Chapter 20: The old hag

Kilian’s babble: Next chapter is already finished so it will be here very soon. Aside from that am I the only one here who think that 24 hours isn’t enough in a day?

Chapter 20: The Old Hag

Angela and I ended up in a pub in a far corner that was badly lit and concealed by a green plant that had reached a monstrous size for its kind… whatever it was. Maybe plants can suffer from gigantism too. We were so well hidden that we had to call the waiter several times before we could finally enjoy a drink from the bar.

Enjoy… that is to say until Angela pushed her glass aside and, looking at me straight in the eyes, said, “Now is the time for some explanations, I think.”

Yay! Explanations, my least favourite part. I sighed deeply, gaining some time to wonder where to start and what I could let aside without her noticing.

“Okay,” I started, “so there’s this bunch of dudes I used to hang with; we were recruited by some strange guy to go on a treasure hunt. They needed my help because I can kind of see the past and they didn’t know how to open a gate to get to the treasure. The people employing us said we’d be paid after the job, but since they offered us the food and equipment during the travel it was okay.

“So we go there to the gate and they push us in some cave where you can’t make two steps without something falling on your head. We find the gate, open it, and bring back a gold casket and almost lost our lives in the process. When we were finally out, the dude and his two friends kindly explained, guns in hands, that we are to give them the treasure without protest and get lost. I used my powers to send them reeling and we were able to take control over the situation. We tied them and let them to fend for themselves. Back home with the casket, we were already dreaming of everything we could do with so much gold. But strangely enough the guy who was kind of the boss…”

“He the Sky person Chen mentioned?” she asked, cutting in. She was really becoming a bitch now…

“Yes, that was him. Can I finish?” She looked at me with those eyes of hers and I swallowed. “Well, he started acting a little odd and was always pushing back the selling of the casket. At first the others and I found it strange, but as time passed by everyone started to act…”

I trailed off as I searched for the right word but couldn’t find one. I shrugged in the common gesture for I don’t know. Back then, they had acted like they usually would only… not really. At first we were all wondering what was wrong with Sky and suddenly I was the only one left to think like that and everyone was giving me those strange calculating looks.

“Next thing I knew, my old friends tied me to a table and gave me in sacrifice to some ugly ghost who tried to suck my power out of me, or something like that. That’s when I accidentally killed Stan. I wanted to push him aside but instead I sent a ball of colourful light into the center of his body and limbs went every-which-way.

“An old lady helped me get into the place where Brian works, but the ghost found me and I had to leave. That’s the story.”

Angela had been listening assiduously the whole time. Now she was just looking at me like if she was trying to place a particularly difficult piece of a puzzle.

“Ghosts?” She stared at me. “Ghosts? The things ya see through and go boomp in da night?” She thought I was lying. She was making fun of me like I was telling her a story.

I was a little insulted that she didn’t believe me. “Yes, ghosts, or at least something intangible that holds the power to hurt others.”

“Bugiardo,” she said.

“Excuse me?”

“Liar. That be impossible.”

My mouth dropped open. “Oh, sure - says the girl whose hair turned from red to blond to red again in less than one minute!” I said, miffed. “May I add that either way you’re really not my type?”

She glared but took the time to ponder over my story again. A waiter carrying a tray with a small glass of amber liquid walked by and she stretched her foot out. The poor guy tripped over her outstretched leg and up went the glass, alcohol and all. She grabbed it easily and downed the contents before smashing the glass on the table. She sat back and put up a foot on the table and looked at me.

“Okay,” she said, “say that somethin’ ugly an’ powerful is after ya. Whatcha plannin’ ta do about it, hmm?”

I sighed. “I was planning to find out where the gang was hiding and see what would happen from there.”

Angela just looked at me. “Ya got nuttin, don’cha?”

I grinned at her. “Yes, that’s exactly it. Any piece of advice you would like to give?”

Her expression morphed into disbelief as her foot slipped off the table and thumped to the floor. “Caro dio, sto comunicando con idiota.”

I blinked. I really wish she didn’t start ranting like that. She leaned forward and almost growled. “Ya got nuttin in that peanut brain of yours? Did ya at least try ta talk to an exorcist or somethin’ like that?”

“Oh sure, let’s go all around screaming about ghosts, and while I’m at it I could even ask…” I was about to say that I could always go speak with the old hag but maybe it wasn’t that bad an idea.

Angela waited for me to sort out my thoughts but she soon got impatient. She waved her arms out in a gesture. "Ask who?"

I hesitated, still not sure about it. "There was someone with the guys who engaged us, so to say - an old woman always accompanied by at least one other man. I didn't like her… she was giving advice on advice on advice and was speaking of things I thought were stupid" - I grinned wryly - "Mainly of ghosts, monsters and the such. We tied her with the others when we escaped but I saw her recently. If anyone should know anything about this, then I'd bet my life on her."

I quickly set up a plan. I didn’t really think it would please Angela too much for I was sending her to the house in which Sky and the gang were hiding. I needed to know what the enemy was doing, but most of all I wanted to be able to filter the information she would receive and so I couldn’t bring her with me to go see the witch. I weighed my arguments with care and when the whole thing was clear in my mind, I ordered us a second drink... well, third for her. When the drinks were on the table and the waiter gone I waited until Angela had drunk half her glass to announce. “I have a plan.”

Three glasses later she was still holding her alcohol way to well for my taste, but it was easier to manipulate her and to convince her that I really needed to know if Sky was really where Chen had said and what the situation was there. Preparing myself mentally to pay for my treachery when she would regain her senses, I gave her the address of the house and we departed from the pub.

Finding the damned woman should have been easier than it actually proved to be.

Seriously, how hard is it to remember an old woman walking with a stick and always followed by a bodyguard? I would have asked for her name but the one she had given at the centre wasn’t the one she had given during the treasure hunt and so it was probable that both were just false names. Someone gave me an address to an old shop that sold esoteric stuff and I lost an entire hour going there. It was situated in the oldest part of the city where the buildings are protected by a law that keep people from simply demolishing them to build new ones. Instead, you have to ask for permission for any reparations you do and it is probably much more expensive than people usually think those old houses are worth.

Through the shop window I could see a mass of shelves covered in miscellaneous objects. It was very dark inside, which wasn’t surprising, since it was night time and all the shops were closed at this hour. The building held a second store which was almost certainly an apartment. The access was probably through the shop so whoever owned it lived upstairs. I searched for a name and found that the owner was named Irma Van Damm. Well, apparently she had truly given her real name for once.

I didn’t bother with the bell at all. Instead, I used my telekinetic powers on the lock on the door. A simple touch of the alarm and I could see thin, old fingers entering the code which I quickly repeated before the alarm rang and gave away my position. As I had thought, a door at the other side of the shop opened onto a staircase that led both downstairs and upstairs. Up the stairs was another door, the handle showed the same hand but this time it was wearing a ring. There was a voice also, like someone swearing and a ringing sound that reminded me of an old phone.

I let go of the handle quickly. The sounds stopped and I was once again alone in the dark. Taking a deep breath I put my hand back on the handle. The tip of my fingers didn't let me see anything, neither did the whole palm and so I exhaled in relief. Opening the door I made I prudent step inside the flat. The lights were off and there wasn't any noise.

Carefully I made a quick scan of the flat. The kitchen and sitting room were one single room, there was a big bathroom whose door had been left slightly open which left me with three closed doors. In my guessing, one of those was probably an office because there weren’t many books in the sitting room, and she had a full trunk of them when we were on the treasure hunt. Now that left me with her room and either a guest room or a room used by one of those big though guys who were always following her around.

Well it occurred to me that my guess had been wrong. I opened the door as silently as I could and came face to face with mister policeman, in pajamas instead of his uniform. I don’t think he recognized me but before I could verify he barked something that he managed to render incomprehensible to me. From the doors next to that one opened and out came two other guys, also built like tanks and looking too smug for this to have been a coincidence. They were on me before I could utter a word and tried really hard to capture me. On a normal guy it would have worked. In the current situation they just got burned against the energy I summoned around me. This new power proved to be very useful in the long run.

Now warned, the bad guys were staying a few steps away and were sending glances at each other, maybe in case one of them should be blessed with a plan. I decided it would be better not to let them and to set the peace.

“I’m looking for Miss Van Damm,” I said. “Any of you happen to know where I can find her?” I plastered on my most charming smile.

They didn’t really falter, but they did take a better look at me. Suddenly recognition dawned on the features of my friend the policeman.

“Go find mother.” He ordered to one of his brothers (they probably were though they didn’t really look alike). While the man put on a jacket and some shoes, Mr. Policeman made a prudent step aside, opening the path to the kitchen/sitting room. “Maybe we can go wait in a more comfortable fashion.” He proposed, suddenly the very image of politeness. I wondered if it was a good or bad omen but decided that as long as I didn’t drink anything I wasn’t risking much.

I preceded them in the sitting room area and chose an armchair conveniently placed back to a wall with the possibility to look both at the entrance and the whole room. While I did so, the brother I had never encountered before went to put water to boil while the policeman sat not too far from me. Aside from the sound of the tea set being prepared and the whistling of the kettle after the water was boiled, we stayed absolutely silent for the whole wait. It didn’t take more than ten minutes but it was still too long in my opinion.

Finally the door opened on the old hag and her son. She wasn’t even in the room but the two remaining guys were up and proposing chair and tea to her. In good order the old woman was accommodated and served and when this was done the three big men retreated to their rooms without her needing to tell them anything. I was simply amazed. The witch on the other hand didn’t even look pleased with her boys. Her gaze was locked on me like if she feared I would escape, which I was really starting to consider.

But now that I had the woman in front of me, thousands of questions were begging to be asked in my head. Still I took a moment to engage in a starring contest.

We still had to break eye contact when she started to speak. “I was expecting your arrival.” Her voice deceived her looks. It was smooth and gentle though she looked old and rough. “Though I hoped you would have come sooner...” -she grimaced- “… and that you wouldn’t make such a scene at the institute. Your education is really lacking.”

I frowned in disgust. “Yeah, sorry for that. Next time I’ll try to take some course on good manners between trying to survive in the streets and being attacked by a monster.” It didn’t make her laugh, go figure, but it made me feel a little better about yelling at someone. “Anyway, I think you and I have much to tell one another so let’s begin quickly. If you don’t mind I’ll start: What do you know about the casket we were to retrieve from those ruins?”

She smiled, either showing off a mouth full of dentures or pristine-conditioned white teeth. I couldn’t tell. “Oh I don’t think that this is going to work like this young man.” Did I mention it was a very unpleasant smile despite the pristine-ness?

I resisted the urge to strangle her and asked calmly, “How so then?”

She took a small sip of her tea, peering at me from above the edge of her cup. “First I want to know what happened after you left us tied in that awful forest and, more precisely, with the casket.”

It didn’t quite feel right but I told her the same thing I had told Angela. It didn’t get me the same reaction though. Where Angela had looked very distrustful the old woman seemed to get more and more excited by the second. When I finished she exclaimed something like “I knew it!” and bolted for a book on a nearby table. She began looking through it frantically until she found the part she was looking for. Then with a cry of triumph she shoved the book on my lap and stood there, waiting for my reaction.

The book looked old and felt old as I touched the wrinkled pages. It had to have been printed about fifty years ago. The page she had opened showed the picture of a man that reminded me vaguely of someone. The man was sixty, perhaps seventy years old, with a beard half hiding his face. His eyes were deeply set in their sockets and shaded by well furnished eyebrows. His appearance was probably nice but he didn’t look friendly. Under the picture was a name - Francis Heldebert - followed by a date of birth and a date of death.

The next page looked like a quote from a biography. It said that the man had been a man of science recognized by his peers until he shifted to magic and other silly subjects like the study of ghosts and sorcerers, which he claimed live amongst the normal people without anyone knowing of their terrible powers. By the end of his life he was labelled crazy after he killed a young woman and explained to the police that she was a sorcerer whose power he would use to become immortal. It was also said that his heirs had the bad surprise to find at the man’s death that even though he was thought very wealthy, all his possessions in gold and jewellery had disappeared leaving them with only a flat and a very old house in ruins somewhere on the outskirt of the city which had once been famous for its many secrets and hidden passages.

The following text was a comment on the first one, saying how Heldebert had been misjudged by his contemporaries, for he had truly discovered sorcerers and a way to use their energy to come back from the dead. The last line was a warning that whoever found his treasure would surely experience it first-hand. All in all, and being very suspicious in my mind, it stuck perfectly to what had happened so forth.

I finished reading and lifted my head to look at the old woman. “Are you trying to tell me that we woke up the ghost of this… Francis Heldbert?”

“Precisely!” she answered, looking very pleased with herself. I re-read what I had just went over.

“But how did we accomplish such a thing?”

That’s when I realised that this old woman was unstoppable when you pushed the right buttons. She exposed her theory the way a scientist would explain his latest discovery to an auditorium full of people.

“He must have discovered people like you, people with the ability to use psychic powers, and he used it to bind his soul to that casket. If someone touched it, his body would receive Francis Heldebert’s soul. If the human isn’t strong enough the invading soul would take control of the guest’s body.”

“What does he need me for then?”

She stopped abruptly to think. “Maybe the energy he used wasn’t enough and his soul can’t properly bind itself to the new body. After all, it was bound to an inanimate object for fifty years.”

I thought about it quickly. “So… if he doesn’t get energy he will have to leave Sky’s body?”

“That might be a possibility.” She was getting quite annoying now.

“What then?” I asked, more miffed than anything at her.

Enchanted by my interest she pursued. “Well, the casket has been his soul’s home for fifty years, it must have somehow adapted to him. He might try to get back to it.”

“And if the casket wasn’t a possibility?” I asked. “If it got destroyed, for example?”

“Oh… well, then I don’t think the question would pose itself.”

I almost felt my ears turn in her direction like those of a cat. “Why not?”

She didn’t notice the change in my tone. “Well, he can get the energy he needs and the casket won’t be of any use to him anymore. If he doesn’t, that means the casket is still the true possessor of his soul and as you know, when the containment of your soul disappears you die.”

I thought about this more a good, long moment. My eyes went back to the picture on the page in the book. “So if we destroy the casket before he can feed off energy and gather enough of it, his soul would just disappear?”

She frowned. “Most probably - it would also be a great loss for science.” Suddenly it clicked in her mind and she threw me a suspicious glare. “You’re not planning to do that are you?”

I smiled my evilest smile and turning my face from her I murmured, “Watch me.”

And before she could call for her sons I bound and gagged her with my power, before electrocuting her just enough so that she wouldn’t wake up for some time. Then I left the house very happy to finally have some clue as to how to get my life back under control.

Answers were such a good thing.

TO BE CONTINUED