It was almost three in the morning on a freezing December night when Emma saw the ghost of the woman for the first time.
She hadn't been able to sleep, so she had stayed up watching TV until she began to get tired, but before that could happen, she saw her. She wasn't a vengeful spirit, Emma could tell, but she was confused about her presence here. Emma got to her feet immediately, reaching over to turn off the TV. "Spirit, what is your business here?" When addressing a lost spirit, it's better to revert to an older style of language, because it helps to ensure you don't somehow anger them, which has some extreme repercussions.
She turned slowly, then, to face Emma in the darkness. Her form flickered in the dim glow from the lamp. Emma couldn't make out her features, but she seemed to have no trouble realizing who Emma had to be.
Spirits can't actually speak to a person unless they're on the astral plane with them, but to mediums like Emma, they had ways of communicating via the small piece of the astral plane we shared.
Are you a medium? The feminine voice resonated in the back of Emma's skull.
"Yes," she confirmed. "Do you require my assistance?"
I do. She said. You are the first medium I have came across since my death. My name was Maeve Donovan. I need your help finding someone I knew in life. There is something he must know.
"Where does he reside?"
He lives in Virginia. In Quantico. Are you able to make the journey?
"I am."
And are you willing?
"Yes,"
Then shall we make an oath? Emma nodded once. Every once in a while, a spirit and a medium can make an oath, sort of like a contract overseen by Lady Fate herself. If the spirit broke the oath, they went to purgatory. If the medium broke the oath, they died.
"I swear to travel to meet with this person you speak of, and assist you in warning him of whatever it is you must warn him of. This is a mere gesture of kindness, and I request nothing in return for my efforts. Are these terms acceptable?"
Yes. Her form flickered again. I accept your terms.
"What do you mean, you're leaving?"
"A family member asked me to go somewhere to do something really important, sir," Emma said, once again, to her boss at the restaurant she worked at. "It's a personal matter, and I can't ignore it."
He sighed heavily, rubbing his hand down his face in exasperation. "This comes out of your paycheck, you know."
"I'm fully aware, sir." Grumbling the entire time, he filled out the form permitting her an unpaid vacation. Emma took the paper and stuffed it into her messenger bag before rushing back outside into the cold morning air and getting into her car, immediately turning the heater up to full blast.
She had already taken care of the transportation. While she couldn't afford a plane ticket on her own, she'd managed to convince her cousin to aid in funding the ticket. She was set to leave that morning at 10, so she planned to leave for the airport around seven. Currently, it was six fifteen. Emma pulled her car out of the restaurant's parking lot and started back towards her apartment to grab her suitcase.
Maeve wouldn't reappear until she arrived in Quantico. It's extremely difficult for spirits to take form in a moving vehicle, such as a plane or a car. The inconsistency of the vehicles' position makes it next to impossible to stay inside of one. Instead, Maeve had given her the address and number of an apartment building in Quantico, where the person she wanted to talk to lived.
Emma sighed as she pulled back into the parking lot of her apartment. "This ought to be fun..."