“You’re a ghost?” Falon asks with a look of utter shock on her face. There is a young girl standing in front of her, no more than fifteen, and she looks like a normal person, but Falon can see that the boundaries of the girl’s body are blurry like she doesn’t have a solid form.
“Who are you talking to?” Paul asks, looking at Falon curiously. They had traveled to rural Durham, North Carolina and arrived at the Consortium Zone: South building when they encountered an empty car and Falon started talking to the air like it was a person.
“I am. I was here with Wendy,” the spirit of the young girl, Stephanie, explains. “She’s trying to save Ivan and Clay from that place.”
Stephanie points at the building of the CZS and Falon looks at the building while Paul looks at her with concern on his face.
“Paul,” Falon says, never taking her eyes from the building. “There’s a ghost here, says she’s looking for the same guys you are.”
“Since when you see ghosts?” Paul asks.
Just then, Manuel and Adam get out of the back seat of Young’s car and wander over to stand near Falon and Paul. They both stare at the building angrily.
“You’re all here for the same thing,” Stephanie says to Falon. “You should meet Wendy.”
Stephanie approaches Falon who locks eyes on her sternly.
“What’s going on with her?” Manuel asks.
“Says it’s a ghost,” Paul says.
“It’s fucking ghosts too?” Manuel asks angrily. “This shit just keep getting weirder. Are they on our side, at least.”
Falon turns to the three men.
“Wendy is already fighting this fight and she ain’t doing too good. Wendy is a friend of Ivan and Clay too, she see ghosts, uses them to fight. It’s a man in there in charge because Dr. Worthington is gone. This man use ghosts too. He fighting Wendy and keeping her from her friends. Wendy resting now before she try to go at them again, but Paul. It don’t look good. Wendy know they want to use her for something Dr. Worthington set up. He wanted Yuri to help him with it, but when he didn’t come back, the other man did it on his own. They got monsters, and they’re sending them somewhere. They want to use your friends to lead them.”
“This shit again,” Manuel says. “Where’s the magician? We did it easy with him last time.”
“He’s in there too,” Adam says. “We can’t fight monsters without his help.”
“Wendy should be able to help,” Falon says. “She learned things from the man, she wrestled his soul out of his body. She sounds bad ass, I want to meet her.”
“Since when do you see ghosts?” Paul asks again, more animated this time. “You sure this is something we can trust? Maybe they got the technology to play with your mind.”
“Remember when we ran into each other at that restaurant in Knoxville?” Falon says. “I wasn’t myself, something was inside of me. Maybe it changed me. I’ve been different since. I trust her Paul. She says you can check the car, it’s Wendy’s. She left it here because of the fight.”
Paul is surprised that the door to the abandoned car is unlocked and he finds paperwork in the glove compartment.
“The name on this registration…” he starts before Falon cuts him off.
“Anesu Chimutengwende,” she says. “She uses Wendy cause it’s easier to pronounce. When will she be back?” Falon asks Stephanie.
“I’ll tell her to come fast,” Stephanie says. “She’s so worried because something will happen tomorrow and she’s afraid that after that, she won’t be able to help them. I’ll be back with her as fast as I can.”
Falon watches Stephanie fly away and then she looks to the three men who look at her curiously.
“This is some strange shit here,” she says shaking her head. “We wait for Wendy.”
The sun goes down as the four sit inside Paul’s car.
“Is it too dark to see a ghost?” Manuel asks from the backseat behind her. “Maybe she came back and you didn’t see her.”
“Funny,” Falon says from the front seat.
Paul sits next to her and he’s been trying to understand what is happening since they arrived.
“I just don’t get it,” Paul says from the driver’s seat, staring at the darkness through the windshield. “If you never saw ghosts before now, how can you be sure that you are now.”
“Tsuchigumo,” Falon says with her gaze out of the passenger’s side window.
“The spider that possessed you in Knoxville,” Paul says, “when you weren’t quite yourself, right?”
Falon looks at him with fury in her eyes. Paul found himself afraid of her anger like she was more dangerous than anyone he had ever encountered before, and it must have shown on his face because Falon looks suddenly shocked.
“I’m sorry,” Paul says, “I don’t mean to still be doubting you, but this is stranger than I thought it already was.”
“I can’t explain it neither,” Falon says gruffly, trying to control her frustration. “But I don’t know no other explanation. That spider whispered in my head and it made me strong enough to take charge of people. Clete and his dummies listened to me cause I helped them, but they wouldn’t normally take help from a woman, they sure they know everything they need to know. But since I had Tsuchigumo in my head, that changed and they listened to me. You’re listening to me. And that day we ran into each other was strange right? You know Tsuchigumo is real, she’s the only reason we moved in the dark like we did. If she did that, why can’t she let me see ghosts too?”
Paul nods silently.
“I think it’s gotta be more than that,” Adam says and it takes everyone by surprise because he had been sitting so quietly on the backseat next to Manuel. “You said Wendy doing the same thing we doing? Trying to free Ivan and Clay and whoever else they have there against their will? And if she see ghosts, maybe her ghost friends, like Stephanie, are trying to help her. Maybe that spider magic made it possible.”
Just as Adam finishes his thought, they all notice the winds pick up around the car and a dark figure descends in front of them. Paul turns on the headlights of the car and there is a young woman standing in front of them, staring curiously into the car.
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