Page 24 of Christmas Spirits

“Are you okay?” I asked her, my voice trembling.

“Yeah… I think so. Just a scratch. We’re just lucky we didn’t hit anything,” she said. “That thing isn’t going to let us take its body without a fight. We gotta get out of here.”

I agreed.

Something slammed into Arianna’s side of the car. I screamed again as the car rocked off two wheels and came back down with a loud boom and whine.

“Christ, it’s trying to flip us!” she shouted.

I glanced around wildly, trying to find something that could help us.

I wished Jade was here. She always seemed to come to my rescue when I needed her.

That reminded me… My rosary. I could use it to contact Elijah, her guardian angel. He could help us.

With unsteady hands, I pulled my grandmother’s rosary over my head and bunched the beads in my palm. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on the words I needed to say to call on him, but the anxiety of the situation was blocking me. What had he told me to do again? I needed to pray, right? Say his name and—

Another crash into the side of the car. My entire body smacked against the door, causing the rosary to fly out of my hand and out the broken windshield. The moment the wheels touched down again, the necklace slid across the car’s hood and dropped onto the ground, out of sight.

Oh no…

There went our last hope of being rescued.

Arianna wrenched the key in the ignition back and forth while pressing down on the gas. The car sputtered, unable to fully turn over, and the headlights flickered on and off.

“Start, dammit!” Arianna banged the steering wheel. “Start!”

Wind whipped into the car through the opened windshield. The next time the car’s lights flashed on, floating black wisps of the spirit appeared in front of us, and Arianna and I screamed.

Suddenly, those tendrils shot out, wrapped around my arms, and yanked me out through the broken windshield. Jagged pieces of glass scratched my chest and stomach as I was dragged out, and I kicked, trying with everything I had to make it let go.

Something clamped around my legs. “I got you, Kay!” It was Arianna. She had jumped on top of me and was trying to pull me back.

The spirit rose, taking me with it and lifting me three feet off the hood. The tentacles around my arms pulsed, and it felt like dozens of tiny needles were puncturing my skin. An ache began to build in the center of my chest, making it harder and harder to breathe. Exhaustion crept into my limbs, and my head fogged. Unconsciousness threatened to take hold. Soon, the feeling of Arianna’s grip became lost altogether.

The spirit was draining me. Of my lifeforce, just like Arianna had said.

As my mind floated between aware and not, a small zap of energy flared behind my eyes. Being the only real thing I could feel at the moment, I held onto it. And when it grew, quickly rushing through every inch of me and filling my body with strength, I gasped.

My eyelids flew open, and I was shocked to see the spirit, the highway, and the horizon—absolutely everything—outlined in brilliant shades of color. Each one pulsed in its own way, too. The trees and brush on the side of the highway were surrounded in different greens, which swayed slowly. A deep purplish-black color clung to the poltergeist and vibrated angrily, as if to say this was a malicious being, one that didn’t belong in this plane. Which were both true.

What was even more terrifying was the whitish glow clinging to my own skin.

It reminded me of the golden hue I always saw around Jade—and later on, around Elijah—hinting that they were higher beings. Angels. But I’d never seen it on other spirits or people. Or myself.

What was happening?

When the whiteness spread over the blanket-bag of Marc’s remains still in my hand, it began to tremble. As if the fragments of bone and dust inside weremoving.

Right then, the tendrils around my arms loosened and slid away. I fell, smacking into the car’s hood with such force all the air shot from my lungs.

“Kay!” Arianna yelled.

I groaned, my vision blurring momentarily. But when everything came into focus again, the strange pops of color were gone. The world was back to normal to my eyes.

The car door shut, and suddenly, she was standing by me. I could see her dirt-caked sneakers without lifting my head, which was pounding mercilessly.

She grabbed the bag from my hand and twisted the ends into a sturdy knot. Good thing, too, because I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold onto it.

---