My Demonic Ghost: Banished Spirits (6 page)

“Alright, alright, I understand!” Lock cut me short and my chest fell in relief. He pinched the end of his chin and looked down in deliberation. “How do I know I can trust you, that you’ll keep your end of the deal?” It was a little strange. This dark, powerful and deadly spirit, worried about a mere human’s intentions; a human, I might add, who is already in cuffs and poor in any basic athletic skills. As if it really mattered what my true intentions were; but still, I wasn’t lying. 

“Well, you were the one that chose me in the first place, and I haven’t given you any reason not to trust me, have I?” He thought about it for a moment longer and I could see the flickering of inner debate in his eyes.

“Alright, fine, but you MUST, MUST help me. Promise?” He held his hand up, pinkie finger extended.

“Yes of course, I promise.” I held my pinkie up delicately and positioned it beside his to seal the deal.  I wasn’t sure what emotion showed my face. I had never been so scared and uncertain in my life, my hand shaking while I held it up next to Lock’s, and although his remained completely still I could see by the frantic look in his widened eyes that he was just as unsettled.

Chapter Seven:

Under the high ceilings of the abandoned warehouse, I stood in the middle where darkness shadowed my silhouette; my eyes moving from one corner to the next, no longer flinching at the thunder rolling overhead. With fluent twists of his wrists, a syrup of black water, thick and heavy, flowed from Lock’s fingertips and orbited around his hand. The dense, dark fluid broke into droplets before forming back into a steady stream, elongating its body out further and longer like stretching a rubber band. It danced inside his palm, grew until it spiralled around his fingers and arm, continuing smoothly around our bodies in a tight loop before stretching further beyond us and sinking into the ground. The dark liquid planted its self like ink onto the concrete floor in a twist of vines and crosses. Soon, a symbol I’d never seen before had been painted flawlessly by our feet.

I stumbled and edged around the free floating drops, side-stepping as they fell to the floor in deliberate and perfect formation.

“Wait-Wait!” I was getting cold feet, quite literally, as the temperature dropped and my breath became visible in misty puffs, all this magic and voodoo trickery becoming too real and daunting. I didn’t want to back down, I really didn’t, but my inner voice was screaming frantically at me,
‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? WHAT ARE YOU DOING??’
And I knew better than to just drown that voice out. “I have to ask, will anything happen to me?? If we go through with this I mean?” Lock shook his head so delicately that not even his bangs moved.

“No... Nothing will happen to you...”

In a passing moment, everything around us vanished as the dark, inky symbols glowed in vibrant gold underneath. He looked at me as I looked back at him, and like snakes, thick, black chains wove around the outskirts of the circle with their metal links clinking together. If Lock spoke, I didn’t hear it. How could I focus on him when we were being in caged by serpent chains, their hissing clicks bolting me in from every angle? The shackles that bound me to him, tagging me as his Host, appeared around my neck, wrists and ankles again; though the weight of them had never left my side. On the ends of the tail, where Lock would hold them like reins, they reared up their heads and formed mouths of their own, not unlike a two headed eel, biting down and securing themselves around Lock’s neck and limbs. I was caught in one set of mouths and Lock in the other, facing each other on opposing sides, his thick rimmed lashes darkening his vibrant eyes and my large rounded spheres sparkling with blue. It all lasted just a few seconds before the chains fell from sight and the warehouse was built back over the darkness. I wasn’t surprised to feel lightheaded and dizzy as I folded my palm over my forehead, the spinning of the room making me lose my balance and sway. I opened my eyes and adjusted once more, to see that Lock had collapsed. He was face down against the floor, barely moving except for the occasional breath.

“Lock?” I ran to him, crashing down onto my hands and knees. Just as my hands fell onto his shoulders, I instantly withdrew them as I felt a snap of static at my fingertips.

He was cold. His body was freezing cold, and I... I could touch him. I brushed my fingertips down his back and his clothes ruffled in response. I could feel his hair, his neck and shoulders, even the first bump of his spine. His skin was soft and frosty cold against my strokes. Feeling the warmth in my palms draining out of my body and into his, I flipped Lock over onto his front, thinking he needed to breath.

His face, his clean unmarked face, was delicate and peaceful, like a sleeping baby. The pale, marble skin became tinged with an olive tan and his charcoal hair brightened to soft, toasted brown locks. Numbness trembled through me in bursts of shivers.

“Lock...” My once large rounded eyes now squinted with strain, a small wrinkle forming between my brows. It was a miracle, breathtaking, but most of all it was terrifying. I swallowed my heart back down into my chest as it tried to scramble up my throat, as if racing to catch sight of this amazing feat.

“Are... are you alive?”

He didn’t answer me, only stirred as his eyebrows pinched together; his soft pink lips mumbling incoherently. My words flew over each other, panicked and excited, so overwhelmed that they became a jumble of letters and pitches. “Lock? Lock?” I wrapped my arms under his shoulders and lifted his upper body, quickly catching his flopping head and resting him on my lap.

A roar shook the tin walls, putting the thunder to shame, causing my head to snap up in panic. It was a scream that didn’t belong to a human.

“What have you done?” Betrayal hovered by the high window, her intense, poisonous eyes flared with wild alarm, darting between the unconscious Lock and me, where his head lay resting on my lap. Betrayal looked wild and dangerous. Glimpsing her bulging eyes and the burning snarl on her lips, I wasn’t sure if she was ready to rip me apart or smother me with incoherent curses
before
removing my head.

“Betrayal?!” I stuttered breathlessly, wanting to explain when really I had no idea how to even begin. With the way she screwed her delicate face up I couldn’t find the confidence to face her. Betrayal flipped head first into the air and swooped down onto her toes, her wild hair dancing like tiny flames behind her. “Betrayal, please help me...Is something wrong with Lock?”

She knelt down next to him with her narrow arms out, hovering her hands over his body.

Her animal fury disappeared without a second’s notice but my heart didn’t slow, nor did my shoulders relax, in my mild relief.

“What an idiot.” Her fingers curled towards his clothes but slipped right through him. She flexed her fingers and pulled them back up, her lips biting down to a tight close. “You probably have no idea what all this means, but this is a terrible, terrible mistake!”

I gulped, swallowing down a stream of guilt, and in reaction my stomach churned uncomfortably. “The whole reason we need a Host is because we can’t survive on the surface alone. You keep us hidden and give us fuel for power, to summon the magic to fight. Lock has nearly cut the connection between the two of you. There’s only a thin strand keeping you together.”
Only a thin strand is left?

“What-what does that-”

“It means that Lock isn’t using your soul anymore to hide or summon his magic. He has temporally converted back into his most exposed state, a mineral form. He’s only using you to stay on the surface and that’s it.”

“So he’s alive?” My voice skipped up two octaves in my excitement.

“Not at all, he is just a copy of himself before he died. You’ll know what I mean when you touch his skin. Cold, isn’t it? He also doesn’t have a heartbeat.” I shifted my hands to his neck and rested two of my fingers against him. Betrayal was right; there was no pulse underneath his flesh. He was like a moving and talking corpse. “To stay connected to the Spirit Realm and the use of magic, we must remain in spirit form, but to remain in spirit form is to also use up a large portion of the Host’s soul. Lock has put himself in grave danger. He can be seen by all humans, Goons and Hunters now.”

“Can you change him back?”

“No, I don’t have that type of power. Only you can grant him access to your soul and a connection to the Spirit World. But don’t ask me how; no Banished soul has ever made equal partnership with their Host before. It’s just plain stupid!” The loud screech of a wild bird bellowed from outside, causing both Betrayal and I to jerk our heads upward in fright. She spoke again in a slithering hiss, not removing her eyes from the high window, watching intensely as if something were to jump out, “You better have your guard up; there will be a lot more Goons and Hunters hanging around.” With two quick glances over her shoulders, Betrayal’s voice dropped down even lower, so low I had to bend down and lean in just to catch the humming whisper. “Make sure he doesn’t get taken; protect him and find the Staff.”

My voice also dropped to a secretive hush, though I didn’t understand why, no one could hear us. “How? Where do I find it?”

“The Hunters have it-”

“I know that, but what does it look like? How? Tell me how.”

Betrayal stood up and placed her hand against her temple. The storm had passed; it must now be reaching into the early hours of the morning as the moon’s glow was weak and shifting.

“I guess I have no choice,” Betrayal swore underneath her breath. “To be completely honest, I don’t know what it looks like, no one knows because no one has actually ever... gotten the Staff...”

The lump of guilt inside me built into a combination of fear, shock and hopelessness. My thoughts came rushing down on top of me all at the same time, freezing me completely still. No one had ever gotten the Staff before... that means not one single Banished soul has ever been saved, yet it’s all they’ve got left to hope for. The existence of the actual Staff never came into question for them; they were just so sure it was out there.

“Don’t tell Lock... okay? You can still save him... And make sure he’s hidden from the sunlight.”

Betrayal vanished into a flurry of ash and took off through the high window. 
Sunlight!
I had to get Lock back home before the sun rises. I had very little time left and no one to help me. 

Quickly, I slid out from underneath him and hoisted him onto my back, leaning forward so he wouldn’t tumbled off; and started to walk with his arms draped across my shoulders, his legs hooked underneath my arm pits, and his head nestled into the back of my neck.

He was heavy and cold. I entered back into the pitch of the woods, and step by step, tried to fight back my exhaustion. His feet dangled just inches above the ground. It felt like I was carrying a bag of bones on my back; my calves, ankles, neck and knees throbbed under pressure, refusing to cooperate.

I had never been a fast girl, but I could manage long distances. My steady rhythm was put to the test against the awakening of the sun. I slipped only once, nearing toppling over onto my side with Lock as my landing matt, but thankfully, managed to tilt the opposite way and save us both. A chink of light pierced the sky as the first beam of daylight peeked out from behind the shades of night, just as I stepped foot onto the driveway of my house, about ten metres away from the front door. I turned my fast-paced limping into an awkward trot, keeping myself at least three paces ahead of the light’s advancing line. The birds were awake, chirping in anticipation of the new day as the neighbour’s rooster crowed out across the hen house.

The sun’s rays were nipping at my heels as I battled through the weeds, having to lift my knees high and step over the wild garden as it grabbed at my ankles, trying to root me in. I tripped over myself and stumbled forwards, reaching out one bent and exhausted arm to latch onto the door handle. I twisted the knob and fell through, slamming the sun out only seconds behind me; dropping Lock to the floor in weariness. I fell onto my rear, looking over at Lock, still undisturbed from his slumber.
Maybe I didn’t need to be so gentle with him after all
.

              I allowed myself a few moments to catch my breath before kneeling up and pulling the blinds down above us. I picked Lock up underneath his arm pits and walked backwards with him, his feet being dragging along the ground. The snores of deep, undisturbed slumber looped down the empty halls as we walked. I paused, waiting for Mum to wake and catch me red handed. But there was no noise coming from inside her room so, quickly, my pace now doubled with adrenaline, I dragged Lock’s body down the hallway, rolling him onto the top of my bed.  The sheets were still kicked back from where I climbed out last night and my pyjamas left flung across the floor. I stretched his body out straight and pulled the sheets up, covering him up to his neck.

I also wanted to climb into bed, absolutely exhausted and reaching my limit, but instead I rolled myself up and sat guarding the door just in case Mum tried to walk in. I must’ve only gotten two hours of sleep when the door behind me was nudged into my back. My entire body ached. Behind me, I could hear Mum fighting to get into my room and ahead of me was Lock snoring into my pillows.

“Rachael? Rachael, what-?” I quickly jumped up and turned to my mother, filling the small gap between the door and wall with my body.

“Yeah, Mum? Something wrong?”

“Oh...why were you on the floor?” Mum took a step back as I forcibly wedged myself through the door before pulling it to a close behind me. Everything was still in déjà vu-mode, as if I wasn’t really here or this really wasn’t happening. My entire body was tingling; it felt as if I was caught in an alternate reality. Sleep deprivation does weird things.

“I was looking for something that I dropped, for umm... my sock. I was looking for my sock and I found it,” I laughed, lifted my right foot and wiggled my toes underneath the fabric of my sock. Mum didn’t look like she was convinced but, nevertheless, nodded her head. I thanked her for her ignorance with a small smile.

“Well, I need you to send off some mail for me down at the marketplace, I’m just too busy to do it myself. I have so much organising to do.” Dianne motioned downwards as if the chores she needed to tackle were sitting there in front of us. Her hand slipped into the pocket of her sweats and she took out a small bundle of dry brown envelopes tied together with string.

“Oh, geez.  Sorry, but to be honest, I don’t think I’m feeling up to it.” I wasn’t being honest, and I hated how I felt that I had to lie constantly. I never really was the best liar, but with Lock here as motivation, I’m sure to get a lot of practise.