“Oneweek. What exactly do you mean, twenty years is the limit? And whatbarrier?” I asked, leaning forward. Gwen’s eyes were wide withfear.“We’llhave to act quickly, time isn’t on our side. I must delve straightin, I apologise for my bluntness. After twenty years of resting,building strength, learning about human life, the spirits are readyto come forward onto Earth from their other dwelling, from anotherdimension. No one knows why twenty years, some say it’s because ofa certain equinox in their dimension, others speculate that’s howlong they can last in their realm, a lifetime.”Igritted my jaw and stared her straight in the eyes. “What do wedo?”“Wehave to go to wherever it all began. Wait here.” She glidedupstairs gracefully.“Oh mygosh, Rick. This is serious. I... I don’t know what...” Gwen’seyes filled up. I hated seeing her like that, so upset. Especiallywhen I knew she was distressed because of me. “Iknow. At best I was hoping for some therapy sessions, at worst asacrifice.” I said, smiling feebly. She coughed laughter andchoked, and cried harder. After a few minutes, she calmed down andlooked intensely at me. “Ilove you, we’re going to be married and have a family. I’ll bewith you until the end and I’ll never let you be alone.”“Thankyou.” I kissed her, forgetting where we were until Esther walkedback in. She cleared her throat loudly and we parted, embarrassedlike teenagers. I noticed Esther held in her hands a map, and she satdown in the next room with it at the table and rolled it outproperly. Flowers almost filled the dining room and even under thecircumstances I couldn’t help but think that surely having flowersand pollen surrounding where she ate couldn’t be good for her, andin the summer bees and wasps would swarm. I swiped the banal thoughtfrom my mind before Gwen took my hand and we joined her at the table.
“I’vegot this map of the local area I use for historical predictions. Ifeel from your aura that you were born here. Am I correct?” shepointed to the city’s hospital.“Yes,completely correct.” I wasn’t too impressed; anyone could havegotten that information from Google.“Yousaid your parents aren’t with us anymore?” I nodded and chewedthe inside of my cheek. “Yes, but I can feel them around you. Theywatch over you, Rick. It’s a good sign; you’ll never be alone,even at your darkest hour when you think there’s no light left inthe world. Sally and Lawrence were there names?” I nodded. “I canfeel they died in a car accident quite recently. They didn’t leavethe world in the right way, they can’t quite move on yet. They’llbe with you for a while, but they’re together and happy.” For awhile, Esther didn’t say anything. She got out a creamy white stoneon a silver chain and swung it slightly over different parts of themap. After a few seconds, I realised something. “I’ve got thatexact pendulum. I can’t remember where from, but I have one too! Igot it for one of my birthdays and I’ve counted it a lucky charmever since.” I pulled out my wallet and slid the pendulum out. Esther smiled maternally.“It’smore than a lucky charm, dear.” She closed her eyes and puckeredher lips in concentration, so I didn’t dare ask what she meant.Eventually she opened her eyes, pointed and said resolutely, “Here.We need to go here.” To me,it just looked like a small, residential estate in the posh area ofthe city. “What is it?”
“It’swhere the demons first clung to you. Where they first got a smell ofyour blood, where they decided you were to be their next victim.”“Theirnext victim? It’s been twenty years, why haven’t they moved on?”I asked, flabbergasted and frustrated.“As Isaid, twenty years is a lifetime to them. Twenty years in our realmis probably only a few weeks to them.” She paused dramatically. “Weneed to go back to the old, ruined house there. It’s been abandonedalmost ever since you adopted these demons. It’s the only placethey’ll properly be rid of, but only if we do it properly. I’llhave to carry out the ritual, I’m the only one in the countryexperienced enough to know what to do.”“Howso?” Esther’s familiarity was really bugging me now.“I’vejust done it before, that’s all. It’s not every day you meetsomeone with demons surrounding them, clouding their aura.” Sheflashed her yellowing teeth at me in a gesture I understood was meantto be pleasant. Gwen looked at the clock and realised we were latefor a family meal, which seemed so unimportant under the currentcircumstances that I didn’t want to leave, but we said our goodbyesanyway and promised to be in touch as soon as the meal was over.Duringthe meal, while almost everyone but me got drunk I rang Esther fromthe men’s toilets. After my running away episode and the factdrinking made me more susceptible to their macabre advances, Irefused to touch a drop. So as everyone had a merry time, I thoughtabout my possible impending death in two weeks time. Even thinking ofthe word “death” made my guts churn, my brain hurt and my throattighten. Esther suggested the spirits were getting worse by theminute and she could feel the constant atmosphere around me was coldand full of hatred. I told her how isolated I felt, cut off from therest of the normal world and she paused in a thoughtful silence. Shetold me the ritual would take place the next Saturday, and she wouldneed a family member related by blood and someone else who I loved tobe present to help carry it out.
Later,I reluctantly asked Seb and Gwen to help but they agreedwholeheartedly, and my regret was deepened when I went back toEsther’s house and informed her of this. She told me I wouldn’tactually be required at the house, due to the extreme levels ofdanger of what was about to happen.“IfI’m placing my brother and fiancée in peril the least I can do isbe there, too! I’m not leaving them to pick up the pieces of myfragmented mental state!” I scowled, not angry at Esther but at thesituation.“Rick,my dear, you really don’t understand. Please listen to me when Isay it won’t just be you in danger if you decide to come. I can’tstop you, but I highly recommend you do not</I>come!”</I>Esther, even though she was so small, seemed to tower over me. Ialmost backed down, but then Gwen entered the room after going for aglass of water and seeing her bright green eyes gave me theconfidence I needed to say, “No, Esther. I’m sorry, but I’mgoing. That’s final.” Afteranother heated discussion, I was allowed to wait in the car outside.How I wish I had never visited that damned house in the first place.TheBeginning of the End“Rick,I don’t like this. What do I do? They’re getting worse!” Gwenstarted hyperventilating behind me. “Calm down, if they senseyour fear or any weaknesses they’ll play on that.” I tried tosound reassuring but even I could hear the shake in my voice. Istared at the iron candlestick and took in every detail so I wouldn’tlook away. It had what looked like a hand carved swirling pattern allover its thin, straight frame, with small smatterings of brightlycoloured stones. The glittering stones looked striking in this dull,dusty house and appeared to sparkle brightly in rebellion of theirunsightly habitat.
The roomwe were in was a dusty mess. The fireplace was a vintage, ornatemasterpiece that seemed to be wasted in the abandoned house. Thisparticular room smelt of a musky kind of smell although there didn’tseem to be any sign of animal invasion. There wasn’t even a cobwebto be seen, even though no one had lived here for over fifteen years.The surrounding area contained similarly grand houses and I wonderedwhy the building hadn’t been demolished to upkeep the posh estate’sgood reputation. It was a stain in the neighbourhood, an obviouslydecaying corpse in the midst of a family-friendly city. Driving up tothe house on either side of the winding road were small mansions withtheir perfectly groomed gardens and happy, flushed faced gnomeswaving us through. The sense of unease that built in the car as wegot closer clogged my lungs like smog and I could hardly breatheknowing what a dangerous task lay ahead. I didn’t know if anyonewould make it out alive. I hoped with all my heart if anyone woulddie it would be me and not Seb, my loyal brother and best friend orGwen my trusting and loving girlfriend or Esther, the selflesspsychic who had agreed to help knowing that if she didn’t, they</I>wouldtake everyone I loved before they took me too.Keepingmy eyes fixed on the candlestick, it became glaringly obvious that Ihad never been in such a risky situation. Working as one of theaccountants for a popular television network, I had been in toughcircumstances before where millions of pounds had ridden on mychoices and logic. Here, nothing mattered but my determination towin. The odds were low on us all coming out of this alive but I hadto win, or we would all die. If I let them in, we would never getout.“Staystrong Gwen, if you don’t concentrate properly none of us will getout of here.” Behind my back so she would see, I curled my thumband forefinger together and flicked my other three fingers out tomake an “okay” sign to her. I knew she’d be smiling, and whileshe giggled her throat caught, making a choking sound that I knew wasthe start of her tears. When we’d first started going out, she’dasked me how I was and I’d responded with the typical okay signknown by most people. But she had never seen such a thing before, andassumed I was swearing at her, like a smart fingers up. She almostdumped me before I had the chance to explain things, but since thenit only took for one of us to do the hand signal and we’d both bedevoured by fits of laughter.