26 George and Ray Go Ghost Hunting
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Early Sunday morning George drove, with Ray occupying the passenger side of the front, north of Seattle and then east. She had found a church on the Internet to expand her ghost purge campaign. She parked on a scenic hillside dirt turnoff overlooking the target church and just off from a paved street. She liked the view from here. The church was about a mile, maybe two, on the other side of a pleasant enough valley, very peaceful. The surrounding high tops of the hills were blanketed with trees and not built up probably by design and strict zoning. She looked over at Ray. He stared ahead. It was obvious he didn't want to be doing this, but what better way to learn about ghosts than from a ghost.
Last month she had tried walking into a church not far from their house and just saw the back ends of two ghosts scampering through the walls. She drove to another and before she got inside she could see ghosts fleeing every which way through the walls. That same day she tried parking a block or two from a third one and ghosting in. This time she had some luck and caught three, but she saw several just out of her reach get away. She sent the three into their lights. One guy wouldn't shut the fuck up until she shut him down and helped him on his way. What was it with these people? They needed to just let go and head over to whatever higher enlightenment was waiting for them. She couldn't understand this stubborn refusal to cross over. No one asked her whether she wanted to get held over.
Ray seemed like the guy to consult here given he was their very own resident ghost. She reviewed with him what had happened last Sunday. "So, Ray, what am I doing wrong?"
"George, I'm not clear on why you think this is a good idea, I mean hunting down every ghost and sending them over. Most of these people are not anything like those ones who beat the crap out of John."
She put a little menace in the look she gave him in reaction to that little bit of puffy talk. He stopped talking. For a guy who used to murder people for a living he could be awfully sensitive. He sure wasn't this way when he shot her three times…in the back, no less. Those little pieces of lead took days to work their way out. It's a good thing she's not allergic to lead. She looked away. Maybe his dying changed him.
He picked up on the implied threat and bowed to the freight train sitting next to him and aimed his way. "You're the boss. I'm just saying."
"You saw what they did to John. And that crazy bitch put them up to it."
"How about I work the ghost community? Why don't we get them on our side?"
"If they're not here anymore, then there's nothing she can get them to do."
"I'm just saying you've got this attitude like you're going to destroy the village to save..."
"Ray. All these ghosts should be on the other side."
"Meigan's not."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Why didn't you get rid of her when you had the chance?"
George was starting to lose patience with their resident ghost mascot. "I would have...but something...upstairs told me to let her go."
"And why would they do that?"
"Ray. How the fuck do I know?"
"Look, Boss. I'm just saying there's more going on here than is obvious. Maybe we should..."
"Maybe we should focus on the immediate goal, which is to find a way to help these poor souls get the fuck where they belong. I can't believe how many are running loose. I had no idea there were so many."
"You never let any go?"
"Just two. You, and that was because I was working alone and had to play the victim for the cops, and then Meigan, and that wasn't my choice." George studied Ray's face. He didn't want to help her on this. That much was clear. But she couldn't in good conscience allow these threats to John and Tommy run free now that it looked like Meigan was making another run on them. Alone she was dangerous, but with Dave out of prison... Anyway. Trip was worried he and Charlotte were at the top of his dear sister's hit list. He thought she might have access to funds in hidden accounts. He confided in her and Rube that their old man taught them all to secrete money away for emergencies. Trip told her that he woke up in a cold sweat early one morning with the crystal clear thought that if he were in his dear sister's ghost shoes he would use dear dependent Dave to access the money put away from prying IRS eyes and come back for a rematch. He wasn't sleeping well at all. Rube wasn't that devious and was doubtful, but she could see Trip's point. Ahh, she knew Ray's weak spot. "You know Ray that bitch Meigan will come after Tommy?"
"I never met the woman, but from what I heard I would worry about Reggie, too. Reggie after all was the one to pull the trigger putting two bullets into her."
And he knew her weak spot, too. George was well aware of that and didn't like to think about it. With that innocuous seeming little murder Reggie likely put herself near the top of Meigan's very short list of people she would endeavor to see join her. It really agitated her this sitting waiting for them to come at the people she cared about. Meigan couldn't do anything to her. She was already dead, but Reggie... "Help me here, Ray. Let's try it my way, and later...well later we'll do what we have to. Why can't I get close to these ghosts?"
He shrugged. "OK, Boss. I don't agree with this approach, but..." He looked her way. "Reapers stand out like beacons among the living."
"You told John that. Is it really true?" She narrowed her eyes. Taylor said something about this, too, but she wondered how true it was. Without ghosting or physical contact, George couldn't reliably tell a reaper from one of the living.
"It's something we don't talk about with those not of our kind. You reapers all give off a warning..."
She was sure Ray did not want to do this and could well be trying to BS her here. She played dumb. "Ray, what the fuck are you talking about? What exactly is this warning?"
"George, really, reapers have bit of a glow to the skin, any skin that is showing."
She looked at him for a sign he was pulling some joke, perhaps in some misguided attempt to divert her. But he seemed serious. But it was awfully convenient that only ghosts could see this difference, not reapers or John.
"And, Boss, sometimes you positively glow like a big lighthouse. It's really kinda scary from our point of view."
This sounded like a crock... "So...I glow...all of the time…like a lighthouse? Really?"
"You have times when you just shimmer near to a Mason or a Daisy and then others when you're like a lighthouse. That's why you will never see a ghost in the Waffle Hell House."
"The what?" Now that she sat down and talked to him Ray was a font of fascinating new facts...or bullshit. And she bet none of this was anywhere on Wikipedia. But it would explain why she had to hide herself for those graveyard reaps.
"That's what they call where your particular nest gathers and the Hell kinda got attached because of you."
"Nest? Like we're vampires? Hell House? Oh, Jesus Christ. Ray..." She sat back and turned to look out at the far side of the valley.
"When you started sending ghosts over last year, after the warehouse, you terrified the whole community. And now that you've started up again raiding the churches you've got everyone on edge. They've got scouts watching for you now at all the churches near the Hell House."
She turned to watch him. He looked like he had more to say. She waited eyes narrowed. Ray had saved Tommy more than once and earned their trust, her trust. He also probably saved her mother. Well, she wouldn't hold that against him. Dear Mom had gone over the really deep end shooting her like that. Fucking bitch. God damn her. She got focused on Ray again.
"And I didn't know about it at the time but I found out later, the community sent two volunteers to discuss things with you...ambassadors. Those two women who showed up at the house while I was out..."
"I had them into their lights..."
"Before they could explain themselves. Well, that really horrified the community."
"Ray." She took his arm. He was startled. She let it go. He looked big, she looked small, but the truth was she could throw him around like a baseball. "They shouldn't be scared. I just want them all sent over where they belong."
"Well, Boss, they don't want to go for whatever reasons they each have. I've got Tommy. Others...we all have our reasons." He let that sink in. "And, there's one more thing you should know. Ghosts need a line of sight on a reaper approaching, but any ghost can sense their own reaper well before they can see them."
"What?" She couldn't help chuckling at that thought. "Tic toc tic toc."
Ray laughed hard. "Yeah. Tic toc tic toc the Captain can hear his nemesis coming for him. But the bad thing, you see, is that it will be very hard for you to sneak up on dear Meigan. She'll know you're coming."
"And you know this how?"
"Because I know you're coming long before I see you."
"Well, it's nice you and I have something special." She smiled to reassure him. "But you know I won't eat you, Captain."
He smiled. "OK. I'm just saying it'll be really hard to sneak up on her. You're like an alarm bell, a siren going off."
"Duly noted." Maybe if she listened more he would have mentioned this sooner.
He looked down at the church. "So. The goal is to get inside and put a hold on the cluster probably going on down there."
"The cluster?"
"The cluster. It's what we call our gatherings. We all cluster in a circle to talk things over."
She never thought of ghosts having a community. It wasn't like she was hurting them. They were just ghosts and she was a reaper, and her job, her mission, nay her calling was to get them over to the other side. Except for Ray here, all the ghosts she talked to were newly dead people and they were pretty much all in shock, and they couldn't escape her. She really hadn't thought about what the ghosts who elected not to cross over did with themselves. Out of sight out of mind. Because the fact was she never saw them. If Ray here wasn't pulling her leg it's no wonder she didn't see ghosts. How many were there hanging around? "OK, Ray what to do here?"
"Well. Probably cover yourself head to toe. Pull that hood over your face and pull your hands up into the sleeves. And then push your ghosting as far as you can. And...well...come at them from above...that would be ideal. Ghosts tend to think in terms of two dimensions even though they can move in three."
George got out of the SUV and looked around. No one was in sight. "Let's go."
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Ray did not want to do this. George could be a bit head strong and on this she couldn't get it out of her head to whack-a-mole every ghost in sight - present company excepted. He hadn't spent a lot of time in the community, but he knew that gang that went after John last year was not typical. From what John had told him they sounded bat-shit insane. But no matter what he said George suspected he was biased. He had his reasons for not going over. As a rule they all did and given the nature of the community no one pushed anyone to go or not go. It was completely up to each individual. What did it matter about the when anyway measured against eternity?
Then she stopped and looked off into the distance. He had seen reapers pause like this many times before. Thank God. He looked up to the sky. Thank you Lord.
George wasn't praying, she said, "Shit." She got back into the SUV and he went through the door and occupied the seat next to her. Her phone sounded. She was not a happy camper.
"Yeah, Rube. I got them. Two reaps." She looked over at him. "We're actually out here not far from the location." She listened. "With Ray. We were about to raid a church when these came through." She looked over at Ray with her eyebrows signaling danger. Oh, oh. Rube must have said something about their recent talk. "I talked him into it. No. OK. I understand." She disconnected. He expected her to tear into him, but she said, "Ray, ever been on a reap before?"
"Let me guess...somebody's going to die."
She backed the SUV out and onto the street. The reaps would happen about an hour apart at a house a few miles from here, probably on the other side of this town. It took 20 minutes to drive down to and across the town to a neighborhood with widely separated houses on streets with no sidewalks. George slowed as they got close to a small house among several trees. She said, "We're going to have to park out of sight so we don't attract attention." She drove on for almost a mile until she found a mini-mall with a gas station next door on a cross street with a light.
She filled the SUV up paying cash and then parked in front of a small used bookstore. "Perfect." She got out and he followed. She went inside and started looking the titles over.
After a few minutes she asked the guy at the register where she could get some coffee. He pointed down towards the left outside. He said, "You have to drink it outside."
Ray saw that store as they came in and was pretty sure so did she.
She walked out and towards the convenience store but passed on by and walked into an area between two buildings. She looked around and then ghosted. "Let's go. We don't have a lot of time."
They moved back towards the house and within a few minutes were inside. There were two people. One was a woman fussing over a medical machine with attachments running to the other person. He was a young teen boy, bald, on the bed. He looked like he was going out on his own. George reaped him and moved off. Ray knew that George was not in natural causes so he was trying to work things out. The woman took out a Bible and pulled a chair over to the boy. She had marked several pages and he could see passages underlined in red. The boy was asleep it seemed to Ray. She started reading not much above a whisper like she didn't want to disturb the quiet in the house. Ray could hear a big clock ticking in the next room. The medical machine was making a low whirring sound.
George said, "She's the other reap in a bit less than an hour."
Ray looked around. "George, I don't see how this is going down. You think maybe someone's coming...?"
George looked at him and he saw a different side of her. He was used to her face glowing - and anyway she wasn't radiating so much now - and he didn't get so creeped out anymore by those dark eyes set inside the overall shimmering face. She wasn't showing her ill tempered side nor was she impatient. She seemed to be studying him. She returned to watching the woman and then said, "She's the mother. In a few minutes, probably after she's done reading a few more passages from that Bible, she will give him something, an overdose, that will kill him. I suspect she's already put him to sleep so he couldn't watch her do her final preps. After the deed is done she will agonize, more or less, maybe read some more, and then in 20 or 30 minutes or a bit more she will finish placing that rope over that beam near the ceiling and around her neck. She will then kick the chair out and in a little more than 50 minutes from now she will herself be dead." She moved over and he followed. Ray hadn't noticed a few facts as they moved through the house, but he could see them clearly enough now. There was a wooden kitchen chair with a high back out of its normal place under a beam running below the staircase to the upstairs. And there was a long heavy rope on a cabinet not far from the chair. It was already noosed and ready to go.
"Oh, damn. George..." What was he going to say? He had seen a lot of dead bodies, many of whom he killed himself. He had seen many ghosts, but not their dying. She watched his reaction and then turned back to the woman.
She had stopped reading and was standing still looking down on the face of her sleeping son. She waited a long two or three minutes and then moved to inject something into his IV. She bowed her head in prayer. Ray wanted to stop her. He moved closer and could see the tears streaming down her cheeks. The boy was falling into death. She looked in shock. Ray turned to see George watching him. The boy appeared next to her.
He looked startled. "What...Mom?" He saw his mother and Ray standing next to her. He frowned. "Who are you?" He noticed George standing to his right. "Who are you people?" He moved closer to his mother. "Mom? What happened?"
The boy's face seemed to relax and the frown disappeared. George must be calming his soul. "Harry, you died. I'm here to help you cross over." She had already picked up his name from something in this room.
He looked her way. "I died?"
She nodded. "Let's take a walk, outside."
Harry frowned again. He turned towards his mother, who had taken to her chair and opened the Bible again. "I can't leave..."
George said, "She'll be along soon enough. We'll wait for her outside. Come with me."
They left through the wall. Ray stood next to the seated woman. George was wrong. The woman only read one passage and didn't agonize at all. She went over to the rope and tied it to a strong base on one side of a large bookcase. She put the rope over the beam easily enough. He bet she practiced this part, but she didn't get the next step right. He wanted either to stop her, or help her get it right. He had murdered more than a few in which he made it look like a suicide. Her noose was knotted in a sloppy way and the set up wasn't high enough. The woman wasn't near heavy enough and damn, it just was not high enough. Ray glanced at the clock on the wall. She stood up on the chair, got her balance, and then kicked the chair out. As he expected, her neck didn't come close to breaking. He could see it would take her a very long time before she would be joining her son. She struggled flailing wildly. Death was now inevitable, but not going to be quick. Ray followed after George and the boy to wait for the mother for their final trip together into those lights.
After the two souls crossed over George and Ray headed back to the SUV. She emerged from ghosting in the alley behind some garbage cans. She walked out of the alley and stopped short. They had a little surprise waiting at the bookstore - the SUV was gone.
Ray expected something more, but all George said was, "Son-of-a-Bitch. Not again." She pulled out her phone and called up an app. Another minute and they were back in the alley and she was ghosting away. He followed. She found the SUV parked in back of an auto repair garage a few miles away. The main garage door was open and the inside of the building was dark. They could see auto parts strewn about the floor and benches. No one was in sight and she emerged from ghosting. She did a walk around of her SUV. No damage that he could see. "Let's go." She opened the driver's door.
Maybe her voice and the door opening was heard by the guy who Ray saw come quickly out of the dark of the garage. "Hey, who the fuck are you?"
Now the volcano erupted. She shut the door and turned on him. She grabbed him and threw him 15 feet at least. The kid hit the garage brick wall hard and lay there. He didn't move. He wasn't dead. Ray heard him groan. George started walking toward him. Her face was brighter than her baseline. When she got like this it was scary. She glowed so her brown eyes disappeared becoming two dark pits among all that brightness. This was the monster his kind saw coming for them.
He said, "George. Let him go. It's OK. Let's be on our way."
She looked his way and he saw real anger there. She turned back and moved closer to the kid. She looked like she was just getting started. This was not good. "George. He didn't do it."
She stopped. "What the fuck you talking about, Ray? He stole it."
"No, George. I mean. You're pissed at your mom. He didn't shoot you. She did."
She turned on him, her face twisted. The two dark pits fixed on him. And for that long moment it looked like he might find out what's on the other side of those lights. Then something let go inside her.
"Let's get the fuck out of here."
She was stubborn. She didn't say anything to him. Twenty minutes later, he could see she was driving back toward that scenic overlook. She wouldn't look at him, either. But, he could see tears falling down this side of her glowing cheek.
"Fuck her. My own mother shot me, Ray." She drove a bit more. "At least his mother killed him because she loved him."
"George, she doesn't understand."
"Ray. Did it ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe, she understands all too well."