Page 6 of Twisted Solstice

“Wait.” Kael took my hand. The warm tingle of energy slid up my arm. “Don’t go. I promise. I’m not feeding you a bullshit tale.” He pointed out over the hillside. “See it. See all the debris?”

I sighed. “Kael, really it’s—” I lifted my gaze to where he pointed and sucked in a breath. There along with the bramble shrubbery, green sprigs of grass and dry ground lie a trail of broken, twisted metal. The wheel from one of the axels lay on its side next to an outcropping of rocks. The engine from the left side of the plane had been smashed into the hillside, the wing not far from it. Wisps of smoke from the rubble lifted toward the sky. Small fires dotted the area and flickered from some of the bigger sections of the... “Isthattheplane?”

“Flight 416? Yes.”

The blackened gouge where the plane hit the hillside darkened by the second. Seats, suitcases, and a sundry of other things lay strewn about. The misshapen seats, broken by the impact of the crash, clung to what remained of the cabin. Though I’d seen the photos of the site, I wasn’t quite prepared for the physical size of it.

There were no bodies. I could only assume they were crushed on impact then burned. Of course, there are photos in the archives of body bags in the Los Angeles morgue, but I figured it was mostly for the families. I took a step forward and Kael stopped me. I’d been so transfixed by what I saw, I almost missed the sheer drop off of about thirty feet.

“My God,” I muttered. “This is unreal.”

Through the smoke, I saw a shadowed figure closing the distance between us. When the person breached the grey tendrils, he lifted his hand in greeting. He wore a pair of loose fitting jeans that hung from his hips in a lude manner. The exposed flesh of his belly, where his shirt didn't quite match his pants, drew my attention. Like Kael, he was slender but muscular. A dark trail of hair slipped below the hem of his pants, tempting me. I licked my lips. No way in hell ghosts should be this sexy.

“Right on time,” Kael said. “This is my friend, Ember.”

I knew about the plane crash. Read all the reports. There hadn’t been an Ember on the plane. So, how did he get caught up in this particular site? I stared at the man approaching us. He wasn’t exactly classically hot, but more boyish, all American. Cute fit him. He had grey eyes and short blond hair. He had a crooked nose, probably from getting into a fight. His lips were full, and he had a strong jaw.

“There are no Ember’s on the flight manifest,” I said.

“Nope, Ember is a caretaker of the site,” Kael answered. “Once a year, the spirits from the plane come back and reenact the crash. He greets them and then waits. Unfortunately, they never move on to the other side.”

“Wait... are you saying that this site is an active haunted site?”Mind. Blown.

“Yeah,” Kael replied. “Because of the negligence of the pilot, and the owner of CCA, these people will never find their rest.”

“So, what does he do?”

“I explain what happen,” Ember said, joining us. “Though they’ll never move on, I walk them through the events of the night.”

“There’s one more of us,” Kael said. “He won’t be here until later. Come on, we’ve given Paul and Felix enough time to fuck around.”

The energy sparking from both men rattled me. I had so many questions, but they were right. The sun was setting, and the darkness climbed along the trail we'd been on. How strange some of these events coincided on the solstice and the rest didn’t. The crash happened on April 18th, 1952. The death of the young girl shot and dragged through the canyon; the middle of the summer. The fire at the orphanage, if the reports were true, the fall of 1949. I made a mental note to ask how it was all possible, later.

When we arrived at base camp, another man had joined Felix and Paul. He gave off this fuck the world aura and it felt like death followed him everywhere. If my team members felt it, they didn’t show it. The guy wore a black hoodie with the hood up, shrouding him in darkness. His clothes were all black as well. I stopped a few feet from the fire, afraid of getting any closer to him.

“Knock it off, dumbass,” Kael said. “You’re scaring her.”

The guy in all black stared up at me. A terror-filled scream lodged in my throat. I saw it all in his eyes. The beginning. The end. War. Famine. My death. Dramatic, I know, but he had the oddest colored eyes. One was blue, almost white and the other was cat-eye yellow. The corner of his mouth kicked upward in a smirk that did nothing to calm the need to escape and hide filling me.Who the fuck is this guy?

“Gaspar,” he said, extending his hand to me.

“No offense, but I’ll just say hi and stay right here.” I was safe between Ember and Kael. They'd protect me. This guy, however, would kill me. I knew it with every fiber of my being.

He laughed. “I won’t hurt you.”

“Said the spider to the fly,” I muttered.

This time he laughed even harder. The sound had me covering my ears. I didn’t like it. It was demonic. Like, cats screaming while rocks were being crushed. Weird description, I know, but it was the only way I could describe it. I glanced over at Paul and Felix who laughed along with Gaspar, seemingly unfazed by the sound emanating from the guy.

“They don’t hear what you do,” Ember said. “They hear perfectly normal laughter.”

“Gee, lucky them.”

Gaspar closed the distance between us. A magnetic pull I hadn’t experienced with Kael or Ember, engulfed me. It was as if my soul was trying to separate itself from my body. Like a thread popping from a hem. I mentally reached for the tattered ends of my soul, drawing them back to me, but they slipped through my fingers. Then, I realized, almost too late, this man was a reaper, not just a play on words, and he’d come for me.

I could only outrun it for so long. I'd been grateful for the years I was already given. I’d been called a miracle child one too many times. Cheated this man of his due more often or not. Yet, I wasn’t ready to go. I had so much to do. So much to see. I wanted to use thislife,spared so many times over, for something good.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

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