Culling

Part II • Chapter XI

Well, she looked like a normal kid except for the dried blood that was around her mouth and neck, and down the front of a worn, threadbare hospital gown that she wore. Her eyes were open, and completely white, and her long hair was knotted and mangled.

Now this was what I always had imagined a ghost to look like, the appearance of someone in the state in which they died. Not the description of Danielle that Sang had previously given us.

Danielle must be an especially strong spirit if she can change her appearance at will. Creepy.

It was nice to know my powers worked in the astral realm, something to file away for later.

On the other hand, Nathan was going to be so jealous that I got to see an evil zombie girl apparition. God that thing was horrifying. Danielle floated around back and forth as she ranted at Sang about something or other. Ghastly tendrils of smoke swirled around her ghost-body and her voice was a grating kind of sound.

Then there was my beautiful Sang. Like the a loving goddess of all things good, she was treating this horrid thing as if she was a perfectly normal human girl. I actually was glad that she was not currently seeing what I was witnessing. She had no reason to be frightened at all.

Although, Sang probably would have helped the devil spawn anyway, she was the embodiment of patience. She had such a kind heart, so caring...

It was then when I noticed another fucking cut on her upper arm, something that was definitely not there earlier.

Fuck that shit, no deranged demon child thing was going to hurt my Cupcake.

Sang

Danielle was angry at me, which I was kind of used to at this point. However, it was my just my luck that she wasn't a very understanding ghost either. She had already gone through one threatening display, which really sucked; and she was only getting more annoyed.

I had to calm her down.

"Danielle, I had already begun to talk to Derri-"

My words trailed off as I noticed a familiar long-haired blonde as he jumped out from behind a tree and rushed towards me. "Luke?"

I could only watched, stunned, as Luke pushed me behind him with one hand, pulled out something white with his other hand and threw it at Danielle.

"Be exorcised, evil spirit!" He shouted in a firm voice as he made the cross of the crucifix in front of him.

The sugar cubes passed through Danielle's body and landed harmlessly on the ground behind her. She had stopped her pacing at his approach and was now frozen in place as she stared at him with a dumbfounded expression on her face.

Luke breathed heavily, his body tense, and his arm remained pinning me to him. I wasn't going to move anyway, I found that I was completely stunned. What in the world just happened?

Finally, Danielle blinked away the shocked expression that had come over her face. "What the fuck, you blonde haired bimbo." She growled at Luke, "Why the hell would you do that? What's wrong, was my death not enough for you people?"

"Luke," I pulled at the ends of his hair, since he didn't have a shirt on. "Why did you just throw sugar at Danielle?"

"It was all I had, ok!" Luke said, not taking his eyes off of Danielle. "It's not like I go to sleep at night decked out in demon slaying gear. I already am overdressed enough at night as it is."

I looked down at his form, fully coming into awareness now that that he was only in boxers - and what his statement meant.

Well then, that was interesting news.

"Demon!" Danielle sputtered out indignantly, ruining my train of thought. I moved enough to watch her from behind Luke, since he wasn't letting me go. "I'm not a demon! I'm just a poor lost soul in need of a friend!"

"Liar!" Luke pointed at her, his normally jovial expression pinched in fury. "Your deception doesn't work on me. If you were so innocent you wouldn't be hiding your true self from Sang, and then beating the shit out of her when asking for a favor."

Deception? "What do you mean?" I asked Luke as I pressed my hand against his back, trying to figure out how to jump start this exchange of power stuff. Something shifted in my vision, and I looked at Danielle again.

I screamed and jerked back from Luke, and fell to the ground in horror. That was totally not what I expected. "What...?" I pointed at Danielle, who appeared as normal to me again.

"I have feelings, you know. No one wants to help a creepy ass ugly ghost, do they? No one feels sorry for bloody ones." Danielle snapped at us. "Plus, I knew I was your first in a long time. I was being nice. Would you rather I get rid of the appearance?"

"No!" I needed to get used to this slowly. "Keep it for now, I'll manage in a bit."

"Spirits can't grow old physically, unless they will it to happen." Luke told me, his eyes still on her. "She probably lied about aging indefinitely in order to get pity, manipulate you or some other shit like that. Even if she could never move on, she'd stay the same as a ghost forever. Which is exactly what is going to happen now, fuck this."