Jesse's POV.
**************************************************************************** **************
'No!' I yelled, as I saw what he was going to do a split second before he did it. Susannah fell into the coffin with a loud thud, and Slater slammed the door closed, before kicking a pile of wet soil over the top. I could still hear her screaming . . . Mi Susannah se atrapó!
I lunged at him, spitting with rage. 'You promised she'd be safe, usted mal que barre mestizo!'
Slater dodged my abuse, smirking evilly. He stood very tall and proud, and looked mighty pleased with himself.
'She is safe, Da Silva. I just . . . uh, didn't want her to have to witness your death, you know?' he said smoothly, taking a step toward me. Lightning flashed violently around me, illumining the sky for milliseconds before it returned to a ghostly darkness, and casting his face into darkness again. Heavy clouds drifted quickly past the full moon, and in the distance, I heard all the Carmel dogs howling.
Panting slightly with fear, I snarled, 'I do not intend to lose to you, Slater. Yes, I agree that the lady should not witness a horrific death tonight. Mind you, I have not been know to be the violent type, however, for your sake, I'll have to temporarily ignore my morals. This is just between you and me, Slater . . . Apenas entre usted y mí . . .'
Slater blinked, and then began to laugh dully. 'Oh, Da Silva, I have no intention of fighting for her, uh, on my own. It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm going to play dirty to get what I want . . .'
I froze immediately. 'What are you saying?' I asked dangerously.
Slater grinned, and looked humorously around the graveyard. 'Well, let's just say that I have a lot of people in low places . . .' With that, he jammed his eyes shut, and looked right up into the stormy sky, which crackled perilously with electricity.
Suddenly, to my abject horror, I saw a hand erupt from the grave beside me. The ghost of a rather alarming man forced himself out of the ground, looking quite murderous. I realized that all the graves in the cemetery were suffering this fate. These spirits seemed to have been ripped back from their final destinations, just to aid Slater. Nombres di Dios, I even saw Felix Diego! But not Maria, funnily enough . . . I wondered why she wasn't there also, for she definitely hated me enough to want a third chance to get rid of me.
'Hello Hector,' he greeted me with a curt, loathing nod, advancing on me. All these spirits surrounding me seemed to be casting me looks of hatred, even the small children that were drawing very near to me. Slater and I were the only two that were still alive.
'Kill him!' roared Slater, pointing dynamically at me, and with what sounded like war cries, all the ghosts charged at me.
Most of these ghosts very obviously amateurs, seeing as they all tried to physically strike me first, but I wasn't a mediator. This was Susannah's life that I had, and it wasn't fully my own, so I could only see and hear these ghosts, but not touch them. So, it wasn't bad, with hands and feet swiping through me for the first two minutes, but I was much aware that these ghosts had made realizations when one seized a tomb stone and swiped it at my head. I squatted down, but only just in time. I glared over at Slater, who was standing back, his eyes in dark slits of wicked glee, and his arms crossed, a dark aura radiating from him. My eyes were wide with shock. What could I do?
Suddenly, I had an idea. Maybe I could try and materialize? I squinted my eyes shut, and willed myself to be elsewhere, just like I had done in ghosthood. And, to my relief and amazement, it worked. I was transported to the far corner of the cemetery, which succeeded to bewilder the enraged spirits.
'He's over there!' yelled Slater in anger, and the heated cries began again. I looked over at one ghost, who looked like he was before my time, even. He was a full-blown cowboy, with the hat, the rope, the spurs, everything. A clap of thunder stopped them all in their tracks, however, and the light pole in the middle of the graveyard was flickering dangerously with electrical energy. Suddenly, I had a plan. I wasn't certain of how triumphant it would turn out to be, but I had no other options.
As they continued their rampage towards me, I dived at the cowboy, and seized the rope that hung from his waist. Unfortunately, the very end was attached to him . . . No matter! Using that as a tool, I dragged him to the light pole, and then I ran in a circle around all the ghosts, so that they were all tied messily to the light pole with the ghostly rope. It took all my strength to hold them all there, but strength was one thing I had plenty of. They were all yelling in protest, and Slater was watching, his mouth wide.
'You may be interested to know, Slater,' I yelled at him over the screaming of the spirits, 'that of all of earth's elements, fire, wind, water, rock and so on . . . only electricity affects the undead. I know this, having witnessed a ethereal friend of mine getting struck by lightning.'
Slater blanched horribly.
'So, let us see if I was only hallucinating!' I roared, tugging the spectral rope, and right on cue, a powerful bolt of deadly electricity struck the top of the light pole, traveled down the metal, and spread across the sea of trapped spirits. I let go of the rope just before it reached me. The bulb fizzled out completely, and all the ghosts immediately evaporated. I assumed that they had all moved on again. Lightning is very useful at times like these . . .
Slater stood in appalled fascination. I dusted my hands on my pants, breathing heavily.
At last he spoke.
'Nice party trick, Da Silva,' he said icily, his face contorting in hatred, 'But you'll have to do better than that!'
'La quemadura en el infierno, Slater,' I snarled, somehow suppressing my rage.
And at that moment, I heard my Susannah scream.
**************************************************************************** ***********
Susannah's POV.
**************************************************************************** ***********
I was terrified. I didn't know what was happening to Jesse or Paul on the ground level. I couldn't believe that anything like this could still happen to me, after everything that I'd been through in . . . well, I don't know where it was, actually, but yeah. This was way too freaky! I could have been claustrophobic, but did Paul even stop to think about any possible fears that I might have? Oh, no, just let Paulie get whatever Paulie wants, because Paulie is all scawy and powerful, and is the biggest jackass ever known to human freakin' kind!
And he was going to kill me Jesse!
I tried kicking against the coffin roof, but I couldn't. I couldn't even move through it anymore! I was totally trapped, and I had no way of escaping. I was in their for ages. I mean, who would have known that terrifying situations could be so boring?
Then, all of a sudden, the lid burst open, and I felt myself flying out. I screamed, and I saw Jesse's head whip around to face me. I sprawled out on the grass, and looked around to see that the cemetery looked like a war zone. All the graves were dug up, or something! What, did priests put, like, spells on coffins so ghosts can't get out or something? Mind you, they probably did . . .
Then, as per usual, I felt Paul's arms slide around my waist, and haul me up. I wheezed as he squashed me right against him.
'On second thought,' he said, 'I think Suze can watch this. So she can see who's the real man. So she can see what happens when stupid little ghosts piss of Paul Slater-'
WHACK.
Paul staggered after my lash out. Now I was pissed . . .
'Jesse is NOT stupid!' I screamed at Paul, kicking him in the stomach, 'And I sincerely hope that he is not little, and even if he is, I'll love him anyway!'
Did I just say that?
Ew . . .
That was when I saw something that gave me great relief.
Strolling toward me, Jesse, and Pauls' turned back, was . . .
Father Dom!
In his hand, he held two objects that caused a warmth to swim throughout my entire body. In his left hand, he held a large metal club, and in the other, he held a book. Silently, he placed the book down, and began to approach Paul, trying not to get his attention. Jesse's eyes were wide.
Then, just as Father Dom was about to strike, he stepped on a twig. Paul was halfway through turning around when impulsively, I did the only thing a girl can do to get a guy's undivided attention. It was shameful, and was a completely disgusting thing to do in front of Jesse, but yeah.
I flashed him.
I KNOW! It was gross, but it sure caught his eye, all right. It was nauseating, how he was leering at them . . . them being . . . well, you know.
But, most regrettably, it shocked poor Father Dom so much that he felt it was necessarily to yell 'Susannah!' in this totally aghast way. And that completely made my action pointless.
Paul spun around furiously.
'You!' he roared at the priest, and jumped at him, knocking him to the ground. Father Dom managed to bash his head on a gravestone, intelligent thing that he is, rendering his with a mild concussion. Well, if the way he started jibbering like an idiot was any indication. Jesse ran in, and threw Paul off Father Dom, and began hell laying into him, pummeling him in the guts heavily. Paul was groaning. I crawled over to Father Dom, and seized his book.
'Father D, can you hear me?' I asked desperately, holding up his head. I saw that it was bleeding.
'Yes, I can hear you Susannah, will you pass me a pineapple,' he said dazedly.
I looked at him in bewilderment. 'Are you sure you can understand me?'
'You are coming perfectly clear to me, Sister Ernestine!' he snapped, and began to talk gibberish again. I rolled my eyes. Maybe I could get something out of him while Jesse was, uh . . . keeping Paul busy.
'What page do I turn to in your book for instructions on how to do an exorcism?' I asked him quickly.
'None of that voodoo business, young lady! A good catholic exorcism, I want! Flying chickens!' he scowled.
'Yes!' I said in frustration, 'I'm doing a good catholic exorcism, now tell me what page to go to!'
Then, he sat up, massaged his head, and looked very sane all of a sudden. 'Susannah, it isn't time for a exorcism. It is at times like these that one must resort to more desperate measures-'
'What?!' I asked urgently.
Then again, his eyes rolled to the left. 'Now, Adam, kindly do not refer to Sister Ernestine as a broad,' he said vaguely.
'This is hopeless!' I shouted, and slicked through the book myself. Exorcisms . . . exorcisms . . . where do I find ex-
Huh? I stopped at a page that was sub-headed "Banishment." I skimmed the first lines.
"This is to only be used as a last resort, and is only to be used on the living. It will be ineffective to the undead. Banishment evicts the soul of a living person from their body, and simply banishes them to a section of Hell that is unnamed, and is otherwise refered to as the Realm of Eternal Suffering. Banishment is irreversible, and should only be used to evict possessive spirits from people, and never as a weapon. It is against the Catholic religion to use this, but has sometimes been necessary. The Christ was said to have immediate powers to do this, if ever Satan possessed one of his people. The Banish one's soul, you must maintain full view of them, and repeat these following words until the soul of the possessive spirit has been expelled from the body. Incantation: Ablegatio, pectus, regnum, aeternus, calamintosus!"
Well, it looked like this was the gold. Father Dom's eyes glazed over. Well, it Was up to me now . . . Slowly, I picked up the book, and held it right in front of my eyes. I tentatively tried all of the pronunciations, and then, I raised a furious gaze to Paul, who'd succeeded to throw Jesse off, and was now beating the crap out of him. Not good!
I began whispering, 'Ablegatio, pectus, regnum, aetrnus, calamintosus . . . ablegatio, pectus, regnum, aeternus, calamintosus . . .' Instantly, I saw Paul begin to glow black. My mouth fell open, and his skin began to become translucent, so I was able to see all the muscles and the ligaments and stuff. It was gross, but I realized that I had to keep repeating. Paul stopped, looked at his hands, and somehow, realized basically what I was doing.
'Suze, don't you dare!' he roared, throwing Jesse off of him entirely, and running over to me. I squeaked the word pectus, but I kept going. After about twenty repetitions, I'd memorized the Latin phrase, but I kept going. 'Ablegatio, pectus, regnum, aetrnus, calamintosus . . . ablegatio, pectus, regnum, aeternus, calamintosus . . . Ablegatio-'
'Suze, stop now, or I'll exorcise you!' Paul hissed, knocking the book to the ground below. Thunder cracked and rolled deafeningly, but I persevered.
'SUZE!' he roared, and seized me around the waist, throwing me against a tree - I screamed the word aeternus, but kept going - and yelling bloody murder, as his muscles and veins began translucent also, so that his skeleton was now visible! I mean, whoa!
'SUZE! I'LL TAKE YOU WITH ME! I'LL TAKE YOU DOWN WITH ME! YOU WON'T LIVE THROUGH THIS!' Paul roared in my face, trying to get me to stop the incantation, but I wouldn't. And that was when his bones seemed to turn invisible, and all that was left was a jet-black swarm of darkness. I assumed that it was his soul, and was black to indicate its sinfulness. That was when it tried to fly into me, like, through my eyes and through my mouth, but Jesse managed to swipe it away. Alas, a little bit of the black mist made its way into me, and instantly, I felt a bit of malevolence. I kept repeating the Latin words over and over again, until most of the mist began to turn to ash, and Paul's body reappeared as normal. It crumpled to the wet ground. Once I felt it was safe, I stopped chanting, and slid down the tree in horror.
'Jesse, are you all right?' I asked weakly, looking over at him.
Jesse nodded, staring at Paul in suspicion. 'What did you do, Susannah?'
'I dunno,' I said, 'I think I Banished him, or whatever. Read this, you might understand it more than me.' I passed him the book. I watched his eyebrows go up.
'Verdict?' I asked.
'What do you mean?'
'Oh, um, what do you think? Did I do the right thing?' I corrected myself.
Jesse frowned. 'Well, I hardly think that Father Dominic will approve of this specific method, but then, he was the one who was about to thump Slater over the head with a metal club. Hardly the actions of a catholic priest.'
I snorted. 'Yeah, you're right. But, do you know what happens to him now? Do you know if he's still alive?' I asked nervously.
Jesse examined Paul more closely. 'I think that he is still breathing, but his soul has been removed. He, as far as I know, will have no personality. He is now very vulnerable to ghost entrance, for he is a vacant body. It is the requirement of soul transference, basically, except this is very simple for a ghost to take over him now. Hope he gets someone who'll treat him as he deserves,' he added hatefully. Then, he looked back at me and smiled sexily. Well, he meant it to be a nice, caring, loving smile, but how could Jesse help being sexy?
He extended a hand, and gently helped me to stand. He locked me in a tight embrace, and didn't let go for several minutes. I wanted to stay in his grasp forever, because I felt so safe and wanted, but after a while, he did break away to stare down at my face.
And then I remembered the reality of the situation.
I was a ghost.
'Well, I guess you've finally gotten your life back. So what if I'm not there with you, I've had a good life. Short, but still nice. It's your turn to be happy,' I said, trying to sound enthusiastic for him and look like I wasn't about to dissolve into tears. He wasn't buying it though.
'Susannah,' he said seriously, and looked incredibly pained, as though these words were the most valuable words he'd ever spoken, 'As much as I want my life back, I will not take yours. You are only sixteen, and you will not forfeit your life to me. Not a chance, querida. Yo no causaré que usted aflija.'
I smiled sadly. 'Well, there's nothing we can do . . . Welcome to Carmel, 2003, Jesse.'
**************************************************************************** ****
Well, there's only ONE more chapter to go after this. You HAVE to review, guys, I want it up to at least 98, okayz? We love you all so much for the awesome reviews you've been doing. We're finally on holidays! We got through Year 8 without too many bruises, and we're going to Year 9 next year. Wish us luck!
You guys are all beautiful people, and we love the fact that you take the time to give us feedback on our writing. We sincerely hope that you've enjoyed reading this as much as we've enjoyed writing it. We hope to see you in another fanfic, but hey! What am I on about? There's still one more to go.
AND THERE'S GONNA BE FLUFF, I GUARANTEE!!!!
Love Lauren & Katie.
**************************************************************************** **************
'No!' I yelled, as I saw what he was going to do a split second before he did it. Susannah fell into the coffin with a loud thud, and Slater slammed the door closed, before kicking a pile of wet soil over the top. I could still hear her screaming . . . Mi Susannah se atrapó!
I lunged at him, spitting with rage. 'You promised she'd be safe, usted mal que barre mestizo!'
Slater dodged my abuse, smirking evilly. He stood very tall and proud, and looked mighty pleased with himself.
'She is safe, Da Silva. I just . . . uh, didn't want her to have to witness your death, you know?' he said smoothly, taking a step toward me. Lightning flashed violently around me, illumining the sky for milliseconds before it returned to a ghostly darkness, and casting his face into darkness again. Heavy clouds drifted quickly past the full moon, and in the distance, I heard all the Carmel dogs howling.
Panting slightly with fear, I snarled, 'I do not intend to lose to you, Slater. Yes, I agree that the lady should not witness a horrific death tonight. Mind you, I have not been know to be the violent type, however, for your sake, I'll have to temporarily ignore my morals. This is just between you and me, Slater . . . Apenas entre usted y mí . . .'
Slater blinked, and then began to laugh dully. 'Oh, Da Silva, I have no intention of fighting for her, uh, on my own. It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm going to play dirty to get what I want . . .'
I froze immediately. 'What are you saying?' I asked dangerously.
Slater grinned, and looked humorously around the graveyard. 'Well, let's just say that I have a lot of people in low places . . .' With that, he jammed his eyes shut, and looked right up into the stormy sky, which crackled perilously with electricity.
Suddenly, to my abject horror, I saw a hand erupt from the grave beside me. The ghost of a rather alarming man forced himself out of the ground, looking quite murderous. I realized that all the graves in the cemetery were suffering this fate. These spirits seemed to have been ripped back from their final destinations, just to aid Slater. Nombres di Dios, I even saw Felix Diego! But not Maria, funnily enough . . . I wondered why she wasn't there also, for she definitely hated me enough to want a third chance to get rid of me.
'Hello Hector,' he greeted me with a curt, loathing nod, advancing on me. All these spirits surrounding me seemed to be casting me looks of hatred, even the small children that were drawing very near to me. Slater and I were the only two that were still alive.
'Kill him!' roared Slater, pointing dynamically at me, and with what sounded like war cries, all the ghosts charged at me.
Most of these ghosts very obviously amateurs, seeing as they all tried to physically strike me first, but I wasn't a mediator. This was Susannah's life that I had, and it wasn't fully my own, so I could only see and hear these ghosts, but not touch them. So, it wasn't bad, with hands and feet swiping through me for the first two minutes, but I was much aware that these ghosts had made realizations when one seized a tomb stone and swiped it at my head. I squatted down, but only just in time. I glared over at Slater, who was standing back, his eyes in dark slits of wicked glee, and his arms crossed, a dark aura radiating from him. My eyes were wide with shock. What could I do?
Suddenly, I had an idea. Maybe I could try and materialize? I squinted my eyes shut, and willed myself to be elsewhere, just like I had done in ghosthood. And, to my relief and amazement, it worked. I was transported to the far corner of the cemetery, which succeeded to bewilder the enraged spirits.
'He's over there!' yelled Slater in anger, and the heated cries began again. I looked over at one ghost, who looked like he was before my time, even. He was a full-blown cowboy, with the hat, the rope, the spurs, everything. A clap of thunder stopped them all in their tracks, however, and the light pole in the middle of the graveyard was flickering dangerously with electrical energy. Suddenly, I had a plan. I wasn't certain of how triumphant it would turn out to be, but I had no other options.
As they continued their rampage towards me, I dived at the cowboy, and seized the rope that hung from his waist. Unfortunately, the very end was attached to him . . . No matter! Using that as a tool, I dragged him to the light pole, and then I ran in a circle around all the ghosts, so that they were all tied messily to the light pole with the ghostly rope. It took all my strength to hold them all there, but strength was one thing I had plenty of. They were all yelling in protest, and Slater was watching, his mouth wide.
'You may be interested to know, Slater,' I yelled at him over the screaming of the spirits, 'that of all of earth's elements, fire, wind, water, rock and so on . . . only electricity affects the undead. I know this, having witnessed a ethereal friend of mine getting struck by lightning.'
Slater blanched horribly.
'So, let us see if I was only hallucinating!' I roared, tugging the spectral rope, and right on cue, a powerful bolt of deadly electricity struck the top of the light pole, traveled down the metal, and spread across the sea of trapped spirits. I let go of the rope just before it reached me. The bulb fizzled out completely, and all the ghosts immediately evaporated. I assumed that they had all moved on again. Lightning is very useful at times like these . . .
Slater stood in appalled fascination. I dusted my hands on my pants, breathing heavily.
At last he spoke.
'Nice party trick, Da Silva,' he said icily, his face contorting in hatred, 'But you'll have to do better than that!'
'La quemadura en el infierno, Slater,' I snarled, somehow suppressing my rage.
And at that moment, I heard my Susannah scream.
**************************************************************************** ***********
Susannah's POV.
**************************************************************************** ***********
I was terrified. I didn't know what was happening to Jesse or Paul on the ground level. I couldn't believe that anything like this could still happen to me, after everything that I'd been through in . . . well, I don't know where it was, actually, but yeah. This was way too freaky! I could have been claustrophobic, but did Paul even stop to think about any possible fears that I might have? Oh, no, just let Paulie get whatever Paulie wants, because Paulie is all scawy and powerful, and is the biggest jackass ever known to human freakin' kind!
And he was going to kill me Jesse!
I tried kicking against the coffin roof, but I couldn't. I couldn't even move through it anymore! I was totally trapped, and I had no way of escaping. I was in their for ages. I mean, who would have known that terrifying situations could be so boring?
Then, all of a sudden, the lid burst open, and I felt myself flying out. I screamed, and I saw Jesse's head whip around to face me. I sprawled out on the grass, and looked around to see that the cemetery looked like a war zone. All the graves were dug up, or something! What, did priests put, like, spells on coffins so ghosts can't get out or something? Mind you, they probably did . . .
Then, as per usual, I felt Paul's arms slide around my waist, and haul me up. I wheezed as he squashed me right against him.
'On second thought,' he said, 'I think Suze can watch this. So she can see who's the real man. So she can see what happens when stupid little ghosts piss of Paul Slater-'
WHACK.
Paul staggered after my lash out. Now I was pissed . . .
'Jesse is NOT stupid!' I screamed at Paul, kicking him in the stomach, 'And I sincerely hope that he is not little, and even if he is, I'll love him anyway!'
Did I just say that?
Ew . . .
That was when I saw something that gave me great relief.
Strolling toward me, Jesse, and Pauls' turned back, was . . .
Father Dom!
In his hand, he held two objects that caused a warmth to swim throughout my entire body. In his left hand, he held a large metal club, and in the other, he held a book. Silently, he placed the book down, and began to approach Paul, trying not to get his attention. Jesse's eyes were wide.
Then, just as Father Dom was about to strike, he stepped on a twig. Paul was halfway through turning around when impulsively, I did the only thing a girl can do to get a guy's undivided attention. It was shameful, and was a completely disgusting thing to do in front of Jesse, but yeah.
I flashed him.
I KNOW! It was gross, but it sure caught his eye, all right. It was nauseating, how he was leering at them . . . them being . . . well, you know.
But, most regrettably, it shocked poor Father Dom so much that he felt it was necessarily to yell 'Susannah!' in this totally aghast way. And that completely made my action pointless.
Paul spun around furiously.
'You!' he roared at the priest, and jumped at him, knocking him to the ground. Father Dom managed to bash his head on a gravestone, intelligent thing that he is, rendering his with a mild concussion. Well, if the way he started jibbering like an idiot was any indication. Jesse ran in, and threw Paul off Father Dom, and began hell laying into him, pummeling him in the guts heavily. Paul was groaning. I crawled over to Father Dom, and seized his book.
'Father D, can you hear me?' I asked desperately, holding up his head. I saw that it was bleeding.
'Yes, I can hear you Susannah, will you pass me a pineapple,' he said dazedly.
I looked at him in bewilderment. 'Are you sure you can understand me?'
'You are coming perfectly clear to me, Sister Ernestine!' he snapped, and began to talk gibberish again. I rolled my eyes. Maybe I could get something out of him while Jesse was, uh . . . keeping Paul busy.
'What page do I turn to in your book for instructions on how to do an exorcism?' I asked him quickly.
'None of that voodoo business, young lady! A good catholic exorcism, I want! Flying chickens!' he scowled.
'Yes!' I said in frustration, 'I'm doing a good catholic exorcism, now tell me what page to go to!'
Then, he sat up, massaged his head, and looked very sane all of a sudden. 'Susannah, it isn't time for a exorcism. It is at times like these that one must resort to more desperate measures-'
'What?!' I asked urgently.
Then again, his eyes rolled to the left. 'Now, Adam, kindly do not refer to Sister Ernestine as a broad,' he said vaguely.
'This is hopeless!' I shouted, and slicked through the book myself. Exorcisms . . . exorcisms . . . where do I find ex-
Huh? I stopped at a page that was sub-headed "Banishment." I skimmed the first lines.
"This is to only be used as a last resort, and is only to be used on the living. It will be ineffective to the undead. Banishment evicts the soul of a living person from their body, and simply banishes them to a section of Hell that is unnamed, and is otherwise refered to as the Realm of Eternal Suffering. Banishment is irreversible, and should only be used to evict possessive spirits from people, and never as a weapon. It is against the Catholic religion to use this, but has sometimes been necessary. The Christ was said to have immediate powers to do this, if ever Satan possessed one of his people. The Banish one's soul, you must maintain full view of them, and repeat these following words until the soul of the possessive spirit has been expelled from the body. Incantation: Ablegatio, pectus, regnum, aeternus, calamintosus!"
Well, it looked like this was the gold. Father Dom's eyes glazed over. Well, it Was up to me now . . . Slowly, I picked up the book, and held it right in front of my eyes. I tentatively tried all of the pronunciations, and then, I raised a furious gaze to Paul, who'd succeeded to throw Jesse off, and was now beating the crap out of him. Not good!
I began whispering, 'Ablegatio, pectus, regnum, aetrnus, calamintosus . . . ablegatio, pectus, regnum, aeternus, calamintosus . . .' Instantly, I saw Paul begin to glow black. My mouth fell open, and his skin began to become translucent, so I was able to see all the muscles and the ligaments and stuff. It was gross, but I realized that I had to keep repeating. Paul stopped, looked at his hands, and somehow, realized basically what I was doing.
'Suze, don't you dare!' he roared, throwing Jesse off of him entirely, and running over to me. I squeaked the word pectus, but I kept going. After about twenty repetitions, I'd memorized the Latin phrase, but I kept going. 'Ablegatio, pectus, regnum, aetrnus, calamintosus . . . ablegatio, pectus, regnum, aeternus, calamintosus . . . Ablegatio-'
'Suze, stop now, or I'll exorcise you!' Paul hissed, knocking the book to the ground below. Thunder cracked and rolled deafeningly, but I persevered.
'SUZE!' he roared, and seized me around the waist, throwing me against a tree - I screamed the word aeternus, but kept going - and yelling bloody murder, as his muscles and veins began translucent also, so that his skeleton was now visible! I mean, whoa!
'SUZE! I'LL TAKE YOU WITH ME! I'LL TAKE YOU DOWN WITH ME! YOU WON'T LIVE THROUGH THIS!' Paul roared in my face, trying to get me to stop the incantation, but I wouldn't. And that was when his bones seemed to turn invisible, and all that was left was a jet-black swarm of darkness. I assumed that it was his soul, and was black to indicate its sinfulness. That was when it tried to fly into me, like, through my eyes and through my mouth, but Jesse managed to swipe it away. Alas, a little bit of the black mist made its way into me, and instantly, I felt a bit of malevolence. I kept repeating the Latin words over and over again, until most of the mist began to turn to ash, and Paul's body reappeared as normal. It crumpled to the wet ground. Once I felt it was safe, I stopped chanting, and slid down the tree in horror.
'Jesse, are you all right?' I asked weakly, looking over at him.
Jesse nodded, staring at Paul in suspicion. 'What did you do, Susannah?'
'I dunno,' I said, 'I think I Banished him, or whatever. Read this, you might understand it more than me.' I passed him the book. I watched his eyebrows go up.
'Verdict?' I asked.
'What do you mean?'
'Oh, um, what do you think? Did I do the right thing?' I corrected myself.
Jesse frowned. 'Well, I hardly think that Father Dominic will approve of this specific method, but then, he was the one who was about to thump Slater over the head with a metal club. Hardly the actions of a catholic priest.'
I snorted. 'Yeah, you're right. But, do you know what happens to him now? Do you know if he's still alive?' I asked nervously.
Jesse examined Paul more closely. 'I think that he is still breathing, but his soul has been removed. He, as far as I know, will have no personality. He is now very vulnerable to ghost entrance, for he is a vacant body. It is the requirement of soul transference, basically, except this is very simple for a ghost to take over him now. Hope he gets someone who'll treat him as he deserves,' he added hatefully. Then, he looked back at me and smiled sexily. Well, he meant it to be a nice, caring, loving smile, but how could Jesse help being sexy?
He extended a hand, and gently helped me to stand. He locked me in a tight embrace, and didn't let go for several minutes. I wanted to stay in his grasp forever, because I felt so safe and wanted, but after a while, he did break away to stare down at my face.
And then I remembered the reality of the situation.
I was a ghost.
'Well, I guess you've finally gotten your life back. So what if I'm not there with you, I've had a good life. Short, but still nice. It's your turn to be happy,' I said, trying to sound enthusiastic for him and look like I wasn't about to dissolve into tears. He wasn't buying it though.
'Susannah,' he said seriously, and looked incredibly pained, as though these words were the most valuable words he'd ever spoken, 'As much as I want my life back, I will not take yours. You are only sixteen, and you will not forfeit your life to me. Not a chance, querida. Yo no causaré que usted aflija.'
I smiled sadly. 'Well, there's nothing we can do . . . Welcome to Carmel, 2003, Jesse.'
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Well, there's only ONE more chapter to go after this. You HAVE to review, guys, I want it up to at least 98, okayz? We love you all so much for the awesome reviews you've been doing. We're finally on holidays! We got through Year 8 without too many bruises, and we're going to Year 9 next year. Wish us luck!
You guys are all beautiful people, and we love the fact that you take the time to give us feedback on our writing. We sincerely hope that you've enjoyed reading this as much as we've enjoyed writing it. We hope to see you in another fanfic, but hey! What am I on about? There's still one more to go.
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