XLVIII
Surrounded by enemies on all sides! This is no good, our rescue should have been an in and out job — it was supposed to be stealth mission but all that got thrown away the moment she planed on using me as distraction for the guards. Can't say there could have been any way to keep ourselves concealed much longer but that was still… there are words for that in German that I was raised too well to use, so I'm just going to say it as it is on English though it might be softer, she is an idiot and a bitch, and I really must choose better friends. I don't know what was I thinking when I offered to guard her… and now this! This is going down south further and faster than I wished.
"Don't worry I got a plan," she says, holding Casta in her left arm, "I go and hide with her in the air ducts and you do to them what I did to the others to save her."
"What? You can't — why don't you do it!?" Polterghoul questions.
"I know this might be a shocker for you since you see me as a strong admirable ghoul who can deal with anything thrown at her —"
"I so do not," she cuts in, ignored.
"— but I was putting a tough girl act back there, truth is I got about three broken ribs, a fractured forearm and a sore shoulder I know must be dislocated. And I'm thinking a concussion… and I don't want more cuts." Cat Tastrophe explains.
Rolling her eyes, she sees no option but to agree. "Fine, leave!"
"I knew you'd understand. We're such a good team, we gotta fang out more often. Now open the duct over there," she points over their heads and as quick as breathing, she opens their way out.
Firing the grappling hook on her good arm and holding Casta as tightly as she can with the other, she scapes into the air duct on time for the approaching statue to miss them.
Well, at least that way I know they're safe. And I got free reins to use my powers to the fullest, Polterghoul reasons with a grim grin in her purple lips.
She eludes their clumsy attacks swimming backwards in the pool known as gravity while leashing one of them with her chains and swinging it around, boosting her strength with her telekinesis. Her assailant hits another one square in the chest, with enough force to break through the wall behind them, yet not enough to fall apart.
"All right though guys, let's see what you got!"
Being a superhero is all fun, fighting bad monsters, thwarting evil schemes and saving people… until is no longer fun because you start losing lives and unlives. Even I've seen enough superhero shows and movies to know it can always lead to some dark paths no matter what (unless your life is a comedy, which sometimes seemed the case to me but not quite so lately), those paths can be short or long, and I'm fine with that, specially since nobody has died in my watch.
Funny, I just noticed they are shaped like steroid addicted gargoyles, with hands all around their heads, and fingers coming out of everywhere. If this isn't unlife giving me the finger, I don't know what it is..
The enemies form a wall taking a new attack formation to block her most obvious escape route, blind to the fact their enemy is a ghost and can escape through anything and any path she so wishes.
She does not.
She invites them to attack, aising tightly closed and small fists full of a much greater determination. She dodgestheir blows and grasps with hard trained reflexes for which she never really worked out, not because she needs to, but because it is funnier to see them try. But she can only keep the fun for short, since they are on a clock.
Polterghoul extends her hand with a strong glowing aura of multiple blue hues dancing around it. The first statue to attack her, which she recognizes for it has three eyes on the fingers around its head, rises in the air and then she shoves, sending the sentinel slamming into the one wall that is not shattered yet. That wall is gone.
The countess turns, almost nonchalantly performing the same maneuver with the first one stupid enough to pounce at her after what she has just done, and for her surprise one of them hits her from behind, trapping her with its arms and putting its weight onto her to keep her down. Added to her predicament, she realizes she can't phase through it
An unexpected turn of events that throws her off but only for a brief second.
Stubbornly, using her hate and anger the way she has been warned not to do, she summons energy to push herself up to a kneeling position. So much dark energy, that the lights of the hall begin to flicker and then burst in a violent and scary display of blue fireworks, as she manages to get up, still fighting the constricting arms of the enemy, her ghostly aura glowing stronger. .
Polterghoul's lip curl in a manner that might be a smile or a snarl as all the lights go out. Darkness except for the dim blue sparks raining on them as unholy fire from a wounded sky… then the sparks die, and all that remains is absolute darkness.
Darkness, my dearest friend…
Remember what I said earlier about dark paths? Well, here's the thing… I am a ghost, darkness is my element, so even if my story here in this fake world is set on a long black road, I'm more than comfortable haunting all over it,…
Rising her hands as though holding an invisible body, both arms emanating the same aura glowing all shades of blue in violent waves. Abruptly they find themselves dangling in the air, same aura surrounding them, even the one constricting her finds itself releasing her and pushed against the ceiling, then she whirls them around behind her and then throws them down over and over again like a bratty child in a temper tantrum trying to break her sibling's favorite toy. They could only watch helplessly as they slide, headfirst, into the unyielding stone of the meticulously polished floor.
That should be enough to break their heads. I envy you though. I don't like my head right now. My own story — my real story, has always been in the dark, a mystery even for me, only the end of it has been all I could recall and not always, nor whole. Only little bits, pictures of what I found out… but now I can see it all, so neatly defined and separated from my… character's story, unlike some of my friends.
I know Wydowna and Ghoulia are having some trouble with grasping a hold of themselves, with remembering who they truly are and what is real, I mean one of them is swinging back and forth and the other got lost way too fast. I, for any and all ironical and convenient reasons and purpose, don't have that problem. I don't like to dwell in that too much, but bothers me a little. I guess it has something to do with my history of lying about who I really was in life, I was so good at it I even conned myself into believing the stories of my grand life and the glorious family castle, until it got annoying and Ghoulia showed me the truth. I must reckon it was a rather unhealthy from me to makeup my past or rather make my past up in absence of it. Then again, I had amnesia and I needed a past so you can't really blame me for it.
Sad, I did not quite remember who poor Spectra Vondergeist truly was… I know why now.
Most unexpectedly, the golem sentinels get back on their feet, fighting the invisible force pushing them down, and slowly walking towards her. On instinct, she pours more power over them.
For years I haunted around with a huge void in mind, a gap I couldn't breach, I had to do something to fill it in, so yeah, I subconsciously created my own past without even knowing. Doesn't matter anyway, since I can recall all my past now, every dark and bloody detail about what truly happened back then…
Waving her hands, an unnecessary gesture with a much greater purpose behind, she commands her chains to seize her enemies, and obeying her thoughts, they snare them and leaves dangling heads down, side by side.
How you ask?
Something about being here, I get flashbacks of Polterghoul's life, a life I know is not real, threatening with taking over my own identity, filling the gaps in my memory but they're not empty, just dark, and when they tried force themselves in… I guess they forced out my real memories of my life as a human and my early years as a ghost… don't know why, don't really care — they just flooded my mind, and it was painful and frightening at first, as I didn't know what was real and wasn't but I quickly figured it out. The memory of how I died helped, is a good marker… no wonder I had the habit of telling those stories.
Here you're probably thinking I'm blessed, I have my answer at last, my wish granted. The thing with wishes is, you know the tale of monkey's paw? That same shit! I wanted to know who I really was, and now I can't stop knowing! Oh my soul, I can't stop knowing!
The ball and chain that she wears as belt hurls itself at them as if by it's own volution, though truly is only a reaction to its mistress's desires, striking with an unstoppable force behind, aimed at their heads
All those memories, even the good ones, are only carriers of pain, all that joy, all that was taken from me!
I had a castle! I actually lived a castle and for a while I even believed that was also a lie of my own making, but I did! I had a castle, and I was meant to have a wedding — I was engaged with a boy I loved since we were kids and whose name I forgot, whose face and voice I utterly forgot and even now is all stranger to me, and it pains me!
The ball strikes once again with more power —
It fills me with so much rage… what he took from me… I can't get it back, and I know I shall never find the justice I deserve!
— again, and again, until it shatters a second head.
I always feared to become one of them, I struggled to understand.
Ever wondered how vengeful spirits are born? This is it, from a never answered cry for justice that grows unsatisfied and ignored till it bursts and becomes a sour and burning never ending desire for vengeance!
As her pain takes over, her ghostly aura bursts into a raging violet fire, and she becomes a true sight from Hell.
Then a violet blazing metal ball plunges itself through the rest of the sentinels, and the useless and lifeless chunks of them rain on the floor, consumed by ectoplasmatic violet flames.
I am afraid I have become one of them now…
And a good thing it is, you see. At the end my Polterghoul powers are just like regular ghost powers with a boost, just as with regular ghost powers the stronger I feel the stronger they get, and believe me when I say… this pain, you have seen nothing of it yet.
Mustering all her self control, she pushes her pain back inside, just where it belongs, and the flames that have bursted over her chains fade away. Controlling her pain is easier now after the initial shock, but it doesn't mean is not there...
"You can come out now. Is safe."
"I don't think is safe anywhere near you," she says poking her head down from the duct
"Just get your asses down!" shouts, pulling both girls down and keeping them hovering in the air.
"Ok, don't be so touchy," Cat Tastrophe exclaims struggling against the force that holds her against her will.
"Nice to see your shoulder is better."
"Still scored. Thank you."
"Sure. This is Polterghoul, we got the objective."
"Roger. Wait for extraction portal." Ms. Dead Fast answers.
