Return of the Seth
Chapter thirteen
Alex
“Okay Seth, I need you to explain this to me again, like I’m four this time.
” Seth, Jake, Brandon and I are sitting in the living room discussing ghost theory, and I’m starting to get frustrated because I need this plan to work and the words that are coming out of his mouth are gibberish.
I narrow my eyes at him in suspicion. “You know, you’ve never shown me your credentials.
How do I know you’re qualified to do this?
What if you accidentally send me to hell or something?
I can’t go to hell, Seth!” I start to panic about being sent to hell.
Maybe I wasn’t the best person I could have been while alive, but I don’t know that I deserve to be roasted by Satan for eternity.
No one else seems to be taking this as seriously as I am.
“Come on guys, focus!” Seth watches me with a bemused expression on his face, playing with a new piercing on the side of his lip.
Hot, I think and immediately feel bad for emotionally cheating on Jake.
Oh god, do I deserve eternal damnation? I shake off my doom spiral. Surely not.
He pats the book sitting open on his lap.
“Um, I don’t think it’s possible for me to send anyone to hell.
Ok, so, this stuff is actually pretty complicated.
Granny Brooks had to dig deep into the collection to find this.
Ghosts are rare, or at least people actually seeing ghosts is rare.
They could just be shy. As far as anyone knows, there's only a few areas that are strong enough to manifest one. This manor is in an area of extremely high paranormal energy. Electromagnetic fields and shit. I told you before about ley lines, right? Well, there is one that cuts directly through the property. That’s probably why you manifested here. ”
I nod. “Makes sense.” None of this makes sense, but I motion for him to continue.
“So, the goal here is to obtain a physical form, right? In order to do that you need to connect yourself to your physical surroundings, to emotions, to physical sensation. The easiest way is through meditation, but you can feed off other people too. You wanna be careful with that though, it can influence your own emotions. The stronger you get, the stronger your ties to the physical world will be. It’s like charging a battery. ”
“That sounds easy. We’re ghost batteries!” I beam at Jake, who still looks concerned.
“Well, it comes with a catch. The more ties you have to the physical realm, the harder it will be to break them. Eventually, you might not be able to venture back into the spirit realm.”
The smile falls off my face as he says that. “Fuck. So what happens if we just stay in ghost form?”
“Over time, you could lose the ability to connect to the physical world at all. You’ll be a shade, wandering for eternity unseen, unheard.
" He shudders dramatically. "Again, this is all theory.
This book could be total bullshit. Like I said, ghosts are rare, so there's not much reliable information out there.
You can hold onto the book if you want. There might be more helpful stuff in there for you.
" He sets the book down on the coffee table.
“Oh, um, I know this might come as a surprise, but I can’t read Latin. Or Sanskrit.” I look down at my lap, embarrassed.
“That’s okay, bro,” he says, no trace of mocking in his tone.
“Only the spells are in Latin. There’s a ton of notes inside that have been translated into English.
It’s not easy reading, but there’s a lot of information about ghost lore.
Spirits. That kind of stuff. I could probably get my hands on a few more books for you, if you need. ”
I nod, his kindness making me feel better. “Thanks. So, now we need to focus on manifesting a physical form. Does that mean we can be killed?”
“I dunno. You’re still technically dead, even with a physical manifestation. We’ll have to do more research on that; I don’t know any other ghosts I can ask.”
Seth pulls a blunt out of the silk robe he’s wearing. “Do you mind?” He’s always so thoughtful.
“Go for it, man. This is super helpful stuff.”
I turn to Jake. “You wanna practice meditating with me?” I waggle my eyebrows at him and love the way he squirms in his seat.
Brandon, sitting next to Seth looking at him like he just got done speaking Japanese, says, “Pass that blunt, bro!” He reaches out a hand for it and Seth takes another long drag before passing it to him.
“There you go, bro. I’m always down to share.
” They sit there for a few minutes quietly passing the blunt between them, and all I can do is stare at the interaction.
It’s like watching two aliens. I sit there for a few more minutes thinking about ways I could haunt our guests and feed off their energy.
That sounds like so much fun. I really need to buckle down and concentrate.
I’m going to charge the shit out of myself.
I want so badly to be able to tell my parents I’m here and see them in person. Have them see me back. Soon, I think.
I turn to Jake. “So, what do you think? You up for it now?” He gives me a soft smile.
“Sure. Thank you Seth, for helping us out like this. I really appreciate it. If you want to stick around for a bit, you can take one of the empty rooms. No charge.”
“Any time, man. And thanks, I might do that. I wanna check this place out.” He tries to pass Jake the blunt. Jake just stares.
***
A little while later, Jake and I are sitting on the grass in front of the manor, facing each other.
I wanted to take him to the lake but decided to save that for our first proper date.
I want it to be special. “Okay, give me your hands and let’s do this thing.
” He takes my outstretched hands, and we close our eyes for a minute, charging.
“How do we know if it’s working?” Jake asks. “Do you feel anything?”
“I don’t know, maybe. Now shush, we have to concentrate for this to work.” We sit for a little while longer. I lose track of time, and I don’t know if it’s been minutes or hours since we last spoke.
“Charge, charge, charge.” I start chanting and Jake snorts.
“Okay, I’m going to try and touch something.
” I see a stick lying nearby. That’ll work.
I reach out and put all of my focus into touching that stick.
The first time, my hand falls through it.
“God damn it!” I shout, but I try again, undeterred.
The fifth time I try, I squeal in shock when my finger makes contact with it.
Actual, physical contact. “Jake, did you see that!”
“I did, yeah. Try and pick it up.” I wrap my hand around it, and lift. “I’m holding the stick. Are you seeing this? I’m holding the stick!” I cannot contain my joy. If I can hold a stick, I can hold a knife. Jake gives it a try next, and he’s able to pick the stick up on the first try.
“You’re such an overachiever.” I tease. “Show off.”
He gives me a teasing grin, so I grab the stick out of his hand and hold it for a second before it falls back to the ground. I guess my battery just ran out. Lame.
“Okay good job, that was fun. Let’s take a break for now and head back inside, we’ll continue practicing later.”