by Cat Knight
“She slapped me!” the woman screeched. She removed the hand that covered her cheek, revealing the bright red mark.
Keira slowly began to calm down, the realisation of what she had done hit her and her own mouth dropped wide open.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she stammered,
“Get away from me. You’re a lunatic.”
Keira looked at the blood on her hand. There was no point trying to explain. Her face crumpled in remorse and shame and she looked at the ground. The manager’s voice came through to her consciousness.
“Collect your belongings. Don’t come back.” She looked up to apologise and he was the colour of a beetroot. Fury and embarrassment clouded his face. Customers milled around, as though watching a dramatic TV episode. The severity of the situation Keira was in hit her as she felt mounting horror. The woman backed away with a mortified expression and someone else was saying. “She should sue the little bitch.”
“Wait, please!” she pleaded. The manager interrupted her.
“No! Don’t say a word. You’re fired. Don’t make any more of a stink than you have, just leave!”
He turned to the woman with an apologetic expression, “I’m so sorry about that. It’s no excuse but she’s hasn’t been herself lately. Let me find a way to help you.”
Keira looked at the woman, who had shrunk back from her, and around the store at the other people observing the scene, all stopped and staring. Colour had started to creep up into her neck, she could feel it burn.
Pushing away from her station the shame pounded at her and her journey to the employee break room to collect her belongings was a blur. The eyes of the entire shop burned into her back. Apart from that, the only thing she was completely aware of was that she was terrified of herself. She couldn’t even clearly remember what she had done. All she could recall was the blinding rage, then her hand stinging and her nose bleeding. Keira had never felt so abased in her life as she had these last days, and to make it worse, she had little control over herself or her actions. Would the darkness never end?
It was midday, as Keira stomped home. The morning fog hadn’t really burned off, so the sunlight that would have normally warmed her back wasn’t present. It was only a mile’s walk from her apartment to the grocery store. A lucky thing, since she had no car. Her nose was still bleeding and she wiped at it again. Her mood matched her stride.
I mean, if you really think about it, that woman had deserved it. I know exactly what was meant when the woman said I had all that blood on her hands. Even the ghost knew I hadn’t meant to kill anyone. Why did that woman have to be such a nasty bitch? And what right did the manager have to treat me like that? I wasn’t even given a chance to defend myself. They didn’t understand. They didn’t get it.
I’ve through too much to be working anyway, but I came in out the goodness of my heart and did them a favour. If I hadn’t come in, someone else would have had to work. And this was how they had treated me!
Keira wiped her nose again, rage filling her slender frame and causing her to shake with fury. She tromped up the stairs to her little apartment.
Her rage was so strong that her hands shook as she attempted to unlock the door. The silver key skittering around the hole until she managed to jam it in. Turning it the key roughly she threw open the door, then slammed it shut, pacing around her flat like a caged cat. How dare he fire me over defending myself against a customer’s vicious verbal assault. Customers complained all the time, and yet I was fired for putting one in her place? That one who dealt a particularly low blow? Who did they think they were? Ugly, FECKIN’ UGLY, stupid people. They would be led like sheep for the rest of their lives.
Keira wiped her nose on her hand again. It was covered in blood, but she hardly seemed to notice. James presence was strong all around her, within her, but he almost felt like a friend. He’d been hard done by too in his life. She understood. And it seemed like he understood her too.
Murderous raging thoughts tumbled through her mind as she stomped around her apartment knocking a vase to the floor and shattering it. Grabbing her table, she tipped it over and flung the chairs to the ground screaming and shouting in pure rage. All she wanted was to hurt someone. One thought kept coming back. Yes, James understood. He was the only one that did. Turning toward the door, a satisfying thought came to mind. She knew just who to hurt.
The one who really had it coming, for years now. That self-serving bitch Aileen. When she went to see Aileen, and explain about James, what had happened? Aileen had insulted her. Aileen got her so wound up it was still distracting her, even on the drive home. Surely it was Aileen’s fault I got into that accident! If Aileen hadn’t made me so very angry... She made quick strides to the door, and threw it open to see Noah standing there, about to knock.
Chapter Eighteen
“Keira! Oh, God, what’s the matter with you?” Noah looked horrified at her expression.
“Get out of my way!” she yelled at him.
Her voice sounded different, but she didn’t care. A Belfast accent she didn’t naturally have was spilling off her tongue. She tried to shove Noah aside. Noah baulked, then with all the strength he possessed, stood in front of her blocking the door. White hot fear rose in his chest for what he was about to do.
He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her inside, holding her with one hand while locking the door behind them.
“Keira listen to me; James is trying to sap you of your strength. He wants to take over you! You have to fight him back!”
Noah’s voice was rushed and quavering. Al at least had the advantage of keeping his possession victim tied up, but Keira was free, and so was James.
“I said get out of my way!” James screamed through Keira’s mouth, rushing toward Noah and winding back her fist.
Noah reeled back against the door as the punch connected with his jaw. Keira leaped on him, grabbing a handful of his hair and dragging him down, trying to get him away from the door. Noah cried out, trying to keep his wits about him. He picked Keira up onto his shoulder, quickly running her into her bedroom as she thrashed wildly, screaming, kicking, and biting him. Noah felt her teeth break his skin and he yelled in pain, throwing her down onto the bed to get her off of him. She flung herself away, trying to make a break for the door.
“No!” Noah shouted.
Grabbing her arm, he dragged her back toward him, pulling the pair of handcuffs out of his pocket.
Keira screeched. It was a horrible, unearthly sound ringing through the air; more like a bird of prey than a human. She grabbed his face and raked her nails down it; they cut in deep and left jagged rivers of red behind. Gritting his teeth, he took the chance, grabbing her hands and swinging them behind her
back, snapping the cuffs on her wrists. Keira struggled, scowling at him, beads of blood falling off her hands.
“Keira listen to me,” Noah said loudly, holding her down on the bed and trying to hide his fear of what James had turned her into. “I know you’re in there. James is controlling you right now. This isn’t you! You have to take control back in order to be free of him.”
Keira looked up at him, recognition flashed and Noah knew Keira was back if just for the minute. Her eyes were scared. She began crying and sobbing, empathy for the ghost over took her.
James cajoled her, whispering deep inside her mind. ‘Don’t make me leave, I’m all alone now. You’re all I have. My life was cut short. I can’t find peace till I’m avenged. Have a heart Keira, you’re a good girl. Help me. Let me stay till I can get my peace and move on.’ Keira yelled at Noah.
“I can’t do it Noah, he has nowhere to go, he needs me to help him.” Keira passed out on the bed.
“Keira, Keira, listen to me, he’s lying to you.” Noah was shaking her, trying to bring her around. “He needs to go; you have to make him.” Keira lay still in her feint, and Noah knew he would have to draw James out. He tried to still his fear as he pulled a little bottle of holy water out of his back pocke
t.
Unscrewing the lid behind his back, he brought it around quickly and threw some into Keira’s face.
James screamed in pain and anger. A glorious moment of victory showed on Noah’s face. He had done it! The holy water in this apartment before had never worked. Not until now, when James had begun inhabiting Keira’s body.
“We can win this. Keira? Come on, you can fight him. You weren’t responsible for anything that happened. Not the crash, not hurting Aileen, none of it! Don’t let him make you responsible, don’t feel sorry for him. Everything that’s happened to you has been because of James, now you need to fight back against him! Get rid of him.”
Keira’s face creased with strain. Noah slowly began to see her break through, saw her struggle against James’ control. She cried out with frustration, or maybe it was James who was frustrated?
The lines between what made her Keira and what made James were blurred. It was hard to tell where her fear ended and where his anger began.
Keira began heaving deep long breaths. “I can’t do it; I cannot do it Noah. He saying he needs my help, he’s pleading to stay.”
A surge of fury carried Noah from his fear. With a great shout, he splashed the holy water again.
James screeched and thrashed underneath him.
“Keira, you aren’t responsible for James. He makes you feel afraid and anxious. He’s hurt others through you and now you feel guilty. And this anger you have. It’s not you, it is James. He’s manipulating you, making you feel as though he’s a victim. Tell him he cannot stay.” Noah trailed off as Keira once again looked at him through her own eyes. He could tell she was listening. He smiled. “You’re the girl I love, Keira. And you love me and I know it. Now get rid of him, kick this ghost’s arse to hell. You can do it girl. Oust him.”
Keira began sweating, her eyes locked with Noah’s. “You’re winning Keira, get rid of him.” James let out a scream. As the temperature began to drop Noah watched as the edges of her figure became hazy until another face emerged. He recognized James’ visage from that horrifying day they burned the bones. His features were twisted in a wrathful grimace. Anger, seemed to reverberate through the air as the last impression of James’ was being peeled away from Keira’s face, then chest, then the rest of her body. Noah could see that Keira was pushing James out. His angry screaming echoed horrifically until he dissipated into the air.
Keira went limp in Noah’s arms, then heaved a great gasp, looking up at him.
“I can’t feel him anymore.” Keira whispered, wonder in her tone. Deep sobs racked her body, relief took her up to a high she hadn’t known existed. “I’m almost floating Noah. I’m so light now. I can’t believe it. He’s gone.” Almost disbelievingly, they looked around, holding onto each other. No presence lingered.
Noah pulled back slightly to look Keira in the eyes. “It’s done,” he said with quiet confidence. “You fought him off, and you’re never going to see him again.”
Tears welled up in her eyes and she hugged him once again. “Thank God,” she said through happy sobs. “Oh my God, Noah.” Her hand cupped his face, and he flinched as she touched the deep scratches inflicted on him.
“It’s nothing. Battle scars is all. But you should’ve seen what happened to the other bloke.” He gave her a big toothy smile.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Keira, I want to talk seriously to you about something.”
“OK, I’m listening.” They were driving down to Rathcoole, via a different route than they would usually take, to see Cait and Aileen. Keira had terrible butterflies in her stomach, partly from having to face the general area where she had killed someone and partly because there had been no contact between herself and the O’Donnell’s since that horrible day, but Noah had called them.
Keira was willing to face the problems and solve them, for her part in it.
Thinking about it brought so many feelings to the surface, but she was working on it, learning to forgive herself. And as far as Cait and Aileen went, it was time to bridge the gap, Noah said. Keira was quietly hoping their meeting would go well. As Noah pointed out, Keira was not James, and Cait especially had a part to answer for in everything that had happened as well. She trusted Noah was right and it would all work out. Maybe not like it was before though. Perhaps you can never go back, but at least there might be a peace about it all.
“So…” Noah continued “I’ve been trying to find the right time to talk to you about this since we got rid of James, but I wasn’t fully decided myself, but now I am.”
“OK. Like I said, I’m listening. Spit it out.”
“You remember the night I went to the church, when you were in the hospital? I observed an exorcism. The person I met there showed me what I needed to do, so that I could help you defeat James.”
“Thank God he did. I owe him a great deal of thanks.”
“Anyway, when I was there, he said something that I can’t get out of my mind… he said that he could see me doing what he does. That I’d been given a gift.”
“A gift? Of what?”
“Freeing people. Helping the living and the dead. I can help spirits move on and loosen the chains for the living too. It’s a gift I’ve been given Keira, I’ve come to see it more and more.” He sounded hesitant, but determined.
“So, anyway, He said that I handled the supernatural very well, and that I should consider this line of work.”
Keira turned to him, she already knew what he was going to say. “I want to do it, Keira. I want to help the dead pass on from this world. I want to help people who were just as terrified as we were. What do you think?” He looked at her, a hope glimmered in his eyes. Her answer would determine his next few questions. She gave a measured nod.
“I think you should do it. Your heart is set on it, and I think you would be good at it. The way you helped Aileen and I out, a few months ago… and then later…. you really saved my life Noah. I like the idea of you doing that for other people, as well. Not everyone has that ability.”
Noah’s heart beat quickly, increasing along with his nervousness.
“Would you consider... helping other people with me?” Keira’s eyes nearly popped from her head. Noah hurried to reassure her. “You don’t have to; I know you just went through what was probably the worst time of your life—”
“No, no its OK,” she cut him off. “I just can’t believe you said that. I’ve been thinking about the whole spirit world thing too, actually.” She looked down at her knees. “I… Like I told you, I can see ghosts now, even when they aren’t trying to be seen by people. I know they’re scared and mostly they are just trying to get home, where ever that is.” She squeezed Noah’s hand from across the stick shift.
“I didn’t choose this, the supernatural dragged me into it. A part of me wants to do away with it. But the thought of ignoring it when it’s right in front of me is just not settling right with me. I can’t just do nothing after all we’ve been through.”
Noah was relieved. “You feel the same way I do.”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t want to do what you have planned right away. I’d like a little bit of time to really recover but yes.” A wry smirk crossed her face. “Now that I’ve lost my job, I’m going to have a lot of free time on my hands.”
Noah nodded, took a deep breath, “Will you marry me?” He blurted out his face flush with nervousness and the shock of what he had just said.”
He felt Keira shift and heard her gasp in surprise.
“I didn’t mean to ask it that way, it just came out. Oh, I’m a big eejit.”
“Stop the car.”
“What? Now?” Noah pulled the car to the side of the road and Keira wiped large flowing happy tears away from her eyes. Undoing her seat belt she moved over and let the driver’s seat back. Sitting astride him she leaned in and kissed him.
“Yes, I will” she breathed with a small hiccup, then gently cupped his face in her hands with a growing smile. “Yes!” she said again, kissing him.
Epilogue
It was early fall, but there was already a natural chill in the air that cut through her jacket as she stood in the parking lot, waiting for Noah to leave the store with the rest of his ‘ghost hunting supplies’. But the car was already full with two giant bags of salt into the back, along with a few shovels and other items she was either having difficulty identifying, or wasn’t sure she wanted to know what they were.
It had been a few months since James had been moved on to where-ever spirits in James condition went to. Life had also moved Keira and Noah on. Dublin was in the past – and Northern Ireland was their home now, at least for a while. Al claimed they would fit in more there. People were more open minded about the supernatural.
Keira and Noah could focus on learning as much as they could about the paranormal before pursuing a life similar to his.
Cait and Aileen hadn’t come to their wedding. Their meeting with them after Keira was free of James had gone only just OK. It was civil but that was all. Keira understood.
Aileen had lost the level of trust she had felt with Keira, and Cait, was having trouble forgiving herself, even though Keira held no grudge toward Cait for her part in it.
Surprisingly Keira was fine with the loss of the friendship. It was not her burden to carry. And although the death of the woman still weighed on her, Keira knew the woman had forgiven her. And Keira was forgiving herself day by day. Some days were harder than others but Keira began to see that she was growing into a strong spiritual warrior.
Part of her job in this life was to teach self-love and forgiveness to the living and to help the un-departed to leave. Keira could help people free themselves to pursue their calling on this plane and the next. The more she learned about the spiritual realm the stronger her confidence became. And Keira knew for certain the
