🔮

A

t last!

Smiling, Vince crawls out of the tiny hole at the side of the large boulder separating the entrance of the cave from outside. The dark empty cave is one of the many secret gateways that link the world of the dead to the world of the living.

Heavy rain pours down from the gray sky, drenching the soil beneath and watering the thirsty grass and foliage all around. But Vince doesn't feel it, cannot grab the needles of falling water even how much he tries to catch them with his hands. He's dead. And all that's left with him is his soul and the seething vengeance burning deep within him.

He puffs out a breath like he's still alive, then, extending one translucent leg from another, he runs on the grassy ground and through plants and trees as quickly as he can. How many hours before the underworld guards notice that he is missing? Not long, he can imagine. Soon it'll be lunch time and they'd be looking for him inside his prison cell. All the more reason to hurry.

The forest is as he has remembers it, thick with wood and rich vegetation, and not too far away from the busy bustling city. Maybe after a couple more years, it, too, will lose its trees and greeneries and be converted to dirty roads and boring buildings.

Vince heads to the main street and strolls down it. He has known where to find him even before he was dead, know where he is often found. So in a short time, he sees him. The man haunting his every thought even before he was sent to the underworld -- Ben Benignus.

Ben Benignus is the reason why Richmond, Vince's once great and successful father is bedridden and unconscious -- in a vegetative state. Since then, their businesses failed, his mother became crazy, and his siblings dropped out of school. Ben claims that the delivery truck he was driving lost its brake and that is why it rammed into Richmond's body. Vince cannot forgive Ben for harming his father and causing the ruin of his family.

So what if the brakes failed? Wasn't it also Ben Benignus' duty to ensure that his truck is in the right condition?

Filled with anger, Vince had sworn to exact his revenge upon him before he breaths his last breath.

However, Vince died early.

Striding towards the one who caused his family's downfall, Vince takes in the scene before him. Ben Benignus is carefully carrying box after box of vegetables into the kitchen room of a restaurant where he is working at. A smile is plastered on his ugly wrinkly face and he greets all the customers who pass by near him. How can he act all nice and innocent when he had caused severe misfortune to someone?

The vengeful spirit inches towards Ben close enough for him to grasp the man's soul and damage it enough to bring the man eternal death. Vince looks for the core of the middle-aged man' soul. It should be the light source of his very being. Not here. Not here. Here! The spirit finds it. Ready to destroy, Vince carefully grabs the core inside his hand. But his hand only goes through it.

He tries it again.

He cannot touch it!

And again.

He still cannot.

Why?

He looks at his arm and notices that it is more translucent than before. And so is his other arm. And his legs. And his body. He's disappearing! It soon hurts and aches all over.

Why is this happening?

The world of the living is out of reach for the dead. A friend from the underworld who had went to earth had said but Vince didn't believe him. Didn't listen. Too blind with his revenge.

How can he be this foolish? He had enough time in his prison cell. He should've at least thought of an alternate plan. Now, he might disappear forever before he reaches the cave, before exacting his revenge.

His friend told him something--

"AH!"

A girl who looks like she's in her late teens stumbles in fright in front of Vince. Her shopping bags scatter near her as gravity forces her to sit on the cold hard floor.

"Barbie!" Ben is instantly beside the teen. She looks only a few years younger than Vince. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine, dad." Barbie casts another glance at Vince and when their eyes meet she quickly turns her head away from him. She awkwardly places the loose strands of her short wavy brown hair behind her ear and adjusts the dark-rimmed glasses that frame her clear brown eyes. Slightly shaking, she catches her father's arm. "C-come on, dad, let's just go inside. Right. I'm hungry and inside is better. O-of course."

Ben picks up the shopping bags and gets dragged into the resto.

This. is. it.

If he could, Vince would do a backflip. The answer to his problem is right before him. He remembers his friend's words: "I learned that to survive on Earth, a spirit who sneaks out of the underworld without the authorities' permission should possess a human body with supernatural ability." This Barbie is clearly psychic! That's perfect! He just need to possess the girl.

Vince finds Barbie sitting at one of the tables on the corner of the gothic-themed restaurant. He approaches her and jumps into her tiny frame.

Ouch!

Possessing her stings and he bounces back outside her body.

"I-I'm sorry but you can't." Barbie isn't looking at him but he knows she's talking to him. "I've survived being a psychic for years by studying magic so I'd know what to do when I meet y-you. I mean, someone like you."

Studying... magic? Is she's a... witch? Vince cannot believe it. There is really somebody practicing magic at this time and age. "You're a witch."

A slight nod.

"You can help me." Vince tries to sit beside the trembling Barbie but his butt goes through the seat so he just stands beside the girl. "I went back to this world to do something." He looks at her eyes. They are trembling but shining. Where are his morals? Where had the nice kid inside him went? He's now asking for the help of an innocent teenager to murder her father. The answer is simple, they're gone. "I want to touch someone." He says vaguely. "I really need to. Can you let me borrow your body? It won't last an hour. I promise."

"Y-you want to possess me?"

Vince gets closer to the girl. "Yes."

"Why?"

"I told you I want to touch someone--"

"Just touch?"

She's sharper than she looks. The girl adjusts her glasses as she stares at the spirit.

Vince sighs. "Okay. Not just to touch. I need-- I really need to do something or else I wouldn't be at peace. But... I cannot tell you that." How can he? She'll not help him then.

"I will not remember everything you've done with my body."

That's brilliant! "Yes!" He feels awkward looking into her eyes. "Yes, I understand."

"Actually..." Barbie opens her bag and gets a red covered book. She places it on the wooden table and begins to flip its pages. "Here." She points at one of its pages. "You don't need to possess me. There's a spell that can turn you almost like a human until you've done what you have to do."

That's good. With that spell he'll be able to survive Earth and kill Ben Benignus, finally.

"First." Barbie takes the knife on the tables and slices her palm. Bright red blood oozes from the cut but the girl shows no pain. She's used to it. She chants some words then grabs Vince's hand. Magically, she can touch it. "We're linked now. So you have a semi-body."

True, he's not translucent anymore. In fact, he looks human. He tries holding the table. He can! His eyes search for Ben Benignus, but as though she can read his mind she says, "It only works while we're holding hands." She gestures towards the exit. "Come on. You, yourself, should get the ingredients."

Vince can't believe it. People can see him again like he's alive. He can feel the warmth from Barbie's hand, can feel the blood and the cut. A tiny part of his soul hopes that it doesn't hurt much.

"It's just three ingredients: a pair of moth's wings, a part of a coconut's bleeding trunk, and eighteen black rotten roses." They go back to the road and run as fast as they can. They enter the nearby florist and ask for the dried roses. They walk to the nearest coconut tree and search for a bleeding part. Then they find a moth perched at a wall of an old building.

"We're done." Vince says. Exhausted, the two sit down at a corner of the gothic restaurant where Barbie's father is working -- where he will die, Vince thinks. He looks at Barbie and sees her smiling so bright that his insides ache. She is busy mixing the ingredients they took in a bowl. He'll betray her. Even though she was so kind and warm to him. At least he has to let her hear some truth. "I'm not a good soul." The girl faces him. "I hated the fact that souls who did wrong during their life on Earth still get reincarnated so I secretly gathered souls of victims, talked to them, and together we--"

"Exact vengeance on the world of the living."

He nods. "We were caught after our friend completed his task on Earth. I escaped the prison and--"

"And now its your turn to do your revenge."

Another nod.

Barbie pours water to the mixture and offers it to Vince. The brown thick soup is bubbling. Its gross, but Vince takes it in his hands. "So... What to do?"

"You drink it while holding my hand."

They hold hands again and again he can be seen by other people. It's actually quite nice to feel alive again. Maybe, for a short time, he'll stay on Earth and be with Barbie before he...

Vince stops his hand. He holds the bowl near his mouth.

"What's the matter?" Barbie asks.

No. He cannot betray her.

But Barbie takes the bowl from his hand and forces the spirit to drink its contents. So he drinks. With every gulp, his soul trembles and burns.

"Drink," she whispers to his ear, laughing slightly.

Suddenly, he feels pain on his feet. After he drains the contents of the bowl. He's translucent again. He looks beneath him and sees his soul extend from his body toward the open mouth of Barbie.

She's slurping his spirit like it's jelly!

Vince panics. She's eating him! He tries to get away but he cannot. No one can see him anymore and the witch is free to do as she pleases. His upper body drops on the floor. He sees Ben Benignus scurry towards the kitchen door.

If only he could--

"Too late now!" Barbie is speaking with a part of Vince's soul stuck in her mouth. "How does it feel to face eternal death? Oh, you initiated the death of a soul, so, that means you're guilty too! Bad, bad soul."

"That's different!"

"Is it?" Barbie tilts her head slightly and then says. "Aren't you like them, a spiteful soul?" She continues eating her prey. "You taste so delicious. How stupid of you to actually help me prepare the potion to eat you. Haha!"

Vince shouts as Barbie sips his soul. He claws on the table but his hands only go through it.

It hurts and it burns.

So, this is real death.

Everything is pitch black.