One Soul, Part Two

There were three girls, all teenagers or your adults, swathed in sweaters and thick woolen pants with furry boots. In between them all was an Ouija board, one that looked older than most of the trees in the woods outside. One girl wore red-rimmed glasses with auburn locks trailing down her face and tumbling down her back. Another was pale as the snow outside with shiny black hair, an air of authority hanging around her. She was pretty enough, Peter mused, but was nothing compared to the third.

Glowing golden aura, this girl had short hair that was dyed green, a piercing in her eyebrow marking her as a rebel; she was smiling as the girls hands were joined on the planchette, the small arrow used to point out letters on the spirit board. Peter found himself drifting until he was hanging over the punk rocker girl, his tendrils caressing the golden aura, which was delightfully warm.

“Spirits! Respond to my call!” The black-haired girl called out, sounding annoyed.

“Chill Stephanie, I don’t think the board is going to pull a ghost from these woods, haunted or not,” the punk rocker girl smiled. The redhead snickered before being silenced by Stephanie’s withering glare.

“We came up here to contact your grandfather Allie,” Stephanie said, looking at the punk rocker girl, who frowned for a moment. Stephanie turned on the redhead. “And we would be able to do that if we all remained focused Aubrey!”

“I’m sorry,” Aubrey said sounding anything but. Her fingers moved back to the planchette which, now that all the girls were holding onto it, began to glow before Peter’s eyes. Without even thinking about it, one of his octopus-like tentacles curled around Allie and landed on the planchette, moving it slowly to the three girls gasps.

“H…E…L…L…O…” Stephanie read out, a smile spreading across her perfect features. “We found one! We got a spirit!”

“Are sure Allie wasn’t moving it?” Aubrey asked, looking over the table at Allie, who stuck her tongue out at the other girl.

“I wasn’t moving it,” Allie countered. Peter’s tentacle moved the planchette again, moving slow enough to allow Stephanie to read it out.

“Why did you call me?” She sounded excited. “Well, we called you because Allie wants to speak to her grandfather! He died a few months ago and she misses him. Can you contact Tom Whitman for us?”

Peter could feel a sense of revulsion boil up within himself at the idea of contacting another spirit. He felt warmth growing in his lower region and looked down; several of his tentacles were buried in Allie’s back, the golden aura feeding the frozen spirit warmth he didn’t even realize he wanted.

The tentacle moved the planchette to the “No” answer. “Why can’t you connect us to him Spirit?” Stephanie asked, looking up.

The planchette slid along the board. “Because I want to play a game,” the tentacle spelled out, several more tendrils digging into Allie as Peter’s lower body communicated through the medium.

“We heed your call and will play your game!” Stephanie said before being elbowed by Aubrey. “What?”

“You know the stories of this place. Are you sure we should be doing this?” Aubrey asked. Allie was quiet on the matter, probably because her soul was now wrestling within her tiny frame with Peter’s tentacles, allowing more of him to sink into her frame.

“We waited to do this all semester Aubrey! There’s no backing out now,” Stephanie said before returning her gaze towards the ceiling. “What do you want us to do?”

Peter smiled as the tentacle whizzed the planchette around the board, spelling out the word “Scream”, just as the candles around the house snuffed out, leaving only the light of the fireplace for the three girls. Peter fully submerged into Allie, his head dipping between her shoulder blades to come face-to-face with her.

She was screaming internally, the tentacles pulling her and wrapping her up. Peter found himself feeling a heartbeat, warmth from being bundled up near a fire. He curled Allie’s hand experimentally. He smirked as the body responded.

“Now we’re in business,” he said. “What I’m supposed to do, I don’t know.”

It was then he realized the two other girls were screaming. “Well, no need to join them,” Peter thought, a feeling welling up in him urging him to cause them harm. That was a familiar feeling he’d felt in life.

He rose from the ground bonelessly, Allie’s body shifting and popping as her soul fought for control. Both girls looked at Allie in confusion, allowing Peter to indulge in their fear, which just whetted his appetite.

“You wanted a spirit girls,” he said, Allie’s voice issuing forth from her mouth now deeper, raspier. He twitched his head to the side as his vision grew fuzzy. “Well, here I am!”

Both girls screamed once more as Peter lunged forward, bringing his hands to scratch at Stephanie’s face. The inner demon within Peter roared its approval, whispering throughout the mindscape. Rend… tear… cut…bleed…

Accessing Allie’s memories was like tearing a sheet of paper from a notebook; he flipped through them, looking for something about Stephanie. He smiled when he came across pay dirt.

“You’ve been a naughty girl Stephanie, sleeping with Professor Ayers for a better Biology degree! Tell me, what did the old man whisper into your ear while you allowed him to have his way with your nubile body?” Peter whispered hoarsely, one hand fish hooking her mouth. Aubrey grabbed Allie by the shoulders and tried to pull her body off of Stephanie; Peter laughed! The strength he possessed while in the girl was enormous, and nothing these children could do would slow him down!

He leaned close to Stephanie, putting his mouth right up to her ear. “Do you think contacting a spirit is so easy that it wouldn’t attract something like me? Did you think I wouldn’t be able to see your penny-and-nickel sins, pick them apart one by one? What did you expect from this?”

Stephanie just gasped as she struggled against Peter’s stolen arms, his wrapping around her throat.

“No!” Allie screamed within her head at Peter. “Don’t hurt her!”

“You have no say in this whelp,” the demon part of Peter hissed, tightening its grip on her soul.

“The bitch dies and will go to Hell for her actions, where her soul will rot for all eternity!”

“You can’t do this!” Allie shrieked within her own head though Peter smiled as he tightened his grip around Stephanie’s neck, her eyes bulging in their sockets.

Whack!

Peter fell to the side, a feeling of warmth spilling from the back of the borrowed bodies head. He could feel it was unconscious and retreated deeper into her mind. Aubrey must have hit me, he mused before turning to regard Allie’s bound soul. “Now what to do with you, little girl?”

“My friends will save me,” she hissed before being squeezed by the demonic tentacles, her soul reeling in agony.

“No one will save you, child, I’ll make certain of it. The longer I’m here, the longer I’m away from the Pit,” Peter said, trying to sound apologetic. It fell flat due to the smile on his face, the mindscape a bleak darkness.

“Yes,” the tentacles hissed as they squeezed the girl’s soul. “When you’re done here, dear Peter, I’ll be returning to Hell with a soul laden with new sin.”

“Silence! I’ll stay in this body as long as I can!” Peter growled. Before realizing his body was waking up. He peered out his eyes at a stark white room before trying to move his arm. It was bound to the bed Allie’s body lay upon.

Turning her head, Peter narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of Aubrey and Stephanie, along with an elderly doctor and two men in black robes with heavy crosses hanging around their necks. He hissed within her head at the crosses, but made certain Allie didn’t even flinch at such a reaction could occur.