by Viola Grace
The interior smelled clean, but the crackle of ozone was starting in the air.
She had had the entire drive to work out the method that she was going to use. Catching them all was her current plan or, at least, as many as she could.
The rooms that the deceased had left the living world in were not listed on any of the websites or books on local hauntings.
Hecate looked around the opulent surroundings, and she imagined Esmy’s wedding in this venue. It was going to be a wonderful affair, as long as Hecate could clear it.
“Hello?”
She looked around and fished a small stone from her pocket. She put a little bit of her energy into it and turned around with it. When her energy brightened, she took in a deep breath and began to walk into the expanse of Carman House. Time to extract some ghosts.
The stone had a strong signal when she entered the ballroom, and then, there was a quick flicker. Hecate whirled and faced the surprised spirit.
“Hello. You appear to be David Wilkenson.”
The blue ghost paused. “You can see me?”
“Of course. Are you one of the ghosts tormenting those who have been coming in here to do repairs?”
His cheeks would have gone pink if he was still alive. “Perhaps. Nothing harsh. It is difficult being tied to the hotel.”
“What were you going to do to me?”
He covered his face with one hand. “I was going to touch your hair.”
She snickered. “Nice. I would have hated that.”
A flash of the stone told her that there was another ghost behind her. She stepped to the side and backed against one of the windows. It was the safest place to be as they couldn’t leave the hotel proper.
Michael Montgomery was the other ghost who had entered the room.
“Ah. Good. Tell me, gentlemen. Why are you two here?”
Michael paused, “You can see us?”
David chuckled. “You came in late, Mike. Yes, she can see us.”
She looked from one to the other. “So, to ask my question again, what is keeping you here?”
David frowned. “They are. They have this place on lockdown.”
“They?”
“The bride and groom.” Mike was grim. “Once our best friends, now our jailers.”
“Wait, so you are all trapped here?”
David smiled. “You know about us?”
“I know about seven of you.” She kept her face calm. This was going to be more complicated than she thought.
She rattled through her list. “Michael, David, Joshua, Brandon, Thomas, the groom, Anthony, and the bride, Helena. You all died here on the same night, but you should not have all been trapped. If you didn’t have anything to hold you, you should have moved on.”
“Anthony and Helena, they are holding us here,” Mike answered. He added with a look of hope. “Can you free us?”
“It might take a few tries, but I am motivated.” She breathed in deep. “Where can I find the happy couple?”
David said, “You don’t want to do that. They are bound up in each other, and they took us with them.”
“They killed you? All five of you?”
“He did. He killed her as well.”
Hecate had to ask, “Were you intimate with the bride?”
David shook his head. “Helena was a friend. We loved her because she needed to be loved if you know what I mean. There was something about her that cried out for affection. She needed to be needed, had to be loved, but she was such a wonderful person that it was given easily.”
“I am guessing that they aren’t here.”
He shook his head. “They rise later. They will come in search of you the moment that they start to walk the halls.”
“Where are the others?”
David smiled sadly. “Looking out the windows. This is the calmest time in our evening before the groom walks the halls and kills us again.”
“What?” This wasn’t a situation she had been in before. “He kills you?”
“Every night.” Michael grimaced. “It is always the same.”
Daniel nodded. “First, I die, then Mike, Josh, Brandon, and Tom die, and then, Helena kills Tony and then herself.”
Hecate was stunned. “What? She kills all of you?” In her years of experience, she hadn’t run into that prolific a female killer.
Daniel shrugged. “I don’t know. I am always the first to go, and only Brandon and Tom die together. I only know this from Josh as by the time Tom and Brandon come to, I am already dead. I mean... again. What are you by the way?”
Hecate smiled. “I am a ghost extractor. I help folks like you to release this world, and I take folks like them and give them an option.”
Michael leaned in. “You can let us go?”
“Maybe. I am going to try. At the worst, I come back tomorrow and try again.” She patted Michael on the arm and he looked at her in shock.
“You can touch us?”
“Sure. It’s in my blood.” She stretched out her senses and found the next rising ghost.
“That’s Josh. He comes to in the ballroom.”
“Can we go down to speak with him?”
“Sure. Daniel, how much time do you have?”
He chuckled. “I don’t die until eight in the evening. We have an hour or so.”
“How can you laugh about it?”
“After the first thousand deaths, you sort of get used to it.”
She frowned. “You shouldn’t have to.”
“I shouldn’t have been murdered by my best friend, but he went insane, and here we are.”
Hecate smiled sadly. “Yes, here we are. Can either of you come with me in search of Josh?”
Mike nodded. “I will take you.”
“I’ll come, too.” Daniel nodded.
“Excellent. Lead the way and no walking through doors.”
They both laughed, and she smiled while her heart broke. This was probably one of the only bits of entertainment they had enjoyed that didn’t involve tormenting folks while incorporeal.
Mike asked her as they walked the halls, “How is it that you can see and touch us?”
“It is a family skill.”
“I think it is something else. You have the same feel that we do.”
“How so?” She was testing his awareness. If he could figure her out, so could the others.
“You feel like a ghost, but you are solid like one of the living. What are you?”
“I am complicated.” She chuckled. “But I was born for this.”
“What’s in the bag?”
She chuckled. “Just some supplies that I might need. If you are all pinned in a cycle, I will have to break the loop, and that will take some doing.”
Mike asked softly, “Will you hurt Helena?”
Static began to crackle around him and Daniel.
“No. I will give her every opportunity to release those around her from their entrapment.”
Daniel was frowning. “What do you mean? She isn’t responsible, he is.”
She sighed. “Every binding needs a catalyst, something to set the dominoes falling. I believe that she is the linchpin in this situation. If I can speak with her, I might be able to work things loose.”
Daniel murmured, “Can you wait through the massacre?”
“I can. I can’t promise not to interfere, but I will be there. I have never run into this situation before, and I need to see it to understand it.”
Mike grunted, “So, we are an experiment?”
“No. I just don’t want to take action that will injure you. I know that ghosts feel pain, and you have had more than enough of it. Give me one more night after tonight and I will know what I can and can’t do.”
Daniel frowned. “You are really going to try and break this cycle?”
“That is what I do. This house is off the standard routes, or I would have been here years ago. I didn’t
even know about it.” She thought about it, “Which is rather weird because this place should be broadcasting loud and wide.”
“The demon comes in to check on us, he sits and watches while we are murdered. I really hate that guy.”
She grimaced. That would explain it. If it was Demler, it was right up his alley to enjoy watching the fruits of his labour.
Josh was standing next to a window, and he stiffened in surprise as they approached. “Who is she?”
Hecate chuckled. “I am a troublemaker. Josh?”
“Yes.”
“I am Hecate. Pleased to meet you.” She extended her hand.
He shrugged and extended his hand. His expression changed to shock when she shook his hand with a smile.
“How are you doing that?”
She winked. “Practice. I am a ghost extractor, and I am here to help you and help the wedding that is about to be staged here. I don’t want any hiccups on her big day.”
“So, you are here to destroy us?” His hand tightened around her fingers.
“No, I am here to set you free of this endless cycle. Whether you move on or not is up to you.”
He relaxed his grip and stepped back. “You are serious?”
“Yes. This is what I do. Now, what do you remember of that day?”
He looked at the guys next to her. “They didn’t tell you?”
“Yes, but they were the first to die, so their cognitive awareness ends at that point.”
She looked to the other two, and they nodded and shrugged.
“What do you remember, Josh?”
He frowned, and his ghost began to pace as he tried to think of the right way to start.
Hecate waited. She had all night.
Chapter Five
“It was a glorious day for a wedding, I guess. The bridesmaids were a little tense, and Tony was a caged animal, but Helena was sweet and kind to everybody, soothing ruffled feathers. The ceremony was lovely, the bride was an angel, and the photos were tense but fine.”
“So, Tony was causing tension.”
“He was guarding Helena and ordering us to stop looking at her. If it was possible, he was more possessive of her now that they were married than he had been while they were dating.” Josh rubbed the back of his neck and stared out the window.
“And then, after dinner?”
He was lost in the memory. “Dinner was great, the dancing was fun, and I got the number of one of the bridesmaids. Sophia. She was lovely.”
“What happened next?”
He lifted his head, his gaze blind to the world around him. “I heard screaming. I ran for the front hall, and Tony was coming toward me, his tux looked weirdly wet. His left hand was down and slightly behind him, and he stretched out his right hand to me. He walked up to me calmly and told me that he was so happy to be married. He grabbed my right hand and pulled me around, slitting my throat. I couldn’t even scream.”
He blinked and shook his head to clear it. “That is what I remember from that night. Every evening since has been the same, with only a few ghost hunters and paranormal idiots to break the monotony.”
Hecate nodded. “So, you are not attached to this afterlife?”
He made a face. “No. I want to move on and see what is next.”
“Any regret over Sophia?”
“I am sure she moved on after I died. It was only a dance, after all.”
Hecate looked at him, and his pain blazed outward. “I can take you to see her if she has remained local.”
“She has probably grown old and has a dozen grandchildren by now.”
“I can still check. What was her last name?”
“Anderson. Sophia Anderson. She’s Thomas’s cousin and one of Helena’s best friends.”
Hecate recognized the name, but she didn’t let it show on her face. “You felt a connection?”
“I did.” He waved a hand helplessly, “And then this happened.”
“I am sorry.”
Josh looked at her. “Why?”
“For lost potential love. Love needs all the chances it can get. Perhaps in your next life, you can dance again.”
Mike called out, “Dan!”
Hecate turned, and Daniel was fading. He bowed slightly and nodded his head. “See you tomorrow.”
She knew where she should be, what she had planned. But the depression in his expression, the resignation to what was about to happen made her turn to Mike. “Where does he die?”
“By the front entry,” Mike spoke eagerly.
Hecate ran at full tilt to the front entry, and a moment after she arrived, Daniel was manifesting in the doorway, flicking a cigarette butt out the door.
A new voice spoke. “Dan, so glad you came back in.”
“Hey Tony, the party is just getting started.” Daniel grinned and walked toward the stairway where the voice was coming from.
The waves of heat that were coming from the formal staircase were horribly familiar. Hecate looked over, and she saw the groom, coming down with his left hand at his side.
Using her moral compass was not normally the way she wanted to work. She wanted to use the facts about the situation and behave accordingly. Today, thinking about the tearful accounts of the events, the shock and horror that had spun through the community as so many of their young men were killed at that wedding, she decided that impulse was going to rear its ugly head.
“So, what was your deal, Tony?” She called it out, and she saw him jerk, but he kept walking toward Daniel.
She unfurled her whip and put herself in front of Daniel.
“You weren’t invited.” Tony looked at her, and she grinned. There hadn’t been any people of colour in the area during the murders, so she was definitely sure that he knew she wasn’t supposed to be there. Her modern clothing was probably also a clue.
“I know, but I represent the next folk who want to use the venue, so you need to clear out.”
He paused. “You don’t know who you are dealing with.”
“I know you are the groom, that you murdered your groomsmen, and then you and your new bride were found dead.” She cocked her head. “I also know that you made a deal with a demon that exchanged your soul for something. What was it?”
He froze. “How do you know?”
“I have met him. He is particularly good at preying on the need for love.”
Tony looked concerned, and he approached her in all his red ghost glory. When his expression flickered, she snapped her whip and lunged to one side, catching his leg as the knife sliced into her shoulder.
She didn’t scream, but she wanted to. Hecate staggered to her feet and flicked out the whip again. Discussion was over. She needed to take him down.
Hecate dropped her bag and held him with the whip while she got a poppet. She forced him into the small doll, and it began to smoulder immediately.
Hecate grabbed a thermos and crammed the doll in, wincing as she screwed the top on with scorched fingers.
Daniel was frozen in place, and when she lifted her left hand, the blood from the ghost knife was dripping off her hand.
“How the hell did that happen?”
She put the thermos in her bag and lifted it with her good arm. She reached out and touched Daniel, willing him to wake up. He blinked and frowned. “Hecate. It is going to start soon.”
“It already started. Where is she?”
He frowned. “Who?”
“Helena. Where is the bride?”
“Upstairs. Why?”
She unfurled her whip and pulled herself up the steps with her blood dripping down her fingers.
“You can’t hurt her.”
She ignored him and kept climbing. When she got to the top, she picked up the pendant and held it to the right and then the left. It glowed when she held it to the left.
“Are you going to hurt her?” Daniel was right behind her.
“I am going to talk with
her. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
She followed the pendant, and it continued to glow red as she walked. When she got to the room where the bride was, she simply opened the door.
The woman was standing and sobbing in her gown. The back of the dress was torn, and she had her hands over her face. Daniel ran up to her and said, “Helena, what did he do?”
Helena raised her head slowly. “Daniel, you aren’t supposed to be here.”
He smiled. “I am here now. How can I help? What did he do to you?”
“I told him that I didn’t want to do... that. He got mad and ran out.”
Helena’s features were blissfully normal. No raving beauty, but a standard sturdy farm girl was looking at Hecate.
“Who are you?”
Hecate smiled. “My name is Hecate Wakeman. I am a ghost extractor, and I am here to set you free.”
“What do you mean? I am free here.” Helena looked wild.
“What did you sell your soul for? I can get it back.”
Helena paled and turned, her dress rustling. “I—”
A searing pain ripped through Hecate’s side. She fell to the ground, and Michael walked past her with a blade in his hand. The blade was stained with her blood.
She staggered backward and looked at Michael, really looked at him. “You made a deal.”
“Anything to keep Helena safe.” He walked up to her and pushed her dress back on her shoulders.
Helena looked at him in shock. Hecate began to back out of the room, her blood loss now a steady stream.
Helena called out, “I just wanted to be loved and admired by men.”
Hecate nodded and slammed out of the door, leaving her blood as she carefully walked down the steps.
The world got bright. Dots came to wrap around her vision, and she headed for the door. If she got out the door, she might be able to call for help.
When the stone met her cheek, she sobbed in relief. She might be immobile, but she was out of there.
Great. Now she could die out in the open with the moon watching her.
She could see her car, and that was torture. As she stared at it, a glow came out of it and flowed toward her. The light surrounded her and lifted her off the ground.
