Final chapter

Sally´s resurrection- When Osiris will let go a soul...he weeps the salt of the seas

Josh almost panic-fuelled grabbed for the pair of medical gloves, that he had stuffed in the pocket on the back side of his jeans. Never ever he would touch the corpse in this condition with bare hands. He stared on the bandages that were wrapped around the body, giving it the look of an old ancient Egyptian mummy. Where to start? Which end? He thought.

Aidan shot him a view, his face seemed to say; what do you hesitate, she won´t bite you!

Hesitatingly Josh grabbed for any part of the bandages and carefully started to unwrap at one corner. The old linen was thick and hard but it lacked of any balms or oils or resins, which the Egyptians would have mostly used for the preparation. When Josh hesitated, Aidan bent over to him, his voice low and a hiss;

"Don´t give the Mr. Monk in here, Josh! Once and for all! This is Sally and we will do that only once…"

"…in a while." Josh added unhappily.

Aidan answered his reply with a killing glance. "We either don´t have any time nor any use now for your freakin´ OCD…proof yourself a man and make yourself useful!" He saw that Josh was nervously dancing from one foot to the other, definitely feeling more than uncomfortable with the situation. "Waking up beside a broken deer´s body is no such problem for you, I guess!"

Josh gulped down a reply, his face went stone when Aidan handled him like this and he bit down hard on his teeth, tried to concentrate on his hands. More automatically than consciously his hands fit into the task. It was not unequal to unwrapping bandages from a patient in the hospital.

With Donna, Josh, Aidan and Henry working each one at his side, the heap of bandages on the ground was growing fast. The last layer went down what for they had to peel it carefully because this layer was soaking with liquids of which nobody wanted to know exactly what they had been before. Making the bandage sticking to the skin.

Josh gulped down a wave of nausea when the body was uncovered finally. The scent which emanated from it, wasn´t worse than before because the half rotten linen had kept back nothing of it.

In a mood of strange fascination Josh bent down. He tried not to inhale when his face was only inches away from Sally´s body. He crouched beside the bed and his eyes fixed onto one arm.

The structure of the skin made a strange pattern of a parchment surface with wrinkled lines and creases, folding and crossing each other. Never before Josh had perceived that fine hair was growing on Sally´s arms. The hair stood at end, now that the linen had been pulled off.

It gave Sally a strange semblance of life, which added to the fact that all of them had seen how her cheeks upholstered and her lips had slightly moved under the linen.

A cold shudder ran down Josh´s spine and he straightened himself up unintentionally, stepped back until he felt comfortable with it again.

Aidan looked over the corpse with the unnaturally pale and grayish skin color. The sight wasn´t unusual to him because it didn´t differ much from the sight of Suren when they had released her from her underground prison after eighty years.

"Okay. May we go on now…" Donna stated when she watched the corpse and found it to be within the conditions she had expected.

She stepped back into her position beside the head and grabbed the little bottle with her right hand while she spread the left hand over the body. Henry saw a bundle of slim wooden wands in her hand. Into them old symbols were engraved.

The ancient song began again and the air suddenly seemed to vibrate with a strange resonance. Henry and Aidan felt it stronger as a vibration than as a sound in their ears. There had to be very low frequencies, sounds and syllables. It was more like a humming deep within.

Was it a hallucination, created by the strange atmosphere, or was there a pale greenish light in the room that spread from one wall to the other, from the ground to the ceiling.

"O Osiris in the west, keeper of the gate of Amtuat, the land of the dead! Come to me! Come to me! I am your sister Isis! Arise, arise! Come on my word! Your name is heard now in every district. Thee call with me to the right time…!" Donna´s arm moved over the corpse, the bundle made a soft rustling noise. Like a whisper.

Her voice vibrated through the room, reverberated from the walls.

"Oh my Mother Nut, spread thyself over me, that thou mayest place me amongst the imperishable stars, which are in thee, and I die not again!"

Donna poured water in the half opened lips of the corpse.

Josh expected it to run down the cheeks. The dead don´t swallow, the less a ghost, an incorporeal being.

But he had seen here way too much tonight…

Like by magic the water disappeared into the mouth of Sally, only her Adams-apple didn´t move in difference to the living. Good targeting, Josh thought. He lifted his glance a bit to look over to Henry and Aidan who stood on their positions now like before.

"Rise up Sally, rise up as a perfect soul in the west, the land of the dead. Rise from Amtuat. The water of the Grand Mother Nile give thou life as the Grand Mother Nile giveth Akh to the Upper Egypt and the Lower Egypt from the beginning to the ending of time. O Osiris, keeper of the gate, Lord of the Ennead! Osiris Amenti! Let her cross over and give her Ba back to her Ka…! Ba from Amtuat! Come to her!" Donna spread sprinkles of water over the now naked corpse.

"I call upon Ba. I call upon Khu. I call upon Sekhem! Here is lying Sally, daughter of the Malik. Give her back her Sahu so Ba and Khu will have a house within her. Let her liveth and her Sekhem will thrive in the eternal shelter! You, O Osiris give her back to us and let her cross over from Amtuat for that…"

The Reaper was hovering in the immense hall of the Limbo. The Sally thing was wavering, flickering and he felt a force pull on the connection he held with her. A strong force that grew with the strength of a voice that came from anywhere...anywhere outside the Limbo. He growled with rage, shot forward.

His preternatural hearing spread around until it rested in the room he had entered by his mind before.

"Rise up Sally, rise up as the perfect soul in the west..."

...as the perfect soul...?!

...The perfect soul! SOUL! SOUL!

The Reaper screamed with rage. Anybody was to take what was HIS! HIS! This damn witch! She was about to steal what was his property! How could she dare this? Sally was HIS! HIS! HIS!

He shot forward and the cloud of red fog was splitting in front of him and it whirled around, mixing with the glowing red light behind him that seemed to fill the whole space.

He saw the witch who was performing the resurrection ritual and he saw Sally´s body lying on the bed. Her chest was lifting und lowering as if she was breathing but he knew it to be an illusion. The dead didn´t breathe.

The damn werewolf and these damn creatures who thrived from the living. To of them he had given a try before. But the vampire wasn´t weak enough despite the fact that he had been physically weakened, but the Sally-thing had protected him against his definite will. The other, this Josh-thing, half human half werewolf was protected by the witch.

One remaining target!

The Reaper turned his attention onto Aidan who stood at the end of the bed now, staring at Sally´s moving, but yet soulless body. Her soul was still in Limbo an what was lying there on the bed was only an empty shell, a vessel. Keeping her soul here in Limbo meant to make her nothing but a walking dead...a zombie.

The Reaper growled and let out a roaring laughter.

Aidan stared at the corpse. He had seen dead humans before. Men and women. Nothing uncommon. Sally looked less shriveled than before. Like the tissue around the bones had filled up with what couldn´t be water. Not with the minimal amount of liquid that Donna had poured into Sally´s mouth. But she had said something about the great Mother Nile. Water of life. Something like that.

Life.

Water of Life.

Like...like...

...blood.

The life force. Blood is life. Water is life. He had taken blood, had fed on it.

"Sally! You have to obey! You have to do as I will!" The Reaper shouted at the wavering thing, the shape that was Sally.

Donna bent over the corpse and waved with her hand, directing Josh to rise from the bedside, getting him out of his torpor.

"Stand up, Josh!" she whispered, her voice a commanding one, even when it was low. Josh shot upwards, his face a mixture of surprise and guilt. God, he behaved like a five year old terrified child. He tried to regain his composure to the outside, but inside he felt his heart beating wildly. He focused all his hope onto the very moment, when this was finished. When the ritual would be completed and a Sally, as they knew her, would be walking again among the living.

Josh watched over to Aidan.

Anything seemed to be wrong with his friend and this definitely had nothing to do with the fact that he himself had barely escaped from a final and fatal fate.

Aidan´s expression was that of an unnatural tension, his eyes bled black again and fixed onto the corpse that now was awakening to life again in a strange way.

The Reaper grinned, his face a mask of hatred when he watched the scenario in the bedroom. His hand was outstretched and the Sally-thing was flickering and wavering. Her face a mask of pain, her mouth opened in a silent scream when she desperately tried to escape from the grip that nailed her fixed behind an invisible wall.

"You won´t leave me, Sally! You´re nothing without me!"

"As you´re nothing without ME !" The thought went into his mind, sent by her when she was unable to scream it at him with her voice. "I. GO. NOW!"

"You won´t! You never ever will! You´re mine! MINE! MINE!" he screamed but Sally, as uncertain as her shape had become over the last few minutes, wasn´t willing to give up now.

Her friends had come for her and they were about to call her back, out of the Limbo!

She bucked and twitched, whirling her fingers through the air which were more like shrunken claws than fingers. The force of the Reaper was strong, but stronger was the voice that was calling for her. Called for her to come back home.

Where was Thot, the guiding and protecting god of the dead? The voice of Osiris was strong and fierce, even among the hellish noises that filled the immense hall like the red glowing from beneath.

The Reaper felt how Sally threatened to slip from him, pulled into the other world by the powerful voice of the witch. His last chance to regain control, to hold her captive here, was …

to break the chain.

A chain was to be broken by its weakest link.

His mind stretched and stretched until it reached the mind of this condemned vampire, the offspring of the old monster, named Aidan. He probed it but an invisible wall kept him locked off. The bastard had blocked the access to his mind.

The Reaper wondered how strong this former weakling was and time was running out for him. So he let go and switched over from the progeny to the base.

The thing that this bastard called his FATHER!

It was so easy now to get access to this damned creature. One of his worst enemies was open now like a book. Without effort the Reaper did melt his mind with Aidan´s and started to search for the point at which Aidan was at his weakest.

It took him only moments and he grinned devilish with excitement.

Aidan tensed and moaned when sudden dizziness swept over him. His head seemed to burst with glowing heat and unintentionally a groan escaped his lips. Then it was over as fast as it had come. He felt somewhat unsteady on his legs and his hand grabbed for a hold. He shook his head to get rid of the feeling but it was gone before he could define what it had been.

Aidan stared at the corpse…

The face was young and curly brown hair that was tied up to a waving mane, formed a long pony tail. The facial features were fine defined and the lips formed a full and curved line. Eyelids with long brown lashes opened over hazelnut brown eyes and the woman smiled. A tear appeared in the corner of her eye and her lips moved when she whispered a name.

"Aidan…" Her once strong and self confident voice now had become a whisper.

A cold shudder was running down his spine and he stared at the woman who was lying in front of him.

"Anne…"

His wife.

His voice nearly broke when the name escaped his lips. His voice sounded low and hoarse in his ears.

"Aidan! Help me…oh dear God, help me…!" She moved slightly, with her right hand extended, as grabbing for a hold. Aidan stood fixed, his heart beating wildly when he looked at his beloved wife.

He bent down to her, his hands grabbing for her shoulders, ignorant to her fearful groans. Her heartbeat was hammering in his ears, her blood was singing to him. The beating pulse under his fingertips was hard and wild, when her panic stricken heart pumped her very life force through her veins.

Blood.

A red cloud.

The world was blood. A red glow behind his eyes and her blood was singing to him, urging, commanding him to take what was his. The hunger roared with rural force in his mind, his veins and his intestines.

Take her!

Take what is yours! And tilt the pain in you that is longing for her since eternal ages. Since the day you met her for the first time.

The Reaper roared with joy when he felt the longing through Aidan and with an evil grim he decided to fire up the feeling. Intensifying it until Aidan was a helpless bundle of hunger in his claws and the wild animal within him roared and fought against the invisible bars of the cage that Aidan had once built up. The cage he once built up to protect him from giving in into the animal within. The bars which so rarely broke, to them he was holding so dearly.

Aidan growled deep in his throat, the hunger within him was merging with an unbearable longing for his wife.

He was mute to the voices behind and around him. There were voices crying for him to stop. He had gone so far, he won´t stop right now!

Aidan´s fingers clung to the shoulders of his wife. He growled and his fangs fell, his eyes bled black. His breath reflected from the bare skin at her throat when he pulled away the collar that she herself had made of lace. Anne was crying, her fists pressed into his chest in a desperate attempt to ward him off, to push him away from her. But she was so weak in relation to his preternatural vampire strength. Her heartbeat grew wild and irregular and her hazelnut brown eyes were widened with fear now. Her small fists with the slim delicate fingers began to pound against his chest.

His mouth moved nearer to her throat. The tips of his fangs scratched over the soft skin of her cleavage when his saliva traced a thin line upwards.

"You´re mine, Anne. You ever belonged to me and now for me it has come full circle, my beloved wife…" His voice was low and he felt her tremble with…what he took for anticipation. He licked over the delicate skin with the sweet taste of lavender, inhaling the scent that was so specifically hers.

The hunger roared within him and he wrapped the thick tail of her hair around his left hand, his right hand comforting the side of her throat before he gasped and then finally sank in his teeth.

He felt her tense under his hands, under his grip. Her body sank against him and he began to drink. Her desperate cries subsided to give space to mutual groans and his hand came down. His fingers clung to the seam of her long skirt, pulling it up until he reached her bare thigh under it.

The blood shot into his mouth, over his tongue in a hot red gush. Pumped upwards by her heart with growing speed. He sucked, gulped and swallowed the nectar that her body gave free. It was red and hot and sweet like Lethe. Her essential life force. The stuff he had been waiting for so long since he had spoken the marriage vows in the small church in Urban Boston, years ago.

His ears grew numb to her desperate voice and he gulped down what was running into his mouth. His lips red with blood, that ran down his cheeks in little rivulets. Soaked down into his collar and put a glistening and glowing red color onto the throat and the cleavage of his wife. She was melting against him, her growing weakness made her sink into his arms with fatal determination.

Her heartbeat drove him mad, the sweetness of her life essence that ran down his tongue, deep into his body.

Small fists were pounding against his back and from far he heard a child´s voice crying.

"Daddy! Please…what are you doing? Please…stop!"

Aidan turned his face from Anne´s throat, looking down onto the boy who desperately tried to stop him. Blood dripped from his lips and his tongue shot out, sucking up the red liquid with a sound like a feeding pig.

"Daddy! Oh please…what have you done?" The eyes of the boy who was his beloved son were widening when he saw the blood dripping from the lips of his father. Never ever before he had seen this, had him seen like this. The once loving expression was tilted from his face, the eyes were black orbs and terrible elongated canines were protruding under his upper lip that now was pulled back in a deadly grimace.

Aidan growled and whirled around, angry about the persistence of his son who dared to disturb his feeding now. The hunger roared within him with animalistic force and in less than a second he grabbed his son and dug his hands into the slim shoulders.

The lifeless body of his wife fell to the ground with the slowness and grace of a dancer.

He bit down hard and the cry of fear and surprise that came from the lips of his son reverberated from the walls. The slim body of his son twitched and trembled in his hands and his feet were dangling above the ground when Aidan pulled him up into his arms. He pulled him close as if he was cuddling with him like he had done when his son was out of breath once they had run along the fields.

Aidan drank without mind, captured in the hunger and the longing from deep within. The blood, the young blood of his son gushed down into his throat like the blood of his wife before.

The taste seemed to rob him of all his controls and when finally the body in his arms went droopy he gasped. The blood was vibrating through his whole body. Aidan threw his head back and roared with satisfaction. Hot and vivid the blood filled him from the scalp to the toes.

He felt sated and filled up to completion.

Heat was running through his entire body and he gasped until the feeling subsided and he came down from his height.

Inevitably the sense of delight was fading like moonlight disappearing behind a cloud. Aidan gulped and painfully and all out of sudden he became aware what he was doing here.

He stared at the bundle in his arms and then he pushed his hands forward, holding his boy´s shape in a distance now. Aidan stared into the eyes of his son that were still widened and now broken by death.

His hands opened, his son dropped to the ground with a thud and Aidan staggered back, staring at the bodies that were lying lifeless now on the raw planks of the porch.

He watched down onto his hands that were stained with blood and hectically he wiped over his mouth and chin, his whole body trembling in a mixture of his pounding heart and fear. Disgust was what he felt now and tears, hot and thick, ran down his cheeks. The bloody tears were mixing with the blood on his lips and his cheeks.

"No. NO! What have I done? WHAT have I DONE?" he screamed in disbelief, now that he was watching the unearthly scenario in front of his eyes and feet. He stumbled backwards across the porch, staring at his hands and his arms like at an unknown enemy.

"Nooo!" He screamed in disbelief about what he saw.

Had it been him who had done this?

Bishop smiled at him coldly.

Blinded by his own tears he sank down to his knees, crawling over the planks until he reached the body of his wife and his son. He could barely make out their bodies through the veil of bloody tears which were dripping out of his eyes. Screaming from inner pain he pulled them into his arms, rocking them, shaking them to get them back to life…

But they were dead.

Aidan stared at the corpse onto the bed. The limbs outstretched in a way only the semi-lifeless could.

"No! No! What…what have I done? What have I done?" he stuttered. His eyes were wide with fear, with disbelief and he didn´t notice that Josh, Henry and Donna looked at him in disbelief. He was numb to everything. Numb to the voices that called for him. Numb to the hands of Henry who grabbed for his elbows.

"Aidan! Aidan…what´s going on with you?" Henry fixed Aidan´s eyes, his hands resting on his lower arms and he tried to reach the man/vampire who had claimed him to be his son. The eyes were strangely empty and Aidan´s view seemed to go right through him, without even noticing him.

What the heck?

"Aidan!...AIDAN!" he tried it with more force in his voice.

"I…I have killed you! Oh my God, I have killed you…" Aidan mumbled like from far away.

"You did not kill me! You saved my life! More than once!" Henry urged but when he looked into Aidan´s eyes he realized that he as well could have talked to a wall instead.

What the heck was going on with Aidan? His father in vampire. The ever so strong and straight "Aidan?" He had trusted Aidan with his life irrespective what had happened all over the decades since that fatal day in the fields in 1918 France.

"AIDAN?"

There seemed to be voices around.

The people from the small town they lived in! They were coming for him. Coming to track him down and stake him and bury his ashes within the soil of Massachusetts. God! He had to run away!

Bloody tears were running down his face and he bent down over the corpses.

Bishop grabbed his arms and pulled him up but Aidan struggled to get rid of him.

"Lemme be!" he shouted but the evil grin of Bishop stayed and then his lights went out when anything crashed on his head.

Shaking, rumbling.

Aidan opened his eyes to narrow slits only to find out that he was all tied and lying in a horse drawn buggy.

"What the hell...where are we?", he cursed to the backside of Bishop´s head who sat on the driver´s seat. His face turned to him and his eyes were dark pools.

"What do you think where we are going to?"

"What did you do?" Aidan shouted at him. His head pounding like a crusher.

"We are going to Montreal! We can´t stay at Boston! What do you think? You killed your whole family. Or do you want to burn at the stake for it? But you´re an idiot! Maybe I should have let you there to be caught by the folks. You may deserve it!" Bishop grinned and turned back to the horses, his tongue making a sound to speed up the horses and they followed willingly.

The buggy rumpled over the lane and Aidan fell back into the foot area.

"Aidan?!" Josh barked at him. Anything was definitely wrong with his friend and he was not only afraid for him but for the progress of the ritual.

They had reached now a state of it when the scale pan could bend to one side as well as to the other.

And this damn Reaper was a still lingering danger in the background, lurking from behind, to get hold of the right moment to strike…

The Reaper roared with enjoyment when he felt that the damn vampire was like butter now in his hands. Only a few steps more and Sally´s soul would be his finally! Right at this moment , with a victory right in sight, he swept aside the fact that he had promised her soul to the Devourer of Souls. He focused onto this trembling heap of a damn bloodsucker, determined to make him his tool of vengeance.

And it was freaking easy now when he had found exactly the point at which Aidan was at his weakest.

Aidan stood motionless but for the trembling that was slightly shaking his figure. Josh was hesitating if he should leave his position aside the bed. But Donna was still moving into Aidan´s direction.

Aidan stared with blunt eyes at the surroundings, his body still in the bedroom, but his mind was far away. Decades. Centuries. But he was unable to tell anybody, caught into his terrifying memories.

The Reaper was wildly determined now to take advantage of it. He grabbed deeper into this mind that was an ocean of memories in relation to the dull and almost empty minds of some mortal individuals.

He felt guilt, deep guilt on him. And guilt was the key to break this bastard.

Aidan gasped. Donna put her hands onto his shoulders, her voice soft in the beginning, then, when it didn´t work on him, her voice became sharper, more intense.

He was holding tight to the dead body of his wife.

He had killed her! He had killed her and her blood was circulating through his body now! He had FED on HER! Her! His beloved wife and the mother of his beloved son, who was lying beside her now. Dead and silent.

Like her.

They were all dead.

And he had killed them all.

And one day one of them will let the cage open because you are their beloved one. And brutally and against your human will, you will kill them all…

OH MY GOD! He had KILLED them! He had given in the animal within him. Had fed the beast within him! He had feasted onto their precious blood like a ravaging animal. Like the predator he had stepped out of war into their peaceful lives. Had taken advantage of their trust into him, the once husband and once father to their family. He, whom they had trusted with their lives. He had fatally betrayed them all, had betrayed…himself when believing he could handle that without ever harming them… OH DEAR GOD! He had failed. Had failed in the eyes of the humankind and in the eyes of God. He was a sinner and never ever would have been forgiven him. Neither by God nor by the humans. And he had killed over and over again…

You murdered those two girls, those two human beings. Under our roof! This sacred place! Yes, he had desecrated their home, the very place they had been safe. Does it stop Aidan? When does it stop? I feel like I´m the only one trying anymore! Josh was about to break into tears and he had been the one to make him cry. Because of him and because of what he did. Like I´m dangling from a cliff by my fingertips and you´re up there stomping on them! Yes, he had stomped on those fingertips that were the only hold to a human life. A human life they both clung to so dearly. I know, I know! Oh my God, Josh! Those two girls…

He had fatally failed.

He was a dark soul. Dark as pitch black. Dark as hell. To burn into the fires of hell.

Unworthy.

Unworthy to perform the ritual.

A sinner wasn´t allowed being a part of the holy circle. Was to be ward off from the inner circle or he would condemn the rising soul down to hell when it would meet the evil force that came from him…

Aidan stumbled backwards, his hands grabbed for his temples and his face was a mask of sheer horror, reflecting his inner turmoil. He was at war with everything; the world around him and his inner self too.

His blackened eyes were widened and he stumbled backwards when Donna tried to follow him.

"Don´t! Don´t touch me! DON´T ever TOUCH ME! I´m a sinner! I´m evil! I´m the living guilt! Stay away from me!" he shouted, his voice trembling.

"Aidan! AIDAN…! You´re mad!" Josh shouted at him and tried to grab his arms but Aidan growled and with rural force pushed him back, so hard that Josh would have fallen on his back if not Henry´s arms caught him in the last moment. When Josh came back onto his feet, supported by Henry, they both stared at Aidan who was crouched now down to the ground.

His hands were pressed over his face and his shoulders were shaking. He was sobbing like a child and bloody tears were dripping down from under his fingers which turned red slowly.

"No blood spilt here! No blood spilt here!" Donna shouted.

Her voice pulled them out of their freezing numbness, everybody but Aidan who was crying, sobbing, his words almost inaudible under his hands.

The Reaper triumphed.

Blood was spilt and tears were shed. The vampire had left the circle, had left his position in the magic row and had made the others leaving the magic row.

The Reaper felt how the shape of Sally, that had been flickering, now was becoming more definitely again. That meant that the force of the ritual which was going to pull her soul out of Limbo, was weakening!

That damn witch would fail!

And he would keep Sally´s soul in here. It didn´t interest him to the slightest that he had made a deal with Ammit, the devourer of souls. He ignored it that his own soul would be at her disposal if he failed in his attempt.

The Reaper laughed a roaring laughter that reverberated from the walls of the giant hall of the Limbo.

His claws went right through Sally´s chest and he grabbed for her heart, the seat of her immortal soul. Sally screamed when she felt how her very life force was pulled from her. A green light shot out of her and a humming sound was in her ears. The light spreading until it was like a circulating wall, an aura, right between them and the Reaper grinned devilish when he felt how he was gaining more and more possession of her soul.

"NOW you won´t get away from me! You´re MINE! FOREVER!" His voice as dark and a black stream like smoke from an oil fire came out of his mouth. His fangs white and glistening in difference to it.

"AIDAN! Aidan! Get back into your position!" Donna shouted at him, her hands shaking him wildly as to wake him up from any stupor. She stared into his black eyes, the open mouth with the fangs and the blood that dropped from his cheeks.

"Look! LOOK what is going on!" Josh shouted, his voice trembling and his finger directed to the bed...

Sally´s body was vibrating and a green light was flickering around her. It was stronger and weaker, vibrating like a living thing. It spread over her whole bandaged body until it covered it totally.

Donna´s head shot around and she watched with widened eyes.

The glowing green light was wavering.

Sally´s body seemed to tense and suddenly she/it buckled on the bed. A roaring scream came out of her mouth and the old linen was pulled to pieces. Under the gaping hole teeth were visible, surrounded by half rotten lips.

The scream seemed to break the walls and Josh whirled around, his hands covering his ears. He whimpered with pain and his voice was mixing with that of Henry, who had sunken to the ground, his head bent down and his hands on his ears. How much more must the sounds hurt his preternatural vampire hearing? Henry´s face a mask of pain.

The Reaper stretched his entity until he could intrude into the bedroom. His mouth turned into a large gaping hole and he bent down onto Sally´s body until he felt her shape fitting around him and he began to suck up her life force. He sucked and the green energy that was Sally´s soul was shrinking, shriveling...

Donna saw how the green glowing was shriveling and it focused onto her chest, flickering, wavering, moving until it was sucked back into her mouth. The scream turned into a pounding sound and she screamed like burning at a stake. Her whole body went into spasms, shaking wildly like in a seizure of death.

"We are losing her!" Donna screamed over the hellish sounds that were shaking the whole house. The longer this noise level would stay, the more dangerous it would become even for her. She had to have her hands free, could not protect her ears from the disturbing noise and with sheer force she rose her voice over the tormenting pandemonium.

"O Osiris Amenti! I call upon you. Keeper of the gate! Let her cross over! Hear our prayer. Thot, protector of the dead! Beware Sally from the Reaper! Guide her over to us and keep him staying in the realms of Duat!" Donna threw up her arms and turned her hands to the ceiling.

"Go back into your position, AIDAN!" she shouted at him in between.

Aidan stared at her with dull eyes, his body trembling with fear. He didn´t feel it when Henry and Josh jumped to his side and pulled him up, pulling him back to the position he had before anything strange happened to him.

"Stay here, dude!" Josh growled at him and slapped him hard onto the shoulder. Aidan watched him like a being from another star.

"AIDAN!" Josh repeated, shaking him by the shoulders and Aidan didn´t do a thing warding him off. Normally he would ward him off easily and he won´t have allowed even Josh to treat him like this.

The Reaper was growling with anger. The damn vampire was on the ground but a voice hit him with full force. This damn witch! How could she dare? Her voice was going right into him and it pulled on his deepest structures. Sally was flickering and the green light came out of her mouth in a stream, which was connected with him. He gulped and sucked, making her his straw, when her very life force left her shape and he felt it filling him up with new energy like a puppy thriving on its mother´s milk. Her shape was flickering more and more and her wrapped body was in spasms when she twitched on the shabby bed.

The Reaper felt Donna´s forceful voice pulling on him. The stream of glowing green light became thinner, more like a fog, but most of it was on his side now. He growled and screamed, his voice going high pitched and forceful, spreading, crossing the dimensional boarder that separated him and Sally´s soul from the bedroom with these ridiculous figures who dared to stand up against him.

Against HIM!

He growled and laughed. A devilish sound that by now would have made the devils of hell shrink back.

His voice rose to a crescendo…

… and the humans and the vampires screamed and twitched with pain in the bedroom. The hellish noise made the walls shaking, threatening to burst their hearing by its sheer force.

Henry and Josh sank to their knees and Aidan was staring at the scenario with his eyes nearly bulging out of his skull.

"AIDAN! AIDAN! Stop that!" Henry screamed at him, his own voice strange and hollow in his ears like in a giant empty bucket. His face was pale and torn with pain. Parts of paint were falling from the ceiling and the wallpaper was getting cracks.

Donna´s voice was trembling and with almost no success…almost but not totally…she screamed over the pandemonium…the name of the God Thot.

"THOT. COME. FOR. US! COME FOR the SOUL OF SALLY! Protector of the dead and guidance of the souls in the land of the west! Protect her and us! Protect her from the forces of evil that will taint her Ba, taint her Ka and taint her Sekhem! WE. CALL. UPON YOU, O THOT, AS THE SAVIOR SALLY´S IMMORTAL SOUL !...HEAR US! HEAR OUR PRAYER! AND FIGHT AT OUR SIDE against the forces that will pull the world into darkness!"

With their hands on their ears, Henry and Josh saw how Aidan was wavering under the disturbing attack and then he fell like a felt tree. His black eyes were wide and rolling back into his head.

"NO! NO! Aidan!" Josh screamed and both of them ran to his side.

They reached him at the same time and Josh was stuttering No´s in a row when he felt for the pulse of his friend. With clenched teeth he had taken down one hand to go for the throat, the other hand still on his left ear at least, to protect himself from the noise level.

All chaos broke loose.

Or call it ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE...

The Reaper saw his ground getting harder and he decided to take advantage of the fact that the damn vampire was down on the ground. He focused his preternatural voice onto Aidan, making it forceful but the same time alluring, convincing.

"Yes! Yes, you killed them all! You are a killer and you will ever be! You will never reach what you are longing for!"

He gave his words time to sink into the vampire´s brain that was a devastated area now. Empty, hollow, free of any hope and would this hope be so ever plain and useless. The attack had been successful and he laughed with enjoyment, now that he was about to win. And it didn´t matter that beside all this the damn witch was going to start her prayers over and over again… She was such a bitchy idiot!

Aidan´s eyes opened suddenly, but his glance was empty like that of a sick man, awakening from coma. All his fire, his life force seemed to have disappeared with the last crash that had him sent down to the ground. A forceful voice was deep into his conceptive mind now. He had no chance to differ where it came from. Either from the surrounding crescendo he was deaf to, or from anywhere else that definitely wasn´t a place where he had ever been or ever wanted to go to.

He only knew that this voice was filling up his mental emptiness with a resonance that even battered any timbre of a vampire´s compelling voice. It filled him with an unexplainable longing to obey into the voice that told him what to do now. It reached the deepest core of his dark and bleeding soul like that of a father upbraiding his nasty child while comforting it at the same time. Punishment and comfort. Like pain and the thralls of passion combined in sex. And, oh yes! Mixing passion with pain was the thing he so well could cope with.

The voice was that like the sounds of blood, the red cloud that filled him to his deepest core when he was drinking. The sound of the heart beat, strong once and then fading. The unbearable power over life and death of a donor, if willing or if forced into obedience by compelling her. Up to lose himself into it, so totally he was up to lose control as usually.

Now he was going to lose himself totally into this voice that told him to rise and to move…

"You´re a killer, Aidan and you´re a sinner in front of your God, belonging to hell where I´ll take over your soul, Aidan. The blood of your wife and your son are crying upwards to heaven! The gates of heaven are locked up for thou and thou to find no shelter in the realms of God!" The Reaper waited for his words to work into Aidan´s disastrous and desperate soul. His evil grin would have made devils flee but to the vampire it looked like mercy.

"But I can give you shelter, Aidan…the only shelter you will ever find. I´m the merciful Reaper and I´m going to give you relief from all turmoil!" His voice had come down to a whisper and it sounded all promising, all comforting. Giving him the relief he was searching for since the very day he had been turned in the 1770s battlefield by Bishop, his maker. Relief from eternal hunger, relief from eternal guilt and failure over and over again.

"It takes not much and I´ll help you with it, Aidan!" The voice a promise…tempting and irresistible.

"What shall I do? What…will I have to do?" Aidan whispered out of nothing seemingly.

"Rise, Aidan. Rise and deliver yourself to eternal relief. Rise and all turmoil will fall away from you! I´m your only way to mercy, your only way to the havens of heaven you so dearly clung to since the days of your innocent childhood! But you tainted your very soul that was given to you from God…!"

Aidan stared with empty eyes into the room. Not aware that Josh and Henry were watching him in disbelief.

"Aidan?" Josh tried to reach his friend anyway. He had seen Aidan in different moods, from funny to depressed or full of guilt. But now Aidan´s look was so strange, so different from all he knew from his friend and roommate. He looked as if he was totally disconnected from reality, like he had gone to another world...

"Aidan? Aidan...wake up!" Josh´s voice grew louder.

"Go...go and deliver your very soul to salvation! Rise, Aidan and drop the yoke of all earthly torment..." The voice of the Reaper was alluring.

Josh looked at Aidan and Henry was crouched beside him. He waited for Aidan to give any reaction. But Aidan seemed to be far, far away. His body was in this dimension, but his mind was floating anywhere.

Had they lost Aidan to the thralls of madness or to another dimension?

"Aidan! Don´t do this...!" Josh began.

Suddenly Aidan rose from the ground, his fangs bared, his eyes bled black. He moved with vampire speed, growling and hissing. His arm came up and with brutal force he swept Josh aside and he fell to the ground, his head hitting the planks. Aidan whirled around, his mouth open and before any of the others could do anything, Aidan jumped over to the place where the chair stood.

Aidan smashed the chair against the wall and with a loud crack the wood broke and he grabbed one of the broken legs.

"Stop him! Stop him!" Josh and Donna were shouting in unison.

"He´s gonna stake anyb..." Josh screamed.

Aidan grabbed the leg with the split and sharp tip, turned it around and both his hands clung to it.

"NO! NO AIDAN!" Josh screamed full of fear when he suddenly realized what Aidan was going to do. He jumped forward, stumbling over his own feet in his panic...

Aidan´s arms moved upwards and the tip of the chair leg was hovering in the air for seconds before he would bring it down in a deathly bow...

...to his OWN heart!

"NO!" Josh and Henry screamed, moving. The vampire Henry was way faster.

"Yes! Yes! Do it Aidan and fulfill the circle finally!" the Reaper shouted at him, his face, his former face a mask of evil hatred. He roared with joy.

He would be the winner. Finally! The vampire failed and Sally´s soul would be HIS forever...

The arms moved down and Aidan smiled in contemplation of his death.

"Look! This sinner dies for you...!" Aidan brought out when his arms rushed down.

The chair leg rushed down and the tip seemed to disappear into his chest...

Josh felt like moving in lead instead of air. Seconds stretched into an eternity. The time would never be enough to get to him before the stake would pierce right through his heart. Josh jumped, more sailing than moving, his body flying like when he jumped through the woods in wolf state.

The Reaper roared with enjoyment. An unearthly laughing.

With a sound, so unreal in the sudden silence, a crackling, anything was smashed into a far corner. It took Josh a moment to realize that the sound was made by a falling piece of wood that was smashed aside by Henry who was slithering over the ground before he managed it to stop and stabilize again , preventing himself from crashing into the wall under the window.

A desperate scream let the walls shake.

It came out of Aidan´s mouth who sank down onto his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks and he sank down to a heap of misery on the rug, sobbing and crying.

The Reaper cracked with fury. His shape shot forward and his claws were stretched out against Sally when he tried to reach her, ready to destroy her finally.

But Sally wasn´t willing to die finally.

She moved...

Sally was in spasms or more definitely; her body was. Because no one, even not Donna, knew if she was back among them or if her soul was still trapped into the Limbo. Screams and growls were coming out of her mouth and her upper body rose from the plastic foil covered bed. The linen over her cheeks and mouth was torn and a stream of screams and animal like sounds came out of the gaping hole.

Fortunately it was impossible to understand WHAT she was screaming. Despite the sound level it was totally inscrutable.

Josh was glad for it.

The scenario reminded him of nothing less than The Exorcist.

And he had no doubt that exactly this was happening right here and right now. His worst doubts about what would happen when Donna dared to call upon an ancient deity, seemed to become true.

Donna´s voice was thundering above the crescendo. Her face was an iron mask and when Henry and Josh bent over Aidan who was wincing on the ground, his pupils fixed, his breath, if there had ever been any, almost not to feel.

"THOT! God of the dead and guidance over the souls to cross the threshold! We need your help. Listen to our prayer and keep Sally under your protection! Here is lying Sally, the wife of her husband and she wants to cross over! Save her from the forces of darkness and accompany her soul back into our World! For this, o Thot, we are praying to you. Hear our begging and give the mercy, for the great god Osiris has given her back her limbs and her voice and her mouth!"

"Thot. THOT!" The words, the name which was sharp as a blade, a sword, was pounding in the Reapers ears, his whole entity. He growled, his arms stretching out like claws when he tried to reach either one of this idiotic humans or Sally in general. His mouth was a gaping hole and black fog, whirling like a twister, came out of it. Shockwaves of his enraged screams made it wavering and then he shot forward.

Donna rose her hands, the Gimel in her right hand, and she was stretching her arms against an invisible enemy of which the humans and vampires were sure to be here. The air was vibrating with the pandemonium and parts of color and dust from everywhere were whirling around…

"Thot! We call upon you! Help us! Help Sally whose body is lying here, waiting for her Ka, her Ba , her Sekhem to be reunited in her Khat…!"

The Reaper screamed and twitched when the red glowing light was split and the green light of Sally´s soul was hanging in the center of the Limbo. He stared with bulging eyes at the shape that manifested itself out of the red fog, splitting it like with a sword.

When the thing came nearer its shape stabilized more and more and a slim figure became visible, the shape of a slender human with the slim head of an Ibis. Its pecker long and thin like a dagger, with a sharp tip.

Thot moved with rising speed, shooting straight forward, going right into attack.

The God of the dead was flying on invisible wings, his arms spread out to his sides and then he bent his head with the deadly pecker. The Reaper shot forward to push him back with his pure will but he failed when the pecker went right into the place, where a human had his heart. The sharp tip went right through his chest, nailing him to the wall behind.

The Reaper screamed with pain when the pecker pierced not only his heart area but the long thin thing was like an iron poker, glowing orange like lava. So hot it burned right through the Reaper and when Thot whirled around his head, the shape of the Reaper was thrown against the far wall of the Limbo.

All this happened without so much as a word from Thot whereas the words which came out of the mouth of his opponent were a stream of foul stench and darkness…

"O Thot! Ward him off! Save the Akh of Sally so that the demon of darkness has no power over her! We pray for your guidance, your mercy and your protection! Thot! Save her from the realms of darkness and send her Akh, her Ba, her Kha and her Sahu back to live with Sekhem in imperishable unity!"

The words of the witch were powerful enough to weaken him and Thot was hovering above him, his pecker open like a double edged blade. The ancient god of the dead was staring at him when the shape of the Reaper became uneven und began to flicker and it seemed to dissolve more and more.

"YOU…CAN´T…GEEEETTT herrrrrrrrrrrr free!" The Reaper shouted, his shape wavering with wrath when he tried to stabilize himself against the combined force of the god Thot and the witch.

The precious Akh of Sally was hovering among them and her shape moved forward, her face a mask of hatred and her fingers claws when the holy words of the witch pulled her forward. Her shape became more and more steady…

Donna was standing beside the bed that was now utterly silent, now that the soul of Sally or her very life force had been sucked back into the Limbo.

Josh and Henry were supporting Aidan, holding him back and fixing him to his position. His eyes were narrow slits, his cheeks stained with his bloody tears and he was trembling like a leaf in the wind.

"Le…mme be! Go away….please…" he whimpered but both, his friend and his son, were persistent; "I´m a sinner! A sinner…Unworthy! Unworthy…unworthy…" he stuttered repeatedly.

"Shut up, Aidan! You´re not unworthy! NOT! GET IT!" Josh shot at him while he tried to comfort his vampire friend. His look went to the bed where Donna was praying with all her power of will. The body of Sally was lying motionless on the covers and all life seemed to have her left now. The slight movements from before, when Donna had called upon her limbs, were totally subsided and Sally looked so dead like her corpse when they had dug her up from her grave.

Josh looked at Donna, caught her look and attention for a short moment;

"That won´t do! We have lost her, Donna…" he whispered with a trembling and nearly inaudible voice.

She shot him such an enraged glare that he twitched under it.

"WE. Don´t. Have. Lost HER!" she shouted at him.

Determination was in her voice, her mind and her very being.

Against all forces of hell and heaven…she won´t give up right now that she felt the God Thot approaching…

Her face became stone when she went on with the ancient prayers.

Josh and Henry watched her in horror when her hands were moving up to the ceiling. She stroked through the air with her Gimel, her voice falling into a singing. They couldn´t understand what she was singing because it was the old ancient Egyptian language. Out of the corner of his eye Henry saw her moving around, singing and praying again.

He was crouched beside Aidan, his fingers wet with the bloody tears of his father, who was a shivering heap of misery in the very moment. Aidan would be of no use for the ritual now and Henry had strong doubts about any success they would have now after all what had happened. He couldn´t get him up on his feet, the less put him back onto the position Donna had ordered him before. Henry couldn´t imagine that they would get Sally´s soul back yet because the circle was broken. Aidan was in no condition to go on and all Henry knew about the ritual´s success; it depended on a complete circle or team like Donna had explained before they had started all of this. Henry wasn´t the one to give up so easily but Aidan was definitely out of the track. So he watched as Donna went on unflinching. Either she simply hadn´t give up hope or she had an ace up her sleeve he didn´t know of.

The green glowing cloud of Sally´s Akh was amidst the giant hall and when Sally heard the command to move from Thot and from a woman, she took a gasping breath and against all odds and against the screaming that came from the Reaper, she started to move.

"NO! NO! Don´t leee…tttt herrr….ge..geee…to….it! NO….NO…Shers MINE! MINE!" the reaper screamed while his shape became more and more uncertain, his voice high pitched and torn.

Sally felt attracted by the pulling and powerful voice that had managed it to reach her. The god Thot was hovering in front of the Reaper, his bird head with the pecker bent down to the Reaper like a living lance, holding him at bay. When the Reaper tried to move despite the threat above him, the voice of Thot thundered through the Limbo.

"Dare you, Reaper and I´ll sent you into eternal perdition! Ammit is waiting for your soul! You betrayed her and you ever went to know that Ammit won´t let you run?" Thot turned over to Sally who was lurking from behind a giant pillar. Her face showing her fear in view of the all powerful God Thot.

"Sally Malik, faithful wife of your husband...I order you to go!"

Sally looked at him in astonishment. She more floated than walked nearer to the place where the Reaper was a flickering thing, hissing, growling but helpless under the strong spell of Thot that fixed his fading shape to the ground. Pecker and wings of the god were stretched out against him and he growled and gnarled when he felt his own structure melt and fade under the words that came from the witch and the powerful force that emanated from Thot. In fury he stared at Sally who moved nearer, now that she felt the protecting power of Thot that stood in between her and her worst enemy.

"I will fe...ed on yourrrr...s...oul...SA...LLY and you will be MINE...MINE...MINE!" The Reaper hissed with a voice full of hatred. She had betrayed him, she had condemned him back into Limbo and when she would return to the world of the living, he would finally be stuck in here forever.

"You...YOU can´t ever harm me again, Reaper! You and your false promises you gave me! I never asked you for being YOU! But you put force on me to make a choice that never had been a choice!" Sally hissed and her face changed the color from the pale white tone to a vivid grey, her eyes turning into white balls without anything like a pupil. Her appearance becoming monstrous and her voice turned into a dark and hollow sound when she spoke.

"You belong to HELL, Reaper! Where you came from! And I will greet the goddess Ammit when she comes to devour your soul! You are a ruthless killer and you have ever been! There´s no such thing as BALANCE!"

Sally turned over to Thot again and when he nodded, she went on:

"I have failed! Failed under the spell of the killer demon...!"

"I don´t accuse you for murder, Sally. Ma`at did weigh your heart on the Scale of Truth and her holy feather told; you heart is lightweight! So you´re free to live in the realms of the dead, the land Duat, as well as to live in the realm sof the living...So make your choice, Sally Malik, daughter of the king!" Thot said.

When the Reaper heard his words he screamed with fury, tried to escape the power that nailed him to the ground. He struggeled but his shape was weakening and flickering and the more he fought the less control he had over it. His shape, his former ghostly body became unsteady and flimsy and his screams rose when he felt it fading. A dark cloud spread out from the place where a human had a heart and he felt his energy, his very life force drifting away from him until it hung amidst air like a whirling twister cloud. A dark humming sound filled the giant hall and Sally floated backwards to bring distance between her and this all over dark energy.

Thot turned around and his right hand was swinging around, directing to the other side of the Limbo where a giant door with double wings opened. A red glowing light filled the space and out of the vibrating light stepped a dark figure. IT stepped towards the three entities...

Josh and Henry stared at the corpse on the bed.

The screams that had come out of the dark opening of her mouth now subsided to an nearly inaudible mumbling. Even Henry wasn´t able to differ them despite his vampire hearing skills.

"What...? What´s going on here?" Josh brought out with his voice going an octave higher and almost tumbling over. He felt for his head with a moan and when he brought his shaking fingers in front of his eyes, he let out a breath of relief when he found them free of blood.

"I don´t have the slightest imagination..." Henry whispered.

He had taken hold of Aidan, his arms wrapped around the shoulders of the man who called him to be his son. When Henry tilted his head to one side, so that he could look into Aidan´s eyes, he found him more receptive. A bit of life had returned into them and the strange, trance like distance had gone.

"Uuh, my head...please tell me anybody...there´s a goddamn cement mixer running anywhere outside...", Josh groaned.

"I´m afraid there´s nothing under construction outside...seems to be your head, Josh. I´m sorry... Henry whispered.

"Shut up!" Donna ordered them angrily, her hand waving into their direction. A rude gesture to make them stop whispering. Conscious of guilt they looked at her like children caught on something forbidden.

Donna nodded and went on. She bent over the corpse that was slightly vibrating and mumbling. Ignoring this terrifying facts in relation to a dead body...but what was anyway still normal here now?

Her hand with the Gimel moved midair over the corpse.

"Oh my Mother Nut, spread thyself over me, that thou mayest place me amongst the Imperishable stars, which are in thee, and I die not again..." Her Gimel went upwards, directing to invisible stars. The humming sound became louder.

"Djed, rise up as the perfect soul in the underworld Amtuat. Sally, enter into the realms of the dead, eat the food of Osiris, and be justified...!"

"So I´m free to move? I´m free from guilt?" Sally asked Thot fearfully.

The Ibis-headed god nodded confirming.

"Ma´at found you to be lightweight! So you´re free to go to Amtuat or to the gates of the east, where Re resides over the day in the world of the living! You´re justified, Sally Malik! Your souls are free to move wherever they want."

"I wish so much to be with my friends again..." Sally felt a wave of happiness running through her. A happiness she had missed to feel since an eternity. Since she had shredded herself into Limbo in an attempt to escape the damn Reaper. This demon had been in her head, his voice tormenting her over and over again, irrespective how hard she had tried to make things go right. Irrespective how hard she tried to fulfill his task, his orders. Irrespective how much ghosts she shredded; it never had been right enough...

He had tricked her into becoming a condemned soul, had prepared her downfall to hell finally, sucking up her Akh and improving his life force with her own. He was a traitor- no balancer!

She had failed. Failed with believing into him and his words. She had failed by falling prey to this demon... Shredding herself into the Limbo was because of feeling guilty and in an attempt to flee from him. But she had taken him with her, connected to him fatally. And she had been going to pay for it...

"O Osiris, King, I give you the eye of Horus. May be your face imbued with it. The eye of Horus is spread over you in incense and fire... Wadj and Sa and Thet and Urs (*youth, protection, salvation, headrest) shall be given to thou. Thou art lift up, o sick one that lies prostrate. Thy lift up thy head to the horizon...thou art rised up...thy head shall never, never be carried away from thee..."

Josh and Henry watched terrified and with rising horror how the corpse groaned and moved and the head and then the upper body sat up until Sally´s body was sitting on the bed...

Sally shivered and lifted herself up into the air, then she felt her body pulled into a sitting position by the voice that came from far away. Behind her she heard claws scratching over the ground an stomping feet. When the noises came nearer, the Reaper began to scream but a simply move of Thot´s hand condemned him to silence. His face and mouth a caricature of a soundless scream, like a painting fixed for eternity.

Sally was hovering in the air, sitting like a floating yogi. It looked strange, herself being uncoupled from the ground.

"I call upon you, Ba, the corporeal soul to manifest as a wholly corporeal falcon! I call upon Ka, your celestial soul to manifest as the human headed hawk! Thou enter as a hawk and come fort as Bennu at dawn!"

The hovering green glowing cloud of Sally´s soul, a compound of all her manifestations, began to waver and moved in the direction where Sally stood. It spread and shrunk and spread again like a breathing, living thing. The very life force what it really was.

Josh and Henry shrieked, both their heart beats speeding up and Josh felt like his heart was going into overdrive, jumping out of this throat any moment, when suddenly Sally´s whole body was bathed in an unearthly green light, covering her like a cloud of glowing green.

Josh stumbled backwards, his hands pressed over his mouth, gasping, his eyes widened with disbelief.

That wasn´t what he had imagined it to be...

Henry stared at the unreal scenario. He couldn´t move, holding Aidan in his arms like a protecting angel.

"What...what..what..." he mumbled almost soundless. His eyes fixed on the corpse that seemed to become kind of translucent in this unearthly light that filled the whole room, even seemed to go right through all of them. Henry´s mind found no other relation than an other-worldly x-ray scan.

"I totally messed it up! I did snafu it in whole..." Aidan whimpered and tears streamed down his cheeks again, when he lifted his face, irritated by the flickering green.

It´s my mess and now Sally is gonna die. Cuz of me. ME!"

Henry felt his shoulders shiver under the sobs.

Over all this Donna´s voice pounded in their ears.

"Make Sally´s Ab (*heart) beat! Thou shall understand with thy heart. Thou shall gain mastery over thy heart, thou shall gain mastery over thy two hands, thou shall gain mastery over thy legs. I shall have power to do whatsoever my Ka pleaseth. My Ba shall not be fettered to my body at the gates of Amtuat, but I shall cross over and come forth in peace"

The humming sound became a pounding one and Josh shivered when he became aware that the pounding was that of a heart that filled his hearing like when he had done blood pressure measurement in the hospital.

"Is...is that...I mean does...does her...heart beat! Ya know that´s...that´s impossible...A mean, it´s..she is DEAD!" Josh uttered and the rhythmic sound seemed to reverberate in his own chest, seemed to take up his own heart´s rhythm...

That couldn´t all be real...

He was...he was dreaming. A mad and disturbing dream like these ones Aidan must have had in the darkness of his grave. He would wake up at any moment...

Can please, please anybody wake me up from this nightmare? He begged feverishly in his mind. He bit his knuckles in excitement and tension, didn´t feel the pain his teeth let grew in the sensitive flesh.

"May nothing oppose me in the judgment in the presence of the Lord of the Trial: Osiris. Let it said of me, of what I have done: `Her deeds are right and true´. May nothing be presented against me in the presence of the great god Osiris. May Ankh be presented by the gods to both the living and the dead...!" Donna prayed for Sally who was sitting upright on the bed. The green glowing was vibrating around her in the rhythm of the heart beats.

Osiris stepped forward to Sally and his voice rose.

"Your deeds are right and true, Sally Malik. You are to cross over with your Ankh...We giveth thou back your Ba, Ka and Sekhem. You are free to see your friends you so want..."

Osiris stretched out his arm towards the gate of the Limbo, directed her to walk.

Sally breathed and the glowing green closed around her and then the light went into her chest like a cloud sucked up by the whirling winds. Sally felt it going right into her and a forceful power filled her whole being when the compound of her corporeal and her celestial and her immortal soul reunited into her. Life force Ankh filled her very existence.

When she passed Osiris and looked up into his face she saw tears shed which dripped down his golden cheeks and they were glistening in the golden light like little crystals. When they hit the ground they turned into white crystals looking like shimmering pearls.

The salt of the seas is made from the fallen tears of the angels! Once her mother had told her when she had been a child.

Or from the tears shed by the Gods.

And Sally walked.

She walked and passed by the fading entity of the Reaper who stared at her in pure disbelief. And now that Thot allowed his voice to be heard again, he screamed in desperation;

"What will be MY freedom? What will I gain back from you?"

"You will be condemned, Reaper! For you have betrayed her very soul to become like you. Ma´at has weighed your soul and found it to be heavier than the Holy Feather of her head! You... Reaper! You are given over to Ammit, the Devourer of Souls! She will feed and thrive onto your dark soul and you will be condemned to eternal restlessness! That´s your regaining...!" Thot thundered.

Sally walked by, passing the Reaper.

His desperation and hatred would have been enough to satisfy her finally, but she was distracted by two shapes that were lurking from aside. When she came nearer to the gate, she recognized them. Both men.

Stevie and Nick.

They looked so sad it pushed a stake through her heart. Sally stopped where they stood and turned to them.

"Stevie. Nick..."

The man and the boy turned in on her and Stevie began to sob when he became aware that Sally was about to leave and to let them back to be stuck into Limbo.

"You have condemned us to Limbo, Sally..." he complained with his young voice. There was no hatred, only a great sadness. "I didn´t kill, Sally! Show mercy on us! Don´t let us back in here! For the reason of Justice and for my friend Nick!" he whimpered.

Sally stopped and she hugged him and Nick, their life force touching each other.

She turned over to the God Osiris.

"Is there a way back for them?" she dared to ask now that the gods had forgiven her and her soul was clean and shining bright.

Osiris nodded yes.

"Then I´ll promise you...I´ll find a way to bring you back into the world of the living. It was my fault that you have been stuck in here. And so it´s me to get you out of here again. Both! I promise by the life of my very soul!"

"You have to go now, Sally Malik!" Osiris ordered and by a slight move of his hands the gate opened.

Sally waved Stevie and Nick a last good bye, than she...

...entered the world of the living.

The body on the bed moved and fought and the green light was sucked up into her chest.

Sally groaned when her bandaged body fought to get rid of the linen manacles in which she had been wraped when she was buried the traditional way of the Near East.

"OH MY GOD! OH MY DEAR GOD...!" Josh shouted when he saw how the wrapped body on the bed fought and moved and fought for his freedom. He jumped to the side of the bed, willing to get her free but his heart was pounding with fear at the thought to unwrap a half rotten and now moving body.

Donna pushed him aside and began to unwrap the bandages.

"Help me! I can´t get that all alone!" she shouted at Henry and Josh, getting them out of their freezing.

Henry leaned Aidan back to the floor and ran to her side. Josh made himself move by his sheer will, his fingers shaking when he accompanied the vampire and the witch.

Together the managed it to unwrap the body that did writhe onto the sheets.

Finally the last layer fell and under it...

...Sally´s body, naked as she had been, appeared...

The very moment she was finally set free, her ghostly body jumped from the remains and in less than a second she stood amidst the room.

She was shivering with excitement when a ghost could shiver.

Josh stared at her in disbelief.

"Sally...Sally is that you? Uh...mean...I don´t...I mean...I can´t...I...Oh my dear God! Is that really you, Sally? Uh mean...no...no..." He blushed, cringed, uttered; "...a Zombie."

"NO! No! What do you think, Josh!" Sally shouted at him angrily. "I´m a ghost! None of these creepy crawling creatures! Knacker´s yard on two legs or stomach...! JOSH! Get you compound together! I´ T! Ghost! Do you want to insult me the very moment I´m back to those I think to be my friends?"

"No! No, of course not, Sally...I only mean...Oh my God...I simply can´t believe all that crap! I´m a medical person...a nurse, no ghost-finder...!" Josh sank to the ground with a gasp.

Josh was sitting on his butt, his hands pressed to the ground beside his body, stabilizing his still slightly shivering form. A rustling sound was coming from anywhere behind him and Josh turned his head into the direction. What he saw was nothing better than him.

A slowly crawling Aidan was moving nearer. His face was stained with his bloody tears that had dried now. He looked strangely weak despite the fact that he had drunken a large amount of blood since his own rescue. At the foot-end of the bed he grabbed the wood to pull himself upright.

Suddenly he felt hands under his arms, supporting him from behind. Aidan turned his head, expecting it to be Henry. But his eyes widened in disbelief when he found out that it was Sally who helped him up onto his feet.

"How...how...I mean...how can you...? Why do I feel you? Sally?" Aidan stuttered and his dark eyes under the long lashes showed his disbelief. He had seen sally manage a strawberry and a newspaper, but pulling him up...

"What...what happened to you, Sally..." He was near to tears again, when he felt terribly ashamed that he had been so weak. Painfully Donna´s words came to his mind; Everybody has his weaknesses when he lives so long...

His weakness nearly had ruined it all and he felt a burning pain in his heart, like a hot flame. He was guilty and he had failed.

But was anybody to forgive him?

Anytime?

"You...all of you...have cried...for me...I...I never have felt such...love...maybe that´s it what brought me back, Aidan..."

Sally bent forward and kissed his lips.

Aidan felt her lips as if they were living ones. Henry and Josh moved in and he pulled them into a tight hug...

The End