Beneath the Elder Tree (21 page)

- CHAPTER TWENTY TWO -

A New Life

I thought I would have achieved redemption for ridding the world of such a monstrosity, but no light was shone for me. The path to the world beyond remained hidden.

   I did feel a certain sense of liberation because I had stood up to Tim and defeated him. I was also free of the confusion that had plagued my time in the afterlife. I was able to explore the dark world by myself and reason without the poisonous words of Tim being constantly poured in my ear. I was tougher for what had happened. I was stronger for having overcome it all. I now felt able to deal properly with my banishment.

   The day after Tim’s imprisonment things took a worrying turn. I decided to return to the cathedral - not to look over the place one last time; I went in the hope that Natalia would be there. I never made it inside. As I neared the old structure I saw dark sentinels on the roof. The others were standing guard, watching everything that moved near the cathedral. They must have known that something had happened to Tim and convened at his sleeping place in the hope of finding answers. Natalia had said that they were easily roused when they felt threatened. Tim’s disappearance must have stirred them. It was a good guess they were looking for me, as Tim and I had been practically inseparable for weeks. I couldn’t let myself be captured by Tim’s allies, and so I fled the city altogether and returned to Hampton. I found my way to my old apartment, that was still vacant, and there I felt safe and secure on a familiar ground, far away from the coven of ghosts that called the city home.

   I remained hidden for almost a month, only daring to leave the apartment for short periods, to find negatives mortals to drain. Most of the time I simply sat by the window and watched the living and spirit worlds pass me by. I reflected on all that had happened, and imagined all that was possible in the future. It was on a quiet night, sitting by the window watching the magic of night world, that I started to contemplate The Rosehill Ripper - the mortal puppet that Tim had used to murder so many innocent mortals. I spent hours wondering where he was and what he was doing. Could he, even in the absence of his spiritual mentor, have continued his murderous rampage? I needed to know what became of him. I had to be sure that Tim’s evil was truly over. Then out of the blue it all fell neatly into place.

    I realised that Tim had been watching me while I lived as a mortal. That was when he became infatuated by me. I rarely strayed from Hampton when I was alive, and that meant he too must have called Hampton home. How else would I have crossed his path?

   It seemed to me that Tim’s chosen must also have lived somewhere in the vicinity of the little town, and there was only one place in Hampton that evil dwelled: The neglected house where Emily and I had sensed a dark spirit on my first day as a guide. It was Tim we had felt inside that house. That’s where he had watched me from. I passed that house as a mortal many times when returning from Susan’s place. It made sense that it was the home of his chosen - the mortal who had been known as the Rosehill Ripper.

   I crossed Hampton as night world fell, and was standing by the garden gates, watching the dark windows of the house, by dawn. I waited at a distance, afraid to approach because of a silly fear that Tim might have clawed his way out of the grave and could be waiting for me inside. I lingered on the pavement as the sun climbed the grey sky, trying to gauge whether a ghost was in the house. I sensed nothing - well, nothing except a strong negative aura coming from a single mortal inside the walls.

   When I was certain that no ghost occupied the house I slipped through the front door and searched one room after another until I was face to face with the person who had claimed so many lives. He was slumped into an armchair in one of the upstairs rooms, staring vacantly at the wall.

   He no longer felt like a killer to me. He was simply a man who had been used by a ghostly monster - the same one who had used me. His mind was empty of thought - malign or otherwise - and his heart was entirely devoid of any feeling. This person had been nothing more than a puppet. He was guilty of no crime. The murders were all of Tim’s doing.

   I had gone to the house with the intention of killing the man. I could have reached into the mortal world and stopped his heart -  in the same way Tim had killed me. I could have possessed him and led him in front of an oncoming car. I could have killed him in so many ways and done it so easily. But killing wasn’t easy. Not for someone who is true of heart.

   This deranged mortal man was to be pitied. Nothing more than that. There were no murderous tendencies occupying his mind, and I believed he posed no threat to anyone but himself. And so I left him sitting in the squalor of that awful place and made my way home with a clear conscience. My involvement in the series of murders was at an end. It was time to move on.

   Time to move on indeed… Not just from Tim and the killings he was responsible for. I also had to move on from Hampton. I was too close to my family and friends, and all the little reminders of my mortal life. I would have to leave my hometown, and the city was no longer an option for me.

   I spent the remainder of that day in search of the wicked in the living world. I latched myself to every evil and depressed mortal I could find, and drained them of the energy that gave me life. By nightfall I was filled with dark power. Enough for me grow wings and take flight.

   I headed north, away from the mortal cities and towns, and the legion black spirits that haunted them. My first destination was the great forest that Tim and I had once visited. There I could think clearly, without temptation or corruption. There I could plot my redemption. I wasn’t giving up on the chance of reaching the world beyond all others.

   It felt like starting all over again. A new life. Only time would tell if this new life would be as eventful as the previous ones.

THE END