Chapter 14
"Ugh." Cash groaned. Cash pushed himself off of the ground he was laying on and shook his head, trying to shake the cobwebs out. 'Son of a bitch. Ow, my head. What the hell was all that about?" Cash got all the way up and took a quick look around. "Where the hell am I? And where is everyone?" "Good, your awake." Cash heard. He spun around and there stood Carter. "You!" Cash ran up and grabbed Carter by the shirt. He noticed, momentarily, that his grip didn't seem as strong as it normally did. "What the hell is going on? Who was that guy? No, wait, better question, who the hell are you? Yeah, that's a good place to start, since all of this seems to involve you in every single way. Tell me who you are, and where my family is!" "Well, let me go and I'll explain everything." Cash released Carter, and then said 'Talk." "Alright. First, my name's Carter. As I'm sure you remember, we met at Lady Iza's. I was the greeter." 'Yeah, I remember that." "Right, well, that's good. Show's that your memory is intact." 'Yeah, yeah, that's great. Now, get on with it." "Right. Well, you see, about three years ago, I met Iza. It was at a convention for real psychics." 'You're a real psychic?" 'Of course. How do you think I got here?" "Huh? What's being psychic got to do with being here? Speaking of which, where is here?" " I'll explain that in a moment. Now, where was I? Oh right. I met Iza at the convention. We really hit it off. Became very close friends. Anyways, we kept in touch during the time in between the conventions. We lived on opposite ends of the country, so we couldn't just meet up whenever we wanted. Not economically practical, you know?" "Not really something I need to know. Just skip to the part where my family and I get involved." 'Just wait. Jeez, your impatient." 'Put yourself in my shoes for a second. Wouldn't you be impatient too?" 'Fair enough. But, please let me tell it all. There's a lot behind all this, and even if it's not useful right now, you should know what led up to this moment. Now, like I said, we kept in touch. I told Iza to let me know if she ever needed my help. About a year and a half goes by, and I get a email from Iza. In it, she told me how her uncle Vlad, who was sent to jail for multiple robberies a little over ten years ago, broke out of prison. How, she didn't know right then, but she said wanted to find him. She hoped she could talk to him, and at least keep him from returning to his old ways. She was sure she could do it, since they'd been really tight when she was little. Boy, was she wrong, and Lord do I wish that I'd done more to help her than just wish her luck. See, she used her mind reading powers to track him down." " Mind reading?" 'Yeah, you know, the psychic power that let's your read people's minds?" "I know what is, I just wasn't expecting that to be her power when you told me you met at a psychics convention. Matter of fact, that's the second person I've ever met with that power." 'The second?" 'Yeah, the other one's Kate." "Huh, I didn't sense any power like that in her." 'She doesn't use it very much, so it's probably not very strong as a result. ' sigh' God, I wonder where she is." "Don't worry, she's alright, for the most part." 'What do you mean? If you know where she is, tell me!" "Well, that's kind of hard to explain unless you hear the rest of the story." "Then hurry up and spit it out already!" "Okay, okay. Iza used her powers to track down her uncle. But, he was far from the good old Uncle Vlad she knew and loved. He'd changed, more so than what a life of crime and prison will normally do. Somehow, while in the state pen, Vlad had gotten his hands a book of spells. And not some puny, pathetic, 'how pull a quarter out of someone's ear' kind of magic book either. He got the real deal. And , without much else to do, he started reading, and reading. Eventually, he found a spell that helped him break out. Once out, he first found a hiding place, and then kept reading. He started memorizing all the spells in there, and all their uses. One in particular he found, was a way of gaining more power. And, being a greedy man, he focused on that one in particular. Hoping to gain a ton of power, so he could take anything his heart desired in this world, and no one could stop him. Least, that's my guess. Anyways, like I said, he focused on that spell. The spell required the caster to capture individuals and then the spell would drain the energy out of them." "Drain the energy.. You mean suck the life out of them?" "Not entirely. At least, I don't think so. But, that doesn't matter. Because his chosen victims, his 'prey' if you will, aren't human. At least, not anymore." "What?" 'Vlad's victims, are spirits. You know, ghosts." "Ghosts.. Why ghosts?" "When Iza later told me about all this, I asked that too. She said that when she found him, he was right in the middle of draining the energy out of some poor soul. And, remembering their past closeness, she said that he offered her some of the power. She didn't understand, so he explained all this to her, which she later explained to me, and now me to you. He said that he choose ghosts for two reasons. Reason one, he said, was because they're pretty much just as abundant as people. And, not to give credit to a mad man, but he was right. I mean, people die every day, and not all of them pass on. So, there would be an ample supply. But, the other reason, he said, was far more important. He said he chose ghosts, because they won't be missed. If you kidnap a person, people are gonna find out, and come looking for them, and that puts you in trouble. But, if you capture a ghost, people won't notice. And, even if they did, they'd just think that the spirit finally passed on, not that somebody with magic powers had taken him or her. In other words, they're a no risk target. No muss, no fuss. Iza, being the kind, good natured soul she is, was naturally appalled by this. She refused the power and then told her uncle that he needed help, and that she'd get him that help. That was probably the worst thing she's ever said. Her uncle couldn't risk her going and telling anyone about him, so he decided to shut her up. But, since they were so close back in the day, he couldn't bring himself to kill her. So, instead, he broke her heart and made it impossible for her to talk. He used a spell on her that causes her to loose control over herself, and act completely insane, once a month. And the whole thing must be really draining, cause she's out for three days after each fit. To top it off, the times vary, so we can only do our best to guess at when it'll happen next. The next one, we think, is in two days. Oh, and don't go crackin' any jokes about girls and their periods. This is a hell of a lot more serious." " I'm not that kind of guy, Carter. All I have to say is ''why didn't she go to the police in when she was normal?'" "Ah, that's the other half of the spell. The reason why she asked me to help. .If she tries to tell a police officer or something like that, the spell will kick in automatically, and she'll start acting crazy right there in front of him or her. And, who'd believe a person like that? But, I guess she's fortunate that she could talk to regular folks about this. He could've taken away her ability to ask for my help. Guess he didn't think she had that kind of friend." "Yeah, about your involvement in this. I wanna know, why didn't you go to the police in her place?" "Believe me, after I found out, I tried. But, since I couldn't prove any of this, they wrote me off as a prankster and told me if I pulled this stunt again, I'd be arrested." "Yikes. Talk about being up a creek." 'Yeah. By the way you seem to be handling this pretty well. None of this seems odd to you?" " No, cause I've dealt with stuff like this before." 'Huh?" "Let' just say that, when you're a talking chipmunk, weird stuff just seeks you out. Now finish your story." "Right, well, since help from the cops was out of the question, and since we were sure nobody else would believe us if we told them, Iza decided to stop him herself, and I agreed to help her, since she's my best friend. We used Iza's power to track him again. After we got a lock on him, we came up with a plan. We knew neither of us could go toe-to-toe with him, so we opted to use one of the oldest tricks in the book. Use the enemies power against them. We knew, if we could get that book of his, we could learn our own spells, which we could use to stop him. Unfortunately, that meant that we had to get close to him and try to steal his book out from under him. With a grand stroke of luck, we managed to get our hands on the book, but, we didn't get the time to read it. See, we had snuck into the little hidey hole of a hotel room that we had tracked him to, while he went out for breakfast. But, we took so long to find where he hid the damn book that we only had time for us to take a quick glance through it, me to rip out two pages and then for us to beat it when we sensed him getting close. I wish we hadn't panicked and thought to take the whole book, but that didn't happen. Fortunately though, luck proved that it was still on our side. See, I had managed to rip out a page about spirits that Vlad didn't seem to have read yet. I figured he hadn't read it, because unlike the other pages we had looked at, which had highlighted sections and what not, this page was almost pristine. It told of how, when a spirit and a person merge, they become more powerful than the sum of their parts." 'Oh, like possession right?" 'Actually, this runs deeper than mere possession. You see, the page said that, if a spirit comes in contact with a living person of a similar personality, then the two can combine power. The spirit can draw strength from the person, by absorbing some of their energy, in order to defeat powerful foes, and in return, the person can use the spirit like a weapon for the same purpose. Think of it like a person holding a gun. The gun is intended to do harm to the person's enemies, and all it needs in return is the ammunition supplied by person. So, basically, the spirit will become the person's 'gun', in exchange for 'ammo', which in this case takes the form of the person's own energy." "Okay, and the other page?" " That's where we got even luckier. That other page, believe it or not, was a map that told where Vlad kept the spirits he captured. I'm guessing he kept them in a separate location because he knew that they would cause a lot of noise, crying out for help. And, all that noise, would draw peoples' attention, which he couldn't have as a prison escapee. So, he kept them locked up in a cave, deep in the forest near his hotel. There, he could perform the spell in peace. Anyways, we decided to follow the map and we eventually found the cave. Unfortunately, we didn't have a spell that could free them all. But, eight of them had proven to be tough enough to force their way through the barrier. It was when we met them that Iza hatched the idea to use that information we had gotten on spirits from that other page. She told them her idea, and they agreed to help. Unfortunately, that also meant that we now had to find to people with the just the right personalities. There was no spell to forcibly bind them. It was just a natural, basically friends with the spirit and the spirit would help out the person because he or she was a friend. And, the best of friends, always formed by people who share similar ideas and lifestyles. So, we needed to find people who could bond with these spirits. People with personalities similar to theirs. We wondered how to do this for a while, until Iza remembered a TV special she'd seen on fortune tellers. She suggested that we set up a fortune tellers thing. Human curiosity, she said, would draw in all kinds of people. And, using her mind reading power and my limited sensing abilities, we could find the right ones. The 'chosen ones', as came to refer to them. And, that's where you and your family come in. We sensed it in you. You guys were ideal. So, Iza, unbeknownst to me, had all the spirits possess those character cards you saw. When you touched them, they'd jump into you and begin to try to bond with you. All that sign stuff was just to distract you long enough to give the spirits time to slip inside your bodies unnoticed." "So, in other words, you drafted us into your fight." 'Well…yeah." Cash grabbed Carter by the shirt again. "You son of… I've been thinking that I've been going crazy, cause I kept hearing this voice in my head, telling me to awaken, and really, it was ghost you put in me. You know I oughta beat the hell out of you right?!" "Yeah, but, it was the only way. We had to jump at the opportunity. We didn't think you'd listen if just came up and asked you for your help. Not with a crazy story like ours to listen to." 'If you'd done it the right way, we would've at least listened." "I'm sorry, okay. It wasn't fair for us to drag you and the others into this, but we didn't have a choice. Vlad has to be stopped. If he's not stopped, well, you saw what he nearly did you guys a little while ago with his current power level. Who knows what he could once he's got even more power? Look, I know your mad, and you have every right to be. You have every right to hate me and Iza. But, I want you to know, if there was another way, we would've done it. But, this was all we had. We're desperate. I'm desperate to help my friend. She's…she's really special to me. I can't stand to see her suffer when she thinks about what awful things her beloved uncle is doing right now. And, Iza's desperate to save whatever's left of the uncle she loves inside Vlad. Please, I don't care if you hate us for the rest of your life, just please find it in your heart to help us end this." Cash thought for a moment then sighed and said 'Maybe I'm too forgiving for my own good, but, I don't hate you." 'You don't?" "No, cause I understand doing extreme things when your desperate. And, I learned from my first human dad, Agito Ikebana, that keeping a grudge doesn't do you any good in life. He said, if you can, settle it. If not, find a way to let it go. So, we're going to settle this right now. Here's the deal, I'll help you, since I just can't find it in me to not help people when they're as desperate as you are, but, your gonna help me all the way. You aren't gonna get to it back while my family I do all the work." 'Done. That's why I came in here anyway." 'Yeah, about here, where are we? I mean, it feels familiar, but I don't recognize it.' "Yeah, I doubt you would. Most people don't get to see what their mind looks like on the mental plane.' "Say what?" "Cash, this little room, area, heck, guess you could call it a little world, is what your mind looks like on the mental plane. In other words, Cash, your inside your own mind.' "are you serious?!" 'Take a closer look." Cash looked around. It was now, now that he was looking closer at this place, that he saw that the 'walls' were covered with pictures of some of his favorite memories. The day Agito gave him his sword, his first kiss with Katrina, and many others. "Whoa…Freaking sweet. So, this is what the inside of my mind looks like. A little black room, with the walls covered in pictures of my favorite moments through out my life. Feels appropriate. But, uh, how are you here if this is my mind?' "Astral projection. I'm transmitting part of my mind into your head, and this me is a, uh, a mental hologram, here to help you."' Ah, okay." Cash looked over Carter's shoulder. He saw seven, different colored doors. "What are those doors?" "About time you noticed those. I saw them and sensed what they were when I first got here." "Yeah, well, I've been out for a while, so tell me what they are smart guy." " Those are doors that lead into the minds of family." " Seriously? How is that possible?" 'Well, I' not sure, but, I have a theory." "Let's hear it." 'Well, Vlad tried to use a very powerful dark spell on you guys. The spirits we slipped inside you tried to protect you, by pushing the spell back towards Vlad. But, apparently, Vlad was telling the truth when he said that that spell isn't designed to go in reverse. When it was pushed to far, in the opposite way it was meant to go, the spell just exploded, driving the spirits back into you and knocking you out in the process. I'm guessing this connection was born as a side effect." 'That's it? A side effect?' "It's magic, Cash. Anything can happen with magic." " Okay, okay. So, if those doors lead to my families minds, then the color of the doors till whose behind each one, right?' 'I guess so. I'm a psychic, not a magician. But I guess that the memory of the persons favorite color decides the color of the door to their inside of their mind. And I'm guessing that since your astral projection, the form your in right now, is here in inside your mind, as it should be, then they're projections are in there." "Man, this is confusing." "I know but, like I said, this is all magic's fault. That's why I'm glad I got psychic powers, instead of magic ones. Psychic powers are strange, but at least you know what they're capable of. With magic, especially magic gone haywire like this, who knows what could happen." That statement made Cash ask this question "Hey, Carter?' 'Yeah?" "If anything could be happening right now, cause this of magic gone crazy, could that mean that they're all in trouble, even though they're in their own minds?" "Like I said, Cash. Anything's possible right now." " 'Sigh' why do we always have to be separated? Why couldn't we have been placed together in here?" "If I had the answer, I'd tell you, Cash." "Well, no point in standing here wondering why didn't just happen. Not when we can make it happen. Let's go." 'Good plan, but, I think you oughta try to merge with the spirit inside you. If I could find him. Where is he?" "We don't have time for this Carter. I'll talk deal with him later." "But.." "I said there's no time. My family could be in danger! And if that's the case, then I have to save them!" "I have to save them." Came a mocking voice from behind them. The voice sounded similar to Cash's. Cash and Carter turned to see another Cash standing there, with a twisted smile on his face. "What the hell?"