by P. S. Power
As the nervous girl sat next to her, on matching over-sized blue pillows that really weren't that comfortable, she leaned over, closer than was needed and whispered.
“I hate this. It's like we're waking up things just to bother them or something. I don't think we should do it, but it's Eve's night to pick what we do. I guess this is better than her bringing over a bunch of guys we don't know... Maybe.” Hally leaned into her warmly, bumping shoulders, which passed to Keeley that she was only looking for comfort in the moment at least. That and she thought Keeley smelled nice.
Keeley shrugged and didn't bother to really whisper yet. Everyone could hear her and they didn't have the lights off.
“I don't really think it will be a problem. It's just a game. See, there on the box? People are smiling and having fun. A harmless activity for ages eight and up.” That was all, right?
Some people didn't seem to think so, Gary and Eve looked pretty serious, for instance, but Darla rolled her eyes, catching Keeley's first. It wasn't until Eve, brushing her short hair out of the way and setting the board up along with the little scooty thing they were supposed to touch, the planchette, whispered at them that Darla had a real problem with the events.
“OK, everyone, clear your minds and think only good thoughts, or we may summon a demon from the depths of hell, instead of a good helpful spirit. We should invoke the name of Jesus first and possibly a few others, like Buddha and that blue guy the Indians like...”
“You mean Krishna? Or possibly Papa Smurf?” Darla said, glaring just a little for some reason.
“I really don't think that we have to worry about demons, do you? Even if we did, why would a bunch of fake religious figures help us at all? Jesus is just a storybook character. I don't want to be mean about it, but we might as well summon the ghost of Snoopy and Spider-man to protect us.”
Eve rolled her eyes in return.
“Seriously miss buzz-kill, can't you let me set the mood at all? I'm just saying we need to be focused on good things. Now, everyone close your eyes for a moment and try to envision a white light, filled with the spirit of Christ's love surrounding us...”
Keeley did close her eyes for a second, but a hand touched her arm, getting her to open them. Darla had reached across the table and shook her head emphatically for some reason. Then she mouthed a single word.
“No.” The word got matched with a single, sharp, shake of the head.
Keeley got that she shouldn't shut her eyes, but the rest of the meaning went past her. Which was annoying, since she normally understood what was going on pretty well. She felt like it at least. The others had their eyes closed, so they waited for the black hair and slightly dark complicated girl to speak again, her loose white t-shirt almost seeming to glow in the near dark, showing the flickering candle light clearly.
“Now,” she intoned, an actual “intoning” lilt to her voice, like in a bad movie when the gypsy woman is about to tell a made up fortune to an unsuspecting mark in a brightly colored tent.
“I call upon the spirits of good, of light! Part the veil and work through this humble board to send us messages from beyond. We seek only the kind, the gentle spirits from the other side, no others need visit. When you are ready, please move our hands to guide us to the truth.”
Then, carefully, she placed one finger on the little tan triangle, and looked at the others until, one by one they did the same, just touching it ever so gently with their right index fingers. Darla moved before she did, sitting almost across from her, smiling, but she shook her head just ever so slightly a second time. A move that was pointed and directed at Keeley, who pushed her thick glasses up before moving, taking a moment to watch and see. Something most people didn't really bother with, even though they thought they did.
Darla wasn't actually touching the device at all.
Her finger hovered above the plastic, barely noticeable in the dim room, the flickering orange and yellow making it hard to tell who did what. Quickly, before anyone would think she was just too chicken to try something new, Keeley followed suit, holding her finger just out of contact with the device. Darla's mouth moved silently.
“Good.”
OK... Keeley didn't get the reason, but it was clear that Darla didn't really want her to play the game with the others. No big. It didn't make sense, but then, the whole night had huge holes in it that way, didn't it? They just followed the board around closely as the others moved it, tiny muscle movements directing it over the letters and numbers in a figure eight pattern.
“Is anyone there?” Eve said, her voice awed.
The little slider moved until it went to the word yes on the side that Keeley sat on. Everyone worked together, but Hally, sitting furthest away from the word had to strain a little to reach that far, which clearly pulled the little object off center. No one else seemed to realize it. When the thing stopped, Hally looked uncomfortable, her slightly odd position being construed as tension, Keeley guessed. The girl gasped.
Really? What did she expect? The little thing moved to yes... because they'd pushed it into place. It wasn't magic or anything. They sat there and could see it happening if they bothered to look. No one seemed to, except her though. Even Darla got more into it. Or pretended to. She still didn't touch anything.
The next half hour was like that, Hally getting more and more worked up, actually frightened at times and the other two pushing the thing around the board playing into it. Starting out nice, but eventually giving more and more dark and evil sounding answers as the night went on, as if trying to work the tiny red-head up. Maybe they were. They seemed to be getting pretty anxious themselves, Keeley noticed.
Suddenly one of the candles flickered. It wasn't a big thing, it could have been random, but then it happened again.
“Um, a breeze...” Gary said, not sounding sure at all.
Only there wasn't a breeze at all and Darla shook her head slowly, staring at Keeley, as if trying to tell her not to freak out. Then the candle went out. Everyone yelped, though Keeley got in late, a step behind the others, taken by surprise. Not by the yelling or the candle going out, but by the fact that a skeletal shape in pale blue stood next to the candle when it happened. See through, wispy. A faint shimmering in the air.
The eyes looked like pits, empty sockets, and the skin like ice or maybe an electric curtain in the air. It wore robes, also blue, but she could tell they were supposed to be another color. Brown maybe, or black. Or a deep blood red. There was a thick hood in the back, like a monks simple robe from the dark ages, meant to actually keep them warm and protect from the weather. The haircut seemed right too. Very, “Friar Tuck”, the top being gone and the sides straight and short. He wore a heavy wooden cross around the neck, the grain of the rough piece visible, which added to the effect.
The thing's thin and bony hand stuck out, a cold chill running from it as the arm moved. Sending goose bumps down her spine, as it pointed first at Eve, then Gary, and then at the last, almost as an afterthought, at Hally, who pulled her hand from the planchette and hugged herself, shivering.
“Suffer... Unbelievers.” It whispered with a thick accent, just as the second candle went out too.
Hally screamed.
It was just reaction to the lack of light, Keeley understood instantly.
Because the others didn't see the spectral monk at all.
Chapter four
After a few seconds the others all started laughing, led by Gary, who was “manning-up” and leading the others to not take the whole thing all that seriously. Keeley got the idea, even before the boy spoke into the dark.
“OK, who blew out the candles?” His voice was wry and giggly.
After a few seconds Darla laughed too, her pitch low and menacing sounding.
“Mwa ha ha! You cannot survive... the yes-yes board!” She lit a match, the light dim, but enough to cast an aura around the room. The candles were re-lit quickly, expertly.
“Yes-yes?” Hally said quietly, her voice shak
y and tense.
“Oui and Ja both mean yes in other languages. So it means yes-yes. In other words it mainly just tells you what you want to hear. Of course what we want to hear can be surprising sometimes, don't you think.” The girl sounded confident, and looked at the others with a smile.
Keeley stared at the specter, who, for his part, stared at the others. Except Darla, who also hadn't touched the pointer. After a few seconds the blond reached out to touch her arm, obviously her, even in the dark. Again there was that eerie blankness to the contact, no information passing at all. It was like silence being pushed into her head practically.
“Oh wow guys, I think we've weirded poor Keeley out. Maybe we should take a break for a while? We should probably turn Gary back in to his dad before he thinks we're stealing him forever anyway. Eve, why don't you take my car and do that? Hally, would you go with them and make out with Gary on the doorstep for a bit? Make it look good?”
Hally took a deep breath.
“Yeah, no problem.”
They packed off easily enough. Really they seemed almost grateful to get out of the room, and since the blue toned monk thing didn't go anywhere, but did keep following the three around as the lights came on, Keeley figured that could be why they wanted to get away from the situation. She had to fight not to stare at it, her eyes wanted to follow, but if she did it would look like her mom's cat, Peaches, staring at faeries in the air.
In other words, she'd look insane. She hated looking insane. Instead Keeley smiled and tried to relax.
“Hey, no problem. Probably that thing with the candles when Darla blew them out. That was pretty precise, but I felt it when you missed the first time... Pretty tricky! I almost thought there was a real ghost in the room or something for a minute.” It was acting, but seemed to be the order of the day, so why not?
The other girl sighed as she led the small group toward the door.
“It's what I get for not practicing first, isn't it? It was a pretty good trick otherwise though, don't you think?”
Keeley did. Especially since she knew for a fact that Darla couldn't have hit the farthest candle at all. The lip of the container wouldn't let her, no matter how hard she'd blown, not without standing up at least. Then she'd also see the monk and still did. She just went along with the claim anyway. It didn't mesh with reality, but the others all suddenly seemed calmer.
“Hah! I knew it was you. Or, well, Keeley maybe. But she doesn't seem the type to mess with people like that.” Eve sounded suddenly convinced of the matter, even as she subconsciously crossed her arms and shuddered a little. The monk was standing right next to her, glaring.
The girl felt it on some level, that was clear. She reacted to it, but didn't know why.
“Do not suffer a witch to live!” The thing suddenly yelled. The sound was hollow and after a few seconds Keeley realized that it wasn't a real sound at all. No one else responded, though she jumped, which made the others look at her funny.
Sigh.
“Sorry, I know it was just a joke, but, um, jumpy now.” She knew it sounded lame, but the others all just nodded, not wanting to admit to their own nerves.
“Don't worry Keels. We can keep the lights on while they're gone and just talk, how about we go over some poster and decorating ideas for homecoming? We need a theme...”
The others all waved as a group, an in unison thing that had to have been practiced at some point, almost like chorus line girls in a show. It was cute, but showed that they all had way too much time on their hands and spent a lot of that together.
“Bye!” They all said at once too.
Then there was more laughter. Well a fun enough group, except for the ghost or whatever it was standing there, trying to follow the trio out the door. Whoever the man had been in life, he really had a mad on for anyone trying to contact the dead. Being that he was dead himself that kind of meant he was a jerk, didn't it? If he'd been alive he probably would have gotten a phone, just so he could scream at the solicitors that called.
On the good side, it didn't move fast, seeming to float without its feet touching the ground under the garment it wore. Creepy. Not scary though, just unusual. At the door Keeley reached out and put an arm between the thing and the people leaving. They weren't real friends yet, but she didn't want it to...
Do whatever it was going to try to.
She braced herself not knowing if the contact would hurt or not but the thing stopped without touching her arm, a good six inches away from her, just hovering in place. Back in the room Darla nodded as the door shut and walked out of the room, leaving her there, in what had to be a ridiculous pose, left arm out, just standing there in front of the door. She'd probably gone to get a camera, Keeley realized. Well, it looked a little dumb, but no one would actually care about it. A lot of people stood in weird poses for pictures.
What Darla came back with was a lot different than she'd imagined. It looked like a clear glass pickle jar, the big kind, except that it had a glass lid with what looked like copper wire wound around the inside of it. From the way she held it, the thing wasn't exactly light. It had a glass rod with it, to which she tied a string that was in the container, and then held the whole thing out, the white bit of thread glowing in the air as she touched the specter with the clear glass wand, holding the large jar under her left arm like a football.
The creature, ghost... thing, shrieked.
“Back Demon! The Lord Jesus Christ compels you!” Then it started praying and making the sign of the cross.
For some reason Darla didn't back off. Keeley would have, it was being kind of aggressive. All pushy and shouting as if it had a right to drive her away in her own home.
After a minute it was barely visible, trapped as it was between the “jar of doom” and her own outstretched arm. It was interesting enough that Keeley even forgot to be embarrassed about the funny pose for a few seconds. Finally it faded altogether.
Darla grinned.
“And... Done. Thanks Keeley. That would have taken forever if I had to chase it around the yard with this thing. I don't even have the circus theme music set up. No one really cares about what you do, as long as it's set to music, have you ever noticed that?” The blond set the whole thing on the tall table near the front door, a brown wood with an almost black tone to it and slapped the lid into place the second she got the string tucked back into place in the middle, using the glass rod to do that and just the tips of two fingers. Then she tied the glass wand to the outside of the whole set-up and quickly walked it back to her bedroom, without saying anything more.
Getting the idea that she wasn't needed to play ghost guardian anymore, Keeley decided to move to the living room and sit on the sofa while she waited, not knowing how long the whole thing could take. The answer was; not long at all. Less than a minute even.
Darla jogged down the stairs happily, a big smile on her face and leaped over the arm of the easy chair across from her, landing a lot more lightly than the move should have allowed. A mere puff which even her hundred and ten pound frame shouldn't have allowed. Then the girl leaned forward, an almost conspiratorial look on her face. Slowly, as if it had great importance she took a breath to speak.
“So... Themes...”
Keeley blinked. Several times. Then staring at the girl she shook her head.
“What? We aren't going with twelfth century monastery? I figured that was your clever way of introducing the idea, since you obvious know more about that... whatever it is, than I do.”
“Oh, that? Don't let the robes fool you, that thing was definitely a last century knock-off. A lot of diehard religious people, the really fanatical ones, do that when they die. There's no heaven for them, so they think they aren't worthy and try to make life a pain for anyone having any fun at all. Trying to prove themselves to god I guess. Most people actually figure it out after a while, that they've just gotten rid of the part of themselves that isn't an energy pattern in the background of reality and that the rules are just
a bit different, but some just like to hang on to the old ways, no matter who it inconveniences.”
Getting up suddenly the girl went to the kitchen.
“Want a soda? I have six flavors. I make the syrups myself. Or if you want anything different I can probably come up with something. Coffee? Tea?”
“Um, do you have cream soda?” She asked, not wanting to be rude, but also a little more interested in both the ghost thing and the fact that Darla, spoiled looking little rich girl living alone, had countermeasures already in place. Because that was normal. Everyone had weird magical ghost jars sitting around, right? Really, it kind of trumped the sports car and classical music on the scale of weird for the evening. Nearly as strange as the ghost itself.
“I do. Just a sec here, already made up...” It took a minute but came with ice in a chilled glass.
When the girl came back in she looked relaxed and happy. Pleased even.
