The Protector of Memories (The Veil of Death Book 1) Read online

  Hope laughed gently and watched the owl swooping and soaring about the library. “Have you not told her who she once was…” she stammered, corrected herself and added. “I mean have you not told her who she is?”

  Faith shook her head ‘no’. “Not as yet. Come. Let us do as Linda suggests_.”

  “Excuse me Faith?” A woman interrupted. “I need to talk with you.”

  Faith looked up at the woman in her late fifties; petite build with short grey hair and silver-framed glasses. Her face was lined with the expression of pain, sorrow and guilt. “I know you,” and holding out her hand added. “I know you to be the mother of a ghost called David.”

  “Yes. My name is Dawn.” Dawn said nervously and repeated her name. “I’m Dawn Woodhouse.”

  Faith motioned for her to sit down and when she had, Faith explained. “David… your son, stands beside you. He’s telling me that I need to know what it is that Phillip, your husband, is doing to you.”

  Dawn stared across at Faith and burst into tears.

  Sam grabbed some serviettes from the table and put them into Dawn’s hands. She had realised who this woman was and began to silently plead. Oh god Faith what are you doing? Please be genuine. Please. Please. Please.

  “Phillip did this to me last night.” Dawn said in a whisper and pulling down her scarf she revealed the finger marks around her neck. “And he did these to me this morning.” She pulled up the sleeves of her jumper and revealed fresh cigarette burns among the scars of her old ones…” Dawn took a deep breath and shared. “My husband was a highly decorated police officer. So many people admired and respected him…” she paused. “I am a survivor of domestic violence but the world sees me as the woman who killed their hero. I still get spat at in the street and told that ‘I should have been left to rot in hell’.”

  “But the man was a monster,” Sam whispered. “I read what he had done to you and your son… David.”

  Dawn nodded and said, “I’m judged as the woman who ‘found it easier to kill her husband than to leave him’.”

  Everybody remained quiet.

  Faith stared at the ghost called David standing beside his mum and listened as he explained what he had witnessed. “The empty ghosts have been led out of the Void of Emptiness. They are drinking the memories of ghosts. But I have yet to find out how my father is able to take possession of my mum. You tell me that your sister, Charity, has empty ghosts within her?”

  Faith nodded. “But they cause her no injury.”

  “If all empty ghosts are able to do what my father can do then people are in danger. I need to relay a warning within your session today. What I have witnessed affects the existence of us all.”

  Faith turned and looked at Dawn. “Did you hear what your son has just spoken of?”

  “No. I only hear the voice of my husband,” Dawn explained as she tapped the side of her head, “He is inside me. It started last night. Yesterday you asked me if I could hear the ghost. I couldn’t then but I can now.”

  “Yes,” Faith said. “That was just before I became severed from my Unity of Three… my sisters, Hope and Charity. The moment my skin aged.”

  Dawn continued to stare at Faith’s face and asked if she could touch it.

  Faith nodded a ‘yes’.

  Dawn hesitantly reached out and touched Faith’s face.

  She stroked her forehead, cheeks, nose and chin and felt not the substance of make-up, concealment or mask that her brother, Trevor insisted would be the reason as to why Faith’s face looked the way it did. “I don’t understand what is happening,” Dawn said. “But you know that I am possessed. Last night my husband kept choking me and just as I was about to pass out, he released his grip and then began all over again. He thought it to be a game…” Dawn coughed and flinched at the burning pain that seared its way into her throat. She whispered to Faith, “I have tried to tell my brother but he doesn’t believe me. He insists that I am harming myself. I’m afraid that I haven’t much time left.”

  “Your son” Faith explained, “has asked that I relay a message within this gathering. There is a species called the ‘empty ghost’ and they are bleeding dry the life-force of all the ghosts who favour the human form. Your husband is an empty ghost and this means that they have discovered a way to journey out of the Void of Emptiness and into the living.”

  Hope looked over at Faith and said quietly, “Hera is an empty ghost. It is written in ‘The Claiming of the Children’.”

  The ghost called David’s image flickered, “Hera is of your race of beings?”

  “Yes,” answered Faith. “She is an immortal who commands the electrical energy of Jealousy. But if she exists now as an empty ghost then Hera would indeed take advantage of those who reside within the Void.”

  The ghost called David flickered out of sight without saying another word.

  Faith frowned at his absence and after a couple of seconds said. “Come. We need to get into the conference room.”

  She instructed them to sit in the front row. “It would make me more comfortable if you all sat together at the front.”

  “What can I do?” asked Dawn.

  “When your son has relayed his message I will ask that you join me by my side. You must warn people what is happening to you. I know not as yet how it will help but it is a start at least.”

  Dawn nodded nervously but remained quiet.

  “Hope.” Faith said as she walked toward the table that she usually stood beside. “Will you join me by my side when Dawn does? It would help if you could read people’s auras… gain an understanding of their emotions.”

  “They disbelieve in the sights of the aura more than they do their own ghosts.” Hope said but quickly added. “I will do as you ask Faith.”

  Faith drank some water before adding. “Now we wait.”

  ∞

  When the conference room had reached its fullest capacity, Linda instructed the two security guards to stop anybody else from entering the room.

  She secured the doors, made her way toward Faith on the podium and stood beside her.

  A slight crackling noise sounded out.

  A woman’s voice, a regular at Faith’s sessions, sitting toward the front of the room said. “That’s the sign the ghosts are here.”

  Chairs began to creak; people shifted their weight and leant forward.

  Hope took Sam’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You have no need to be nervous…” she paused when she caught the scent of Sam’s perfume, “… you smell wonderful.”

  Sam blushed.

  Faith said to a woman in the fourth row, “A ghost in the image of a man, mid 40s, curly black hair, glasses of a tortoise shell frame and eyes of brown stands beside you. His name is called James and he is saying; ‘you should buy that dress. It would look beautiful on you.”

  A few people said, “Ah,” followed by the sound of giggling – then the sounds of “sshhhing.”

  Faith addressed a man in the back row. “That piece of paper you’re looking for is in the desk in your office. It’s caught at the back of the drawer - top drawer, left.”

  “Blow me.” The man answered back. “I’ll let you all know if that’s where it is.”

  Laughter sounded around the room followed by intermittent clapping and whooping.

  Faith motioned for silence and when the room fell quiet she said. “A ghost called David now speaks. He brings us a warning.” She proceeded to relay the message as David spoke it.

  “A species of ghost called the empty ghosts are drinking the memories from every other species of ghosts. I believe they do so in order to remember once again what it is to fell alive. But the memories of ghosts sustain them not and so their memories of life are fading fast and they want more. They have acquired the knowledge that more memories can be got…” Faith paused, swept her arms around the room, “from human beings. If they drink from the vessel that is the human body then they will gain eternal life.”

  Faith glanced arou
nd the room and at the sea of faces that peered back at her.

  Within the ‘stunned silence’ she called to Dawn and Hope. “Can you join me by my side?”

  As they did, Faith addressed the room.

  “Dawn has come to us this day to speak with you about her husband, Phillip. He resides within her body and he is bleeding her dry_.”

  “Shouldn’t you be on some sort of medication?” Alan Bowling interrupted Faith and before she could answer, he asked. “And who exactly are you?”

  “My name is Faith. I mediate between the mortals and their ghosts.” Faith pointed to her sister. “This is my sister, Hope. She has the sighting of the auras.” Faith held Alan Bowling’s eye contact and sighted the flicker of disgust within them. “We are the sisters of Charity.”

  A murmuring of voices sounded around the room.

  Alan Bowling tried to keep eye contact with Faith but when the directness became too uncomfortable he turned and looked at the woman called Hope. “The alcoholic,” he shouted and stepping closer asked, “What does that mean exactly ’the sighting of the auras’?” But regretting immediately his question, he added quickly, “Forget it. I’ll let somebody else have the pleasure of interviewing you.”

  Focussing his attentions back onto Faith he said. “I came here with an open-mind… prepared to hear your side of events. I understand publicity. I understand ratings. And it worked. I’m here. But what I am witnessing is nothing short of brainwashing the minds of vulnerable people.”

  Alan turned away from Faith and addressed everybody in the room. “Be careful people because this woman is a paranoid schizophrenic and without the proper medication she is a danger to society. Furthermore you need to know that Faith has another mental condition called ‘the Goddess Complex’. Do you know what that means people? It means that she feeds her need to be omnipotent on your need to believe that there is an Afterlife… empty ghosts. It’s all in her head.”

  “You don’t have an empty ghost living within you.” Dawn interjected. “So until that day happens you cannot understand what that feels like…” and sweeping her arms out to indicate the room and the world beyond she continued. “We need to work out what to do before it is too late. I doubt my husband is the first to enter a human body? There must be more empty ghosts who are making their way into us?”

  Alan Bowling interrupted Dawn to ask Faith a question. “Don’t you think it to be tasteless to use Dawn’s vulnerability to feed your own need for attention? We all know what she has had to endure these last two years… the tragic circumstances that led to her son’s death. If David was going to speak to anyone wouldn’t it be to his own mother?”

  “The ghost called David does speak to Dawn and she cannot hear what he says but Dawn knows that he is there_.”

  Alan interrupted Faith with another question. “If David was real wouldn’t his own mother be able to see and hear him?”

  “David hasn’t stopped being real simply because he exists as a ghost.”

  Dawn joined into the conversation. “Have you not heard a single word that my son has said?”

  “But your son isn’t the one who’s speaking is he?” Alan pointed at Faith, “she is!” he exclaimed. “And that woman spreads lies about Charity. Today we have heard from Charity that Faith and Hope have been extorting money from her_.”

  A middle-aged man stood up. “Why is it so hard for you to accept what Dawn is saying?” The man looked about the room and added. “I don’t think we should dismiss so quickly the possibility that the warnings are true?” He smiled at Dawn. “I’m Steve by the way.” He looked around the room and explained. “I don’t know about you lot but I’ve been coming here since these mediums sessions started. I’ve been one of the lucky ones. I get visits from my Dad, my Nan and great, great-grandfather. Heck.” He laughed. “I ain’t even met him_.”

  “So how do you know it is him?” Alan Bowling asked impatiently.

  Steve looked at Alan and shrugged. “Because of the messages he relayed to me. Then there’s me Dad…” he paused, “well he died last year and spoke about something that only he and I ever knew about.” Steve smiled over at Faith. “I believe in Faith and I believe Dawn. And what I’m hearing it doesn’t sound good does it?”

  A murmuring of voices sounded around the room.

  Dawn looked at Alan. “I cannot hear my son when he speaks but what he says is the truth. My own husband is harming me.” To prove the point, she pulled the sleeves of her jumper up to reveal the fresh burn marks. “Phillip did this to me this very morning. He is dead but he still harms me.”

  Everybody moved forward at the same time.

  Alan indicated for his photographer to take some photographs. “Self-harming is not the workings of empty ghosts_.”

  Sam jumped up from her chair, “Has Dawn asked that you speak on her behalf?” she demanded. Alan Bowling was getting on her nerves at the way he spoke for Dawn and yet ignored her completely.

  Alan stared at the small, chubby woman and rolling his eye-balls up toward the ceiling said. “People like Dawn need protecting from people like you.”

  Sam crossed her arms. “Don’t you think that it is Dawn who is the best authority on what it is that she needs?”

  “But she doesn’t know what she needs,” Alan said. “Only the professionals can help her. People like you hinder that process. She’s not been long out of prison and my guess is that she is suffering from post traumatic stress. But she needs to seek professional help_.”

  “I am here Mr Bowling.” Dawn interrupted and when he eventually looked at her, she asked him a question. “Where were those people… the professionals that you speak of? Where were they when I asked for their help? I asked to be protected from my husband when he was alive?” Dawn stared at him and when he didn’t say anything, she continued. “You and everybody else didn’t see the monster beneath the uniform did you? Where were…” but her voice came out in a croak. She coughed, “I need protecting from Phillip but this time I go to the people who believe me…” she coughed again.

  Linda stepped forward. “Mr Bowling. I think it best that you leave. And if you print mental conditions within the same article that holds Faith’s name in it, I will sue you for defamation of character…” she held her hands up, “you are a reporter Mr Bowling not a trained psychiatrist.”

  Alan stared up at the woman with distain.

  Dawn joined the reporter’s side and said. “I will tell you my story only if you agree to print the warning that my son wishes to tell the world.”

  Alan turned away from Linda and looked at Dawn. “Agreed,” he said and motioned for his photographer to follow him. As Alan walked out of the conference room, he shouted over his shoulder. “Be sure to read my opinion in ‘The London Local’.”

  A man stepped toward Hope, held up his mobile phone. “What is that that shines around your body?” He asked her.

  Hope looked at the image of her body. “That…” she paused, peered closer at the picture and realised that it was not her auras that she was staring at but her stardust. “That.” she said, “Is my stardust. It seems that your devices see what our sight does not.”

  Everybody who had heard Hope’s words took a step forward, asking to see the image on the mobile phone.

  “WOW. How do you do that?”

  “It’s all glittery like well… glitter.”

  “Is it the same as auras?”

  “Is that what we’re seeing auras?”

  “I’ve heard that people who can see auras are spiritual healers.”

  “I got this condition_.”

  Linda groaned as a tidal wave of people moved toward Hope. “Go through that door.” She instructed Faith, Hope and Sam, “Quickly… before you become crushed by the weight of people.”

  She punched in the code, opened the door – and ushered the three of them through it.

  ∞

  It took Linda, Brian and the two security guards over thirty minutes to get everybody out of the li
brary.

  When Linda finally made her way back toward the conservatory she was still annoyed with Hope. “Thanks to your…” but Linda paused, took a deep breath. She was about to say ‘stupidity’ but stopped herself in time. “Thanks to your need to enlighten everybody about stardust, nobody would leave the library until they had taken out all books relating to that particular subject. Which of course we have none. So everybody insisted on taking out books on ‘Auras’!” Linda exclaimed in exasperation.

  Nobody spoke for a couple of minutes.

  Sam who had done nothing but pace the room ever since she had entered it, sat down on a two-seater sofa. She felt numbed by the whole experience.

  Faith frowned and said to Hope. “So Hera has led the empty ghosts out of the Void of Emptiness?”

  “Yes” Hope answered. “With stardust, Hera has unlocked them from their state of emptiness… how they got there in the first place is unknown.” She glanced between Faith and Linda. “You need to read the book.” Hope insisted and then added, “I saw etched within the pathway of the park; ‘The Protector of Memories…’” she paused, pointed at the book and shared. “Hera stole our memories… our true identities to ensure that they would not travel with us when we became mortal. Our mother protects them now.”

  Sam felt the goose-bumps tickling her skin.

  She had the weirdest sensation that something was behind her. She sat up, turned and stared at a wooden plant stand housing a plant she knew to be called a ‘busy-lizzie’ and waited for it to do something that a plant should not do - but when all that it did do was remain still, she turned and looked at Hope.

  Hope had felt Sam’s body shivering and she watched as it rippled throughout the airwaves of the room. “This might help… a little.” She said to Sam and handed over the hip-flask before looking again to Faith and Linda.

  “Linda. You must read the book.” Hope said and took one out of the carrier bag and handed it over.

  “Why do I need to read it?” Linda asked.