Sam’s fingers flew over the
keyboard.
"We have another gig down at Mother Earth's Cafe on Saturday."
Tiffany peered over Sam's shoulder at the band's website.
Sam added the information. "Do you think maybe they'll remember
to pay you this time?" She twisted to grin up at Tiffany,
remembering the curses her friend had come up with last time
Harsh Mistress had played at Mother Earth’s Cafe.
Tiffany rolled her eyes. "They don't pay anymore. Tips and
exposure are supposed to be enough."
"Exposure is good” Sam spun her chair away from the desk. “Look
out!" She grabbed Tiffany by the arm and yanked her forward. The
hideous gargoyle Aunt Meg had given her for Christmas three
years ago toppled off the shelf, shattering on the floor.
"Wha...What was that?" Tiffany eyed the smashed bits and pieces
on the floor.
"It was a gargoyle," Sam said. "An ugly one."
"You've gotta be more careful where you put your knick knacks."
Sam frowned, got up and walked around the mess on the floor. "If
I didn't know better I'd swear we were having earthquakes. I
found my water glass in the bathroom sink this morning -
cracked."
Tiffany stepped over the mess and sat down on Sam's bed. She
crossed her legs and leaned against the wall.
"We don't have earthquakes around here," she said.
"That's not entirely true." Rebecca wandered into the room. Her
eyes darted between Tiffany, Sam, and the shattered ceramic on
the floor. "But that's not from an earthquake."
"Oh? And what do you think causes ugly statues to fall off
shelves? Poltergeists?" Sam snickered at the thought.
"Don't you feel the presence?" Rebecca tip-toed around the
broken shards over to her own desk.
"Presence?" Sam snorted. "I feel something alright."
At that moment, the power flickered sending Sam's computer into
reboot. She smacked the side of her computer, which beeped and
hummed at her.
Rebecca crossed the room, leaned over Sam's shelf. "Here. Look."
"What am I looking at?"
Rebecca pointed. "What do you see?"
"A lot of dust," said Sam.
Rebecca nodded, brushed her finger through the dust at the very
edge of the shelf and gestured at the clear spot at the back,
where the statue had stood. "Yes. Dust. In front of where
the statue sat. Are you telling me the gargoyle moved three
inches forward to fly off the shelf when nothing else moved?"
Sam frowned. There had to be some logical reason for the
statue’s fall.
"Uh...what's that?" Tiffany sat up straight and stared into the
computer screen. A face of a woman flickered where the boot-up
icon should have appeared.
The smell of burning wires emanated from the back of the
computer.
Sam flung herself under the desk towards the back of the
computer, tearing the wires from the socket in a panicked
frenzy. When she was done, she sat back on the floor, power
cables dangling from one hand.
Smoke curled from the casing.
Damn it. Now she was going to have to pull open the case to
inspect the damage.
Tiffany got up and looked into the dark monitor as if she'd be
able to see anything. "You did remember to save the updates to
the website, right?"
Sam ignored Tiffany. She stared vacantly at the far wall. "What
the hell is going on?"
Rebecca clasped her hands in front of her looking from side to
side. "We've got a spirit in our room."
"What do you think it wants?" Tiffany asked.
"You guys are crazy! Her I understand," Sam waved wildly at
Rebecca, then spun her gaze to Tiffany, "but where are you
getting... spirits out of a malfunctioning computer?"
And how could those two even discuss spirits like they were
something… normal?
"You saw it too." Tiffany's voice rose. She pointed at the
monitor even though it was right next to her. "I'm not making
this up. Besides, why would I want to do a thing like that?"
"The face? Of course I saw it. Just a weird quirk... a backlit
image from the net where we were browsing." Sam knew computers,
knew she was spouting BS, but the possibility Tiffany and
Rebecca proposed was something a little too out there for her.
She wanted to believe it was nothing more than computer
error.
Rebecca grabbed a broom out of the closet. "I wonder if we can
divine what it wants?"
Sam turned on Rebecca. "Do I want to know what you plan on doing
with that broom?"
Rebecca pushed the broom into Sam’s hands. "It's not my ugly
gargoyle that broke."
Sam rolled her eyes, finally pulling herself up off the floor.
She cast a mournful look at her computer, then pulled up short.
She turned and stared, leaned around the desk just to verify
what her eyes were telling her. Yes, the computer was unplugged.
So why was the screen glowing?
"Maybe we ought to leave." Tiffany stepped away from the glowing
screen. "I missed the class on angry spirits."
"There was a class?" Sam leaned forward, curious, then jerked
back as white flames spilled from the screen, tumbling forward
and rolling down the desk, scorching as they went. Rebecca and
Tiffany took a simultaneous step back.
Sam stumbled past them for the door, twisted at the knob,
wrenching it open. They stumbled out in to the hall and Sam
stared, eyes wide, as everything vanished, the fire, the glow
from the computer, the scorch marks on her desk.
All that lingered was a faint hint of smoke.
"Have you been burning candles again, Sam?"
Sam spun to face the RA, heart pounding. "What? No!"
The RA snorted. "Don't let me catch you at it again."
She watched the other woman walk off before turned to Rebecca
and Tiffany. "What now?"
Tiffany crossed her arms. "I'd say you've got two options: find
a new room or get rid of the ghost."
Rebecca shook her head. "Do you know how hard it is to request a
room change? Housing hates it when someone tries to move before
the end of a semester."
"Not to mention, I don't think there are any rooms
available. At least not in the Tower." Sam sighed. "So. Anyone
know how to get rid of a ghost?" She looked back and forth
between the other two.
Tiffany gave a brief half smile. "I think I might be able to
help with that."
***********
Sam stared down at the copy of a newspaper clipping Tiffany had
shoved in her hands. "What's this?"
Rebecca pulled shut the door to their room and locked it.
"It's the ghost," said Tiffany.
Sam raised an eyebrow at the piece of paper.
"Just read it!"
The clipping was almost a year old. As she read, she started to
remember hearing about this. One of the freshman last year,
burned to death in her dorm room. In this dorm room.
"Oh"
Well. Maybe this being a ghost was the answer. Sam rubbed her
forehead. Maybe she was imagining it all? God. She hoped
she was imagining it all.
"Today is your lucky day. I brought presents for everyone."
Tiffany placed a canvas bag on the floor and opened it up. The
bag overflowed with candles, incense, chalk, and even a bell.
"Wow! Look at all this stuff." Rebecca knelt down and started
rummaging. She pulled out a few candles and placed them on the
floor.
"Be careful. I've gotta give this stuff back," said Tiffany.
"What are we supposed to do with all of this?" Sam crouched down
and picked up one of the candles, then looked over at Tiffany.
"And how do you know what to do anyway?"
Tiffany pulled out a book and began flipping through the pages.
The edges looked worn and had a particularly strong acrid smell.
"I borrowed this from a friend. I thought it might help."
Sam reached over and gently tugged it out of Tiffany's hands.
She turned it around and flipped through the pages. Rebecca
leaned over Sam's shoulder laying a finger on one page or
another as Sam scanned through.
"What kind of friend has books this old?" She rubbed the pages
gently. Her fingers itched to read it. She loved old things, old
books, hints of forgotten knowledge. Maybe she could convince
Tiffany to let her borrow it for a night before she returned it
to her friend?
Tiffany shrugged. "I didn't ask and she didn't tell. Turn to
page 136. I’ve got it marked."
Sam pulled the book away from Rebecca, so she could see the
pages, but not touch them.
"Be careful. This is old. The oils on your fingers could ruin
the pages." She flipped to the mentioned page. "A banishing
ritual?"
She looked up at Tiffany and waited for an explanation.
Tiffany picked up the empty canvas bag and rolled it up. "You do
want your dorm room back, right?"
"You're going to do a banishing ritual on the ghost?" Rebecca
leaned over and picked up the forgotten newspaper clipping and
turned it facing away from her. "And the ghost's this college
student?"
"I think it's the college student in the paper. And I'm
not doing the ritual, you guys are.”
A startled look crossed Sam's face. "Us? Why not you? How do you
know about all this stuff, Tiffany?"
"Because it's not my room that's being haunted." Tiffany scooped
the book out of Sam's hand, reading the page like a set of
ingredients. At each item, she identified, she placed it in its
designated spot. "Four candles, one for each corner, one stick
of incense inside brass bowl..."
Sam followed the directions, shifting one candle at Tiffany's
request when it wasn't far enough into the correct corner for
her tastes, laying matches next to the brass bowl in the center
of the circle, pushing the beds and desks out of the way so the
center of the room was clear, until the three of them stood
surrounded by flickering light and a circle of pale chalk.
"Now what?"
"We all get inside the circle. You say the words of the
banishment," said Tiffany. “Rebecca, you sit here and follow
along with Sam.”
Rebecca stepped over the circle threshold and sat down. "I feel
like I'm in a cheesy B Movie."
Tiffany chuckled and took her place opposite Rebecca. She handed
the book to Sam. "If we do this wrong, we may die like we’re in
one."
Sam paced around just inside the edge of the circle, reading
aloud from the book in her hands. Rebecca mirrored her words
from her seated position.
"I call upon the energies of Eve, to protect this circle,
I call upon Eve,
I waken these energies unto me."
She paused, glanced at the other two. "I feel so silly. And are
we talking about Eve-Eve? The first woman Eve?"
"Chant now. Ask questions later," said Tiffany.
Rebecca waved the incense around the newspaper clipping. After
repeating the chant a few more times, Rebecca’s eyes widened and
she looked nervously around.
"Do you feel that?" Rebecca asked.
"I call upon eve, I waken these energies unto me," Sam
repeated, then- "Woah."
Sam certainly felt something. Gasping a bit, heart pounding, she
continued the next part of the chant. "Witness now that I
call forth the spirit that hides. Show yourself to us."
She repeated the phrase twice more, louder each time, until
suddenly a burst of flame sprouted on the other side of the
circle expanding until it slammed up against the circle and rose
up to swallow it whole. Sam shrieked and fell back, nearly
tripping over her own feet. She blinked up at Tiffany, who'd
caught and held her effortlessly. If Tiffany hadn’t been there,
she’d have fallen into the flames.
"Thanks."
Tiffany smiled at her.
The circle shimmered, but didn’t break against the fire outside.
Faintly, through the roar of the flames, though even those were
a bit muffled from inside the circle, Sam could hear fire
alarms. She winced at the thought of everything in the room,
outside the circle.
Sam read and power came to her.
Tiffany bent her head and whispered into Sam's ear. "Quickly.
Summon the magic and cast the ghost away."
Gasping, Sam pushed words out past the influx of power.
"We cast thee away from this world. We renounce you and sever
your bonds. Depart from this place, never to return.
By all powers that are One Power
May the great sisters of karma now weave anew
And separate it from you
As I will, so mote it be!"
And the power left her to do her bidding. It ripped through the
fire and sent it away, along with the spirit. Sam could hear the
spirit screaming in her head as its grasp on this world weakened
and snapped. Then, the room fell into silence. The flames
vanished. Sam leaned against Tiffany, panting. The circle was
once again nothing more than chalk.