AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That all men are created equal…”
A family scattered to the winds like seeds whose blooms were a resilience borne of grief. The chains. The iron masks. The teeth torn from mouths. The dogs set loose.
“That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.”
The crack of the whip.
“That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“Stop!” Memphis screamed.
When Memphis came to, he fell to his knees, crying in the middle of Wall Street. His blood itched beneath his skin like a rash he could never fully scratch. He had seen. He had felt. He knew. When he looked up into the faces of the ghosts, he remembered the wraith in the graveyard and the family at the table and his mother’s tearstained face lit by the jaundiced moonlight in the land of the dead.
“Tell our story. Do not forget us,” the ghosts whispered.
The people on the steps had grown impatient in their fear: “Why don’t you do something about this?” “Yeah! Make ’em go away!” “Kill them!” “Get rid of them!”
Memphis stood.
“Memphis, come on,” Sam urged. He reached for Memphis and Memphis shrugged him off.
“No.”
He turned to face the people cowering on the steps of the hotel. “No. These are our ghosts. They’re here. We’re gonna have to learn to live with them.”
“What’s he saying?” “He’s gone anarchist on us!” “I knew we couldn’t trust those Diviners!”
“They just want us to listen,” Memphis said to the others. “We’ve been trying to get rid of them instead of listening to what they need to say to us. Your uncle was right about that, Evie: We have to see them ghost by ghost.”
The people gathered in front of the hotel were still terrified, though. Terrified people were a threat. Ling had been right about that, Memphis knew.
“Look upon your sins,” the ghosts cried.
“What’s your name?” Memphis asked the ghost in front.
“My name?” The ghost turned his head toward the night sky as if it might be written there. “My name is Lost. For I was stolen. What is stolen, haunts.”
“They’re going to riot soon,” Ling said, casting a wary glance at the people on the steps and the police reloading.
“I need you to trust me on something,” Memphis said.
“Okay, pal,” Sam said. “You’re scaring me, but okay.”
“We’re with you.” Evie and Henry and Ling nodded. Theta took his hand.
“We will tell your story. You will not be forgotten. I wish you a peaceful rest,” Memphis said to the ghosts. He placed his hands against the chest of the leader. As they were joined, he saw birds against blue skies. He heard the laughter of children. And for just a moment, he saw his mother in her feathered cape lying under a stripped tree in that blighted land of shadow and yellow moonlight with Conor Flynn nestled close under her wing. She sat up, smiling through tears.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes. I believe in you, my son.”
Memphis let go.
“Healer,” the man whose name was Lost said. “He builds the new Eye from the ashes of the old. It will keep the door between worlds from closing ever again. It will allow the King of Crows to stay here forever. To sow chaos and division. Hate and terror. Until your dreams lay in tatters and you no longer recognize yourselves. You must not allow this to happen.”
The ghosts walked through the Diviners, fading bit by bit, until they were a part of the city itself.
“They’re gone,” Evie said.
