Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Graveyard Spirits

When Emil neared the town, he came upon a separate area. It was a graveyard, one surrounded by metal gates and stone walls. It was unattached from the rest of the settlement, but there was a dirt path between them. Rows upon rows of tombstones were inside it, easily numbering more than a hundred.

But as he looked through the gates, Emil could hear sobbing from somewhere inside. Looking around, he spotted a little girl. It was hard to make out the details from where he stood, but she seemed to have been alone. It was late, yet she didn’t seem to have any source of light.

Emil wasn’t sure what to do. On one hand, there was the responsible thing to do. Which would be to check on her and make sure everything was okay. But on the other hand, this would be the first form of contact he had with another person. At least, the first since the dungeon. After taking a minute to mull it over, he decided to do the right thing. He went around to find the entrance.

When he got in, he approached the little girl. She sat in front of a tombstone, her face was pressed into her hands. The girl wore a simple, white dress. Though it seemed drenched in water, and parts of it covered in mud. As he got closer, a wave of cold was pressed into the back of his mind. When he was only a few yards away, her sobbing slowly stopped.

“‘This is my grave,” she began, turning towards him. Her eyes were closed. “Do you want to know how I died?” She asked as she faced him.

The little girl opened her eyes, but there were only pits of black. Streams of water poured from them, what seemed like gallons at a time. She reached a hand towards him, where even more water seeped out from her fingernails. Emil knelt down, and took her hand. It was a strange feeling, like it was and wasn’t there at the same time. Her hand felt almost like a breeze against his.

“You’re a ghost. I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have died at such a young age.” As he said that, Emil looked over her and read the epitaph on the tombstone. Her name was Alice, and she had only lived to be nine years old. According to it, she had been dead for more than a decade now. The spirit of Alice cocked her head to the side as she stared at him.

“Are you not… scared of me? Not many people can see me. Sometimes someone can, but they always run away. Aren’t you going to scream and be afraid?”

Maybe if he had still been a Mage, he would have been scared. Even for those skilled in the arcane, it was rare to actually hear and see the spirits of the dead. It was believed that ghosts were the souls of those who died but were unable to move on. And that if you could see one, it meant that your own death was close at hand. As such, any sort of spiritual encounter was regarded as a terrible omen.

No, if anything, an entirely different emotion plagued his mind. This was the first time he had ever encountered a spirit. As they maintained contact, bolts of electricity seemed to shoot through his own soul. A gnawing sensation came from the deepest recess of his inner thoughts.

He was able to feel it. Compared to the memory orbs he had made before from the last moments of animals, a human spirit was just on another level. A small, dark part of him wanted to know how much power he could extract from it.

Soul Manipulation was the one ability he had yet to test. But he could just tell from his gut that this is what it was for. He wanted more power, right? Well, now a perfect chance to increase his strength was right there in front of him. Emil’s stomach twisted into a knot with hunger. With every second that passes, the greater it grew.

He forced it down. In magic, there was power in imagery in visitation within one’s thoughts. This was the second time this ravenous sensation had appeared. Before it had been when he was low on Mana. But even though his Mana level was full, it was here again. If left to come and go as it pleased, it would be a threat that could control him. He needed to deal with it now.

Emil gave shape to this hunger. It felt all-consuming and seemed to go dormant when satiated. He envisioned it like a swarm of locusts. He mentally pushed them all into a metal chest, something even they couldn’t tear out of. He locked the chest and wrapped it in chains. So that even if the size of the contained swarm grew, it would remain trapped. After a process that only took seconds in real-time, he returned to reality.

“No Alice, I’m not scared of you. I’ve seen what a real monster is like, and that’s not you. You’re just a person, that’s all. My name’s Emil. You asked if I wanted to know how you died, right? If you want to tell me the story, I’ll stay with you and listen.” He let go of her hand. The water stopped flowing from her body, but she continued to stare into his eyes.

“Emil…” She slowly repeated his name. “I drowned in the river. But are you a ghost too? You don’t look like one. But… you feel the same way my friends do to me. How did you do that?”

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“No, I’m not a ghost,” he responded while shaking his head. “I guess you could say… I’m halfway there. Like a ghost that still has a body. Does that make any sense?” He asked.

“I think so. So maybe someday you’ll be all the way there? And then you’ll be like me?”

“Yeah, maybe someday.” A sad smile formed on his face. “You said you have friends? Are they here too? If they don’t mind, I would like to meet them.”

“They don’t like trying to make people see them. But they’re all watching you right now. I think they like you, but I’m not sure.”

“I see. Can I ask why you guys are still here? Is there something keeping you from moving on to the afterlife?” Emil asked.

“We’re waiting for the silver one.” Alice broke eye contact with him, looking back at her tombstone. She traced her finger against its surface as she continued.

“All of us died by drowning in the river. People think that every time it happened, it was an accident. But that’s not true. It was the silver one that pushed us all in, and made sure we drowned.”

“By the gods, that’s horrible. Just how many of you did this person kill?” In response, Alice began to count with her fingers.

“Twelve of us are buried here. But there are still more stuck in the river. I don’t know how many, but I can feel them. We don’t know who the silver one is, but all the others saw the same thing as me. Each one of us was near the river, when someone pushed us from behind. Under the water, the only thing any of us saw was the silver inside their mouth. That’s why we call this person the silver one. They still live in this town, and every year they kill more.”

From around, more of the ghosts began to appear. Some took the form of seemingly alive children. Others were see-through, while the rest were shapeless spirits. They formed a circle around the two of them. Alice stood up, and walked over to them before turning back to Emil.

“We don’t want to stay here, but we can’t leave. It’s too sad to watch my momma and poppa come here and cry. Can you please help us? If you find out who the silver one is, and tell everyone, maybe we can leave.”

He looked at their group and clenched his fist. Emil gritted his teeth as he silently cursed himself. How could he have been so afraid for his own humanity, when a sick murderer like this existed. Someone who was willing to kill more than a dozen children, and for what reason?

When Emil had to fight his inner demons, he at least had the excuse of no longer being a normal man. While this ‘silver one’ was a serial killer, but still a human. Rage burned inside his heart. If this person approached him right now, Emil felt like he could kill them without a second thought.

“I’ll find this silver one,” he began quietly, before looking up at them. “I’ll find this monster, and drag them back here. I’ll make them apologize a thousand times for what they did to you. And if I can’t find the evidence needed to have them punished for what they did, then I’ll personally make them pay. I promise I’ll do this for you, and help you all move on.”

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