Page 50 of Origins
“I won’t run away!” I rushed to reassure him—my heart was fluttering with excitement. Normally, where fear and anxiety would have thrived, something unknown grew. I didn’t understand it, but I felt it, too. The reality upon which I had built throughout my life with Finn had been shaken. I was in new territory now.
Whether or not that was a good thing—I had no idea. But I wanted to explore this strange feeling of camaraderie that I shared with these guys.
“It’s alright if you can’t tell me everything yet…” I didn’t want to lie, but Icouldn’ttell them everything about myself either—for completely unrelated reasons. Some things had to move slowly, and I was perfectly okay with that. “I haven’t told you everything about my past either,” I admitted.
“But it’s different for you, I think.” Damen tilted his head, studying my face. “It’s not that you don’t want to talk about it, but that you can’t. That isn’t like our situation. This seems so unfair to you.”
Freaking know-it-all psychologist.
I nodded in response—because he was right. Thereweremany things in my past that I should explore—revisit. But I couldn’t put those memories into words, and the fear that accompanied those recollections was something that I tried to avoid. It probably wasn’t healthy, but I had no other choice.
“You deserve more than hidden truths, especially considering your reasons for secrecy. But regardless, I’m going to go for it anyway. What you do afterwards with the knowledge is your choice, of course. You can ask us to leave and pretend you know nothing—but we’ll still help you. All I ask is that you keep the secret.” Damen sighed.
He crossed his arms as he sat back in his seat. “I’ve mentioned before that our families have expertise in the supernatural world. The four of us are from different family lines, and each family has their own specialty—so to speak. It’s more complicated than it appears, which ties into details I cannot disclose yet. But I can simplify the situation.
“I am anonmyoji,” he continued. “The Abernathy family members are known as experts in the spiritual and demonic realms.”
My reeling thoughts slammed to a halt. His earnest expression made me feel like I should be impressed, but I had no idea what he was saying. This wasn’t a simple explanation at all.
“Onm…” I tried to repeat the word, and failed. “What is that?”
The other three men watched Damen, trepidation heavy in the air. Damen, despite being offended at my lack of awe, grinned at my question. “Anonmyojiis a practitioner ofonmyodo. It is an occult-based science that uses Taoism and other Chinese ways of thought. Someonmyojifocus only on divination—which I can do. Others have other areas of practice—which I also do. But my foremost specialty is conjuring spirit-beings calledshikigami.”
I was still very confused. Finn had abilities, too—I knew from what happened earlier. But if this was a familial skill, did that mean that Finn was like Damen? Besides, that didn’t answer the questions at the forefront of my mind.
“So,” I wondered, “can you can see ghosts? What is conjuring a spirit? Whatkindof spirit?”
“That’s a topic by itself.” Damen was still grinning, his expression lighthearted. He was probably pleased that I hadn’t run from the room screaming. “I can’t see or feel the presence of what you’d call aghost. Which is, in definition, a peaceful spirit of the deceased. But that’s a classification that exists only in a certain point of the process.”
“A certain point?” I asked. “What does that mean?”
“When a person dies, one of four things can happen,” Damen explained, touching the rim of his glasses. “They either head directly toward the afterlife, or they don’t.”
That made sense, but perhaps Damen was very bad at math. “That’s two things,” I pointed out.
He smirked. “If theydon’tmove on, then there’s three things that can happen—”
“But that’s three sub-classifications within a parent category,” I informed him. “So that’s still two things—technically.”
“Baby girl, hush.” He rolled his eyes playfully. “That’s beside the point.”
I pursed my lips. But it was the point. The least he could do would be to get the facts straight…
“The earth-bound spirits,” Damen continued, holding up a finger. “They are the spirits that sensitives and mediums would generally communicate with. They haunt the locations that were important to them in life. Generally a house haunting is done by such a spirit. Usually they remain at these locations because they haven’t accepted their death, or because they have some kind of unfinished business there. Sometimes they act out—to get attention from the living. But normally they are content to haunt the spaces around them.
“Second,” Damen held up a second finger, “are the most dangerous spirits. If a bad person dies, or someone dies burdened with negative emotions with no closure, then the negativity can warp their soul. Emotions are felt more strongly as spirits, and any earth-bound spirit is at risk if they remain seeped in negativity too long. The goodness they had—if they had any at all—eventually becomes overshadowed by evil. Their entire essence becomes demonic in nature. This is one way that demons are born, and they can reside either in this realm or in the underworld.”
“And last,” Damen held up his third finger, “are the unknowns.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. Granted, the bad spirits were scary enough, but at least you knew they were bad. “What’s an unknown?”
“They are spirits who haven’t realized they’ve died,” Miles interjected. His arms were crossed as he watched the flickering flames of the fire. “Unless they become demonic, one of the strongest periods of a spirit’s existence—when it’s easiest to interact with the living—is after they’ve first formed. That is why you hear stories about families of the newly departed receiving signs from their deceased loved ones. Most spirits use that energy to move on afterwards, and some settle to become earth-bound.”
“People who haven’t realized they’ve died,” Damen continued, “are stronger by nature. Plus, they have the potential to do both good and evil. They have no awareness about what they are. It’s a dangerous situation. They will find out their true nature—it’s inevitable. It’s safest if they learn after they’ve weakened.”
“But why?” That sounded wrong. I glanced between the two of them, certain I misheard. “You said that a spirit needs energy to move on. If they don’t know they are dead until after that point, then wouldn’t they be stuck in that state—forever?”
“There are ways to help a spirit move on—certain types of people can help them. But they are rare. There’s also exorcism, but that’s rarely done. But if neither are options, then it’s best that the spirit find out after it weakens,” Miles replied, sounding remorseful. “Even the most mild-mannered people have the potential to react in unexpected ways. If you aren’t careful, you could easily be facing a demonic force that could destroy you.”
