Chapter 23

Needless to mention, Aster had not taken the arrival of Kat too kindly. When she had burst into the office, Kat had ushered them all into the common room. Once there, she had been the first one to start questioning xem. "What kind of problem?"

Aster had turned, disgruntled, to Baz. "Who the fuck is she?" The underlying message was clear: 'why the fuck is this stranger ordering me around?'

Baz sighed. "Long story. I'll fill you in later. But in summary, they're the new headquarters person."

Aster gave her a deprecating look up and down. "Is that really the best the higher-ups could cough up?"

"You–!" Kat's whole face turned red from rage. (Kit wouldn't have been surprised if steam started coming off her.)

Kit had tried very hard to suppress a laugh from escaping him.

Baz hadn't even made an effort, letting a short bark of laughter out. "Looks can be tricky, you know? I can tell you, they definitely have bite."

Aster just sniffed. "Let's hope so."

True to her professionalism, Kat had quickly gotten her temper under control and steered the conversation back to the matter at hand. "You said there was a problem. What was it?"

"Ghosts." That's all the explanation Aster gives.

"What?" the three of them exclaim. An exorcism would hardly count as a difficult job. The steps were fairly easy to follow: when one had arrived at the location where the ghost had been sighted, the place would have to be purified before drawing an array to lure the soul out and confine it to one place. The array itself was fairly simple, three circles drawn equal distance from each other, with the alchemical symbols for soul, mind and body, and then would be connected with a line. From there, incense sticks were placed in a circle around the array, and once the ghost showed itself it would only require a brief ritual to rid them of their lingering attachments to this world and they would pass on to the afterlife. The ritual itself was just a few chants for bringing peace of mind and spirit. Perhaps the only tricky part of the whole process was maintaining a steady, constant flow of magical energy to the array until the ghost had disappeared, but even this should not pose a problem to any magician with a licence. To say a problem had arisen during a common exorcism job… Even the most inexperienced of newbies would have a hard time saying that.

"You need to elaborate more," Baz pinches the bridge of his nose.

"You were on an exorcism job, right?" Kit asks. "So what happened? Why don't you start from there?"

"What can I say?" Aster shrugs. "It started as a normal exorcism job. I got to the location where the ghost had been spotted, I carried out the exorcism, the ghost disappeared, and everything was okay. But as soon as the ghost disappeared, suddenly another one appeared. Whatever. I carry out another exorcism. This goes on for a long time, and I haven't had lunch, so I get impatient. But right as I am finishing the last exorcism and the ghost disappears, I hear screams–"

"Hold on," Bas holds up a hand, "where is all of this taking place?"

"Integral Meats store," xe says it as if it were obvious.

"Right, of course," Baz says sarcastically, "Sorry. Please continue."

Aster narrows xeir eyes. "I know you were being sarcastic, but I will let it slide this time. As I was saying, I went to investigate, following the screams to the back of the shop. But they're not in the shop, instead they seem to be coming from the slaughterhouse which is behind the shop. But when I get there, the screams have stopped. The doors are locked, so I break in, but when I finally get in, the entire place is empty."

"And the screaming? Where was it coming from then?" Kat prods.

"I don't know," Aster replies.

"Then what was the problem?"

"A few seconds after I enter the place, the screams start again. And that's when I see it: ghosts."

"Ghosts?" Kit asks again.

"But thing is, they didn't look like ghosts." Aster stops, rubbing xeir face with both hands. "Ugh, just remembering it makes me gag."

"What? What did you see?"

"I just saw them from the corner of my eye. They- I thought they were ghosts at first. They were like souls, the outline was human, and it definitely wasn't corporeal. But the screams… No ghosts ever make noises like that. It made all the hair on my body stand on end."

"Could they have been wailing ghosts?" Kat asks.

"A wailing ghost doesn't scream," Kit points out.

"You could just have thought it was screaming."

"I'm telling you, it was screaming. Not just one. There were a lot of them. A bunch of souls screaming."

"Think about it, Kat," Baz interrupts, "even if they were wailing ghosts, wouldn't it be suspicious if more than one wailing ghost appeared?"

"Of course it is. But, if they aren't wailing ghosts, then what are they?" Kat looks agitated. "Are you sure they weren't just wailing ghosts?" Kat asks xem for the second time.

Aster rolls xeir eyes, exasperated. "Listen, lady," xe has finally had enough, "I know what I saw. Those weren't wailing ghosts. I'm not even sure they were even ghosts."

"What did you see then?"

"When I finally got a good look at one of them, it… its body, I guess? It was all mangled. As if someone had torn it apart, the skin was hanging off their body. It was missing half of its face, it barely had a mouth, but it just kept on screaming. When I saw that, I just ran away." Xe shuddered.

"It- it looked like that?" Baz's face looks pale.

Kit himself was feeling a bit sick. A ghost would never show signs of how it had died, the soul would maintain the appearance it had during life. Wailing and vengeful spirits, because their souls had been warped, would no longer bear a human form, but were more like a swirling vortex with a vaguely human outline. There was absolutely no way a ghost, even a wailing one, would have the appearance Aster had described.

Kat looks like she's trying hard not to show how shaken she is. "And the people in the shop?"

"When I went back into the shop, everyone had disappeared there too. That's when I knew it was really, REALLY bad. Listen, anything physical, tangible I can kill I'll deal with," xe pats xeir side from where a keychain hangs from xeir belt. That's where they keep xeir axe, shrinking it down and hanging it at the end of the chain when not in use. "But paranormal shit? I don't want to mess with that unless I'm a hundred percent sure I know what I am dealing with. And that? Fuck if I know what that was about."

"This…" Kat turns to Baz and Kit. They both know what she's thinking.

"It– It can't be." Baz looks like he's about to lose it. "You have got to be kidding!"

"What are we going to do?" Kit mutters.

The three of them can feel a heavy aura settling over the room.

"What? What is it?" Aster turns to Baz, "What are you three talking about?"

"The demon!" Baz almost shouts before he starts laughing. There is an almost crazed look in his eyes.

"What?!"

"It's the demon," Kit repeats more quietly. "It's decided to show itself."

~~~

Integral Meats is one of the major meat distributors in the country. They own a bunch of farms around the town, raising cattle, chicken and pigs, but perhaps their specialty would be sheep. Almost all of the land they own is dedicated to raising sheep, and they were considered to distribute the best lamb meat. It was also where the incident had taken place.

"Shouldn't the owner be notified?" Kit asks hesitantly. He's aware that is not the most pressing matter at hand right now, and that these are hardly normal circumstances, but it still feels somewhat invasive to arrive at the place without any notice.

Kat seems to find the question extremely pointless. "And just how do you plan to contact them? Do you even know who they are?"

"If I remember correctly," Baz strokes his chin, "the owner of the company has a house in town."

"They live here?" Kit asks, surprised. He was definitely not expecting that. An affluent family like them would hardly choose a town in the middle of nowhere to live. Though there are certain eccentric rich people, he supposes.

"No, no. It's more like a summer house. They just come over during vacations," Aster clarifies. "I was actually neighbours with them growing up."

"You were?" Baz and Kit ask at the same time.

"Yeah. My grandmother's house was right in front of theirs. Every summer, I would see them arrive. It's been so many years though… I wonder if they still come. Last I knew, the daughter had gotten married and her husband had taken over the company, but that was about ten years ago."

Still, having a vacation house in a town in the middle of nowhere… But maybe it wasn't that strange, if Kit thought about it. To the north there's the Forest of Mist, to the east there's the farmlands, and to the south and west there are the Blue Mountains. The town is, effectively, isolated from the rest of not just the country, but at the same time, it offers a position no other place could. Just being this close to the Forest of Mist was already a novelty, and the closeness to the farmlands must be an advantage.

"If they still come over," Kit says, "then they must currently be there, no?"

"Even if they are," Kat interjects, "what use is it? Are you proposing to just turn up at their house unannounced too? And besides, what do you think they would tell you? To go deal with the matter, of course. So there's no point trying to contact them. It's the same either way."

"Ah… Well, I suppose…" But Kit can't help but still feel self-conscious as they near the shop.

The city is laid out in such a way that the commercial district is at its very centre, spanning almost half of the town's area. It is called the commercial district, even though it also includes an industrial sector, because the industrial part only encompasses a few factories, all of them strictly dedicated to food production. The commercial district is where all offices and larger businesses and shops are, and also where all major buildings can be found. No houses are built in this area, it is only once outside what is strictly considered the "commercial district" that one will start finding certain houses mixed in with smaller shops. As one gets farther away from the district, more and more houses can be seen. The town's residential areas are located towards its borders, encircling the commercial district in the middle.

But the residential areas are also split into the east and west side. The west side is considered to be the more "high-end", and the east is considered the more "affordable". Houses on the east side are smaller and are packed more closely together. There are small shops and restaurants scattered among all the houses, so everything one might need is within walking distance. If a neighbourhood doesn't have at least a convenience store at its corner, then there is at least some sort of equivalent at a house shop. The streets also become narrower, where certain streets aren't even wide enough to allow small vehicles to pass through, and others are even stone paved.

Neighbourhoods in the west side more closely resemble the suburbs of a city; the houses are spaced farther apart, and there are no house shops or corner stores to speak of. The farther west one goes, the houses become more extravagant and the land plots they are built on also become larger. The houses closest to the mountains are actually proper manors.

But to the very eastern borders of the town, where the houses start to grow more sparse and the landscape more rural, one will be able to find farms. They're small farms, but they are the links between the industrial plantations and ranches. From these small farms, the food in its raw form is then transported to the factories, and from there, it trickles down to be consumed.

Integral Meats is one of the owners of one such farm in town, which is responsible for providing the meat to its shop in the commercial district.

When they arrive in front of the shop (a quick drive, once again courtesy of the Director's car, but at least this time it is Aster who drives), Kit can't help but wonder, 'Why here? Of all places? Why a seemingly normal business?' He voices his doubts out loud to the other.

Kat turns to look back at him from the passenger seat. "Perhaps," she theorises, "the demon was drawn to the scent of death over the place."

"But it's not the only butcher shop in town," Kit says.

"But it definitely is the biggest one. It is also the only slaughterhouse."

"Are we dealing with a vegetarian demon?" Baz jokes weakly. "Perhaps if we promise to also go vegetarian it will spare us."

"A small price to pay for keeping our lives," Aster sighs.

"Do you really believe that whole 'Divine Justice' stuff they supposedly spout about?" Kit looks towards Baz sitting next to him on the back seat.

Baz shrugs. "What else can we go on?"

"I don't know," Kit opens the car door, "but it sounds too convoluted. Wouldn't there have to be some higher deity for that to be true?"

"You're not a believer?" Kat asks, following him out of the car. "You don't believe there might be a god?"

"Hm. Perhaps there is. I can't say for sure."

"So? What is your point? You say you don't believe in Divine Justice, since there would need to exist a god for it to be true, and you're now saying there might be one?

"I don't think the Divine Justice they speak of is true. And I never said there was a god. But if there were, I doubt they would have anything to do with these angels and demons. I've always thought they were more of an… abstract being. They wouldn't get involved in the affairs of normal humans, much less pass judgement on them. 'Divine Justice'... It just feels like another name for despotism."

"HAHAHA, Convoluted? Can you call 'Divine Justice' convoluted after an explanation like that?" Baz laughs. "I'll tell you what, if this demon starts spouting bullshit about Divine Justice and all that, I'll make sure to tell him all of that before it rips the head off my shoulders."

~~~

Just like Aster had said, the shop is completely vacant. In fact, not even in the neighbouring shops can people be spotted. It looks like the entire area is deserted in a mile long radius.

It is eerily quiet though. The screams Aster had talked about cannot be heard. Not even when they are standing in front of the doors to the slaughterhouse, the silence is still absolute.

"This… This can't be…" Aster mutters. "I swear, the screams were real!" xe shouts, looking at them panicked. This is the closest Kit has seen xem to breaking.

"We believe you," Kat calms xem. "But this silence… It's bothering me. We should investigate it too." She stops to think for a few moments. "We'll split up. Two will go into the warehouse, and the other two will try to find anyone in the area."

"That hardly seems like a wise idea," Baz objects. "If we're dealing with a demon–"

"The demon isn't here," Kat says matter-of-factly.

"What?!"

"I can't sense it," Kat taps the spot between her brows, "I activated an energy sensing spell as soon as we got out of the car, and there isn't an energy powerful enough to belong to a demon. If it was here, then it is long gone. What I can sense though, is that there is a residual of evil energy around this whole place. And it's strongest here," she points at the doors in front of them.

"But if we split up," Kit is uneasy towards the idea, "how will we keep in contact? I know, cellphones. But in case of an emergency? They won't be quick enough."

Aster gives a sharp whistle. Immediately, a spirit in the form of a dog appears next to them. It looks like an Australian Shepard, except it is semi-see-through and emitting a soft golden light from its body. There is a matching glowing, golden dot in the middle of Aster's forehead. This is Aster's Spiritual Guardian.

The Spiritual Guardian is an inherited technique passed through bloodlines. The magicians who form part of this clan are born with what is called a 'kindred spirit', a spirit that is born at the same time as they are. Even though spirits are the deceased souls of magical creatures, Spiritual Guardians are a different type of spirit. They still inhabit the spirit realm, but they are linked to a person's life, drawing their own energy from the magical energy their master possesses. That is why, the more powerful a magician from this clan is, the more powerful their Spiritual Guardian is. A Spiritual Guardian will manifest in the human world for the first time when its master first shows signs of possessing magical energy, and from there, the magician will be trained in their clan's technique to learn how to call upon their companion at will.

The bond between a Spiritual Guardian and its master was so deep, they could link their souls and minds to each other, with the spirit effectively serving as another pair of eyes and body. The master could order it to do whatever it wanted without having to utter a single word.

The form the spirit would take would depend on the family, the shape a parent's Spiritual Guardian took would be the same their children would have. Different families in the clan would have different animals, but without a single exception, they were always animals.

In Aster's case, xeir mother had been the one to pass down the technique, and her mother before her had been the one to inherit the genes to her. And all three of them had dogs, different breeds, but still dogs, as their Spiritual Guardian.

"Dog," (this is the Spiritual Guardian's name) "will serve as a communication line," Aster declares.

"You named your Spiritual Guardian 'Dog'?" Kat looks offended on Dog's behalf.

"I was seven when I named it."

"Still… You could at least have named it Spot or something…"

Aster scrunches up xeir nose. Xe opens xeir mouth to retort, but Baz interrupts.

"So who's going into the slaughterhouse?"

"Not me," Aster replies immediately.

Kat turns to Kit, "You're the seals master, no?"

Kit has a bad feeling about this. "Yes?"

"Ah, well… I'm sorry, but you have to go in there. The place is teeming with evil energy, it needs to be purified, and just a normal array isn't going to cut it." Kat looks like she actually feels bad. "You would know how to draw a more powerful one, right?"

"I can't be the only one capable of doing one, though. Don't you work in headquarters? Shouldn't you know better than me?"

"I am in an administrative position," Kat huffs. "And I don't specialise in seals or arrays."

Kit sighs, resigned. "How powerful should it be?"

"About a grade four?" Kat's brow furrows. She must be sensing the amount of evil energy inside the place.

"I–" A grade four…! He's never had to do one on that level before. He knows how, in theory, and it is definitely doable, but it is the last level before Lapis, special government only issued ink, has to be used. "I'll try what I can."

Kat now turns to Baz. "What about you? Will you go with Aster?"

Baz looks like he's debating the matter, taking a few moments before he shakes his head. "No. I think I'll go with Kit. I know how he works better, I might be able to help him out more than you could. No offence," he flashes a smile at Kat.

"So then I'll be going with you," Kat nods at Aster.

"Looks like it." Aster doesn't seem too thrilled. "I will leave Dog with you two then," xe says before xe starts heading off. "I'll be checking in on you every couple of minutes," xe informs them.

"Good luck!" Kat calls out as she hurries to catch up to Aster.

In a few moments, they have disappeared around the corner, leaving Baz and Kit alone.

"Well, looks like we have no choice but to go in now," Baz tries to muster up the courage, drawing in a deep breath.

Kit only nods. Words have escaped him right now. Even if he wanted to, he could not utter a single word. His body's coping mechanism from his younger days has kicked in again. It's a testament to the anxiousness he feels building up in his gut.

As soon as they enter the slaughterhouse, Kit wants to be gone from this place. The lights are off, and the few rays of sunlight entering through the ceiling windows cast long shadows all across the room. Even though the lights are off, the air conditioner is turned to the max, the cold blast of air hitting them full force. There are rows of animal carcasses hanging from metal structures. There's dried and fresh blood all over the floor, some of it has even splattered onto the walls. The smell of blood and raw meat is overwhelming, and he feels his stomach lurch. But perhaps, worst of all, is the noise all around. He can't see the ghosts, but he can hear them. Their blood-curdling screams echo through the entire building; their voices sound as if someone were tearing them apart, the agony and pain clear from their tone.

"Stop! Stop! Stop this, please!!! Spare me!"

"AHHHH!!! AHHHH!!! Please! Kill me!"

"It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!"

"AHHH!!! AHHHHH!!! I can't take this anymore!!!"

These are a few words that can be made out from all the noise. Each passing second, the screams grow more and more agonised, devolving into wordless howls.

The shrill sounds raise his hairs on end and threaten to burst his eardrums. He clamps his hands over his ears, letting the crutches fall to the floor with a thud that is drowned out by all the other noise. He crouches on the ground, curling into himself, as if somehow that will help block out the screaming. It is too much. He can't handle it. He shuts his eyes tightly, pressing his hands harder against the sides of his head. If this doesn't stop, he feels like his head is going to split open, his brain spilling onto the floor to join the animal bloodstains.

"Kit! Kit!" Someone is shaking his shoulders. One hand is removed from the side of his face. "Snap out of it!" they shout directly into his ear. "Stop screaming!" Baz delivers a slap to his face.

He hadn't even realised he had also started screaming until Baz had said so.

"You need to keep it together!" Baz says shakily. It doesn't look like he's holding up any better than Kit though. There are beads of sweat all over his face, his whole face has gone pale, even his lips have been drained of their colour, and his pupils have contracted in terror. "You have a job to do. You can't afford to lose it like that again!" Baz pulls him to his feet.

Kit tries to take in a deep breath, but all he can manage is a shallow, shaky one. He can feel his hands trembling at his sides where he's let them drop. The screams are still going on, but he wills himself to try and block them out. Finally, he opens his eyes slowly.

He really shouldn't have. Because that is when he sees them.

The ghosts.