AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They entered the wide space of Jackson Square, finding an empty bench not too far from a jazz band playing on the edge of the sidewalk. She nodded her head to the beat, leaning back to watch as people in the square perused the stretch of artwork along the large gate. Couples linked arm in arm as they examined the larger pieces and the sellers spoke of their craft. Children ran together to catch the street performers balancing and juggling their way to the front of the cathedral.
Mel huffed and sat down next to her, hoping no one would try to sit on him while she rested. There were other spirits around, their sharp and sunken eyes set on her. He knew she saw them too, and that she tried not to pay them too much attention.
“They shouldn’t stop you,” he said. His eyes concentrated on a particularly dark, but small spirit just at the other end of the square. It disappeared quickly when shadows shifted nearby without reason. “The ghosts, I mean. Don’t give them the power to dictate what you do.”
“Why do you think I moved here? I’ve been trying since I was a kid to control them— or this.” She pointed to her eyes with a sad sigh. “New Orleans is one of the most spiritual cities in the world. If I can find an answer anywhere, it would be here.”
He looked up at the sky, taking an extra minute to find something to say. “I think you’re lucky in an unlucky way.”
“Oh? Do tell.”
“You get to be something other than normal. Yeah, it’s scary, it’s terrifying, but you have a chance to make a difference in the world.”
“I grew up and understood the best I could do is keep running until I couldn’t see what was chasing me. To hide my knowledge of their existence when they turn to me. I can’t use this to help anyone. Not even the souls who ask for it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re helping me. I mean, you got me smiling again and they haven’t buried me yet.”
She shook off his comment. “How can you give a gift like this to someone who can’t even muster the courage to face what she sees? I want there to be more to it than just something that was passed down to me. I want to control it instead of the other way around. I want this gift to be worth it— worth everything I’ve been through, everything I’ve seen.Iwant to be worth it.”
There was a long pause as they sat on the bench together while the rest of the world passed them by. Even as he continued to watch the clouds shift and float above them, the tension in her body beside his let him know she was on constant alert. It had to be exhausting to never let your guard down like that.
“How many are there?” Mel suddenly asked.
“How many what?”
“Ghosts, spirits? Whatever you call them.” He shifted his gaze from the sky to her profile. Her nose had a delicate slope with the slightest upturn at the end that made him want to boop it. There was a slight downward curve to the edge of her lips, not a frown just designed by nature that gave her fuller bottom lip more of a pout. She had eyelashes most of the women he knew bought. He wondered if she really saw herself or just her shortcomings.
“There are hundreds at any given moment in any given town.”
“Just like you’re never more than a foot away from a spider, right?”
“If you want to think of it that way.”
“How many kinds?”
She frowned and turned to him. “Why so many questions?”
“I’m new to this dead thing and I’m sure I’ll learn as I go. Still, I don’t know about you, but I’d like to think I won’t stick around for too long.”
Her eyes flickered with sparks of gold as she stared at him, as if she was trying to figure him out. He liked to make people question what he would say or do next. But with Anastacia, even behind the stoic façade, he could sense the gears of her mind in constant motion. Part of him wanted to hand over whatever she wanted to know. The other part was flinging red flags everywhere like a bad bullfighter.
After a few seconds, she sighed, leaned back on the bench, and stared straight ahead.
“There are only a few different spirits I’ve encountered. Two types of them are human, the rest I try to filter into categories but they don’t always fit.” Anastacia glanced around the area without making it too obvious. “Ghosts are human souls bound in one way or another to Earth, or the physical realm. The age-old rumor of ‘unfinished business’ is very true. Most human spirits choose to stay behind because of a duty not finished before their death. Like protecting a historic landmark, trying to right a regret, or watching over family, making sure their life’s work lives on. When they have met their goal, they move on with no hesitation to wherever. For some, it could take days to achieve, others generations. You’re in this category since you won't rest until you find out the who and why of your death.”
“Got it. The other humans?”
“Dark or lost souls.” Her eyes flicked to the far side of the square to a short, portly man, nearly covered from head to toe in moving darkness so thick there was no way Anastacia could tell how he died. “They’re human souls like the others, but they aren’t here to ensure a legacy or protect anything. They fear what awaits them beyond life and want another chance. They turn away from their lights, their step into the next life. Instead, they hijack life from anyone dumb enough to give them a chance.”
“You said in the park, the one that tried to grab you wanted your life.”
“When you’re sensitive to spirit like I am, you’re easier to take over. A foot in the spirit realm and a foot in the living. They can take years from you, and even possess another living soul if the soul is weak enough. They’re drawn to those who can see them. The darkness consumes them from the inside out, pouring out from their cause of death until they're nothing but a moving mass of darkness. Until their time finally comes up and their run on the Earth is done.”
“Whatcha mean?”
“Watch him.”
Anastacia’s eyes hadn’t left the mass of moving darkness across from them. Along the fence, shadows darkened as a dark creature hopped between paintings and people from one shady spot to another. The dark soul, so distracted by Anastacia, didn’t see its destruction creep up on him.
