A chill went through Paige once she saw the expression on Nova’s face. Ironically, it seemed like the poor woman had seen a ghost. She pushed the thought away because the shit was about to hit the fan.
How the hell did that thing find us? she thought, dumbfounded. The spell must have failed. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time for backtracking now.
She had to act.
Archaic words poured from her lips. She began reciting the incantation that would allow Levi to see his sister. She knew she should be running for her life, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the arcane symbols. Each one began to change color. Teals, purples, and blues rippled within the intricate linework as the symbol became infused with power.
Levi remained stone-still, studying the fright that must have distorted her face.
“What are you doing?” Nova bellowed at her. “Run, for Christ’s sake!”
Paige continued on with the spell, unwilling to yield to her building fear and Nova’s desperate pleas. She needed Levi to believe her. To trust her. For them to survive this thing, he had to have no doubts about the reality they faced. He needed to see the truth.
The arcane runes around Levi’s feet erupted into a column of churning smoke. The scent of an ocean breeze spread through the small porch. Billowy tendrils of the bluish-green mist curled up and around his legs and body until he became completely engulfed.
“Come to me,” Paige commanded.
The funnel of multicolored smoke floated toward her, stripping away the smoldering runes as it moved. Once breaking through the outer circle, the mist dissipated in a quick rush of air, revealing a stunned Levi. His skin had a bluish tint, but quickly warmed to its natural color.
He looked on in shock, as he took in the image of his sister’s spirit. “Nova?” Moisture welled in his eyes. He stumbled toward the ghost. “Is it really you?”
His sister smiled at him, as tears wet her cheeks. She reached out and placed a hand on his face, nodding.
His eyes widened at her touch, and he placed his hand over hers. “It is you.” He opened his mouth to continue, but Nova shook her head.
“Dear brother, you must run.”
The icy fear that had gripped Paige just moments before became an actual biting frost. It was as if they had walked into a giant freezer and closed the door behind them. Goosebumps raced across her arms, and she could see her short breaths puffing out in front of her.
Oh, no.
Jet black fog flowed from every direction along the ground, surrounding the little porch. The roiling smoke began to build on itself, gaining height just as it had done in the elevator at the hotel.
Paige reached through Nova and grabbed hold of Levi’s wrist. “C’mon!”
He stumbled after her with a couple of yanks on his arm.
“Keep him safe,” Nova whispered, as she turned to face the rising fog.
Paige fought back the tears, knowing full well the sacrifice Nova was about to make. Somehow, Paige managed to keep moving, dragging Levi into the house.
“Wait!” he pleaded, bringing them both to a stop. “What about Nova?”
“She can take care of herself,” Paige lied. “We have to get out of here!”
He could have broken free of her grip if he’d truly wanted, but she kept pulling on him until he started moving again. They ran into the living room, Levi looking back for his sister.
“Car keys?” Paige yelled.
Levi snapped back into the present. “There!” He pointed to a set of key hooks on the wall beside the door.
She raced over and snatched the keys. “C’mon!”
A woman’s shrill scream echoed through the apartment.
Paige had no doubts about who screamed.
“I can’t leave her,” Levi said, too calmly, his expression a mask of stone.
Paige’s heart sank. “We can’t fight that thing. There’s nothing you can do to help her. She’s helping us.”
He remained unmoving as a granite pillar.
Dread tightened her gut, but she took hold of the door handle. “You’re making her sacrifice meaningless if you die too. You have to come with me.” She opened the door. “It’s time to go!”
Levi’s eyes widened. “Look out!”
Something rushed by, knocking Paige against the wall. A humanoid form charged Levi, howling like some unearthly beast. He met its charge, stepping to the side at the last moment. As the creature tried to correct itself, Levi slammed a fist into its jaw. Black ichor sprayed across the room, and the monster fell to the floor. It wasn’t out for the count yet, as it immediately scrambled to its knees.
“Dammit!” Levi yelled. He gave the creature a kick to the head, sending it sprawling once more. Then he grabbed Paige, and pulled her out the door.
Relief warred with sorrow, as they ran for the car.
Nova, I’m so sorry. Something had gone horribly wrong with her magic. She shouldn’t have assumed the protection spell had worked. She should have been more cautious. She should have known better than to think she was getting a handle on being a witch.
The apartment complex erupted with life, or more appropriately, unlife. Silhouettes ran toward them, but most were on all fours while others staggered oddly. The closest of their pursuers was revealed as it crossed under one of the streetlights. Hollowed pits for eyes, and a seeping black hole for a mouth dominated its features. It was as if it wore some horrid halloween mask.
Paige screamed at the sight, and almost lost her footing, but Levi’s strong grip kept her on her feet.
“The door!” he yelled, as he increased his speed.
Paige suddenly remembered she had the keys to the car. Her hands might as well have been covered by mittens for all the good her trembling fingers provided. After a frantic struggle, she finally managed to press the unlock button on the remote. The headlights blinked in unison with the two horn beeps, signaling free entry, just as they got to his car.
Levi jerked the door open. “Get in!”
One of the slavering monsters that barreled down on them collided with the front fender in its haste. It kept running down the length of the car, slamming the door shut just as Paige climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Levi!”
The creature fell upon him, clawing with pale fingers and jagged nails. Levi spun away from the wild attacks, and kicked the thing square in the chest. The possessed man let out a strangled cough as he flew away from him. Levi’s efforts proved in vain however, as more of the possessed creatures raced toward him.
Paige jammed the key into the ignition and cranked the key.
Levi slid over the hood as a deranged woman crashed into the car, howling after him in rage.
The engine fired up, and Paige put the car into gear.
Levi jumped in the passenger seat, slamming the door. His window shattered with a loud crash. Another one of the creatures came through the window. The possessed man was too large to get completely inside the car, but managed to squeeze in halfway. The stench of decay defiled the air as Levi fought to repel him.
Paige screamed, and stomped on the gas.
The sound of screeching tires echoed across the parking lot, and the car lurched forward. Several creatures jumped onto the hood and began hammering at the windshield. Others jostled the car as they rammed the doors. Paige sped out of the parking lot, and onto the street.
Levi continued his wrestling match with One Ton, who had managed to wriggle farther into the car. The possessed man clamped a meaty hand around Levi’s throat.
The creatures hitching a ride on the hood cracked the windshield with their endless punches.
Gasping for breath, Levi clawed at One Ton’s hand in vain.
“Enough of this shit!” Paige yelled, and slammed on the breaks.
The monsters tumbled off the hood onto the pavement. But more importantly, One Ton flew out the window, forcing his vice-like grip to rip loose of Levi’s neck.
Paige slammed her foot on the gas again. The car pitched forward, crashing into the monsters that had started to get back on their feet. They rolled over the hood and into road.
“Thank Christ!” Paige yelled, as their last assailant disappeared into the shadows. She felt a sudden lightheadedness, and a few spots danced across her vision. My blood pressure must be through the damn roof.
She eased off the gas.
“Are you okay?” Levi croaked, rubbing his throat.
“I’m not injured, if that’s what you mean?”
He nodded and leaned back in his seat. “That was messed up.”
“So, you believe me now?” She chuckled, even though she wanted to cry.
“I don’t want to,” he admitted. “But yeah, I do.”
“Well, at least that problem’s solved.” Relief flooded her at his admission, but a dozen other problems remained. Most of which she had no idea how to resolve. How did The Headless Man find Levi, for instance? Why did the spell that allowed Levi to see spirits work, but the one she cast for protection not? And most importantly, how could she stop a phantom she hardly knew anything about?
Doubt rained down on her like a summer storm. How are we going to survive this?
Levi’s touch warmed her hand.
She glanced over at him. His smile could still melt her heart, even in this dire situation.
“We’re going to be okay,” he reassured. “We’ll work this out, together.”
Together. The thought thundered through her mind. Of course, you fool. We aren’t alone.
The fear and stress of the moment must have scrambled her brain. She’d completely forgotten about the other witches. “How do we get to the reservation from here?”
Levi absently rattled off directions to Anadarko, as Paige drove. Nova dominated his thoughts. She had looked so real, as if she hadn’t died at all. She’d looked so real in fact, that he’d believed his sister returned, until Paige had reached right through her.
Impossible. But it wasn’t. He’d seen her, talked to her, even felt her presence. She had been there, back from wherever it was she’d gone. Paige had been telling the truth all along.
He rubbed his eyes, and found tears in them. Just as they had been reunited, she was taken away.
Can a person die twice, first in body and then in soul? The question scared him. For Nova’s sake, he hoped not.
That thing. His anger flared. What the hell was it?
He hadn’t actually seen what was in the fog, but he’d felt it; cold, lifeless hatred from the darkest places he could imagine. The memory chilled his rage, but couldn’t extinguish the fire completely.
“Are you okay?” Paige asked.
He unclenched his fist, and took a deep breath. “I will be. Once we figure out how to kill that thing.”
“We will,” she assured. “I promise, we will.”
“How did it find us?”
Paige frowned as she pondered the question. “I don’t know. I’m not sure if it was following Nova, or if my spells didn’t work. I just don’t know enough about magic, yet.” Her eyes narrowed in determination.
While glad to see her being positive about this whole ordeal, he struggled just to hang on to his sanity. An evil spirit had brushed against him, maybe not in body, but definitely in spirit. The Headless Man was a reality, and it wanted him dead. He had no idea how to process that, and doubted he ever would. Right now however, he needed to find protection, or a least some way to defend himself. “What’s at the reservation?”
“People who can help,” Paige answered.
“Witches?”
She nodded. “One, at least.”
“Better than nothing, I suppose,” Levi replied. “We can stay at my grandfather’s.”
“That’s what I was hoping.”
He arched a brow. “You know my grandfather lives on the reservation?”
“Nova.”
Of course, his sister must have told Paige a lot of things about their family. Nova had been a natural talker, she couldn’t help but blab about anything and everything. He actually missed it.
“I’d hoped to talk with your grandfather,” Paige said. “I thought we could learn something from your family’s past that could help us.”
Levi sighed. “He’s always been a little crazy. Maybe spirits haunted him, too.” He’d meant the comment as a joke, but once he’d said it aloud, the humour fell short. His words actually had a ring of truth to them. “Grandfather rarely leaves his land. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I saw him off the reservation.”
“You’re going where I’ve been thinking.” Paige glanced at him, concerned. “I have a feeling your granddad knows about this thing.”
Levi shook his head, confounded. “He’s been asking me to move back to the reservation, ever since Nova died. Hell, he never liked the idea of us moving away in the first place.” The more he spoke, the more he believed his grandfather did know something. Memories of the family flooded his mind. His grandmother’s passing. His uncle’s untimely death. The day his father’s body washed ashore on the Washita River. Each time a tragedy befell the family, Grandfather would sing to the spirits. Then, after a drunken stupor, locked himself away in his trailer for several months. His reaction to Nova’s death differed little, except for the old man adamantly demanding that Levi return to the reservation.
“It’s important that we speak with him,” Paige said. “He may have some insight.”
“Agreed.” Levi folded his arms across his chest. He brooded over this new revelation about his grandfather. The man had always been superstitious. Unfortunately, that’s all anyone had ever thought about him; just a superstitious old fool. Maybe that perception had kept his grandfather from saying that something had been hunting their family. Or maybe his grandfather didn’t know anything about it at all, and just wanted his family nearby.
Frustration boiled through Levi. At this point, his thoughts on the subject remained pure speculation. He had to actually sit down and discuss this with his grandfather.
Paige reached over and turned on the heater. The action drew his eye, and he realized how glad he was that she was here. Not only to have someone to face these recent horrors with, but also because he wanted to be near her, witchiness and all. He still hoped that she’d decide to stay, but after tonight, his hopes were low.
She glanced over at him. “You’re makin’ me nervous over there.”
He looked away. “Sorry, long day.”
She chuckled. “I’m there with ya.”
“I wonder how many people at my apartment complex were taken by that thing?” he mused.
An uncomfortable silenced stretched between them. Paige replied with grim surety. “All of them.”
“That’s what I thought.” He shivered at the loss of his neighbors and their children. I brought death to them. I brought death to their front doors.
His ignorance of the true danger of The Headless Man did little to placate his quilt. Their blood was on his hands. He rubbed his arms to fight off the sense of cold that crept into him. Forgive me.
Paige fiddled with the heat again, noticing Levi’s attempt to warm himself. “We must be in shock or something, because I’m freezing.”
That made sense. He’d heard about people going into shock after traumatic events, though he’d never experienced it himself. “We’re almost there. My grandfather will have some coffee we can warm up with.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Levi looked out the window into the darkness. The only light came from the headlights and the dim, multicolored dash. The view outside felt ominous. Most likely because he’d just learned how real monsters could be. Despite that disturbing enlightenment, something else seemed amiss. The night had become unnaturally dark. No stars shone above or behind them. Only toward the front of the car could he make out the endless pinpricks of light.
Odd.
A wisp of black smoke snaked up from the floorboard and then disappeared into the shadows. The temperature continued to plummet, despite the heater going full blast.
Oh, shit.
Paige hit the gas without warning. “It’s here!”
Levi twisted around to look behind them.
A blackened hand wrapped around his throat, and a raspy broken voice whispered, “Vengeance.”
The Headless Man’s icy touch burned to the soul. Air rushed from Levi’s lungs, leaving him breathless. His panicked gaze settled on the creature, as his muscles stiffened.
The creature’s constant vibration jarred the eye, but certain details could still be seen. Pasty skin, scarred with blackish pulsing veins, stretched across its chest and shoulders. A gaping hole where the head should be leaked dark ichor from severed arteries.
Levi struggled to scream, but nothing escaped his throat. He trembled in agony, the swirling darkness closing around him. Then he saw no more.
“No!” Paige yelled in fear and rage. She pressed the gas pedal all the way to the floor, unable to do anything else. Without magic, nothing could touch the Headless Man.
Levi’s body had begun to shake. Thick, tentacle-like columns of smoke coiled around him, holding him in place as the wicked wraith devoured his soul.
She glanced at the speedometer. One hundred miles an hour, the fastest she’d ever driven, but still not fast enough. Levi would die before they got to the reservation.
Paige grabbed the necklace around her neck and ripped it off. “I’m here, fucker!”
The Headless Man turned as if to look at her with eyes he didn’t possess. His free hand whipped out and clamped around the back of her neck with cold fury. A thousand tiny whispers rushed past her ears, promising the horrors she already knew would come.
A silent scream ripped itself from her. The frigid touch paralyzed every nerve and numbed the mind. Her soul began to tear from her body like sinew from bone, as the Headless Man siphoned it through his clawed hand. Reality slipped from her grasp. She sensed her end, but at least Levi would be with her. She wouldn’t have to mourn his loss, or he her’s. They would go together.
Her hold on the steering wheel faltered, and the car veered to the side. What remained of the real world tumbled end over end. The screech of metal filled her ears. The harsh sound became muffled, as if she were underwater, sinking deeper and deeper into the depths. None of that mattered though. Her world had become pain.
When she thought she couldn’t take any more, she snapped back into her body. A different kind of pain rifled through her. Physical pain. She moaned and tried to shield her eyes from the blinding light that now surrounded her. What is it?
War cries echoed from the light, while The Headless Man screamed in pain and rage.
How the hell is he yelling without a head? No matter the how or why, she couldn’t help feeling a sense of satisfaction at hearing the horrid monster’s torment. Her soul had almost been destroyed by the ravenous wraith. That proved reason enough to wish the creature ill.
The yelling and fighting could have slipped by in a split second, or lasted for an eternity. Either seemed plausible, given Paige’s current state. Whichever the case, the bright noisy commotion became dark deafening silence with the abruptness of a slamming door.
Her eyes blinked open to find a spirit standing over her. An Indian chief from the distant past, his face etched with lines of age and an expression hard as stone. Broad strokes of paint covered his chest, arms and shoulders, while jewelry of bone, feathers and horsehair covered the rest. She had no idea what all the regalia meant, but she sensed his fierceness.
Then just like that, he vanished into thin air.
Typical. Ghosts had a knack for avoiding questions. Not that she was in any shape to be conducting an interview at the moment, but a simple, “Hi, I’m Jimmy,” would have been nice.
Screw it. Paige lay there, unable to do anything but stare up at the sky. The darkness no longer contained the cold void the Headless Man had offered. Instead, it held an earthly night, real and familiar. Stars scoured the deep sky, with the slightest hint of the moon peeking through a gathering of clouds. Slowly, the sounds of crickets, birds and other animals of the night penetrated the fog in her mind. A coyote’s howl brought tears of joy, as she realized she still lived. She groaned from her attempts to move, and found the peace of death preferable to the pain of her battered body.
Get up, you sissy. Rolling over proved a Herculean task, but she finally managed to do so.
Levi’s car, or what used to be Levi’s car, sat in a crumpled heap off the side of the road. Acrid battery acid and pungent gasoline fumes filled the air. Large columns of smoke billowed up from the wreckage into the night.
How the hell did I survive that?
Levi coughed beside her. He tried to sit up, but only managed to flail at the air uselessly.
“Easy there, Tiger,” Paige cautioned. “We’ve had a bad spill.” She crawled over to him. “You okay?”
He laid there for a moment, just breathing. “I’m taking a sick day tomorrow.”
Paige chuckled in relief, despite the pain. She gently kissed his forehead. “So, you’re sure you believe in ghosts now?”
“I’m sure I hate ghosts now.”
“They’re not all bad,” she said, with little conviction. The last few days had made her want to swear off ghosts forever. If only she could.
Levi scoffed, then winced in pain. He rubbed his head as he moaned. His arms had little cuts and dried blood covering them, and his clothes were torn and ragged. He looked up at her and touched her cheek. “Are you hurt?”
She smiled. “Only in body.”
“Well, that’s no good. I want your body.”
“Your timing is impeccable.”
He smirked. “For now, I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Same here.” She kissed him again. “We should go.”
Levi struggled to his elbows, and looked around. “What happened?”
“I wrecked your car.”
He chuckled. “Somehow, I don’t think that was your fault.”
“It’s quite dead, regardless. Sorry.” She crawled to her knees.
“It’s okay. How is it that we aren’t dead?”
“I’ve been wondering that myself.” She left out the ghostly chieftain for now. He was another mystery, for another time. Her head swam, but she managed to not fall over. “Do you know where we are?”
“Looks like we made it.” He pointed to a large sign with the title, “Indian City USA Cultural Center” on it. “We’re on the reservation.”