Chapter 67:
Do You Believe in Ghosts?
The view couldn’t have been better. The room inside was set up like a creepy church, with rows of pews on either side of the doorway, a straight walkway between them giving me a killer view of another person I was not wanting to ever see in this place: the lumberjack, his red mask and hulking body at least made sense to be here. Stephen though? Zero.
Oh. Oh shit. Does Stephen know about the masked man? Does the masked man know about Stephen!? It could be very bad if they both see each other and neither one is expecting it. I wanted to barge in and rescue him, but that wouldn’t be a rescue, it would be suicide and get him killed as well. My only option was to sit quietly and watch. And pray to God that my worst fears didn’t come true.
Everyone took their seats, murmuring amongst themselves as the masked man waited for everyone to get settled down.
“Welcome, visitors!” He held his arms out and his mask changed into a big, somehow kind grin. “It is so good to have you. I respect all of your courage for coming here.”
The biggest man, one of the User Killers, guffawed. “Me and my kind thrive in No Respawn Zones.” The other User Killers around him chuckled in agreement.
The masked man kept smiling, but the kindness diminished a little. “Yes, I was not referring to you all, of course. But the other members of this rag tag group. Those that are willing to hear us out on how to expand our reach. Really, both sides are here for that.”
As he said that, I finally noticed that the left side was mostly–maybe all–User Killers and the right side were the normal people. Well, the ELITE I guess you would call them. I rolled my eyes just thinking that term.
“You carefully chosen members with influence will help us to become more known by the greater public, tell the stories we want told. While hiding what we want hidden.” He looked back to the left side. “And the User Killers, you will be our new right hand.”
Murmurs from the other side of the room. It didn’t sound like everyone knew the company they were keeping. I wondered which side of things Stephen fell in.
The masked man held up his hand for silence. “Do not worry yourselves. The two groups in this room will likely not ever have to see each other in person again. We need the User Killers expertise. Everyone else, you will just be guiding the misdirection
Someone on the normal people side spoke up, which I thought was awfully brave. “Well what are you using them for? I don’t really want to be involved in any killings.”
There were murmurs of agreement.
“You promised us a way to increase our fame and money. What possible fortune could a group of pickpockets have?” It was the guy who spoke up before, continuing to dig in. Was he advancing or digging his own grave?
The masked man’s skull broke into its smile again. “I wonder, friend, why did you even show up if you had such a low opinion of us?”
Undaunted, the guy said, “I wanted more information. If you were legit, I get something great out of it. If not, I would at least get some answers on this mystery sweeping the Interverse.”
“Those are the only two options you see, huh? Hmm, how about a third.”
The man snapped his fingers and the man started to scream. I couldn’t see him from my vantage point but there was a bunch of motion and people jumped to theri feet to get out of the way of–oh, it was the shadow people. They were crawling all over the man, and dragged him out of his seat and threw him at the masked man’s feet. The shadows left, all except their hands, sticking out of the ground and holding the guy firm. I couldn’t really make out any of the dude’s features beyond his hair, wildly multi-colored and messy. Had to be a streamer.
The masked man leaned down in front of his prey. “What’s your name, kid? Not your real one, the name your fans would know you by.”
“S-shinyShin,” the guy said, his false bravado fully smashed.
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The masked man scoffed. “You people have the dumbest usernames. But, whatever. I was wondering how I was going to make you all believe what I’m going to tell you but, Shin, my boy, you will be a fine example. Thank you for your sacrifice.”
Before the words could even sink into Shin, the masked man slammed is fist into his chest. Literally, his hand went right through it like it was nothing. Shin gasped and his hands reflexively swatted at the man’s hand but it was already over.
He pulled it out with a horrible wet sloshing noise, and the shadows vanished completely, letting the body fall to the ground.
As you can expect, screams erupted, but only from the right side of the room. The crowd tried to run for the door but the shadow people popped up at their legs and grabbed all over them, forcing everyone back into their seats.
“No need for the screaming,” the masked man said. “You all will never see violence like this again, like I said. We just need you to tell the stories we feed to you. But, today, I’m going to show you the full depths of what we face and why what we do is so important. After that, eventually, this will all feel like a horrible dream. But as long as you do what I say, you won’t need any reminders. Got it?”
No one said anything, but a few people were sobbing quietly to themselves.
“Good. Now, to unveil a grand curtain of the Interverse. See this sad sack?” He kicked the body with his foot. “Dead, right? He is… but his soul? That’s still here with us. It’s trying to escape right this second, come here you little bugger.”
The man reached out above his head, fast as a viper, and a ball of energy appeared in his hands. One made out of a very familiar green color.
“Ghosts, are real,” he said, as if that was a long proven fact and not the stuff of myths and sweaty overweight bearded guys with EMF detectors. “Seemingly everyone who dies in the Interverse leaves behind a ghost. If left to fester they become real problem children. Picture this–” He squeezed the ball of energy and Shin’s face appeared inside the mass, screaming out in pain and anger. “But way deadlier. Why, just tonight we pit some new recruits against just one. Twenty-five Users against one ghost. Only four walked away alive. And one of the four is in critical condition. But the others, why, it seems like they’re on their way right now!”
I about died on the spot, as he turned to face me. I pulled my head back from the door and stood up. What the fuck was he talking about, did he know I was here? The whole time? I spun around to run and walked slam into Dowser and Netta.
“Whoa!” Dowser said, holding me still. “There you are, we’ve been looking for you!”
“They have, anyway,” Netta said, pointing down at her feet, where the shadows were pushing them forward. “We are being summoned.”
My bad feelings grew. There was no way the masked man didn’t know I was here. I’d been forced to use my helmet to survive and that gave me away completely. The shadows knew where to find the other two, right? So that means he kept them from getting me until now.
But perhaps I was wrong. Maybe the shadows had to look for them and I’d gone completely undetected until now. And maybe the fight against the ghost hadn’t been recorded for his viewing pleasure.
Ugh, that was far too many maybes. I could only assume the worst. That he knew, and now I had no choice but to walk straight up to him.
The doors opened and the shadows swept all three of us inside, the masked man’s evil red grin and the screaming ghost in his hand, lighting our way into the room.
#
There were murmurs from both sides of the aisles as we passed, escorted right up to the masked man, deposited with in range of his arm length. I took a few steps back and shadow hands came back up, pushing me back into position. So much for that.
I risked a glance to the right side of the aisles, to see if I could catch a glimpse of Stephen. Instead, I got almost a full close up of him. He sat on the very first row, closest to the action and to me. His face was–pardon my outdated expression–ghost white. Again I asked myself why the fuck was he here!? Risking his life for MORE fame!?
I turned away from him, mad but I knew that was just the surface emotion hiding my immense fear for him. For both of us.
A tiny shadow person ran up my back and forced my head to turn back to the leader. Rude, I was getting there. I knew it was dumb to turn my back on someone so dangerous. But he was still playing to the crowd, not showing much interest in us.
"These three here are all that's left. Welcome, by the way, you did well. Very well." He finally looked at us and grinned.
He looked me in the eye, and I didn't get any impression that he knew me or was hiding that he did. No way of knowing for sure though so I remained on edge.
"Which one of you devoured the ghost?"
The other two looked at me. I just stared at him. Did he really not have a way of seeing what all went down...?
"Come here, lass." He pointed to the spot directly in front of him.
I swallowed my fear, and stepped forward, looking up at him.
"Turn around."
The fear wasn't as easy to hide then. Turn my back on him with him that close? Was I an idiot? I considered running then but, really, what hope did I have of making it out alive if I completely blew my cover? I just had to play along.
I turned around, facing out toward the crowd. The masked man put his large hands on either side of my face and I thought, this is it, he is going to crush my head and it'll all be over.
Instead, he tapped my mask, blue fire licking at his fingers and burning my face. I yelled out and fell to my knees.
"A ghost can not be completely destroyed. A remnant of it will always remain, trapped inside our masks. Behold, a full sized spector."
The fire was bad enough, but then a familiar green hand escaped the mask and wrapped around my neck, squeezing the life out of me. My own hands went to battle the ghost's but it had a death grip on me, and I really thought the thing was gonna pull me inside the mask with it. Instead, its head came out next, its eyes red, teeth still broken but open and biting at the air, screeching.