The electricity hummed through the fluorescent lights. And the harsh winds rapped at the windows. Oliza sat in the old desk chair she’d found in an old office building. “This is one of them nice ones”, she thought to herself. She smiled as she shifted in the extra cushioned chair. “A perfect model for those who don’t every anticipate seeing a chiropractor again, would have been a perfect slogan. Not like I couldn’t see one… but the skeletons are rough on my old skin.” The world was almost like new again, nearly devoid of life. She thought back to the beginning.

“Mommy I think I did something bad” said little Poppy Brown as her mother poured her a glass of milk.  Oliza turned to approach the table and gazed fondly at her daughter.

“And what could you have done that was so bad honey?” Oliza sat down across from her daughter at the kitchen table.

“I think I hurt someone mommy.” The little girl began to tear up and put down her cookies.

“Poppy, who do you think you hurt?” Oliza questioned, ears perked she ran through a list in her head. “No one has been hurt at her school lately. Did one of the kids break a bone?” Oliza thought to herself.

“The mailman I think I hurt him bad momma.” Poppy covered her face shedding more tears.

“Poppy how could you have hurt the mailman? You’re just a little girl and, he’s a big strong man.” Oliza couldn’t recall seeing the mailman this week. Did Poppy think she’d done something with one of those toy wands she played with in the yard?

“With this,” Poppy held up a glimmering black stone rippled with grey lines and grooves.

Oliza gasped at the stone, where had Poppy gotten that.

The doorbell rang, as Oliza recounted to herself about the magic Poppy had found that day. The stone had activated moments after she snatched it from the little girls hands. She’d forgotten she’d cut her finger with the kitchen knife making dinner. Her mother had imposed one thing on her. It was that their blood must never touch the stone.

The stone sat embedded in her collar bone, like a necklace without chain. She wanted to keep it close to her heart as a reminder.

Once the stone had tasted living blood it hadn’t stopped feeding. The thing that dwelled within craved life. The blood had released the being her ancestor confined long ago.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Long ago her ancestors had done away with a horrible monster. It was a story that Oliza had planned on telling Poppy when she was ready.

 Anita’s eyes watered in pain as she squeezed her bloody hand around the stone. Her words called out into the wind, seeping it with her magic as she chanted.

“Blood of mine, blood that binds

 I call upon thy will divine

Drive from this land this fiend of death

Into the stone, he must go

Goddess willing, make it so”

The stone shined with a radiant light The light spread and wrapped around the shadow that surrounded her.

Miranda watched as her sister and the creature that inhabited her were sealed within the crystal with horror. However, she knew that her sisters loss would not be in vain as she drew a handkerchief from her pocket and wrapped the stone within it carefully. The goddess spoke to her that night in a dream, warning her that the stone must never again touch the blood of their line, or else its spell would be broken. And with only a single drop the world would be set upon by the spirit once more.

Oliza strode slowly towards the door, in her old age the spirit had kept her alive. Not young as some would expect but she lived. With every day she aged she was thankful that the spirit was bound to her as it had once been bound to another.

As she approached the door it was thrown open and the spirit was visible. It looked like the ghost of her ancestor, but it was made of a form of fire that flowed like liquid around it and shined the color of blood.

“It is time Oliza,” The figure of her ancestor said.

“I knew this day would come. I’ve wondered to myself why you kept me here for so long.” Oliza’s wrinkled face hid her faint smile. A smile that was long overdue after the decades that she had spent in the company of the monster as it had ravaged the living. Feeding on their flesh and blood. She had seen the skeletons rise in its wake as it spread undeath.

“You know quite well Oliza that we are bound. I shall be free of this binding after I absorb your soul into my own.”

The spirit gestured to the lich behind it and the end began. The lich in its semi ghostly form raised its hands as the spirit took on a monstrous shape. The spirit became like a fog and from within that fog two arms struck out at Oliza. The claws sliced through her flesh not after her blood, but her soul.

The claws withdrew from her chest. Her last sight was that of the ribbon of light within them that was herself. As Oliza drifted into death the spirit’s fog began to dissipate. It gently passed the soul into the hands of the lich.

The lich released its hold on the soul as the spirit disappeared. The soul flew towards the stars free of mortal weights. The last thing the spirit said before it faded into nothing was an accusation towards the lich, who only laughed.

“For my aunt you monster. May she find peace now that her parasite is nothing.” The lich declared proudly as it watched the shadow disappear. Because what the spirit had not known was that it was the niece of its former host it had chosen to aide it.