THE JOURNEY OF SHEIRA HART

44 | Beware of Praying Old Men

“What does he mean?” I asked Mikhael. His gaze remained fixed on the old man as if thinking very carefully.

“He means exactly what he means. He knows we’re ghosts. He knows we are not supposed to be here,” he answered. I looked back at the old man and he was still pointing at us. He was mumbling something I couldn’t comprehend. His voice was weak and he was mumbling things on purpose as if chanting a prayer.

“Do prayers ever worked on ghosts?” I asked again.

“I guess we’ll find out tonight,” he said and I tried my best not to wince as I saw the old man stumble and eventually fall to the ground when he attempted to take a step forward.

I remember Mikhael said before that some people, particularly old people are susceptible to visions. Meaning, they can see ghosts more often than others. My brother, he could see one too, apparently. Though what he sees is just a blob of dark smoke and nothing else. This man, however, could see our whole and he could even tell which one’s a boy and which one’s a girl. And I figured if I was like my brother, I would have believed in ghosts a long time ago. But I wasn’t. And I realized how my life lacked so much adventure.

I sighed inwardly.

“You! You are not supposed to be down here. You are not supposed to be here! You are not part of this world. Not anymore!” the old man said as he continued to point his finger towards us. I was about to step back but Mikhael held my arm.

“Don’t be intimidated. If you show a hint of intimidation, he will push more,” he said as he remained his gaze on the old man who’s now chanting some prayers.

The old man kept walking closer and he was still chanting some prayers I can’t comprehend. I admit I am starting to get scared but Mikhael’s grip on my hand started to become tighter as his gaze remained on the old man. And that’s when I found out the old man was looking at me. He was pointing his finger at me. He was chanting his prayers while looking at me. As if I am some demon. As if I am some evil spirit he’s trying to drive away. It was that time that I genuinely felt scared. His eyes were unblinking. His pupils were dilated. And I don’t know if he could actually see me with the number of cataracts in his eyes. And I realized, there are some things the ghosts are scared of. One is their fellow ghosts. Two, the Grim Reapers. Three, the tainted ones. And the last one, they’re afraid of humans too. We are afraid of humans. Especially chanting old men like this one in front of me.

But I didn’t take a step back just like Mikhael had instructed. I remained standing there, thinking that this man could not touch me. He could not harm me. But then just as I was beginning to calm myself down, he was suddenly holding a stick. I don’t know where it came from but the next thing I knew, I was shielding my head when he brandished the stick in my direction. The impact of the stick to my body wasn’t that of a big one but I definitely felt it sliced through my left temple down to my shoulder.

“Go away! Go back to where you should be!” he continued to scream as he continuously brandished the stick through me. But then Mikhael pushed me back and the old man’s stick stopped mid-air. The old man went silent and his eyes were in total shock as he figured out what just happened.

“You’re all work of the demons. You all are demons!” the old man yelled as he tried to pull the stick but to no avail. I don’t know what Mikhael did to do that but it was probably the same that time he made an invisible wall of wind causing that one guy at a café to fall down.

“Now, that is quite insulting. And I would advise you not to call us that when we are not. That would be an insult for us and for the Grim Reaper himself.”

But the old man spat on Mikhael but of course, it didn’t go through. It went straight to the road. “You’re all demons. You have the blackest heart of all. You are not supposed to be here. You don’t deserve to be here—“

“Hey!”

We all looked at the one who just yelled. It was my brother and he was looking at the old man. He was in his pajamas and he clearly looked pissed. And scared.

The old man let go of the stick and it fell to the ground. Mikhael shoved his hands inside his pockets. The old man turned to my brother and took a step forward. His hands were in front of him as if wanting to touch my brother. I was about to go to him when Mikhael’s arm stopped me. He looked at me and shook his head.

“Dear boy. You should get back inside. It’s dangerous out here. It’s dangerous in the dark,” the old man said but my brother took out a baseball bat from his back and showed it to the old man.

“The only thing that made me go out at this hour of the night is you. Go away, old man. Don’t ever come back,” Mars said as he looked at the old man straight in the eye. But the old man was still walking close. I saw how Mars’ grip went tight on the handle of the bat.

“Don’t close any closer,” he warned but the old man seemed to not hear anything and continued to walk.

“I am showing the bad spirits away. See?” The old man pointed to us but Mars didn’t even glance. “It’s dangerous for you to be out here. These spirits could harm you. Go back inside, dearest boy—“

“Stop disrespecting my sister,” Mars said. Although it was low, I could definitely hear what he said.

The old man stopped walking and looked at Mars with wonder. “Sister?”

Mars pointed the bat towards the old man as he said, “Yes. My sister. She isn’t a bad person and if there’s someone dangerous here, it’s you. Go away before I call the police. I wouldn’t want to do that and you wouldn’t like it.”

The old man went silent. But I was still surprised at what Mars had said.

He knows it’s me! I looked at Mikhael and he was smiling a little too. I could feel the tears brimming in my eyes. He could see me. He saw me.

“My sister isn’t evil. And if she wants to come here and visit, she is free to do so. It is none of your business. And I don’t care if she somehow ended up in hell. With her attitude, there might be a good chance she ended up there,” Mars let out a small smile and I couldn’t help the tears that started to fall down my face. “But I don’t care if she ended up there or anywhere. This house is still her home. I am still her brother. And she can come and watch over us. Just not in my dreams because that would be creepy as hell.”

I started laughing as I tried wiping my tears away.

The old man was silent for a while but then he was suddenly breathing heavily and the next thing we know is that he was running towards my brother and with a swim of his frail hand, the bat fell down. Mars’ eyes were laced with shock as watched the old man. He looked frail but his strength surely is not for frail men.

“You’re all evil. You’re all the same. I should kill you too,” the old man said and before Mars could even take a step back, with another swing of the old man’s arm, Mar’s face went to the other side when the old man’s fist connected to his jaw.

“Mars!” I screamed but I don’t know if he could hear me.

Before Mars could even get up and recover, the old man was on top of him and had his hands wrapped around my brother’s neck.

“No. No, Mars!” I yelled but then I know that wouldn’t help. Then I saw Mikhael with both his palms up, he looked like he was doing something to stop whatever was happening but it doesn’t seem to have any effect at all.

“Mikhael, what’s happening? Please help my brother. He won’t hurt that old man,” I said and I could feel the panic building inside of me. Tears stopped streaming down my face and were replaced with worry.

Mikhael did it again. Harder this time as I could tell from his face but nothing happened and the old man still has his hands on my brother’s neck.

No. No. I am too weak to help. I am too weak to help my brother.

At that moment, all I could think was how to save my brother and without thinking about anything else, I opened my hands and the next thing I knew, the old man was already flying across the street and hit his back on the trash bins.

We all went quiet. Mars’ face was completely horrified as he saw everything that happened. And Mikhael’s face was laced with pure horror as he looked at the old man. And I know the reason why.

There was blood dripping down the old man’s face staining his already dirty shirt. And that’s when I realized what I just did.

I hurt a living person. 

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