‘Seeing an enemy soldier get possessed by a Vadātājs must be dreadful enough,’ Ewan said, ‘I can’t imagine how bad it was to then watch him kill your mother.’
Lita’s face was emotionless when she answered. ‘I think the horror of it shocked my soul.’
‘I can believe that,’ Ewan said quietly.
‘No, I mean really. Physically.’
Ewan’s brow creased in confusion.
‘Witnessing my mother’s body collapse,’ Lita explained, ‘I felt such a shift in everything. The world tilted, sounds dulled, all I could smell was blood. Nothing seemed right. When the soldier levelled his rifle at me, there was no fear because I no longer felt real emotions. I felt disconnected from my body.
‘I saw the flash in the muzzle and I saw my own body crumple. All as if I were outside of myself. There was no pain, no disbelief. I knew that I was dead, but it did not matter to me.’
Ewan struggled to fully comprehend Lita’s words. Until today, his thoughts of an afterlife had only been invoked for the duration of a horror movie. He’d never before seen a ghost, did not believe in an almighty deity and had not spent any time pondering the existence of a soul. To hear that Lita had felt her spirit, a life essence undetectable by science, leave her corporeal being and continue experiencing the world was an unfamiliar concept to him.
‘Is that why you’re a ghost now?’ he asked.
The raucous noise inside the pub increase momentarily as the outer door opened and closed. He turned and saw his mother step out with her phone pressed to her ear, a look of annoyance on her face.
‘I don’t know why I’m a ghost,’ Lita replied. ‘But I do think it gave me a head start on evading the Vadātājs.’
Ewan nodded his understanding. ‘Which is why your… spirit’ – the word felt foreign in his mouth – ‘was able to escape but Billie’s was not.’
Lita nodded and said something but her words were lost under his mother’s.
‘I don’t understand, Stan. I need to be here for Julia, you know tha- Yes, of course I... What?’
The concern in his mother’s voice grabbed Ewan’s attention. He turned to her and saw panic filling her eyes. Rushing to her side, he took the phone from her and said, ‘Dad? Dad, what’s wrong?’
‘It’s Sandra,’ his father said. ‘There’s something wrong with Sandra.’
‘It can’t be a coincidence,’ Lita said as Ewan led his distraught mother to his car.
‘You think this is a Vadātājs attack?’ Ewan asked. ‘Why would they go after my sister?’
‘I don’t know,’ Lita admitted. ‘To separate us so they can get to you, maybe?’
‘I just hope she’s okay.’ Ewan’s voice trembled. ‘They’ve already taken my cousin, I can’t let them take Sandra as well.’
Ewan opened the passenger door and helped his mother in.
‘I can go there and see how she is,’ Lita said.
‘What? How?’ Ewan’s confusion was evident in his expression.
‘I’m a ghost. The natural laws of physics don’t apply.’
Ewan nodded eagerly. ‘Yes. Go, please.’
‘But what if it is a trick to get to you? I need to be here to protect you.’
Ewan stopped and looked Lita straight in the eyes. ‘And what if it’s not?’
Lita heard the pleading in his tone. She saw no other reason why the Vadātājs would target Sandra which meant that by leaving Ewan she would be doing exactly what the enemy desired. But what if Ewan was right and this was not a simple ploy to split up the two of them? She wished that she did not have to leave Ewan, but he had one advantage that Billie had not had – he was aware of the Vadātājs and the threat they posed.
‘Okay,’ she told him, ‘I’ll go.’
As Ewan climbed into his car, Lita moved from the car park. The act of transporting herself miles across town required no physical effort, it was purely a matter of willpower. In an instant she had arrived in Ewan’s parents’ house.
Silence greeted her.
‘Hello,’ she called out, though she doubted either Sandra or Stan could hear her.
The living room was large and finely furnished, with knickknacks and ornaments on every flat surface. She wandered into the dining room and kitchen but found no-one. As soon as she stepped into the hallway, with the carpeted stairs leading up, she heard the deep cadence of a voice. The words were indistinguishable but that did not stop a bolt of dread pass through her. She could sense the vitriol tone in which they were uttered.
Soundlessly climbing the stairs, Lita grew closer to the voice, easily identifying the room from which it came. She stepped forward, steeled herself for what may lay beyond, then passed through the door.
Sandra was convulsing on top of a bed while on the floor beside her Stan was on his knees, guttural choking noises escaping him. A shadowy form stood over him, one arm outstretched as it grasped Stan’s throat and pushed him backwards. Stan’s hands pried at his assailant’s but it was clear he was growing weak.
‘You are the lost one,’ the dark shape said. The voice was deep and raspy, as difficult to bear as nails on a chalkboard.
As she looked at the attacker, Lita was unable to discern any detail. It appeared to be made of darkness, a solid body formed of nothing but shadow. Without thinking, she leapt forward with a yell.
Subtle movement in the darkness informed Lita that it had raised its face to her. There were no features, no eyes nor mouth, yet Lita was struck with the impression that the thing grinned at her.
‘Lilita,’ it said in its hateful tone.
Having not considered her next move, Lita was at a loss at what to do. Allowing instinct to take over, she jumped at the Vadātājs in the hope she could free Stan from its grip. She sailed through it, not sure if that was because she was a ghost or it was an intangible demon, and fell onto Sandra. The writhing woman was burning up. Lita dropped to the far side of the bed, keeping it between her and the moving shadow.
The Vadātājs turned to Lita, releasing Stan as it did.
‘Jods will be pleased,’ it said. ‘Three mortals to feast on.’
‘You can’t have them,’ Lita said. ‘They are not yours to take.’
Despite the lack of a face, Lita felt a vile glare emanate from the dark shape.
‘All who are cursed are ours to tear apart,’ the Vadātājs said and reached down to touch Sandra. Sandra stopped shaking and emitted a long, pain-filled moan.
Lita’s mind raced. She had known about the Vadātājs all her life – and her afterlife – but she had never thought to ask how to fight them. Was there a way to combat a devil?
The fact that it had clutched Stan’s throat and was now resting its palm on Sandra’s face implied that it was able to interact with the physical world, therefore it must have some material essence which could be attacked. But Lita was no longer of this earthly plane so she posed no threat to its corporeal being. All she could hope to do was prevent the Vadātājs from doing further harm until Ewan and his mother arrived.
‘You can’t have them’ Lita repeated. ‘They are not cursed. They are not Balodis.’
‘You know so little,’ it mocked. ‘Your ignorance is succulent.’
The Vadātājs placed its other hand on Sandra’s stomach. Her scream increased in pitch, sounding as though it would tear her vocal cords.
Lita knew that Sandra could not survive much longer. Her plan to stall the Vadātājs would fail. She cast her eyes to Stan but he had not yet recovered from his own assault and would be unable to aid his daughter.
If I can’t fight them in our world, she thought, I’ll fight them in theirs.
Moving around as a ghost was different to doing so as a living person. In life, she had had to use physical energy to put one foot in front of the other to propel herself about, and use stairs or elevators to ascend to higher levels. For the past thirty years, travel had been achieved by her mind alone; she willed herself to a new location, be that in the pub with Ewan or on this first floor with Sandra and Stan. To her, traversing around three-dimensional space was no more difficult than joining two dots on a piece of paper.
The Vadātājs were not of this world, yet they were able to break into it. Surely their own realm should be equally accessible. If this reality was like a sheet of paper, then the place from which the Vadātājs came was probably just a different sheet, one which lay underneath her own world. Instead of mentally propelling herself across the page, she should be able to focus her mind to dip down into the hell plane.
The room vanished. She found herself on black soil. Around her, spirals of gleaming rock thrust up to a crimson sky. The air was thick with the smell of burning tar and the sound of myriad howls drifted to her on a warm wind. Before her, in the same relative position it had occupied in Stan’s house, stood the Vadātājs. No longer a shadowy apparition, Lita saw the full horror of its true form.
Standing on cloven feet, two long goatlike legs supported a bloated torso over which one huge and blood-shot eye took the place where a head would be. A vertical gash in its chest opened and a forked tongue licked out. Its withered arms contained too many elbows and the whole thing was covered in wispy grey hair which fluttered in the scorched breeze. Beyond the demon, a wall of equally grotesque shapes jostled and bustled.
The Vadātājs’s eye turned to her and from the vile mouth in its body, it said, ‘You dare trespass here?’
In its own world, the demon’s voice no longer sounded like the grinding of rocks and Lita was able to detect incredulity in the question. Emboldened by the creature’s apparent doubt, Lita stepped forward and threw her fist into the demon’s eye. She felt the soft tissue give way, felt a thick fluid cover her hand. Lita recoiled in disgust and, even before the Vadātājs had managed to scream its agony, found herself back in the bedroom.
Sandra lay on the bed, still and mumbling, as Stan struggled to his feet. The Vadātājs was gone.
By the time Ewan and his mother arrived, Stan had awoken Sandra and assured himself that she was unhurt. They were huddled together in the lounge with Lita hovering around unseen.
Once Ewan had checked his sister was okay, he looked to Lita questioningly.
‘It was a Vadātājs,’ she told him. ‘I managed to subdue it.’
‘Does that mean it’s over?’ he asked. ‘Are you free from the curse?’
Lita paused before answering. When she spoke, she saw Ewan’s face grow pale.
‘I had to go to their world to fight it,’ she explained. ‘I beat this one. But I saw dozens more ready to take its place. I think they will come again soon, and in greater number.’
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