Chapter 39

OAHU, Christina sat cuddled up next to her daughter, on their king-sized bed, in a room lit up with candles of various colors.

Their laptop was open, so Albert could be with them. Lenora was there too.

Together, the four of them read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

It was the philosopher rather than the sorcerer…well, because that's the version they had found at the used bookstore.

It was Albert's idea to read the book.

They needed something to keep their mind occupied. Christina read, and the others listened. Although, every so often, her voice would get tired. Then Albert would take over and read to the kids. She couldn’t hear him. For some reason, he couldn’t read the book and be on the screen at the same time. So while he read aloud to the kids, she read silently.

Tonight they were on chapter ten. It was Halloween. Harry was getting a new broom.

Meanwhile, life for the Hawaiian Muggles had improved to a small degree. At the least, Kayla was no longer terrified of Christina. They were close again.

Christina hated being a fear factor for her daughter. Maybe that was the worst part of all of it; that and knowing her daughter actually had a valid reason to be afraid.

They hadn’t encountered the smelly ghost for a week. Before that, they had four incidents. One was with Christina again. Fortunately, Kayla had slept through it. Christina felt the hatred again, but it didn't get to the point where she felt an urge to harm Kayla.

Even if she had, it wouldn't have mattered. She had felt so weak and dizzy. She couldn't stand up, much less walk all the way to Kayla's room.

The next incident had been worse. The ghost had gone into Kayla. Christina was honestly unsure of what was worse—feeling the evil inside of you or seeing it take over your child.

She had heard Kayla whimpering. She went to Kayla's room to check on her. She opened the door, expecting Kayla to be on the bed. Instead she had been standing right there at the entrance of the room. 

"Kayla?

Her daughter had reached out and scratched Christina's arms with her fingernails.

It hadn’t hurt a lot.  Kayla's nails weren't sharp. Still, Christina knew what was happening and had felt an icy chill all over her body.

Kayla had tried scratching again. Then she kicked. She hit. She screamed.

Christina had grabbed her daughter by both arms and tried to get her to stop.

Kayla wriggled out of her grasp and then lunged forward to bite her.

Now that had hurt. She cried out in pain.

Kayla bit again. That time she actually got a small piece of flesh. Christina looked to the wound on her arm; then to her daughter again. Kayla was actually chewing.

Christina had felt very nauseated. She couldn't tell if it was from the pain, seeing her daughter chew and swallow her flesh, or if the smelly ghost was now getting inside of her as well.

Kayla had lunged again, and Christina grabbed her head.

She tried to keep her daughter from biting her but at the same time tried not to hurt her daughter. 

Kayla had struggled while alternating between screaming, crying, and giggling. Then those noises stopped, and she went back to whimpering. She stopped struggling, and Christina had loosened her grip. 

There was a horrible smell, and Christina had thought for a moment that now she could smell the ghost too. But then she recognized the smell. She looked down at her daughter's legs. They were dripping with diarrhea.

"Yucky," Kayla said, sounding much younger than her usual self. She farted, and more diarrhea poured out.

"Let's get you to the bathroom." She had made as if to pick Kayla up, but Kayla shook her head and took her mother's hand.

"I can walk," she had said. "If you carry me, it will go on you."

"I don't mind," Christina whispered. She found she didn't have enough voice to talk.

"I don't want it on you."

So there was that. Then the two other incidents had Lenora as the infected.

She had popped onto FaceTime, which resulted in Albert vanishing from the screen. Then she started yelling, "I know you hate me! I know you wish I was gone! I wish I could take a gun and shoot you in the face."

The other time, she said she wished she had a shovel and that she'd hit them with it until they were unconscious. 

Now, though, everything was peaceful or as peaceful as you could get while waiting for hell to break loose again.

Reading Harry Potter together helped.

And they had been proactive. In the past week, they had done research.

Molly had helped them by talking to people in the OS world. Albert had been leaving them for brief periods to wander around the neighborhood to see if there were any fellow EB spirits he could talk to.

Christina had searched the internet. She read an interview with Loretta's mother, the one that had been on television. She talked about what Christina believed was the same thing Molly told them about, but Loretta's mom gave it a name. The Arcide.

 It depressed Christina to think that the same thing that brought her husband back to her could also be the same thing that temporarily turned her daughter into a flesh-eating monster. That was how the world worked though. Right? The same machine that could take you from Hawaii to Disneyland was the same thing that could be hijacked and cause two buildings to collapse. Jelly donuts tasted delicious, but they could also make you fat and clog your arteries.

Usually the good in things outweighed the bad. And if the bad was really bad, you did what you could to protect yourself.

Christina had  searched the internet to see if there were other people who had been experiencing what they were experiencing. She’d been selfishly relieved to find they were not alone. There was a whole message board about it. People like her were very scared. Some were depressed. Some were okay, because they believe they've found a way to protect themselves.

All types of advice had been shared. One idea was the candles, and that's why they had them on the dresser.

There were black ones to protect them from evil; blue to fill the room with kindness and harmony. Pink was for love. White was for spiritual health and healing.

They had gemstones under the mattress that might offer protection. They had eye agate. It was known to offer protection from the evil eye, but people on the message board believed it might also help protect against smelly ghosts/the Arcide. 

They also had topaz and some kind of bright pink stone. Christina wasn’t sure what it was and whether or not it was supposed to help, but Kayla saw it at the store and thought it was pretty.

According to some people on the message boards, beauty itself could help fight the evil. Sing a pretty song. Or a happy one. One person claimed that sucking on a peppermint made the Arcide disappear. Another said she made the smell vanish by playing one of those colorful toy xylophones. 

Several people agreed with what Molly said before. Think happy thoughts. And if you see someone else in the grip of the Arcide, try to replace your fear with love. The best thing for the Arcide was for you to be afraid and then have that fear turned to repulsion and hatred. But if you could stand there and be full of love, the Arcide would weaken.

Christina loved that…in theory, at least. She also hated it when she read it, though, because she realized she did feel repulsion for Kayla when Kayla was in its grip. She didn't see her beautiful beloved daughter. She saw a monster, and yes, she probably hated her. 

Once they were talking about all the advice and Albert had joked. "It sounds all very corny to me. I think you should just throw holy water at it and say, "The power of Christ compels you." He laughed, but she did actually buy a crucifix. It now sat in the drawer next to the peppermints. She wasn’t sure how you go about getting the water. Did you just walk into a church?

There was no way to know if anything was going to work. The smelly ghost hadn’t appeared since they'd begun building their arsenal. So they just had to wait and hope not to be tested. And hope that if they were tested, they were properly protected. 

Continue to Chapter Forty

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