Savage Spirits - Chapter Six

The sun still bathed the dingy glass of the massive window with its warms rays. The birds flittered from tree to tree, singing out their merry calls out in the garden. Yet, inside the dull drawing-room Max found himself immersed in an impromptu séance, with two companions who had fallen into what he could only assume to be semi consciousness. Their bodies sat before him like fleshy statues, yet their minds were in some distant reality.
He recognized the symptoms they had presented themselves many times in his illustrious past. But, the setting was wrong. There had been no preparation. No quoting of ancient texts, to provide those present with vital protection against what was about to follow. Not even the traditional linking of hands to combine essential life energies to transport minds and souls from the living to the mysterious realm of uncharted darkness where long passed souls yearned for communication.

Whatever the cause ... whatever the reason, or whatever the purpose was, for this bizarre state of affairs, Max didn't care. He had long since unburdened himself of the chains of logic and rational thinking. His life so far had been like a long and complicated book with sequential chapters revealing strange truths and clever deceits. Like an avid reader, settling down to be drawn into the intrigue of the next chapter, he was nothing but a witness, becoming involved in the plot.
"Is there someone here who wishes to communicate?" Max said, after pulling a Dictaphone from his jacket pocket and setting down on the occasional table, between the two armchairs.

Only silence prevailed. The two women remained set in total motionless recline.
"Is there someone who wishes to communicate? We mean you no harm, we only want to help you move on, and guide you through the light to peace and rest."
Kim stirred slightly. First, a hardly noticeable twitch of a single finger. Her lips parted, allowing a fraught attempt to draw in a breath. Alas, to avail, for from her mouth emerged the smallest wisp of translucent, white mist. It continued to flow, obviously not driven by breath alone, for its emergence seemed unending, persistent and unbroken.
"Don't fight it Kim! It can't hurt you." His words were soft, assuring in intent. "Let it out, if that's what it wants."
Max was un-phased, he had seen it before. Considering himself prepared for whatever might follow, he edged forward, towards her.
Though prepared he was not when Kim's eyes flashed open and her head tilted to face him with an unseeing stare.
"Kim?" he gasped, his voice was stifled with horror.

Her eyes bulged wide, pupils enlarged to an obscene size that devoured any hint of color surrounding them. What had been clear white eyes, only seconds earlier were marred with dingy yellow and criss-crossed by engorged blood vessels that strained to contain their crimson contents.
Whatever evil presence had decided to invade this poor girl's soul, was without doubt incredibly strong and completely devoid fear and remorse.
"Whoever you are ... Whatever you are, leave this body now!" Max yelled, his body struck rigid when his fury engulfed him.
Still she stared, Robbed of expression by this manifested evil. In less than the blink of an eye, it had taken her body and soul.

He was transfixed by Kim's unseeing stare when a guttural voice assaulted the silence. It had no direction and revealed no gender with its unearthly pitch. He doubted at once that it emerged from human lips. Its evil resonance filled his ears and shocked his senses with insulting utterances. The words were garbled and not of a language he knew. Yet, he was held by their persistence and revolted by their obvious intent.
Max lowered his gaze to Kim's motionless lips. Slightly agape but so absent of sound. It was not from her that the foul words were emerging.
With an intense sense of dread, he shifted his gaze, turning his head with painful slowness and fearful reluctance, his astonished eyes rested on Amelia. When the watery mist of disbelief vanished and the ability to focus returned with merciless swiftness, he fought hard to restrain the eruption of vomit churning within his gut.

The old woman's face was ashen and distorted into a gruesome mask of stone-like resemblance. Her jaw hung low, below a twisted, dark cavern that had scant resemblance to what had been a mouth. From out of this hole, and the nostrils above issued a thick, foul-smelling fog. A fog so thick that it hung in the air, hovering a second before reaching finger-like towards him.
He wanted to speak, nay, he felt compelled to scream but his breath was arrested, sucked from his chest by whatever devilish force had cajoled him into involuntary submission to its invisible willing.
The eyes of the old woman were sunk deep into her face. They were black and unseeing like two jet black coals. 'What is this thing?' Why can't I move. Oh God, my sweet God in heaven save me. Give me my death, please don't let it take me," His brain screamed out, burning with panic. But the fog kept on coming till smell turn to taste.
His dried instantly as he swallowed it in. Numbing the soft tissue as descended his throat.
When his lungs burned hard, his body fell limp.

He had no way to stop it, even less to recover, only then did merciful blackness begin to soak away his tortured sight. The raging chaos that had assaulted his ears, slowly faded to a bearable silence that he felt compelled to welcome.
"Oh thank you God," were his last signs of thought. Was it death that had saved, that had plucked him from torment and unbearable torture, oh, he wished it so much. Was this the death he had pondered on so much. Where was the light that would guide him to realm of complete knowledge the spirits had described to him on so many occasion. Where were the voices to beckon him on.
"This can't be it!" screamed a voice in his head.
"Where are you Father? Why aren't you here."
He was suspended in blackness, wandering free in a void. He felt no pain, yet he free of the fear. Even his deepest sleep was incomparable to this. Surrounded by nothing and unburdened of sensations that could keep him alert he was no one in a world nowhere with no hope escape.
* * *
It could have been seconds, minutes or even hours, without any sense of time there was no way of telling, but gradually a strange alertness began to return. Distant voices began to echo through the blackness, bringing with them an appreciative feeling of direction.
"Max!" called a female voice from way out in the distance. "Max, come back!"
The voice gradually grew louder, yet he had no power to reply. In a blissful moment the dense blackness rescinded. The air returned to his lungs, allowing him to gulp in a recovering breath.
When at last his eyes gaped wide, the blackness was gone. He was back in the room, though his terrible diversion had left him tired and weak. Out of focus and hopelessly confused, Max desperately stared around him. He reached out with his hands, grasping wildly at the blurry colors that hung before his face.

Still the female voice persisted in its calling; "Max, come back! Snap out of it!"
His dry lips cracked open but no words emerged.
Even in this state of dizzy confusion a strange sense of growing ease began to quell the raging fire that had signed his very being. Awareness was returning but painfully slow. With the panic controlled Max allowed himself to focus on the solitary female voice that had pulled him unknowingly from the consuming black abyss.
"Come on Max! Your safe now!" The voice rang clear and the curtain of colors receded and vanished.
"Where am I?" He finally gasped, amidst his first choking breath. "What the hell happened?"
"Oh! Thank God." Kim whispered, while cradling his head in her trembling hands. "I thought we'd lost you Max. You almost crossed over."

For a moment he stared back at her, with a penetrating glare. A deep-seated throbbing persisted to blur his sight. Akin to the worst hangover he had ever experienced;
"Kim? Is that you?"
"Of course it is. Why are you looking at me like that?"
Slowly, Max traced an exploring hand over Kim's face. "You changed, Kim. My god, you changed."
Still with his fingers rediscovering her features, he felt her young lips, purse into a smile; "Yeah, it must be true. That's exactly what Vince keeps telling me ... Are you all right Max?"
Much like a dream that invades a peaceful night's deep sleep, the vivid images began to fade. Has his awakening progressed and gave way to the surrounding reality, the subconscious chaos was mercifully corralled back to the darkness of un-recall . Some snippets remained, as they always do.