Page 53 of Origins
“What did they say?” Miles shivered slightly as he glanced at Damen. “I don’t like this, Damen. To interact physically, even with a medium, takes a substantial amount of energy. Let alone to leave physical proof.”
“We knew it could reach out physically—it already hurt her before. Now we’re aware that it is stronger than we thought,” Damen remarked. “It won’t happen again.”
He then looked back towards me. “What did they say to you, Bianca?”
Shaking at the recollection and keeping my eyes trained on my clenched fists, I told them what had happened—how scared I had been, and the terrifying things that had been said. As I finished, there was only silence as my words trailed off.
Too much silence.
As I had talked, my hair had fallen over my face. Now I hesitantly looked up—unsure of what to expect.
Julian was sitting on his heels, and he, Damen, and Miles looked at each other. Titus, on the other hand, was barely breathing behind me. But his arms, which had previously been relaxed, were now as tense and hard as steel.
“She can’t stay here,” Julian said as he turned back to his previous task, which was examining my leg. “This is on another level, not just a haunting. I’m not even sure what’s going on, but I’ve never seen a wound like this before from a spirit. It resembles a moderate to severe friction abrasion. I want to treat it as such. But if it’s spiritual in nature, the treatment might not help. We might need to confer with Gregory.”
Damen rubbed his chin and nodded. “I agree. But we’ll watch it in the meantime. Dr. Stephens has a family emergency to attend to and is leaving tonight, so he’ll be unreachable. He should have already turned off his cell, but he might not have left yet. Miles, can you let him know what is happening?”
“Hey…” They weren’t going to try to make me leave, were they? That certainly wasn’t the reason I told them what had happened. Besides that, I was the only one who could fully sense these things. And besides, I had house-sitting responsibilities here—
“I can do that.” Miles nodded. “I want to be away from here as long as possible anyway. Once she’s bandaged up, Bianca and I will drop by Dr. Stephens’ place before we pick up dinner—Julian, you forgot again.”
“I’m sorry,” Julian sounded mildly chastised, but mostly annoyed. “I forgot again. But really, is food the most important thing at the moment?”
“Damen, don’t you think she should go back to the dorms?” Titus rumbled behind me. “I did purchase all the equipment you requested. We shouldn’t put her in any more danger. This isn’t safe.”
What did he mean he bought new equipment? They didn’t seriously…
Outside of that, there was something more pressing. “No, I’m not going back to the dorms!”
The four of them froze before staring at me in surprise. Clearly they hadn’t expected me to argue.
“Bianca.” Damen frowned, speaking slowly. “I understand that you feel obligated, but this isn’t your home. It’s not your problem to solve. Why did you stay, anyway—after all this started? Why didn’t you contact Hamway and just tell her that you couldn’t house-sit anymore? Does she know about the paranormal activity?”
“No, I haven’t spoken to her since she left. It’s difficult to contact her, and also… I’m allowed to have friends here, anyway. Besides, the ghosts aren’t all bad!” I argued—upset that they now want to send me away when I was the one who brought them here in the first place. “They aren’t all bad. I can’t just run away. I have to help her.”
“Her? The one who trapped you in the bathroom?” Julian asked mildly. He was wrapping my foot with antiseptic and a thin, white bandage—the deep concern of his face masked over with determined professionalism.
“No, there’s another girl, too,” I told him. “A child. If I can’t help her, she’ll be stuck—alone with those things. I feel it—I can’t just leave.”
“There’s more than two? All haunting the same location?” Damen took a step back, shocked. But then his gaze turned stern again. “Either way, you don’t need to stay here for that. And if necessary, we can observe activity from afar. But this isn’t the first time it has attacked you now. You are still living, Bianca. And you should aspire to keep it that way.”
He paused for a moment, considering, before continuing. “Besides, this isn’t the first spirit that you’ve seen in your life. There’s nothing that binds you to this ghost more than any other.”
“I can’t…” As much as I wanted to argue with him logically, there was nothing that I could say. He was right. I couldn’t recall the last time that I was emotionally vested in the welfare of a spirit. It was more than wanting to become a stronger person. There was a pull—something that I didn’t understand—that made meneedto help her.
“Is there something about this spirit that has caused you to seek out answers?”
I didn’t understand. “I don’t know…”
Why was Damen pressing me on this? Even if I wanted to leave now, I couldn’t. At some point, I had become emotionally entwined and I just had to see it to the end. “Everyone will give up and leave. It’s happened before.” Somehow, I knew that as a fact. “I don’t even know… I don’t know why we can’t call Professor Hamway. All I know is that if I don’t do anything, then nothing will change… She’ll be trapped here forever.”
I blinked out of my musings and held Damen’s gaze. “Pleasedon’t make me leave.”
Damen had a blank look on his face, and the others were utterly still, before he finally answered. “We don’t abandon our problems once we’ve become aware of the situation. It makes no difference whether you were here, or safe in your room at the dorm. I’m not going tomakeyou do anything. What I want to know from you is: ‘What is so different about this house—this ghost—in comparison to others in the past?’”.
I wished that I knew the answer. “I don’t know…” I repeated.
I got the impression that Damen wasn’t thrilled. But I wasn’t sure why he couldn’t let go of the subject. If he was like Finn in any way, then perhaps he just needed to know—for his own understanding.
