Piety was rooted in her place Ignoring Jacks push toward the house. Piety saw the slow shambling walk of what she would describe as a well built teen-age boy. He walked clutching his stomach and was moaning. The young man was by what she could see normally a handsome black teen and now was ashen colored and his eyes wide and seemingly drained of color with pain and confusion. For a sicking minute she hoped that she had identified the boy incorrectly. She whispered, "Marcus?"

“That’s close enough shade” Jack said, sounding commanding, after all he was an alpha of his pack and police officer. Jack knew that his will and voice could command respect. The thing barley glanced at him, registering Jack was only an impediment to his goal. The young man with a slight nod sent Jack flying off to the side with a thud and crunch as he hit the garage wall. Then some of the garden tool jangled and fell around Jack as he cursed. Piety could hear Jack scramble up with a growl. Finnegan pressed against her leg adding his voice with menace.

Piety faced paled the teen as he kept stumbling to her and she stepped back into the very solid body of Jack. Piety’s mouth moved but no words came out, cold sweat trickled down her spine and cold fear gripped her stomach. Piety felt Jacks hands on her upper arms warm and solid he said, “Ask what it wants. Charity used to do that; she would just ask.”

She trembled and as the stumbling man stood 4 foot in front of her with one arm outstretched towards her glistening loops of intestine bulged and fell about him. His once handsome, now a sickly shade of clay. The deep scoring of claws crisscrossed his upper torso and wept blood. Piety felt weak kneed and her stomach roiled with dinner feeling more like it wanted to come back.

Jacks voice had steel to it as he said, “I can see it, you haven’t lost your mind, but you have the power to find out what he wants and to dismiss it. This ghost has something to say, it found you to say it.”

She looked at the apparition and saw that as twilight giving way to night, the man like pre digital photograph was developing and becoming more solid, the details appallingly sharp. Piety also noticed that it was very cold now, her breath puffed out in that steam she would normally see in the early morning. Piety could not look away the young man’s voice was uneven as he tried to speak with a gash in his neck, “Help me, I think I was in an accident. Maybe with my car.” There was a hiss to the “s” sounds as he spoke.

The screen door from the kitchen slammed with a thwap and through the garage Peabody bustled out and said, “Well shit.” And she walked over to Piety not concerned over what was standing in the driveway with its guts falling out. With her hand on her hip and almost in a conversational tone Glenda said, “See my dear whether you like or not ,the magic will find you.”

Piety knew she should be annoyed and angry that Glenda at this point wanted to continue the lecture on entering her new life but instead ignored her and with all the courage she could muster went with Jacks advice said barley above a whisper, “What do you want?”

 Marcus hissed trying to speak and not seeming to get enough air,“ I want to take my girl out on Saturday. I can’t figure out how, since I’m this messed up and walking? Can you fix me?”

 He looked like all the sadness in world was on his face and the pleading in his eyes , shown though the film of death on them. Piety lost her fear for a moment and instead felt compelled with a need to help this man somehow.

“You said car accident, where at?” Piety asked with a sick feeling that she already knew. This was most definitely  Clarissa’s boyfriend Marcus .

“Down the road, I stopped…I did…” he trailed off his face puzzled and Peabody loosened a bit of her power and said, “Spirit, I compel you to answer me, what happened to you.”

The ashen face fixed onto Peabody and the milky pale eyes narrowed, “I came to talk to her,” he pointed to Piety and more slippery ropes of intestine bulged. “She shines like light in all this darkness, she can help me, please help me.”

Glenda focused she used her voice with firm authority, “ I am a daughter of Hecate , I stand on the earth and Gaia grants me power . What do you want spirit?” the magic crackle and the teenager screamed knocking tools from the wall of the garage and sending Finnegan into a crouch and low howl.

“Stop calling me spirit. I am Marcus …a person… I just need help getting better.”

Piety interrupted, “ Marcus…?”

“Marcus Wilson.” The ghost replied , his eyes hallow and lost looking , Piety almost felt his pleading to just be helped and she wanted nothing more then to sooth the young man.

“Marcus how did you get hurt?”

“I came home from seeing my girl and…I… I stopped my car.”

“Why? Can you tell me?”

He screwed up his face and said, “ Please just help me , I don’t want to talk about this.”

“Okay, but Marcus to help you I’d like to know how you got hurt and how your …walking.”

He looked down to his hands clutching his guts and then his head slid to an odd angle. Blood poured from his shoulder and he gurgled, “ This thing with claws and fur…”

Then like watching an old film he was whole and standing there, but not looking at Piety, Glenda or Jack.  Marcus  said, “ Why do people live out here? Now, I gotta move this damn tree limb out of the road.” He bent over to grasp an unseen object and his head whipped to the side, “ What the fuck”

Then he was knocked down and his body tossed like a rag doll. All they could see was Marcus being torn apart, but not who or what was doing it.

The macabre one sided movie played  out, in the driveway with Marcus’s shoulder tearing away , and blood fountain out , next his jacket and shirt exploded with unseen force as the man screamed himself raw and loops of his guts were pulled as he cried out shrill and writhing .

Piety felt her gorge rise and she said, “ Why is he doing this .” The invisible assailant continued to bite and rend the body a part.

Peabody said , “ He can’t stop it, he is stuck in this loop. Spirits stay because they can’t move on. Piety you have the power, you can tell him he can go. He has no idea what attacked him with no understanding of how or why he died he refuses to accept he is dead.”

“Marcus” she said feeling a sort of warm comfort from Jack, it was like his presence lent her strength to view the nightmare. “ Marcus I need you to stop, please you can stop this .” She gestured imploring the ghost to quit the grotesque pantomime.    

The image of him returned to standing and holding in his abdomen his voice distorted through the gashed neck, “You can fix me, right? I can feel your … power I guess.”

“No, look you’re dead the best I can do…”

“I am NOT dead!” he screamed and the arm tore free as the young man in rage howled, “ FIX ME GODAMN IT!”

Suddenly the ozone crackled, and it was like being in the middle of a tornado. Jack did his best to shield Piety as garage tools, gardening pots and other objects took to the air and things struck them. Finnigan made high pitched whine and pressed closer to Jack and Piety. Glenda reached for Piety and found herself driven back by the rolling trash can that lived at the end of garage. While the maelstrom went on for what seemed to be forever the ghost raging over the reality of its fate and nonacceptance of the transition. Glenda went from powerful chants and demands to a shrill scream that ended abruptly. Piety tore her head away from Jacks protective chest that had been shielding her from the onslaught and saw the older woman go down from a blow to the head. A terracotta pot, that had been waiting for Piety to finish planting her mums, had exploded against Glenda's head.

Piety not thinking stepped away from Jack and felt something hit the small of her back , she gasped in pain and she said in a voice she didn’t know she possessed said, “Stop!”

Milky white eyes trained on to her and she said, “Enough! Marcus you hurt Glenda. I can’t fix you. You’re dead. Get the fuck away from me.”

The spirit opened his mouth and Piety not knowing how, she said with a voice dripping in power, “ No! YOU shut the hell up.”

Jack's training kicked in and he went to Glenda starting to his assessment of her injury and pulled his cell out to call for an ambulance. Peabody was unconscious and Jack covered in cuts and bruises worked finding her pulse and making sure she was breathing.

Marcus stood firm, “You are light, you have power , you can…fix this.”

Objects lifted and Piety the adrenaline dipping just enough started feeling where her back had taken a beating. Anger flashed and she was pissed, she forgot her terror and said in a low voice said, “Heaven or hell is your destination, boy,  but you will leave Marcus.”

Piety felt a feeling like static electricity build and raising her hand she saw crackles of blue energy arching from her fingers and palm stretching out to Marcus and as he howled, she made an image of pushing him away in her mind and with one, two letter word she said, “Go”.

The spirit shrieked even louder and then there was a feeling like Piety’s ears popping and Marcus’s ghost was gone. Battered and bleeding from a cut on her arm she dropped to Jack's side and he had already called for an ambulance on his cell phone. Glenda was knocked out. 

Jack looked at Piety, “The story is that she was here to talk about gardening, she lost balance crashed into that shelf and brained herself with the pots that had been stacked there.” As she watched jacked bruises seemed to fade and she nodded at what he said.

“I didn’t think we would tell the EMT’s about a pissed off ghost.” Piety said tersely as she got to knee and touched the old woman face, “C’mon Glenda, wake up you pain in my ass.”

Jack frowned, “That was quite a blow to her head, she is breathing …”

In the distance they heard a siren, the volunteer fire department was always first to get to anything out here in the sticks. The side of Glenda’s head still bled, and Jack had used his shirt to stanch the blood. Piety felt tears and she said, “Not you too, No! You wake up.” Finnigan his tail low limped up alongside them and nose poked the old woman. Glenda’s breathing while steady was shallow.

“Head wounds bleed a lot Piety, don’t panic.” He reached out and grasped her arm, he saw her eyes shining and brimming with tears. She had lost her aunt recently and he could see her mind racing to losing Glenda the last connection other than herself to Aunt Charity.

Piety nodded and she felt the warmth of her husky mutt leaning into her as the sirens came closer. She hugged Finnegan and Jack said, “You should put him in the house so the EMTs can work and not worry about if he is friendly.”

Mechanically Piety took the dog in confident that Jack could take care of the emergency workers for a few minutes.