‘Hey kiddo, looks like you could use some help.’

I was face to face with my dead Aunt Monica. She had been dead for about eleven years now and I vaguely remember going to her funeral, seeing who I now knew were the rest of my mothers family there but not really knowing who they were; all except my Auntie Morrigan. Aunt Monica would be in her thirties if she was still alive today, but there she was; smiling at me, perpetually in her early twenties.

‘Help? Yes! Um, I mean… What’s going on?’ I stuttered. I was confused as hell which was nothing new. Yet again I was forcibly yanked in to a a brand new situation that I apparently just had to go along with, but at least I was with a family member; albeit a dead one that I barely knew.

‘I know you’re confused but we don’t have much time. I’ve pulled you in to a sort of limbo dimension, between your world and the spirit world. But not the dimension we use for portals though.’ Auntie Monica told me. I just nodded my head to show I understood what she was saying, or was trying to at least. I looked around the scene I had just been dragged from and noticed that everything that was happening; had slowed down to a near halt. Time worked differently in the spirit realm, half an hour in there worked out to several hours in the real world. But here in this dimension because of the weird time dilation or whatever it was, I had the time to really take in all the details. Looking over at Auntie M, I could see it on her face that she was about to loose consciousness.

I guessed that in about a few minutes or so of time passing in this in between dimension, she would be completely out of energy and passed out on the floor, leaving Baal to potentially use the situation to his advantage somehow. All he needed to do really was get close enough to my Aunt in her passed out state, drag her in to the portal he was stuck in and do whatever it was he needed to do to break the magic seal that kept him bound to hell. Which was basically snap her in half, drain her of all her blood and absorb her magic and soul. The meagre amount of my own blood that I smeared on to the portal sigil with the burnt paper ash wasn’t enough to do much of anything; but we figured that Baal needed a few bodies worth of blood and probably a few souls at least to break from his prison, he definitely would get out after drinking my Aunts blood and magic that’s for sure.

But whilst I was happy to be talking to my Aunt Monica for essentially the first time ever even though she was dead, we weren’t talking during an appropriate moment. Nor did we have the time for a proper catch up. She was definitely a Taylor that’s for sure, she looked like the rest of them; short in height, brunette, somewhere between a round and heart shaped face, thin lips and mischievous looking eyes. She looked like she was vivacious and bubbly too, even having some similar mannerisms to Auntie M and even my mother in a weird way. She was grinning at me like a Cheshire cat, it was as if this entire situation was nothing out of the ordinary. A perfectly normal thing that she needn’t worry about.

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‘Well, it took me ages to get here so… that’s kinda my bad. Um, I brought you here just so I had a little more time to explain how I can help, especially seeing as my big sister has kinda overcooked it again.’ Auntie Monica grinned and stuck her thumb out in the direction of Auntie M. Her body hadn’t moved by this point but her other eye seemed to be fluttering shut now, albeit at I don’t know; ten times slower than real time.

‘Okay so what do we need to do?’ I asked. ‘Auntie M isn’t gonna last much longer and Arne can’t exactly keep hold of Bruce much longer ‘cause he’s suffering from the blight even more now.’

‘Hear me out Maddie.’ Said Auntie Monica. ‘I’m not trying to be rude, but unfortunately your own power isn’t strong enough to turn this situation in our favour.’

Monica wasn’t being rude at all, she was totally correct that I wasn’t strong enough.

‘So what I was thinking was, I could use you as a conduit. I could sorta channel my energy through you so you can deal with that raging melt over there.’ Monica pointed at the half visible, swirling black mass protruding from the hole in the ground. ‘I wanted to ask you first though, I mean Morrigan hates not being in complete control of her own body and she’d never forgive me if I forced her to… again. She’s nearly KO’d anyway I can’t use her as a conduit even if I tried.’

‘You need someone who’s conscious then?’ I asked.

‘Yep. And I can’t use Arne or Bruce even. You’re the only one.’

‘Do it then.’ I didn’t even need a moment to think, I just wanted this all to be over and done with. And if my Auntie Monica could help then I would have no problem in letting her take over my body or whatever it is she was about to do.

‘Brilliant!’ Auntie Monica exclaimed, clapping her hands together in delight. We both looked over to Auntie M, who now had both eyes closed and seemed to be falling down, the weird angle of her body reminded me of people fainting in films; how their bodies just seemed to switch off when their consciousness went dark. Just as I thought, a few minutes in this realm was about ten seconds or so in the real world.

‘We need to do this now. I’m sorry again Maddie I didn’t get here sooner. And I hope we get to talk again soon properly.’ Auntie Monica shuffled over to me and gave me a hug which felt as real as any other normal hug I’d had in the real world. She was technically a ghost and I was some sort of out of body being, I didn’t know what I was expecting to be honest.

‘I hope we get to talk again soon too Auntie Monica.’ I was genuinely hoping we could. I felt bad for not remembering her from when I was a kid and I felt some slight rage again, toward my mother who kept me away from most of my family nearly all my life; even threatening my Aunt Morrigan from seeing me and her again if she even hinted at what I was. Really I shouldn’t be that mad toward my mum for wanting a better life for me, but I couldn’t help it. I felt wronged.

‘We will, I’ll make sure I’m around. Oh and before I forget…’ Auntie Monica nodded her head over to Auntie Morrigan. ‘Tell my sister to stop thinking she has to do everything herself, she can’t keep going at this pace all the time she’ll burn out.’

‘I’ll tell her that.’ I smiled. Aunt Monica smiled back and ruffled my hair.

‘Good girl. You’re doing us proud.’

As soon as my Aunt Monica spoke her last words to me, I was back in my physical body and within a few seconds after that; I felt a surge of warm, powerful energy fill me up from my toes to the ends of my hair while simultaneously watching Auntie M fall to the ground and Arne screaming her name.