“Okay, first thing’s first. Why the hell are Nathan and Chris trying to kill us, and why are there these...ghost things that seem to know your name?” I asked as I sat down opposite her.
“Well you certainly don’t pull any punches do you? The ghosts know my name because they are the ghosts of people I once knew. I’m assuming you know the rest of the protocol for dealing with ghosts?” Ms Ellis said.
“Wait...there’s a protocol for dealing with these ghosts? This happens a lot?”
“Most certainly. I would assume ghosts are an equal problem at whatever site you are from, and that you’re doing your bit here in stopping them.”
“Whatever site I’m from? I don’t know how to stop them! Let alone ‘do my bit’!” I said, making air quotes at the appropriate moment.
“But...that’s impossible. If you have powers you must be charged with protecting a site from the ghosts. It’s...the rules!”
“Well...I appear to have broken the rules. Sorry.”
“Dear god...this changes everything.” She hung her head. “I just...assumed that because you had a power...if I had known I would never had arranged for Emily and Dane to come into your care...”
“Aha! So you made sure we met once they had their powers! I knew it was too much of a coincidence.”
“Yes well, I knew that with Chris, Nathan and Matt they would have a fight on their hands..they would need help. I purposely kept out of the loop so that you, Chloe and Lisa would be involved. But I assumed you knew the rules...how everything works.”
“Well I don’t. I mean...I know these powers are all kinds of cool, and in Emily and Dane’s case incredibly dangerous...but that’s as far as I go.”
“Well, the heart of it is quite simple. This school is one of seven sites in this city that are...special. A lot of activity in a certain area – death, learning, birth, high emotions – create sites where ghosts can make their way through from the other side back into the world. People with powers such as yourself are the ones who put the ghosts back in their place.”
“So because this is a school...lots of learning...the ghosts keep coming.”
“Oh that would be simple. But the people who built this school built it on a sacred Indigenous site. Learning *and* death. This school has the second highest level of ghostly activity in this area. Which leads us to the problem you and your friends are having. Someone a very long time ago decided that just giving people powers and training them here was not enough. They wanted people to have to prove that they could handle everything happening here.”
“By killing people?”
“Well..originally yes. Some of the ghosts possess powers, much like you and your friends, so the people disposing of them were given powers, and then put against another group with similar powers. The team that was able to defeat the others was deemed to be able to handle the challenges of this site.”
“And the losers?”
“Well...they died. Recent games have been less fatal, with the losers being simply stripped of their powers. That was to be the case here...”
“...until Neil got killed.”
“He was sloppy! Showing off his power when he wasn’t ready to use it properly. Chris and Nathan were pointed at him before I could arrange for you to meet him, and there was nothing I could do...”
“You could intervene! You’re supposed to be helping these people! Not me! I spend half of my time being told I shouldn’t be involved. But these are my friends...and...well my former friends! I’m trying to avoid everyone dying here, and people like you who insist on sitting on the side lines are not helping.”
“What do you expect me to do? You’ve shown them how to use their powers. Do you think me telling them not to kill someone will actually help? This situation goes well beyond my authority as a teacher you realise. I wouldn’t be surprised if they simply ignore me. No, I think the best course of action is for me to just...stay out of it. All the cards are already on the table, and you know yourself, this is going to all come to a head quite soon regardless of what I do.”
“Then what do I do?”
“What you have been. Be the voice of reason....oh, and figuring out how your group with relatively meagre powers can beat three incredibly powerful individuals would be good. I’m not much help there I’m afraid.”
“Can you be helpful at all?” I said sarcastically.
“The ghosts. Do not ignore them in this situation, and if you can, use them to your advantage. They have powers just like you guys, and unlike Chris and Nathan, you guys haven’t been pissing them off by plugging their leaks at every turn.”
“And if I need to get rid of a ghost?” I asked, standing up to leave.
“You’re an empath...I would think for you it’s a fairly simple process. Help them accept their own death. Now go, not only is it well past your time to go home, but I’m not supposed to be telling you any of this...”
“Because I’m not supposed to be involved?”
“Precisely. But at the same time, you’re the only reason Emily and Dane are still alive...”
“I can’t believe Ms Ellis has know what’s been going on all along.” Chloe said.
I went straight from my talk with Ms Ellis to Chloe’s house. I could have gone straight home but I felt the need to talk to someone, and I managed to do both that and see my girlfriend all in one.
“I can. I mean, she kept turning a blind eye to what we were doing. Letting us stay back at school, letting us use classrooms...all along she was letting me turn Emily and Dane into warriors...”
“But...if she had tried to help Dane from the start...Chris might not have gone crazy, you guys would still have been friends. Although...Nathan would still have broken up with me.”
There is goes again...she gets sad...I get jealous. It’s a vicious cycle.
“I don’t think I would have stayed friends with them. I’ve been so busy with you guys it almost feels like I was never friends with them to begin with....although maybe that’s also the fact that they’ve being trying to kill me...”
“Either way...we need to figure out what to do. Ellis was right, this is all going to come together soon, and there’s not a lot we can do right now against all three of them. Especially you and me...”
“Ellis said the ghosts might be useful...I’m not sure how yet though. Either way Emily’s really our only weapon.”
Chloe blinked, and then shook her head. “Woah, that was a nice trip. But I think I just figured out what we can do. But there’s a catch...”
“I never like catches...”
“Someone is going to die. There’s a few ways this can play out. Either way people end up dead and there’s not a lot we can do about it.”
“Great.” I said sombrely.
“Okay you need to go, I need to sleep and see what else I can figure out. I will talk to you at school tomorrow.”
“Jacob. Come with me.”
The next morning was English, yet for some reason Mr Harding was out to get me anyway, taking me from class and getting me to follow him.
“You know I haven’t actually done anything wrong yet today...”I said as I followed him down the stairs to the bottom level of the school. The level that was partially underground on our school building that had been built into the side of the hill.
“Oh I’m sure you have, but Ms Ellis told me to take you to room B11, and so that’s what I’m doing.” Mr Harding said. “The fact that I can dream up multiple terrible punishments for you means nothing when the higher power is telling me what to do.” He chuckled to himself.
Room B11 turned out to be directly under the atrium, and was essentially a small room that was almost entirely empty except for a set of shelves and a swivel chair.
“Ms Ellis said she would be with you shortly.” Harding said, guiding me into the room then shutting the door behind me.
Then I hear the lock turn...he had locked me in.
“Oh great. I have to put up with you too?” Came a voice from across the room. I turned around to see Chris sitting on the floor. “I was supposed to be here alone. Why on Earth are you here?”
“Mr Harding told me I was supposed to be here.” I jerked my thumb at the door.
“Oh great, probably another one of his jokes.” Chris said. “Well I would sit down, we have to wait until 11.52 before the ghost appears apparently. This one has been pretty clockwork.”
“There’ll be a ghost here? And you’re just going to stop it? Not try to kill me again or anything?”
“Yeah...sorry about that. Ever since I had someone rip my head open I tend to get a bit carried away. After Neil...well I got a bit carried away. But today I’m perfectly lucid and know that the only people who I may have to kill and Emily and Dane...and even then only as a last resort.”
“Oh...so it’s great to know that you’re only trying to kill my friends but not me.”
Chris shrugged. “I just follow the orders. I get told I have to beat them and I try. Plus they’re friendly competition. It’ll almost be a pity if we have to kill them.”
“I don’t understand why everyone feels so happy about killing people, don’t you guys remember that we’re all people, if we die it’s not some game?”
“Yeah, but I think what we’ve all realised is that this is serious. You seem so convinced these powers are like kids toys that you forgot that this is grown up stuff. These ghosts, the responsibility of these powers, it can only end in death. I guess someone forgot to mention that to you...”
“I disagree.”
“I know. That’s why you can only read emotions and I get to heal stuff. Oh, and unheal stuff. Ever seen if Lisa can do it? It’s pretty fun once you get the hang of it. By the way, you didn’t bring a snack did you? I’ve been locked in here since 8.30”
“Harding locks you in here too?”
“Yup. He’s our trainer...or however you want to call it. Says that locking us away in here is for our own good.”
“Harding is on your side. Makes sense...So this is where he locked you until you learned to un-heal?”
“Yup. I was a boring healer boy until he locked me in here with Carrie. She’s the one you and Emily met in the science lab. It was either get torched or learn to use my power...aggressively. It’s more fun this way though.”
“I can imagine...” I said. I slumped down on the wall.
“You know..I miss you sometimes dude.” Chris said. “We used to be good. Then all of this happened. You could have helped us out...we could have used a brain like yours when we first got our powers...but you were too busy worrying whose head Dane was messing with and what Emily was setting on fire to even notice that we were in trouble...”
“I guess I had to stop caring after a while.” I said. “You guys wouldn’t even talk to me.”
“Yeah...” Chris said.
There was an awkward silence. In fact, about half an hour of awkward silence. I kept looking at my watch, wondering when Chris was going to start slitting my wrists open, or something was going to happen.
At about 11:48, I noticed the shadow. It was the same one as the science lab, the same emotions. The surprise, the fear. Chris obviously didn’t notice it. I wanted to react, but knew if I did anything Chris would start with the decapitating and ask questions later, and I knew this ghost wasn’t out to get us.
“Why do they come here?” I asked Chris, trying to distract myself.
“This is right above the big hotspot. Wherever the ghosts come from, it’s right under this spot. So the ghosts end up in this random broom closet.”
I then noticed two more presences. One, was almost a void of emotion. I knew it was there, because I could feel that it had emotions, but they were emotions so foreign that I had no words that could actually describe them.
“Showtime..” Chris said, pointing to the opposite wall to where my shadow was standing.
Suddenly, where there was previously nothing, there was a boy standing there.
“Ooh, it’s Frank.” Chris said. “We call him that because he acts like a zombie most of the time...like Frankenstein.”
Chris wasn’t lying. Frank just stood there, blankly. But unlike the other ghost, the one I couldn’t see, he wasn’t confused or afraid. He wasn’t even angry. He just seemed, at peace almost, but like he had something he had to do.
“I’ll deal with him Jacob, don’t bother getting up...” Chris said. “He didn’t even react last time when Nathan threw a table at him...”
As Chris put his hand out to touch the ghost, to do something horrible to him I assumed, his hand went right through him.
“That’s new...” He said.
Frank then looked up and Chris, and plunged a hand into his forehead.
“Someone has been in your head.” Frank said. “Making walls where there needn’t be. It’s a very confusing place...a head with too many walls.”
I felt the pain Chris was in, and from what Frank was saying I could tell that it was about to get quite scary for me. Frank was doing to Chris what Dane had done...except now Chris had a scary power and I was locked in a room with him.
“Jacob! Get inside Frank’s head!” I heard a voice shout out. I looked to the other shadow, and for a very brief moment, saw what I was almost certain was Neil.
“Hey!” I said to the ghost. “Stop!”
“There’s too much confusion in here.” Frank said. “I can’t stop til I’ve fixed it.”
“But you’re breaking him!” I said.
Frank looked up at me, Chris’ pain appeared to stop momentarily, but I could still feel his mind falling apart. “Your mind is the same, someone keeps poking around, making you stop feeling things. I can help, that’s what I do.”
“I’m fine...really.”
Frank shrugged. “Your choice, this one is the one who needs my help the most.”
“Why do you need to help people?”
Frank looked at me, confused. “Because...that’s what I do with my power. I take away the walls that other people put in there. It’s how it’s always been. There was a bad man, he made Tobias, Laura and I forget so much. I fixed them, but, I could never figure out how to fix me. But he keeps doing it. I keep fixing people.”
“What if the people don’t need fixing? What if the walls in their heads help them?”
I could feel him beginning to soften a little bit, I was reaching him.
“The walls in your head stop you caring about people. You should always care about your friends.” He said.
I was of course, confused about what he was talking about...but I had to stop him breaking Chris. That was all I needed.
“I do. And he is my friend.” I said to Frank. “And I can feel that you’re hurting him. I need you to stop. I have a friend, he can fix the walls in his head, and he’s alive...he can help him.”
“Someone else...can fix people? I don’t have to anymore?”
“No. I know you feel like you have a duty to people, to help them. But you don’t need to. There is someone else who can.”
“I can...take a break now?”
“Of course...you should leave my friend and take a break.” I said.
I could feel Frank’s emotions begin to fade. Where there had been this desire to help people, there was now, a void, like Frank himself was barely there anymore.
“I think I might. I’m tired.” Frank said.
Then he was gone. The only problem was, the part of Chris that was sane also appeared to be gone. He turned around and looked at me. I could feel the anger in him.
“You’re lucky Jacob.” He said. “I’m not supposed to kill you. But it’s time your friends got what was coming to them. I’m sick of holding back, and now...I don’t have to anymore...”
I felt sick to my stomach. I watched as Chris kicked the door until the lock broke and it swung open, then left the room. I wanted to sink down onto the floor. But I didn’t have time. I had to go and mess with things that weren’t my business and yell at people....two things I’m best at.
2 comments:
While I liked this chapter, I think it may work better as two chapters. It just felt like there was a lot of info revealed and perhaps condensing it into one chapter meant it all seemed to come too easily. (Although I could be wrong.) Still, an easy to read, fun chapter with some much wanted answers. :)
yeah the chapters are almost...when i stop writing. so it probably would have almost been two chapters but that's when i stopped =P
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