“There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion.”
                                                                                                            Edgar Allan Poe
                                                                       ********

The Goth-girl finally comes upon the chapel itself, she could see a strong light coming through the multi-color stain glass windows and the main doors were opened up just enough to let some of the light inside be seen as well.

She pushes open the heavy wooden doors and carefully enters inside, she is startled for a second as the first thing that greets her in the chapel’s vestibule is a life-sized marble statue of Saint Michael slaying the devil while its softly bathed in light from a flood light above it.

As she exits the antechamber, she then notices the chapel’s interior was beautifully laid out for a funeral service, almost every light in the main room was lit while the mixed smell of fresh flowers and sharp incense filled her nose.  She begins to look around for anybody or thing that might be the ghost-girl, however she does not see anybody, dead or alive.

“Jennifer?” Maggie calls out for her as her own voice echoes within the mostly old gray stone building. “If you’re in here, please show yourself. I want to talk to you.”

Maggie quietly listens for anything. There was the sound of a light wind blowing through one of the open stain glass windows and the small “tick-tock” noise of an old Carelton wall clock over her head at the entrance way in which she came in. Other than that, nothing.

“Come on, please?” requested Maggie as she started to notice her breath appeared while at the same time she felt the room become colder telling her that Jennifer hopefully is the one ghost that was indeed here or some other ghost was instead. “Say something.”

“’Every living thing that’s died.’” Jennifer’s voice is finally heard, singing as it reverberated all around the old evergreen oak ceiling in the Romanesque style chapel. Maggie looks around for Jennifer and stops as she hears her voice again. “’Gonna hitch a ride, leave it all behind’.”

“What?” asked Maggie in puzzlement as she listens on.

“’Never change my mind, gonna sail away.’” spoke up Jennifer again with resonant. “’Sun lights another day. Freedom on my mind, carry me away for the last time, oh yeah.’”

Maggie now closely listens to Jennifer’s voice which right now sounded very beautiful, crisp and clear. She knows thanks to Jennifer’s memories still in her mind that she was a leading soprano chorus girl back at her Catholic school before she and her family moved here and she had to start to attend the public high school afterward.  However, Maggie soon believes that Jennifer might be still just playing with her because she’s most likely still upset.

“Come on, I’m serious here.” requested Maggie solemnly as she looked around again for the ghost-girl.

“’Life is like the coldest winter, people freeze the tears I cry.’” spoke up Jennifer’s voice again after a few seconds of silence. “’Words of hail their minds are into, I’ve got to crack this ice and fly.’”

“Fine.” replies Maggie in frustration as she starts to storm out of the chapel. “Be like that, I’m so outta here!”

As soon as Maggie hits the switches to the lights in the chapel and the whole main room goes completely dark. The ghostly blue light from the apparition of Jennifer instantly appears as she is laying down on her back on a solid gray stone table that was used to place a coffin on during funeral services which was just at the foot of the steps that lead to the alter. The ghost-girl quickly sits up and spins around while at the same time whipping off her headphones off her ears as the music can still be heard from them.

“Please!” she cried out in a fearful plea to Maggie, as Jennifer looks right at her while she held out her translucent right hand to Maggie. “Turn on the lights!”

Maggie turns around quickly to see Jennifer with an expression on her face that showed very much she was afraid of someone or something as she was quickly looking around the whole room.

“Please, turn them back on!” she pleaded again with a distressed face. “I don’t like the dark! It was the last thing I saw when I was still alive!”

Maggie did so and saw a great relief come across Jennifer’s face as the whole room became illuminated once more, she was so happy to see it happen that she stood up on the table placed her left hand in front of her face to a flood light just above her as if she was trying to feel the heat from the light itself as the white beam partly penetrated her semitransparent makeup. She soon sat back down onto the stone table, crossed her long legs and looked over to where Maggie was still standing at the doorway.

Maggie carefully started to walk down the nave towards the apparition who just watched her approach. Jennifer slowly narrowed her own eyes at her.

“Jen.” said Maggie as she began to slowly raised her hands up before her until they were level with her chest.

“Mag.” replied Jennifer quickly as she turned off her Walkman with her right hand as she held up her left hand then used the space between her thumb and first finger to try to measured up Maggie’s current height from her perspective, which made the Goth girl look only over seven inches tall because she was bit of a distance away. “You’re small again I see. A tinny, tiny, little girl, so elfin like.”

Jennifer next shows a bit of a confused face towards Maggie at how she was still approaching her and where her hands are at.

“Girl, you can lower your hands.” requested Jennifer within a slight scoff. “I’m not going to hurt you… or rob you for that matter.”

“Actually, I was afraid that you were still sore with me and might possess or slime me or do something really nasty like that.” replied Maggie trying to sound comical while showing a small nervous smile at the ghost-girl as she lowers her hands to her sides.

“’Slime you’?” questioned Jennifer as she pondered for a second at Maggie’s words, until she started at struggling not to bust out in laugher at first before she finally caved in and adding; “You mean just how Bill Murry got slimed by that green ghost in “Ghost Busters”? No, I wouldn’t do that, that’s just gross!”

“Whew!” thought Maggie to herself in relief as she let out a small chuckle. “The humorous icebreaker worked, she’s laughed instead of lashing out or taking possession of me like she did with Coralline.”

“In fact, I was hoping you would come here sometime soon.” admitted Jennifer with a welcoming smile. “I really want to apologize at how I treated you. It was mostly because I had a really bad night even before the biggest thing that really did hurt me and that was when I found out that one of the main items that should have let me have the final chance to cross over to the other side would not work.”

“I believe you mean the car keys?” asked Maggie. “Right?”

“Yes.” replied Jennifer quickly with a mournful tone.

 “Look, I’m sorry about all that did happen with the keys as well as… really about everything that happened that night.” explained Maggie. “If I knew about what Coralline was up to I would have stopped it, me and Sara.”

“Sara, is she here?” asked Jennifer quickly as she looked around for her enthusiastically with a smile.

“Yeah.” replied Maggie with suspicious tone at how Jennifer’s attitude just changed. “She’s with Tim right now. You seem happy about that she’s here too, it seems.”  

“Oh…ah…well…she and I…we had our…little girl talk already, okay?” replied Jennifer as she now showed being bit anxious as she quickly took her right hand and ran though her hair nervously while she looked down at herself.

“Uh~huh.” replied Maggie out loud as she thinks of her next words to herself. “I guess that part of what Sara said on our way up here might be true after all and with the other memories that I have learned lately about Jennifer that I’ve kept to myself, I wonder…”    

“Can I ask you something about what you did in front of me after I just transformed into my...other-self and just before I ran off to fight that Golem?” asked Maggie as she stepped up closer to the ghost.

“Ah, sure?” replied Jennifer with an edgy tone in her voice as she held her crossed-over legs even tighter together as she looked down at Maggie. “Is it when I looked at you eye to eye after showing off to me how big and bad you just became? If I didn’t know better, I think you were trying to intimidating me back there.”

“Well uh...” replied Maggie acting sheepish as she roughed up her hair as well. “I was so caught up in the heat of the moment of becoming my amazon-self I may have done that to you without thinking. As you saw the whole transforming event is such a wonderful rush. So yeah, what I am getting at is when you made yourself as tall as me, was in a way in responding to that, right?

“Uh-huh.” replied Jennifer with a light smile. “When you became all big and bulky and grew almost twice your true size when all said and done at becoming a “She-Hulk”.”

“I still think that was pretty cool what you did, can you do that again?” requested Maggie trying not sound anxious.

“Piff.” replies Jennifer in a scoff as she jumps off the table lands in front of Maggie as she snaps her fingers. “That’s easily. Being a ghost does have some perks, other than going through stuff or becoming invisible and the such.”

A very small, yet joyful smile comes across Maggie’s face as she watches Jennifer “grow” effortlessly taller until she is about fifteen feet tall as the spirit then looks down at her proudly while crossing her arms over her chest.

Maggie is indeed impressed; however, from her perception, she could still see the wooden ceiling and the small chandelier through the ghost easily. Also, she still was not certain that Jennifer was intentionally perhaps unintentionally giving her a wonderful show to her own fascination of hers right how.

“That’s so…wild!” says Maggie as she looks up exuberantly at the now giant ghost-girl as she puts her hands together happily.

“Think that’s something, let’s try thirty feet, hmm?” asked Jennifer with a grin as she next doubles her size within a few seconds. She even goes through the trouble of leaning down slightly as she knows her head is starting to get close to the ceiling itself even though at the same time she is well aware as a ghost she would not damage it because she would simply have materialized right through it. “What do you think?”

“Ha, that really is something! But, you have a chandelier sticking out of your shoulder now.” explained Maggie as she pointed to it.

“I’d go higher, but if I get too…expanded I notice I become more transparent. Must be a molecule thing, I guess.” said Jennifer as she starts to admires herself of her current size.  “Plus, if Tim sees me doing that again, especially going through the roof in here, he’ll have words with me.”

Jennifer then couches down enough until her large ghostly legs are between Maggie who looks on trying to contain her excitement at seeing this, while secretly wishing Jennifer was still alive and was a girl who could chance her size at will. What fun she thought if she could have with Jennifer maybe if this was real.

“You really get turned on by seeing something like this, huh?” asked Jennifer as she looked down at the now tiny Maggie and clearly takes notice of her behavior as she brings down a large hand to Maggie and cups it around her as Maggie watches on. “Little girl.”

“You have no idea.” said Maggie looking back up to her.

“Oh, I just m…” said Jennifer cheerfully as she next briskly cuts herself off from talking as she then glanced down at Maggie with awkwardness before talking again, however, not before she quickly shrinks down to her true size and hopped back on the stone table. “Forget what I just said, I…misspoke there. Umm, anymore questions about that fight?”

Maggie was slightly taken back not just how fast Jennifer quickly shrunk down, yet how she wanted to change the subject so abruptly.

“Well, it’s back before the fight when you said about me making out with that cheerleader about being bigger and all…” explained Maggie anxiously again until Jennifer cuts in.

“Look again, I’m sorry about saying that.” she says with regret in her voice and her face showed that she was being truthful about it. “It was wrong of me; it was mean and I was angry at all of you. It’s just… you guys put me through one awful situation by dragging out of my place of sanctuary while in the realm of the living without my say so.”

“What kind of “situation” my I ask?” question Maggie with concern.

Jennifer does a quick glance at Maggie where her ghostly eyes show that she was serious about what she wants to say next, she finally lets out a soft sigh.

“Like almost being drag into a place forever where it’s very hot, dark, the sour smell of sulfur is very where, demons and other malevolent spirits torture you every single second forever. There is no peace, no sleep and there is a huge sign above the “Black Gate” itself written in Latin carved by demon fire into the brimstone saying; “Abandon hope all ye who enter here because now you’re totally fucked”.”

“Are you talking about Hell itself?” Maggie asked with an uneasiness in her voice as her face lights up with a mix of horror and fear.

“Shhhh.” warned Jennifer apprehensively as she placed a finger over Maggie’s lips. “Mind you, you’re in a place of worship and saying the “H..E…double hockey stick word out-loud can be very dangerous in some cases, especially to someone like me, a ghost. It can call Reapers to me if I’m not careful.”

“Umm, have you really seen that place?” asked Maggie anxiously.

“Oh, yeah and its very real.” replied Jennifer still with discontent voice. “Almost everyone in this very grave yard who is stuck in this kind of Purgatory other like the “Tunnel of Light” place has at least seen it once. It’s to remind all of us that there are worst places than this and to warn us to be very careful at what we do during our parole time.”

“Is there any other place you guys can hang out other than here and this; “Tunnel of Light”?” asked Maggie even though she felt totally awkward asking such a thing after what Jennifer just said.

“Oh, there is one place where all spirits are welcomed.” said Jennifer surprisingly cheerfully all of the sudden once more. “The city of Necropolis.”

“’Necropolis’?” said Maggie with amazement. “As in the city of the dead Necropolis?”

“Yeah.” replied Jennifer with a chuckle at the end. “It’s a real lively place.”

Maggie is not sure if Jennifer is trying to be funny or being serious here.

“We’re getting off track here.” said Maggie trying to get off that gloomily subject quickly. “Going back to one of your own memories, one in particular that I just happen to see again earlier today as I was thinking back about the fight I was having with the Golem and again just after you matched yourself with my new height after I transformed into my…Amazon-self.”

“Which one?” asked Jennifer which Maggie can clearly see now that Jennifer was becoming slightly more uncomfortable talking to her. “This memory.”

“It was the one where you were just a bit younger and you were dancing almost in a kinky matter right in front of your wall mirror in your bedroom while in your underclothes while the song by Billy Idol; “Dancing by yourself.” was playing loud on your stereo. I have to be very honest; I was very much turned on by that image, especially the way you were posing yourself showing off your muscles by flexing.” “You were lightly buffed and pretty toned for a girl almost having a six-pack going on there and your long legs were amazing.”

Jennifer didn’t say a word, expect she was starting to look down at herself, turning away from Maggie while at the same time crossing her legs again. At first Maggie wasn’t too sure, however, she could swear it looked like Jennifer was blushing a little, which quite amazing for Maggie to see because she never heard of a ghost blushing before.

“Is that all?” she asked uncomfortably. “I mean, you’re starting to sound like a living diary here.”

“No, no there’s more.” said Maggie trying to sound sincere, she really wanted to put her hands-on Jennifer just to show some kind of comfort, however, she also knew that her hands might go right through the ghost-girl and she might take the peaceful gesticulation as a kind of insult by accident.

“And I swear I’m not being mean here ether, just because it got to be very curious for me. At one point, with one of your hands on your hips you are looking down between your legs and just between your feet was a Barbie and Ken doll and you’re pointing at them in an aggressive matter while laughing and…”

“Alright, alright!” Jennifer cuts off Maggie in a fluster. “I guess it’s only fair that I say this after what I said about you being taller in the cheerleader dream. That was a moment in my life when I was fed up of being bullied for being too tall. The dolls were representing a couple kids at school who were just plan nasty to me and as for the underwear…. did you ever see; “Attack of the fifty-foot woman” and how she was dressed after she became a giant. Well, I hope you’re getting the idea! I do admit looking back at that it was a bit odd just doing it just in my bra and panties, but I was caught up in the moment and I was letting off some bottled-up steam.”

“’Too tall”?” quoted Maggie.

“Yeah!” exclaimed Jennifer as she hopped off the stone table and looked right at Maggie while she rubbed her hands through her brunette ethereal-like hair in frustration. “I mean look at me! This is how tall I was back when I was still alive. I stood well over six feet tall. Both my brothers were tall which we got from our father. I mean, don’t know about today, but not a whole lot of girls back when I was in school stood at this height or masculine for that matter, petite was in!”

“I was called a; “Freak, She-Beast, The daughter of the fifty-foot woman even once! All sorts of names by some of the kids, especially by the girls.  I just finally came to this conclusion that if I was going to be the biggest girl, then I was going to be the “Alpha” female at the school by size and strength, not by how “Little Miss Popular” was or the way of some of the other girls were by shooting venom at others!”

Maggie just stood fast with her eyes open wide at what she was hearing. She still couldn’t believe it. However, in the end after all the things with Jennifer’s memories and what Sara said earlier, it was starting to make sense now.

“I was even sneaking into by brother’s weight room down in the basement at our house. “Doing curls up to sixty pounds just to make my arms bigger, leg presses crunches and stuff. Secretly, I even wanted to be even bigger and even stronger than all the boys, even on the football team. I wanted to be the one girl that if you saw me coming down the hallway you gave me room and you gave me respect. Shit, I guess in the end, I wanted to be an amazon after all, just like Wonder Woman, Super girl or even like the She-Hulk, just not green. I even had posters of those women I admired and even collected the comic books along with my younger brother John.”

“You mean?” exclaimed Maggie with a small laugh in astonishment. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe it! You’re saying that even you in a way fantasized that you wanted to be big and strong too? Maybe we really do have something in common after all.”

“Not having sex with other girls mind you while being greater in size and strength.” reminded Jennifer holding up a tight fist at Maggie.  “I just looked at it as a source of confidence and respect to myself.”

“Okay, okay, each to their own.” added Maggie with a wide grin on her face now that she could not hide. “But, still this is still unbelievable to hear. I mean really what are the odds here?”

“Alright, I said it!” exclaimed Jennifer in vexation. “You win, happy? Even the tough girl act is part of it, and it makes me feel strong inside. Yet, I’m still the freak, even dead I’m still the damn freak! Shit, one the reasons that I’m so annoyed with you especially now is that is that you can actually become someone who is big and powerful. I envy you so much on this power of yours. If I was still alive today, at your age, knew you back at school and found out about your ability, I would be asking you; “How can I get that power?”.”

“Wow!” thinks Maggie to herself as she looks over Jennifer again with astonishment. “Whether she be a ghost or among the living, she still has such an intimidating aura about her and I do envy that part of her personally so much. Back then in life, the best I can tell from looking at her memories, she was just a normal person without any super human powers. Yet, nevertheless she stood tall, confident, and strong at all the conflicts her faced.”

“Come to think about it, even if she was alive today. At my age and she did manage to get this same “gift” I have burning within me. The way her natural height and build was next to mine and what I can alone turn into. My, God! She could be a Titaness compared to my own imposing mass. I don’t know if I should be really turned on by something like that or be really terrified of her.”

“Why don’t you let her merge within you, my little Maggie?” requested the sudden appearance of the otherworldly yet familiar voice in the back of Maggie’s mind which belonged to her own benefactor, the very same one who gave her these powers to begin with.

“Image the being you two could amalgamate into. Just because this young spirit does not have a physical body anymore. Does not mean it cannot be done. Your friend, Sara just explained this to you with her own merger with Jennifer in that invocation of the magical bonding spell. The girl’s essence alone is indeed a powerful force. You know this, you can sense this and you can definitely taste it. You two do indeed have a lot more in common than you alone are now beginning just to realize, on the verge of a cusp. Think about this.”

“Wait!” requested Maggie as she spoke in her mind to the uncanny visitor. “Mistress? Is that you? What are you asking me here?”

“Hey, Maggie?” asked Jennifer with a concerned expression on her face as the ghost-girl snaps her left fingers in front of Maggie’s face. “You still in there?”

Maggie breaks out of her trance, blinks her eyes for a second and looks right at Jennifer. “Umm, what?”

“You spaced out for a bit.” explained Jennifer. “Got really dreamy eyed there too in the end.”

“Ah, sorry about that, I was…thinking.” explained Maggie as she glanced at Jennifer before looking down at herself as she lightly licked her lips quickly then looked back up. “This “power” does have some draw backs that I should say right now and the responsibility in having it as I’m learning is great.”

“I heard once from another superhero who just happens to climb walls and shoot webs say; “With great power comes great responsibility.”” quoted Jennifer with a smile.

“Spiderman.” said Maggie smiling back. “Good one.”

“I’d like to believe that I would have been responsible enough for the power to do good with it.” said Jennifer.

“Maybe, you could’ve been the right choice for this power at one time instead of me.” said Maggie.

“Twenty and some years too late I’m afraid.” replied Jennifer.

“But, looking at you right now. The way I…saw things flooding my mind about you and how you dealt with them in everyday life and the nightmare you now…live in as a ghost almost every day.” explained Maggie wholehearted as this time she carefully puts her hands-on Jennifer’s face which was almost behaved like smoke which she knew the ghost can’t really feel her skin, looks up to her and smiles. “You are a true giant to me.”

Jennifer in kind puts her left hand on Maggie’s own and the expression on her face almost looked like she was going to start crying as she closed her eyes and smiled before saying;

“You wouldn’t believe how much I would love to feel the touch of your skin and the warmth that comes from it right now.  All I ever feel is cold.”

Jennifer then opens her eyes up quickly and looks down at Maggie with a concerned face now.

“Uh, does that sound “gay”?” she asked seriously. “Not to offend.”

“No.” replied Maggie with a smile. “And I’m not offended by a bit.”

“What else can you tell about me?” asked Jennifer changing the subject again. “Go ahead, thrill me.”

“Well.” replied Maggie as she thought about it for a few seconds, she did not want to mess this positive roll she was having right now with Jennifer. “Your proud to be a Leo because being born in the month of August.  But, you concerned yourself a lioness, your black and white pet cat was named; “Little Mitts” because of his small white paws, you love maple candy and you really wanted to be a nurse so you could take care of your father because of his cancer….Oh, shit…I’m sorry I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s alright.” reassured Jennifer. “Funny thing was I supposed to start college that very fall I died to start my studies. If fact, I was supposed to leave the following week. Man, that still sucks!”


“Yeah.” It sucks.” replied Maggie with a wistfully tone in her voice. “Still I didn’t mean…”

“Please let me say this now and don’t take this the wrong way. Stop treating me like a sad and poor helpless spirit.” interrupted Jennifer with a smile as she gently placed her ghostly right hand on top of Maggie’s own as it slightly materialized into it in which the Goth girl reacts with a chill from its coldness as it ran up her arm. “I do have a conscious self, you know.”

For a few seconds both Maggie and Jennifer look at each other fondly waiting to see who will speak next, however after a period of time their eyes and heads begin to wander around.

“I know we are both trying hard to break more of the ice between us here and come to an understanding.” explained the ghost-girl to the living girl. “But, let’s be honest, this is really starting to get awkward by the way we staring at each other like this.”

“Yeah.” admitted Maggie as she tries to think of something, anything at this point to keep the conservation going as she concentrates more on Jennifer’s memories, then it suddenly comes to her and without really thinking about it she asks right out.

“You still pray, even though you’re a ghost now?” asked Maggie as she looked up at the alter with the sculpture of the crucifixion of Jesus over it. “Does he actually still listen?”

“Oh, yeah I still do, still got some hope left in here no matter what.” replied Jennifer proudly as she pointed the crucifix then to her chest where her heart would be. “And yeah, he still hears me and talks to me still, in his own way of course. Every once in a while, just before the last of the sun sets, I hear and see the angles who do come down Jacob Ladder to collect the good souls to bring them home while calling out to me and the others with their angelic voices to not give up, grow bitter or despair and slip into the darkness of the bottomless void. Reminding me as well there still a place for me in Heaven and there still a candle lit for me too.”

“A candle, in Heaven?” asked Maggie.

“Sure, I mean way not?” replied Jennifer. “At least I’ve been told anyway, there a place there with many, many candles and every candle there represents a soul who has not come home yet.”

“So why doesn’t he with all his power just bring you home and not have you go on and suffer on this so-called “curse” that’s on you?” asked Maggie with concern.

“That is something I’ve asked myself and to many others. But, as I found out in my personal quest over the years that there is really no easily answer to that.” said Jennifer. “It was explained to me at one time that for spirits like myself and many others. We are just simple pawns and I do mean chess pieces here in the never-ending war between the forces of the light and the dark. We just wait and find out when it’s our turn to make a move, I guess.”

Jennifer can see that Maggie is troubled at what she just heard and tries to change the subject herself.

“Hey?” she asks with an upbeat tone suddenly. “Did you ever get those chills that came from out of nowhere that make you shiver all over, especially the ones that do go up your spine?”

“Ahhh!” Maggie cries out in surprise as she feels the sudden cold sensation riding up on her backbones. She turns to see Jennifer holding up her right hand with her first and second fingers extended out while the rest were in a fist after she just ran them through Maggie’s backside.

“That just might be us ghosts from saying; “Hello” to “Gotcha”!” as we just simply walk by.” explained Jennifer with a savvy smile. “Made your nipples hard now, didn’t I?”

“Yeah!” said Maggie as she puffed out her chest at Jennifer and in a joking matter asked her. “You want a feel?”

“Ah, no.” replied Jennifer with a distain look on her as then hides both of her hands behind her back as she started to laugh out loud and Maggie soon joined her.

“I do like your spunk.” admitted Maggie.

“I… like yours too.” replied Jennifer with some hesitation. “Though I wish you drop the dark and mysterious look in the way your dressed and the makeup you’re wearing right now.”

“What do mean?” asked Maggie as she looked over her Goth outfit.

“Oh, come on, Maggie.” explained Jennifer. “For starters, I know that you are a natural brunette, with the right clothes and makeup, you can be kinda cute looking if you try it.”

““Cute?”” quoted Maggie in her mind as a tingling feeling came over her face as it warmed up from excitement. “A ghost girl who I think is still hot thinks… I’m cute!?” Oh, wow.”

“Hey, want to know something else about some of the memories of yours that still lurks in my brain?” asked Maggie speaking to Jennifer again.

“What?” replied Jennifer as she watches Maggie take a light breath and started to sing;

““Circus life, under the big to world. We all need the clowns to make us smile. Through space and time, always another show. Wondering where I am, lost without you’. Know the song?” asked Maggie.

“’Faithfully’ by Journey.” claimed Jennifer proudly. “I still love the song, one of my favorites, even in the afterlife. Nice singing voice by the way, didn’t know you could sing like that.”

“Yeah, it has been playing in my head over and over for days.” explained Maggie as she pulled out her smartphone. “I had to download it just find out who actually played it and before I even met you I couldn’t sing for shit. Now…I sound awesome!”

“’Download’?” asked Jennifer as she glanced down at the smartphone with interest. “What’s that? Some kind of computer talk?”  

“Ah, never mind.” replied Maggie as she forgot who she was talking to.  “It’s ...complicated.”

“Well, you’re not the only one with a song stuck in your head that you never heard of before, try this;” said Jennifer as she next started singing. “’Lines that were broken are now the same. It feels so familiar like nothing has changed. I still remember, when were strangers I would believe I was walking in my sleep. We were strangers, when I believed I could wake up from this dream.’.”

“The Birthday Massacre”?” questioned Maggie in disbelief. “You really know the lyrics? But, that band has been around for a few years. You’ve been dead long before that band was ever conceived.”

“Is that who that is?” asked Jennifer as she takes off her Walkman radio cassette player from her belt to look at it. “Explains why I never heard of them. Which also explains why I couldn’t find them on my “Walkman” anywhere.”

“Uh yeah.” replied Maggie uncomfortably. “Kind of spooky too because the way your voice sounds at times as if it coming from someplace else. Very preternatural like.”

“Such as?” asked Jennifer as she leaned in closer to Maggie with interest.

“Like just now.” explained Maggie. “I don’t know how to describe it really. It just sounds like a normal voice would when you’re talking to me, but there are times your voice rolls in as if it’s on a… wave of some kind, perhaps?”

Jennifer is quite for a few seconds as if she was thinking deeply about something, then her face lights up before she speaks again.

“Oh, that.” she says. “It just happens to us ghosts who cross over to and from different dimensions often. We kinda leave a link between the rifts so we can find our way back safely. Places like the “Tunnel of Light”, “Necropolis” and of course the “Realm of the living” that I said about earlier. Don’t want to end up accidently in place for the dammed now, do we?”

“No.” Maggie says with a bit of a chill as she thinks not only what she seen these last few days meeting Jennifer, however, what she has seen herself shorty after getting her powers. “I would not what to ether.”

“What’s it like growing up as an only child?” asked Jennifer abruptly in which surprised Maggie at how Jennifer changed the subject again.

“Oh, ah…well…kind of lonely at times, even though I did spend a lot of times hanging out with my cousins. What’s it like growing up being the middle child with two brothers?”

“They fart a lot.” replied Jennifer bluntly until she cracked a smile and laughed. “It’s was great, both the good times and bad times. I still love them.”  

“Hey?” cries out Maggie to Jennifer as she herself suddenly jumps in and they both ask each other the same question in unison.

“You too kept a copy of “Alice in Wonderland” hidden under your bed with several book markers through it, especially with the growth scenes?”

As they both asked each other simultaneously at the same time they both unintentionally reached out in reaction and grabbed each other’s hands contentedly.

Both girls were now astonished at what is happening between them, especially the ghostly Jennifer as she looks down at her own hands and sees that they were not materializing through Maggie’s own now as if they were solid themselves.

“Maggie?” asked Jennifer nervously as she pushed against the living girl’s own as they moved forward and back. “I really should not be able to do this. What’s happening to us?”

“I don’t know.” replied Maggie with wonderment as she looked on and then notice, she did not feel the cold from Jennifer’s hands anymore. “Maybe, we should talk to Tim?”

“You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

                                                                                      “Hotel California”
                                                                                                             The Eagles
       
       
                                                                                           ********

“I’m still not too wild about doing this.” said Maggie with a concerned tone as she drives her car down the old state road. “You saw how things happened between Jennifer and me, she still has to be pissed.”

“You told me that unhinged wizard that calls himself; “Tim” invited you to come to the cemetery to make up with Jennifer, right?” asked the small Goth girl named Sara who sat next to Maggie in the compact car. “Also, I’m quite confident that Jennifer will listen to you now.”

“How can you be so sure about that?” replied Maggie with an apprehensive tone.

“Because you two do have something in common, believe or not.” says Sara as she turns to Maggie with a serious expression on her face.  

“Oh yeah?” retorted Maggie with a bit of titter of laughter after her words as she was trying not to scorn her friend. “Like what?”

“Ah, you’re… both shy.” replied Sara nervously using her small voice as she looked down at herself, not too sure if “shy” was the best word to use here.

“Shy?!” exclaimed Maggie in disbelief. “Shy?  Jennifer is not shy! That girl is high on fire with confident! I mean she totally the opposite of me. She’s outgoing, she’s stronger, taller and…”

“Maggie.” interrupted Sara. “She is also the opposite of you in one very big important fact, she’s dead, remember? Have you even bothered to comb through your brain for more of Jennifer’s memories so you can understand her better?” asked Sara. “Especially after what happen a few nights ago with you two.”

“Yes!” Maggie snapped then hesitated before speaking again. “Sort of.”

“’Sort of’?” quoted Sara within a satire tone. “I too saw clearly what happen between you two after the fight with the Golem. One of the reasons she was so angry with you is that you have many of her thoughts and some of which from my understanding are very personal to her swirling around in that head of yours and with all that you still couldn’t see what she was upset about after getting her car keys back. I of course who studies necromancy understands now what happened to her after she tried to take possession of her keys. It just wasn’t enough alone to let her crossover to the; “Other Side” and for some unknown reason she is still stuck here in this realm, which I think is some kind of outside force doing this to her. That truth alone would crush down anybody in her current position.”

“Give me a break, will ya?” protested Maggie as she pointed to her head while tapping it a few times. “There’s a lot of stuff about her in here and basically it’s her whole life and some of it is her as a ghost. Sometimes I can’t tell if it’s about her or me or both! Plus, I have been in the dumps for a few days about Jennifer so much that I’ve tried to tune her out, but damn its hard. In fact, late last night I happened to look into my bathroom mirror when I had to use the toilet and for a brief moment her own reflection was looking back at me instead of my own, it freaked me out.”

“And after especially meeting that banshee spirit side of hers. Shit, I still get chills up and down my spine when I think about it and now that you brought up her keys again. For what I understand from her memories this much, the real reason she couldn’t cross over has to do with something with that serial killer who goes by; “Twenty-eight”. But, that information is a bit fuzzy in my head. Nothing adds up!”


“In regards to that banshee spirit, it’s not really part of Jennifer herself.” explained Sara as she looked out the passenger’s side window of the car as it passed by a large corn field while a large threshing machine was cutting down the tall maize.

“It’s just another spirit looking out for Jennifer’s own spiritual welfare. It might be doing this because Jennifer’s family’s roots go far back to Ireland. This banshee could be an actual member or friend of the family too for all we know. But, that spirit won’t tell us and most likely never will tell us.”

“As for Twenty-eight, the one who did kill Jennifer. I’m not surprised you are having trouble trying to figure that one out because this guy…if it is a “guy” that is. This person is a complete mystery even in the realm of the living. Police, the FBI, the media and people who studied serial killers have no idea why this person killed Jennifer or the other so-called twenty-seven victims connected to Twenty-eight. The police agencies all over the county as well as Canada and Mexico where supposedly some of the victims came from as well have all agreed on one thing; That the case against “Twenty-eight” is still considered one of the most challenging to solve because the serial killer scarcely leaves anything behind as hard evidence in tracking the murderer down or finding out who it really is. No, finger prints or hair or even any DNA for that matter. The only common clue they have found nearby every dead body done supposedly by the killer is the number “28” itself carved in a strange pattern on either on a rock, tree, dirt or in Jennifer’s case a wooden floor because that’s where the Police found Twenty-eight’s calling card near her body.

“They are not even sure if all the killings are even connected with each other because some have brought up that it might be a copycat killer doing some of these murders in the name of Twenty-eight. After all, this killer has been around for years and years.” explained Sara. “It’s as if “Twenty-eight” is a ghost itself.”

“Usually, serial killers don’t have a true motive in why they kill the people they choose. They as in the killers are in most cases going by a type of trait or perhaps an attribute behavior pattern. They’re pretty messed up in the head when you see why they did and to whom they did it to.” added Maggie. “I read about that a few years ago. Isn’t there a way you could make contact with the spirits of the other victims of Twenty-eight to get more information that might help us?”

“I’ve tried that already and I even asked around on the Web with a few other fellow Necromancers I know around the planet.” said Sara within a sigh. “Nobody can find anything about the victims anywhere on any plane, it’s as if they never crossed over or are hanging around in this realm like Jennifer is doing right now.”

“There was another thing I did find odd about how Jennifer was acting or should I say behaving towards me as she was chewing me out.” explained Maggie hoping to get more information out of Sara. “It wasn’t really noticeable to me at first, but now thinking back on it and I could still be wrong in the end. But, it’s the way she was looking over me or should I say at my own body in particular. It was as if she was upset at me because of my amazon form itself or perhaps she was also trying to admire it in some way. You were there too, what do you think?”

Sara then looks down at herself again as she twiddles her fingers in her lap before looking up at Maggie again.

“Should I tell her what happened between us?” said Sara to herself. “No, not just yet. Try to change the subject for now.”

“Did you at least try to think about the time when she was still going to a Catholic school before she transferred to the public high school after her family moved here?”

“Some parts of that just came to me easily for some reason.” explained Maggie. “Mostly with her singing on the school’s chorus. She was very proud of her singing and her voice.”

“She was also very different back then.” added Sara. “She was also quiet, shy and alone most of the time, just like us.”

“Take my own petite body or yours just as it is now and add a foot over in height.” Sara continued on. “It made her insecure and bit embarrassed about that and having the uncomfortable feelings of the eyes of other people just looking at her like she was physically a; “pole” at times.  It did make it difficult for her not just to find the courage to talk to people, but make friends, even though she did have some.  It was only when she got here and started to go to her new school that she soon began to blossom out not only physically, but also into sense of self-worth of the young woman we see now, even as a ghost.”

“She soon started to gain some more confidence about herself and wasn’t afraid to show it towards others, especially the ones who did mock her at first. But, you and I both know all too well when other kids feel about someone when they didn’t feel that person didn’t fit in or how bad jealousy comes towards that person, especially how girls will treat other girls. They did tease her bad a couple times too, especially about her height, build and developing a tomboy-like attitude.”

“Then one day she just had enough of being mocked about it, and something else woke up inside her and she grown into the person we know now. She was a rebel in her own right. Yet, it still did not make her better welcomed with some of her peers in the end.”

“How do you know about all this?” asked Maggie with suspicion. “I think you know more about her than I do.”

“Maggie, if we peel back all the lays of your amazon-form we still find the real you in there.” explained Sara as she made gestures with her hands, again trying to change the subject. “The same for Jennifer, we might find that same shy girl inside there too.”

“I’m asking you again.” asked Maggie again with a tone that she was becoming annoyed now with Sara. “How do you know about so much of Jennifer?”

Again, Sara looked down at herself and then took in a breath of air, she then looked back at Maggie with an uneasy smile.

“I went to go see Jennifer two nights ago back at the estate grounds.” responded Sara quickly yet proudly.

“You… responded Maggie incredulity. “Returned to the very place where we first summoned Jennifer’s ghost by force and I got roped into fighting that giant reanimated stone golem and again meeting that vengeful banshee spirit that watches over Jennifer? Where, how? The mansion itself was distorted by the Golem.”

“At the Estate’s servant’s house, the same place where she was murdered. In the basement to be exact.” explained Sara contentedly. “I used a “Summons Circle” spell to call on Jennifer to that place.”

“Doing the same way, we did before with that magical plate that Caroline used?” demanded Maggie. “I thought Tim took that away that plate from us.”

“No, this one was done with the use of light spirit magic, good magic. A simple one with candles, chalk and runes.” explained Sara. “This kind works like trying send a friendly signal like a text to somebody. You wait for a reply and hopefully they will come and talk to you. Turns out I didn’t have to wait long because Jennifer just happen to be hanging around the Estate’s grounds at that time.”

“For what?” asked Maggie sharply.

“Her car keys of course” replied Sara as she started to run and twirl her right index finger through her blonde hair as she then pulls out the very keys from her small black purse with her other hand. “She was hoping they would still be there, which they were, but not exactly in the same place where she saw them last.”

“I thought Tim took those too!” expressed Maggie in disbelief as she glances over at the keys. “What are you doing with them?”

“Tim let me borrow them to call upon Jennifer.” explained Sara. “At first, he didn’t like this idea, but in the end, we both agreed that this would be a good ice breaker to get Jennifer to start trusting me and hopefully work towards you as long I wasn’t going to harm her anymore.”

“And this worked?” demanded Maggie.

“It did and much more.” said Sara merrily.

“Meaning?” asked Maggie with curiosity.

“As you know I’m a Necromancer, Maggie.” explained Sara. “I’m much closer to the spirit world than you. Not only do I have the ability to be a simple vessel of just talking or summon the spirits of the dead, I can act much more. I can let a spirit physically touch me or go much farther than that. How about letting a spirit into a living person then share the same body?”

“If you’re talking about possession?” asked Maggie. “I know about that already.”

“How about more than simply controlling a host’s body, sharing everything that body has to give. Two spirits in one body and becoming more, much more! Let me tell you about what Jennifer and I did together. To sum it up, we did a rite of bonding, in the end we became one being. A very powerful woman and trust me she is something that would or should I say will rock your world if you let her because I know she wants to. Her name is; “Jennara”.”

As Sara explains to Maggie she is just amazed at what she is hearing and getting a bit turned on by it too at the same time.

“At first, I wasn’t too sure at what would happen between us because I’ve never done it myself before.  I mean Jennifer’s spirit alone is such a robust force and I know personally she wasn’t crazy about the whole either. But, when we bonded as two spirits into one it was so wild, so sexually wild too for some reason I still can’t explain! From my own perceptive I saw and felt things… including powerful pleasurable sexual things that I never knew was like.”

“And oh, the muscles.” explained Sara within a light moan as her voice began to become slightly deeper in tone as she continued on while she gently touched her legs as she appeared to tighten up the muscles making look bigger while she ran her fingers up and down them while fighting the temptation of not going under her goth style skirt to reach for her panties then next to her own womanhood. “This deep lustful and sensual force that accompanies with this physical sensation of this otherworldly style of growth involving of becoming stronger, taller and sexier. Far more powerful than anything I knew that could be real. Just pure raw excitement and empowerment following through the very core of my being. I’m sure Jennifer was having the same experience if not more in our shared transformational bonding because she has been deprived so long of just the simple human touch, I’m quite sure she was ready to explode.” explained Sara with a bit more tension in her voice now as she then lets out a deep lustful sigh while she took her hands and caressed them delicately over her chest on her corset outfit as she could actually feel the cloth for a brief moment of tighten up around her small body as if she was taking a deep breath, then returning to normal.

“Oh, not here.” pleaded Sara to herself almost in a soft sexual whisper. “I don’t want to destroy Maggie’s car and I’m running out of clothes.”

“Did she just appear to get bigger for a second there?” asked Maggie in disbelief to herself.

“I think, I’m being to understand now what you go through when you transformed, Maggie. said Sara as she begins to talk normal again. “In Jennifer’s own words later she told me was; “It’s one heck of an orgasmic rush.” But, I think she was putting that very, very mildly.”

Maggie doesn’t say anything during the whole time, yet as she listened on very carefully to very word. To her it just appeared that for the past few seconds the person next to her in this car became someone totally else.  While the whole time she grips both hands tighter onto the car’s steering wheel as the sound of skin against soft plastic was heard. Hoping that she won’t herself somehow get some of her super strength to appear suddenly and she accidently rips it off the column unit itself.

“It’s almost indescribable to find… the exact words to describe our whole experience we shared. But, together we were so lost within a deep sea of beautiful ecstasy and surging pleasurable lust that it felt as if it was going to go on forever.” added Sara calmly. “I woke up hours later small, weak again and naked, Jennifer went away quietly, I think she really needed sometime alone after all that. But, I’m sure the two of us achieved something so sensual that only few people like yourself have done.”


“Who did you become again…?” asked Maggie calmly as she licked her lips nervously.


                                                                ************
Maggie parked her car not too far away from the cemetery’s main entrance as she and Sara got out and began to walk long the long iron fence line toward the large main gates. Maggie wraps her black leather jacket closer to her current petite body as a sudden gust of cold wind whips by her. As the rush of air subsides she glances up at the dark gray smooth clouded sky that seems to stretch on forever. Not a patch of blue anywhere to be seen, this is no surprise because at this time of the year which it is late into fall season most of the days are now just overcast, chilly, windy and damp. Winter is not that far off.

“Halloween itself is now just a few days away.” Maggie reminds herself as she glances over to a large stand of maple trees across the road that show off their bright red and yellow colored leaves proudly as they swayed gently by in the northern wind.

Maggie then looks up at one of the old iron gas-powered street lamps that ran along the old road leading up to the gate as the three golden flames dance lightly among each other within its glass globe. Seeing that did bring her some comfort.

Without any warning, a much stronger gust of wind suddenly rushes by the two girls forcing them to close her eyes for a brief moment as road dust and dry leaves kicked up by it flew by them quickly. When Maggie looks up again towards the old gate, she notices that somebody is now standing there right in front of it who was not there earlier.  

It was a man who looked to just about under six feet tall, he was wearing an old traditional dark frock-coat buttoned to the top with a fine black velvet vest that appeared underneath it. The coat itself appeared to well cared for, yet still showed to be slightly worn from wear.

Nevertheless, still managed to exhibit that he did have a figure of a man of middle build and stood himself well. Though it was very apparent that he was using a well-made gentleman’s black walking cane to support himself upright.

His fine black pants match the rest of his outfit as well as his worn-in black walking boots which appeared to have a fresh polish to them that was faultless in respect to its brilliant waxy shine at the tips. As well as his fine black leather gloves which they themselves have also been broken in for some time, yet still well cared for.

The overall characteristic regarding the appearance of this man is one who did indeed took the time and care in the detail of such matters of presenting himself before others just like one who serves or did at once time served in the military or another alike profession that required disciplined in such matters.

Yet, despite everything else about the man’s clothes, what he was wearing on top of his head is what both Maggie and Sara found him the most part interesting and that was the well-made gentleman’s top hat.

As both girls continued their approach to the stranger without any hesitation, the man then turned his head to them calmly, it was only then they both stopped walking.

Now for the first time, both girls notice he was wearing a matching black scarf that covered the lower half of his face up to and over his nose firmly.

Maggie could just still see enough of his handsome facial features of the man that would appear to be in his middle to late thirties. The complexion of his skin was fair, yet pale almost like hers in some respects. His hair was dark with curling at the ends and most of it was moved to the back which showed off his wide forehead that was not hidden by his hat. Yet, what would strike both Maggie and Sara together at the same was his sharp looking eyes that appeared to be a strong hazel as they gazed down at the two in a peaceful matter.

“Good evening.” he said to both Maggie and Sara as he took his right hand and tipped his hat to them in a gentleman-like matter. Even though his voice was somewhat muddled by his scarf he did have a mellow tone to it. “Are you here tonight to see Master Olaf as well?”

“’Olaf’?” quoted Maggie as she looked at Sara with puzzlement.

“That is Tim’s other name.” explained Sara. “I think you were too busy fighting the Golem to remember about that.”

“’Tim’?” quoted the man this time as he rubbed his chin under his scarf. “Is that what he is calling himself these days, does not surprised me.”

“My name is Maggie Llewellyn.” said Maggie as she introduced herself. “And this is Sara Novak and no not exactly, we are here to see a ghost, really.”

“Indeed?” replied the man as he raised an eye brow at her. “A ghost you say?”

Maggie could feel her gut sink down as she just realized at what she just said to this person who she has no idea who this really is.

“He must now think I’m a nut.” Maggie thinks to herself. “Great.”

“What is the name of this ghost, perhaps I know of them?” asked the man with sudden curiosity.

“Her name is Jennifer.” Sara spoke up quickly. “Jennifer Porterfield, she was buried here in the late summer of 1986.”

“Ah, Jennifer, yes!” the man chimed in merrily as he raised his cane to his head. “I do know of her. Wonderful young woman and such as strong and beautiful spirit she has. When she was around she would come down to the chapel grounds and listened along with many of the other spirits when I read my stories or poetry that I had or had not published…as of yet anyway.”

Both girls are taken a bit back at what the man knew about Jennifer so well and that he did not seem unfazed about it.  

“Oh, forgive me for not introducing myself earlier.” replied the man as he appeared to be hesitant in his next choice of words. “However, for now, you can call me; “Mister…Allan”.”

“Alright, Mister Allan.” said Sara as she looks over the gate and sees it still closed with a large cast-iron lock on it. “Even though we can’t go in yet, it does however appear a few of the residents of the cemetery are taken an attention to us.”

“I’ve notice that as well.” admitted Allan as he looked on. “They seem to be interested of you two in particular for some reason.”

“Where?” asks Maggie as she looks now. Yet, all she sees beyond the old iron gate was main grounds of the cemetery itself. With the expectation of the twirling of a few dead leaves and the American flag blowing on a tall pole in the wind which was further back in the cemetery by the Veteran’s burial block section, other than that, nothing else was moving.

“Take my hand.”  requested Sara as she held it out to Maggie. “I can make you see what is unseen to you right now.”

Maggie takes it. At first, she only sees what appears to be wisps of glowing vapor moving gracefully around or staying still on the other side of the iron gate or its adjoining fence.  Soon the translucent wisps begin to take form and shapeshift into finally more humanoid-like discarnate figures.

 Maggie could now clearly see them to be all kinds of ghosts, some did look like Jennifer’s type which looked very humanlike in nature with a very ethereal-like in appearance while others did not.

Some of them appeared to be in a kind of spiritual-like deformation in some way. Disfigured or oddly twisted spirit-like shapes of their once humanity scared in some abstract way.

There were even a few specters that gave off a dark vibe in which Maggie and Sara in their own way could tell immediately they were evil or lost spirits, the ones best to avoid.

Maggie has of course seen spirits like this before she met Jennifer the first time with her power. However, for some reason right now she was having trouble seeing these ones so easily.

“Why didn’t I notice or detect these guys earlier?” asked Maggie as spoke out loud.

“I’m not sure.” replied Sara. “I know one of your abilities with this uncanny power of yours allows you to somehow detect and see the dead, like me. But, maybe you need to be your other self for it to work?”

“No.” said Maggie. “I’ve been to do that even when I’m “normal”, when I allow that.”

“You do know that there is a great deal about this particular cemetery that makes it stand out than many others and not because its enchantment alone.” explained Allan as he raised his cane again. “For example, you see the very iron that makes up this gate and its fence before us? It is just as plain as the iron you would find for making the steel. This particular iron that is used here is to keep most of these spirits at bay within this cemetery’s grounds, much like a huge trap. Particularly to the bad spirits that dwell in here so that they cannot harm the living beyond the fence line. But, once you are inside though, that can be a different matter.”

“Yes, iron of course.” said Sara as her face lit up. “My grandfather told me about that once.”

“Iron has been used for centuries in things involving to protect and fight against the supernatural such as ghosts, demons, different types of magic and its users of the craft.” Allan went on. “Things like iron amulets people would wear on themselves or carry iron nails in their pockets or travel bags to protect themselves from bad spirits as they journeyed on long and forsaken roads, especially at night. So, foolish also was the lone traveler especially on foot who did not take such precautions doing so while making his way through the very dark woods in these parts where the creatures of wickedness watched within the blackness of the shadows while their sharp teeth grinded and sharp claws clicked contentedly together when they found their prey.”

“So, how does Jennifer move around then?” asked Maggie as she carefully studied all the spirits before her while many stared back, some with forlorn expressions on their ghostly faces.

“She’s not a bad spirit.” replied Sara with surprised tone at Maggie’s words. “You know that.”

“That and she like some other strong good spirits that dwell here do have a bit more flexibility to move around unlike other ghosts do.” Allan added as he started to walk up to the gate while Maggie and Sara started to follow behind him. “It’s a gift and at times a curse to them.”

“Of course.” Allan continued on. “Tim did tell me at one time years ago that the very sword Excalibur itself when it was brought to America was buried right here when this very large cemetery was nothing more but a small graveyard on a family farm.”

Both Maggie and Sara pause in their steps and glance at each other at what Allan just said with puzzlement.

“Of course, that was back when only the original Thirteen Colonies were long still around.” Allen when on. ““To be concealed in the new world for safekeeping, so that it was hidden away from its enemies back in the old world. Until the day arrives when King Arthur himself comes to reclaim his sword when he returns from his journey to Avalon.” That’s what Tim told me one night when I think we both had a bit of too much of whiskey in us.”

‘“Excalibur’?” asked Maggie with suspicion. “As in the sword?”

“Aye, if that is indeed true.” replied Allan. “That would explain some of the strange happenings around here would it not.”

Allan then brings up his walking cane and with the sliver handle with the letters “E.A.P” engraved on it, takes it and taps a few times on the lock itself as if it was a door knocker and the next thing happens, the lock opens up by itself as if he used a key.

“But.” he adds as he takes off the heavy-duty iron lock and chain. “I really doubt it, perhaps.”

As Allan opens the gate, he notices Maggie is stepping back a few steps from Sara.

“I’m still not really crazy about doing this, Sara.” said Maggie as a bit of tension is clearly in her voice.

“If you are afraid of ghosts.” explained Allan as he opened the gate. “I promise you. You will not be harmed as long as you’re with me. Tim, I know will also not allow it.”

“It’s not really all them I’m worried about.” said Maggie to herself. “It’s just one in particular.”

                                                                  *****

As the girls followed Allan into the cemetery, Maggie looks over her shoulder as she watches in astonishment as the gate closes by itself while the chain and old padlock fly back and lock up without anybody there.

She then feels Sara’s hands grab hers as they continued on down the darken paved road that that had a few rows of old and new grave markers between it that was leading them to one of the main roundabouts as Allan led the way.

An old-fashion oil lantern that happen to be resting on a hook on a wooden pole in the middle of the roundabout itself suddenly lit up brightly as it started to raise off the hook by itself and floated next to him.

“Thank you, lad.” said Allen to the floating lantern as it moved up and down slightly in response. “It is beginning to get dark early this time of year, is it not?”

Maggie tried to get a better look to see who is holding the lantern until a scruffy looking ghost jumps between them as he pulls up his saggy style pants and gets into Maggie’s face.

“Ah, crikey!” exclaimed the ghost as he looks over Maggie then Sara closely as he pretends to sniffs her long hair. “You gots some lively little lasses next to ya! You damn well know the rules after closing time!”

“She is an invited guest here tonight, much like myself with Tim the Enchanter!” demanded Allan as he waved his cane in front of the rude spirit. “Besides, I’m still among the living here as well. More than less I should say. After all, my so-called; “death” back in the year of 1849 is still a mystery many to this day.”

“Same year that I croaked.” said another ghost who came up riding on a large work horse that was a ghost as well. “But, you look grand, sir! Not a day older I may add.”

“Indeed.” replied Allan just as a new sound is heard in the air now which was familiar to him.

Everyone turns to the source of the sound which belonged to an old-style gasoline engine as they are greeted by a pair of bright lights to a car, a dark red 1931 Ford Model “A” to be exact.

All that was alive and dead cleared the dirt road as the antique Ford came to a stop just next to Maggie, Sara and Allan as its horn let out a loud; “Ah-ooh-ga!” followed by a small “bang” as the engine let out a back-fire with a companying blue flame while a tiny apparition came flying out of the pipe afterward.

Maggie and Sara still are taken back for a moment at what they are seeing and it was not the car itself, however, it was who driving it.

“Good evening.” said the driver with a bright toothy grin who was a small green goblin with a big nose. He was smartly dressed as chauffeur from the early twentieth-century. “Mr. Poe, I believe?”

“Yes.” said Allan as he tipped his hat again. “I see you finally fixed that horn for Tim’s car, Mr. Chuibs?”

“Yeah.” said the goblin with pride as he patted the steering wheel. “Costed about two-hundred dollars for the part! I can still remember when Master Olaf…I mean Tim bought this baby back in 32’ for about six-hundred dollars. That was a steal then.”

“I do recall the fall of 1932 when I first saw Tim drive up in this car back in Toronto, Canada at the train station.”

“Well, anyhow, do get in, sir.” requested Chuibs as he opened the passage door. “Master Tim awaits you.”

“I have two other guests with me tonight.” said Allan as he showed them to the goblin. “A Miss Maggie Llewellyn and Miss Sara Novak.”

“Oh, well then, this is indeed a treat. They can both ride in the rumble seat.” exclaimed Chuibs as he then hits the compartment door in the back of the car as the sound of somebody inside the rumble seat yells out a muffled; “Oi!”

“Ah, excused me for a second.” said Chuibs as he hits the rumble seat’s door again.

“Togs!” yelled Chuibs as the rumble seat door swings open and another goblin pops up.

“Oi!” he yells out while holding a large mug of questionable glowing ale in his right hand. “Evening mate!”

“Don’t you have some tomb room cleaning to do?” asked Chuibs as he gave Togs the stink eye.

“Oi!” replied Togs as he drops the ale mug on to the ground and the strange thick liquid begins to eat away at the ground like acid. He then grabs and pulls out his shove, broom and a small battle ax and then jumps out. “A cleaning I go!”

“What’s with the ax, jack?” asked Chuibs with suspicion as he pointed to it.

“There are some really big, hairy and just plain mean spiders down in them tunnels heading into the tombs.” explained Togs holding up the battle ax to Maggie. “Gotta be careful, don’t ya know?”

“Fine, just go.” said Chuibs within a grumble.

“I go!” Togs says gleefully as he walked away toward one of the nearby above ground tombs as the doors swing open for him while singing. “I go, I go, it’s off to work I go! In hopes to be paid so my girlfriend gets me laid, I go, I go.”  

Chuibs lets out a low groan as he wipes his hand over his face in disgust as he then looks back at the three.

“Sorry, he’s family.” explained Chuibs.

Maggie and Sara both climb into the rumble seat as Allan gets in the passenger side. Chuibs then shifts the gears and begins to drive the old car down onto the main road which leads to the farthest and oldest block section in the back of the cemetery where the old chapel was at and where the large maintenance shed was near-by, Tim’s unofficial office.


Both Maggie and Sara are soon amazed at what they are seeing before them as the car made its way through the many grave marker blocks sections that made up of the cemetery itself, while the whole-time Edgar does not seem the be suspired one bit at what is going on all around them and what’s between the road itself.

There was one large group of ghosts, forty or more that resemble a classical music orchestra with instruments and all. A few other ghosts were watching on as an audience while the members practiced.

“Oh, come now!” shouts an old ghost who appeared to be the conductor as he pointed his baton with aggression to the string section of the orchestra. “You need to sound and be much more alive back there! We have just a few more days to get the piece; “Night on Bald Mountain” down right!”

Maggie still looks on at the orchestra with fascination until another ghost jumps onto the back bumper of the car and leads in-between the two girls. What really stood out about this one was he was completely on fire.

“Hell~o their Missy!” said the fiery spirit as he held out a cigarette to Maggie, which was the only thing not on fire. “Got a light?”

Before any of them could answer, the fiery ghost’s “flesh” then falls apart and flies away like hot ash leaving only a ghostly-like version of a skeleton covered in a blackish like tar coating over the whole bones.

“Oopssy.” he says as he laughs cruelly about himself. “Guess I did it again. Don’t smoke in bed by the way, girly.”

Then what was left the rest of the translucent skeleton disintegrates away like fine ash into the air.

“I think I’ll give up smoking now.” said Maggie to herself as pulls out her own pack of cigarettes and throws them away. Suddenly, another ghost who was flying overhead wearing a black and white striped style prison uniform swoops down quickly and tries to pick up the pack of cigarettes, even though they were passing through his hands like mist.

“Crazy broad!” growls the ghostly prisoner as he gives Maggie an ugly glare. “You know how much these cigs go for in the “Big House”?”  

Another specter who is hanging from a limb on a large oak tree next to the road who also just happens to have a noose around his neck waves happily down to the group as they drive under him.

“Don’t mind me.” says the ghost as he watches them ride by. “Just hanging around.”

“Don’t you worry you two.” reassured Chibs to Maggie and Sara as glances at the them with the rearview mirror while giving them a wink with his right eye. “This is just a normal night here, just wait until Halloween night. It’s going to be one hell of a party! Ya know what I mean?”

After a few closer and in some cases very unconformable close encounters with the friendly and unfriendly locals they arrived to the dirt road that lead to a large stand of heavy thick pine trees which behind them was Tim’s shed.

“We’re here.” said Chibs as he stops the car then turns around to glance at Maggie and Sara for a bit again and gives another toothy grin. “Have a ghoul night.”

All three get out of the car as Allan leads the group again as the same lantern flies back next to him.  As they get closer to the pine trees, both Maggie and Sara begin to hear classic rock music and several voices coming from the other side.

As soon as they merge out of the trees both girls see clearly now probably the craziest scene of activity they seen tonight. A huge bon fire glowing many different colors greets them with a welcoming warmth as a young red dragon about the size of the large farm horse from earlier is poking the colorful hot embers with its tail as a black cat watched on with curiosity while sitting on the dragon’s head between his horns who did not seem to mind at all.

A group of rough looking dwarfs wearing what appeared to be black leather clad motorcycle gang gear were arguing among each other over which Hobbit movie was best while drinking more of that deadly glowing ale as another part of the group was fixing a gold-plated engine on a large chopper bike while at the same time a few small glowing fairies were dancing with each other on top of an 1980’s style stereo system as it played Led Zeppelin’s; “Ramble On” as it was set up next to a large stack of beer kegs.

A leprechaun who was wearing a U2 rock concert T-shirt who was playing the part of a bartender between the kegs was busy pouring a pint of bitter for an old troll who was part of a younger group of trolls that were betting who could light up their own flatulence first with a Zippo lighter as they held up golds coins in a bet. One actually succeed as he set his whole pants aflame, greenish flame that is.

One of the trolls tried to help his friend by pouring his own mug of ale on to the flames to put them out. Which in the end only made it so much worst for him because the awful brew had an alcoholic volume of ninety-five proof. Everyone was laughing at the troll’s misfortune, including the cat.

“All right now!” yelled a voice which rung out into the air like thunder. “That’s enough!”

Tim comes quickly out of the large maintenance shed still dressed in his dark green work coveralls with the words in yellow on his back saying: “GROUNDSKEEPER”, with an unopen bottle of bourbon whiskey in his one of his hands while clutching a large old looking smoke pipe in the other.

“Get ahold of yourselves!” ordered Tim as next he fires an ice spell from using his pipe as a type of magic wand at the flaming pants troll in which snuffs out the stinky smelling fire quickly, however it entombs the little green guy within a block on thick ice as he just happens to let go another loud and very pungent flatulent blast inside and if you happen to looked closely you could clearly see within the ice he still smiles about his victory as the dark cloud of body gas floods over him. “I have a guest coming by shortly and I don’t need any of this foolishness!”

“Ahem.” says Allen as he lets Tim know that his “guest” has arrived as he taps his cane three times on a rock which is clearly heard by all. “Good evening, Tim.”

“Oh, bloody hell.” says Tim in disbelief as he looks over and see Allan with the two girls. “Or he or should I say they are already here. Poe, Sara…and Maggie. I’ve been waiting for you especially, my dear.”

Maggie could feel Tim’s eyes as they fell down on her and the way the tone of his voice changed as well, she just still could not tell if Tim was sore at seeing her or is he still messing around with her.

“You’re a few days late, yet have you finally come to talk to Jennifer or is this another kind of social call?” he adds as he then uses his magic to have five Adirondack-style chairs form quickly out of a near-by fallen red maple tree and places them near the bon fire circle and offers them a seat. “Well?”

“You know I came here to see Jennifer.” said Maggie with concern as she looks around for the ghost-girl. “I did get your “note” after all and I really do want to make amends, I still really feel bad at what happen between us and I don’t even understand what I really did? Though I’m still pretty ticked off at you at where you parked my car!”

“Well, then.” chips up Tim as he points with his pipe to the dark building which was a bit off in the distance and somewhat hidden behind another stand of large trees which was the cemetery’s chapel itself. “Just ask, Jennifer awaits you, has been for some time I might add.”

“She’s in there?” asked Maggie with a bit of surprise in her voice as she turned into the direction. “Why?”

“She goes in there from time to time, especially when she wants to be left alone.” explained Tim. “It’s her place of solitude and sanctuary while she is in the realm of the living.”

Maggie then starts to walk to the chapel by herself as Tim calls out to her.

“Don’t worry, Maggie. Jennifer’s a ghost after all.” explained Tim with a bit of satire in his voice following a snort. “She won’t bite, not much anyway. Unless you really tick her off the wrong way, then she might possess you and make you bite yourself.”

“Thanks.” says Maggie within a grumble to herself as she now starts past between a few gravestones as she enters another block. She is soon met by a few more ghosts, however she pretty much ignores them, until that is Jennifer’s own banshee shows up suddenly as she materializes right out of a freshly dug grave hole and comes right up to the Goth girl’s face.

“Still trying to make up for the transgressions you did against my Jennifer, even though did I not tell you to stay away?” asks the Banshee coldly as she waves a partly exposed bony finger at Maggie. “Sad, so sad.”

“C’ mon. Give it a rest.” ordered Maggie as she never looks directly at the wrathful female spirit. “You know I was asked to be here by Tim himself.”

The Banshee’s only then replies first with an angry snarl then followed by a low keening as she then disappeared like mist into the late twilight sky finally speaking up again as her voice was heard in throughout the air; “Do what you wish, but I’ll be watching close by.”

Maggie lets out a sigh for relief that the Banshee was gone. She was also glad that this angry spirit was not a poltergeist or the like. They never give up easily.

The old planks of the floor creaked under soft footsteps as the girl made her way through the halls of the mansion. The place was poorly lit by the fiery evening sun, which cast long shafts of light through broken and intact windows alike. A few of the tattered drapes fluttered in a light breeze as dust motes lazily stirred in the air. 

The girl was dressed in a long, Gothic skirt that ended at her ankles. She wore comfortable black sneakers around her feet and her top was a strapped faux-corset, something that looked the part without pulling too tight. What was the point? she'd figured. She was tiny, barely a hair over five feet in height, with no curves to speak of and a slender build. A transparent gray top covered her shoulders and arms, and fishnet sleeves encased her forearms. 

She tucked her long, straight blonde hair behind her ear as she approached the stairs down to the basement. Her heart was beating quickly, pounding in her chest, but she knew she needed to go on. 

The steps creaked as she made her way down the stairs into the deep blackness. Only her phone flashlight lit the way, casting a surreal scene where shadows jumped every which way. The blonde girl reached into her purse, pulling out candles, chalk, and weirdly enough, an old set of car keys.

She set to work lighting the candles, drawing up a circle adorned with runes and elegant Celtic designs, and finally, to complete the procedure, she placed the car keys in the middle. 

She waited. It didn't take long. 

Soon, the warm, flickering light of the candles was overtaken by a more ethereal, unearthly blue light that began to radiate from the circle. The sound of footsteps reached her ears, and the blonde goth looked around, hesitant, expectantly. 

A footprint appeared in the dusty stone floor of the basement, followed by another. Slowly, they moved towards the circle, but once they reached it, they did not step inside. Instead, they slowly began to pace around it, like a wary animal that's spotted a trap. 

The blonde goth spoke up, her little voice shy, quavering. 

"I-it's not a binding circle," she said, as if to reassure whatever was there. "It's not a trap. O-okay?"

A puff of chalk dust detached itself from the ground, raised itself nearly six feet in the air, and then began to flake away into the air. Around it appeared two ghostly blue fingers, rubbing the chalk dust between them. The rest of a slender, strong feminine hand appeared, then arms clad in a denim jacket. A strong female chest appeared, then jeans and sneakers. All the while the features of a powerfully-built girl in her late teens - or perhaps early twenties? - appeared, looking skeptically down at the blonde. 

"Apparently," came her voice. It was deeper and more confident sounding than the goth's. "You're smart."

"L-look, Jen - " stammered the blonde. 

"Don't you 'look Jen' me," snapped the apparition. "Come to make amends, have you, Sara?"

Sara pursed her lips, saying nothing. Her eyes flicked to the car keys. So did the ghost's. 

"I see," said the apparition. "No tricks, no spells of binding, no enslavement this time? That's not your style any longer?"

Sara's pale skin flushed a deep red. "I'm s-so sorry Jennifer, I got caught up in this thing, I tried to speak out against it, Maggie did too - "

Jennifer rolled her ghostly eyes. "All the cool kids were doing it, huh?" she sneered. "And especially your little girlfriend," she added, for emphasis. A savage smile played across her face as she watched Sara's embarrassed, shameful look. 

"She's-she's n-not my g-girlf-" 

"I know she's not," Jennifer said. "She doesn't notice you, does she?"

Sara looked up. There had been...a different tenor in Jennifer's voice just now. Under her default thorny exterior, there was a feeling of...was it sadness? Wistfulness? Nostalgia?

"W-what do you mean?"

Jennifer folded her hands under her prominent chest, pursing her lips and looking at the floor. She drew and released a long breath, obviously only for emphasis. A few dust motes stirred through her form. 

"It's super obvious you like her, Sara," Jennifer said. "And...yeah, no, I don't get it, I don't go for girls, at least I didn't in life. But it does kinda fuckin' suck to have feelings for someone, and not be able to express them."

Sara slowly stood up, looking uncertain, listening to Jennifer. 

"It's been...god, decades now that I've been dead," the ghost girl said. "You've got no idea what that's like. No idea how it feels to be a consciousness, a human consciousness, with zero sensory input besides what I can see, and maybe a tiny bit of what I can feel. But the only things I can feel are the pull of spells on my ghostly form, the terror of finding the Reapers watching me. None of the good stuff. None of the reasons people stay alive."

Sara nodded. Her eyes looked sunken, hollow with sadness and regret. 

"Jen," she said softly, nervously glancing back at the ghost girl. Jennifer was watching her. 

"Jen, I don't think I'll ever be able to make up for what Coraline did to you - and what I was an accomplice to. That was shitty of all of us. Even Maggie - and don't think a day goes by when that girl doesn't angst over it. She beats herself up about it, every single day, even though she was instrumental in saving our asses."

Jennifer sighed, and nodded for Sara to continue. 

"I'm getting worried about Maggie, Jen," Sara said. "I'm worried she's going to start getting self-destructive. She's almost consumed by regret for that thing with the Golem. She notices me as just...a friend, I guess, but I...I wonder..."

Jennifer cut in. "You want to get through to her...a bit more deeply than "just friends," don't you?"

Sara pursed her lips, blushing furiously and saying nothing. 

The ghost girl laughed, a hollow cruel thing. "Then what do you want from me, Miss Sara, the Spirit-Binder?" she taunted. Her words were cutting, but they didn't have the sharpness as before. Like Jennifer didn't have the vitriol in her as before. 

"Seriously," Jennifer said, "what do you want from me? Just wanted to talk? Here to confess to Sister Jennifer, of Our Lady of Perpetual Bewilderment?"

Sara sighed and glanced at Jennifer. In life, she had been a stunner - the better part of six feet in height, with sleek, toned muscle, a prominent, strong chest, and cute features. Even as a ghost, she cut a dramatic figure. 

"Mostly just to return what's yours," she sighed, gesturing to the keys. "It's not a circle of binding. It's...I wouldn't call it holy or anything, but it's good magic. Light magic. You know I'm Necromancer by blood, right?"

Jennifer nodded. "Yeah. You guys need to work on your PR."

Sara blushed. "People hear "necromancy" and they get their panties in a knot picturing zombies and vampires and all sorts of horrid undead things. It's not like that. Not all of it, at least."

Jennifer raised her eyebrow. "The good stuff, then."

"Yeah," Sara nodded. "Holy necromancy, some call it. Or spirit magic. Trying to guide spirits to peace, shooing Reapers away, tracking down items of significance. I can't cast spells for shit, Jennifer, but I can sense a memento three blocks away."

"That's how you found my keys."

"Exactly." Sara scratched at the back of her neck. "I'm not an all-purpose magic detector like Maggie...but I also don't risk accidentally consuming it, either." As she said this, her blush deepened and she looked away. 

This time, Jennifer didn't sneer, nor did she roll her eyes. She floated a little closer to Sara and laid a hand on her shoulder and let it rest there. It was surprising, that her hand didn't pass through the tiny blonde like it would anyone else, but instead, Sara's shoulder supported her hand as if she were human. 

"Part of being descended from necromancers," Sara said. "We're closer to the spirit world. You can touch us...and often, you can harm us."

She didn't shy away, though. Jennifer's hand was cold as the grave, but there was a strength there, a spiritual fortitude that came from Jennifer's strong will in life. Sara pulled her fishnet back from her wrist and slowly took Jennifer's hand in hers.

The ghost girl's eyes closed as Sara took her hand. She looked enraptured, as if she were being held by a lover, her face blissful, her other hand cupping Sara's own.

Sara stood there, not sure what to do. Suddenly, Jennifer's eyes snapped open and she jerked her hands back, pulling them free from Sara's. If ghosts could blush, Jennifer would definitely be red as a beet. 

"You okay?" Sara asked. 

"Yeah, I'm okay," Jennifer snorted. "Just a little, uh, self-conscious, that's all. I just...I wasn't expecting touching a human to feel so good, and especially not, y'know."

"Another girl?"

Jennifer's eyes shot daggers at Sara. "Hush you." But her fingers twitched, as if she wanted more human contact. 

Sara moved to sit down again, choosing her words carefully. "Jennifer...I understand if it feels weird to you," she said, softly, looking up into Jennifer's eyes. "But I don't judge you. If this helps you heal, then maybe there's some spirit magic in it after all."

Jennifer turned around and stalked away, putting her hands on her hips as she faced away from Sara. A few moments passed before she looked back over her shoulder. 

"All right, I guess," the ghost girl said. "But I'm not gonna get frisky with you or anything like that, so get those hopes outta your head right now."

Sara held up her palms in the universal gesture for "whoa, easy there." 

"Wouldn't dream of it, Ms Porterfield," she said. Then, with a bit of a grin, "After all, I'd at least expect you to buy me dinner first."

Jennifer finally cracked a smile. She laughed, and glided over. "I can see why you've fallen for Miss Margaret Llewellyn there. You're just as freakin' ridiculous as she is."

Sara flushed red as Jennifer sat down beside her, translucent and softly glowing. The ghost girl was much more at ease now, something which Sara greatly appreciated. She hadn't been kidding about spirits being able to harm her if they so wanted, and Jennifer looked powerful enough to snap her like a dry twig. 

Slowly, Jennifer's hand closed over Sara's own, and the sensation of human contact flowed into the ghost girl. Sara smiled, watching the bliss creep up and over Jennifer's features, her glow softening, the marks of her baneful, Banshee side retreating. 

Sara took a chance and slowly looped an arm around Jennifer's broad shoulders. She was hesitant, slightly terrified of the prospect, but Jennifer just smiled and leaned her head in to rest it on Sara's tiny, slender shoulder. It would have been an odd sight for sure, even if Jennifer were alive, to see a tall, confident girl like Jennifer resting her shoulder on a timid, soft-spoken little goth like Sara.

They sat like that for almost an hour, leaning back against the wall, with Sara just letting Jennifer soak in all the human contact she wanted. Sara ran her hand through Jennifer's spectral hair, eliciting a murmur of happiness from her new friend. 

Friend. Where had that come from? Was Jennifer her friend now? She'd just come here to try and make amends with the ghost girl, but now, here she was, holding her as a caring friend.

Jennifer, meanwhile, was comfortable as a cat. Though she was cold as the grave, she loved the warmth emanating from Sara, even though her sense of touch was nigh-nonexistent. Just the act of touch, though - the pressure of another being's body, the warmth, the...intimacy? That wasn't the right word. It was intimate, but not like a romance was intimate. More like...shared vulnerability. She was letting her guard down around Sara, but she realized that, between the two of them, Sara was much, much more vulnerable than she was.

It took a long while, but finally, Jennifer spoke up. 

"Sara," she said, and there was a hint of nervousness in her voice, "we don't hafta, you know, sit on the floor." 

Sara kept stroking Jennifer's hair. "Mmhmm?" she asked, softly, nonthreateningly.

"Look, I don't wanna make this weird..." Jennifer began, but trailed off. 

Sara spoke up. "It's not weird to me."

There was a pause. 

"Okay, fair enough," Sara said, "I'm in the basement of a haunted mansion cuddling with a ghost girl who could probably rip me limb from limb. It's a little weird."

Jennifer laughed. "Yeah, it is," she said, but she didn't pull away. "I don't, y'know, I still don't...it's not my thing - I mean girls aren't - "

"It's okay, Jennifer," Sara said. "Just friends, remember?"

Jennifer nodded.

"I was, uh, thinking," Sara said. "About the human contact." She braced herself mentally, but Jennifer spoke up first. 

"I could have possessed you, if I wanted to. Some spirits woulda done that straight away." 

Sara gave a nod. "Yeah. You could have. I knew it was risky coming here."

"Yeah, maybe, I dunno," Jennifer said. "Kinda jumped the gun on judging you, didn't I?"

Sara didn't say anything for a long moment. 

"You know," she said, "being a necromancer, possession isn't really the only way we can interact with spirits."

Jennifer, her head still resting on Sara's shoulder, raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what?" she asked. "What do you mean?"

Sara swallowed, her voice a little nervous. "Well, there is something I've read about...and I've never actually done it, because, well, it takes a lot of trust in both parties, and I guess, well, you could say I've never exactly met a spirit I could trust..."

Jennifer poked Sara in the ribs. "Go on, girlie, spit it out."

Sara squeaked in surprise and relaxed, smiling. "Oof. Okay, okay. It's a rite of bonding. It's kind of like possession, but instead of a puppetmaster pulling strings, you combine two spirits into one living form."

"Like...like sharing a body?" Jennifer asked. An edge of need crept into her voice, at the prospect of being able to have human sensations again. 

Sara nodded and ran a hand through Jennifer's hair. "More. Sharing everything. Sharing a mind, sharing emotions. The two, at least for a little while, become one being, their spirits interlinked. It's so much more than possession." 

"How?"

"Think about it this way," Sara said. "Imagine you're puppeteering a marionette, pulling the strings. You can use the puppet to pick things up, move them around, but you feel only what's transmitted up the strings. Now compare that to actually being there in person, interacting with your environment yourself, no intermediary. You touch something, you feel it yourself. You can be hurt, burned, healed. You feel it."

Jennifer's breathing grew more excited, no small feat for a dead-and-gone ghost girl.

"R-really?" she said. 

"I think so," Sara said. "But I'm cautious about employing it. It takes a huge amount of trust in your partner, and it's...well, let's just say that "intimate" under-sells it a bit. I want you to know what you're getting into."

Jennifer nodded. Intimate or no, this was a way for her to actually live again, at least for a short time. And Sara was so very sweet, and kind...

"Okay," Jennifer said. "I know what I'm getting into. Let's do this."




Sara took Jennifer's hand lightly in her own and both girls stood up. She placed her other hand upon Jennifer's and looked up into the much taller girl's eyes. 

"Okay. We can do this here, or elsewhere in this house. The magic is strong on these grounds, and it will make for the best results for us."

Jennifer bit her lip. The feeling of Sara's hands within hers was disconcertingly good. She really had been starved for human contact thanks to her time as a ghost, and even though Sara's hands were small and slender in her own, they were warm and friendly. They felt...genuine, for some reason. A lot like Sara herself, Jennifer mused.

She gave Sara's hands a squeeze. "I think it might be better if we used one of the bedrooms." At this, Jennifer looked sheepishly at the floor, and opened her mouth to speak.

"I know," Sara said, very softly. "Not like that. Only what you're comfortable with."

Jennifer smiled and pulled Sara in for a hug. Sara briefly felt the wind leave her as Jennifer's powerful form gave her a tight squeeze, then released her. To be sure, in life Jennifer had certainly had an amazing body. 

Sara recovered her breath and gave Jennifer's hand a squeeze. "Okay, lead the way. Should I bring your keys?"

"Yeah," Jennifer replied. "Let's go."

Jennifer led Sara into an upstairs bedroom, one on the inside of the house and therefore, nearly intact. It was, however, quite dark, with the only light coming from Jennifer's own ghostly luminescence. The small blonde reached into her bag and began to set up her candles, having snuffed out and erased the sigil she'd made in the basement. It was careful work for her, mostly because she hadn't done anything like this before, and she didn't want to mess anything up.

Jennifer was watching intently. As she gazed, she began to appreciate the care that Sara was putting into her craft. Sara was muttering to herself as she worked. "No, mustn't put this here, need to redraw this sigil, let's see if I can get the candles a little more even, that'll make things better for the spirit..."

With Sara distracted, Jennifer glided over to the corner of the room and allowed herself a little time to freak out. She was seriously going to feel how it would be to be human again?! This was amazing - far more than she'd ever hoped. And to think she'd nearly driven Sara away out of rage. She looked over at the little blonde goth and saw no malice in her. Part of what was taking Sara so long to put this together was that she didn't want to harm the ghost. Just think about that for a second! Didn't want to harm a ghost. Jennifer sighed contentedly, then shivered with a little happy noise. 

Nearly half an hour later, Sara was finally convinced that her ritual was ready. Jennifer couldn't tell much of a difference, but Sara seemed satisfied and that's what mattered, in Jennifer's mind.

"Ready?" Jennifer asked. 

Sara took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Jennifer could feel the blood pounding in Sara's veins, evidence of nervousness. 

"Y-yeah," she said. "I'm ready."

She started to lead Jennifer back to the circle, but Jennifer held her hands to stop her. 

"Hey." 

Sara looked up at her, confused. Jennifer shook her head.

"Look...Sara," she said, her voice solemn. "I've gone...shit, decades now without this feeling. I can keep it up, if you don't feel safe. You don't have to do this for me."

Sara shook her head, causing a few ripples to shimmer down her long blonde hair. 

"N-no, I know, I know," she said. "But I feel like...like I owe you one. A big one. I've never seen this done before, and as for what'll happen...well, the details are kinda vague. For all I know you might just end up riding shotgun in my head for a while." She brushed a string of hair from her face and tried to slow her breathing. "But I want to do this. I think you've gotten a pretty poor deal from us, and it's the most, uh, intimate and vulnerable thing I can think of to give you."

Jennifer smiled and gave Sara a hug. "Yeah, you guys did kinda give me a shit deal. But that's not you, I know. It's not Maggie, either. Those other two...they got way too damn carried away."

Sara said nothing, blushing red. Jennifer gave her hands a squeeze. 

"If you're okay with it," the ghost girl said, "lead on."

Sara swallowed, smiled up at Jennifer and led her into the circle, careful not to disturb any of the five candles burning at the same height. She clasped Jennifer's hands in hers, then, looking into Jennifer's eyes, slid the ghost's hands onto her waist, looking comically like two high schoolers dancing awkwardly. 

The little goth then moved closer, muttering an incantation in Latin. Jennifer couldn't pick out much, but she could tell the words "veritas" and "fidelis," truth and loyalty, specifically, and felt a sort of warmth begin to envelop her. Both words made sense - after all, if they'd be sharing a mind, there were certainly no secrets between them. And with that power of truth came the necessity of loyalty, of friendship. A love between friends, perhaps? 

Sara slid her hands up onto Jennifer's cheeks, her fingertips resting in Jennifer's spectral hair behind her ears. Slowly, she guided Jennifer to bend her head until both girls' foreheads were pressing together. Both girls felt that warm, comforting feeling enveloping them, a sign that the bonding ritual was working. Sara seemed to be gaining confidence in her abilities, and her voice was getting a little steadier. 

A quick flash of memory, swift as a bird zooming from a bush and out of sight, flitted through Jennifer's head. It was one of Sara's, she noticed, as the viewpoint was much shorter, the other people that much taller and more imposing. They were high school kids, sneering at her, telling her to take her freaky vampire shit elsewhere - but then the memory was gone, and Sara was shivering a little as, undoubtedly, she had seen one of Jennifer's.

Another memory - eating dinner with her family, being ignored as the girl in black at the end of the table, as her blonde outgoing brothers dominated the conversation. Then another, happily filling a sketchbook with fantastical scenes of flowers and spiders and Cheshire cats. Then another, the first stirrings of desire, of a sexual awakening. Jennifer felt the last one powerfully, and as she stood there, forehead pressed against Sara's, a whispered moan escaped her. 

The two girls stood embracing, their minds beginning to intertwine like ivy, experimentally testing the strength of the others. Then, as they moved closer, Jennifer's spectral form and Sara's corporeal body began to lose their ability to touch and press against one another. It happened slowly, as Jennifer slid a little into Sara, and Sara had to readjust her stance - she'd been leaning on Jennifer a little hard. Sara felt a bizarre sensation going through her, like she was being bathed in icewater and immediately dried off, repeatedly, every time Jennifer slid a little into her. Jennifer felt as though she was immersed in hot steam, warming her to the core. 

Sara opened her eyes and looked directly into Jennifer's own. The tips of their noses were touching, their lips barely an inch from one another's. Jennifer's ghoulish green glow had turned a sort of warm, summery yellow, the yellow of cornfields and sunflowers. 

The look between the two girls was implicit, and with their minds beginning to entwine, both realized one thing: 

This was the point of no return. 

A few seconds passed, each girl offering the other the chance to break the spell. Neither did. 

Jennifer closed her eyes, a smile spreading over her face, and she moved forward. Her lips passed right through Sara's own, her spectral body stepping into the far smaller frame of Sara. There was no going back now. 

Sara opened her eyes as Jennifer stepped into her, and now she could feel both the icewater and the steam. It was an absolutely bizarre sensation, but...it didn't feel bad. The oscillating ice and fire within her were weirdly comforting to her, as the two beings began to link all throughout her body. 

That's when things began to get weird. 

A shiver wracked Sara as she felt Jennifer's powerful spirit filling her being up. But the filling sensation didn't stop once it had reached her skin, the tips of her fingers and toes. It pressed outwards, softly at first, but then firmer and harder and more violently. 

"J-Jennifer," Sara stammered, and now her voice had gone hoarse, "what the hell, what the - mmhhh!" A cry escaped her as she stumbled and fell against the bed. 

Her mind was starting to swim, memories swirling together. It was her at the dinner table with her brothers, but it was also her - it was Jennifer sitting there being ignored. Then it was the kids sneering at her, but they were sneering at Jennifer, who was flipping them off. What was going on? Was this what it felt like to link minds? 

A wave of vertigo swept her and she clamped her shivering, pale hand down upon the bed post. Jennifer didn't know what was happening, either. Neither of them knew what this physical and mental pressure was. 

Sara's tiny body spasmed and it was as if her insides had all knotted up, compressed down into as little as possible by the force of what her body was trying to contain. The outward pressure intensified, her breathing became ragged and shallow, and Sara wondered if she would burst like a balloon. Jennifer's consciousness swirled inside of her, worried, in sync with Sara's. Both girls looked through Sara's eyes, their gaze wandering, hazy, vertigo swimming in their head. 

That's when they saw Sara's trembling hand clutching the bed post tightly. 

It began on her fingertips, where the pressure intensified, and in one small spasm, her fingernails each grew a few millimeters longer. The black nail polish on each one started to split, forming hairline cracks. Then it was her fingers, trembling and tiny. As they watched, Sara's fingers and hand began to slowly creep larger, covering more of the round bed post in their grip. Their eyes went wide as they realized something.

This wasn't confined to just Sara's hand.

As the pressure built, it became an effort simply to draw breath, as if lungs were collapsing at the crushing pressure of the ocean depths. Sara's sneakers began to pinch, and her legs felt wobbly and weak. The surface of the old bed beckoned her but she kept trying to stand. 

Stars began to appear before their eyes as their mind began to black out from lack of oxygen. Eyes shut tight, then snapped open to reveal Jennifer's chocolate brown irises instead of Sara's own. Gritting her teeth, she willed her body to draw breath, willing it with a mind that was quickly beginning to interlock and fall into place. Her lungs resisted, crushed tight by the pressure, but then slowly, deliberately, they began to swell with air. 

Jennifer's mind lit up with the sensation of drawing breath. Sara's mind flooded with relief. As their minds embraced and melded, with that success, they drew strength. 

With each subsequent, hard-fought breath, Sara's faux corset began to draw tighter. It started slowly, a few strain lines pinching up below her arms. Trembling, she looked down and, eyes wide, saw that her pale, tiny chest, skin soft and delicate, was beginning to change. Her chest pushed forward, just a little, each time she took a breath. Her shoulders grew just a little bit farther apart, and a little creak came from her top. 

"Wh - wh - " she tried to say, but the pressure drove the words from her in a *whoosh* of breath. She stumbled forward and rolled onto the bed, kicking up a puff of dust from the old blanket. 

Strength welled up from her mind. Jennifer's strength. Clarity came shortly thereafter. Sara's.

Eyes opened, teeth gritted, she once more fought to draw breath into her body. Her fists balled up as she forced her lungs to expand, and musty air filled her lungs. Her chest rose and rose, and from the corner of her vision, she could see that it wasn't all due to her breath. She felt her pale, soft breasts filling up, firmness welling up within them as they pressed against the confines of the fabric faux-corset. It began to take on the shape, more and more, of the mounds rising underneath. 

Breathing becoming regular, she realized her top wasn't all that was growing tighter. Her skirt had risen at least three inches from her ankles. Her legs crept towards the foot of the bed, pale smooth skin expanding and lengthening out from the long, pitch black skirt. Higher up, the thin fabric began to grip her rear, tightening as muscle built when there had been little more than skin and bone before. 

She recognized her body as her own...but also not her own. This body was in limbo, stuck between the tiny slender form of Sara, and the tall, powerfully-built body Jennifer had commanded in life. 

A shock of brown went through her pale hair, just one, but prominent and straight down the front, casting her pixie face into a stark contrast. She looked over to see her fists looking strong and confident, sleek, the capable hands of a warrior woman. 

And wasn't that what she was becoming? A sort of warrior woman? She laughed, and though there was pressure within her, trying to crush her lungs back down, she could now draw breath with less effort, less thought. She was becoming a master of this strange, mutating body. 

The thought sent a smile playing over her lips. Turning her head, she looked over to her arm, which had grown sleek and athletic, like a tennis player's. She flexed her fingers experimentally, starting to admire her form, and then balled them up into a fist, slowly bringing it up towards her. Below the translucent gray top, her pale skin rose and bulged into a bicep, finally beginning to fill out and stretch the translucent fabric. Similarly, her shoulders began to cap with muscle, a single thin vein running down the edge of each bicep. 

The sight of her body and its feeling of power awakened something else within her. As she watched her chest pushing out, larger and more round, rubbing and sliding against cheap polyester. Her lips parted as her breasts seemed to grow more sensitive, and as she indulged these sensations, she felt an ache, a tightness building atop each as her nipples stiffened and pushed against the fabric. She shuddered, rolled her hips in pleasure, and brought her hands up to slide her fingers over them. The thin, translucent top she wore over her faux corset rubbed between her fingertips and the bulges of the top of each breast, and as she worked the thin fabric against her skin, additional nerves lit up and came on line. The transformation had gone from being strange and uncomfortable to new, exciting, and sensual. 

The part of her that had belonged to Jennifer was on fire with pleasure. The sensation of growth was a fantasy Jennifer had long entertained, and never been able to act upon. It had been a forbidden pleasure to Jennifer, who had posed in the privacy of her room, taking old flimsy clothing that was too small for her and tearing it around her body. She never fully understood exactly why it got her off so much, but often, she would collapse onto the bed afterwards and, face flushed with embarrassment and arousal, begin to work herself over.

The part of her that had been Sara was, if possible, even more turned on. Sara had watched as Maggie took a blast of arcane energy straight in the chest, and subsequently turn all that energy into fuel for a startling transformation. Maggie was only a couple inches taller than Sara was, and probably weighed the same, but the waifish girl had transformed before Sara's eyes into a powerful, hulking, nine-foot amazon with a build straight out of a comic book. A She-Hulk comic book. Sara had never forgotten the tension and arousal on Maggie's face as she burst free from her tight clothing, and nearly every night after that, Sara had been overcome with desire to see Maggie do it again.

The transforming girl clutched tighter at her growing breasts, feeling them bulge and swell between her fingers. Hard nipples rubbed tighter against the cheap fabric, and she writhed her legs in pleasure. The tightening skirt strained around her far longer, shapelier legs, doing its best to stay intact. But her breathing was coming much more easily now, as her body had expanded to accommodate both girls she was born from. As she greedily gulped in air and arched her back, the pleasure of the change outweighed the discomfort and she pushed her head back with a moan. Instinctively, she spread her legs, and the straining skirt split down either side as pale white, athletic flesh tore free of its confines.

"Yes," she mouthed, feeling her legs split free of the skirt. Her voice came out heavier, deeper, and with a strong breathiness to it. "More," she moaned. "Please more~"

She detached one hand from caressing and squeezing her breasts and began to glide it down her abdomen. Yes, she knew. This was right. This was correct. Both Jennifer and Sara had longed for this for so long...

She lifted the scraps of her black skirt and slid a few fingers over the top of her cloth panties. Unsurprisingly, they were sopping wet. Her fingers dug in deeper and pressed the cloth down, beginning a slow and deliberate circle. 

Lightning arced through her mind and she clenched her toes. Right on cue, the creaks of her shoes were replaced by a sharp popping sound as adhesive and stitching gave way. Her feet popped the middle of the shoe open, like a banana being opened the wrong way. As she gyrated her hips, she pointed her toes and straightened her legs out, and the toe end of the shoe gave way, splitting from the big toe all the way down to the pinky. She kicked, but the shoes stayed on, snug around her heels. 

The translucent gray top was beginning to make itself known around her chest. It was a thin, gauzy fabric, intentionally loose. But that had been around Sara. Now, it was tightening up, acting more like shrinkwrapped pantyhose around her upper body. As she squeezed and lifted at her chest, her bicep provoked a long, light patch running down the thin fabric, right over the prominent vein. The light patch widened and rounded, finally splitting apart and letting the pale hard flesh of her upper arm free. 

At the sounds of the tearing fabric, excitement thrilled through her, like a web of lightning beginning to build between her legs. Her breathing was deep and sensual now. The cheap polyester corset was, surprisingly, the one article of clothing that was so far undamaged, but its time was coming to an end. She felt the transformation heating her up, the filling sensation building within her. 

It was coming time. 

She threw her head back, breathing hard, nostrils flaring in excitement. Neither Jennifer nor Sara had had anything like this before. Neither of them had felt that lightning web burning within them like she did now. But she was neither Jennifer, nor was she Sara. 

She was both. 

The corset strained tight around a body that it was never meant to contain. The girl on the bed had grown straight up to six feet tall, Jennifer's height, and then kept going. Her long, long legs were nearly at the foot of the bed now, and her vibrant blonde hair, struck through with one brilliant shining lock of chocolate brown, was spilling off the bed's head. 

Subconsciously, she felt both of her components crying out in pleasure. Individually, this would have been too much for either of them. But not only could she endure twice as much, she could feel twice as much. Jennifer's ecstasy cried out and moaned and thrashed in pleasurable transgression, while Sara's whined and gritted teeth and squirmed in beautiful ecstatic agony. Both overlaid themselves upon one another in her mind; she experienced them mixed into a foaming cocktail of lust. 

Her lips began to tremble as the feeling built to a head within her, boiling over. She shuddered, jerking, and with each spasm, a few stitches would pop on her corset. 

Finally, she could take no more. She closed a strong hand over her top, jerking with pleasure, gritted her teeth, and pulled. The top strained and split off her in a firecracker-like string of cracks and pops and ripping. She tore the corset and the translucent top away, baring her chest to the dim, dusky light.

What she saw drove her over the edge. Her breasts were magnificent, heavy and round and perfectly firm, supported by taut pale skin and strong chest muscles that shone with sweat. Her left nipple had nearly swallowed up Sara's piercing as it engorged, and the metal was warm with heat. Her abdominals were ripped and hard, a deep crevasse running straight down to her belly button. This wasn't just Jennifer's body. This was Jennifer's body, augmented by Sara's desires, insecurities, and dreams. 

She came in a crescendo of screams and moans, boiling over for nearly a minute as she thrashed upon the old bed. As the stars began to clear from her vision, her lips parted to breathe. Perfect, hot breath, as the blood thundered in her ears.

"I," she panted, "could get used to this." 

Slowly, she got to her feet, swinging her legs off the bed and standing to her full height of six feet three inches. Her strength came from Jennifer, but her pale skin and mostly-blonde hair was all Sara. Her jawline, stark and strong and graceful, was thanks to Jennifer as well, replacing Sara's narrower face. Her mind cleared. She enjoyed athletics and boxing, but she also enjoyed artistry and substance. Perhaps she could pose as a figure model, she thought. Yes, of course. Maggie would love that.

A smile spread over her lips as she remembered her little friend. Ah yes, Maggie did go for tall, sexy women, didn't she? That was easy to remember. And her feelings for Maggie? Ah yes - those were all Sara's. But to her surprise, it felt natural to all of her. The parts of her that had been Jennifer waged little protest at those desires - in fact, they stirred in sync with Sara's.

"Perhaps it's time for you to meet Jennara," she said, and licked her lips.