Love and Conscience

Chapter Four: Chained Up

There was a light knock on my hospital door. Aura shooed Ochie under my bed, just as a woman floated straight through the door.
Chains wrapped themselves around her like a knot. They started from her hands and stopped at her feet. Her familiar grey eyes and facial expression looked about as angry as her chains.
She wore a shredded white gown with a badge that coincidentally read "BOSS."
Just like Ochie's her feet never met the tiled floor.
"Ochius James Larynx! If you are here you have some serious explaining to do!"
The woman's chains rattled and scratched the tile.
Ochie shivered at the sound of his full name.
"Are you Luana Flendrivic?!" I blurted, then covered my mouth.
She turned to me and her eyes narrowed,
"How did you know...unless,"
She went flat on her stomach and yanked Ochie out from under the bed. She held him up by the scruff of his shirt collar.
"Mother wait! Let me explain!"
Hold on, Luana is Ochie's mother? I quickly sat up in bed, then I realized I was leaning on my broken arm.
The pain in my bad arm shot through me like a bullet, and I gripped it tightly.
Aura and I stared at Ochie in disbelief. Then that disbelief turned to a glare of disappointment.
"I just wanted to see real people again, it's hard being around ghosts all the time." Ochie choked.
"If you don't get back in the portal to Screma this instant, you won't be able to Go Under for a week!"
"Luana, I understand your anger with Ochie, but we promised him we wouldn't let him go back," Aura explained.
I nodded,
"If you want Ochie your going to have to go through us."
Flendrivic bent into her chains with laughter and pointed a wrinkled, bony finger at us.
"What makes you think you can get past me,"
She gestured to my broken arm and her chains.
Aura looked at me and I smiled.
I jumped out of bed and accepted Aura's hand,  together we snatched  Ochie from Luana's grip.
We quickly opened the door and ran out, Ochie's mouth fell open and his hand slapped his forehead in defeat.
"Conscience, you  just ran straight through the portal!"
Three old ghost ladies stopped their knitting and stood from their chairs. An unpleasant cackle filled my ears.
They pulled the yellow string taught and their eyes glowed bright red, Aura and I couldn't move.
"Look away, if you don't you become their slave!" Ochius shouted.
Ochie managed to wrench us free of our trance and we ran.
"Who are they?"
"That's the Harren Sisters, best to stay clear of them unless you wish to be a slave for the rest of eternity and woven into their blanket."
"Stay clear of the Harren Sisters got it, anything else you didn't tell us?"
That came out a lot harsher than I intended.
Ochie gazed down at his shoes, avoiding eye contact. Which made me feel terrible, but I could still feel the anger burning inside me. We had made it to a dull gray building with no windows. The house sagged under the weight of its age.
There was a battered sign that read,
"Georgia's Humble Abode"
And underneath,
"Don't come in unless I say so"
The door had a slide-out window that opened to reveal an ocean blue eye.
"State your name!" Her voice was hoarse and dry like she hadn't had water in days.
"Ochius Larynx,"
"Well don't just stand there come in!" This time her voice was more relaxed and sounded younger.
We quickly stepped inside, I was still in my hospital rags and Aura was wearing her leather jacket and red boots. She was a tall young lady with tiny sprinkles of gray in her ginger hair, her sea blue eyes sparkled with joy at the sight of her nephew.
Georgia quickly shut the door and locked it back up.
"This is my Aunt Georgia."
Georgia wrapped her arms around Ochie and he rested his head on her shoulder. Ochie and Georgia were no less real than any other living being, regardless they still had a slight shine to their bodies, and were you to stand at a particular angle you would see straight through.
"Luana needs to take better care of you, just look at the state of your health!"
Ochie scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.
"You brought company,"
"Georgia, this is Aura Brian and Conscience Herra, I found them at the Cure Medical Hospital in Toronto, Canada."