13 Good Ghostly Nigh

Heavy footsteps resounded in the attic. There was no way that it could be an animal unless a Grizzly had managed to sneak in. Moreover, the only way for the attic was in his room, if there was to be someone, he was a madman, or he had the brainpower of an oyster. Without thinking for a second more, Hector took his chair and removed the false ceiling that led to the attic, he jumped effortlessly pushed by his adrenaline.

The young man opened carefully his eyes. There was no sound, no movement at all. He walked around the attic as a drop of sweat ran down his forehead. But nothing.

[Balam, it's weird, I feel uncomfortable here… really… I don't really want to believe it, but it could be a ghost or something like that…?] he waited for an answer, but only silence was present. [Balam?]

\"Is there anyone there?!\" he asked in a loud voice, hoping that his anxiety would not be felt by the presence.

There was no answer yet; he went around the attic again, but nothing.

There seemed to be no animals either, not even a rodent. Hector decided to go back to his room, moreover, Balam was not there, or at least he was not talking. Usually, in this kind of situation he is more talkative than normal, so not hearing him talk at that very moment was weird, as if something was blurring the communications between him and the demon.

However, just before he left, a thumping noise resounded in the attic and made the floor tremble. A large book had fallen from an old dirty table, releasing a suffocating cloud of dust. Hector's face immediately tightened as he squinted.

\"Who are you?\" he continued, by squinting his eyes.

A noise of slippage came to the ears of Hector. The book slipped towards him, gently. He simply decided to get it back, but a second after holding it in his hand, he felt like a kind of cold touch on his neck. He managed to control his fear and remained motionless in the hope of understanding what this spirit wanted from him. He looked at the title of the book: \"Give back\".

Hector looked up at the table where the book had fallen, then stood up to put it back in its place.

\"I think I understand-\" Hector was cut off by a noise one floor down, someone was knocking on his bedroom door.

\"Are you all right?\" Selena's voice asked. \"I heard some suspicious noises, I'm going in.\"

\"No, wait! Wait!\" he exclaimed, rushing towards the hole that allowed him to go down to his room.

When Selena entered, she just saw Hector fall from the ceiling in a heavy crash as dust fell from the attic into his room. Despite the fact that the situation was unusual, she leaned over to him to see if he had anything broken without a word, before raising an eyebrow. Her long ears moved slightly, then they stopped moving.

The elf pulled out the sword from the sheath she had with her at all times and kept it in her hand for a moment before swinging it with all her might towards the ceiling, the blade crossed all the way through it, leaving only the handle of the sword still visible. Immediately afterward, she stood in front of Hector, staring at the hole in the ceiling, put her arm forward, before a rune appeared in the air in front of her hand. A fraction of a second later, a ball of electricity illuminated the room with a blue light.

\"Who are you?\" Selena asked in an authoritative tone. \"I wouldn't have done so if your energy wasn't so obviously evil.\" she paused before continuing to speak alone. \"You have the same energy signature as those crazy old Andras… don't make me think you don't have anything bad.\"

Selena decided to throw the ball of electricity while reducing its size, it left at high speed for a space that Hector saw empty; the ball seemed to hit something before it was as if it were sucked in, then sent back in the opposite direction towards Selena. The elf had time to take out a small dagger that she had at her waist to put it in the direction of the electric ball. The ball hit the knife but did not electrify Selena thanks to the leather handle of the weapon. She raised her hand in the air and pointed her sword still stuck in the ceiling with her finger and pronounced a spell that Hector could not understand. The blade illuminated with a faint light before lighting the attic with a strong white light, so bright that the light could be seen from the outside escaping between the roof tiles.

The young man thought he heard a distant cry, a female moaning coming out of the attic. The young man's discomfort stopped immediately as if the presence that had made him uncomfortable all that time had suddenly evaporated. Selena turned to Hector, her eyes wide open.

\"Is everything all right? Didn't my magic touch you?\" she asked in an urgent tone.

\"Y-Yes, everything's fine, thank you…\" replied Hector, a little lost. \"I couldn't see it, but I guess it was some kind of ghost… right?\"

\"A Banshee, she looked weakened by something… as if another entity was trying to fight her.\" she gave up her squatting position, to get up and take a quick look in the attic. \"Couldn't it be the spirit that accompanies you?\"

\"Huh?!\"

\"Come on, I'm not stupid, you two share similar energy.\" Hector tried to answer, but she wouldn't let him. \"I can see them, ghosts, etc., it's a faculty of my race, once this power was called: the curse of the dead. A punishment designed to torment the Dark Elves all their lives thanks to the spirits of the people their ancestors killed in the past.\"

\"Pretty sadistic.\"

\"Typically the kind of the Goddess Sama, she isn't known for her great sweetness.\" she paused before helping Hector get up. \"What's his name?\"

\"Balam.\" he said, knowing that he could not lie.

\"Well, I feel like I ejected him with the Banshee…\" When she saw that the young man was waiting for the next sentences, she cleared her throat and fixed the knob of her sword that she pulled it out of the ceiling in order to get it back. \"The light made them flee in a way… they will eventually come back, but the sacred light is known for its divine effects, otherwise for its effects that affect the world of the invisible… so all the entities around us that didn't have bodies were literally sent very far from here…\"

\"I see… Don't worry, I don't think you hurt him or anything else, he's got hard skin if you know what I mean.\" Hector replied, tapping the young woman's shoulder.

After this short discussion, she left to investigate the attic, but it seemed as if there was no trace of any spirit left, she had absolutely ejected everything that was lying around. At the place where the sword was planted, the wood was burned because of the strong light that came out of it. Selena had inspected some of the furniture to see if this Banshee was not linked to an object of the place, but she found nothing; Hector had quickly guessed what object this spirit was linked to, but he wanted to keep it secret, the grimoire was an invaluable object, so necessarily he was a little greedy with the knowledge it could bring him.

Hector had noticed one thing, Amy was sleeping heavily, despite all the noise they had made, Selena and Hector could hear her snoring through the door of his room as he walked to the kitchen to drink a little.

\"No.\" replied a harsh female voice to Hector. \"No way you're sleeping alone right now.\"

\"Well, then how do you want me to do it? I'll give you my room and sleep in yours?\"

\"You come to sleep in mine, I don't mind.\" she said, putting away her glass of water. \"I can't risk letting you sleep in your room, I don't know when the Banshee will come back and these spirits have a very bad reputation. There are many cases of possession during sleep, you don't want that to happen, do you?\"

\"Yes, okay, okay, no problem. \" he replied by abandoning his protests. \"It was more for you than I was saying that, you know…\"

\"I think I can sleep next to you, we have the advantage of trusting each other, so we might as well enjoy it.\"

\"Might as well enjoy it… Huh… What do you mean by that...?\" Hector asked with a sarcastic smile.

\"Probably not what you seem to think.\" concluded Selena with elusive eyes. \"No such thing, please…\"

Hector smiled at Selena just to reassure her a little, as he had guessed, she was doing her job, but sleeping with a man, made her uncomfortable. Anyway, as Balam said, she probably wouldn't agree to do that kind of thing if she didn't feel anything for him. But even if she had a semblance of feeling that was beginning to bloom in her heart, it was only in the bud state. As for Hector, he wasn't going to complain, he was even rather satisfied to sleep with her, the last female presence in her bed was Chloe, it was now 4 years ago. It was good for him to think that he wasn't going to be alone like every other night, dreaming people he had killed to survive, or dreaming torture he had to endure or his parents crushed under the rubble of a building. When he was with Chloe, he could sleep, maybe it would be the same with Selena, it was with the hope that he went upstairs and went into Selena's room.

As he had observed earlier, Selena seemed more feminine than she wanted to make it look, she had installed a simple and refined decoration in warm tones which made the room very pleasant; books were lying around on her small bedside table and in a small cupboard, probably a former great reader, some of the book names made Hector smile: 'Being in society'; 'Sewing for Dummies'; 'How to please.'.

He didn't say anything to Selena who already seemed uncomfortable enough and just preferred to take off some of his clothes before lying down. The elf kept her dressing gown and went into the bed, she first turned her back on Hector before turning to her to say goodnight.

Unfortunately, Hector was awakened and woke Selena after a long nightmare. The ghosts of the past, unlike those of the present, remain inked far deeper than any other scar.