My Demonic Ghost #3: Hunters and Creators (20 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four:

The burning marred the skin along my neck suddenly felt dry and solid, as if the wound had suddenly crusted over with a type of volcanic rock. Before I could move, I was lifted up so quickly I was stunned.  . As if in a lucid dream, I moved without control or restraint. My arm moved upwards, stopping Nathan mere inches from driving the blade into Evan’s chest. He was thrown across the yard and the Goons charged from either side to attack me. In the next moment I was falling. That was the only way I could really describe what was happening.

I was spinning and turning, flipping head over heels completely and utterly confused and out of control. Blurred and distorted images flashed before me and my insides felt heavy with dread. I could remember particular moments in time. The walls surrounding me crumbled. Smoke darkened the sky. There was some sort of noise, an ear-splitting siren assaulting my ears like a broken record stuck in an annoying loop. What felt like split seconds later, a cold sting dragged me out of my fog, and I found myself on my back, panting hard, dripping with sweat and the rain hitting my face.

Hands as cold as ice were on my cheeks. Evan was there, his face drawn with exhaustion. He was back to his original self, to the man with a strong jaw and piercing domineering eyes. His hand on my throat preceded the familiar touch of the cold cuff, which tightened around my neck and pulled me out of the hallucination. He rolled over in relief. When I finally sat up, we were still in the prison courtyard, except it was different. I looked over to find Evan sprawled on the ground, his body stinking of ash and burning coal. 

“E-Evan?” He opened his eyes, rolled his head towards me, exhaling shakily.

“We’re okay…” He pushed himself up, “But we have to leave.”

“What on earth happened?” I touched my head tenderly.

“It was a set up. They timed the ambush as a way to distract us and get you out into the open.” The storm above battered us with needles. I glanced around at the devastated prison, the ripped up ground and the surrounding walls bulldozed over.

“It worked?” I whispered, bringing my hand to my neck. Evan was silent for a moment.

“We have to go. They will be here soon.”

“Go where?” I glanced over at him. His face tightened, unable to answer me. “How did you find me?” I asked again.

Evan shook his head. “Gargoyle said something about the woman Hunter and a Banished coming to your room...” Suddenly a blinding light shun down on us, followed by a whir of a helicopter’s propellers.

I looked skywards to see four giant spotlights, each positioned on a corner of the yard. They swung towards us, lights powerful enough that dots spiralled in my vision. Evan lashed out, managing to smash the bulb on one of the light before turning and attacking the remaining three. Before he could dowse the final light, the helicopter lowered into view, a voice barked at me through a microphone. Evan created a long lasso out of the darkness and tied it to the helicopter’s tail, and pulled it towards him causing it to go into a tailspin. 

“Evan! Evan stop!” I shouted. I felt a sudden, sharp prick in the neck. Evan jerked back towards me as I pulled out the poisoned dart. The venom moved quickly and I crumpled into unconsciousness.

Chapter Thirty-Five:

When I woke, I was in a white room. My wrists and ankles were bound in leather shackles. Soft pads were wired onto my body, monitoring my heart rate, my temperature and brain activity.
Was I in a hospital?
I wiggled in my restraints. A man concealed within a large, white body suit and helmet stepped up to me, shining a torch in my eyes. I leaned my head away.

“What’s going on? Who are you people?” I demanded.

“Doctor? Sir, she is awake!” He called over as another man walked up to my bedside. He was older, dressed in a grey suit and wore a surgical mask across his nose and mouth.

“Thank you, Walters, I can take it from here.” Walters quickly exited the room, which was left relatively bare. The Doctor pulled a chair up next to my bedside and sat down; his hands loosely clasped and watched me, waiting for me to say something. 

“You’re in safe hands here Miss, my name is Doctor Alex Hearth. How are you feeling?” He finally asked.

“I don’t trust him.” Evan growled from my side. I flinched and whipped my head over to where Evan stood against the wall, arms crossed and lips curled disdainfully.

“You’re here too?” I mumbled.

“Of course.” Evan smiled wickedly. “Someone has to look after you.”

“Who’s here too?” The Doctor asked. I shook my head.
Of course, they can’t see him.
   

“No-No one.”

Evan walked closer and pointed to the restraints, “Don’t worry, we’ll get out of here as soon as my strength is back.”

“Can you explain exactly what happened last night?” The Doctor asked.

I glared at him; his gaze coldly met mine, “What do you want?”

“Right now we just want the truth.” 

“And what about later?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. We’ve looked into your file. Rachael Hastings, 21-year-old female from the Inner city. You live with your classmate, Ms. Humming, near your university. Seeking a Journalism degree, and you’re in your second year.” He seemed to list my details as if reading it off the back of a piece of paper. I nodded. “Last night something happened at the Counter Vale Prison. Can you tell me about it?”

I wearily glanced over at Evan, but he was too busy glaring at the Doctor. When he didn’t look at me, I shook my head. “I don’t remember.”  

He sighed, expecting the answer. “I want to show you something.” He fetched a laptop out of his suitcase that he set up on the edge of the bed facing the screen towards me. He pressed play, and what appeared to be a sketchy surveillance video recording of the prison court yard began to play. I stiffened, because I already knew what was going to happen, but, at the same time, I didn’t. The Reapers that had attacked me appeared in the film to be guards, the monstrous Goons that scooped me up and threw me around were invisible, making it look like I was thrown around by some sort of invisible force. I cringed every time my body bounced along the concrete, I didn’t remember the pain because of my adrenaline rush, but it looked nasty. Then Nathan walked onto the screen, challenging an invisible Evan.  Although I remembered the fight, it appeared as though Nathan was arguing with a vacant patch of concrete. Suddenly I was screaming. I kept trying to get up only to crumple back down; my energy drained. I begged and screamed, my arms reaching out to him. Then I snapped. Something happened, a power hit my body that gave me the ability to rend earth from the ground and hurl it across the courtyard. I bought my hand to my mouth, watching the erratic struggle between me and whatever was attacking me. Within moments, I tore down the brick walls, and created a lightning storm that consumed the sky until the screen suddenly blacked out. I felt sick. I almost couldn’t bear to watch the rest, when a flicker of green appeared next to me on the ground. An unnatural darkness collected by my body until the spotlights turned on me. The old me, not controlled by Chō looked around, disoriented. This was when Evan had smashed the spot lights before pulling the helicopter down. Then the dart hit my neck and I collapsed. I gulped with unease.
Thank goodness Evan had stopped me.

“That’s… I err…umm…” I didn’t know what to say, I just lowered my head.

“I’ve looked into your history Ms. Hastings, there’s no black mark next to your name, not even a single parking ticket. I need to know what a girl such as yourself was doing at locked down prison camp and exactly what happened that night.”

“It wasn’t me who did all that.”

He nodded sadly, “There’s behavioural differences. It’s like you become a completely different person, you could even say you were possessed by something, couldn’t you?” He stressed the word possession. He shifted forward and rewound the clip till the point Nathan appeared on the screen. “Who is this person?”

How could I answer him? It’s my dead cousin Nathan?
“I don’t know.”

“What were you doing at Counter Vale Prison?”  

“I don’t know.”

“Is this the first time this has happened to you?” I looked over my shoulder again hoping Evan was there to help me answer. “How about that scar on your neck?” I brought my hand to my neck and he handed me a metal surgical bowl. I turned it around and studied the marking imprinted just above my collarbone. There was a scarred red patch burnt into the basic outline of a butterfly.

I vaguely remembered a burning sensation during my blackouts, but it was just a fleeting moment. “I don’t know.” I answered truthfully, handing the bowl back.

“Who is Evan?” He then asked and I jolted upwards. The Doctor was writing notes in his book.

“Excuse me?”  

“You screamed out, Evan, Evan stop! Who is Evan?”

I pressed my mouth shut, refusing to answer. “I don’t know.”

“We’re here to help you Ms. Hastings. We can’t help you if you don’t tell us what’s going on.” He sighed, then stood up, taking the laptop with him, “we’re going to keep you here under surveillance until we can figure out what went on down in that prison.”

He left the room and everything went quiet again. I nervously glanced around, struggled against my restraints, and then looked back at the door. There was a mirrored window, which I could only presume was one way, and about three cameras nesting in the corners of the room and another over my bed. Evan stepped back to me, drumming his fingers against his chin as he walked around the bedpost.

“Interesting choice of words...” He noted. I glanced nervously at the mirror then at the cameras. “Why do you look so scared?” He asked.

‘They asked about you’…
I replied telepathically, hoping Evan could still hear me.

He smirked, ‘
don’t worry we’ll get out of here soon. I’ll go get the others to help
.’

‘Do you know where we are?’

‘Not exactly; but I have the connection between us, so I can track you easily.’

I nodded my head briskly, ‘
thank you for stopping me last night.’

His smile waned, “I shouldn’t have left you in the first place.” He dissolved into ash and tried to escape through the walls, only to be thrown backwards. He crashed onto his back with a loud humph.

“Evan?!” I sat upwards as he rolled himself over onto his stomach and crawled on his hands and knees.

“What the hell?” He growled, glancing at the wall. He ran at it again, only to slam against the plaster and bounce off. He slowly turned around at the sound of movement and voices coming from the other side of the mirror.

“What’s going on?” I asked in an urgent whisper.

“Holy crap…” He muttered, “They can see me.”

Chapter Thirty-Six:

He paced the room, fumes of ash and anger radiating from his body, his attention returning back to the cameras watching from above. I remained trapped to the bed frozen in disbelief.

“What do you mean they can see you?”

Evan growled, “This is impossible! They’ve trapped me here.”

“How can they trap a ghost?”

A voice spoke over the PA system in a static crack. The one way mirror screen flickered for a moment before the illusion dropped, revealing the cluster of scientists and doctors in the room behind. Doctor Hearth was by the microphone, “Evan… I assume?”  Evan charged at the glass in his foggy form, smashing two fists against the window as it rattled against the frame. His sinister snarl and sharp Banished eyes pierced through the light, causing them to cringe away. He growled like some sort of animal.

“Calm down, Evan.” The Doctor said, “There’s no point in struggling.”

“Let me go!” Evan demanded, hammering his fist again against the window.

“I can’t do that.”

“How is this possible?” I said and got to my feet.

“You are not the first demonic spirit we’ve captured and you won’t be our last. You’ve been showing clear signs of demonic possession, Rachael. There’s been a massive increase in possessions since that apocalyptic incident where more and more innocent people are spontaneously fall sick and lost their sanity.”

“What idiot told you all this?” Evan snarled before looking back me, “I bet one of the Hunters leaked it.”

“Well you don’t exactly hide! Your parade of death and destruction is becoming a great problem for us. Thanks to military research, we’ve found that specific electromagnetic frequencies operate on the same level that spiritual entities work on. With this, we are able to trap anything spiritual. Though we have never seen a demon cause that much power or change in a person before, like you two.”

“You misunderstand!” I shouted, “Evan isn’t bad, he’s not like the others.” 

“He’s controlling your mind, Rachael, you don’t know what you’ve saying.” He motioned to the others behind him, “Let’s start the procedure.”

The scientists and doctors all scurried about as Evan laughed, “Is this a joke? You’ve managed to trap me in some stinking room, but that doesn’t mean you can make me leave. Nothing you can do will hurt me!” He suddenly jerked and the lights flickered again. I could feel the electricity fly across the room and burn Evan’s body

“Stop it! Stop it!” I thrashed against the restraints when familiar nausea started to climb up my throat.

“This will be over soon…” Doctor Hearth reassured, but his voice was just a fleeting echo.  Chō’s strength surged through me and I was able to snap the leather cuffs. I shot my hands forward, throwing power at the window and shattering it to smithereens. Immediately, Evan dropped to the ground and promptly disappeared into ash. The staff all stumbled up from their chairs, cowering away from the glass shards, before very slowly looking back at me. I caught sight of Chō in one of the remaining glass pieces still clinging to the frame. It took me two seconds to realise that it was my own reflection, that my hair had momentarily lightened to white and my eyes switched to the teal bug’s eyes. I saw the confusion in their faces with a hint of uncertain fear. I didn’t know if they were more fascinated with me or appalled. Doctor Hearth hit a panic button in the central control board before he and the rest of the team fled out the door. I whipped my head upwards as vents opened, pumping out a clear gas that, after a few moments, knocked me unconscious. 

***

The next time I awoke in a different room and on a body board contraption that didn’t even let me wiggle my neck. The scientists monitored my brain activity. They repeatedly pointed to their notes and then back to the screen. I had almost forgotten where I was until reality hit me like a ton of bricks.

“Get away from me!” I wrestled in the sheets.

“It’s okay, it’s okay; just calm down.” A strange man stepped forward and tried to sooth me.

“Who are you?”

“We had to put you to sleep, but you’re okay now. We’re in the process of removing the demon....” I glanced over where the scientists indicated to find Evan pinned to the wall, a large eight bulb lamp facing him which radiated electromagnetic waves that crashed into his body. He grimaced in pain, his body convulsing as he cowered away from the contraption.

“What are you doing?”

“This helps break whatever hold they have on their host. We send intense electric shocks into him and just wait till the pain is too unbearable to maintain their hold. See, you’re perfectly fine, this doesn’t hurt you; it only hurts them. They usually let go within a few hours, so far it’s been…” He glanced down at his watch, “Oh, is that right? It’s just going on six hours.”

“Stop it! Don’t hurt him!”

“It shouldn’t be much longer; once we’re finished we’ll let you go.”

A larger man walked up from behind him, and turned towards me with a huge syringe in his grip. Panic overwhelmed me again. With a sneeze, I was able to throw the doctor up into the air and his back hit the ceiling before hurling him across the room. The walls trembled as I thrashed. Staff came at me with more syringes and more rope to hold me down, which only escalated my fear. I couldn’t even speak out to tell them to stop, to just step away and let me breath. In my panic, I was able to knock over the lamp, releasing Evan from his bond. He rushed over immediately. Cold seeped from my neck collar again as Evan snarled and shoved the doctors off me. I began to calm, just enough to understand voices.

“Get back, you’re only making it worse! Don’t touch her!” I vaguely remember him shouting before I blacked out.