I just needed to blow off some steam and clear my head. Then the answers would come to me… That’s what I told myself, at least, as I snatched up my sister’s tape and started to wrap my knuckles.
Alexa, Play: Animals - Maroon 5
Ihad never lost it on the bag so hard. My head was muddled with thoughts of Caleb and how scared he must have been when he had been forced to endure whatever beating had caused those bruises.
Hitting the bag again and again, I completely lost myself in the impact of my knuckles against my target. For the first time, I thought I could understand what Theo got out of this. For me, it was a workout, but for Theo, it was almost like boxing was therapy or some kind ofchurch.
It made sense. I didn’t really understand why Theo was so angry, but I could see how such an angry person would cling tothis sport. It was a healthy outlet for intense emotions, and that was exactly what I needed right now.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been at it, but I was covered in a thick film of sweat and regretted not taking the time to change out of my jeans when all the hair on my body stood on end.
My next exhale came out at a cold puff, which was a telltale sign that there was a spirit close by… and not just any spirit. A malevolent one.
The more benign the being, the warmer they were. Kind spirits didn’t tend to linger; they usually passed on over the course of three days.
But the bad ones? They were stubborn little fuckers. Sometimes, they didn’t pass on at all and needed to be forced away.
The bag of sage my mother had given me was suddenly heavy in my back pocket, and I froze mid-swing.
I spun away from the punching bag and scanned the dark, windowless room suspiciously. The basement gym was pretty bare-bones. It was all unfinished concrete with a rack of free weights, the bag, and space for us to spar in the middle. There was a little mini-fridge where we kept bottles of Gatorade that we had always forgotten about, but other than that, this space was more or less empty.
The bare bulb that illuminated the windowless room flickered on and off, which wasn’t unusual, but it certainly wasn’t helping with the roll of terror suddenly coursing through my body.
To make matters worse, the more afraid I became, the harder my dick got… yeah. In case you didn’t already think I was enough of a freak with the whole funeral home thing, coupled with the fact that I see dead people, I should probably mention that fear turns me on.
Pretty typical of me. It was like pulling teeth getting hard for girls in college, but if you made me fear for my life, I’m suddenly standing more erect than the Statue of fucking Liberty… go figure.
Anyway, I would talk about it in therapy if I had time to go, but I don’t, so we’re just going to go with good old-fashioned denial…
I eyed the pitch-black doorway that led out of the gym, and my suspicions were confirmed when the phantom of a woman staggered into the frame.
She was fuckingdemonic. Even knowing that she couldn’t physically touch me, I recoiled. She had long, stringy black hair and bloodshot eyes. She was wearing a white nightgown that was stained red from the gaping gash across her neck, and she stumbled toward me on bare feet.
I patted my jeans, looking for the sage my mother had given me, and nearly cursed out loud when I realized I hadn’t brought a lighter.
Idiot.
I scanned the room and felt a rush of relief when I saw a black Bic sitting on top of the mini-fridge.
Thank god.
I inched away from the phantom toward the fridge when she started laughing.
“My son is a demon, and he’s coming to kill you,”she cooed, but I ignored her. I had learned that many of the ghosts I saw, especially the evil ones, weren’t really talking to me. Most times, they were reliving whatever vile act they had been committing before they had met their untimely ends.
“Devil boy!”she screeched, lurching toward me. I dove away from her and snatched up the lighter from the fridge.
She passed right through me, and I shuddered as I struggled to get the herbs out of the bag and light it before she tried to come for me again.
Spirits couldn’t physically hurt you, but if they passed through you enough times, you could get sick. I had theorized that it had something to do with them lowering your core body temperature enough that you became susceptible to things like the flu.
She passed through me twice more before I finally got the sage lit. She hissed and staggered back just as more phantoms began to crawl into the room.
What… the… fuck?
Two… three...fourphantoms began to stagger in through the door to the gym. I waved my lit bushel of sage at them, making them screech and back away.
I’d never seen so many spirits at once before, especially not so manymalevolentones… and I lived in a funeral home.
