*Here we go with chapter 3, I would like to say thanks to Hildebrant for her advice even though I had managed to write the bound woman before I read her review. thanx for the help!*
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Chapter 3
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Dennis had spent the time between him getting up and going to Cyrus' house stressing over going to the hospital to catch the 'Withered Lover' as Cyrus had called her. He was actually scared of going. He was sure his mother haunted the place, and he was scared of her. She had had to be killed in order for him to live. You see, before he was born the doctors told his mother there was something wrong with his placement in her womb and since they didn't have the technology to save both of them one had to die. They saved him only because his father wanted them to. If it were up to his mother he wouldn't be here right now and sometimes he wondered if it wouldn't have been better that way.
His father used to visit Dennis' grandma before she died and one day they found his dead body on an operating table. His stomach had been cut out and his throat had been slit. Dennis knew his mother had done it, she was mad because his father saved him and not her, and now he was scared to go to the hospital. He was sure it was his last day alive, surely she would kill him.
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They were standing in front of St. Jude's hospital. Dennis could already feel the presence of many spirits. What Dennis didn't get is why Cyrus knew where this ghost was without his help. He guessed that he probably tapped the hospital records to find a suitable ghost for his collection.
"Well men, lets get inside and set up our stuff." Cyrus said and proceeded to lead his men into the building. Dennis was one of the last one's to go inside the hospital. He dreaded what was to come.
"Dennis, come over here." Cyrus called him. Dennis walked over to where Cyrus was standing. "Can you feel her?" He asked.
"Well, not really there are too many spirits here to tell which is her, I'd have to touch something that belonged to her in order to root out her spirit." Dennis was now willing to touch something as long as it go him out of this hospital sooner. Cyrus showed him a picture of a family. Husband, wife, two kids. He swiftly placed his hand on the picture willing to process to end quickly. He got images of a fire, saving kids, pain, burning, hospital visits, and black. He was glad this one went faster.
"Do you know where she is?" Cyrus asked him. Dennis just pointed to the end of the hall. Cyrus signaled to the men and they all put on their glasses. Dennis did the same. He looked at the ghost. One side of her body was burned badly, the other half wasn't. She had a motherly look about her. Then they opened the cage and started playing the mantra. The mantra was keeping her in the area but she didn't want it to. A panicked look crossed her face and every one heard her desperate plea. It even brought some people to tears. It was so sad. "Please. Please don't take me. My family, I have to watch over them, my daughter asked me to. Please take someone else, not me. My family, my family. I need to get to my family!" But she was slowly being pulled closer to the box. Suddenly a worker with a piece of the etched glass came up behind her and pushed her into the cage with it. They quickly closed the door once she was inside. Unlike the other ghosts she didn't claw, or scream or bang on the cage. She just leaned into one of the corners and cried. It caused most to break into fresh tears, but what was done was done.
While the men were cleaning up Dennis heard a voice behind him somewhere. It sounded kind of sweet so he followed it. Who knows maybe his mother wasn't mad at him.
He followed the voice to and empty room three halls down from the workers. He heard the voice say hello and he put on his glasses so he could see her. And see her he did. She was tall and skinny like him, she had brown hair like him, but unlike him she had brown eyes. He got his eyes from his dad. He also got most of his facial features from his dad. She smiled at him but it didn't seem right. It wasn't a 'I'm happy to see you smile', it was more of a 'Now I have you in my clutches smile.' It scared him.
" Hello Dennis." she said to him. (A.N. She can talk to him because she is a blood relative)
"What do you want from me?" He asked ready to run at any time.
"Why nothing child. You are my son, I love you. I'm glad to finally see you all grown up." She was still smiling at him.
"Really, then why did you kill dad?"
"How did you know about that sweetheart?"
"I knew it was you. Who else had reason to hate him?"
"I always told that man not to have you believing in ghosts. And here I find out he went against my word. I killed him because he was a bad man. He would have hurt you."
"He never taught me to believe in ghosts. For me it's kind of hard not to. You see, if I touch anything that belongs to a ghost I go into convulsions and see flashes of how they died, when they died, and where they haunt. I can also tell if there mean or not. If I touch anybody that's alive, except for a friend of mine who had 'gifts' a powerful as mine too, I get flashes of their life. I helped catch that ghost with those men tonight and I'm going to help them catch more because it's what I do. Now I know you didn't bring me here to chat so, what do you what?" He finished by restating his question from earlier.
"Well, now that you mention it, I would like something." She said, her smile returning.
"Good, now what is it?" Dennis said and looked at her. Her grin turned evil looking and she pulled a knife from behind her back. She stood up and when Dennis tried to get away from her the door behind him shut itself. Dennis was trapped.
"Do you know what I want sweetheart?" She asked.
"No, what do you want?" He asked scared of the answer.
"Your life!" She snarled out and lunged at him.
He dodged out of the way and ran to the other side of the room but soon she was over there too. He kept having to dodge out of her way and finally when he made it back to the other side of the room he tried to open the door finding that she was holding it shut from the inside. He looked up for a second and she ran into him throwing him on the bed. She then held the knife to his throat and was about to slice it when there was a pounding on the door. His mother temporarily unnerved allowed him the space he needed to get to the door and try to open it again. This time it worked a Cleo came stumbling in. When she saw his mom her mouth dropped, she looked from his mom to him and back again and she mouthed 'your mother' to Dennis and he could only nod his head. This time his mother went after Cleo but Cleo pulled herself and him out into the hallway and they began the run back to where the workers were. He could feel her following them but once they were in the light of the workers area she stopped. Cleo and Dennis stopped running and hunched over trying to catch their breath.
"What was she doing?" Cleo said in between gasps for air.
"She was trying to kill me." Dennis answered.
"Why?" Cleo asked. Dennis then told her about her mother's death and the death of his father. When he was done she took his hand and told him she was sorry. He told her not to worry about it. He'd been through worse.
Cyrus came over and told them that he would see all of them tomorrow. He asked Dennis to come over an hour early tomorrow. They had things to discuss. Then he left. Dennis slowly made his was to his car parked in the back of the parking lot, the whole time he could hear his mother calling him back, but he paid no attention. To him life had gotten easier. He had faced his mother and got out alive. If he could do that then he could do anything. In an odd way he began to look forward to tomorrow night's hunt. He didn't know if he should be worried or ecstatic, but he was too tired to care at the moment.
*Hey!!! How was it. Did ya like it! I hope ya did! Please review lots and lots! Until the next chapter my friends!*
