Sky arrived quickly, as usual, and was sitting on the bed next to me. “I didn’t hear you mention food, so I didn’t bring any,” she said, “so, I figure there must be trouble, even though everything seems to be quiet.” “There is trouble, big trouble perhaps,” I said, and I quickly told her about Carine and that she was here in the living room. “She must be a ghost,” I said, “but she has been gone a long time. Where has she been all this time? Is she working for one of our enemies?

Jennifer just called and warned me there is great danger here and likely aimed at me. That means Carine may be programmed to kill me. Can you two kill other ghosts?” “No,” answered Angel right away. “I agree,” said Sky, “but we can protect you and chase her away.” “But she would just come back another time when we least suspect her,” I said, “which means I will never be safe from her, and you ghosts can’t possibly protect me 24 hours a day.”

“Why not?” asked Sky, “there are 4 of us, so taking turns would not be hard.” Angel agreed. “But can just one of you protect me?” I asked, “We don’t know what her abilities are.” “Hmm, you would have to mention that,” said Sky, “we would have to stay 2 at a time with you just to be sure.” “Angel, go talk with Carine and let her know I will be down in a few minutes,” I said, “just tell her I’m cleaning up after my massage.” Off she went. “I already communicated with Kat and she will be here in a few minutes,” I said, “so that is when we will go down.”

“Maybe Sky could take you somewhere and hide you,” said Caleigh, “then this Carine would not know where you are, so you would be safe.” “Yes, good idea,” said Sky, “I could easily do that. Sometimes it is best to run away so that you can return to fight another day, when we have the upper hand.” “When will that be?” I asked, “I can’t stay hidden all the time, unless I resigned from the Investigators, and I don’t want to do that.”

“You would at least be alive,” said Caleigh, “my friends and I would be happy to come with you and help you.” “Where would we get the money to live?” I said. “Details,” said Caleigh, shaking her head, “you always are worried about details.” “Caleigh is right,” said Sky, “you and Jennifer would get a pension, or maybe you could work for Mr. B or Mr. M in some place where no one would find you.” “I just don’t like the idea of running and hiding,” I said.

“What about your family?” asked Caleigh, “You must think of them too. They are also in danger, especially your children. And your younger sisters do not need much to live, we survived 2 years on the run and had next to nothing. But we survive and we were happy together.” Just then there was knocking at the door, which meant that Kat had arrived. “My Bad Girls will be here soon as well,” said Sky. “You need to tell them to stay out of this fight,” I said, “this must be for ghosts only.”

She agreed and Caleigh said she would tell them. Then Sky and I went down to meet Carine. I apologized for taking so long, but I was moving a bit slow after my beating. Carine came over and hugged me right away, but Sky continued to keep her hand on me, just in case. We sat talking for a while and she did seem to be the real Carine. I tested her with things that only her and I knew about, and she answered correctly without any hesitation. Then she asked if she and I could talk alone for a few minutes.

That got my ghosts rather concerned. “I know you are likely concerned about being alone with me,” said Carine, “but your friends do not need to be out of sight, just to move back to the doorways so they can’t hear us talk.” I agreed to that even though Sky said one of them should stay with us at all times. But I said it would be okay, they can easily watch us. And Angel can hear what we say, so she would know if the conversation was not going well.

I did not mention that part since Carine obviously did not know what Angel can do. “Lauren and Jazzy are out to kill you Steve,” she said, “they are working together right now, even though they hate each other. But they hate you more, so they decided to put their hatred for each other aside until they kill you. Lauren got me from Dr. W., and she has been training me ever since to hate men, all men, but especially you, because she wants me to kill you.” She put her head down.

“It has, it has, been hard for me,” she said, “learning to hate. That is not me before, but now, now it is all I know. I hate everything good, I hate all men with a terrible hatred.” “And me?” I asked, “Do you hate me like that too?” “Lauren taught me to hate you too, Steve,” she said, “to hate you enough to kill you. I fought it, I really did Steve. Honest, I really did. But I lost. And I learned to hate you terribly and to think of many different ways to kill you.”

I then started talking to her about how we met, how she took pity on this half starved, dirty, homeless man that she knew nothing about. And I knew nothing about myself. That didn’t stop her from having great compassion for me and she took me home so I could get cleaned up. Then she let me stay with her until someone came looking for me, but no one did. Then we fell in love and she got a man, from a gang she had been with before, to get me a new identity.

Once I had that, then we got married, even though I was already married to Kat. I talked for a while, working on her memory, and her former love for me. I was hoping this might be enough to disarm her. During our conversation she kept reaching over toward my hand that I had on the couch between us. But each time she pulled back. She finally looked up at me again, and she had tears in her eyes. “Lauren has a way to kill me,” she said, “she got this device from her nephew Christopher. He had a ghost slave too, and this device could kill her.”

“Yes, that is true,” I said, “Jennifer escaped from Christopher and helped me escape with her, we are now married. Then Kat discovered how to stop that device from working on them. We can protect you too. We can also help you deal with getting rid of all that hate. If you want help.” “I hate you Steve!” she exclaimed, “Lauren taught me to hate you! But I still love you too, she could not get rid of the love I have for you. But, I must kill you now.”

That is when Angel, Kat and Sky showed up around me as we stood by the couch. But I told them to move aside. “Okay Carine, kill me,” I said calmly. She moved lightning fast putting both hands against my head, before the others could stop her. Sky knew what she was going to do, but it was too late to do anything. I reminded her again of the first day we met.

She stood there with hatred in her eyes, but that soon melted away and tears returned. “Please help me,” she said quietly. Then she turned to Sky. “These bracelets,” she said, “Lauren can kill me with these. I cannot remove them, but I think you can destroy them, quickly please.” Sky put her hands around them and shot electricity into them. There were sparks and smoke and Carine screamed, falling to the floor.

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.