The Halloweeners + Romun

XVIII. Spirit

Then, the voice of D'Mort came on the line.

"Thanks, Romun. Hello, everyone."

"Good morning, D'Mort," the Halloweeners answered.

"Now, I'm glad you're celebrating the defeat of that monster Kleftis," D'Mort began. "Hard to believe it's been eight months since that time."

"Yeah," Jones replied. "Well, I just hope beating him helped our families."

Was it just them or did D'Mort stop speaking for a bit?

Finally, Orlando muttered, "Don't tell me it didn't help them."

D'Mort sighed.

"No, it didn't."

"But it's not fair!" Da Mirror exclaimed in anger and frustration. "Exorcising Kleftis should've freed our families."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, Damir," D'Mort replied. "When a wraith eats a soul, it's the same way as how a human eats food. It is broken down into energy and becomes part of the system. Those innocent people that he's killed were basically cells in his ghostly body. They lost their individuality and humanity and because digestion is a painful process for a living being inside of the stomach, all the victim will remember and feel is the pain of being digested."

At that moment, the Halloweeners all remembered the dream that they had. The dream of the white wispy souls writhing in agony and clutching at them with their damp and slimy fingers in the white curd-like mass.

They began to feel sick and anguish washed over all of them.

Itan, Orlando, Margarita, Da Mirror, and Jones began shedding tears but anger filled Damir's face more than sorrow.

"So, that's it?" Da Mirror grunted, grinding his teeth. "We beat him but in some way, Kleftis beat us? And I bet that exorcising him destroyed their souls, didn't it?!"

D'Mort made no reply.

"How could you not tell us this from the beginning?" Orlando exclaimed furiously.

"Orlando!" Jones replied. "Don't."

"Why not?!" Orlando shouted. "We had a right to know!"

"Kleftis has been exorcised," Jones blurted out. "Our families have been avenged. That's all that matters. I can assure you that Kleftis is paying for his mistakes in Hell!"

"I sure hope so," Da Mirror replied, cold fury still in his tone of voice. "I guess I can take comfort in that."

Orlando sighed, tears still flowing from his face.

"Maybe you two can. Me, I have to live with the fact that my courage was all for nothing. I wanted to tell my parents who I was, no matter how scared I was."

"Yeah," Itan muttered. "You had it easy. I still have to live with watching my mom and dad die right in front of me again and again and again. I'm glad Kleftis is burning for what he's done but I can't live with that memory in my head and this. I can't."

"Itan, what are you thinking?" D'Mort asked sternly.

But he made no answer and hung up the phone.

"Just when I was planning to do some voice work on a character in an animated movie I was in," Da Mirror muttered. "I think I'd rather kill myself than make music again."

"Damir, don't!" D'Mort demanded.

"But I'm not," Da Mirror replied. "I'm more sensible than that. For now, though, I think I need to be alone for a little while. Talk to you guys later."