Epilogue #4
With a startling mix of confusion and excitement, I recognize their faces.
The TAPIT crew look much the same as they did the night I entered Reaper’s Playroom.
Vic, Randall, and Edwin. The fourth person wasn’t a TAPIT member before.
Amber. Did she join the group after I disappeared?
A realization that should have hit me long ago wiggles its way to the surface.
Everyone thinks I’m dead. Amber is like Edwin now. Seeking answers after losing someone she cared about.
Madness’s arms support me as strange emotions startle to life. “You brought me to see my old friends?”
He nods. “No eating.”
“No eating,” I confirm.
“They’re looking for ghosts. Such a strange mortal pastime.” He shakes his heads.
“Well, they are strange people,” I admit. Strange, lovable. The room remains quiet. The disappointment on their frowning faces inspires a decision. “Let’s give them a show.”
Madness rubs both hands together. “We would be delighted.”
“Scare them, but not too badly. And stay away from the one in the hat.” Edwin is older and more withered than he was the last time I saw him.
His smiles beam. “We will do our best.”
Madness blurs across the room, letting the candles flicker in his wake.
Vic gasps. “Did you see that?”
“Yeah, I got it.” Randall nods, camera still pointing at the candles.
They’re so focused on the flames that they don’t notice the darkness suspending from the ceiling. Randall shivers as Madness passes a hand across his shoulders. The man pivots around, camera jerking from side to side.
“What happened?” Vic asks, concerned.
“Something is definitely here. I felt like there were spiderwebs on the back of my neck.”
Amber nervously toys with her blond ponytail.
A thundering laughter echoes through the crumbling room. Edwin rises to his feet.
The four look around, moving closer to one another.
“You guys heard that, right?” Vic asks in a shaky voice.
“Oh yeah,” Randall answers.
The EMF detector pings. Edwin speaks up. “Who are you?”
Madness looks to me. I nod, giving him the go-ahead to tell them the truth.
“Githany,” he whispers.
They all jolt. Randall speaks excitedly. “Did you heart that? Did it say Githany?”
“I heard it,” Vic confirms.
“She’s really here?” Amber looks around. “Githany? Are you alright? Can you give us another sign?”
Madness ghosts past them again, snuffing out the fires until only one candle remains lit.
The group falls silent. They fixate on the final flame. Madness turns to me from where he’s hovering behind them.
Do it.
The final candle extinguishes.
Amber screams.
Madness covers the room in pitch black, rising up and over the crew. His voice drops into a gravelly warning. “Our mistress bids you leave this place. Go, now.”
Crouching down to face them, he reveals his four red eyes. The inhuman crimson ovals beam through the darkness.
This time everyone screams. There’s a flurry of motion. Equipment is snatched up. Candles are kicked and forgotten as everyone spills out into the hallway. I’m tucked inside the next room when they run past. Wise eyes connect with mine as the group escapes. Edwin saw me, I’m certain of it.
Madness and I wait until we hear the sound of a car engine and four closed doors before we step outside.
Randall cries out, “Mistress? Holy shit, Githany is a ghost queen!”
“Ghost queen!” Vic echoes.
I flick an eyebrow up. “Our mistress?”
Madness chuckles. “We wanted you to sound badass beyond the grave.”
That makes me smile.
My attention cuts back toward the group. The gaping fear in their eyes shifts to exhilaration as the car provides them with a sense of security.
Laughter and shrieks of excitement fill the inside of the vehicle.
“Did you see that?”
“Unbelievable!”
“I can’t believe that happened.”
They talk over one another, already recounting the experiences from moments ago.
There’s still a cold, impassible wall across the place where my human emotions used to reside. I don’t feel things the same way. Not joy exactly, but something akin to satisfaction builds as I recognize happiness in the others.
“Such a good little ghost girl, not eating her old friends.” Madness holds out a hand to me. “Let us find you something to devour and then reward you with a special treat.”
“I was promised spankings,” I remind him.
“Something to eat and a hand-spanked seat. We are ready, we are waiting.”
A small amount of closure that I didn’t know I needed settles in my chest as we leave the sanatorium behind us. We meet up with Hunt and Gator at the base of the mountain. Briefly, my thoughts drift back to the people I once knew.
They were a reminder of the soul I left behind. The one that controlled my life before my monsters. My soul is long gone. Lost to the breeze, never to be reborn again. Still, I find purpose in my soulless life.
Death and devouring are my daily calling, but I was once just a girl. A girl who played a game that led her to a trio of unfathomable fears. They all stare down at me, adoring and horrifying. Now, my life consists of blood, death, and daily triple dick. What more could a soul-eating demon want?