Chương 43: Seance

Ch 43. Seance John yawned deeply and shook his head, trying to keep himself awake. He'd been lucky, and had two of his clients cancel. That let him slip in a cat nap or two, but even with that he was having a lot of trouble keeping himself from drifting off. He should've realized that having night hours only two days after the wedding would've been difficult.

He was still sore from the dancing they'd done that night and for the last several days he'd been close to crying whenever he climbed up the stairs to his apartment.

He reached for his coffee, drinking the whole thing down and standing to force himself awake. Andressa was probably fast asleep in his bed right that moment. He would very much prefer to be there with her.

"You holding up okay, John?" asked Mia from the doorway. He hadn't even noticed her for a few moments. She was wearing black and purple striped pants, a black shirt with buttons in the shape of bats, and a black suit jacket that looked familiar. John was fairly certain she'd borrowed it from Andressa.

"I'll be alright. Just struggling to stay awake."

"Really? It's not even the new day yet." He sighed, shaking his head.

"I remember being young like you. So full of energy, and strength. Now I feel the specter of the reaper drawing ever closer."

"Aren't you only like… thirty?"

"Thirty four, and drifting closer to the veil between life and death every second." She laughed and shook her head.

"I'm gonna grab another one of the donuts mom made. Want one?"

"Sure. The sugar might help me stay awake." She nodded and went back to Andressa's desk to grab them. He'd had her sitting in on a few of his sessions as long the clients were okay with it. She'd helped him keep notes, and after each session they'd discuss what she thought and how everything he'd done may or may not correspond to what she'd learned so far. She was a fast learner, and an empathetic soul, and he grew more confident the longer she was his apprentice.

That day they'd seen mostly regular clients like Zaifyr, Rhett, Valerios and two others he was too tired to draw from his memory. He'd told her she could head home, but she'd insisted she could handle the night hours too and so far she was doing far better than he was. She brought him a donut and he thanked her. Eating it and washing it down with yet more coffee. He felt a little better after eating, and shortly after he was done clearing the crumbs from his face he heard the door open.

He stepped out of his office to see a young girl, scarcely older than Mia, with medium length brown hair wearing a simple green blouse and skirt, as well as a tremendous frown.

"Brenda?" She nodded.

"Okay then, please come into my office." He gestured at Mia.

"This is my apprentice. Would it be alright for her to join us?"

"It's fine… can we just start this?'

"Of course." The three of them shuffled into the room with John taking his place on the chair, Brenda on the couch, and Mia at the desk where she could best take notes.

"Would you like some coffee? Or tea? I already have fresh pots of both." He didn't normally share his coffee with his clients, but he made an exception for the after hours appointments.

"Coffee sounds nice." He nodded and moved over to the pot pouring her a cup and bringing a tray to place on the table between them. She mixed in four cubes of sugar with nothing else and took a sip.

"So, your appointment message said that you were being haunted by your ex-boyfriend. I presume that you meant that literally?"

"Yes. Nick's been with me since he died about a year ago."

"I'm guessing you've already spoken to some priests and necromancers about the issue?"

"I did."

"No help there?"

"Well, they can banish him for a while, but he always comes back after a day or so, and they aren't exactly cheap."

"Couldn't they bind him? Or destroy him?"

"I don't… I don't want them to go that far. He won't leave me alone and he's a jerk, but I don't want his soul obliterated."

"Fair enough," said John.

"Can you describe exactly how he's been acting?" Brenda nodded.

"It started a few months after he died. I was going for a walk through the little elven forest on the west side, and an elf struck up a conversation with me. We talked for a little while, and he seemed really nice, so I agreed to get some tea with him. When we arrived at the tea shop, everything went cold. The chair the elf was going to sit in suddenly flew away and he landed on the ground spilling hot tea all over himself. Then when he went to clean himself up he slipped and hurt himself.

He was so embarrassed he ran out. Ever since then that's been the story every time. I met someone, went on a date, and he ruined it." Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Have you been able to speak with him at all? Maybe convince him to leave you alone?"

"I've tried, but he won't listen. He only ever really seems to show up if I'm going out with someone." John nodded.

"Well, I don't think we're going to get anywhere without being able to speak with him. Give me just a few moments to set something up." He stood from his chair and went back to his desk where he grabbed a small leather case. He unfolded it, revealing five candles, a wooden pentagram, and a small instruction notecard. He set the candles at five cardinal points in the room, and then laid the pentagram on the coffee table. He lifted the notecard and started reading, his voice thrumming with power as he did so.

"I call out to the spirit world. That plane which exists between the realm of the living and the dead. By the endless light above, and the slithering abyss below. I ask that Nick joins us." There was a flicker of the candles, but nothing appeared. Still, he could feel a chill in the air where there wasn't one before. They were silent for a few moments.

"I told you. I already tried this before," said Brenda with a sad look on her face. He held up a hand for her attention and winked at her. She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, since he's not going to show up anyway… I just want to say, you have absolutely gorgeous hair." She was taken aback for a moment before her eyes widened and she smirked a little. She giggled a bit.

"Oh, thank you."

"And your eyes, my gods. A man could drown in eyes that blue." The air grew colder.

"You know, you're not so bad yourself. You look like you were poured into that suit."

"I was actually. They melt me down every night so they can set me into a new one every morning." Her laugh was genuine this time, and the air grew icy cold. Mia drew her coat more tightly around herself as she watched.

"If Nick's not going to show up anyway… well, I guess there's probably some bars open around here? Care to get a drink?"

"Well… I suppose it couldn't hurt to-" All of the cold air around them rushed into the area directly above the pentagram, whipping around paper and causing the furniture to shake. By magic the candles stayed lit, and after just a moment a young man had solidified in the air in front of them. His head was barely hanging onto his neck and he'd apparently been wearing a simple shirt and pants when he died. His coloring was a mystery, as he now hung above them glowing a sickly green color.

John flipped over the card he'd still been holding.

"Nick, I bind you to stay and speak and answer our questions for so long as this spell shall hold." His words seemed to float into the air in front of him as solid objects, landing on Nick's spirit and wrapping around them.

"Great!" said John.

"Things should be easier with all of us here."

"What the fuck man!" said Nick, his voice a bit more nasally than John had been expecting.

"Now, just to try and get things back on the right foot, I want to say that all that flirtation was acting. I thought giving it a try would help you to manifest, and Miss Brenda here picked up on it flawlessly." Brenda's attention was off of John at that moment.

"What the hells, Nick? Why won't you leave me alone!"

"I don't have to answer that-" The binding on him that had faded into his spirit form reappeared and began glowing.

"I loved you and I'm upset that I never got to do all the things I have to watch other people do with you." He scowled and looked at John.

"What the shit man!?"

"Sorry. You were being very uncooperative and this binding is the only one that was prepared for me. I don't have the skill to edit it on the fly." Frankly he wouldn't mind being able to do this with many of his living clients. He looked at Brenda.

"That said, let's try to approach this calmly. I understand your frustrations with Nick, but let's try to approach things as balanced as possible. Brenda took a deep breath.

"Okay. I'll try."

"And Nick, you're here now, let's make the most of it. I'm sure you realize that eventually her patience will run out and she may be more than willing to get rid of you in some of the ways she mentioned earlier." The ghost gritted his teeth, but nodded. He nodded at Brenda for her to continue.

"Why me? Why not your parents? Your brother? Your dog?"

"I don't know. I didn't exactly pick what I was going to haunt. I guess I don't really have any regrets with them. Not like I do with you."

"Can I ask why he wasn't resurrected?" asked John. In Avalon usually accidental deaths, especially of one so young, were reversed by a healer.

"He didn't die in Avalon. He followed me when I moved here." John nodded, taking a note of that.

"What regrets could you have with me?" she asked.

"How much time will the spell last?" Nick asked, looking to John.

"As long as this takes."

"Well… to start, we never really 'dated' we were just 'together' and…" … The session ended as light was coming through the curtain. John no longer felt tired, and waved a smiling goodbye to Brenda. They'd done a lot of good work that night, but Nick would need some more work. Luckily, he was a lot more receptive by the end than he had been at the beginning. He walked back into his office where Mia was asleep on his desk, a pool of drool collecting at the edge of her mouth. He shook her gently.

"Mia. Mia, wake up." She sat up quickly, blinking and looking around.

"Is it over?" she asked.

"Yep. They'll have another session in a week." Mia yawned and wiped her mouth then rubbed her eyes.

"That was a hard one. All they did was talk in circles most of the time."

"Yeah, that's a big part of what we do sometimes. Even if we can guide them out of those circles, sometimes they find their way right back into them. The trick is getting them to figure their way out of it themselves." She nodded, her eyes barely staying open.

"How about I walk you across the street to your mom's. We aren't doing anything today anyway."