• Chapter 3 The spirits of Illah

    Angelica woke up the next morning. She didn’t have any memories from what had happened last night. Al l she remembered was the shadow that had disappeared. Not until she walked down. She came down to the kitchen. Julie and Mary was sitting in the living room. The sun was shining through a large window.
    “A couple was found dead last night around Morgan Avenue… No suspects have been found and the police is still looking. What they know is that they didn’t die a painful death” the news reporter spoke from the large TV they had.
    Angelica ran straight up again. Then she started crying again.


    It was Friday. She had a date to go on! Angelica had almost forgotten all about it.
    The phone rang. Angelica quickly took the phone. She was breathing heavily, as if she had been running a marathon race.
    “Yes, this is the Hudson family” Angelica spoke through the phone.
    “This is Michael. You haven’t forgotten, have you?” Michael asked.
    Angelica smiled.
    “No, I haven’t Michael” she said.
    “When should we meet?” Michael asked.
    “Well, I’m going to study after school, so maybe around 7PM?” Angelica asked.
    “Yeah, sure. Works for me. Bye!” Michael said, then he hung up.
    Angelica started roaring with laughter.


    They sat in the bus on their way to the school. Angelica didn’t really want to discuss the date with the others, since Sabrina sat there with them. She didn’t want to discuss it quietly with Mary either, the only one she had told. She was afraid Sabrina would hear anyway. She had very sharp ears, as they said.
    As you are now, so was once I. As you are now, so will I be, so be prepared to follow me.
    Angelica briskly shook her head.
    “What’s the matter?” Sabrina asked.
    “Oh, nothing… I’m not really myself today” Angelica said.
    “Hmm…” Sabrina looked at Angelica. Sabrina thought that Angelica had looked very pale. Had something happened to her? Angelica didn’t really want to tell her that. Although, maybe she had told Mary already. Sabrina gritted her teeth in fury. Always Mary, sweet little Mary, the wonderful Mary who had no wrongs whatsoever… Sabrina managed to swallow her fury and she kept herself happy for the rest of the school day.

    Angelica stood outside the theatre and waited. She had told her friends and grand parents that she was going out; They didn’t mind. In her family, you didn’t asked questions about things that didn’t involve you. Which was a delightful thing for Angelica.
    Ten minutes had passed. Angelica was getting worried that he had forgotten. Of course he hadn’t! a silly voice thought inside her head. Another voice said “ you’re only dreaming “. Then, the first voice was right.
    “Angelica!” A voice yelled. It was starting to get dark outside. Angelica looked at Michael. He was really cute for the evening!
    “Have you waited a long time?” Michael asked.
    “No, not really. I was afraid that you wouldn’t show up first…” Angelica said shyly.
    “Well, I came, Didn’t I?” Michael asked and smiled. Angelica smiled back. Then she took his hand(to Angelica’s delight, Michael didn’t back off; He grabbed her hand even harder. She could feel the pulse beating between his fingertips). Angelica smiled and kissed him on the cheek. Michael blushed.
    “Well, shall we go now?” Angelica asked after a moment of complete quietness where they only stood and watched each other, only to try and imagine what the other one was thinking. All they heard was their breathing and the people around them talking; probably about what had happened yesterday. Angelica didn’t care now. She wasn’t scared- She had Michael with her. And damn, she was falling in love with him. Well, that was one of the problems she had to sort out for the future, Angelica thought. For the moment, she just enjoyed everything, and it felt as if she was in heaven.


    Angelica slept through the whole night after the movie, dreaming about the kiss they had been kissing; not those kind of kiss she had given her last boyfriends; this was a real kiss. She had enjoyed it. She smiled in her sleep.

    Angelica woke up the next day. She was cheerful and not tired at all; she wasn’t the type that was one of those morning people that could just wake up and start doing stuff directly on the morning. Angelica put on her clothes and immediately rushed down to the kitchen where her grand parents already sat.
    “Good morning!” she said and smiled. Her grand dad glanced at her from the shoulder. Then he turned his head back to the paper he was reading.
    “Wow, not often I can see you this cheerful on the mornings!” her dad said.
    “Well, it got to happen some time, right?” Angelica asked. She sat down on the chair next to the table.
    “What will we get for breakfast, mom?” Angelica asked.
    “Fried bacon with eggs and sandwiches” her mom replied happily as she sang. She moved around the room with such grace.
    “Did something happen yesterday?” her dad asked.
    “N…No” Angelica stuttered.
    “Not at all!” Angelica stuttered once again.
    “Really??? You wouldn’t happen to have met a new boy, would you?” her dad asked.
    Angelica went red; her face was burning.
    “N-No! It’s not what you think it is! We’re just friends, that’s all…” Angelica said. Now she had said too much. For her granddad laughed.
    “It’s okay, it’s okay. I know how girls are like when they meet new boys and fall in love” her dad asked. At that same time, Sabrina had come rushing down in to the kitchen.
    “So who’s the lucky guy?” she asked.
    s**t… Angelica thought.


    Angelica ran up to her room that night. The shadow was standing there and waiting for her.
    “What is it with you anyway!? You make me an assassin for you, then you show up here, smiling…”
    “Here, follow me” the shadow said. Angelica looked at the shadow for a while.
    “You’re not going anywhere…” Angelica said, trying to sound a bit polite.
    “Wait and see…” The shadow said. Suddenly everything was twisting around. Angelica’s body was twisting and her face was rolling around as if her head was loose and rolling on the floor.
    Then, everything went back to normal. They were standing in a desert. It was nearing night fall.
    “Where are we?” Angelica asked after a couple of seconds observation.
    “In a desert…” the shadow said and started walking.
    “H-Hey, wait up!” Angelica said, trying to keep pace with the shadow.


    After a whiles running, Angelica’s sweat started running down the forehead.
    “Why do you need to be so fast?” Angelica asked.
    “Oh, sorry, I forgot, you are only mere humans…” the shadow said and laughed.
    He raised his hand out in the air and a bottle of water appeared.
    “Here you go” the shadow said and threw the bottle to Angelica. It was a fire camp.
    Someone had already been there.
    The shadow closed his eyes, then the fire started spitting out the fire place.
    Angelica jumped in surprise.
    “Can you do magic?” she asked.
    “Yes. I could teach you, but not now. We got a long path to walk. You’d better rest so you have power enough to walk” the shadow said.
    Angelica rose from the sand.
    “Hey, I need to return! I have friends in the other world! I have people I care about, I can’t just abandon them and…”
    “Dear little girl, would anyone believe you if you ever got the chance to tell you that you were going to this world?” the shadow asked. He laughed a laugh that made goose-bumps rise from Angelica’s neck. But the shadow was right. No one would believe her even if she got the chance to tell someone. The only one who would probably believe her was Sabrina. But she wouldn’t be surprised if Sabrina didn’t believe her either. Sabrina was crazy, but she wasn’t morbid. Angelica rested her head on the sand which was uncomfortable but still enough to make her fall asleep.

    The shadow sat up and looked in to the fireplace. The sun was rising over the huge desert.
    “Wow!” Angelica managed to get out when she had woken up enough to see.
    “What? Never seen the sun going up?” the shadow asked and laughed. This time it was a friendly laughter. That sort of laughter you can hear from your friends when you tell them a joke.
    “So, this isn’t a dream?” Angelica asked.
    “No, little girl. This is between reality and dream” the shadow said.
    “Your spirit still lingers in the world of the living ones. However, this is the middle world where the dead dwell. You are one of the few chosen to ever have the chance to go to this place” the shadow said.
    “A place between living dead you say?” Angelica asked.
    “This is the place for the dead that don’t have a place to rest. Your goal here is to kill them so they can once again fall in to peace” the shadow said.
    “So you’re not one of them, then?” Angelica asked.
    “No, I’m from another world where the shadows live. Invisible for other creatures than the humans though. I was surprised when there were rumors about me in your world, so I guess you humans really can see what you call ghosts” the shadow said.
    Angelica snickered.
    “Ghosts? I don’t believe in such a thing” Angelica said.
    “You are alive, aren’t you?” Angelica asked and smiled.
    The shadow looked like someone had hit him with a hammer.
    No one had ever called him a living creature before.

    Angelica and the shadow had walked for many hours until they decided to sit down and rest.
    “So where are we heading?” Angelica asked.
    “The city of Urha”. We will take our first mission there” the shadow said and rose.
    He threw the water bottle to Angelica. Angelica took very small sips because they needed to save on the water.
    Then they started walking again.
    They were quiet almost the whole time when they walked.
    They reached the city when the sun was about to go down again. Angelica was tired and she felt like she would faint any minute now.
    “Are you okay?” the shadow asked as he looked at Angelica.
    “Y-Yeah, a bit tired, that’s all…” Angelica said.
    “Let’s take you to a hotel so you can rest for a bit” the shadow said.
    Angelica nodded.
    “Thanks” she said.

    The hotel looked dirty. It was not the kind of hotel where you could walk in and expect it to be full. This was a very shabby hotel with only the bartender standing alone in a corner.
    Angelica had to close her eyes for a moment until she got used to the darkness in the hotel.
    The bartender had rolled-up sleeves and beard all over his face.
    “Can I do anything for you, miss and…?”
    “You can call me whatever you want” the shadow said and smiled.
    The bartender looked at the shadow for a brief second, then he nodded. The shadow laughed.
    “There’s no need for any formalities, kind sir” the shadow said.
    “I’m just here to stay the night and that’s all” he said and handed money to the bartender.
    “I hope this will be enough” the shadow said. The bartender nodded.
    They walked up the stairs and found themselves in a hallway.
    It had doors on both sides, each door had a room number.
    “What’s our room number?” the shadow asked.
    “Just take any number you like! No one stays here anyway” he said to himself. Angelica and the shadow took each separate room.
    Angelica fell asleep. The shadow stayed up until late at night.
    Then he fell asleep too.
    Angelica woke up the next morning. It took a little while for her to register where she was but she managed to.
    She walked down and waited for the shadow to come. He walked down the stairs a few minutes after she had walked down.
    “Well, are you ready for your first mission?” he asked Angelica. Angelica nodded and yawned.
    “Are you that tired?” the shadow asked, thinking Angelica was exaggerating.
    “Yeah, I’m not exactly the happy little miss sunshine on the morning” Angelica said.
    “Shall we go?” she asked.
    The city was nearly empty on the morning, the only exception
    was the drunk yards lying on the streets in the allies and near the shops. The streets smelt strongly of coffee at this early morning and it made Angelica really hungry.
    Angelica thought that the shadow had sensed this, because the shadow turned to her and saw her putting her hand on her stomach.
    “Are you hungry?” the shadow asked. Angelica nodded.
    “Let’s go and grab something to eat” he said. They walked to the direction where the smell of coffee came from.
    They came to a small diner. This diner was filled with guests who minded their own business. They had a hard time to find a table, but they did.
    Angelica and the shadow sat down. Angelica looked around, thinking that this particular place wasn’t really that different from her reality. This was the first time she had thought of it. She was surprised she didn’t miss her reality, as for saying that maybe that she had put her reality behind her. A maid walked towards both of them.
    She had long, brown hair that went down almost to her waist and had a happy smile on her face.
    “Hi, can I do anything for you?” the maid asked.
    “Yeah, um… I want a coffee with milk please, and if you have it, fried bacon and eggs please” she said.
    “Oh, and extra potato if you have it” she said.
    “You must be really hungry” the maid said.
    “You have no idea” Angelica said, looking up at her.
    “And what will you take sir?” the maid asked the shadow.
    The shadow looked at the menu for a couple of seconds, before deciding.
    “I’ll take a coffee” he said.

    They paid for their food and drinks, then they left the table exhausted but happy.
    The shadow hadn’t eaten anything.
    “Aren’t you hungry?” Angelica asked.
    “I… I can’t eat. I can drink though” the shadow said.
    “WOW, you can’t eat?” Angelica exclaimed.
    “Yes, now shall we continue?” the shadow said, feeling a little uncomfortable with the subject.

    They reached a small building. The shadow nodded at Angelica. Angelica walked to the door and knocked on.
    The door opened.
    A very old lady stepped out, looking at Angelica and then looking at the shadow. The shadow smiled.
    “Oh, it’s you! Come in, come in…” the old lady sung as she made a gesture for them to come inside.
    It was very small but cozy. It had a small bed for one person in a corner of the room and a very simple kitchen. She had a wardrobe on the opposite side of where the bed was.
    “How are you today?” the shadow asked. The old lady put her hand on her back.
    “I’m not feeling so well today… It was quite a while since I died… I think my body isn’t built for this” the old lady said.
    “Well, we could help you with that” the shadow said.
    “Really? I heard you had some kind of gift, so I thought you would help me all along, but I didn’t knew you were serious about your gift…” the lady said. The shadow smiled.
    “But in return, I want something you value very highly” the shadow said.
    “Oh…” the heart of the old lady sank. Not that she didn’t have a heart, but she felt like she didn’t want to do this anymore. But her mind told her to continue, so she went and looked for a couple of minutes.
    “What…?” Angelica asked, but the shadow made a sign to tell her to be quiet. Angelica looked down the floor.
    Then the lady appeared.
    “I have a necklace here. It’s very ancient and have been passed down in centuries throughout our family” she said.
    “This will do” the shadow said and rose from the chair he was sitting on.
    “All right Angelica, it’s your work that is left” the shadow said.
    “What?” Angelica asked. Things got really weird now.
    “Take out that spear of yours” the shadow said.
    Angelica spread out her hand as she had done before and the spear appeared. The shadow whispered in her ear:
    “I want you to think of the words Ilmauah ‘Keta Ozu” the shadow said.
    Angelica did as she was told to. The spear was shining red now.
    The old woman’s body started fading in and out now.
    “Thank you” she said and smiled.
    Then she vanished.
    Angelica was breathing heavily now. It felt like she had ran a marathon race.
    “Why does this take so much power out of me?” Angelica asked.
    “Because what you just did was a practice of the Gods” the shadow said.
    “Let’s head back. I’ll explain your powers in much more detail” he said. Then they exited the house. Angelica looked at the house for a last second then she decided to follow the shadow.