Beneath the Elder Tree (9 page)

   ‘It’s a long story,’ he muttered. ‘Too long.’

   ‘We have nothing but time, Tim. Or do you have some pressing engagements to attend to?’

   ‘I broke one of the big rules,’ he admitted after a moment. ‘I did something that spirit guides don’t usually get away with.’ His eyes went dark and his strong face went soft and vulnerable. ‘I was very foolish.’

   My curiosity got the better of me and I asked which of the rules he broke. Tim didn’t want to tell me at first, but eventually recalled his final weeks as a spirit guide.

   ‘Samuel, who was my chosen, was running a firm in the city. He’d worked very hard to make it a success and over the years it grew, as did its profits. He was a good man who was kind to all two hundred of his employees. That all changed when the financial crisis hit the world a few years back. Samuel’s firm was in serious trouble and I could do very little to help. It was difficult to stand by and watch as everything he built came crashing down around him. I’d been able to influence his life so much but financial markets are beyond the persuasion of spirits. Samuel’s normally logical mind began to falter and he was making poor decisions. I tried my best to guide his thoughts but our connection was weakening as his sanity gave way. It was caused by the fear of bankruptcy. That same fear inspired him to try shut the company down which would have left all his employees high and dry. It would have caused a lot of pain to a lot of families. I felt that I had to intervene. I couldn’t stand idly by and see such devastation being wreaked by the man I had guided. I took direct action.’

   He said it to me like I knew what he was talking about. I had to know what had happened and although he was obviously troubled by it, I implored him to continue.

   ‘The most direct action a spirit guide can take is to possess a living person. I crossed over from the spirit world into the physical world and took control of Samuel’s body. I seized power over his body and mind.’

   ‘What did you do?’

   ‘I signed all his firm’s debts into his own name, so that he couldn’t close the business and forsake so many people.’

   ‘But that was against the wellbeing of your chosen.’

   ‘I felt it was the lesser of two evils. Alas, when I allowed him to regain control he went into hysterics. His mind fell apart and he died. The company was shut down after his death, so you could say I failed spectacularly.’

   ‘How did he die?’

   ‘He took his own life. And I paid for my actions with mine. You could say I shared his fate.’

   ‘You were just doing what you thought was right.’

   ‘The shepherd didn’t see it that way. Not long after Samuel’s death, I saw the light breaking through the barrier into the mirror world. I caught a glimpse of the world beyond. Many spirits from my first life came to pull me through to the other side. So many hands… One hand was stronger than all others, though.’ The colour of Tim’s eyes faded to black. ‘The shepherd had grabbed hold of me and tore me back into this terrible place. I had been judged. The sentence was eternity in the mirror world. Eternity as a black spirit.’

   ‘I’m sorry I asked, Tim. I don’t know how you have the strength to continue.’

   ‘There’s very little choice really,’ he said, putting on a brave face. ‘I can’t lie down and die. Dying is a luxury I will never know.’ He smiled at me. There was only sorrow in his expression, though. At first I had believed Tim might be a devious spirit. Now I could see there was much more to him. He had a similar strength of character to Emily’s. Their fates, however, would be very different. Emily was now in paradise. Tim’s future was too horrible to contemplate.

   He appeared to be roughly the same age as me but I knew that could be misleading. I realised that if Tim had been guiding a middle aged man that he must have been a lot older than he appeared.

   ‘You catch on quite fast,’ he said.

   ‘What do you mean?’

   ‘I am still sensing some of your thoughts - despite the fact that you’ve closed up a bit since our kiss. You’ve just realised that I’m not as young as I appear to be.’

   ‘How old are you?’

   ‘I died when I was twenty one. I guided Samuel for forty eight years. And I have been banished for just over five months.’

   ‘You’re seventy years old.’

   ‘Age has little meaning in the mirror world. I died as a young man and I’ll always be one in my appearance, in my mind and in my soul.’ He stretched out his arm and pointed towards the city. ‘There goes another one. They’re dropping like flies tonight.’

   I turned to see an aura exploding in one of the distant apartment blocks. It meant someone had just passed on from the living world. It wasn’t the first one I’d seen that evening. ‘I never seemed to notice how common death is.’

   ‘I’ve become very aware of it recently. Oh, how lucky they are.’

   ‘Yeah, there are worse things than dying.’

   He turned to face me and narrowed his eyes. ‘There are worse things all right and I sense you know what they are.’

   ‘Yes, Emily told me that guides who are banished eventually grow frail and insane.’

   ‘This is true,’ he said, looking away from me, ‘and it is my destiny.’

   ‘Aren’t you worried?’

   ‘I’m very worried. I’ve seen lots who have succumbed to that fate. I know what they look like and how they act. They’re abominations and one day I’ll join them.’

   ‘That’s why I was scared to talk to you.’

   ‘I know,’ he smiled warmly. ‘I’m glad you did talk to me, Lucy. I’m not an abomination just yet. It usually takes a lot of time for the transformation to take place.’ His eyes focused on me. ‘I’m sure you’ll have flown off to heaven long before I change into a demon.’

   There was an uncomfortable silence between us for a time and we both watched the radiant cityscape. The vast aura was powerful that night and shimmered like a sunrise against the windows of the tall buildings. It was almost hypnotic. A peaceful hour passed by as if it were only a few seconds. We chatted aimlessly then, and Tim made me laugh more than once, which was quite an achievement. The positive mood was smothered when we spotted a distant red streak breaking the cloud cover and spiralling around the highest towers of the city. It looked so graceful from a distance but I knew the threat that was contained in that crimson fire.

   ‘He’s out on patrol,’ Tim spat. ‘Looking for trouble, more like.’

   ‘Is the shepherd always so determined to punish wayward spirits?’

   ‘He is cruel. There’s no reasoning with him.’

   ‘Then I may end up suffering your punishment.’

   ‘Why do you say that?’

   I didn’t want to admit what had happened earlier that day and stayed silent even when Tim nudged me with his foot.

    ‘Let’s get off the roof and out of sight,’ he said as the shepherd entered the sky over Millbrook. ‘Come on, follow me.’

   Tim sank through the rooftop and disappeared into the building below. I quickly followed suit, not wanting to be under the watchful eye of the shepherd. The asphalt roof gobbled me up and I fell through the ceiling of one of the empty apartments on the top floor - the one next to Laura’s. Tim had already made himself at home and was lying on an old couch with his hands behind his head.

   ‘Take a seat on the psychiatrist couch,’ he said, outstretching his arm to the cushion at his feet. ‘You need guidance.’

   ‘And you’re the one to give it to me?’ I laughed. ‘You got yourself banished.’

   ‘I have lots of experience. One mistake doesn’t undo decades of good guiding.’

   ‘I suppose you’re right.’ I sat on the couch and faced him. ‘My chosen caught me on camera. Not just once. A number of times.’

   ‘I knew you were a troublemaker from the first moment I laid my dead eyes on you,’ he laughed.

   ‘Shut up, this is serious.’

   ‘All right, all right. How did it happen?’

   ‘That’s not important. It happened. Now I have a problem that might get me banished.’

   ‘Has she shown these photographs to anyone?’

   ‘Not yet.’

   ‘You’ll need to influence her mind. Make her get rid of those photographs before she starts showing them to other people. The shepherd will sense a disturbance if enough people see them.’

   ‘Laura is head strong, and although I can influence her, I can’t seem to dominate her mind and make her actually do the things I want her to do. Not yet anyway. Emily said it could take months, if not years, to achieve such a connection with my chosen.’

   ‘Emily was right. It can take years and that represents a serious dilemma for you.’

   ‘It certainly does,’ I sighed. ‘What can I do?’

   ‘You can hope she keeps the pictures to herself.’

   ‘I have a feeling she won’t do that. This girl is a loner who is crying out for attention. Those photographs could make her very popular.’

   ‘There is an alternative,’ Tim said. He sat up straight and his eyes paled, which I had learned meant that a spirit is either scared or very serious. ‘But it could get you into trouble with you-know-who.’

   ‘Great,’ I moaned. ‘If I take action I will get punished. If I do nothing I will get punished.’

   ‘I haven’t advised you on what to do yet.’ He stuck out his tongue at me, which was black and seemed to betray the metamorphosis that he was undergoing. I pretended not to notice.

   ‘Do I have any real options?’

   ‘You can wipe her mind,’ he said sombrely. ‘I don’t mean entirely. You simply need to wipe specific memories if you take full control over her.’

   ‘You mean possess her?’

   ‘I do, and while you do it you can use her body to delete the photographs. It shouldn’t take long. The only problem is that possession will alert the shepherd. Our fiery red friend will have to be distracted while you do your work.’

   ‘How does one distract a shepherd?’

   ‘I could create a diversion for you.’

   ‘How?’

   ‘I could make a scene. Maybe scare the hell out of a few people. That should work.’

   ‘It’s not really fair to be scaring people.’

   ‘Do you want my help or not?’

   ‘Could you at least scare some bad people?’

   ‘You want me to go looking for bad people to terrorise? Time isn’t on our side here, Lucy.’

   ‘I know some bad people who you can scare. You wouldn’t have to go searching.’

   ‘Who?’

   ‘There’s this guy called Josh…’

   ‘I know who you’re talking about. He’s the latest gang leader in these parts, right?’

   ‘Right. He’s a very cruel individual.’

   ‘Most gangsters are.’

   ‘I wouldn’t mind if you scared the crap out of him.’

   ‘No problem. He’s usually hanging around the liquor store or in the old house near the freeway.’

   ‘He hangs out in an old house?’

   ‘Only when the police are doing the rounds of Millbrook. The house predates this estate and has been abandoned for many years. The gang basically own it.’

   ‘Will you do me this favour, Tim?’

   ‘How could I say no to such a pretty face.’

*   *   *

It didn’t take much to persuade Tim to use Josh and his friends as the distraction I needed. In fact, he got very excited the more we discussed it. Maybe it was because he’d been so bored of late. Or maybe he had a strong desire to cause trouble. That worried me.

   We worked out our timing so that his little routine would coincide with my possession of Laura and then we wished each other luck. Tim blew me a kiss as I was about to pass through the wall into Laura’s flat. I paused for an instant and glanced at him smiling back at me. In that moment I saw something dark in him. Something I hadn’t noticed before. I couldn’t describe it as evil, but something sinister was dwelling in him. It was something malign that was hungry to cause hurt to the living. I was once more reminded of Emily’s warning concerning banished spirits.

   The disturbing sensation evaporated as suddenly as it had arisen, and Tim shouted, ‘See you soon, troublemaker,’ before he slipped through the window.

   He was certainly an unusual character and I would have to be more careful and less trusting around him. That would be easier said than done. I couldn’t help but feel attracted to him. He was beautiful in a morbid way, and I knew if we spent much more time together that I’d become more and more besotted with him. That would present me with a serious problem once he started to truly change into the type of black spirit that Emily had assured me he would become.

   I entered Laura’s room to find her sitting on the bed reading. I sensed that all the activity of that day had tired her and she would soon drift off into a deep sleep. I’d wait until then to invade her mind. I just hoped Tim would distract the shepherd long enough for me to sort everything out.

  I was already depending on a ghost I’d been warned to stay away from…

*   *   *

To my disappointment, Laura was enthralled by a book on the history of ghosts and haunting. She obviously wasn’t going to let the encounter with me rest, which should have made me more comfortable with wiping away some of her memories. It didn’t.

   She was quite alert despite the late hour and I sat on a chair beside her and figured it would be best to wait until she was asleep. Her mind would be much easier to take control of when she was unconscious. I would have to be patient.

   I felt guilty about what I intended to do. This was an invasion of a person’s mind. And not just any person. This was the person I was bound to protect for the rest of her days. What I was about to do was a betrayal of that sacred bond. It would be the mental rape of my charge.

   I tried to convince myself the possession was necessary. I had to do this to protect Laura. I had to do this to protect myself. I couldn’t even contemplate being banished and spending eternity in the mirror world. There was no way I could countenance such endless torment.

   Was I just being selfish though by trying to cover my own stupidity or was I simply protecting my chosen? I had no definite answer to that question. I was torn in two directions, as I was in so many ways. It appeared that my spirit suffered the same indecision that dogged my mortal life.

   I reached out to Laura as soon as I sensed her fatigue and I began to drain her aura. I knew this would sap her physical energy and send her into a deep sleep. I got to work the instant her eyes closed - I didn’t want to depend on Tim distracting the shepherd for too long

   Laura was drifting into unconsciousness and I felt confident enough to begin the process of possession. My first task was to wipe out the memories relating to the ghostly images. After that, I could take control of her body and remove the physical evidence from her phone and computer.

   I leaned over her and pressed my forehead against hers. At first there was resistance, as if I was in a physical body again, but within seconds my head sank beneath her face and our minds touched. It was like jumping onto a busy road, with memories and thoughts droning around me and through me. I saw countless images from her life and felt emotions that simmered beneath her physical body. Finding the memories I was looking for seemed impossible at first, but as I gained more control, an order came to the chaos of her subconscious mind. It was as if the busy road broke into smaller and more orderly roadways that I could navigate. The darkest and most prominent of all roadways was full of imagery surrounding her mother’s addiction to alcohol.