Page 12 of Malice

I’m jolted by the flutter of papers again, stopping on the correct page.

Benign entities: On occasion spirits escape from the Below that the society considers neutral and therefore not a threat or requiring containment. Identifying a benign spirit can be done through interaction with animals. Animals have no unpleasant or aggressive reaction to a benign entity.

“Oh. Can I do that?”

“What?”

“Recall the handbook whenever I want to?”

“Yes.” He smiles, standing fully. “Just call out what you want and it will appear.”

“Great. Do you have a name?”

“Michael, but you can call me Crash.”

“Why Crash?”

He shrugs. “It’s how I died. It’s easier than filtering through the millions of Michaels in the Below.” He grins, showing off perfectly straight teeth. “Page eighty-four.”

The book flips through my head again, highlighting a paragraph.

At times, benign entities will attach to Soul Chasers to provide assistance or company.

Crash smiles at me. “I like the newbies.”

I nod, moving to sit at my dining room table. “When did you die?”

“What year is it now?”

“Twenty twenty-four.”

“Whew. Time flies. I died in 1983. I was seventeen.”

“Shit. That’s young. Why weren’t you in the Soul Chasers?”

“Didn’t qualify. The crash was my fault. I was drinking after a party and went off the road. Slammed into a tree.” He smiles. “Didn’t hurt anyone else though.”

“That seems harsh punishment though.”

“It’s not really punishment, but it still blows. I hated the Below. Do you know what happens there?”

“No.”

“I was in the room where all the souls made stupid mistakes. You just sit in front of a screen and watch your life and your decisions replay. There are worse rooms though. Like if you were violent. You get to die the way you hurt people over and over again. The only nice room down there is where the old folks, natural causes, and kids go. It’s called the Garden. They hang out together and do fun things all the time. They get the puppies and kittens.”

“How did you get out?”

Crash raises his hand and a scroll appears in the air between us. As it unravels I see names speeding by, but it stops on his name.

Michael Christopher Andrews—Escaped via spirit board pretending to be the user’s grandfather.

Classification: Benign

“It’s not that hard to get out of my room. The Horrors have to go to extreme lengths to get out, but I guess you know that.”

“I think so. I read so much.”

“It’s a lot.”

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