Devin Greigh: Testimony
Chapter 12

Two more hours into psychokinesis training and I managed to not only lift the can, but to hold the can in place. The short delay in which the can was lifted as opposed to my physical motion was more accurate, and I was able to lift the can without having to pose my hand as if I was actually holding it; my hand was more like a wand as Cas had insisted, rather than a grabbing claw from a children’s amusement complex. When Cas saw that I could easily grab the can with my powers, she called it a day. “Remember our expenditure cap,” she warned me. I was feeling a bit exhausted, and I had a slight migraine from the hours of training. On top of that, I was extremely and unavoidably…starving.

Before we got home, we had helped a few waywards cross over. It had been awhile since I had spoken to any that were already passive. I had realized that the children playing in the sandpit earlier weren’t actually alive; they were three friends who had passed away going on a field trip to Ellis Island about a year ago; a vehicle cut them off while one of their parents drove them, causing them to run directly into a divider. It was also my first time actually watching Casrial classify a wayward. It was very interesting; normally I had to usually touch the wayward in order to help classify them, but Casrial did it without even being within arm’s length of them. And the way she spoke to them were as though they were alive—it was almost motherly. When we were done crossing the three children over, we headed home.

“How do you do that?” I asked. “Help them cross over just by talking to them?”

“It’s a gift,” she simply answered.

As we walked back to Devin’s house, I noticed that the day was pretty nice; for once the thick, ominous clouds that normally loomed over the neighborhood did not blacken the streets. The leaves blanketed the cobblestoned streets and sidewalks in red, orange, brown, and yellow colors. The winds were not annoying cold; they were barely cooling, but frequent enough to warrant the hood of my sweater covering my head to prevent my hair from dancing chaotically to its implacable turbulence. The environment had a very mild color-saturated atmosphere; everything except the trees seemed to look as gray as stone, adding more of an archaic look to the already antiquated style of Devin’s neighborhood. Cas and I both commented on the scenery, saying how we felt like we time-warped back to the 1940’s.

By the time we got home, my stomach was going insane. Anna had ordered Greek, Aaron had ordered Chinese, and Shaun had Mr. Goldstein order pizza. Othello and Tess both showed up later with a massive six-foot sub. The kitchen then looked like the food court at the mall; every type of food venue you could think of.

“Why the variety?” I asked.

“You’re going to realize in a few minutes,” Casrial started, “that you’re going to replace yourself with a larger appetite than usual from now on.”

“Am I going to finally stop looking like I’m suffering from malnutrition?” I joked…partially.

“You don’t look like you’re malnourished,” Casrial replied, “but you’ll start to look more defined since using your powers overworks your metabolism, and every fiber of your body. The variety will help your appetite decide what it needs instead of what you want…I could imagine you wanting everything in the kitchen right now!”

“Yeah,” I said, rubbing my stomach. I happened to notice the hard muscles defining my abdominal region, and my oddly large outie-belly button that everyone normally thought was cute—I didn’t—and felt the rumbling in my stomach grow unstable. My stomach was awakening as a once slumbering giant, ready to devour an entire village. Cas noticed it, and decided to poke fun of me one last time. “Go eat something so you would stop looking so malnourished!” Cas winked, and I shook my head. My stomach rumbled more violently, and I immediately headed to the nearest spread of food.

The six-foot sub was only a half of a foot by the time I was fully satisfied; it was almost like my body was incinerating the food instead of digesting it. After eating the first two feet of the sub, I felt nothing going into my stomach. At first I thought I had a tapeworm or two, like parasites mooching off of the food being shoveled into my body.

“For awhile, your spirit will burn everything you eat,” Casrial explained, “so you’re kind of eating for two. When you start to feel full that means your spirit energy is good again.”

After eating, I fell right to sleep. I didn’t switch into anything comfortable; my body did not allow me enough time to do so. When I woke up, Devin was hovering over me.

“You mumble in your sleep,” he teased.

“Are you usually this creepy?” I asked.

“Usually,” he started, “I would take a marker, and draw obscene pictures on the face of the person who’s the heaviest sleeper. But you move around too much, so all I was able to muster was a line running across your forehead.”

“You’re kidding!” I laughed while rubbing my forehead.

I checked the mirror, and sure enough, there was a black streak etched across my forehead. I moistened my fingers with my saliva, wiped the black ink from my head, and then turned to Devin, giving him a miserable excuse for a look of vexation. It was at that point when I noticed that Devin was not wearing his usual hooded sweater; he wore a white t-shirt with random black clipart of guitars, skulls, stars, to name a few—I liked it. His hair was wild and shorter than I had remembered it, but the bangs were still low to his eyes, and he had brushed them away so he could see more clearly. On his left wrist he wore a black-leather bangle with metal studs just around the center of it. He stared at me with his glowing-blue eyes and smirked.

“I thought it was an improvement,” he teased.

I let a little laugh escape my lips, and I shook my head at Devin before saying, “Is this what I’ll have to expect every time I’m at your house?”

“That was just a parlor trick,” Devin bragged. “Expect more embarrassing stuff in the future.”

He smirked, lifting himself up off of the bed. He slowly rose with his black cane, and I noticed the silver patterns beveling down the neck of it; the patterns looked almost like a foreign writing spiraling down his cane. The cane itself looked very admiring; the chrome, floral-decorated handle was designed like the handle of a gun, and the neck of the cane looked like the barrel of a rifle. I wondered to myself if the cane actually projected live rounds of ammunition, and giggled to myself. I returned to looking at the strange markings decorating the ‘barrel’ of the cane, and then glanced at Devin.

“What are those weird patterns on your cane?” I asked.

Devin swung his cane up, twirling it like a baton until he caught it in the middle to examine the patterns of interest.

“This is Japanese,” Devin explained. “It means, ‘He who walks the path of righteousness.’”

“He who walks the path of righteousness?” I asked.

Devin smirked and replied, “Pretty much.”

“So, there’s nothing significance there?” I teased, “just, ’He who walks the path of righteousness…?’”

“Or ‘he who walks the righteous path,’” he replied, “either way, I like the way the writing looks…it makes me look cool in the eyes of mainstream media.”

I started to see through his distant persona; he stared at his cane in admiration, as though his cane was a part of him. In a way, that’s exactly what it was—a part of him. It was his leg, his crutch, his defense and his offense. Without his cane, it would probably have felt like Devin had both of his legs severed from underneath him.

“Well if that’s what it I could replace significance in the quote,” I declared. “No matter what the path may be, whether road of stone, sand, water or even the clouds…Or roads paved with gold or roads paved with brimstone…and no matter where the path will take you, with your soul, you will walk it…righteously.”

I smiled proudly as I walked over to Devin; he was looking at me with an almost reserved expression masked over his face. I reached up, standing on the tips of my toes, and ruffled his hair; he scrunched his face as I did. I could feel Devin’s aura surrounding me, and I closed my eyes and then sighed from the comforting feeling it gave me. I looked at him after the heels of my feet finally returned to the cold floor, and smiled again.

“Is there any food left?” I asked.

“Just the Greek food,” Devin responded.

I spent the rest of the night with Aaron, Kate, Othello, and Shaun, who usually spent most of his time being trained by Devin. Shaun looked up to Devin as if Devin was his older brother, or his favorite super hero. Shaun was only twelve, but sounded so mature for his age…and he occasionally tried putting the moves on me, or tried impressing me whenever he could; it was way too cute, especially with Shaun’s dimples whenever he smiled. When Shaun wasn’t trying to put the moves on me, he was as adorable as a little brother would be. Shaun told me a few things about waywards and gheists that were rather interesting.

“Smilies never interact with each other unless they all died together, and had a connection with one another,” he explained, “for instance, if they were all siblings or really close friends. Stitches normally travel in groups, though they don’t work together; they all just follow the same target.”

Shaun had his own way of labeling the wayward wraiths; the smilies were the passive waywards, and the stitches were the gheists. Devin had taught Shaun more about wraiths and waywards than I had known already.

“How do you guys know so much about these things?” I asked him.

“The oldest teach the newest,” Shaun explained. “Somebody taught Alexander, Alexander taught Devin, Anna and Cassie, And Devin, Anna and Cassie are now teaching us!” Shaun told me how Mr. Goldstein, Devin, Anna, and Cas were considered the mentors of the family; Mr. Goldstein and Anna taught Othello, Devin taught the new agents, like Shaun and Aaron, and Cas taught the new mediums like me and Tess. They were very efficient, but fun…according to Shaun. This was when I realized I had a lot more questions to ask Cas in the morning.

The Sunday morning came quick, and I woke up to a breezy day. The window in my current room was open halfway, letting a chilly, but autumn-smelling breeze blow in. I woke up with the usual goose bumps, and noticed two things; one was that the sun wasn’t out yet—it still looked like the evening. The second thing was that I had an audience.

Devin was at my usual bedside, alongside Cas, Shaun, and Aaron. They had all appeared to look prepared for the day, and all of them were decked out in hooded attire. The golden light from the antique night light on the end table next to my bed illuminated the room as though it was a summer sun piercing the blinds of my windows.

“What time is it?” I murmured, rubbing my eyes to adjust my vision.

“Time for you to get up,” Cas answered in her usual singing voice.

“We’re all going today,” Devin added, “We wanna see how much you suck so far.”

“In other words,” Aaron stepped in, nudging Devin aside, “it is a quarter till four in the morning; it is the time of the week when the entire family trains for the majority of the day. Today is special indeed because we will be blessed with seeing what fruits Casrial’s tutelage has developed upon you.”

I nodded my head wearily, still tired after waking up so early in the morning; it was almost like those television shows about boot camp, where everyone had to wake up at precisely oh-six-hundred hours just to jog around the training grounds.

It took me about fifteen minutes to gain control of my motor skills, but my awareness was still completely shot beyond belief; I felt like a zombie shuffling out of Devin’s house and out on the street. It was Casrial’s voice beckoning me to get in the van that made me realize we weren’t walking to the park like the last couple of days. Through my tired vision, I noticed a sleek-black sport utility minivan parked right in front of Devin’s house; it was literally right behind me as I spun around to the sound of Cas’ voice. With a protesting growl and scoff, I waddled sluggishly over to the black van and then hopped inside.

The ride was slow and quiet for the most part, and I was definitely not awake for most of the trip. The only portion of the ride I could vaguely recall was that Shaun was fast asleep and leaning up against Devin’s shoulder, and my head was buried against Devin’s other shoulder.

“I feel like a babysitter,” Devin scoffed as he looked over to me and added, “I hope you don’t drool either…”

“As I could recall,” I replied, “I drool by the gallon…”

I felt myself fashion a lazy smile on my tired face, and then Devin adjusted his arm to drape over the headrest just behind my head. I took that opportunity—albeit not by choice—to lean in just under Devin’s arm and rested my head against his chest. My eyes closed, and I hummed a comforting sigh, and then everything else faded quickly to black.

“Liar,” I finally heard Devin’s voice chime in my ears as though he had used astral communication.

“What…?” I mumbled as I awoke again from sleep. I noticed that the van had stopped, and the sky was showing a little bit of morning blue.

“You said you drool by the gallons,” Devin teased. “You barely left a drop.” I looked up at Devin with a raised eyebrow and asked, “Well would you have rather bathed in the aftermath of my salivation?” Devin grimaced at the thought; the reaction that I hoped for. I gave him a smile, rolled out of the seat like a capsized barrel, and slithered slothfully out of the van to follow the others.

The chilling breeze crept up along my arms and back, making me shiver uncontrollably. My eyes widened, and suddenly I felt more awake than I was ten minutes ago. With my newfound alertness, I let my eyes scan the environment. We were on a dirt path, and just behind us was the black van from which we had arrived in; the headlights were still on, and the beams lit the path ahead of us. Devin and Shaun were just exiting the van; Devin had on his traditional black-hooded sweater with a leather biker jacket over it. Shaun also had a hooded sweater on, but it looked much thinner than Devin’s. The lights of the van were still on—Mr. Goldstein was still sitting in the driver’s seat. I turned around again, facing the dirt path we were walking on.

“Where are we?” I asked with a yawn.

“Larkview Park Reservation,” Casrial answered, “where we go to train.”

“Yeah,” Tess added, “nobody comes here anymore, especially not during this time of day.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Urban legends,” Anna answered.

“Apparently people went missing,” Aaron jumped in, “and eventually, the only thing left were bones and scattered teeth.”

“Like the Blair Witch?” I asked, nearly gasping as though I was suffocating.

“Only there wasn’t any video camera to record the tragedies,” Casrial said with a smile.

“Creepy!” I answered, second-guessing about venturing any further into what appeared to be nothing but an ocean of blackness. I swallowed a lump that grew in my throat; mustered up what little courage I had left, and proceeded down the steps leading to the Larkview forest.

Aside from the dirt path, there was nothing but trees and other foliage as I had pictured, and as we ventured deeper into the woodland area, it grew darker, until it was almost pitch black. “Remember what we’ve learned Evvy,” Casrial called out to me. I nodded, although I doubt Cas was able to see me, and I replied by asking, “Solace state, right?”

“Right,” Cas answered back, and I could tell from the sounds of slight rhythmic thumping of heels against the earthy terrain that Cas was skipping ahead; she must have been excited about today. We walked pass old, weathered wooden sign posts when everything became too dark to see. I closed my eyes, and channeled my aura. I felt the warming essence overtake my body, and the filling of black fluid coating my eyes. When I opened them, I could see every tree, every blade of grass, and every person ahead of me; it looked like the middle of the day, only with a slate-gray monotone overlay. I looked over to the old signposts, noting strangely that the fading words on the signposts read:

CAUTION: Endangered Wildlife Ahead

We finally stopped in the middle of the forest. The cold air was thick, and I could tell that a heavy, dense fog was now surrounding us. Casrial prompted me to reserve my spiritual energy, and I abided by her wishes. As the black ectoplasm washed away from my eyes and down my cheeks, I was able to make out the surroundings better; the morning was also creeping up from over the naked autumn trees, and the sky was more blue than earlier. I looked around, and noticed that the fog was indeed heavy; it was just above my chest. The fog scared me because I thought that anything could be slithering, crawling, or lurking underneath; it was like a dead pool teeming with supernatural predators. Casrial giggled as she looked at me, which was a sign that she was connected to my aura, listening in on my every thought. I scoffed as my body swirled the heavy fog as I walked through it. I stepped on something that had snapped under the weight of my foot, and I jumped suddenly, letting out a piercing shriek.

“It’s just a twig, Evvy,” Cas ensured me, “it won’t hurt ya.”

“I don’t know about that, Cas,” I heard Devin say as he shuffled next to me. “

That could have been bones left over from victims of the dead pool teeming with supernatural predators.”

I muffled another shriek, and then scolded Devin by saying, “Don’t even joke about that!” Devin snickered to himself and shuffled past me. Shaun stopped, gave me a gentle shoulder nudge and then reassuringly said, “Don’t worry Evvy…If anything goes down, I got your back!”

“Thanks, Shaun,” I replied with a smile. He gave me a wink, and then caught up with Devin.

I was so tired before, that I did not notice that everybody except Mr. Goldstein was accounted for; Tess and Othello were together, Anna and Aaron were both with Cas, who was leading the troop, and then there were Devin, Shaun, Nichelle, and myself. Everyone wore hooded sweaters, all black except for Tess’; hers was a prune color with pink swirls and vines, although when she walked under darker regions of the woods, her sweater looked just as black as the hooded sweater that I had on; the bought at the mall with Cas.

“Is it a coincidence that we are all wearing hoods?” I asked.

“It’s for absorption,” Nichelle explicated, and then Aaron added, “Our auras will radiate, attracting various types of dangerous gheists…keeping ourselves concealed with hoods helps keep us from being overwhelmed by gheist hordes.

“Oh,” I said quietly, “then it’s a good thing I decided to bring mine.”

“We would have given you one anyway,” Anna replied. “There would be no way for us to go out here with your aura exposed…”

“Hence the huge shopping spree…?” I accused Cas.

“Well,” Cas started, “that, and I wanted to hang with you beforehand.”

Her answer made me smile. It was a good feeling knowing that Cas was not just being my friend as an ulterior motive. I flipped my hood over my head—warmth suddenly surged throughout my body—and I looked around as we all stood in the heart of the woods. After awhile, Devin and Anna joined Cas as they turned to face us. Cas prompted everyone else to form a circle, and we immediately did so. Shaun and I stood at each other’s side, looking at our three mentors. Casrial returned the look with a smile.

“Okay,” Casrial started, “let me first explain for the newcomer of the family, Evenfleu…Welcome to our family. We are known as The Court. The Court is a family of clairvoyants assembled to do one thing: Protect the OLA. This will be the first time you have actually participated in our family training regimen…The reason being is simple; gheists inhabit this area. This is known as our save zone…Which is protected by the clearing that Alexander had performed. The gheists inhabiting this area aren’t your typical gheists; you will learn that every living thing has a wraith, and any wraith can go wayward and drift. The wildlife that dwell outside this safe spot, will also share the wilderness with the waywards and gheists of creatures that were once like them. Unlike human gheists, these particular gheists are powerful, and fast, and even more the vicious than the gheists you’re currently familiar with. It’s because of that reason that we trained you to learn the basics of your powers; even the smallest bit of knowledge of your powers will protect you in these woods. However, the deeper you venture into these woods, the more dangerous the gheist will become. With that said, we will be forming different types of teams: Evenfleu, Latessa, and Othello will join Anna and me, while Shaun, Nichelle, and Aaron will join Devin. You will be training with us until 7a.m., after which we will break you all up into other teams.”

The thrill of seeing these new types of gheists made my blood race through every vein in my body. I had no idea that gheists could derive from animals, although it did make sense since it has been considered that animals also have souls. However, the dangers of running into the gheist of a bear, for example, had me worried as well. At the same time, I knew that I would be under the protection of the more skilled clairvoyants like Cas, Anna, and Devin, and if all else failed I had the save point which I was standing in. I continued to ponder this as Devin looked on.

“Don’t worry,” he said in a tone lower than his usual baritone, “nothing is going to happen to you out here…We always have an eye out, so you’ll be fine.”

I wasn’t frightened, however; I was anxious…anxious to venture through the woods and test my skills out. I was able to lift an empty soda can with my mind, and I was aching to discover the possibilities…What else could I do with my mind? I cracked a smile at Devin, the fear now completely gone, and I tugged my hood a bit more. “I’m good,” I ensured him.

My heart was racing a bit, and I was excited to show off what I knew. I had struggled my first time, but something burning inside of me wanted greater results…I could barely control the feeling. Cas put her arm around my shoulder as we broke up into our respective groups—I assumed she had felt my anxiousness.

“You’re too anxious, Evvy,” she warned me. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I ensured her. “I’m just a bit excited…ready to train and show off my mad skills.”

Cas laughed, replied, “Remember not to overexert yourself while showing off those mad skills of yours!” and then skipped ahead of the others and me. Shaun nudged me again and asked me, “So are you ready, E?” I nudged him back and replied, “Are you ready??” Shaun looked at me half cross-eyed, but then said, “Sounds like someone’s pumped…I like that!”

He winked at me and said, “I’ll see ya in a few hours!” before joining his group. I hurried to my group, walking side by side with Tess. “Thanks for the shirt, by the way,” I sang to her; The green shirt she had given me when I had spent the first night at Devin’s house was comfortable, and was a brilliant color of green.

“Don’t worry about it, Ev,” she sang back with a smile. “It’s yours, if ya want. I have an extra one, plus I thought you would like it!”

“Are you kidding?” I replied. “That shirt is awesome! It seriously paints the perfect picture of my allegiance to geek hood!”

“Totally!” Tess crooned.

The medium and auditor teams came to a stop; Devin’s team was long gone into the opposite direction of the woods.

“We’re currently outside of the safe zone,” Cas warned us, “which means we will be taking precautions…Mediums ready your parasights.” I unzipped the compartment of Scarlett’s traveling case, and removed her from it. I pushed the power button, and the bulky SLR chimed, letting me know that she was powering on. I turned to look at Tess as she spun around a pink mini book bag travel case that she had strapped around her waist. She removed a pink and black-colored SLR—parasight—from her stylish traveling case, and powered her on; a musical chime played and her parasight powered on as she attached a color-matching lens.

“Does your parasight have a name too?” I asked.

“A name?” she asked, looking at me sideways. “What are these, pets now?”

I stuttered for a moment, but she stopped my wavering by laughing before saying, “I’m just playing with ya…Her name’s Monroe, after my grandmother.”

Tess told me about her grandmother Monroe and how she looked after Tess before she had suddenly passed away—no doubt from a gheist attack like the rest of us. I felt bad after listening to Tess’ story, and how she was trapped in the attic, listening to her grandmother fighting for the last moments of her life. It was the final sound of her grandmother hitting the wooden floor of their old ranch home that triggered Tess’ powers of creation.

“So what’s her name?” she suddenly asked me.

I looked at her for a moment, but noticed her attention geared towards my hands.

“Oh!” I laughed embarrassingly. “Her name’s Scarlett, after my favorite cousin.”

I told Tess about the tragedy, and the last moment I had seen my cousin Scarlett alive—confused, frightened and standing on both feet, too frozen to run away. I told her how I helped Scarlett cross over without even realizing how to do it, and she looked at me suddenly and asked, “You were able to see her with just a digital camera??”

“Well,” I explained, “not that well, in fact I saw her much easier with my eyes after I nearly blinded myself with the camera’s flash.”

“I can’t see waywards that well,” Tess admitted. “They are usually blurry or smudgy when I try to see them, but with Monroe here, I get a perfect glimpse every time! But normal digital cameras don’t usually work…you could only see a very faint ripple of distortion in the viewreplaceer of a digital camera…That’s how the average medium’s vision is before using their aura’s vision.” Tess raised Monroe to her eyes, and then took a picture. Casrial spun around, said, “No pictures yet please…?” and then smiled.

“Sorry,” Tess apologized. “Just getting Ev’s good side.” I laughed to myself, giving Tess a purse-lipped smile, and then affixed my own lens onto Scarlett. I held Scarlett up to my eyes, looking into the digital viewreplaceer, and scanned the area. The auditors, Anna and Othello, observed the perimeter of the woods; their pupils dilated, and the whites of their eyes illuminated from the normal whites of their eyes. Their auras burned, and I felt their presence as though we were all standing shoulder to shoulder. I could see their auras through Scarlett’s viewreplaceer; they were slightly-smoky apparitions overlapping their bodies, moving with about a tenth of a second delay than their own movement.

“There’s a level one area just ahead,” Anna suddenly said.

“An even better one if ya head a lil’ west,” Othello added.

Casrial nodded and replied, “Good job you guys!”

I raised my hand bashfully, as though I was the one kid in class everyone called the teacher’s pet because I knew all of the correct answers, and asked, “What’s a level one mean?”

Casrial turned to me and answered, “During paranormal investigations, we label the level of threat numerically from a scale of one to five. A level one threat means that the threat of gheists is close to nonexistent. A level five threat on the other hand—,”

Othello strutted slowly over to Casrial, draped his arm over her shoulder, and interrupted her by saying, “Means you’re gonna need the whole crew, baby!”

I nodded my head as Cas shrugged Othello’s arm off of her out of jest. It was clear to me that we were heading to a level one territory for a good reason; Shaun, Tess, and I were all novice-level clairvoyants, and the smaller the gheist threat the better. I thought about the three times I had a run-in with gheists. The first time was when I was younger; during Barry’s birthday party. The second time was the other week, at the old football field. The third time was last week, during Barry’s football game when I was attacked by Setzer. I had thought that it was an odd coincidence that all three run-ins sort of involved Barry…He must had thought I was schizophrenic—in fact, he actually did think I was rather loopy. I also thought about the important aspects of each run-in; each time they had attacked me, I felt paralyzed, felt a surge of electricity electrocuting me profusely, or felt like their very essence was trying to overwhelm me and take me over. I did not know what they wanted, but I knew that the next time they would come after me, I would be ready…ready to fight back…ready for the answers…ready for anything. I also knew that I would never want to feel that pain again, but if I had to, I would be ready to embrace it.

“What we’re going to do is work on a few exercises,” Casrial explained. “Othello, Anna will teach you how to utilize your other skills aside from tracking...you have a rare class, so Anna will bring you a little further into the woods. If it gets too dangerous, we will be there before you know it.

“Evenfleu and Latessa, I will be teaching you how to use your parasights, work on your subclasses, and then later we will venture a little deeper into the woods to replace some waywards so you can work on classification; the act of helping the waywards replace their way to the other side.” Casrial smiled, turned to Anna, and then we all broke the meeting like a football huddle. I enjoyed Casrial as my teacher; she was easy-going, but no-nonsense and quick-to-the-point, but always with a smile.

Soon after it was only Tess, Cas, and I as we ventured off away from Anna and Othello—he was flirting with her the entire time. Casrial stopped, removed Salvador from his traveling case, affixed a larger lens than mine and Tess’, and then powered him on.

“Okay,” Cas started, “as you two know, this lifeline here is what I like to call a Parasight…which is short for Paranormal Sighting Device…I already gave you guys the spiel about its original abbreviation, so I’ll spare you two the lecture on that.

“You two should know already, that your parasight is linked with your aura; your aura gives it power…your aura gives it life. In turn, your parasight gives you a visual connection with the other side. In the flipside, your parasight can also be your greatest weapon of defense where your other skills may fail. For instance, Evenfleu, you’re faced with a number of gheists…a horde as we call it…and you’re in close quarters. You could easily hold them at bay with your psychokinesis, but by doing so may exhaust your spirit’s energy. What would be your key to getting out of this situation?”

“I know!” I sang, “I take Scarlett out, and use her as my best choice of defense!”

“That’s right, but how?” she questioned.

“Crap,” I muttered…my mind literally drew a blank.

“Remember what I told you the other night,” Cas reminded me.

I tried to remember the first time we had gone to the park for our first training exercise. I remembered the soul-searching exercise, and counting the blades of grass. Nothing came to mind. But then I took steps back; before entering into the park, and before even arriving at the park. I remembered the walk we had to the park, and how she mentioned how Scarlett could be used as a weapon, and the exposure and flash settings that could be hazardous if remained set that way.

“Oh!” I blurted out—“High-density flash bulb, custom macro exposure settings…like if you wanted to take a high-detailed close up on a ladybug drinking dew drops off of a leaf, and rapid single shutter settings…though weaker than a single burst shot, it can cover a small area, and you won’t blow out the bulb!”

“Nice memory, Evenfleu!” Casrial congratulated me.

I smiled, and bowed my head slightly before saying, “Thank you!”

Casrial then turned to Tess, and continued, “Latessa, you’re outside on a hill, Othello tells you that the house up ahead is on the verge of a haunting. You use your astral sight, and notice that one lonely, but huge gheist is leaving traces of its residual energy all over. It’s only a matter of time until it attracts other gheists, and the only way for Othello to go in and perform a clearing is for you to weaken it enough to lessen it into a wayward. The hill is steep, and heading there by foot would waste too much time; your window of opportunity would be closed and more gheists would arrive, pitting you and Othello in danger…What do you do?”

Tess thought about it for only a second before answering, “The same exposure settings Ev explained, only with a three-hundred millimeter lens, a direct flash bulb, and set the shutter to single burst shots…if it doesn’t lessen it, the combination of the lens and the burst shot would capture the gheist, and Othello could project it after clearing the house and making it to a safe zone.”

“Awesome idea!” Cas sang. “Actually, capturing a gheist would be a lot safer than to risk damaging it.”

The way Tess answered the question left me in awe; it was precise, and her own twist. At that moment I could tell that Tess was serious about training…probably even more so than I was. I turned to Tess and complimented her. “Nice answer!” Cas sang.

“Now, what we will do now is practice using our parasights utilizing the different settings and accessories. Since we all know how to view the paranormal with our parasights, let’s just skip that juncture and move on to preparing our parasights for combating gheists.”

Casrial showed us how to set up our parasights for fighting off gheists. The extra flash bulbs and larger lens I had bought at the electronics store in the mall was no doubt preparations for today’s training regimen. With the newly-purchased attachments, Scarlett felt heavier than usual, and even bulkier once I extended the lens out to its maximum length; I felt that I should had purchased a tripod to go with these new accessories as well. The carrying strap that Scarlett was dressed with was definitely put to efficient use as I had left her hanging from my neck when not needing her. Tess’ parasight was equally larger than before, and she followed suit after she saw me swinging the carrying strap around my neck.

After we entered the right settings on our parasights, Cas brought us further into the woods, and that is when I began to feel the bitter cold of gheists. The air was thick—thicker than the dense layer of fog still lingering around our waists as we marched through the woods. The atmosphere made it hard for me to breathe normally. I started seeing puffs of air produced by my breathing as I exhaled, and I felt my ears flush with the red warmth of blood as my body heat began making an escape from the top of my head. I tugged the hood more, so that it nearly covered my eyes, and then shoved my white-knuckled fists into my sweater pockets—Tess saw my actions and then proceeded to follow my lead.

“It’s tough getting used to the cold,” Cas called out, moderately ahead of us with her hood down and prancing through the woods like a deer in a meadow, “but you both will quickly adjust to the atmosphere the more you encounter various levels of gheist activity.”

We made it to a small opening of the woods; it almost looked like a fork in the road. Cas stopped and turned around.

“There are gheists all around us,” she warned us, “but we are safe here for the time being. What we are going to work on is weakening gheists using rapid-shutter shots. Stay focused and parasights at the ready.”

I watched Cas draw Salvadore up to her line of sight, and scanned the perimeter. When I watched Tess follow Cas’ lead, I snapped out of the slight trance and followed suit. I started to hear the familiar dark tones of wailing, followed by other sounds…sounds of howling.

“What was that!?” I gasped.

“That’s the gheists we are going to classify,” Cas answered. “Now listen, from here on, I’m going to go through a real-time training exercise. First, we will fight off gheists with our parasights. Then, you will practice your subclass skills, against the weakened gheists, and then finally, we will work on classification. Get ready!”

As soon as Cas shouted the order, gusts of black and blue whisked past me in a blur; I heard the vicious snarl of a wild wolf as the black blur had passed me. I spun around quickly, attempting to catch the gheist in the viewreplaceer, but it was moving too fast. I felt another gust of freezing wind, and another black and blue blur streak past my face; I felt a cut open up just along my cheek. The warm blood trickled slowly down my face; I had no idea that these forms of gheists were able to inflict physical damage. Another gust of wind…and another cut, just along the side of my neck. I held my neck so suppress the profuse stinging and the mild amount of blood escaping from the scratch. I couldn’t just stand there like a sitting duck; I had to act. I felt the gheist’s advance once again, and I began slamming my finger on the shutter button of Scarlett, and a repeating flash of light emanated from the flash bulb. I felt the gheist’s advance again, hitting me square in the ribcage and knocking me to the ground. Another advance…more rapid shutter shots…Did I get it? I thought to myself. Another advance…I rolled to avoid it… Nope, I thought to myself again.

More frequent advances, and more blind shutter shots missing its target. I began to realize why I had never played those first-person shooting games with Barry—only once, and he had proceeded to beat me in a death match so bad I had actually ran upstairs to cry. After another advance and another failed attempt at successfully hitting my target with a shutter shot, I started to realize that this was not a game; my life was at stake, and I couldn’t just respawn once I was dead.

I needed to stop shooting blindly, and make a decisive hit on my mark. Another gust of wind flew straight towards me head on. I ducked, and felt the gheist fly past. I spun around to keep track of the blurs that kept advancing too swiftly for my eyes to follow, and took a blind shot. The flash lit a broad area from where I was standing, and I managed to catch the gheist off guard. I started to sense the gheist’s advance, and I prepared to dodge. All I saw was a black, smoky apparition, like a living black flame, rushing towards me. I strafed to the side, turning along the direction that the gheist was heading after it had missed its target. Lifting Scarlett up to my line of sight, I followed the trail of black and blue smoke as it made a U-turn a few meters ahead of me, and my eyes quickly dropped to the direction of the viewreplaceer; I caught the glimpse of a white wolf, tinted slightly with green from the night vision settings of the viewreplaceer. The wolf looked like a wild mustang, with smoke shooting from its nose as it snorted, and the large trail of smoke drifting from its rear as though it was a trail of dust from under its feet. The wolf gheist stared into me with fierce eyes, ready to attack. I had no idea how fast the wolf gheist would strike, but I kept my finger on the shutter button—the trigger to the rifle that was Scarlett—just in case I needed to act out on impulse if not given enough time to telegraph its attack. For a moment I lost track of the hunt; all I could think about was how beautiful the wolf looked in the viewreplaceer. I looked up ahead, and all I saw was black smoke. I looked back into the view replaceer, and saw a beautiful white wolf that I wished was mine. Suddenly my delusions of grandeur came to a shockingly—and nearly blindingly—realization that the wolf was now charging towards me swiftly.

My index finger instinctively slammed down on the shutter button, and a large flash of light, followed by the sound of the shutter ringing in my ears like a gunshot, emanated from Scarlett. I looked into the viewreplaceer quickly to notice that the wolf gheist was reeling backwards from the shot, and then—with a few moments of apologetic hesitation towards the wolf—repeatedly pushed down on the shutter button rapidly. All I saw was rapid flashes of light, and the roaring and screeches of the wolf gheist, until finally; a single but heart-stabbing yelp speared my eardrums, forcing me to stop shooting. I looked into the viewreplaceer, and I saw that the beautiful white wolf was limping towards me. I lowered Scarlett from my field of vision, and stared ahead.

The black smoke that used to be the only thing my eyes could see was now no longer visible. In its place, a single wolf, as snowy-white as the one I saw in the viewreplaceer, only with a tint of pale-blue. I let down my guard after I felt the feeling of safety radiating from the now passive wayward wolf. It stopped about a yard away from me, and dropped to the ground; I must have taken too many shots. I rushed over to the wolf’s side, despite its reluctance to allow me near it. From the distance, I heard the sounds of shutter shots in rapid succession coming from two different directions; Cas and Tess must have had their hands full with their own gheists. I used my astral sight to determine if there were any other gheists around, and attempted to draw closer to the wayward wolf…It growled for a moment, but I kept inching my hand closer to the side of its head until I felt the warmth of the wolf’s aura. The wolf snarled momentarily, but then it started to sniff my hand. This was my chance to classify it. I placed my hands gently against each side of the wolf’s head, and attempted to make a connection. I heard a strange humming sound, and then a sharp pain daggered the temples of my head. My eyes welled up with tears from the sudden sharp pain, and I was unable to draw my hands away from the wolf to clutch my head. The wolf’s eyes pierced into mine, and then I was suddenly taken into random flashes of the wolf’s final moments alive.

“Morning sun…pillars of light, contouring the leaves from our mother’s arms. New life from which I had brought to our mother…restless and young, full of spirit and jubilance. I watch over them with tired eyes, for rest is a luxury I need not now. Peace disrupted…unfamiliar skins and heartless souls seek the thirst for a hunt. The children of our mother must not perish. My old body will be free knowing my life has returned to our mother after protecting her children. Legs not rested tremble as I stand, the sounds of our mother’s leaves trampled, the uninvited grows near. I see the eyes, white as stone, teeth flat and skin smooth. Mixed advances towards our mother’s newborn. I must protect the future. Teeth clenched tight, and crimson red with rusted taste left satisfied…the wounded fled but one remains. A sound like thunder roared, a piercing into my old body, and I have fallen…Sounds of the uninvited fleeing. Our mother’s children are well. I feel their wet noses touch my hide, and I touch my nose to them one last time, until all is darkness.”

My hands pull away from the wolf’s head finally. A surge had gone through my skull—it was almost like a brain freeze. I felt as though a truck-load of information was shoved into each memory block of my brain. Everything about this wolf was mine; I knew that the wolf was a female, a mother of four, who was shot by four hunters over decades ago. She was shot in her abdomen by a musket, and she had bled profusely while protecting her young. The wolf mother even had a name…Neige.

“You’ve fought bravely to protect your cubs, Neige,” I murmured as I ran my fingers through the smoke-like tendrils of her translucent, pale-blue face.

Neige nuzzle the palm of my hand with her nose, snorting like a horse.

“At least now you can finally rest in peace as part of the earth as you’ve always wished,” I said softly.

But Neige rose to her feet as though she wasn’t injured at all, and shook herself as though she was drying herself off. She let out a deep howl as she threw her head up towards the sky, and then sprinted away.