riddick asked.
“He taught me to be an obedient daughter. That was about it.”
“You were deprived. I’m sure we can find some Elvis albums around here somewhere, even if we can’t get to Graceland.”
“You wouldn’t be able to play them without a record player. We used our last gramophone needle years ago.”
“I bet we could find a needle if we tried,” Riddick said.
“It is possible that I could rig a regular turntable from some other energy source,” Felix added. “A solar cell or a battery pack could work if we could find one that still had power.”
“This king of rock and roll must be awfully special if you’re willing to go to so much trouble,” Kayla said.
“It was here.” Mackenzie pointed to a nondescript suburban house that looked the same as every other house on the block.
They rode between the buildings then came to the back gate. Mackenzie dismounted and reached over to open the latch. She led her horse inside, and the others followed. Kayla inspected the area. Riddick dropped into wolf form, sniffing the ground as he paced back and forth to take in the entire space. They all searched, turning over every object in the backyard and kicking over stones. After an hour of relentless searching, they still hadn’t found anything.
Mackenzie sighed and sat down in a rickety plastic chair. “It has to be here.”
“Let’s search the house,” Kayla suggested.
Kayla used her magic to break the lock on the sliding glass door and stepped into the living room. The once-beige carpet had turned a dingy brown. The entire room smelled of decay. The big screen of the television sat blank and dusty in the corner, and the floral-print couch was streaked with mold.
Riddick, in wolf form, followed them inside and began sniffing around. Mackenzie, Willa, and Kayla walked into the dining room. The inhabitants had died in the middle of breakfast. Decomposed corpses sat at the table: a toddler sat in a high chair, and a man with a suit and tie hanging to his bones in shreds was slumped over the table. Another skeleton lay on the floor, and two children-sized sets of bones lay under the table.
“This is awful,” Willa said.
“The humans have had no end to suffering,” Mackenzie said. “I wish we could free all their souls to the afterlife.”
Riddick entered the kitchen and sniffed the floor. Kayla saw a staircase leading to the second floor from the front entry. She started up the stairs, figuring she might as well give the place a complete once-over. When she stepped onto the landing, she heard a small voice whisper, “Have you come to play with me?”
A little girl stood at the top of the stairs. She wore a knee-length black dress and had long black pigtails that hung over her shoulders. “Why don’t you want to play with me?” the little girl asked. Her voice was as dry as a chilly breeze blowing through crackling leaves.
“Mackenzie!” Kayla shouted. “You’d better get up here!”
“What is it?” Mackenzie joined Kayla on the stairs.
“Do you want to play with me?” the little girl asked, taking a step closer.
“Have you found anything?” Willa asked, joining them on the stairs.
“Why won’t you play with me? I have a fun game.”
“Maybe she could help us,” Mackenzie said.
“Did you find the spirit box?” Riddick shifted into human form.
A bloodcurdling scream erupted from the child’s mouth. Kayla covered her ears, the sound sinking into her soul. The girl flitted forward, weightless on the air. The four of them stumbled backward.
“Mother! Mother! Mother! Stranger danger!”
Another spirit appeared at the top of the stairs. Her face was a mask of rage. Unlike the child, she didn’t even attempt the pretense of civility.
“You dare to enter my home uninvited,” the woman said with a creaking, groaning voice. “You will pay for your insolence.”
“We were just leaving,” Riddick said.
Kayla tripped over Mackenzie, and Mackenzie fell on the floor. Riddick dropped back into wolf form and began to pull on Kayla’s cloak. Willa tried to help Mackenzie to her feet as she attempted a cloaking spell. It had no effect. The sliding glass door slammed closed. Kayla’s head snapped toward the sound. Sid and Felix stood on the other side. They tugged on the door, unable to get it open. Mackenzie was finally on her feet, and the three of them lunged to the front door. Kayla tried the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. The two angry spirits slid down the stairs, weightless on their ethereal feet. The little girl reached out with her ghostly hand and scraped Kayla’s arm with her sharp fingernails. Four tears sliced down her skin, and Kayla cried out.
“Father is going to catch you, and he’s going to eat you.”
Kayla wasn’t interested in waiting around to meet the girl’s father or finding out if ghosts really could eat people. The cut on her arm was bad enough. She gripped the handle of the door with both hands and shot it with her alpha strength. The handle broke, and she pulled at the wood, but it wouldn’t move. It was as if some disembodied force held it closed.
“Riddick, help me!” she yelled.
Riddick shifted and added his strength, helping her swing the door open. They stumbled out of the house, the ghosts right behi
nd them.
“Daddy’s home,” the little girl said. “Now you’re in big trouble.” She began screaming and pointing.
Felix and Sid led their horses and Bane out of the backyard. Kayla jumped on Lightning’s back as the rest of the party mounted. As they hurried down the street, a procession of ghosts looked up at them, and a scream rose into the still air. More ghosts gathered, alerted by the girl’s screams.
“Time to go,” Kayla said. She kicked Lightning’s flanks and encouraged him into a run. They wove back and forth between the houses.
“Did you find out anything about the spirit box?” Felix asked as they finally rounded the corner and lost the pursuing spirits.
“When the mother charged us, I cast a spell on her. She had one thought on her mind.”
“What was it?”
“‘Mayor.’”
“What is a mayor?” Kayla asked.
“A local government leader,” Felix explained.
“Did you get anything else, Mackenzie?” Kayla looked over her shoulder at the witch.
“I got the impression of government buildings.”
“We should head downtown,” Willa said. “Government buildings are usually downtown.”
“That’s as good a direction as any,” Kayla said.
Riddick grumbled, “We haven’t found any treasure yet.”
“I’m sure you’ll find some Elvis memorabilia on the way home,” Sid said.
“I’d settle for gold.”
“We should stop at a library,” Felix said.
“This isn’t a vacation.” Kayla cringed from the pain of the scratch on her arm.
“What’s wrong?” Riddick asked.
“That screaming little ghost scratched me.”
Chapter Six
“Which way to the mayor’s office?” Kayla asked, sitting in an alley behind a grocery store, where they’d stopped to deal with the scratch on her arm.
Felix soaked some herbs in alcohol and pressed the mixture to her skin. She sucked a sharp breath through her teeth, and he wrapped her wound with gauze.
“It’s northeast of here.” When Felix was done binding Kayla’s arm, he pulled out a map of the area and pointed out their current location. “This road should take us right there.”
The wound stung, and she winced when she mounted Lightning. Bane looked up at her, sending Kayla an impression of concern. The wound smelled bad.
“It’s okay, Bane,” Kayla said. “You don’t have to worry.”
For her loyal and intrepid companion to have that kind of concern, Kayla knew that something must be wrong. She couldn’t do anything about it at the moment. They had to find the spirit box and get the hell out of the haunted city as soon as they could.
They rode on through the desolate streets rotten and decayed by time. The smell of death hung heavily even though the corpses had long since turned to bones and dust. An ever-present sense of dread clung to Kayla’s skin as the horses stepped over the cracked and broken concrete of the world that once was.
“How is your arm?” Felix asked.
She placed her palm over the wound, as if trying to make it disappear. Being injured like that was a danger to the entire team. She should have reacted more quickly when the ghost child approached her. She knew that ghosts could hurt people.
“It’s fine,” she lied. She could feel the infection growing on her skin and sinking into her blood. It wouldn’t be long before it began to slow her down. “How much farther?”
“It’s about a mile from here,” Felix said, checking the map. “We should be entering the government district soon.”
The vacuum of the tornado slammed into her back before the sound of screaming voices hit her ears. She turned to find the whirlwind of ghosts blowing toward them down the road.
“Run!” She heeled Lightning in the flanks.
Her stallion bolted into a gallop. Her companions tried to keep pace, but they soon fell behind. Riddick’s horse, Dart, was the only one who could hope to keep up with Lightning. Kayla tried to rein in her mount, but the stallion refused to heed her, yanking at his head. He snorted, arching his neck as he pranced forward.
“Lightning!” she yelled, but the horse wouldn’t stop.
She twisted her head, looking over her shoulder to find the others a full block behind her, but Riddick only a few meters. Bane was nowhere to be seen. As she approached the intersection, another tornado of ghosts whooshed toward her from the right. Lightning lunged, screaming, and bolted to the left. Kayla gave him his head. Pulling him back was futile.
She hung on to the stampeding creature, trying to convince him to be calm. But Lightning wouldn’t hear it. He was terrified of ghosts and wanted out of the town. Kayla didn’t blame him.
She reached out to Bane through their mental link and received an image of the underside of a porch on an abandoned building. Bane had a smell for ghosts and knew when they were near. She was safe for now. That was more than Kayla could say for herself, her terrified stallion, or the rest of her companions. She glanced over her right shoulder and found Riddick right on her heels. He’d kept up and followed her at the intersection.
“Where are the others?” she screamed.
“We lost them!” Riddick yelled back.
She swore in a loud growl and tried to bring Lightning under control. He slowed only slightly as she turned to look behind her. The two ghost tornados hit each other in the intersection, stopping short as their momentums collided. They flung ghosts in every direction as they spun like gears moving with opposite and equal force. The ghosts screamed in disappointment at losing their fleeing meal. Some flitted after Riddick and Kayla, but most were disoriented and raging at the collision in the intersection.
Riddick angled Dart to the right at the next street crossing, and thankfully, Lightning followed him.
“City Hall is this way,” Riddick said. “The others will meet us there.”
She hoped he was right. Part of her felt the obligation to turn back, check on the group, and make sure everyone was accounted for and all right, but they were so close to their target, to their best clue to where to find the spirit box. The sooner they found it, the sooner they could go home.
They hurried along the wide avenue between the skyscrapers and Greek revival buildings that made the government district of the city. Finally, they slowed, coming to a trot outside a building with a faded sign that said City Hall.
“This is it,” Kayla said, sizing the place up.
“What now?”
“We go in. But we’ll have to take the horses inside. Lightning is liable to run off if I try to leave him out here.”
“He’s being a handful, huh?”
“Wouldn’t listen to a single instruction,” Kayla said as her horse whinnied and sidestepped impatiently. “He has a long way to go as a familiar.” She slid from his back.
She could see the fear and panic in his eyes. Letting out a long sigh, she rubbed his muzzle. Of course he was terrified. It was completely natural to be. The problem was that he was also willful and high-spirited, which meant he would do what he thought was right, no matter what Kayla said. He’d always been that way. But she’d hoped he would have settled down by then. No such luck.
“Come on, boy,” she said in a low voice, guiding the unruly stallion up the steps of the city hall building.
She pushed open a glass door, using a great deal of strength. Inside, the floor was covered in dust and debris. She held the door for Lightning. He balked, refusing to enter. Kayla dug into her pocket and produced an apple she’d saved. She’d hoped to eat it herself, but using it to bribe Lightning was probably inevitable.
Sniffing the apple, he clomped through the door and grabbed the fruit with his flat teeth. Riddick slipped in behind her, with Dart following in a more obedient manner.
Lightning chomped away on the apple as Kayla tied his reins to a brass bar across the marble counter at the reception desk. Riddick followed suit, giving Dart a handful of
oats as a reward. He patted the gelding’s back.
“Where do you think it is?”
Riddick pointed over his left shoulder at a faded directory. The floor and room number of the mayor’s office was printed in dingy yellow letters on a flaking gray background.
“Looks like it says it’s on the third floor.”
“We need to find the stairs.” Riddick pointed to a door across the room. “Ah, over there.”
A graying picture of stairs hung over a door. Kayla went to the door and pulled on the handle, but the hinges were rusted shut. Kayla yanked it, using her magic. It screeched as it slid open enough for them to get through. She gritted her teeth at the noise. Ghosts could be anywhere.
She threw one last look at Lightning and sent him the strong and uncompromising command to stay put. He grunted and pawed the floor. Kayla shook her head, hoping the beast would listen for once.
They hurried up the stairs, taking them two at a time. At the second-floor exit, they found a pile of bones in the doorway. Kayla raised her eyebrows at Riddick as they continued up. The place got worse the longer they stayed.
The exit to the third floor was closed. She gripped the door handle and pulled, using her magic to propel it open, but it was far easier to open than the first. They stepped into a dusty hallway that smelled of mold. There was a decaying directory on the opposite wall, and Kayla stepped closer, squinting at the barely legible words.
“The mayor’s office is room two-oh-three,” Kayla said.
“I see the treasurer is also on this floor.”
“Even if the treasurer had money, it would be dollars, not gold.”
“You’ve got a point.” He sighed.
They hurried past administrative offices and found the mayor’s office at the end of the hall. Kayla attempted to pull the door open with her magic, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Maybe it’s locked.” Riddick shrugged.
“It shouldn’t matter. I can break a normal lock with my magic.” After several attempts at using her magic to get it open, she stood back and crossed her arms in confusion.
“Maybe it’s got a spell on it. I can try to pick the lock.”
