16. War against evil
sixteen
War against evil
EWAN
We're going to war, and our army is composed of the most unexpected soldiers, I think as we get prepared. Shirley and Lana have braided each other’s colourful hair back in what I'd call a Viking style. They’ve also put on their war paint—they called it that, not me.
Glittery makeup and black lipstick. They made a joke out of it, but Shirley quietly admitted it made her feel bolder, and they hoped the ghost of Earl Lynch would be appalled by it.
The cats are with us, seven furry devils, eyes glowing in the dark as they patrol around us. To my surprise, James often gets on one knee to whisper reassuring words to the felines.
“We’ll make a cat person out of you yet,” I say.
He looks up with a frown and points a finger at me in warning. I laugh.
James is incredibly hot in his body armour, cargo pants, and combat boots. He has tied the top of his hair in a little ponytail to keep it out of his face.
I'm the most unexpected soldier of this army. Me, a clumsy giant who is terrified of ghosts. I can’t believe I’m doing this. But letting my friends face the monster alone terrifies me more.
The last guests finally left in the evening, and Lana locked the entrance door after putting up a handwritten sign that said: “The hostel is closed temporarily due to a family emergency. Sorry!”
Some angry guests already left scathing reviews online, but nothing can be done about it.
“It really is a family emergency,” Lana joked. “My fucking ancestor is trying to kill us all.”
To which Shirley replied, “I guess a bad rating is the least of our problems, isn’t it?”
Now we’re getting ready to kick that ancestor’s ass, and then we can focus on healing the hostel’s reputation.
Lana and Shirley made me promise earlier that when this was all over, I wouldn’t become a stranger. They said I’d always have a room here when I wanted to visit, and they could even give me a part-time job after ExorSquad. I’m thinking on taking them up on their offer.
Shirley told me they were going to extend the offer to James when the time comes, and I try not to overthink it and panic, wondering what his answer will be. I know it’ll hurt if he just moves on without a second glance.
In fact, it’ll hurt a lot.
“Well, let’s get this party started,” James says, turning the safety off his PolterPulse.
We’ve been standing in the great hall, gathering courage and making the last preparations.
We’re bringing all the tools at our disposal: salt, fire, spells, herbs...
We’re not sure what will work best against Earl Lynch, since we don’t have his remains.
After Lana did some digging, it turned out his body was retrieved by doctors who studied syphilis at the time, then burned.
James helps me secure the mask over my face with a scarf, and I do the same for him. The toxic spores are still a problem.
“Ready?” James asks us, his voice muffled.
The three of us nod.
We make our way to the stairs leading down to the basement. I’m the one carrying the suitcase with the bones inside. Once again, we’re welcomed by the unnatural darkness, it’s evil clinging to my skin like oil. The air is thick with spores, and the mould has spread to all surfaces.
We stand back to back as we walk to the salt circle we drew the last time we were here. It’s still intact.
Without having to do anything, Agnes makes an appearance.
Just like the previous times, she looks ghoulish, blood running down her eyes and chin.
Now that we know her full story, she doesn’t scare me as much.
She’s just a victim, rightfully angry. She groans and vomits blood, pointing an accusatory finger at us.
“You know why we’re here,” James says to her. “This needs to end, Agnes. We understand your revenge, and we’re not blaming you for it. But he’s getting stronger, and you can’t keep him a prisoner for much longer. You need to let us exorcise him.”
She let’s out a gurgling scream, then she throws her phantom body at the salt barrier. As expected, she won’t be easy to reason with.
As if sensing that things are taking a turn, the monster in the basement awakens. The ground shakes under our feet, the the mould releases more spores into the air.
“Shit...” Shirley whispers behind me.
Agnes circles around us, blood-shot eyes glowing.
“Let’s us work, Agnes!” James shouts in warning.
The cats are yowling in the dark.
James looks at me and nods. I drop the suitcase on the ground and open it. The ghost hisses and floats away as she realises what’s in it. Then she bashes her incorporeal body against the barrier once again.
“I’m sorry,” Lana says to the ghost. “I hope you’ll find peace in the beyond.”
She douses the remains in accelerant. We all take a step back as she strikes a match and drops it in on the suitcase. The fire catches immediately. Agnes screams loud enough to hurt my eardrums.
Then to our horror, another ghost appears, screeching. A very old woman in a soiled nightdress.
“What—”
“Oh my god,” Lana says over their screams. “I think it’s Meredith.”
Earl Lynch’s mother. By setting her remains on fire alongside Agnes’, we must have summoned her from her resting place. She probably was one of the ghosts who chased us from the mausoleum.
“The spell!” James roars.
I try to focus and remember the words. It was decided that I'd be the one to recite the spell of banishment, hoping that my status as a "medium"—for a lack of a better word—would pack it with a punch. It’s actually a prayer to Hecate, in Greek.
I had to practice my pronunciation for an hour to be sure not to butcher the words.
Shirley assured me my intent is the most important part of the spell, and it's okay if it's not perfect as long as I feel it.
I stumble over the words, panic rising, but James holds my hand and squeezes. God, I’m so happy he’s here with me...
I only make it through the second verse before I’m interrupted by a violent quake. The ground breaks beneath our feet and James pushes me out of the way. I fall backwards, out of the salt circle, just as a crevice opens right where we stood seconds ago.
The crevice widens into a dark chasm, and James and I share a look across it. The salt circle is broken.
The ghosts of the two women rush at us, angry and desperate.
Shirley, who carries more salt and the concoctions we prepared to face the spirits, whips her vials out and start fighting back. Meredith wails as her translucent shape wavers under the onslaught.
But Agnes is smarter, and she disappears in the dark and reappears behind Shirley. She dives through our friend, almost like a possession, and when she comes back out, Shirley vomits blood on the floor.
“No!” Lana screams.
She has the presence of mind to empty her fire accelerant bottle over the remains, and the flames burn brighter. The two ghosts blink out of existence, like dying light bulbs. Two cats hiss and jump at them, their claws appearing to cause damage to the entities.
I get to my feet and James does the same on the other side of the chasm, wanting to help our friends, when a black, shiny hand appears out of the chasm and grips the edge.
I stare, horror-stricken, as a creature made of darkness climbs out of the earth. The thing is long-limbed and reed-thin, starved-looking, and it has no face. The clouds of toxic spores gather around it.
Earl Lynch, I realise. The evil ghost is already free. He was about to break out of his prison, and Agnes was the only reason why he was still contained.
This is what we wanted. Now we can face him. And yet, I regret all of it as the monster looks down at me—he’s at least seven feet tall.
“Ooooooh...” he says to me, voice distorted. “What... are... you..?”
His appearance and voice are jarring. Then I remember what our goal is, and I begin reciting the prayer of banishment again. With some luck, it’ll work on the three spirits.
Lana is still fighting off the two entities, while Shirley is trying to keep her guts in.
My voice is getting louder and louder as I give momentum to the Greek words. The ghost’s attention is on me, and I’m shaking in my boots, but then James shoots at his back with his PolterPulse.
“Hey, you motherfucker! I’m here too!”
The blue zaps hit the monster in the back, and he shudders, becoming more substantial.
What used to be Earl Lynch turns to James, motion unnaturally fluid. “You... little... pest...”
He throws a long arm out and James fails to dodge the attack. The entity’s claws leave three gashes along his left brow and cheek, just missing his eye, and his mask is torn away.
I shout, spell forgotten, as blood gushes over James’ face. This can’t be happening, I think. Ghosts aren’t supposed to hurt us like this.
Poltergeists can touch us, but they aren’t supposed to deal real physical damage.
But somehow, this one just did.
James wipes the blood from his face and shoots again.
The monster laughs as the next zaps hit his chest. It seems to barely inconvenience him.
As he’s about to float above the chasm, attention solely on James, I realise how dangerous this is.
If he can deal physical damage, he’ll kill him. He’ll kill James.
No.
I jump at him and grab Earl Lynch from behind in a hold I learned in rugby.
At first, I think my arms are going to just pass through him, like any other ghost, but as I focus I can feel him.
I can touch him through the veil, just like he can touch us.
He’s as slimy as he looks, and phantom fluid drips around my arms.
“I banish you!” I scream. “Go away, you are not welcome here! This house is our dominion, and you are not welcome!”
The ghost swivels into my arms, like the neck of an owl, and he backhands me so hard my vision darkens and I let go. I find myself on the ground moments later a few feet away.
James throws a fistful of salt from his pocket at the entity. This finally seems to do something and Earl Lynch lets out a sickening sound halfway between a groan and a howl.
Then he raises a clawed hand and the glowing spores twirl around it before flying towards James. They engulf his body, and he coughs. He no longer has his mask. What will the toxic spores do to him if he gets exposed for too long?
The monster leans over me, two black eyes barely visible through the oily darkness of him. “You... fools... this house... is... mine!” He reaches for my own mask and I scramble back, trying to get out of reach.
That’s when a pitiful scream comes out of Meredith, the ghost whose remains we stole. She’s convulsing and floating towards us. “Fergus... Fergus...” cries the old lady in a nightdress. “Help me...”
Behind her, Agnes has also turned her attention to the monster. Lana is dragging Shirley out of the room with the help of the cats. They're both covered in blood.
The ghost of Earl Lynch turns to his mother. Her form is wavering as her remains keep burning. Soon, her old bones will turn to ashes.
She reaches for him and he does something that freezes the blood in my veins. He grabs her by the shoulders and bites down on her head with a giant mouth filled with sharp teeth.
In front of our very eyes, Early Lynch devours the ghost of his mother.
He seems to glow for a moment once her pitiful cries have stopped. He just... ate the other spirit.
Agnes lets out a broken scream, blood gushing out of her mouth as she attacks the monster she kept prisoner for over a century in the foundations of the house.
But she, too, is no match for him now that he’s free.
What have we done? I wonder briefly as we watch him capture the second ghost and devour her, too. Agnes gives a good fight, and he has to bite down a few times before she truly dissipates. Her glow disappears inside him, her soul sucked away. The slimy monster seems to grow larger.
Then he turns to me.
“Come... Through... you... I’ll...live... again...” he says, floating towards me.
James is calling my name from the other side of the chasm, on his knees. He’s coughing blood.
I try to escape, but the ghost is faster and stronger. He grabs me by the throat, and I’ve never known such fear in my entire life. What will happen to me when he eats my soul?
But he does not eat me. Instead, he pours himself inside me, using me like a vessel. The chill of the grave slithers through my veins as he takes possession of my body. Who I am—my soul—is put aside like an afterthought. I scream, but only I can hear it.
It hurts. It hurts so much...
I’m not in control anymore, and I witness in horror as the ghost flexes my hands, trying out his new meat suit.
“This will do,” he says with my voice.
Then he leads us to the stairs.
As we pass by James, he tries to reach for me, but his eyes are glassy. The spores are killing him. I cry, but no one can hear my sobs.
The house slams the door to the basement closed, trying to keep us in, but Earl Lynch gives it a mighty kick, my leg powered by the energy of the dead, and it gives out easily.
On the other side, Lana is holding an unconscious Shirley against her chest. “Ewan?”
The cats hiss, putting themselves between us and the women. But the ghost just ignores them all and strolls out of the basement.
I sob harder as the ghost takes me out of the house and into the night.