The Protector of Memories (The Veil of Death Book 1) (17 page)

Linda was sitting at the main desk of the library still trying to get in touch with Dawn.

Faith leant against the counter and peered over at her sister, Hope who had immersed herself within stacks upon stacks of books ever since arriving at the library earlier that morning.

Linda looked up at Faith. “I’m still getting Dawn’s answer machine,” she said and then speaking into the telephone left yet another message. “Dawn. It’s me again… Linda. Please can you ring me? I…” she paused, “that is Faith, Hope and I are getting worried about you. See you soon eh. You take care_.”

“Who is this?!” A voice shouted into Linda’s ear.

She held the phone away as the raised voice continued to demand who it was calling.

The line then went silent.

It crackled.

“My name is Linda and I work at West End_.”

“Leave my sister alone. I’m warning you. You and that… blood sucker stay away from my sister.”

“Leave my sister alone. I’m warning you. You and that… blood sucker stay away from my sister.”

“Please. Dawn is in danger.”

“She was in danger. She is somewhere safe now. You hear me...”

Linda had to jerk the phone away from her ear again as the sound of the man’s voice raised in volume before he slammed the receiver down.

“Who was that?” Faith asked.

“That was Dawn’s brother. I have a terrible feeling that she’s been committed into psychiatric care.”

“So be it.” Faith said. “But reason will dictate when those within psychiatric care outweigh those outside of it.”

Linda nodded, looked up at the ceiling and frowned. “I keep on hearing the sounds of ruffling… soft-feathery wings.”

“It is your owl.” Faith stated and pointed not toward the owl but to Linda’s computer screen. “Are there any messages to indicate that people are actually taking seriously what Dawn and the ghost called David are saying?”

Linda shook her head. “Not that I can see.” And she continued to scroll through the Library’s website. “A lot of the messages applaud you and I quote; ‘growing old is what gives life its meaning,’ and ‘the body is not who we really are’.” Linda then smiled at Faith and shared, “That one is my favourite.” She turned back to the screen and scanned through more of the messages. “Most people believe that your image is the ‘coolest April fool’s day joke that they’ve seen in a long time’. But there are no messages that actually relate to Dawn or the ghost called David…” she faltered, scrolled the mouse back up. “Hang on a minute there are some… oh goodness sake!” Linda exclaimed.

“What do they say?”

Linda was loath to read them out. But a thought occurred to her;
Faith lives in the world of the dead and the living and I worry that a few words from warped minded people are going to offend her
?

“It is alright Linda.” Faith said.

“That I have but realised.” Linda replied. She tilted her head and added. “You have probably experienced far worse than what humankind can throw at you.”

Faith shook her head in disagreement. “I have experienced a lot but it means not that I have experienced it all.”

Linda laughed quietly and added. “Are you sure it is me who holds the wisdom of the Universe?” She looked back at the computer screen. “Okay…” she said, took a breath and proceeded to read out the messages one after the other.

“’Faith can suck out my memories any day’

‘The living harms us. The dead don’t’

‘Perhaps somebody should tell Faith that’

‘Why doesn’t somebody kill Faith? We’ll see if ghosts exist or not’

‘If you did that then she’ll come back and bleed dry your memories!!!’

‘LOL…’”

Linda decided to stop reading out the messages.

“Please Linda.” Faith said. “Continue.”

Linda sighed aloud and did as her friend asked.

“’I’m going to kill you tonight’

‘Not if I get there first_’”

Linda stopped abruptly when she realised that that was the theme of all the messages – threats that Faith will be killed. “I’m sorry Faith but if you insist on knowing what they say then you are going to have to read them yourself.”

She closed down the computer’s window and stared at her reflection in the machine’s screen. “I am ashamed to be a part of a race of people that have forgotten the art of kindness or compassion…” Linda’s voice broke with emotion and she stopped speaking altogether.

Faith put her hand upon Linda’s shoulder but added nothing further to the conversation.

“I am okay.” Linda said. “I refuse to allow a few words to dampen my spirits. I am much stronger than that.” But her thoughts questioned:
Nobody would actually kill Faith to disprove the theory that ghosts exist… would they?

Linda picked up her now cold cup of tea, but jumped at the sudden noise of flapping wings.

She grabbed the cup before it toppled off of the saucer but the tea splashed onto her black trousers. “Damn and blast.” She cursed, grabbed a handful of tissues and was cleaning the tea from her trousers, when Brian walked in.

“Afternoon…” he said, paused and asked. “What’s wrong?”

“It is frustrating to hear the owl but not see it!” Linda exclaimed.

Brain looked between Faith and Linda, shrugged his shoulders and glanced up at the glass dome. “I doubt it’ll be an owl Linda. More like a pigeon. Probably a hole in the roof that we can’t see.”

He picked up Linda’s cup and saucer, nodded at the tea stain on her trousers. “If I get you another cuppa promise you’ll not throw that one at yourself?” He laughed and made his way over toward the café.

Linda threw the tea stained tissues into the bin and “tutted”.

The telephone rang and she grabbed up the receiver and listened to the women speaking on the other end.

When Linda eventually rang off she said to Faith. “That was another reporter, Trudy Dodge from a magazine called ‘haunted buildings’. She would like to bring her photographer and equipment that supposedly detects ghosts…” Linda paused, raised an eyebrow, “If there is such equipment? Anyway my point is that if ghosts are detected by Trudy Dodge from a magazine that has an audience that actually believes in ghosts that must improve the situation.”

Faith nodded her head in agreement and watched as Brian placed a fresh cup of tea down onto the desk.

“Brian.” Linda said. “We will need more than two security men today.”

“Righty O.” He answered and smiled at Faith. “You okay?” he asked and then looked at the other woman with the patch over her eye as she approached the counter.

“Hope.” Hope said and held her hand out to him.

Brian shook the woman’s hand. “I ain’t forgotten you. You sure got us all in a right ole lather about stardust. People have got you pegged down as some sort of angel.”

“What are you talking about Brian?” Linda asked.

He pointed to the computer. “That man who showed everybody the glowing image of Hope well… he’s posted it on there. My Trace showed me last night. You look like an angel.”

Brian glanced over Hope’s body and saw that it didn’t shine as it did on the video image.

He studied the cotton wadding covering Hope’s eye, shrugged and sharing his opinions on angels said. “I guess angels come in all sorts of guises these days.” And was about to share a joke that he knew about a parrot, but Linda interrupted him.

“Brian. Security_.”

A whooshing noise sounded out and Linda glanced up to see an owl soaring down toward her. “Ah!” she shouted and jumped at the sight of the owl that had perched itself on her shoulder. “Now I can relax,” she said to the owl. “Being able to hear you but not see you was driving me crazy.”

She looked at the owl; white coloured feathers edged with silvery specks of grey; eyes that reminded her of marbles with swirling colours of burnt-oranges and flecks of ambers and yellows. “My,” she said. “What a beautiful creature you are.”

“Linda sees now her owl.” Faith said as she smiled softly at the scene.

Hope laughed gently, “It seems that the energy of Wisdom also comes in many a guise.” And she smiled at the man called Brian and loved the way his eyes always seem to twinkle with mischief and a smile was never too far away from his mouth.

Brain stared at Linda then to her empty shoulder, he glanced between the women, shook his head. “My Trace…” he paused, looked at Hope, “that’s my daughter. She’s gonna love this.” He wandered off to sort out the arrangements for more security and tried to recall if he had any jokes in his repertoire relating to owls.

Linda waited until Brain was out of ear shot before speaking. “Are you the ghost called David?” She asked the image of the young ghost that had just appeared.

Faith turned and looked at the ghost called David.

Sadness filled her at the realisation of what has happened. “David,” she said. “Our warnings have gone unheard.”

His image flickered out of sight and reappeared in the middle of Faith and Hope. “My mum is dead. I watched her body dying and as the last of her life’s breath left her… that monster hurtled out of her and vanished out of sight. At first, relief filled me for I believed that my mum would finally attain the peace and freedom that we receive in the Afterlife. I fizzled with excitement… nervous energy. Knowing that it was about to be made known unto my mum that she was a part of the energies that sparkled and crackled all around her. It never happened.” His image shifted to the energy of resentment.

Linda heard the bitterness edged in his voice and hesitantly asked. “What does that mean?”

“It means that her existence is dead.”

Linda frowned in confusion and was about to ask a question, but the ghost called David continued to talk. “I have discovered the true reason why the Ancestors constructed the Veil of Death. They did it so it would conceal a knowledge until the meaning itself became forgotten within the ebbs and flows of time.”

Faith guessed. “If a Soul is destroyed then an empty ghost is created_?”

“No Faith. I do not speak of that.” David interrupted her in mid-flow. His energies shifted from resentment to anger. “I speak of the claim that we all have…” he paused and added, “and I mean
all
beings have the right to this claim.”

Faith frowned.

“What is the ghost saying?” Hope asked Faith. “I can see the auras of his life-flow but I cannot hear…” she trailed her words away and stared at Faith and Linda.

They were staring intently at the flickering image of the ghost, whose energies were glowing with such an intensity of rage - heat and fire;
this does not look good
, she thought.

The ghost called David said. “Your existence has been around long before us… long before the race of humankind. Yet you know not of this right of a claim?”

Faith shook her head and whispered, “What is it that you speak of David?”

“I speak of the right of a claim; ‘a Soul for a Soul’.”

“Don’t you mean ‘an eye for an eye’?” Linda asked.

David looked into the woman with the owl on her shoulder but ignored her foolish statement.

A couple of seconds lived and died.

Hope took the silence as an opportunity to speak. She had worked out what the conversation was about when Linda had mentioned, ‘an eye for an eye’ and understood now why the ghost’s energies were an intense heat of rage. “The mortal who once lived as Phillip has claimed its right hasn’t it? Dawn killed Phillip’s Soul and by doing so, created an empty ghost. Her creation has claimed Dawn’s Soul for it is that that has life within it… not crumbled ash.”

“You know of this?” Faith, Linda and David said in unison.

Hope heard only the voices of Faith’s and Linda’s.

“Yes.” She answered and pointed over to the stacks of books piled high on every table and chair in the café area. “I have been looking within all literatures to gain some understanding as to what the particles of grey are within certain people’s auras. I saw them in Charity’s auras and at the time, thought nothing of it. But when I saw them within Dawn’s, I also realised that not all mortals have these particles. It has to be connected with the empty ghosts.”

“And what are these particles?” Linda whispered.

“Ash,” Hope answered. “Ash is what is left of an existence when you kill it…” she paused, “existence, life-force, Soul. There are many names but the meaning is the same. The Soul’s ash settles within the aura layers of the person who had killed it and when the killer’s body dies the ash crumbles and becomes a part of Earth’s soil.”

“’Earth to earth, ashes to ashes… dust to dust
’”
Linda quoted.

Hope continued to explain. “There once was a time in history when the empty ghosts existed with all other creatures. And at that time, humans could see the presence of all life after the death of the body. Any creature that kills a Soul forfeits their own and that was the knowledge that became hidden when the Veil of Death was crafted…” she took a breath before adding. “The Veil of Death saves the Soul of a killer and those with no Soul become imprisoned within the Void of Emptiness.”