Green Eyes on the Prize
byline: Anubis C. Soundwave
8. A drop of rain...
The group of ghosts, over Barrineau Plantation, look down at the chaos below.
"Will it work?" asks Bessie.
Dashiell drinks a bottle of ghostly root beer. "Shane had better pray that it does," he says.
"He wouldn't be the first one to pray, goyim," says a slender, dark-haired teenage male in simple black attire with a white shirt, wearing a wide-brimmed black hat.
"I just reckon, Hoss, that considering my clan's general temperament," says Dashiell, "that boy scion of mine done overlooked a lot."
"We all stand in need of prayer," says A. T., carrying Aldridge on his back.
Demetrius limps over to the group of ghosts. "That's Mr. Hoss' little girl down there," he grins. "I heard she fought off a dragon."
"I think the dragon started to get sweet on her," quips Hoss, tipping his hat. "What they're doing is technically witchcraft," he continues, "but I'd figure that Adonai will be hearing from Joe before He can give my family any crap."
"I hear that your boy Joe's an even worse Jew than Baby Jesus," grins Dashiell.
"No," says a prim, auburn-haired girl, "that would be Samson. Joseph has made his peace with Adonai."
"That li'l slip of a girl looks so much like you, Miss Judy," says Dashiell, taking off his hat.
"I'd hope so," says Hoss, with a smirk, "considering the girl's mother was named after Judith."
The ring of Jackie's flames abates as Sam walks through it.
Jack and Maddie run past Sam with their weapons charged and Specter Deflectors armed.
Kneeling, Sam quietly sets down the earthenware bowl, takes the blood bags out of the bowl, then begins chanting as she opens a blood bag, pouring the contents into the bowl.
Maddie fires at Jackie's head. "That'll teach you to possess my husband and mention 'hairy oysters' ever again," she seethes.
Jackie touches his cheek, noting a mix of blood and ectoplasm. He glares at Maddie and Jack. "Jack-boy," he glowers, "you'd better take a strong hand on your woman, if you know what's for her own good."
"You'd better leave Mrs. Fenton alone," counters the Phantom, gaining strength and resolve.
"You ain't got no power here, boy!" spits Jackie, whipping the Phantom with a nine-tail whip.
The Phantom catches eight of the nine whips on the nine-tail whip, with the remaining whip landing harmlessly on the Phantom's cheek. "You hit like the Box Ghost," he sneers.
Jackie's eyes widen as he realizes his position. "What's goin' on here!?" he snarls. "I'm getting weaker."
The slave ghosts, discovering their spectral chains broken, separate from their mass into individual ghosts as they release Valerie.
One ghost looks at Tucker. "Li'l Alvin," she whispers.
Tucker adjusts his glasses. "You...can't mean me, ma'am," he says. "I'm Alvin Tucker Foley the Fourth."
"Mother!" cries A. T., in the sky with Bessie, Dashiell, Demetrius, Aldridge, and Hoss. "You're free of him! You're all free of him!"
"I told you it would happen, Jeanette-girl!" adds Demetrius, tears streaming down his face as he embraces Aldridge. "I done swore to Almighty God that it would!"
Another ghost helps Valerie to her feet. "You look so much like Mama," she says, stroking Valerie's cheek. "So strong and proud."
"Girl even sound like Miss Creechie," grins a slave ghost.
"Lucretia Gray. And you're her daughter; Bessie's mama: Countess," says Valerie gravely.
Countess smiles, tears in her eyes.
"Ghost!" Valerie says to the Phantom, her suit glowing. "Let's finish the work Lucretia started."
Backing away, Jackie looks around wildly for the source of his power drain; he notes Sam, chanting as she pours the contents of a second blood bag into the earthenware bowl.
Sam gazes into Jackie's eyes, calmly regarding the halfa plantation owner.
"What you mutterin' about, girl?" hisses Jackie as he looms over Sam.
"Muttering?" asks Sam. "I was reciting a psalm."
"That ain't no psalm," spits Jackie. "That's some kind of spell."
"Hardly," snorts Sam, "unless you think that David was a warlock shepherd." She resumes chanting.
"What does David, the king of ancient Israel," demands Jackie, "have to do with your gibbering tongue, gal!?"
"I do believe that HaShem, unlike you, is literate in modern Hebrew," says Sam. "To be fair, though," she continues, smirking at Jackie, "you would only recognize it in your crappy Early Modern English translation."
Jackie stares at Sam a moment, then raises his hand to strike Sam with the nine-tail whip.
Sam restarts her chant in English as she pours in the blood from the last blood bag.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
"The...Twenty-third Psalm!?" balks Jackie. "I ain't fixin' to be stripped of my power by some gal chantin' Bible verses!" He attacks Sam, only to hit an impenetrable barrier.
"Maybe the Lord is tryin' to tell you somethin', Jackie," grins Mary Jane.
"Lord or no Lord," adds the Phantom, "did you think you could abuse your power, and get away clean?"
"I been waitin' for this reckonin' a long time, Jackie Barrineau," says a ghost, appearing next to Valerie and Countess.
"Lucretia Gray herself," breathes Bethea.
"Too many have waited, Grandmama," says Bessie, joining Lucretia, Countess, and Valerie, "for far too long."
"You think that y'all just going to gang up on me?" sneers Jackie. "I'll rest and wait. I'm real patient."
Dash walks up to Jackie. "But that doesn't make sense," he says.
"Dash, what are you doing!?" spits Valerie.
"Stay out of this, Gray," Dash scowls. "The way I figure it," he says to Jackie, "this place is going to be crawling with all kinds of ghost hunters until you leave, and you'll just get weaker and punier until you look more like Danny Fenton than like Jack Fenton."
"What you recommendin', Baxter?" asks Jackie.
"You could just agree to enter this Thermos," grins Dash as he pulls out a Fenton Thermos, "but I doubt you'd do that. The Fentons will bring you back to Fenton Works and vivisect your ass."
Jackie touches his chin.
Jack pulls a handgun from a hidden holster.
"But, if you overshadowed a willing host," continues Dash, "say, a young man who has only just begun to approach his peak, then you'd have time to rest and let your powers rejuvenate...inside a perfect human shield."
"I take it that you're offering yourself to me?" asks Jackie. "Why should I deign to inhabit your low-bred body?"
Dash smirks. "Because, shithead," he says, "I'm your only way out of this alive." He turns off his Specter Deflector and removes it from his waist.
"Beggars can't be choosers, indeed, Baxter," says Jackie, grinning crudely. He prepares to overshadow Dash...
...but Jack fires his gun through Jackie's chest.
Jackie clutches his chest, then looks at his blood and ectoplasm-stained hands in disbelief. He falls over and dies, his body and soul disintergrating completely.
"Somehow," says Jack, grim, "Ezekiel 18:4 is the best fit here."
Everyone, even the ghosts, stare at Jack in shock.
Dash shrugs after a moment. "I guess that's the last thing a guy with ghost powers would expect an opponent to try on him," he says.
"Exactly," says Jack with a grin. "I told you all at the beginning that I had this under control."
A old red pickup truck marked POINDEXTER HARDWARE drives into Barrineau Plantation. A spindly, dark-haired teenager wearing thick glasses and a bowl cut leaps out of the truck.
"What are you doin' here, Alan?" asks Shane.
"Shut it, Baxter," says Alan, annoyed. "Not that I care if you die," he continues, "but these other people don't deserve to get killed."
"By what, dude?" wonders Virgil.
"A hurricane's comin' in fast!" spits Alan.
The Peach Creek High football team laughs at Alan.
"Don't y'all chilin' laugh, now!" frowns Mary Jane. "My arthritis only starts actin' up when it's 'bout to rain somewhere," she continues, nursing her wrist, "and it ain't never acted up here in Oglethorpe Springs before."
A mass of cumulonimbus clouds passes overhead, lightning arcing within the clouds.
"This ought to be amusing," says Sam as she carefully pours the blood out of the bowl. "These storms tend to pass over us without..." Sam trails off, noting a cool drop of water splash on her forehead.
"...a drop of rain..." finishes Dash, feeling several drops on his face.
Rain begins to fall in earnest, punctuated by a fork of lightning striking the burnt-out ruins of the Barrineau mansion and a near-simultaneous thunderclap.
"Told you," says Alan, scowling.
"The curse is lifted," says Bethea, smiling blissfully. "Hallelujah, the curse is lifted!"
NEXT: The glory of the coming of the Lord.