Chapter 7 Revised Nora Blackwell

Elain handed me the tray, then shut the door and locked it behind her.

“What's up?” I asked.

“I'm just going to be honest, I need your help.” She stated her voice was shaking a bit.

“What's going on?” I asked, staring at her.

“Paula will bring your computer sometime, but I have mine here,” she explained, her voice shaking a bit, sitting at my desk, opening the laptop, and starting to do something. I started my burger while she typed, wondering why she hadn’t already had it up to show me.

“I got everything else, but while I was in town, I got these bracelets,” she stated, pulling out two black strings. There was nothing special about them; they just looked like thread.

“Explained,” I replied.

“Sorry, I’m scared and freaking out. I need someone I can trust, and you seem to handle yourself so-so in a death situation, and I heard about your power. I think you’re the only one who can help me.” Elain explained or tried to. I never heard her sound like this, but I only knew her for like a day.

“What’s going on? Explained the bracelets first.”

“Ok. These bracelets have magic threaded into them, and once we both put them on, we are not allowed to tell each other secrets. If we do, the bracelets will tighten until our hands fall off, and as that happens, you will bite your tongue and drown in your own blood,” she explained, and I started at her with a what the fuck face, wondering why I should do this and what I will get out of this.

“Please,” she begged, looking at me with desperation.

“What do I get out of this?”

“This goes both ways. I can help you with your revenge.”

“How did you know?”

“I just know you're mad at the people who put you in here,” she blurted out, staring at me with pleading eyes.

“So we help each other?” I asked slowly, still thinking whether I should do this.

“Yes. Once we put these bracelets on, we have no choice but to keep each other's secrets,” she stated. I stared at her for the longest time. I haven’t known her long, but I feel like she is someone I want on my side. It would be helpful to have someone who couldn’t betray me.

“Let’s do it,” I said, holding my right hand out. “I agree.”

She put the string around my wrist, then handed me the other one, and I tied it around her wrist. The moment I tied it, I felt something tug at my chest.

She took a deep breath, then sat beside me on the bed with her laptop. On her screen was a live stream of a woman tied to a chair while a few others were chained to the wall. I couldn’t really make out who they were.

“That's my sister in the chair,” She explained, her voice shaking,” and my family is tied up. My dad has a bunch of gambling debts, and we have no money to pay, so they will pay with their lives.”

“What is this?” I asked my voice to break at the chat where people were talking about cutting her throat.

“A red room is what I believe people call it. Whoever pays the highest gets to choose what happens to her.”

“How did you find this?” 

“The people who run my town always do this. My town suffers so much because of them,” she explained. She must have known there days were numbered. One of the chats popped up saying they would pay $3,000 to cut one of her fingers off.

I watched in horror as a distorted voice said, "Waiting for payment," and a few moments later, “Payment accepted,” and then started moving toward the girl in the chair. I couldn’t help but scream, wanting more than anything to stop this.

I could feel hundreds of sonar pings appear a thousand miles away. 

“What’s that?” Elian asked, pointing toward a ghostly man on the screen, and then a bunch of ghostly figures appeared. The ghost moved quickly toward the man, who grabbed the girl's hand and, with what looked like a pair of scissors. He backed away as the ghost launched at him, causing him to smash into the camera, sending it to the ground. 

“We have the people. Do you want us to kill them?” one of my ghosts asked in my mind, and I felt my body freeze.

“What’s going on?” Elain asked, her voice breaking, looking between the screen and me, and I told her. She begged me to kill them. She claimed that if i didn’t, they would come after her family again and do worse to them. She also told me how they hurt innocent people, and the world would be a better place without all of them.

If i did this, I wouldn’t be much better than Arthur, but he killed for food, and I would kill to help others, I guess. No matter how I framed it, I would be a murderer. A few days ago, I was planning a nice, normal future, and now I don't know what to expect.

“End every last one who had anything to do with this operation and release anyone who is captured,” I replied to my ghost in my mind, staring at Elain’s hopeful pleading face.

“It will be done,” was the reply. I felt sick. A few hours of learning, I had a rare gift, and I’m already using it as a weapon. I closed my eyes and watched through the ghosts’ eyes as they pulled out their hearts, slit their throats, and even used magic to burn or bury them. The screams were horrible, but the sight was even worse. The ghost moved as if it were a solid entity. After the majority of them were dead, a few of my ghosts started releasing the hostages while the rest didn’t let anyone escape. I switched between one ghost to another to see a boy around Liam’s age, my baby brother, cut down.

I wanted more than anything to hug my brother and make sure he was ok. He had nothing to do with any of this. I started crying, and Elain held me while also thanking me. She didn’t know the full extent of what was going on, and I wasn’t about to tell her either.