Silent Energies

SPLAT!! Katy felt herself slam up against the wall, hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs. Gasping for breath, she tried to reinflate them before the Banshee got close enough to attack again. She looked around frantically to see where the creature was. Finally, she spotted the fiend, standing over her best friend and partner Elias. The ragged crone was leaning over him, reaching slowly for him. Katy forced herself to stand and screamed, “OI! Ugly! Over here!” The Banshee’s head snapped around to look at Katy, its body still facing Elias. The sight was terrifying, but Katy kept going. “Yeah, you! You raggedy old hag! Come and fight someone who can defend themselves! … Or aren’t you able to take on someone who is conscious?” A furious expression came over the Banshee’s face and Katy was encouraged to continue to take advantage of the confusion. She took a step closer to the creature and sneered. “What, can’t talk now? You’ve been screaming up and down the moors for ages now, harassing any poor bugger who accidentally heard you, and now you’re suddenly shy…?” The Banshee had been plaguing the village of Dingle for months. There had even been a couple of deaths before someone thought to contact Katy at her parents’ private museum and ask for help. Luckily they had, because the creature showed zero signs of slowing down. In fact, it seemed to have been ramping up its attacks in the lead up to something. Katy hadn’t figured out what yet, but her money was on the anniversary of the creature’s original death. Now all Katy had to do was figure out who the creature had been in life, and when the creature had died, and save her friend from being obliterated, and they could all go home. Yeah. Piece of cake. No sweat. A tiny movement behind the creature caught Katy’s eye and she noticed the Elias was not only still breathing, but he was actually moving. Brilliant. That was one item checked off the agenda. Now to the other two. To buy Elias some more time, Katy continued baiting the Banshee to come towards her. “So when did you kick the bucket..?” The Banshee froze, she had its full attention. She silently thanked any and every deity listening. Katy knew she had to keep its attention on her and give Elias time. A little quieter this time she repeated. “When did you die?” The Banshee stopped moving towards her and almost seemed to turn inward. Katy frantically racked her brain for the list of names the villagers had given her back when she and Elias had first arrived a couple of days earlier. She was mentally kicking herself for not remembering the pronunciations better. Oh well, Katy thought. No sense worrying about that now. Just give it a crack and hope for the best. She took a deep breath and began going through as much of the list as she could remember aloud. “Maeve Donnelly?” The Banshee continued to move towards her. “Aoife Kennedy?” Still moving. “Caitriona Duffy?” Didn’t even flinch. Come on, come on... What was the other name? “Saoirse O’Reilly?” Stopped dead in its tracks. Bingo. “Saoirse O’Reilly?” Katy repeated and the Banshee looked at her, twisting its head around as though it were trying to remember a time before this... Before there was nothing but hatred and vengeance... Before the pain and the killing… Katy took one last step towards the rotting hag in front of her and grinned. “Gotcha.” At that exact moment, the Banshee’s chest exploded towards Katy as a giant hand punched through the creature’s ribcage. The fingers had unnaturally long, razor- sharp claws curled around its still- beating heart. The Banshee looked down at the hand in front of it, and the heart clutched in the hand’s palm. Suddenly the hand disappeared and there was now a gaping hole in its chest. Confused, the creature turned to face Elias who now stood behind it, partially transformed into his Cynanthrope form. Smiling pleasantly, Elias very politely offered the Banshee its own heart, which the creature took, still utterly confused at what had happened. While the Banshee stood looking utterly confused, its gaze moving from Elias to its own heart and back again, Elias took a small step back and the Banshee collapsed helplessly to its knees. Elias reached down and snapped its neck in one swift, clean motion. Although it was dead – again – Elias kicked the body off its knees, into a horizontal position. Just to make sure. Wiping the blood from his hands on his jeans, Elias picked his way over to Katy and offered her his clean – well, cleaner – hand and escorted her away from the recently re-dead body on the ground. Checking her over, he frowned worriedly at her. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Katy shook her head, but the motion reminded her of the growing ache in her ribs from being introduced to the wall earlier. The shake changed to a nod and Elias’ voice rose in panic. “Where are you hurt? What happened?” Katy put her hand on his shoulder to calm him and hurriedly explained. “I’m fine, just a few broken ribs from the ugly hag throwing me against the wall over there.” Elias grabbed her shirt to look at her ribs and she swatted his hand away. “I’m fine I said. You should be more worried about yourself, you know. I know very well you lost consciousness over there. Are you okay?” Elias waved her concern away. “I’m all right, I’m supernaturally gifted in the fine art of taking a beating. You, my dear lady, are not.” Katy rolled her eyes and sighed. He really was like an old mother hen sometimes. “Look... I’ll have some bruising; it’ll look worse than it is. And I will heal. Even though I heal slower than you, we frail little humans do actually heal eventually, remember…?” She smiled at her best friend reassuringly. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. And you can always feel free to volunteer to give me back and foot massages until I do heal…?” Katy grinned hopefully at Elias. “Done. You’ve got yourself a deal. We’re going home now and you’re not doing a thing until you’re better.” Katy rolled her eyes again. “You know that’s not possible; I’ll go mental if I’m stuck being an invalid for too long. But—” she raised her hands defensively and continued hastily, pre-empting the Weredog’s protestations as he opened his mouth to argue. “—I will try to do my absolute best to stay as still as I can. Okay?” Elias shut his mouth and nodded firmly. “Good.” Katy turned to head back out of the enclosed courtyard the battle had wound up in. The Villagers were supposed to be waiting out of harm’s way to hear how everything had turned out, however she spotted around twenty of them, scattered throughout the old castle’s ruins, peering through every available window or doorway timidly. Shaking her head at the physical embodiment of the phrase ‘curiosity killed the cat’ now spilling out of the doorway to thank them both for getting rid of the Banshee, Katy accepted their thanks graciously. As soon as she got a chance, she took the village elder and his assistant aside. Lowering her voice so that they were out of earshot, Katy informed the elder of a few housekeeping items that needed to be taken care of. Just the usual, salt and burn the body; bury it on hallowed grounds... You know... So the Banshee didn’t come back to life and begin the whole nauseating process all over again. Katy stressed the importance that these things be done in the next 24 hours or else they would have a repeat performance. The village elder hastily agreed and his assistant took notes on her phone so that they didn’t miss any crucial steps. With this done, Katy caught Elias’ eye and motioned for them to head back to the hotel they had been staying at. He nodded and left the relieved villagers to their business, taking her hand and leading her back to the rental car they were using. Opening the passenger door, Elias shut the door after Katy and walked around to the drivers’ side before climbing in. Sliding the keys into the ignition barrel, Elias let out a heavy sigh and leaned back on the headrest with his eyes closed for a moment, before turning to look at Katy. “You okay?” Katy nodded, emotionally exhausted from the night’s activities. “Yeah… The only problem with this as a job, is that all the bloody ghost- hunting usually happens at night.” Elias laughed as Katy continued in mock exasperation. “Just once I’d like to have a nice, simple case that can be sorted during the daylight hours!” The pair were still laughing as the rental car roared to life. Elias put the car in gear and drove back down the little cobbled laneway to the Dingle village centre. Back to the hotel... And its waiting beds.