Chapter 50
After parking the car a little bit away from the alley, Ollie took a deep breath, just sitting there for a moment before pulling out his notebook, and turning to the page that the spell was written on. The spell was slightly repetitive in its wording, so there was that, at least… Easy to remember.
After repeating the spell several times in his head, along with reviewing the instructions, which were basically just either shattering the bottle underneath the cluster ghost or pouring the potion on it, Ollie put the notebook away and got out.
After fishing one of the bottles from his messenger bag, he slowly made his way down the sidewalk towards the dark alleyway that was getting creepier by the moment.
He may have been limping ever so slightly, thanks to his cut feet.
Ollie’s heart, that had already been racing from the second he’d arrived, didn’t get any slower as he approached.
At the mouth of the alley, his eyes started to adjust and focus, as he took one more deep breath before softly saying, “You got this, Ollie.” Then, he took a step forward into the darkness.
The thing he noticed straight away was how quiet it seemed, and…empty. It was very empty, aside from some litter. Shit—had the thing moved on already?
Ollie just stood there, staring at the nothingness. Eyeing the brick wall that made up the dead end, he hesitated, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. His shoulders sagged as all the built-up tension whooshed out of him at the thought of everything going to waste.
Sighing, Ollie turned to leave, but froze with his back to the dead end at the sound of an odd, stuttering crack that almost sounded like joints popping.
“Hello there, little witch.”
He shivered as the words practically floated to his ears, sounding as if they’d come from many voices speaking at once in unison. The book…hadn’t mentioned them being able to talk.
Swallowing hard, his left hand clenching around the bottle as it began to shake, Ollie slowly turned around, taking a hurried step back when he saw just how close the cluster ghost was to him.
Crouched only feet away, with its head tilted to the left, peering at him through long, dirty hair, was the creature currently wearing Jack Haye’s face.
The cluster ghost’s clothes were just as they had been, with patches sewn together, yet there seemed to be even more than before.
His eyes were darker, and his teeth appeared much sharper as he sneered.
Then the cracking noise started again, as the cluster ghost turned his head the other way. The action was jerky, like there were joints and bones where there shouldn’t be, and cracks happened with every movement. “Can’t say I’ve ever been able to talk before. Is this your doing?”
Ollie’s stomach dropped at the creature’s words. Oh…please, don’t tell me this thing is managing to feed off my apparent ability to be a battery pack for ghosts?!
Shit, he didn’t have time for this! Giving his head a shake, he pulled himself together, and without another thought, he threw the bottle at the creature’s feet.
As an odd purple smoke rose up once the glass had shattered and the potion had spilled free, the cluster ghost let out a high-pitched, painful shriek, while Ollie cried out, “I command thee, abomination of Jack Hayes. Unmerge what should not have merged, un-trap what has been trapped, and disperse all to where it belongs!”
As the shriek continued, Ollie began to feel hope that he’d actually done it, but then the sound abruptly cut off, and the cluster ghost straightened its head with a loud crack, as a vicious smile spread across its face, growing far wider than any human’s would be able to.
And that was when Ollie noticed something he wished he had sooner—it wasn’t see-through…
Ollie only had a second to realize how much danger he was in before the creature was on him.
One moment, it was many steps away, and the next, it was right beside him, solid as can be, and grabbing his hand as if they were friends.
Ollie screamed in fear and he went to yank himself free, but then he just didn’t.
His limbs suddenly feeling heavy, he just stood there, tears welling in his eyes as thoughts that sounded like his own filled his head.
Did you really think Noble would like you? That he loved you? That Jahla was really your friend? That Red was actually your family? Ollie, stupid, Ollie, you know better than that. Don’t you have enough examples already?!
“S-shut up,” Ollie whispered.
Why do you keep trying? No matter how kind you are, or how bright your smile is, they will always leave you behind. Because you know, as well as everyone else, that not a single soul wants you around.
“Shut up!” he said, louder this time, as more tears fell.
Deny, deny…that’s all you do. But you know the truth. You know that no one cares. Not even you care anymore. You are just tired…so very tired. You tried so hard, but shouldn’t you rest now? It’s okay to rest. To let go. It hurts less, I promise—
“SHUT UP!” Ollie screamed. A roaring heat burst outward from his center, as anger, that he knew full well was his own, flared to life.
The cluster ghost yanked its hand away with a hard tug the moment the fire tried to consume it, causing Ollie to tumble onto his hands and knees, small rocks cutting into his palms as he landed.
Sobbing softly, Ollie glared at the thing as it desperately tried to pat out the flames engulfing its hand.
“Y-you are wrong! Even if no one in this world wants me, I still do. And that is enough! You will not, and cannot, win that way with me, because I know life is worth living. Life is worth experiencing, no matter how much pain comes with it. I will take joy from every little thing I can, because you are WRONG!”
The cluster ghost looked sharply at him with a hiss as the fire was finally extinguished.
With one hand now burned and blackened, the thing stared at him with pure hatred for just a moment, before suddenly leaping towards him.
Its hands, that had been perfectly normal, were now tipped with long, sharp, wicked-looking black claws.
When Ollie tried to move, he found his limbs were still heavy, weighed down by whatever the thing had done when it touched him.
He closed his eyes, not wanting to see the strike coming.
But it never came. Instead, he felt a breeze above him, as if something had flown overhead. Ollie’s eyes snapped open at the sound of a loud thud, accompanied by the creature letting out a startled shriek.
He stared wide-eyed at the familiar back that he thought he might never see again, and as more tears flooded his eyes, he rasped, “N-Noble…”
“Are you hurt?” the man asked, without taking his eyes off the cluster ghost, who was crumpled on the ground across the alleyway, shaking its head and producing far too many cracking noises than he was comfortable with.
“I… No…”
Well…his heart hurt, and his hands were cut up, not to mention his sliced feet from before, but otherwise, most of his pain was mental and emotional. Ollie also wasn’t sure how he was supposed to react to Noble being there at all…
He shakily pushed himself back onto his feet, as Noble moved inhumanly fast to meet the next attack from the cluster ghost, batting away a strike of very sharp claws with his forearm.
The hunter didn’t seem to react, or care in the least, as they sliced into him.
Instead, he used the moment of shock it created to seize one of the creature’s wrists and spin it around.
One arm now restrained behind its back, Noble sent it to the ground with a hard kick.
A loud crack mixed with a shriek from the cluster ghost, as the man clearly dislocated its arm.
The screams from the thing grew louder as Noble drove it further down, pinning that arm tight as he held it there with his full weight, his knees pressed into its lower back.
Ollie was transfixed for a moment, just watching the muscles beneath the sweater the man wore bulge and strain as the creature struggled, before snapping out of his stupor when Noble yelled, “Ollie, the potion!”
He quickly pulled the second bottle out of his bag, and hesitated for only a moment before rushing closer.
Uncorking the bottle, he dumped it over the creature’s head, as he once again repeated, “I command thee, abomination of Jack Hayes. Unmerge what should not have merged, un-trap what has been trapped, and disperse all to where it belongs!”
Just as it had the first time, the cluster ghost let out a piercing screech as purple smoke rose up the moment the potion touched it.
This time, though, there was a faint sizzling sound, and part of its face seemed to begin crumbling.
But by the time the purple smoke disappeared, just as with the first bottle, the cluster ghost remained, and now it was even angrier than before.
When the cluster ghost bucked hard, sending Noble slamming into one of the surrounding walls, Ollie jumped back with a frightened squeal.
His arms flailed as he tripped over some garbage and landed hard on the pavement, while the empty bottle in his hand went flying, and smashed into the wall beside him.
He found himself locked in the cluster ghost’s gaze as it crouched before him, almost spider-like.
But as he watched it slam its arm back into the socket—the movement not sounding quite right, with the multiple loud pops that it made—whether his ass was throbbing or not, he started scrambling back.
Ollie started screaming when the creature began rapidly crawling towards him on its hands and feet.
But just as his back hit the dead end, with the cluster ghost almost on him, Noble suddenly appeared to drag it back.