Chapter 8
Xander
I TRULY WAS THE WORLD’S kindest demon. A benevolent being who opened his arms wide to the lost and weary. A remarkable creature who held graciousness in the highest regard. That had to be the case.
Because why the fuck else would I be standing in the panty section of this goddamn clothing store with my back turned and arms loaded with bags for this ghost-talking girl?
“Would you hurry?” I griped with an overly loud and exaggerated sigh. “Do you realize how weird it looks for a grown ass man to be standing with you while you try and figure out what underwear you want?”
“They could just think you’re my brother,” Kendyll said from behind me.
“That doesn’t make me feel better,” I growled, glancing over my shoulder to glare at her, only to see her holding up a pair of lacy purple panties.
I whipped around and snatched those from her to shake in her face.
“What the Hell do you need these for, huh? You only wear this kind of stuff if you’re going to be wearing it for someone else, and you certainly aren’t doing that. ”
Her cheeks darkened in embarrassment. “I was just looking. I wasn’t getting them. I don’t know what kind of underwear is normal.”
Throwing the provocative purple underwear across the section we stood in, I scanned the nearby table until I found what I was looking for. I snatched up the pack of standard neutral colored cotton underwear and handed it to her. “Here. Functional and comfortable. All you need.”
She looked at the packaging. “I don’t think this is my size.”
“Then find them in your size,” I hissed, looking around the bustling department store. People walked by, throwing glances our way. My skin crawled just picturing what they were thinking. “I’m gonna wait outside. Take my card and get what you need.”
I’d never been so happy to get away from girls’ underwear in all my life. What a sad day for my panty-loving self.
I looked down at the bags of essentials I’d bought for Kendyll’s new life. Lounge clothes, a few outfits to go out in, shoes, socks, and her own toiletries. And now, even underwear.
I sighed. “Oh, Mighty Lord Lucifer, why’d you make me with such a kind heart? Why not make me surly and grouchy like Dante?”
The Prince of Darkness didn’t appear to answer me.
Ten minutes later, Kendyll returned to my side with her bag of newly purchased necessities. She handed me my card. “Thank you.”
“Is there anything else you want or need before we head back?”
She grinned and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Maybe some yummy treats?”
I shook my head. “I should’ve known that’s what you’d ask for.”
It was the fifth time today she’d wanted to stop for food or a drink.
Not that I minded. I enjoyed good food as much as this human did.
We stopped in a café where she got a matcha boba milk tea, and I ordered a taro boba tea.
After buying to-go dinner from a nearby Taiwanese restaurant, the two of us walked along the streets of New York City, happily drinking our beverages and swinging the many shopping bags, of which she carried the majority.
“This has been the best day ever,” Kendyll revealed with a warm smile. “My first day not waking up in a hospital bed. First day not having to take medication that makes me feel weird. First day with so many foods.”
“Food is definitely a plus.”
We rounded a corner and cut through a small park.
Full trees lined the pathway, creating a sense of separation from the city beyond.
Up ahead, a woman stood alone in the path.
Her blonde head looked every which way in alarm.
I prepared to ignore her, but Kendyll paused in her walk, staring at the woman who was beginning to panic and mumble under her breath.
“Ignore her,” I told Kendyll.
“But …”
“Please,” the woman called as she whipped her head every which way. That was when she saw Kendyll staring right at her. Hope brightened her face, and she raced toward us, her coiffed hair bouncing. “Please! My little boy! Have you seen him?”
Kendyll blinked rapidly, and instead of listening to me, she slowly acknowledged the lady with a gentle tone. “Your boy?”
“Ah! Praise! You’re answering me,” the woman cried out in merriment. “Everyone has passed me by without paying any mind to my troubles! Please. My baby boy. He is only a few months old. I-I fell asleep by mistake on the park bench with him in his stroller, and now my baby is gone. He’s gone!”
I listened to the ghost’s ramblings, but I knew better than to get involved in her plight for help.
She wore a cream-colored knee-length dress with lapels and wide shoulders, and her hair was tight and pulled back.
Both served as clear signs that she’d been dead for some time.
Her dated appearance suggested she’d lived during the 40s.
Even after being dead all that time, she still thought she was alive and in search of a missing baby that would be even older than she was in this ghostly, frozen state. Getting mixed up with such a lost spirit was often more of a hassle than it was worth.
“Let’s go,” I grumbled to Kendyll and resumed my walk, but after a few paces, I realized the stubborn human girl wasn’t following.
“It’s okay,” Kendyll tried to appease the woman kindly. “Your—Your baby isn’t here anymore, ma’am.”
“How do you know?” she cried while wringing her hands. “Do you know where Thomas is?”
“I-I don’t, but … I know that you … well, you’re—”
“Don’t, Kendyll,” I warned, but my words fell on deaf ears.
“You’re dead, ma’am. You’re a ghost. Your baby isn’t here,” Kendyll said apologetically.
The spirit floated backward in the way one might rear back upon being slapped. “What are you talking about? What a cruel joke! Such heartlessness!”
“I know it must be hard to believe, but it’s the truth. You’ll find peace once you realize this. Your baby isn’t missing. He’s just not here, because you’re a ghost. I’m sure he’s safe and sound somewhere, all grown up.”
The apparition began to shake. Dread gathered in my body. I carefully returned to Kendyll’s side, watching the ghost warily as I did. Her eyes had gone feral where she stared directly at Kendyll.
“I’m not dead!”
Kendyll only frowned at this.
“I’m not dead! I just fell asleep,” the woman insisted in a rage, her pale eyes suddenly churning with darkness.
“Fuck,” I hissed under my breath. I grabbed Kendyll’s bag-loaded arm to try to guide her away. “Come on. It’s too late.”
“Too late for what?” Kendyll asked.
“How dare you try to leave now?” the ghost roared. “You probably took Thomas! That’s why you’re trying to confuse my mind with your nonsense! Give him back to me. Give me back my baby!”
Her words morphed into piercing screeches like something right out of a horror movie.
Her wide eyes went black and protruded from their sockets while her teeth and nails elongated into scary points.
Her ethereal skin went from pale to gray.
The furious ghost lunged at Kendyll with violent intent, and while most ghosts would simply pass through a human, this ghost was no longer normal.
Dropping my drink and bags, I quickly stepped in front of Kendyll with a malicious glare of my own and caught the mad spirit’s reaching hands.
She screamed wildly and thrashed in my arms before a growl peeled past my lips.
Lighting fast, I released her to slam my own now clawed hand into her chest, where the essence of her spectral afterlife resided.
She froze in shock seconds before I dug my claws into her soul, crushing it into a million glittering fragments.
The ghost fizzled out and dissipated from existence like smoke on a passing breeze.
“What just happened?” Kendyll asked, her confusion and alarm making her voice shake.
I blew out a breath and dropped my hand back to my side, hiding my claws away once more. I glanced around the park and was grateful when I didn’t spot anyone else around. It would’ve been a pain to deal with altering their memories had they seen my form shift.
Turning to face Kendyll, I crossed my arms and got in her face. “I told you to ignore her. I told you to keep walking, but you just didn’t want to listen.”
“Because I didn’t understand why you wanted me to ignore a ghost that clearly needed help,” Kendyll fired back. “What happened to her?”
“She became a malicious spirit, that’s what. Have you never met a malicious spirit before?”
She shook her head slowly, and there was no missing the way her brow furrowed in puzzlement.
“Really? I’m surprised there weren’t any floating around Mountview.”
“There were some spirits at Mountview, but they always ran away and stayed hidden for some reason. None of them ever approached me, and I didn’t try to make them since that would only make me look crazier to the staff.”
“I see.” I straightened and gestured to where the ghost had been.
“I’ll educate you then. I told you to ignore her, because that is what happens when you try to convince a ghost who doesn’t know they’re dead that they are.
Their soul isn’t ready to accept that information, which is why they’re still interacting with the world in a way that makes sense to them.
“For example, the park most likely looked to her the way it did when she fell asleep and died here. When she looked at us, her soul probably put us in the same kind of clothes that were standard to her time. Her soul, unable to piece together and accept her new reality, molds everything around her into a world that still fits what she believes to be true. That she’s alive.
That she just fell asleep. That she is looking for her missing baby.
“Pointing out that they’re dead triggers that kind of ghost into a state of confusion and anger and refusal to accept what they are.
In those instances, they morph into a malicious spirit, which is a much more dangerous and powerful kind of spirit than your run-of-the-mill ghost. They can inflict actual physical damage on people, and they cause huge problems that Hell has to cover up and deal with.
The only thing you can do in these cases is dissipate their soul from existence.
They can’t change back into a normal ghost once they reach that point, and only problems await anyone who gets involved. ”
Kendyll’s frown returned, but the mere troubled expression from before was one of devastation now. “I didn’t know that would happen.”
“I don’t suppose you would, given that you’re practically a baby Ghost Speaker. Well, now you know. If a ghost doesn’t realize they’re dead, ignore them. If you’re determined to interact, treat them as if they aren’t a ghost. They have to figure out the truth on their own.”
She stared at the puddle of my taro boba drink. Swallowing hard, she whispered, “I’m sorry.”
I wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for—my drink, not listening to me, turning a confused spirit into a malicious one that I had to destroy, or all of the above. Regardless, the sudden somber and serious mood made me itch with the need to relieve it.
Pursing my lips, I flicked her forehead. She yelped and placed a hand over the red mark and looked up at me.
“You’ll learn how to be a good Ghost Speaker one day. It just takes time and experience, dealing with the different types of spirits out there. We all make mistakes.” I pointed at the sad purple puddle on the ground. “Yours cost $5.49. Cash or card?”