Page 17 of Abducting Sarah

“Grateful?” her voice sizzled. “You think I should be grateful that you kidnapped me and you’re forcing me into some job that I never wanted? Is that honestly the tactic you’re trying right now?”

“You are right, of course. I did have you stolen from your home, taken from everything you’ve ever known and thrown into a strange situation.” I folded my arms and my tail raised with my anger. “So, since you have had all your other choices taken from you, I will give you this choice. You can choose whether to unite with me. You can choose to let the ghosts violate your body until they’re done playing with you, and they leave you broken and dead. And once you’re dead, I’m not sure what will happen to your ghost. I am not certain what happens to a human ghost on Halla, if the human died there—I don’t know if that has ever happened before. Your ghost might be stuck there for eternity. It certainly won’t join the ether—”

Confusion flashed across her face. “What are you talking about, Deacon?”

“When a Ladrian dies, their body is delivered to Halla and burned before the next full moons on Orhon. Their ghost emerges from the fire and lives among the other ghosts on Halla, until they die—”

“Your ghosts die?” she sounded incredulous.

We were getting off the topic, but I needed her to understand everything fully. I nodded. “Yes, it is generally one hundred years after their arrival on Halla, though lately, it has been happening much faster. My point is, when a ghost dies, they return to the ether from which all ghosts are reborn as Ladrians.”

Her cute nose scrunched up in thought. “It goes, Ladrian, then ghost, then ether, then Ladrian again? So, it’s like reincarnation?”

“Yes.”She finally understands something. “We are reincarnated and born on Orhon.”

“Do you remember anything of your past life?” She sounded fascinated.

I shook my head. “Very few of us do. But we are said to have innate memories of our former lives. Like if someone was burned to death in their original life, then they may have an overwhelming fear of fire in their next life, things like that.”

“How do you even know any of that is true?”

“It is a part of our history, our culture—”

“But if conduits are the only ones who can see ghosts, how do you know any of that is real?”

I smiled. “On Halla, we can all see the ghosts. Sometimes, ghosts can become strong enough to travel, either in form or in voice, and haunt the living. But it is only the conduits who have authority over them, so if a ghost leaves Halla, it is to find a conduit.”

She sounded so sad when she said, “Then you have proof of your religion?”

“Yes, why does this bother you?”

“I keep thinking that if any of Earth’s religions had tangible proof it was real, then there would have been far fewer wars in our history.”

“You are sad for your people?”

She nodded. “Billions of people wouldn’t have died in a million nightmarish ways, if we had one unified religion among us.”

I thought of my father’s beheading and the way my heart cried out when it happened. I was the only one of my family who did not turn their back on him at the ceremony, so I watched as it happened. I had never felt so much rage and helplessness in my life. When Silence collapsed to her knees beside his body, I focused all my attention on the Ladrang baby in her belly. I couldn’t watch as his body drained blood onto the crowd below. I struggled not to think of him not being able to hold his future child.

I swallowed my rage for that day and said, “It is hard to think of what might have been.”

“What is it like to grow up, knowing what will happen when you die?”

“You do not know what will happen when you die?”

“No,” she sighed. “It’s one of the great mysteries for humans.”

What a horror. “That must be terrible for you.”

Sarah’s eyebrows pinched together, like she was deep in thought. “It is, and it isn’t. Since we don’t know what happens, we try to live our lives to the fullest. Most of us anyway. Maybe if we knew, we wouldn’t try so hard to make things better for our families.”

I shook my head and smiled. “That does not stop, just because you know what happens when you die.” I laughed softly at the thought. “For instance, I have embarked on a strange and perilous journey to secure the life of my unborn sibling.”

She smiled up at me. I wondered if I could ever love a human—it seemed wrong. But when she smiled at me like that, I wasn’t sure what was right or wrong anymore.

Sarah said, “Yeah, you did.”

My door opened and Wave strolled in. “Jac says you are to unite now?”

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