Space Witches 1: The Book of Witches

6. Cursed Soul

We all stopped in the doorway, staring at the sight. The ghost who was strangling me ignored us. When I say she looked ancient, I don't mean her age. She was pretty young. But the clothes she wore looked ancient. She was wearing a light colored pleated linen dress, an Egyptian looking wig, sandals and a broad beaded collar. All around her was a strange smoky, dark billowing... something. Like she was sitting inside a shadow, or a constantly moving cloud of smoke.

"Good Lord..." Matthew said. "It can't be..."

"Oh but it is..." Mia breathed. "I thought they were a myth!"

"I don't care who she is," I yelled, pointing at the sight, "can't you see she is trying to kill me! Stop her!"

"Well, in a way she is trying to kill you," Matthew said, "and in a way she isn't. You see she is a cursed soul."

"A what? Like George?" I jumped up and down, looking in horror and helplessness at the hands around the throat of my body.

"No, not like George. George still has a chance, so he isn't damned forever yet. But this one - she is cursed. Being cursed does not mean the person is evil. I've read all about this in the library at the Halfway House - a curse will have been used to steal her body without killing it, so that another soul can take its place. So she hasn't left her body as a result of physical damage, which would have allowed her to die and move on. When her body was stolen, the curse prevented her from entering it again – and even after the body in question has died, the curse still keeps her prisoner on the physical level forever. Some wandering soul stole her body and the life she should have had..." Matthew explained.

"As in a body possessed," Mia clarified.

"And what she is now trying to do is to cut the silver string that attaches you to your body. See it there?" Matthew pointed. "Fascinating."

Indeed there did seem to be a silver string emerging from my upper stomach. It curled in the air like seaweed in water, seemingly weightless. Its end vanished in midair, but did not give the appearance of being cut.  When I stepped inside the room, its color became brighter, the visible part became longer, and I felt a tug in my solar plexus.

"She's been trying to yank it," Mia observed, "or else it would be straight. She chose unwisely."

"Yep. Looks like she chose the wrong body," Matthew agreed. "You were too fit and healthy to be killed easily. But she seems to be young herself, and so she would like to have a young body, of course. Just bad luck on your part that she spotted you somewhere and followed you home."

"You mean she is trying to do the same to me that was done to her? Steal my body? Can she do that?" 

I was literally jumping up and down now, not at all amused at the academic musings of my dead companions.

"In a way you just contradicted yourself there – it seems it can be done or she would not be sitting there, trying to evict you from your body. She has gone through it for sure, as you can see, and is trying to move the curse onto you so that she can live inside your body," Matthew said. "Most interesting. I have only heard of this, but as far as I know, no-one has ever witnessed it before. When she could not cut your silver string, she decided to try more traditional measures. To kill you physically and try to get into your body at the moment of your death."

"Interesting indeed. That's all new to me, Matthew," Mia mused while I stared in horror at my body and the machine that was keeping it breathing – and preventing the ghost from killing me. The thought suddenly shot through my mind that it was lucky it had not occurred to her to switch it off. 

"I suppose zombie stories had to come from somewhere..." Matthew answered Mia.

"Shit! Stop discussing theories and stop her!" I yelled as I hurtled into the room.

The silver thread floating in the air got brighter and my body twitched on the bed. The ghost froze, and let go of my throat slightly. My body twisted again.

"Look! She moved!" Tina and Mother shouted at the same time and the nurse bent over me to lift my eyelids.

Mia's hand grabbed my arm as if to stop me just as the ancient ghost turned her head and looked straight at me. Her eyes were almost hidden in a swirling mass of darkness and the look in them was definitely not sane. 

"Oh crap! Stop her!" Mia yelled now as the ghost lunged straight for me.

Matthew stepped between me and the ghost so fast I didn't have a chance to work out what was happening. The ghost grabbed him by the throat and shoved him aside like a doll. Matthew weighed nothing, it appeared, he was as light as a feather to her and the ghost's grab caused his neck to dislocate at a very a nasty angle. Even so, he managed to put up enough of a fight to stop the ghost, with his head still hanging loosely to one side.

"Take her back, now!" Matthew yelled.

Mia had quick reflexes and she pulled me with her out of the room and into the corridor while my mind was still trying to get to grips with what I was looking at.

"Where is it..." she muttered to herself, forcing me to run alongside her, "where is it?"

A transparent figure appeared from one of the rooms. A ghost.

"Quick! Where's the door?" Mia shouted at him.

"In the nurse's room," the ghost said. "Oh dear... there's one of the curses on your tail, did you know?"

"Thank you, we had noticed," Mia hollered and we galloped around a sharp turn and into a room where a nurse was sitting. She was reading something with her teacup next to her on the table.

Mia managed to knock the plastic tea cup to the floor, splashing tea everywhere. The nurse swore and tried to salvage her portable screen which was now soaked in tea. 

We could both see the revolving door in the corner of the room. Mia flew the last few steps with her hand extended and we banged through the door at the last second. I fell on my stomach on the hall floor of the Halfway House, sliding along its shiny surface. When I stopped and turned to look back over my shoulder, I could see the face and hands of the cursed soul as she clawed at the glass on the hospital side of the door. But the door would not budge for her.

"Hell! That was close!" Mia panted. "If she had caught your soul, you would have been lost to us. The theory is that if a cursed soul manages to find the soul they have evicted from its body, they can transfer their curse onto them and live and die again in a body. And so be released of their curse."

I looked into the eyes of the Egyptian girl clawing on the glass and to my surprise I saw tears falling down her cheeks. And then she was gone. Vanished.