Page 2 of A Soul's Curse
“He’s already dead,” I reminded her.
“Then I will rip him from the afterlife and kill him again!”
I swung my backpack over my shoulder, still trying to locate the cause of the vibrations. If it had anything to do with death … perhaps, say, a stampede of Civil War soldiers riding on their horses toward their last battle … I would have been able to sense it with my magic. But I couldn’t latch on to any lost souls, wandering wraiths, or any other beings that should have been resting peacefully in the ground.
“Couldthatbe it?” I turned around to follow Emily’s finger toward the chubby blob of living fat racing toward me. At least four times my size, its long, skinny legs were too small for its jiggling body, and its large, googly eyes were looking in two different directions. A single antenna flopped over its face, and its mangy tail flapped with each awkward gallop.
“What the …” My hand tightened around the strap of my backpack.
“I reckon yet another student tried to summon a unicorn from a different realm, and failed miserably.” Sam Bellamy took a step closer to me and whispered in my ear, “Any chance I can possess your bodynow? I’m pretty sure I can take down that vile creature with your bare hands. Come on, I’ll make you look like a hero!”
With panic driving my movement, I didn’t bother to answer him, turning to take off and run as fast as I could out of that cemetery.
“See you next week, Theo!” I heard Emily’s fleeting voice. “Don’t die! But if you do, you better come back as a ghost and find me!”
My backpack smacked against my back as I weaved in and out of the ancient headstones, trying not to trip on the uneven land or grave markers hidden by overgrown grass. I leapt over a small commemorative statue, racing toward the concrete footpath that led toward the exit.
My heart was pounding, but my breathing was steady and rhythmic. I didn’t think for one minute I stood a chance against a beast like that, whether or not it had any intelligence. But running? Nowthatwas something I was good at. Having been an all-star in track and field during high school, and winning numerous competitions, I was at least confident in that ability.
A garbling howl sounded from close behind me, and despite how fast I was for a human, the fact the monster was exceptionally larger than me meant it could cover four times as much ground.
“Out of the way!” I screamed at two pedestrians walking across the sidewalk just outside the cemetery. For a second, the looks on their faces flashed annoyance, but then quickly morphed to terror when they saw the strange creature closing in behind me. They didn’t think twice, screaming as they immediately turned to scramble in the opposite direction.
I flicked out two fingers, casting the magic spell and tossing it behind me. Another strangled howl echoed in the damp morning air as the monster’s disproportionately sized tiny feet slipped and it slid across the busy main street, taking out a few parked cars and setting off their alarms. Maybe not my smartest move.
Tires screeched and car horns blared, as if that would do anything top impede the crazy unicorn imposter. The farther I ran toward Salem Common, hurtling over benches and darting around people walking their dogs, the more attention I broughtto the lunatic man being chased by some weird reincarnation of a child’s stuffed toy.
Not really sure where I was going, I knew I couldn’t risk leading this thing into the busy part of town. I turned down a residential street hoping it would continue following me. Halfway down the street I stopped running and spun around. I could do simple spells with my sign language magic, but my true power? That was control over death. I didn’t want to kill the poor animal, if it even was one. It wasn’t like it chose to be put in the middle of downtown Salem on a weekend. But, if the police were on their way, they’d kill it anyway, and I had no other ideas about how to contain it or send it back to where it came from.
As the beast continued to charge at me, poison seeped from my skin, forming a cloud of magical energy in front of me. Like many toxins and poisons, it wasn’t visible, but I could feel the magic floating at my will, moving with each gesture of my hand. I threw out my attack, and while the creature momentarily paused, it shook it off and regrouped quickly.
“Crap.” Either it was immune to the poison or the spell wasn’t powerful enough. All I had done was successfully piss it off.
Just as I was about to turn and continue running, something suddenly stunned the creature and it froze in place. Its body began changing, morphing. Underneath its scaly skin, lumps and bumps were moving and expanding, like it was boiling from the inside out. The monster itself looked just as confused as I was about what was happening as its body blew up like a marshmallow about to explode in the microwave.
“What the …”
I stacked my arms, clenching both fists in front of me, activating a shield just as the poor thing erupted into a fireworks display of internal organs. Chunks of gooey flesh splattered against my invisible protection bubble, stuck to the hoods ofcars, and littered the street, leaving behind pieces of rancid-smelling innards and streaks of dark red blood.
When I figured I was safe from being slapped in the face by monster intestines, I dropped the shield and began searching around for what might have caused the animal to suddenly pop like a balloon. Maybe the person who summoned it tried to call it back and failed, or maybe it developed a bit of indigestion from eating one too many people before it got to me. I knew it wasn’t my magic, but whatever happened, the beast was no longer alive, which thankfully meant it was also no longer my problem.
Exhaling a breath of relief, I sat down on a small stretch of clean curb, ignoring what I was pretty sure was part of an eyeball next to my foot, and unzipped my backpack to remove my water bottle and phone. It was the perfect almost-fall day—a brief stretch of time during the year when it wasn’t sweltering hot or freezing cold. The sun was rising higher in the sky, the trees lining the street casting long shadows across the row of tightly packed houses. If I inhaled deeply, I could taste just a hint of salt on my tongue from the nearby bay.
Looking at the time on my phone, I realized that thanks to my premature departure from the cemetery, I had extra time to kill before I went into work later this afternoon.
With one last look toward where the silly-looking monster had been, I hesitated for a moment, suddenly worried that it might reincarnate and swallow me whole. Death by mutant unicorn wasn’t on my list of preferred ways to die, and I didn’t particularly want to share that story with my ghostly friends for the rest of eternity. It never returned, thankfully, and I felt no vibrations rumbling the ground, but I did momentarily feel this odd, unsettling feeling in my gut. Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a sharp shadow ducking mysteriously behind a parked car. It could have been a cat, a piece of trash, or perhaps just my mind playing tricks on me, but if there was anythingthere, it wasn’t attacking me. I took that as a sign to let it go and move on, knowing there was somewhere more important I needed to be.
2
Istoodoutsidetheassisted living facility, watching a few cars loop around the circular driveway to pick up and drop off their loved ones. The beige structure did its best to be friendly and warm, with the entrance just outside the double glass doors centered between several rocking chairs and small tables, but for someone who saw death all day, every day, there was nothing about this place that welcomed me. It was exploding at the seams with an overwhelming aura of sorrow and grief, and those emotions trickled into me every time I came here.
Quickly, I hurried past a gardener who was kneeling on the rock bed tending to an overgrown bush, but her shears were only as real as her ghostly body shimmering in the bright sun. Inside the building, a spacious lobby with high ceilings greeted me, along with two more ghosts only I could see. The polished wooden floors and soft neutral colors of the walls complemented the artwork on display, and I could actually taste the smell ofa citrus air freshener trying to cover up the strong antiseptic stench in the back of my throat.
“Hey, Theo,” George, the front desk attendant, greeted me with a friendly smile. “I just saw your sister. She was taking your mom back to her room.”
I scribbled my name in the visitor ledger. “Thanks, George. Oh, I almost forgot. I have something for you.”
The curious man pushed up his glasses as he peered over the desk. I opened my backpack and his eyes nearly bulged out of his round head when he saw the bag in my hands. “This is for letting me in after visiting hours last week when I got here late. I improved the spell a bit. It should last longer and help you better fight against the nicotine cravings.”
