Geist (18 page)

"It's too late, Zoë. He's already possessed. It's found a way out and the universe can't survive another Bulwark. There aren't enough Irins to protect us—and it has access to the only thing that can defeat it." 

I heard Geist laughing in my mind. What was my dad talking about? "Dad—please—" 

He looked at me through the glass. "We created it, Zoë. And we have to deal with it. I'm sorry. But you need to sleep." 

Oh hell no. I knew what he was about to do—he'd done it before when I'd first been locked inside. He was going to cover the Throne so I'd be in darkness. 

No! 

Come with me. If we can escape back to the physical, the darkness should calm the waking Familiar. 

I was terrified of being pushed back into the dark and jumped at the chance to get back to the Physical Plane and back to Dags. I turned to see Geist with his hand outstretched. I took it and abruptly we were gone. If my dad covered the Throne, I never saw it. 

We were soaring over time and space, hand in hand. I could see the world and so much more from here and I looked over at Joe that wasn't Joe. "He was talking about you wasn't he? My dad?" 

Geist nodded. "Yes." He wasn't talking in my head anymore. 

"Is what he said true?" 

The man shrugged. "I think it is all in what we believe. Someone would see you as Wraith and believe you were from the devil, right? Based just on that? Or they would see your father and believe he was truly good. But in truth you cannot assume to know a creature based solely on supposition. You must get to know them for yourself." 

I watched him as we neared Earth and began our descent into the atmosphere. "So is he right?" 

"I am not here to destroy you, Zoë. Or your friends. I simply want to...live."

I believed him. He'd been the only one there to listen to me in the Abysmal Plane. And he'd always done what he said he'd do. 

"Do
they
call you Geist?" 

"No," he smiled. "That is what I see myself as—the ghost of the Outer Planes. But they..." He sighed as he reached for me and took me into his arms as we came down into Atlanta over the penthouse. "They call me something else. They see me as the clockwork that runs the universe as a whole. All of the planes, Inner and Outer." 

"What do they call you?" 

He leaned in and kissed me then—and I
felt
it. 

I felt it down to my toes just as I had when the real Joe kissed me. 

When he pulled back he no longer wore Joe's face or body, but that of someone new. A man I'd only thought of in my dreams. "They call me the Holy Ghost." 

-28-

Oh It Slipped Out

Apparently someone got the terms Father, Son and Holy Ghost all wrong. 

But I didn't have time to worry about it. I knew it the moment I returned to Dags' body. I felt him lurch. Someone screamed. "He's moving!" 

I crash landed in the dark and pushed myself up on my knees. 

"Where did you go?" Alice jumped on top of me in the little theater. 

"I had to get back to my body really fast. That's all. What happened?" I looked up at the screen but it was blank. I could hear but couldn't see.

"Dags passed out when you disappeared."

Damn.

"Joe and Rhonda passed out too. It was like all three of you shorted out and fell over."

That didn't make sense. "Geist?" I said aloud. 

"Geist? Was he with you?" 

"Yeah.  Like I said, I had to go back to my body real fast. Maureen was waking up and caused all kinds of trouble." 

"Oh no." 

"It's fine," I waved at her and stood up. I didn't want to be rude but I was a little panicked at that moment. I mean Geist just told me he was the Holy Ghost. My dad said this thing could destroy the world (oh like I believe anything he says anymore) and now I find out that all three of my closest friends keeled over when I zoomed back to my body? 

"Geist?"

I waited but there wasn't an answer. 

"Zoë?" 

Alice was looking at me like I'd just lost my sanity...which wasn't pretty far off from how I was feeling. I shook my head. "Alice—do you know anything about revival?" 

"Uhm...no?" 

"Me either." Other then I had a cousin that used to go to them at church. I did once and they were telling me that wearing an ankle bracelet was a sin. I never went back. I scratched my head. But I don't think that's what dad was talking about.

Alice's eyebrows knitted together over her nose. "Are you okay?" 

I started to answer when I heard Dags' voice and the screen over our heads returned. Dags was awake and getting off the couch. He moved to the bar where Rhonda lay on the floor. "How's Joe?" 

And then we could see Nona and Umayma bending over Joe in the corner in front of the flat screen. I turned back to Alice. "How long were we all out?" 

"Just a few seconds." 

Seconds? I could have sworn I was in the Abysmal for a lot longer. 

"Dags?" I said. 

"Yeah?" 

"I want to come out." 

Dags opened his palm and I manifested close by, but not on top of Rhonda. Jason and Nick made room for me as I knelt down beside her. 

"Can you sense anything?" Nick asked me. 

I put an incorporeal hand into her chest and waited. "She's there. She's just unconscious." 

"Zoë," Nona called out. "Come check Joe." 

I got up and moved over to Joe. I knelt down and did the same thing—

Ow...that tickles. 

HOLY—

"Geist?" 

Yes
. 

"Are you in Joe?" 

Yes
. 

"Where's Joe?" 

He is here as well. He would not leave.

Wait...what? 

—the fuck? "Why would he have to leave? Geist—that's his body. Why—why did you jump to Joe?" 

"Zoë who are you talking to?" mom asked. 

I do not know. I felt the reach of the machine as we descended and I came to this body as a safe haven. 

"Geist, please—you have to get out of Joe's body and give it back to him. This is wrong. If they think he's possessed these people are nuts enough to do an exorcism on your ass, got it? Or my mom will—and I've seen her drive a succubus out before." 

I will try. 

"Zoë? What's wrong? Why are you keeping your hand in?" my mom said. What was I gonna tell her? There was a thing inside of Joe? Oh hey sorry about this but Joe's been possessed by the Holy Ghost and I didn't tell you about him because I thought it might upset you. 

Yeah...that'd go over real good. 

"Zoë," Alice said softly. "Is Geist in Joe?" 

Uh...panic! 

"Geist?" Mom grabbed my upper arm. "The Geist is
inside
of Joe?" 

I frowned at her. "You know him?" 

"What's a Geist?" Nick said. 

Jason moved in closer. "That's not possible. The Geist can't leave the Outer Planes." 

I am having difficulty returning to the
Grimoire
host with you, Zoë. I may need to return to the Throne for a time. I believe your father is causing trouble. 

"How long of a time," I looked down at Joe's unconscious face. "What's he doing?"

"Zoë—" mom said in a stern voice. 

"Stop it!" I screeched at her and pushed her arm off of me. "Geist?" 

Abruptly I was tossed out of Joe and moved through mom and Jason. 

Joe sat up and started flailing. "
MotherfuckgetoutorI'llcut
—" Jason and Nick grabbed him and pinned his arms behind him. I moved next to Dags as I watched mom go all serious and put her lacquered nails on Joe's forehead. He looked confused as hell. 

But even before mom said it I already knew the Geist was gone. Joe was just Joe again. 

"But where is it?" Nick looked around at the faces. 

"It went back to the Throne," I said in a quiet voice. I knew I was going to have to come clean about Geist now. "Dad as poking around and I think he woke Maureen thinking it was me." 

Alice appeared as Nick and Jason let Joe go and Nona started reassuring him. She looked at me and spoke out loud. "It followed Zoë back from the Abysmal Plane." 

I looked around at everyone looking at me and felt a small thrill as Dags put himself between us. 

Daniel came closer. He didn't look menacing nor did he look happy. He looked concerned. And when he spoke I heard Inanna. "You know what it is, don't you. What its true name is?" 

I looked at Daniel. I remembered his glasses, his tousled hair and his half-crooked smile. His shyness that attracted me in so many ways. And then I remembered the madness. I looked him straight in the eye and cleared my throat. "It called itself Geist, and Holy Ghost." 

Nick crossed himself. Was he Catholic? 

Inanna/Daniel stood. "It is both. It is also a servant of the Outer Planes and a slave. It does not have permission to possess physical bodies. And you as Phantasm must punish it."  

-29-

Back To The Farm

"I'm afraid she can't do that," mom said over everyone else. 

Inanna/Daniel looked at mom. "Why not?"

"Because Zoë's not the Phantasm yet." 

Well that revelation just sapped the room of all life. 

Then mom looked at me. "What were you thinking?" 

If I had a dollar for every time my mom asked me that I'd never have to slip OOB again. And I'd pay the equal amount of money not to have to
hear
her say it ever again. 

After Joe and Rhonda were checked out and everyone sort of settled down we all took seats in the living room while mom and Jason took center stage. 

"Can I just say I wasn't so we can get this over with?" That was the best I could come up with.

"You realize that every Revenant in here thinks you're a spy now." 

"A spy for what? Geist wasn't conveying information back to dad." 

"How do you know that?" 

"Because I told him not to." 

She made her mouth do that nasty little bow thing I hated and crossed her arms over her chest. "Because you told him too? Zoë, I'm sorry but I doubt very seriously that something like the Geist is going to obey you. You're not even the Phantasm." 

"Before we get started, can someone tell those of us not Revenants what a Geist is? Besides the obvious definition?" Joe said. He still looked a little frazzled. 

Daniel stood and looked out at the darkening sky through the glass walls. "All of us here know that things are living thoughts?" 

"I thought it was thoughts are living things," Rhonda said. 

Here we go again...
gah
... 

"They mean the same thing, Rhonda. Things in the Abysmal are created out of Abysmic essence and things in the Ethereal are created of Etheric essence. Fetches, Symbionts, daemons—they're all a part of this process on both sides." 

Nick rubbed at his chin. "So you're saying this Geist—" 

"Is the culmination of centuries of thoughts directed into the Thrones." 

Jason straightened up. "Dear God...it's Sophia?" 

Daniel nodded. "And part of our father. This goes back to what you were going to talk to us about before Zoë left and everyone collapsed." He looked at me. "Inanna can't remember how...it was too long ago...but she knows her father and the Seraphim created the Thrones. Which means they put a bit of themselves into them. Essence of Planars is sentient, as are all things. As the centuries passed, Inanna's father used to make comments about the thing working on its own, and worrying that it would eventually..." 

I leaned forward. "Evolve?" 

Daniel nodded. "Yes. Eventually it did, but it was obedient and not seen often. I think her father used it to run errands. But when Sophia became the Phantasm I suppose her own psyche sort of—" 

"Poisoned it?" Joe said. 

"Tainted it." He looked at Nona. "But what I don't understand is why you say she's not the Phantasm. She sits in the Abysmal Throne." 

Mom nodded. "It was something I remember glossing over in the files and something Zoë's father said about the Thrones being idle." 

"What is that?" Tel said. 

"Adiran told me the Thrones have to resonate with their Potentials in order for them to become fully functional. And until there is resonance they're idle. The borders shut because of this as a safety precaution." 

I raised my hand. "I have something else." 

Everyone looked at me. I think I shrank. "Geist mentioned to me that there was a time when there weren't Thrones. That...they're not necessary to become a Seraphim or a Phantasm." 

"That's true," Inanna/Daniel said. "Our father did not sit upon a Throne." 

"But how does this Geist fit into all of this?" Manuel said. He stood and looked around at the gathered crowd. "Why is it helping a Potential that's not a Phantasm or a Seraphim?"

I raised my hand again. "I asked it that once. And he said it was because I acknowledged him. I spoke to him." 

Well that got me a round of weird looks. 

"I just don't get any of this," Tel said. "The borders are down because the Throne is idling if I'm getting this right. Isn't that what they want? I mean...wouldn't it just idle even if she wasn't in the Throne?"

"I'm not sure," Mom said. 

I held up my hand again. "Dad was scared of something called a revival happening." 

No one seemed to know what that meant. 

"That's why I want the files," Mom said. "To see if there is something in there we don't know." 

"That's easy." Rhonda said, the first time she'd really spoken since she woke. Though she had put away an entire bag of chips and a soda. She looked at me. "He wants you isolated. As long as you believe you're alone you'll go all emo and you won't resonate with this Throne and the gates will all remain locked. But if you do sort of join with it and open them—" 

"We've gone over that, Rhonda," Joe said. "Keep up." 

"What's he afraid of letting lose?" Jason said. 

Everyone looked at him. "What do you mean?" 

"Well...I've been trying to figure out why the Seraphim was wanting those borders sealed so badly? Remember, Zoë was repeatedly told to
seal
them, not just keep them closed. And it goes back to the Bulwark—that war started for the same reason. The Ethereals wanted the borders sealed. The Seraphim risked so much destruction to do it. Why? Is he afraid of different creatures getting in? Running amok? Was it really because of the Revenants' influence on the world?"