The Ghosting of Gods Page 3

  What have I done?

  Bouncing Leesel insists she can’t make it all the way home without having an accident, and she’s not going in the woods. There’s no time to reason with her. I go to pick her up, but Poe jabs me in the side.

  The spy has dropped to all fours and is touching his face to the ground. Looks like he’s sniffing. A hunchbacked silhouette in the lantern light, he paws in the weeds and mud. His body rocks from side to side as he digs faster and faster, scooping away earth and lobbing it to either side of himself. Mud walls arise as his hole deepens. His speed is surreal, the rhythm of his movements hypnotizing. Suddenly he grabs his lantern and leans down behind the pile of mud. The eclipse of lantern light jolts me back to myself.

  Poe is bumping into my shoulder, trying to get my attention. “He’s digging us a grave. This is scary.” Poe is several inches taller than me, yet he’s barely peering over my shoulder.

  “Where’s Leesel?” I ask, panicked. She’s no longer bouncing beside me. I can’t see her, and I hope she hasn’t gone too far for her restroom privacy. Instinct shifts my eyes to the chapel.

  No.

  Leesel’s already on the porch, a small shadow against the white door.

  “Stay here,” I breathe at Poe.

  Digging Man twirls, cackling.

  “Wait,” Poe whispers. “Look. He’s not alone. Over there—see?”

  A small circle of light floats in the dark, maybe a hundred yards away, out in the woods.

  Leesel slips inside the chapel with a wave of her hand. She leaves the front door standing open.

  “He’s got more lanterns,” Poe says, pointing back at the graveyard. “He’s setting them up in a circle around his new grave. He’s getting in! We should pray.”

  Digging Man lifts his head out of his ditch and peeks around. I hold my breath, but he drops back down. Several lumps of mud fly up and out. He pops his head up, looks around again. Submerges for more excavating.

  I’m afraid I’ll catch his attention if I move toward the chapel. Right now he’s oblivious to the chapel or anyone in it.

  This makes no sense. If my priests sent him to spy on me, what’s he doing all this for?

  The new light in the woods draws nearer. Blinking in and out of view, it seems to be headed straight for the chapel. A voice carries over. Female. The light stops and swings in a circle. The voice yells Leesel’s name.

  “Is that Ava Lily?” Poe asks in dumb surprise.

  The head pops out of the pit and cocks to the side, watching Ava’s light blip through the trees.

  Digging Man scrambles out of his pit.

  4

  burning bush

  The freak stretches his lantern-yellowed neck, jutting his boney chin forward, and monitors Ava’s approach. He’s utterly motionless except for a tic in his right leg.

  Leesel squeals inside the chapel.

  Lurching forward, Digging Man slips in the mud but manages to keep his balance. Escaping the circle of light cast by lanterns, he sprints toward Ava, wailing, but sounding as if he’s gagged.

  My legs tangle with Poe’s as we both rush for her. Together we go down, and I scrape my face along the side of a tree. Digging Man keens, lips sewn together, the sound of it peeling my nerves.

  Ava.

  I pull myself up and run, weaving through tree trunks as fast as I can, my eyes fixed on Ava’s lantern. “Jesse?” she calls out. Her lantern shifts. Moves toward me. Picks up speed. “Jesse?”

  “I’m here.” Catching her in my arms, I kiss her cheek.

  Digging Man’s cries recede.

  There’s no need trying to stop him. My fate was decided the moment he was sent to spy. His testimony isn’t necessary for judgment to be passed. It’s not simply that my priests doubt me. My priests suspect I have knowledge of ghosts beyond what I confess. They want to know my spiritual secrets. That’s why they sent the spy.

  “You have to trust me, you have to do what I say,” I blurt at Ava.

  She holds her lantern up. “You’re bleeding,” she says, peering out from the hood of her raincoat, touching my cheek softly. “Jesse, you’re too exhausted to be traipsing out here with Poe. I can’t believe you…Was that Poe screaming, playing horror games? He’s such an idiot. It’s not funny. Do you have Leesel?”

  I nod, unable to speak another word. Suddenly, it’s just us, our faces alight from the lantern, with darkness all around. Concern flits across her face when she sees my eyes fill with tears. “I’m sorry,” I manage to whisper.

  Poe clears his throat. I realize he’s standing a few feet away, his chest caved in as he hugs himself. I take a quick step back from Ava.

  “Oh, Mommy, Mommy. Here I am!”

  “Sweetie?” Ava starts toward Leesel’s voice. First she looks into my eyes, and she knows to be afraid.

  Poe races to keep up with Ava. “I’m so sorry, Ava Lily. She followed us…”

  “Come dry out by the fire,” Leesel calls, her voice a squeal of delight. “In the chapel.”

  The fire?

  Poe stalls on the front porch, so Ava and I push past him. “We don’t have much time,” I confess to Ava. “Get her.”

  Cold. Goosebumps wash over me in waves, and spontaneously, I open myself to voices. None come. Wary of who could be hiding here, I start up the center aisle, touching the wooden pews and making them wobble on the uneven floor. A layer of dust an inch thick covers the floor, muffling my footsteps.

  Leesel stands at the head of the aisle. Holding out her hands, she warms them over a fire that burns in a pristine white ceramic tub on a raised platform. Ava wraps an arm around Leesel’s middle and pulls her back.

  “She started a fire in the baptismal!” Poe accuses, indignant. He’s followed us inside after all. “Oh, rapture,” he adds, quickly untying his boots. There’s a holly bush in the tub. That’s what’s burning. Only it’s not. It’s on fire, but perfectly green with red berries dotting its foliage. The bush neither shrivels nor blackens. “Jesse! This sort of haunting is perfect for the religious twist in my poetry. Take off your boots. It’s hallowed ground. Jesse? You okay?”

  A burning bush. God is signaling. God is communicating.

  It’s a sign.

  God is watching. He’ll help us escape. Suddenly, I know this was meant to be. Knowledge can’t be found in my town. It can’t be found with the priests. I’m meant to leave this place.

  I swallow. I didn’t mean for Poe and Leesel to be caught up in this. If only Leesel hadn’t followed us, she wouldn’t be here, and neither would Ava. But Poe. I’m so glad he’s with me.

  There’s no time, so I’m blunt. “Poe. We’ve got to run. Do you understand? That man, he was spying on me. The priests sent him. We can’t go back to town, Poe. We can’t go home.”

  Leesel hears none of this. She’s broken free of Ava. Flapping her arms, she runs up and down the aisle, warbling like a ghost. “This chapel is haunted. La, la, la, it would make a fun playhouse,” she sings. Abruptly, she bolts herself to the floor, slaps her hands on her hips, and looks defiant. “Mommy, I hope you don’t think I started that fire. I absolutely did not.”

  Poe tugs on my arm. Deciphering his expression is difficult. “Priest knows you’re good,” he tells me, but his voice falters. “We’ll go talk with Priest. It’ll be okay. You lost your sister. Your obsession with graveyards is understandable, forgivable…”

  Keening. Out in the woods. Digging Man isn’t gone.

  Ava’s eyes are on me as she pulls Leesel into her arms. “Where do we go, Jesse? Do you know where to go?”

  Using my coat like a blanket, I smother the fire in the baptismal. “Turn off your lantern,” I tell Ava.

  Her lip trembles. “No. You answer me! You tell me you have a safe place for us to go. Please.”

  We now have Leesel’s attention. Her face turns serious. She listens to the adults.

  Snatching Ava’s lantern, I extinguish the light. “The spy’s still here. That means they’re already coming. W
e need dark.”

  Shushing Leesel, I move to the side of a window and look out. Digging Man’s new grave with its circle of lanterns continues to glow, but the digger is nowhere. The night sky has cleared. We’ll easily be seen in the moonlight if we try to escape. My eyes rake the woods. There are many shadows in which to hide priests. Straining to hear voices, I think I hear something, but it’s impossible to tell with the rustling trees and creaking shutters.

  “Now?” Ava whispers, looking out beside me.

  God will protect us. “Yes. Now.”

  Poe’s kneeled in prayer at the smoking baptismal. His prayer continues while I haul him to the doorway where Ava stands riveted. “Where’s Leesel?” I demand, then see her crouching behind a pew. She holds a finger to her lips.

  Turning, I see that priests have appeared in the clearing outside the chapel, six dark shapes in the moonlight.

  My heart flutters. Ava’s nails dig into my arm. “Oh, Jesse,” she whines. “Six of them. The number required to pass judgment.”

  Only yesterday I was told my talent was so remarkable the church wished to overlook my young age and begin my apprenticeship in exorcising not only dwellings, but people. It was a lie. They’ve suspected me for some time, hence the long inquisitions after each exorcism. I resisted. Some things I keep to myself.

  They know.

  “We’re saved,” Poe yelps, rushing for the door. “They’ll get the crazy digger!”

  I pin his arms behind his back and wrestle him back inside the chapel. “Trust me,” I plead, though I’m the last person he should trust. “Poe, are these the priests who told you to bring me out here today?”

  “Yeah. Look. My beloved Priest. And another one I know. He gave me the holy water. What are you doing? What is this about?”

  This is my fault. They know about my visits to graves, know I dig up crystal balls, know I might be a medium…

  Digging Man appears. The priest on the right places a hand on the freak’s shoulder. From the darkness of the tree line, another robed man steps forward. And then another. And another. They stand with my priests.

  Poe sees this. Gasps.

  Ava hugs Leesel tight. I place a hand on Leesel’s head where she stands near the window. She looks up at me, and the moonshine catches her face. She doesn’t look scared, but she does look serious. “Are they afraid to come in the haunted chapel and get us?” she asks me.

  “I don’t think so. They’re waiting on something.” What are they waiting for?

  “We need to run. Maybe they can’t catch us. Not all of us.”

  The priests are young and fit, perfectly capable of chasing down Ava, Leesel, and probably Poe. His heart won’t be in it. He won’t run away from his beloved Priest or the others. But me. I could possibly get away. Startled, I realize Leesel already has this figured out.

  Does God mean for only me to get away?

  No. That can’t be. I won’t leave my friends.

  Poe picks up the lantern, cranks it high, sits on a pew. Bowing his head, he fervently prays in Latin. “Christus factus est pro nobis oboediens usque ad mortem. Mortem autem crucis. DEUS meus, ex toto corde poenitet me omnium meorum peccatorum, eaque detestor, quia peccando, non solum poenas a Te iuste statutas promeritus sum, sed praesertim quia offendi Te…”

  Ava starts to cry. “Jesse? Do something.”

  Poe’s voice grows more intense.

  “…summum bonum, ac dignum qui super omnia diligaris. Ideo firmiter propono, adiuvante gratia Tua, de cetero me non peccaturum peccandique occasiones proximas fugiturum…”

  Do I surrender myself? It won’t matter if I do. The priests will assume I’ve told my friends about the crystal balls. Association proves guilt. Ava knows this. Leesel knows this.

  We’ve seen what’s happened to the mediums in town and everyone close to them.

  Poe’s Latin silences. I turn to see him standing on his pew. “Scary weird,” he says, pointing downward.

  5

  her body revolves

  The floor of the chapel is staining. Along each individual plank, black seeps, discoloring the carpet of pale dust and the natural brown hue of the wood. Cracks appear in the wake of the staining. Planks shrivel.

  The floor is rotting.

  “The chapel’s haunting over,” Poe says. His chin lifts. “I think ghosts intend to intervene. To save us.” He gives me a stern look. “Don’t you do anything, Jesse. Don’t ask me for the holy water. Can you sense a vortex opening? They’re coming, aren’t they? The ghosts of the chapel. They want to save us…want to keep us here…”

  “The walls are rotting too,” Leesel observes, talking right over Poe. “I don’t like it. Can’t you make it stop, Jesse?”

  The rotting floor bulges. Ghosts knock, beating the walls around us, slowly at first, but then urgently until Leesel covers her ears and cries for me to stop it. I grab the lantern, hold it out with a shaky arm, turn in a circle. “What the hell?” I whisper. A sudden crack spins me, and I knock the lantern into a pew. Splinters are sprouting all over the antique bench.

  “The ceiling is moving!” Ava shrieks.

  Over my head, beams shift into odd angles.

  “Oh, man,” Poe breathes. “I’m scared for real, but that is pure rapture.”

  “Jesse?” Ava is folded in on herself, crouched, reaching for me.

  Wind, fierce and sudden, rushes against the chapel. “They’re coming!” Poe shouts in ecstasy as he grips his pew.

  Leesel’s wild hair flies straight back, her eyes squinting as she faces the chapel door that bangs open. I tip back my head and watch the ceiling as it pulls away from the walls…peelings of white paint from the ceiling shower over us like dirty snow.

  Ava screams for me to make it stop.

  The ceiling sucks in, angling up…the chapel shudders so violently that I’m knocked to the floor. Ava falls; she cracks her head on the floor but scrambles back up, fast.

  The chapel shudders in the wind. The once-flat ceiling vaults twenty feet over our heads. Cold air—dense, heavy—sinks down.

  “Can you feel that?” Poe hisses. “The vortex is open. They’re here. Jesse, they’re not bad ones, are they?”

  Staggering to the doorway, I look out, hoping the priests have been frightened away long enough for us to escape.

  As if breaking free of the earth, the chapel lurches. To keep from falling I grab at the side of the doorframe. The chapel thuds down, and the door slams shut on my fingers. Hell. I’m caught, unable to free myself. Another lurch, and this time there’s no thudding back down.

  The chapel pitches.

  A pew slides into my legs, delivering new pain that streaks up my spine.

  “Jesse!” Ava screams. She’s huddled with Leesel behind the smoking baptismal. Flames erupt, fanned by wind spewing through split boards.

  The door vibrates with violence, and I pull my fingers free. Crawling, I make it to the window nearest me. Poe stands at the other one, screaming to the priests for help. I haul myself up and look outside the chapel.

  This is not the ghostly vortex Poe hoped for. It’s like the one from earlier, and I can only surmise it’s come back for me. Below, the landscape whirls by at sickening speed, repeating, as if the chapel is a merry-go-round run by a madman. Woods graveyard priests woods graveyard priests—

  I cling to the window casing and look down. Far below, priests lie flat on their stomachs. One of them has taken refuge in Digging Man’s grave.

  The digger himself stares up at me. Wind rips away his long coat. Curling up into the sky, the garment comes to within a few feet of where I stand at the window. While tree limbs and lanterns and other debris pass in and out of view, the coat stays put, gravitationally locked with the face of the chapel. Puffing up with wind, it appears outside the window as a flying phantom clad for winter.

  The earth below contracts. Expires.

  Poe abandons his window. I keep watch out my own, waiting for my sister Emmy to appear. I’m vaguely aware of Ava
calling me to get away from the window, but the cacophony of hellish winds is deafening. I search, needing, yet afraid, to see Emmy, but the atmosphere is now empty of anything but muck. Dizziness presses hard against my head. My vision tunnels and I sink to the floor.

  The chapel plummets. I rise above the floor, floating, until the floor erupts into my spine. Wind shrieks. I lie on my back, covering my ears.

  Both windows blow out.

  Screaming. It’s Ava. She’s on her knees, arms wide and empty.

  Leesel is gone.

  “She’s out the window!” Poe shouts at me over the din. Horror masks his face.

  Out the window? My eyes scour the tiny space inside the chapel. Pews are overturned, but I can’t see where Leesel could be hiding…Out the window?

  No. It can’t be.

  I scramble up, wind blasts, and my feet lose contact with the floor. Another impact, and my body is bent in half with my torso outside the chapel window.

  Poe heaves me back inside. He shoves me hard onto the floor, as if to stick me there, then turns to Ava. “Lie flat!” he screams at her.

  But no. Leesel is gone, and once Ava catches her balance, she runs for the window.

  Sucked outside, she manages to cling to the window casing, screaming as a shard of glass pierces her fingertips. Her long hair is a screen hiding most of her face, but the irregular line of her chin falls slack, and her head falls to the side before either Poe or I can get to her.

  Ava floats.

  Outside the window, somehow unaffected by the whirlpool of wind, her body floats. Head hanging limply, her body revolves.

  “Oh, God, she’s dead,” Poe cries out.

  Her head snaps up.

  Sparks of static crackle around Ava, straightening her hair, standing it on end. The roots pull taut at her forehead, puckering it. Involuntarily, I shrink back. Ava is conscious, not dead. Mouth open, her expression is one of stunned surprise. She grows pale. White.

  Leesel, she mouths, her eyes married to mine.