by Jamel Cato
Branus stood at the mouth of the cave shouting, “Beware all who pass!”
Before the soldiers could regain the bravery to return, the couple negotiated passage on a vessel bound for Ceto, where Medusa bore many daughters and Branus refined his alchemical formula from a simple trick of light into a full glamour capable of producing false senses of touch, sight and smell. Each of their daughters, all cursed with Medusa’s hair, was gifted a Branusian Necklace and an admonition to avoid money changers, an oath their descendants honor to this very day.
By the time the tale of Medusa’s demise reached Sisyphus, and then Greece, by passing from the mouth of one drunken sailor to the ear of another, it had been embellished into a mythology that told of a mighty warrior named Perseus slaying a fearsome gorgon with a mane of snakes who turned all who gazed upon her into stone.
* * *
Marianna stretched and rolled her head, letting her scaled locks of obsidian hair slither about her scalp and neck. “Margouix made me do it. I left sloppy clues for Eve so you would know it was happening.”
“Margouix? So, you’re a demi-gorgon and a Talker now?”
“I’m definitely not a Talker and I won’t be much of a demi-gorgon if my hair doesn’t get more exercise.”
“Your hair needs exercise?”
“All muscles need exercise.”
“How are you communicating with Margouix?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. She started making herself visible and audible to me a few months ago.”
“What did she want?”
“In the beginning, mostly anthropology research papers. Lots of stuff about cross civilization contact. Later she wanted everything I could find about the physics of Astral energy, including pie-in-the-sky pamphlets from new age kooks. She clearly didn’t know that ghosts can manipulate electrons, so she forced me to be her Internet research assistant.”
“What do you mean she forced you?”
“She threatened to expose me to Nap.”
“She knows you’re a gorgon?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“The Spaniard recognized my necklace.”
“Felipe?”
“Yes, he’s almost always with her.”
“And he’s able to communicate with you the same way Margouix does?”
“Not at first. I mean, I could see him and hear him, but I don’t speak fifteenth century Spanish, so I had no idea what he was saying. Then one night he handed me a Rosetta shard.”
“Like literally handed it you?”
“Yes. I was a little freaked out because I didn’t know ghosts could do that. I thought they didn’t have any mass in the physical world.”
“They don’t,” I said.
“Well perhaps you should add some new entries to your Monster Encyclopedia.”
“What else did Margouix make you do?”
“She had me hack into EnviroTech, some law firm in North Carolina and your systems.”
“Why my systems?”
“As far as I can tell, she’s trying to keep tabs on someone named Naaru and the progress of your investigation. She had me put a beacon on your calendar so she could track your movements. She wants an alert every time you go to Charlotte.”
“What was she looking for at EnviroTech?”
“Everything about the wave receivers, and I mean everything. Schematics, databases, PowerPoint decks. She even had me break into Purdue’s network and grab old research notes from Danny Lin’s dissertation advisor. She also wanted me to find out where they were storing the deactivation codes and overwrite them with random strings.”
“Were you able to do that?”
“No. EnviroTech has triple A cybersecurity. I had to put down more than a hundred false trails and change my IP addresses every sixty seconds to keep them off me. The codes aren’t stored on any media accessible from a network. According to emails I sniped, Danny and Kit have them memorized.”
“What do you think she’s up to?”
“I’m pretty sure she’s trying to build her own wave receiver.”
I leaned back in my chair. I hate finding out I’m a pawn on someone else’s chess board.
“I need your help,” I said.
“Great, more blackmail.”
“You know I don’t operate like that. I’m asking for your help, not demanding it. And regardless of your answer, you have my word that I will never share your secret with Napoleon or anyone else.”
She clamped her enchanted necklace back around her neck. “What do you need me to do?”
Chapter 25
I loaded up my car for a road trip, then made a pit stop by my office.
As I retrieved several items from a security closet, Eve asked, “I take it you’re going on a graveyard run?”
“Yes, later tonight,” I confirmed.
Aware the items I was gathering would never make it through a TSA checkpoint, she said, “I’ll cancel your flight.”
I filled her in on my plan.
“You’ll need a lot of luck and help to pull that off.”
“I know,” I said, emailing her a list of people I wanted her to contact and an updated copy of my Will in case my luck ended before my plan did.
I headed out the door.
But I came back a few moments later.
“Get cold feet?” she asked.
“Do you think I’m a chronic flirt?”
“Absolutely.”
“Really? But I’ve never tried to flirt with you.”
“You don’t flirt with me because I make myself appear to you as someone your mother’s age.”
“How do you make yourself appear to everyone else?”
“Everyone else? You mean the other beings on the Astral Plane and the five other Talkers in the world?”
“Everyone who is not me,” I clarified.
“It wouldn’t be good for you to see that. I don’t want to complicate our productive working relationship.”
“Show me.”
“Preston…”
“Show me.”
She sighed and transformed from a middle-aged white woman who dressed like an unhappy waiting line enforcer at the DMV into a twenty-something, red-headed bombshell with more curves than the Pasadena Freeway.
My mouth dropped open.
Gathering myself, I said, “They named you Eve because your loveliness is first among the beauty contemplated at the dawn of creation.”
“See what I mean,” she said, aging her appearance thirty years in less than a second.
“I’m kidding, Eve. Listen, I respect you as a colleague, a woman and a friend. I would never cross the line of propriety between us, nor would I knowingly do anything that might jeopardize our friendship or working relationship. I couldn’t lead the life that I do without you. You never need to hide anything from me.”
She broke eye contact. “You should get going. It’s a long trip and you know how you hate driving at night. I’ll add some funds to your E-Z Pass balance.”
Chapter 26
I pulled my car up to a darkened section of the rusted fencing that enclosed a cemetery in a rundown section of Charlotte.
I cut off my headlights and turned to Vanessa, who was in the passenger seat dressed in a windbreaker, jeans and calf-high rubber boots. “Last chance to back out, no judging.”
“Do you speak Spanish?”
“No.”
“Them I’m coming.”
“Okay, but I have to warn you that strange things happen when I show up at a cemetery.”
She laughed.
“What?”
“Strange things happen when you show up anywhere.”
“I can’t deny that, but stepping into a graveyard turns the stove on high.”
“How high?”
“Almost every cemetery in North America is guarded on the Astral Plane by Native American spirits who were created to preserve the sanctity of the dead. These spirits attack Talkers on sight.”
“Why?”
“But if they’re on the Astral Plane they can’t hurt me, right?”
“Normally that’s true. But the spirits in this part of the country, on the Piedmont Plateau, are especially strong. They’re called Occaneechi Waki. There have been a few cases of them entering the physical world and killing grave robbers.”
“And you’re telling me this at the cemetery?”
“Outside the cemetery,” I corrected her. “Seriously, you can stay in the car. No harm, no foul. You can sit here and track me on your phone with my GPS beacon.”
“I admit you have me a little shook. But how will you communicate with her if I’m not there to translate?”
“We can do it over speakerphone.”
She looked down at her phone, which activated its screen. Then she held it up to me with a frown. “No bars.”
We crept slowly through the headstones, keeping our heads on a swivel.
Vanessa scanned our immediate area with a high power flashlight while I scoured it on different wavelengths with my Astral Lamp.
An astral lamp is a spectrographic instrument which can detect the unique atomic particles that exist on the Astral Plane, making them ideal for giving advanced warning of the presence of someone carrying traces of astral energy, such as ghosts. The one I owned had enchanted Egyptian hieroglyphics painted on its glass for extra reach and an incandescent bulb that blinked when it detected astral particles.
Vanessa’s flashlight made a sudden swing to the right, illuminating a tiny pair of reflective eyes.
“Racoon,” I whispered. “C’mon, this way.”
I led her toward the largest crypt in the graveyard, which was easy to spot amidst the grid of flat and chipped headstones that occupied the majority of the burial ground. I’ve visited hundreds of cemeteries around the world and this was among the most neglected I had seen. Weeds sprouted everywhere, obscuring the names of the dead and feeding a large population of nocturnal rodents. Because there was no overnight security, the soil surrounding many of the grave sites had signs of recent disturbances. We passed at least two plots the thieves had not even bothered to fully refill.
“So many rats,” Vanessa said in a low voice. “It’s grossing me out.”
“It’ll be over soon,” I said to comfort her despite having no idea if it were true.
One of the branches of the lopsided Chinese privet shrub we had stepped over ten seconds earlier snapped behind us.
We both twirled, bathing the shrub in harsh light. The outline of a large footprint was pressed into the plant’s leaves. The footprint was much too large to have been left by either of us.
My lamp started blinking.
I tightened my grip on the hilt of Felipe’s battle axe.
A dark figure zipped in and then out of the cone of light beaming from Vanessa’s flashlight.
I glimpsed brown fur.
“What was that?” Vanessa asked, futilely trying to track it.
“Duck!” I shouted.
To her credit, Vanessa dropped to the ground a whole second before my axe swung through the airspace formerly occupied by her head.
The axe’s blade sliced into the torso of the onrushing Waki.
The mahogany furred beast, which was seven feet tall if it was an inch, roared in pain and surprise, then tripped over Vanessa’s prone body.
I was the one who roared in surprise next when a strong pair of claws to my rear gripped my shoulders and yanked me off my feet like it was pulling a Kleenex from a tissue box. The axe handle slipped from my hand.
Vanessa screamed.
My back hit the ground hard, knocking the air from my lungs. Thankfully, I had the practice and presence of mind to roll, which caused the Waki looming over me to rake its claws into grass instead of flesh.
I used my thumb to flick off the cap atop my astral lamp, which I had not dropped in the fall. I thrust the uncovered device at the Waki above me. The beam of orange light emanating from the top of the lamp singed the creature’s face, incinerating its eyes, nose and fang filled mouth. It died quietly, unable to scream.
This made its comrade turn its attention from Vanessa to me. It reached out and grabbed my ankle. The tips of its claws pierced my skin. I stifled a yell and errantly pointed my lamp skyward instead of forward.
Vanessa stabbed the Waki in the back of its thigh with the dragon scale knife I had given her in the car.
It grunted and fell to one knee, blindly swinging its left claw behind itself.
I shone the light from the Hellfire ember which powered my lamp right at its heart. The light burned cleanly through its chest, leaving a smoking round hole. It fell forward, dead.
I reset the cover on my lamp and crawled over to Vanessa. “Are you okay?”
“I think so,” she said, swatting a sizzling chunk of Waki flesh from her windbreaker. “What about you?”
I smiled. “Good as gold.”
I got to my feet and then pulled her up, grimacing at the ache that gesture spurred in my bleeding ankle.
She looked down. “Good as fake gold.”
She retrieved the first aid kit from a pouch in my pants, then disinfected and bandaged the cuts.
“Put your arm around my shoulder and keep the weight off it,” she said.
I did as directed and we started making our way back to the car.
“Were those the okey-nokey things you told me about?”
“Yes,” I said, hopping along.
“They were way bigger than I pictured. Thank you for saving me.”
“No, thank you, Nessa The Warrior Princess. You poked that thing like he stole the last jar of baby food before a snowstorm.”
The racket of our laughter was why we didn’t hear the third and final Waki sneaking up on us.
It grabbed us by our necks and lifted us off the ground.
Our laughter morphed into panicked screaming.
Then we were unceremoniously dropped.
I flipped over in time to see the Waki’s head fall from its body. It had been cleanly decapitated.
After the beast’s lifeless body toppled to the ground, I saw the ghost of Emala Castillo standing in the moonlight, primed for another swing of Felipe’s axe.
Chapter 27
When I stepped out of Bobby’s home office with my arms full, Pat met me with a loaded revolver.
“Preston?”
“Hello, Pat.”
“What are you doing here? How did you get in?”
“It’s a long story.”
She looked down at what I was carrying, then leapt backward with her hand covering her mouth. “Oh my gosh…Oh my gosh.”
“Pat, calm down.”
She pointed an accusatory finger. “Is that Tammy Balzano?”
“Yes.”
“Is she…”
“Yes, she’s gone.”
“Why…Why do you have her body? And why in God’s name are you bringing it out of Bobby’s office?”
“I came through the gate the same way the Wruvians do.”
“They had Tammy all this time?”
“Yes.”
“Did they k—”
“No, she was already gone when they took her body to study.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because Naaru told me and because I have a video recording of the killer snatching her from the playground.”
“You do? Who was it?”
“You can watch the video for yourself. There’s a copy of it on the green flash drive I just left on Bobby’s desk. I’d like you to send the video to the Police in three days.”
“Why are we waiting three days?”
“Because that’s how long I’ll need to save you and Ronnie.”
* * *
After I reunited Emala and Tammy in the spiritual world by burying Tammy’s body in the
soil of Earth, I drove to Vanessa’s house covered in sweat, dirt and exhaustion.
I had refused to let Vanessa accompany me into Wruvia after Emala told me that’s where I would find Tammy’s body. I had no idea how the Wruvians would respond to my incursion and her life had been placed in enough danger for one night.
I dragged myself onto her front porch and reached out for her doorbell.
That’s when I noticed the door was cracked open.
My heart sank.
“I need help,” I whispered into the air, being sure to extend my voice into the Astral Plane.
Five ghosts from Vanessa’s neighborhood faded into existence around me. The promptness of their appearances told me they had already been nearby, almost as if they had been waiting for my call.
There were three women and two men, all African American, each sporting clothing and hairstyles from a different decade.
I pointed at Vanessa’s front door. “Is there anyone in there who shouldn’t be?”
They all avoided eye contact with me.
I found Vanessa’s body in the bedroom. She was facedown with her right arm twisted unnaturally behind her back. A thin stream of blood from the gunshot wound in the back of her head had flowed down her neck and formed a pool. The blood was almost dry, so the murder had happened hours ago, when I was out saving two people who were already dead instead of the woman who had given me new life.
“Who did this?” I asked the quintet of ghosts who had followed me inside.
“It was a white man,” said a heavyset woman wearing an outfit from the nineteen forties. “But he was all covered up like a cat burglar except for his wrists and the skin around his beady eyes.”
“That jive turkey had on some dynamite boots,” added a male in bell bottomed pants. “He was an Army man. If I don’t know dat, I don’t know nuthin’.”
“Thank you,” I said.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Eve.
She answered on the second ring. “Preston? Is everything okay?”
“Code Purple,” I said.
“I’m on it,” she replied before hanging up.
I put my phone away and sat down on the floor next to Vanessa’s body. Then I cried.
