Chapter 10

The sun glared down through the cracks in the roof and stung my eyes like lasers. The ghost was already gone, along with Andrew. I quickly shot to my feet and slammed open the shed door to reveal Andrew and the ghost splashing around in a riverbed. The ghost was washing Andrew, and it was clear that Andrew was not enjoying it. It was weird to me that I could not touch the ghost, but the ghost could touch us. I noted it as a problem that might arise later and joined them by the river. 

I asked, “What’s going on here?”

The man looked up at me with a giant smile.

“I love your little pet, though he was quite a hassle to catch. His fur was full of dirt, so I decided that I would clean him up for you.”

“I know, my pet is quite cute, isn't he?” I teased.

Andrew scruffed up his little bunny face and scorned, “Shut up! I’m no one's pet!” 

The man stopped cleaning Andrew and flew back into the river. The man opened his mouth agape and turned to me and back at Andrew repeatedly, expecting an explanation.

“Yeah, he can talk.” I replied to his confusion.

The man sighed and quirked his brow. “Am I dreaming?” He asked.

“No.” Andrew replied with disgust.

The man continued to back away and laugh nervously. 

“So are you guys demons or something? Is that why you have a tail and horns? I thought they were fake.”

I answered his query, “I’m a demon, Andrew has been cursed to be a bunny. He was a human before.”

The man quickly shot out of the river and ran violently into the wheat field. Me and Andrew stared at him as he thrashed around through the field.

“I think he doesn’t know he’s dead.” Andrew announced. 

I nodded. “Me too.”

“He’ll be back eventually. We still need him to bring us to town, so let's wait a bit.” Andrew announced as he hopped out of the riverbed and shook his fur like a dog. 

Andrew walked back into the shed, and I sighed. Clearly, he was still upset with me. It wasn’t like we were ever close in the first place, but it still hurt. I walked up to an apple tree and grabbed two apples from it. I walked up to the shed and knocked on the wooden door.

“Do you want an apple?” I asked.

There was no answer.

“Andrew?” I asked again.

I started to slowly creak open the door when Andrew shouted, “Just leave me alone!”

I backed away and closed the door lightly. I placed one of the apples by the door.

“Okay.” I spoke softly. 

I turned around and saw that the ghost was standing in the wheat field without any movement. I travelled towards him with quick steps. I leaped over the river and then slowed my steps when I approached him. His face was devoid of any emotion, and he stared blankly at a sunflower that had wilted and fallen.

“There was a woman.” He started.

These sudden words startled me a bit and made me jump.

“Her long brunette hair softly blew in the wind. She turned to me… Why can’t I remember her face? She said something, and she showed me something. When did this happen? Where did this happen?” The man asked no one at all.

He turned to me with a solemn expression.

He asked, “Who am I?”

Another gust of wind tumbled through the trees from the west to the east, where we stood. A chill of cold spread all around me. I made my face turn to stone, and I said, “Come with me.”

Andrew exited the shed feeling immensely guilty. He hadn’t meant to be so rude, but his foul mood had made him do so. He saw the lonely apple sitting beside the door, and another wave of guilt drowned him. 

“Shit.” He swore.

Andrew spun around wildly. He had lost sight of me. He hopped around for what felt like an eternity, and finally, after he travelled down the path back from where we came, he found me and the ghost. We were in the graveyard. He hopped beside fallen graves that had been uprooted by the tree roots and possibly ruined by grave diggers. Me and the ghost stood silently by a grave. Andrew was about to say something before he froze at the name of the grave. It read, Brad Hale. Year: 1990. There was nothing else written on the grave. I noticed Andrew staring at the grave in silence and found this intriguing. I was about to ask what was wrong before I heard a deep rumbling beside me. I backed away swiftly from the ghost and guarded Andrew subconsciously. 

“I’m dead?” The ghost asked with a distorted voice.

His body became misshapen and his soul stretched out widely. He quickly took the shape of a strange creature. His limbs and joints broke apart and took the form of a bear. His eyes, ears, mouth, and nose moved around his body, never staying in one place. 

“Run Andrew! He’s become corrupt! He’s a cursed soul!” I screamed back at Andrew.

Andrew was frozen on the spot. The creature quickly swung at us. I attempted to grab hold of his massive paw, but my hands fell through his skin, and he slashed me from shoulder to hip with his massive claws. I felt the air escape me, I could not breathe. It was too close to the scar on my heart. Andrew woke up from his trance and saw me bleeding black blood. 

“Vita!?” He screamed.

I subdued my shaking with much effort. I grabbed Andrew quickly and flew to a large spruce tree, placing him there.

“Stay here!” I ordered. 

I flew back down at the massive creature, just a bit away from his grasp. I thought of what to do. I could not touch him, but other objects on earth could. This had been proven by him not phasing through the ground and the water of the river reacting to him. I quickly de-rooted a massive spruce that was quite far away from Andrew and swung the tree at the creature like a sword. The creature flew across the river and landed in the wheat field with a gigantic thud. I flew quickly towards the creature and landed softly on the ground. The creature was still not ready to give up, he roared loudly and distorted his body even more. He grew bigger than Andrew’s apartment building. I felt like an ant. Never in my life had I seen or heard of a cursed soul like this. He must have been wandering this world for years without having the slightest clue of who he was. 

The curses in the area would have seen this pitiful soul and attached themselves to him, making his emotions more haywire. This man was hurting. I remembered how he looked at the solemn sunflower, and I rushed towards it, dropping the massive tree in the process. The creature swung his arm at me, causing me to rocket an acre into the horizon. I caught myself by spreading my wings before I crashed into the ground, but the creature had caught me first. I turned my head swiftly and saw a massive mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. At that moment, a massive black hand shot through the clouds down to the creature's head. Causing the creature to crash into the ground. The ground below the creature broke apart into a massive crater. The hand flew back into the sky and began to slam the creature once again into the ground.

“Stop!!” I screamed louder than I ever had before. 

The hand disappeared into a million shards of black-looking glass. I soared quickly to grab a sunflower and lowered myself down in front of the creature's face. His face was terrifyingly distorted, and he was too hurt to move, yet the fire in his eyes still did not cease. I held out the flower right in front of its massive eyes not knowing what would happen next. The creature saw a flash, and then it was somewhere else. He had the hands of a human, and a beautiful woman with rich skin stood in front of him. She turned her head to reveal a warm smile that shook the heavens. She held her pregnant stomach and said, “What about we name him Will?” 

Then, all of a sudden, the man was in a hospital. The doctor's face grew dark, and the man sobbed while he held the woman's hand.

“What’s happening!” He questioned repeatedly. 

The woman looked at him with a faint smile as her eyes fogged over.

“I love you.” She spoke.

The man stood at two graves. One large and one small. They were covered by colourful flowers. The graves read Deja Hale and Will Hale. 1989.

The man placed a sunflower at the graves and broke down sobbing. Then he was in the bathroom. Hundreds of pills laid in front of him, and he sobbed wildly. 

“I tried Deja! I really tried!”

The man woke up once more, and I stood in front of him. He had become normal once again. 

“Can you bring me to my grave?” He asked me with a slight smile.

I grabbed the wheat from underneath him and carried him to his grave, where I dropped him softly. I flew up to Andrew, who was clinging to the spruce tree with a terrified expression.

“Oh my god! I forgot you were afraid of heights!” I tried to explain.

Andrew scowled at me and then screamed, “Let me down!”

I dropped Andrew back at the man's grave, yet the man was nowhere to be seen. Only a sunflower laid by his grave.

“I saw everything,” Andrew said after a long time. 

Black blood flowed from my chest, and I felt my legs give out. I tumbled to the ground, and then there was darkness.

I woke up in a room filled with pink walls. Laying beside me was a white fluffy cat. I was insanely confused. I shot up quickly and yelped from the sharp pain in my chest. A woman walked into the room with Andrew in her arms. He leaped towards me and screamed, “We gotta get out of here!”

I quirked my brow and saw that my whole chest had been wrapped in a white bandage. 

“Is this bunny yours? He led me to you while me and my husband were having our noon walk.” 

“Yes, he’s mine.” I felt my throat croak.

I petted the cat's fluffy head, and it scratched and hissed in response. 

The woman appeared beside me and touched my horns.

“Are you a demon?” She asked.

I looked at her in confusion. I wasn’t sure if I should tell her or not, so I waited to see what else she might say. Instead of her speaking first Andrew spoke instead, “Say no! She’s nuts!”

I was even more confused by his concern, but I obeyed. 

“No. These are body modifiers.” I spoke slowly.

I didn’t know what body modifiers were, but I had heard Andrew say this before, so I just went along, hoping it was the right thing to say. The woman looked disappointed and backed away. 

“Oh, alrighty then.” 

Andrew quickly instructed, “Ask her if you can check her map on her phone.”

I didn’t understand a single word that escaped Andrew’s mouth, but I asked her. She complied and handed me a square box. I stared at it with a headache. This was truly futuristic, though I had never imagined that this was what would be in the future. I must have tapped on something wrong because I was suddenly hit with a gallery of demonic photos. Everything was red and gruesome. I stared back at her with terror. Truly, no one could have guessed that such a wholesome looking woman would be into such brutality. It reminded me of Jayin’s temple.

The woman quickly snatched the box away from me and handed it back to me with something else portrayed on it. It was a map, this time with colour, unlike the ones I was used to. The old paper maps of my days sometimes had a little colour on them, but the quality of those maps could never compare to the one in front of me. I never would have guessed that I would thank Audrey for teaching me different languages until today. I discovered that the mountain range where the curse of immortality was located was just north of the small town we were in. The closest village to the mountain range was called Aramore. Aramore was in a valley within the mountain range, and it looked like there was a road that led to it. I returned the box to the woman and thanked her. I slowly got off the bed with a grimace of pain, and then all of a sudden the woman touched my broken horn. 

“Was this intentional?” The woman asked with an unusual expression.

Something was amiss, and I suspected that the woman might not have believed me when I said that I was not a demon. It was then that I realised that my wings were still out of my skin. There was no way a human with injuries like mine and demonic features existed. There was too much evidence against me. Andrew realised that I had begun to panic, and he quickly caught on. The woman gripped my hand and dragged me out of the room. We passed by a living room with a scrawny man sitting on the couch. He held a beer in his hand, and he was watching a box with moving pictures. He did not realise our presence in the slightest.

The woman began to bring me down the stairs. Andrew was chasing after us. If only I was still wearing his clothes from before, then maybe he could have used the pants leg to drag me backwards. My strength was too worn, so I could do nothing to struggle out of her tight grasp. She shoved me into a chair that sat in a lonely, cold room downstairs. Andrew caught up to us, and he paced back and forth with panic. The woman grabbed a large saw. I looked at the walls filled with horns in terror. Some of them were demon horns, others were animals. Demon tails were tied together as a curtain and covered a tiny window. It was then that I realised that this woman was an occultist. 

Andrew panicked, “Vita, get up!” 

I tried to push myself up, yet no force exerted. 

The woman stood before me with an insane grin.

“Too bad I couldn't get another horn. I have never seen another demon's wings before, you must be different from the other demons that I found. Your horns are larger than the others I have caught too.” 

The woman caressed my horn with one hand.

“The dim lines are truly beautiful. It will look magnificent hung on my wall.”

The woman raised the saw and was just a centimetre away before Andrew jumped and kicked the saw right out of her hand.

“Shit! I knew I should have never kept you alive, stupid rabbit!” The woman swore.

The woman grabbed Andrew by his neck and began to choke him. Before I could even react, I managed to punch her square in the face. She flew back into the wall, causing dozens of horns to fall on her. My strength was definitely depleted, but this was enough to get us some time. I grabbed Andrew and ran out of the house. We were in a cute little cabin that sat just outside of town. I tucked my wings back into my skin, and I ran until I physically could not anymore.

“Vita, calm down!” Andrew yelled.

I dropped to the ground, and Andrew leaped to the ground once more.

Andrew begged, “Don’t pass out again, Vita! Please!”

“I won’t.” I promised as I caught my breath.

A carriage without a horse stopped beside us, and I immediately froze.

“Do you need a ride?” A man spoke.

This man was definitely not the same guy from the cabin, though that didn’t mean that I could let my guard back down yet.

I asked, “Could you drive us to Aramore?” 

The man nodded. “I’m going there anyway. Just got back from the city, and now I'm headed home. Just hop in the back of the truck. Hold on though, it’s a bit bumpy.”

I realised, “So that's what they’re called, trucks.”

 I grabbed Andrew and placed him in the back. I struggled to get myself on the truck, but after a minute of pain I managed to get seated. We sat alongside crates and wood, and as we drove the road thrashed us back and forth. My pain managed to go numb after a few hours, and I felt my eyelids slip.