The Ghosting of Gods

by Cricket Baker

  Taking a deep breath, I tell them what’s happening back on our world. I explain about the missionaries and their intentions to haunt and evangelize our world.

  “Priests are in on it,” I say at the end, avoiding Poe’s eyes. “That’s why the decree to stay out of cemeteries. Crystals are being buried over graves. So that…so that skeletons will resurrect and be able to tag themselves with the ghosts that get trapped in the crystals.”

  “Mother Mary,” Poe whispers. “The chains ghosts wear—that’s where the chain comes from. Jesse? Are you okay?”

  Ava’s quick. She puts it together. Me in graveyards. The crystals. “It’s a lie, Jesse. It’s impossible. Don’t believe it.”

  Poe says nothing. He hugs me.

  Ava persists. “Jesse. Are you listening to me? Don’t believe it. It just can’t be. Skeletons running about, dragging chains with crystal balls?”

  “We’ve seen it here, haven’t we?”

  This silences her.

  “God won’t allow it,” Poe insists.

  He doesn’t know I’ve already found Emmy in a crystal. I push him off.

  Ava takes him aside. They whisper together. Then silence.

  I dry my face and take Ava’s hand. “I’ve got to tell you. I know what’s wrong with Leesel.” I relay Chastity’s theory about Leesel being sleep deprived—and brainwashed—so that she could work for the coven. “She’s getting a drug in her tea to keep her awake.”

  Ava’s eyes widen. “Those—”

  “Quiet,” Poe warns. “Somebody’s coming.”

  Ruth arrives at our hut with Leesel in tow. “I thought you would want to visit with her,” the covenist says, giving Leesel a little push. “Elspeth is out of the village, so I…I’m giving you this chance with her.”

  Leesel grabs a handful of Ruth’s red spiraled hair and yanks hard.

  The witch cries out. Wiping tears from her eyes, she says, “That’s the third time she’s gotten me.”

  Leesel, holding several hairs in her fist, ignores us. She’s brought books, and she spreads them on our table. Opening every one of them, her eyes go from one to the next, as if she’s reading all the books at once.

  “Excuse me,” Ava says. “How long are we to be prisoners here?”

  Ruth appears amused. “Prisoners? My dear, we are offering asylum, not a cage. We have no sacristies here. Rather than an accusation of malevolence on our part, I expected to receive your gratitude that we are saving your daughter. Our village is the safest place for Leesel.”

  “She’s ours,” I respond, my voice tight. “Let us go.”

  She shakes her head at me. “Not until it is safe for the coven.”

  Baffled, I hold out my hands, begging her. “Why would we need to stay? What do you know that you’re not telling us?”

  “It’s what I don’t know.”

  “They’re using Leesel,” Ava accuses.

  A commotion outside the hut takes Ruth’s attention. Covenists shout numbers. A man’s voice carries over it all.

  “Elspeth!”

  Looking out the hut, I witness a crowd of witches in sackcloth dresses shouting equations at a man who’s climbed partway up a tree. He’s jabbing a shepherd’s staff at them. I recognize him.

  It’s the man who gave us the chain letter that was signed by Saint Thomas. The one we saw in George’s town.

  “What have you done with Elspeth?” he demands to know in his elderly voice.

  31

  only her ghost screams

  “Come down from that tree, you fool,” Ruth commands. “What are you afraid of?”

  “Only of bearing witness to the heresy of the unfaithful. I doubt your sanity.”

  Ruth signals for the coven to calm. She draws closer to the tree and holds up a hand as if to help the man down. He hugs the tree more tightly and grumbles something I can’t hear.

  “Saint Thomas, I apologize if my sisters have offended you. But surely you do not wish to keep yourself lodged in this tree?”

  “Let him climb higher,” one of the covenists yells. The crowd titters.

  “I received a cordial invitation from Elspeth,” Saint Thomas announces in a loud, if warbly, voice. His lustrous black hair covers his eyes, and his head bobs around as if he’s lost in the dark, unable to see. He pats the limbs around him so that he can find handholds to move further up in the tree. “She demonstrates a proper respect for me. Many times we have shared a cup of tea. Thirteen times. I doubt her sanity. She invited me.”

  “Yes. We are aware of her unnatural relationship with you.”

  He slips, nearly falling from the branch on which he’s balanced. Several leaves shake loose as he fumbles around, his muscular legs kicking inside his robe. “Elspeth! She invited me. Elspeth!”

  “Here.”

  My jaw drops.

  It’s not Elspeth. It’s Chastity. But her face…it’s bruised. Blood dots her lips, and a wide scrape covers her forehead. Her once straight and silky hair in streaks of blond and brown is tangled and black with dirt. As she walks forward, I see that she limps.

  The covenists watch Chastity’s approach with apprehension on their faces. Saint Thomas lifts hair off his eyes and gawks. “I doubt her sanity,” he says, and climbs higher in the tree. But it’s another reaction to the presence of Chastity that worries me.

  Ruth’s arm is raised, and she extends a long finger. “Why do you bring us the body of the seer?”

  Confused faces fill the crowd, but gradually, expressions of understanding dawn in the eyes of the covenists. Oh, some say, and others, Oh, no. Collectively they withdraw to leave Ruth facing Chastity.

  “Why do you bring this battered body here?” Ruth demands.

  “For healing.”

  “And what transpired that she requires healing?”

  “I accidentally harmed her in my anger. She deceived me. I didn’t mean to do it.” She turns, looks directly at me. “Please, don’t think bad things about me.”

  Chastity holds her body straight and still. She doesn’t sway in the way she did when I was with her. And then I understand. It’s not Chastity.

  It’s Elspeth possessing Chastity.

  “No,” I whisper, closing my eyes, not wanting this to be.

  I can’t trust my feelings. I felt drawn to Elspeth, but she’s capable of horrible things. She’s hurt Chastity.

  Calling two women to her side, Ruth bades the rest return to their work. Reluctantly, they go. She nods curtly. “Very well, Elspeth. You may heal her. Until you return, we shall keep her in your lab.”

  “Thank you.”

  Ruth’s hand is shaking. She notices, and swipes it in an angry gesture. “Enough. Come out of her.”

  Chastity’s spine twists. Her back arches, her hands fling over her head. She freezes in this position. I stare in horror at her contorted figure until her body crumples to the ground. An arm folds unnaturally beneath her. Tremors begin in her feet and move up her legs; her entire body begins to seize.

  She screams.

  I rush to her, fall to my knees, try to restrain her. She’s thrashing on the ground, shrieking as if fire douses her body.

  Poe arrives to help. “What’s wrong with her? She must be possessed. Jesse, help her. You can help her!” He looks at he crowd around him. “Jesse can help her!” He holds out his bottle of holy water to me.

  Holy water is useless, but I’ve never admitted this to the priests or Poe. There’s only one person I ever dared say this to, and she’s standing behind Poe, frozen in disbelief. Unlike Poe, Ava realizes the danger of asking me to perform an exorcism in Memento Mori. “No, Jesse,” she mouths, panic developing on her face.

  Chastity screams till her breath gives out. Curling into a fetus position, she whimpers.

  I make The Sign of the Cross, I whisper a quick prayer. I’m afraid to cast Elspeth from Chastity’s body. Afraid…I will hurt one of them. Do I destroy ghosts forever? I don’t want to do that. Most are only lost, confused…

&
nbsp; Chastity’s chest rises and falls with quick breaths. Tears spill from her huge eyes. My skin confines me, I hear faintly.

  When I hear voices in my head, I know that an exorcism is about to happen. Poe slaps the bottle of holy water in my hand.

  “What are you doing?” Ruth demands.

  Release me, Chastity says, her voice stronger now inside my mind. Skin me.

  Ruth gets in my face. “Stop this,” she hisses at me. “Elspeth is already gone, you religious fool.” She pushes me away and kneels at Chastity’s side on the ground. “Hush now, Seer. Get up. These sisters will help you.”

  Chastity stops her whimpering. Two covenists help her to stand. Her eyes lock onto mine for a moment, and she moves as if to come to me, but she’s taken away. Though she leans heavily on the women, I recognize the slight sway of Chastity’s body.

  “I thought Elspeth was possessing her,” I find myself saying to Ruth.

  “She was gone the moment Saint Chastity fell to the ground.”

  Saint Chastity?

  Ruth grabs me by the arm and drags me in the direction of our hut. Poe and Ava are already ahead of us, escorted by other covenists. “Saint Thomas will want you caged,” Ruth says. “You have revealed your identity as an exorcist. I must convince him you are merely insane, which shouldn’t be difficult. Stay in your hut and do not come out. Do you understand?”

  “Yes. But…if Elspeth was gone once Chastity fell to the ground, why was she screaming? What did Elspeth do to her?”

  “We’re familiar with the screaming phenomenon. On the few occasions we have been truly free of our ghosts, we have heard them screaming in despair. Once Elspeth was gone, Saint Chastity’s ghost came back. Screeching.” Her chin trembles. “It is the way of ghosts. If we could rid ourselves of them without dying, we would.”

  I’m flashed back to the chapel, with Poe peacefully smiling beside me though I hear him screaming.

  What happens to our ghosts that they scream upon release from our bodies?

  Chastity cries out from across the village. I push against Ruth, to go to Chastity, but a group of witches appears from nowhere. They clutch needles in their hands.

  I’m afraid of needles.

  “Stay,” Ruth commands. “No matter what you hear. Elspeth is a talented healer, and we shall assist her when she returns to the camp in her own body.” Her stern expression turns anxious. She rushes off, leaving me confused.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” Ava says. I flinch, but she’s not looking at me. She’s glaring at Poe.

  He shrinks. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked Jesse to risk himself with the exorcism.” He turns to me. “I’m sorry, Jesse. I just…was frightened for that girl. And I knew you could help her.”

  Ava throws a bowl at him. “Jesse’s an apprentice exorcist. You know he only works on dwellings, never people. And exorcism is treason in this world. How can you be so stupid? I’ll never forgive you, Poe.”

  He sputters, falls silent, then rushes to the doorway. I block him. “Wait, Poe. She didn’t mean it. Ava’s scared, we’re all scared. You’re not to blame. I was going to do it anyway. Okay? Are you listening to me?”

  “Let me go. Please.” His face is blotched red, and his eyes swell with tears. “I don’t want to cry in front of her,” he whispers fervently.

  I let him go.

  No covenists intervene. They merely watch him run off.

  Gripping the doorway, I wait for the worst of my anger to pass. But it’s not going anywhere.

  I turn to Ava.

  32

  it was a lie

  Ava defiantly sets her jaw. Using her fingers to comb tangles out of Leesel’s hair, she speaks. “He deserved it. Jesse, he had no right to ask you to risk yourself like that. And for what? That girl. Who the hell is that girl that you would risk yourself? She’s no one. She means nothing to us. But you mean everything to me and Leesel. Did you even think of what might happen to us if we lost you? Did you? You’re supposed to protect us!”

  Leesel sighs with exasperation. She gathers up parchment and moves to a corner of the hut. Yawning, she returns to her work.

  “Ava, Chastity was screaming. Did you expect me to do nothing? I had to try!”

  “Oh, Chastity. The monster who abducted you and Leesel, dropped you in a pit, and held you for two days while I was sick with fear of what had happened to both of you. Forgive me, Jesse, for not understanding why you felt compelled to risk us all by playing exorcist for her.”

  “This is about Poe. He’s the kindest person in the world, yet you break his heart without blinking. What’s wrong with you? You keep asking me why I don’t want us together. This is the reason. You don’t have a heart.”

  Her defiant expression falters. “What?”

  “Not for others. Yes, you love Leesel. You love me. You love us so hard, but no one else. There’s something wrong with you.”

  “That’s not fair. It’s not true.”

  “Belittling Poe is a hobby for you. The best thing you feel for him is pity. And do you know what, Ava? You’re not half the person he is. Poe is the sweetest soul I’ve ever known. He’s like Emmy was.” I lose my voice, but I swallow. Keep talking. “He’s my brother. Do you know why he asked me to help Chastity? He can’t bear to see another human being suffer. Compassion is his nature. But you know nothing about that.”

  She begins to cry. “Stop saying these things. You’re hurting me.”

  “Like you hurt Poe?”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

  Her tears have no effect on me.

  “Jesse, please. It’s weird, how he believes he loves me. If he would only leave me alone…he’s so strange. What do you want from me? Do I have to be with Poe for you to like me again? To let me and Leesel live with you? Is that what you want?”

  “That’s sick.”

  Wiping away her tears, she looks at me angrily. “I’m not attracted to him. He’s physically undesirable to me.”

  Opening my mouth to retort, I suddenly realize Leesel is listening to us. She’s sitting, thumb in her mouth, her books and papers forgotten. Ava sees too, and goes to her.

  Sighing, I turn away.

  Poe stands in the doorway.

  “Look, Jesse, Leesel is done studying,” Ava says, her voice falsely cheerful. She looks up, a bizarre smile on her face, and sees Poe. The weird smile vanishes.

  He heard enough. I can tell by the whiteness of his face. His neck strains, as if he’s swallowing hard in an attempt not to cry.

  Ava has the decency to look ashamed. “Listen, Poe…”

  “It’s okay,” he interrupts, only letting himself glance at her. He speaks in a rush. “Elspeth is back. It was a lie, Jesse.”

  I don’t follow what he means. “What was a lie, Poe?”

  “They were never going to let Elspeth heal Chastity. I saw them ambush her as she entered the camp. They knocked her unconscious and dragged her away. Saint Thomas saw too, and he’s livid. And he knows you’re an exorcist, he’s going on about your treason. Ruth is trying to calm him down.” He shuts his mouth. Looks down. “It’s my fault,” he chokes.

  I tell him it’s not. I hug him, but he’s stiff.

  “Ruth told me to come back here,” he continues, his voice monotone. “She tried to convince Saint Thomas that you’re mentally disturbed and not a traitor. But Saint Thomas insists on speaking with you in order to verify your insanity. Ruth says…” He wipes at his nose. “Ruth promised me she would try to protect you.”

  Ava holds Leesel in a death grip, looking as wild as she did when we found her in the skeleton tunnels.

  “That’s not all,” Poe adds. “Ruth says to warn you to stay away from Elspeth, to not get too close to her.”

  “What do they think she might do?” Ava asks in a tight voice. “Why do they feel they need to warn Jesse?”

  I answer when Poe can’t. “Elspeth thinks I can find her ghost. The first one she had before she died and another one p
ossessed her. It’s crazy.”

  “You’re an exorcist,” Poe says.

  “So?”

  “All the covenists are obsessed with ghost stuff. They want to get rid of bad ghosts. Seems like a big coincidence to me that here you are—an exorcist.”

  “Poe’s right,” Ava says. She goes to the hut doorway, looks anxiously out into the rain that’s begun to fall. “They’re all interested in you, Jesse. Remember how the coven prodded at Ruth’s ghost when it went out of her body? They hate ghosts. It makes sense that they’re interested in you. You may be the only exorcist around. The rest have probably been imprisoned, right? So something’s going on here.” Ava paces, her arms crossed over her chest. “Right now Ruth is trying to save you from Saint Thomas, so he won’t take you away. Why?”

  “Ask Leesel,” Poe says.

  Ava frowns. “Ask her what?”

  He points at Leesel, who yawns time and again. “She’s been here a long time. She must know something.”

  33

  witches want to melt

  There’s a rap at the doorway.

  “I’m sorry,” says Hannah, the little girl who claims to be Leesel’s friend. She uncovers a tray with food and tea. “We though you might need to eat and drink.” She passes out biscuits. Pouring a cup of tea for Leesel, she stirs in a powder from a pouch she conceals in her hand. The rest of us don’t receive the drugged tea.

  Hannah whispers in Leesel’s ear and giggles, but Leesel only yawns.

  “Drink your tea, you’ll feel better,” Hannah says. She kisses Leesel on the cheek, waves goodbye to us, darts back out into the rain.

  “Are your studies going well?” I ask Leesel. I bump into her shoulder before the teacup reaches her lips. Most of it spills. “Woops. Sorry. Here, I’ll give you mine.”

  Leesel takes a sip of my tea. Making a face, she sets it aside. Ava places a biscuit in her hand. Dutifully, Leesel nibbles. Yawns. My hope is that she’s not too sleepy to talk, but she’s sleepy enough to let down her guard and answer my questions.

  “Leesel. Can I hold you?”

  She holds out her arms to me.

  Lifting her, it’s clear that she’s lost weight. I cradle her in my arms. Right away, her thumb slips into her mouth. I think how many times Ava and I have pulled out that thumb, telling her she’s too old for that. What did it matter? The rest of Leesel is consumed with things she’s too young for.