Does Your Soul Remember Mine

Chapter 8: Rescuing Ghosts

“I feel bad about the plates.” Said Elyse as her and the boys cleaned up the remnants of Vita's séance. “I want to get them new ones…a really nice set…better than the one the demon smashed to make up for any inconvenience.”

“I'll let the couple know.” Said Tony, sweeping up ashes and sage.

“It's nice that the lights are back on.” Added Tom, looking up at the ceiling lights and nodding towards the lit up lamp shades.

Clapping her hands together, Elyse spun to take one last look around. “That looks like that's about it.” She turned to stare at an empty doorway leading to the living room. “You can come out now! The evil thing that has been hunting you is gone.”

The ghost of the dead woman peaked out from behind the door. “Are you sure?”

Elyse smiled and stretched out her hand. “Yes, I'm sure. I promise.”

The spirit floated forward to take Elyse's hand with a smile.

Elyse looked over her shoulder at Tony and Tom. Even after everything they had witnessed, they still looked at her like she was crazy. Turning back to the murdered woman, she said, “will you please show these two guys that you're real and I'm not just talking to air.”

With an almost imperceptible nod, the ghost floated over to them and said “hi”. Tony and Tom looked at each other with wide eyes.

Tony started laughing. “That was so cool!”

“Ok, well, grab a seat, boys.” Said Elyse. “I'm going to talk to this girl for a while.”

Turning back to the murdered woman, she began telling her all about Jesus and the cross. After nearly an hour of talking and answering the woman's questions, a winged figure appeared and the spirit cried tears of joy before disappearing into another flash of light. Tony and Tom jumped from their chairs for the first time in an hour.

“Did you see that?” Said Tom to Tony.

“That flash of light? Yeah I saw it!” Said Tony to Tom.

Elyse only smiled, saying, “now it's time to go.”

The next day, Vita and Alex were on edge during the following case. They had heard all about what had happened but were still hesitant to be around Elyse. It was as if she suddenly had the plague! Vita completely ignored her existence while Alex only spoke when he absolutely had to and never looked her in the eye.

The ghost haunting the house was as the client believed, a hurricane Katrina victim; and when Elyse did the same to her as she had done for the murdered woman, the flash of light was visible to everyone in the room again, making Vita and Alex end their charade and finally treat Elyse with the respect she deserved.

“What church do you go to?” Elyse loitered around at Tony's house Sunday morning. Everyone else had gone home to bed.

Tony checked his clock. “Well, much to Tom's disappointment, I'm protestant and I go to a Pentecostal church a few blocks down.”

Elyse leaned against his window frame and stared out through the glass as she spoke. She never could resist looking at a sunrise. “Well, he seems to be pretty tolerant, hanging out with a protestant, a voodoo queen and a psychic medium.”

Tony leaned against the opposite frame of the same window. “Well I don't think he minds you too much.”

Elyse turned away to look at Tony again. “I usually go to a Catholic church across town but I wouldn't mind going with you to yours every Sunday.”

Tony looked her in the eye and caught his breathe. With a mischievous grin and darkened eyes, he said. “Are you suggesting I convert you? Or are you asking me to take you on dates? Because, if you are, I can think of a few better places to take you to than a church.”

A laugh escaped her throat, much to her surprise. He was just as witty in this life as he was in the last. “No, I just….” She tried to think of a believable excuse. Constantine had warned her to stay close to him but she couldn't very much tell Tony that; so she settled on a half-truth. “I just think you and I get along really well and I would like us to be friends.”

“And we have to be the same denomination in order to be friends?” He raised an eyebrow, the

smile still on his face.

Elyse looked at the floor, shifting uncomfortably. “No, I just…want to see more of you, that's all.” She inhaled, steeled herself and looked up at him again. “I think the morning coffee house thing you do, you know, doing all your work reports there in the morning, is a good idea.” She smiled. “I was thinking about taking a page from your book. I wouldn't bother you, I would be doing my own work so there's no pressure to make small talk.” She held up her hand, palm and fingers straight like a witness on trial swearing to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. “I promise…scouts honor.”

“Well, first of all, you're not a boy scout…don't need to be a detective to figure that one out.” He c****d his head and looked her up and down again, his mouth set in the straight line of someone studying a puzzle. “And if you weren't stalking me before, it sure seems like you would be now.”

I AM stalking you…but it's for your own good, not mine….

Elyse pulled away. “Never mind, I really enjoy hanging out with you but if you're going to act like I'm being creepy or something than I'd better leave now to make it to my service on time.”

Tony caught her hand. “I'm sorry if I offended you. I can be a bit forward sometimes. I suppose I have a bit of an aggressive personality.” He let her hand drop and he slipped his own into his pockets. “Truth is, I would like to see more of you too. So come to my church, and come sit with me at the café, you'll be nice company.”

Elyse smiled, not because she had received the invitation she was fishing for, but because he reminded her of her Anthony. You were never one to shy away from anything or keep something to yourself…it's one of the things that made you so good in social situations….

The sermon was well done, a great message from a great minister who had obviously found her calling. Elyse could see the holy spirit in her as well, creating an aura that only a few people besides herself would be capable to seeing. But outside, the daylight was shadowed. Dark figures prowled around, unable to enter the holy place. She saw a flash of white feathered wings, more than one pair and knew that her Constantine was out there with a few other angels from the people inside these walls. The day was bright again and the demons were gone, scared off or banished, by the time the woman at the alter finished her service.

“Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow.” Said Elyse, noting the sleepy look in Tony's eyes.

“Yeah.” He yawned. “Get some rest, we usually do an investigation at least once every weekend.”

“I'll look forward to it!” Called Elyse as she hopped into a cab and took off.

Her suburban townhome was small but stood on a relatively large plot of land; half an acre, the biggest in her suburb since she had bought two broken down houses next to each other, tore them down, and built one modern one in the middle. She made sure it was built with a metal frame and brick walls to last and had its own well and solar panels. Quite a sight to behold in the city, she was laughed at by her neighbors but, as someone who's immortal, she wanted to make sure she had a place to come back to decades from now, if she needed it.

Stepping past her garden, she admired how the light filtered through her many trees. There were two navel orange trees and two fig trees, one pair on either side of her house while sturdy oaks took up all four corners of her plot. Leaves rustles in the whispering wind, whistling harmonies to go along with the melodies of the birds. Slipping into her soft bed, she let Constantine tuck the covers in around her and dreamed of the adventures of her past.

Waking up with a start, Elyse reached out into the pitch black to find a wall of wood only a few inches above her body. She smelled Earth and dust and pine. Papa Doc was supposed to dig her up from her grave before she awoke, and she worried for a moment that he had decided to leave her here; buried alive.

Constantine's alive…I'll probably have to wait until he's healed and well enough to come get me…but I know he'll come for me eventually….

She felt her lungs cry out for oxygen and knew she was about to enter into a cycle of waking from her magical self-healing, immortal body, and fainting from lack of oxygen, only to be revived again later.

At least I can't feel my bullet wounds when I'm unconscious…or have time to get too terribly bored….

She relaxed, closed her eyes, and let her hypoxic brain fall back to sleep. What could she say? She was a glass-half-full type of girl.

The sounds of wood ripping away from nails woke her from her slumber. Groggily, she opened her eyes, excited to see Constantine but frowned at the sight of Papa Doc.

“I figured a soul of your caliber would require a few more days than the average zombie.” Papa Doc stood with his army around him, watching their master claim a new recruit.

With as much speed as she could muster…which wasn't much after being starved, beaten, and asphyxiated… she lashed out an arm and grabbed Papa Doc's shirt. Her breathless voice struggled to say the names of two of the demons she knew were part of his legion. “You will leave this man…I banish you.”

A squealing screech and two shadows tore through the air. Papa Doc, who was now shaking with hatred and pain scratched her across the face. “Your soul is mmmiiinnnneee! We had a deal! How can you disobey meeee!!!”

Elyse was too weak to get up out of the coffin, so, as awkward as it was, she had to say what she needed to say while laying down in the dirty pine box. “The deal was that I drink your potion, which I did. Your little ritual doesn't actually steal souls, it only makes people think it does, which tricks them into giving you their souls anyway.”

Papa Doc stilled, his smile was gone now and was replaced with a wide eyed, eerie look of surprise. Elyse continued. “You thought you could trick me too…but you couldn't. I know too much.” Her hand stilled grasped his shirt and her fist wrapped in its fabric was glowing. She didn't know the names of the four remaining demons that held Papa Doc, she couldn't see them clearly, but she could still hurt them and scare them. Prayers for God to cast them out escaped her lips and Papa Doc cried out in four different voices, sometimes simultaneously. Her coffin splintered apart into a million pieces, some of which embedded themselves into her skin, all thanks to the thrashing demons.

The demons surrounding them, slinking in and out of the zombie soldiers, began to disappear, frightened by the power Elyse was exhibiting. With a desperate fling of his arm, Papa Doc punched her out and the pitch darkness flooded her again with nighttime dreams.

When she awoke, there was fire burning all around her and the air was thick with soot. Coughing, she breathed in deep anyway, burning her lungs and dirtying them like a water filter used on mud. Unlike everyone else, she knew her lungs would bounce back from the damage. Her eyes stung from the smoke, but she peeled them open anyway. There were dead Zombies everywhere, but what had really caught her eye was the bodiless head of Papa Doc, his eyes closed and that smile gone...he was almost unrecognizable.

"I don't have the strength to carry you off." It was Constantine. She could hear him but she couldn't see him anywhere. "Try to get away from the fire."

"What happened?" She choked.

Constantine's voice sounded soft and weak. "The zombies saw you fight back, they saw you banish two of Papa Doc's demons and tell him he didn't have your soul." She could almost hear him smiling with a mixture of relief and pride as he spoke. "They realized they had been fooled and rebelled. They killed their master...at a huge loss for themselves, you can see the casualties...and cut off his head so that he could not come back to life."

She understood, and she didn't want to waste any more time or energy talking so she got up on wobbly legs only to fall back down.

I guess I'll be crawling....

One hand in front of the other...one knee in front of the other...she crawled to the edges of the flames while they spread further over everything she saw. Trees were ablaze and the grass was cinder underneath her palms.

"I'll carry you." Said a muffled voice she didn't recognize.

Looking up, she saw a woman wearing a wet scarf over her mouth and nose to block the smoke. Her hand was outstretched and she was carefully stepping around flames to get to Elyse. Wincing, Elyse bit her lip so she wouldn't scream as the woman hoisted her up onto her shoulders. "I'll get you out of here." Said the stranger.

Every step felt like she was being carried on a bed of nails and not on the shoulders of a medium sized woman. Still, this woman was saving her from being burned alive so she dare not complain. Flopping her over the back of a skittish horse, the woman mounted and rode off with her newfound cargo named Elyse.

Once they were clear of the flames and smoke, Elyse asked the question burning to be asked worse than the burning in her lungs. "What were YOU doing there?...And, of course, thank you."

The woman glanced back. "You don't remember me?" She took off her scarf.

Elyse had to study her face for a heartbeat or two before she recognized the former zombie slave. "You were with Papa Doc. In the crowd when he dug me up."

The woman tightened her grip on her reins. "Yes...I thought he had my soul and I was brainwashed into thinking I was his slave." She shook her head with disgust. "You showed us that we were wrong, so we fought. At first I thought we were all goners and that Papa Doc's magical sorcery was too powerful; he started setting people on fire out of nowhere while huge blazes appeared all over the grass and even the trees burst into flame." Her eyes looked away with a serious expression, remembering the scene. "But finally we came upon him and he got what he deserved. I just so happened to be the last one leaving and I saw you crawling....We thought you were finally dead."

Elyse laughed a painful laugh. "Been there, done that." Looking up, she said. "I know a place where we can go were the water's clean and plentiful and where the fields and orchards grow in abundance."

The woman snorted. "I have never seen such a place, nor ever have I heard of one." She shot a glance back to Elyse. "Tell me where it is and I'll believe it when I see it."

Elyse had thought she would never return to this place, but she realized how important it was to have roots and a place to go when you needed to come home. Now this paradise would be home to the former zombie who saved her too. It would be a full turn of the moon before her and Constantine were well enough to leave once more. The woman had fit in well, learning how to smile again while she helped tend to Elyse's wounds, hearing all about her harrowing tales from the other villagers and even had one of her own to tell them back.

Constantine had come to her one evening while she listened to the sheep dogs play outside. "It's time to say goodbye to the young minister again. There are more places to see." And that was that. She had always planned to return one day for a visit, although it hadn't happened yet.