“What did the devil try to tempt you with? Wealth or power?” She asked Chris.
“Neither, I was offered revenge,” he sighed.
“Oh,” she frowned, “you still have a grudge against someone after all this time?”
“No, and that’s why it doesn’t work. The longer you stay, the less you care about the petty things of the living world. You lose connections with the things that made you into an often flawed human. They fade away and you feel hollow as you realise that you lost yourself and question if that was all you ever were,” he answered in a sombre voice. She didn’t know how to respond and stayed silent as she questioned his continuance of staying in the realm, if he couldn’t find a reason. But then she realised that she didn’t have a reason either. Maybe they were both just unlucky. “We have a while before the next trial. There is something fun we have the power to do on Halloween,” he suggested and she blinked trying to keep up with his mercurial mood changes, “come with me,” he went through a wall and she snapped out of her thoughts to quickly follow him. He took her up to the roof and pointed out into the dark night with little lights sprinkled around the city and houses off into the distance.
“We can only do this tonight as the boundaries are weakened enough to allow it,” he jumped into a swan dive off the roof and she saw him somersaulting through the air and flying back up, “Come on!”
She looked down from the height and almost laughed at her own human instinct to fear falling to her death. Closing her eyes to overcome the instinct she plunged off and feeling the air supporting her weightlessness and tugging her to follow the wind. She opened her eyes and followed Chris, who had flipped on his back to ride the breeze. They flew over many houses and buildings, when an odd tug slowed her to a stop. Chris got caught in the same tug and they were pulled towards a house with a big backyard with a swing set. As they settled into, what appeared to be a dark living room, she saw the arrangement of candles and four teenage girls sitting around a ouija board and chanting quietly, “We call on the spirits. Please speak to us, we welcome you.”
They had obviously dyed black hair, which only teenagers had the gall to try and often fail at. Their clothing was gothic but casual and the numerous piercings looked more like clip-on jobs rather than actual.
“Want to spook them?” Chris asked, indicating the board.
“How?” She looked wearily at the planchette. He placed a hand on it and raised his eyebrows to get her to help, through really concentrating from both their parts they managed to pull it towards the ‘H’ and then the ‘I’ next to it.
“You did that!”
“No, you did!”
“You’re both being idiots,” all the girls exclaimed non- believing. They took their hands off and Chris helped her move it to ‘Goodbye’ to show they had missed their chance. The girls looked wild eyed at the board and screamed as it moved without them. Chris laughed. Suddenly the same force which had pulled them towards the house was pushing them away.
When they returned to the sky she called over the wind, “Why did we get thrown out?”
“We said goodbye!” He called over the wind. He diverted his direction and she had to try swing herself around to follow. As she caught up she felt the same tugging as before. This time it felt oddly languorous as she looked at the small house. The garden was overgrown, the horrible pinkish rust coloured paint was peeling, the gutters were filled with leaves, the doors and window frames appeared bordered by cheap repairs to keep them in place. She felt instant pity for any person able to live like that. They were dragged into a dark kitchen, with horrible yellow curtains and a small dinning table with one chair. The other chair leaned drunkenly against a wall in the corner, obviously broken. She looked at the small woman frowning at a ouija board. She was easily in her fifties and had the unhealthy pallor of a heavy smoker and drinker. She looked at Chris and almost was overwhelmed by the look of sorrow reflected on his face. The woman stood unsteadily and slurred, “I will be back in a moment, need to refresh my drink. Don’t start!” She wobbled her way to a cupboard and taking a bottle of cheap wine from a shelf and pouring it into a kids Flinstones glass, she then took a sip and proceeded to sit back at the table, placing her hands on the planchette, “You there?” Chris stepped forward and motioned that she shouldn’t join him. He moved the planchette to yes and waited, “Oh good! You have no idea how hard this year has been. I really wish you could be here everyday. I know it’s not your fault, just miss talking to anyone. Everyone who knew you left when they started having families and stuff. Aaron dropped by the other day, but it was awkward. Felt he was being a bit judgey by his comments. He doesn’t understand, that you’re still here with me,” she babbled looking around expectantly. Chris moved the planchette to spell out “move on”. She stared at the board in abject horror. He looked at her tear stained face and added, “I’m gone you need to accept”. She threw the Flinstones glass of wine at the wall and started screaming “No, no, no,no,no”. He winced and moved the planchette to goodbye. They were sent back into the air, but it was storm clouds which greeted them. They were hanging lower, heavy with rain. The wind pushed them backwards and she almost found herself glad to see the building which she had been trying to escape from since she died. They went through the wall and Chris shook his head to clear it.
She finally felt the need to say something into the awkward silence and almost kicked herself with the stupidity of her question, “She was your wife?”
He sighed and shook his head, “No fiancee, she can still sense me, so due to lacking closure, she can’t accept and move on,” he looked bleakly at her, “Your family will have the same problems if you stay, like I have.” She felt a chilly recognition in his words, like a warning that was really just a statement rather than choice. “The next one isn’t going to be easy. Hopefully see you at the end,” his words were met by the storm clouds finally rolling over the building and a thunderous boom of thunder blacking out the lights.
All Hallows Eve – The third trial
She blinked twice and suddenly like a trick of light, she was standing in an empty bar, with a bartender polishing glasses and looking like a 1920’s speakeasy owner. Dark full hair with a bad barbershop moustache, a deep red vest with a white suit shirt and a black bow tie and pants. “What’s a beautiful girl like you, doing in a place like this?” He asked, like an American gangster. She wanted to giggle, but wasn’t sure if she would offend him.
“I guess I would come to a bar, for a drink?” She shrugged and say down on the red leather barstool seat which allowed her to see her reflection in the mirror behind the bar. She saw a bright red feather in her hair and porcelain doll make-up on her face. She tried to smile but the mirror showed her face as if she were about to cry. The bar tender put a large cocktail in front of her and winked.
“Don’t cry sweetheart, it will ruin your make up.”
“I’m not crying,” she corrected him. When she looked in the deceitful mirror it was crying heartfelt sobs into a large white handkerchief.
“I deal with a lot of heartbreak,” the bartender continued, “he done you wrong and left you without any help, hmmm?”
“No, don’t be stupid. If anything, I left him, unwillingly!” She almost shouted. He raised his eyebrows, but let the silence grow infuriatingly, “I died. I didn’t have any choice. Those fairy tales of happily ever after are a myth. Life, is cruel, uncaring and brutal. It breaks you and if you still have hope it then does everything in its power to take it away!”
“Life wants you to be miserable? No happy people exist?”
“Only the lucky. Gosh would I dream about being one of those lucky idiots, who go through life without thinking and just have random things constantly going their way!”
“You’re envious of people with more than you?”
“No, I just am trying to work out why this bad luck or sadness affects some and not all?”
“Could it be that acceptance about the bad being a possibility and dealing with it, is better than expecting it? The people you say don’t suffer, might be dealing with it in a different way. Different priorities?”
“How does that help? Death is final. It’s not something that can be cured by a healthy mental lifestyle choice!”
“You’re right,” he shrugged, “Might as well give up and end it all.”
“Shut up,” she felt a sudden epiphany, “ok so world, life everything is dark, sad and destructive. But when that happens, the thing that pulls people through that, is simply hope right?” She stood and looked resolute at her mirror image, “Hope that everything will get better, that you will have strength to help it get better, that it will be ok. All that’s really needed is that stupid infallibility that they will succeed. If you have hope, it means you can still believe that it will be okay, even when it is not.” She looked at her mirror image, who was now looking slightly smug in her flapper outfit.
The bar tender frowned, “So, you don’t think it’s unfair anymore? You know they will be sad without you?”
“It’s okay, they will get stronger. They will survive and be all the more because of the sadness. They need to live their lives and not cling to only memories, as they won’t be able to reciprocate the love. Memories are good, but need to be cherished rather than guilt and sadness. They will get there with time, but I have hope for that, so the depression can’t weigh my mind with lead weights.”
“Good to see you feeling better Missus?”
“I’m not feeling better, but I will, because I can still hope.”
All Hallows Eve – The fourth trial
She opened her eyes and saw Chris kneeling on the floor of the office. He looked up, with slight bitterness, “You made it? Welcome back. I need some help…”
Tbc…
Maxine the Magnificent 