|
Post by Jamie Pearce on Jun 10, 2009 2:21:58 GMT -4
14,000 feet in the air, Jamie read through the information he had printed off about Poveglia Island. It was gruesome stuff. The Romans had used it as a place to dump those suffering from leprosy and during the bouts of Bubonic plague in Europe, it had become a plague pit. That alone would be enough to raise some seriously pissed off spirits but that wasn't all.
In 1922 a mental institute was built, the kind that didn't really understand mental illness and condoned all sorts of mad experiments. The doctor who ran the institute often took his patients to the top of the bell tower and tortured them as they screamed about the ghosts of the plague victims that followed them around the island.
Legend had it that eventually, the good doctor started seeing the ghosts too, at which point they led him to the top of the bell tower and through him off. He was finished off by some creepy mist that rose out of the ground and choked him. Since then, the place had been uninhabited and closed off the the public.
Jamie had to admit that this sounded pretty far fetched, even to him and he'd been around this kind of stuff his whole life. If it hadn't been for the more recent events, he wouldn't have bothered coming. People had paid there way onto the island, as dares or to buy homes but left the next day vowing never to go back. Apparently those who had been stupid enough to enter the ruined hospital had even been told by an unhappy spirit to "Leave immediately and never return."
And just last week, a family moved onto the island with the hope of buying cheap and building a holiday home. They too left the next day but not because they had been told to. At least not in so many words. Their young daughter's face had been ripped open by something unseen and required 20 stitches to fix. Despite the fact that the girl had lived, it was this story in particular that had made up Jamie's mind.
He looked up from his notes as he felt the helicopter begin its descent, and looked out the window at the island. It looked normal enough, even in the dark, but it gave off a creepy vibe, even all the way up here Jamie could tell that he had been right to come. The dust on the ground swirled around the helicopter and he wrapped his scarf around his face so that when he got out of the helicopter, he didn't breath any of it in. He had learned that the top layer of soil on the island was in fact mostly ash from the thousands of dead bodies that had been disposed of and he wasn't too keen on breathing in dead people.
As Jamie jogged away from the helicopter, his bags of clothes, weapons and accelerants in hand, he saw someone with a light jogging towards him. He had called ahead and offered a considerable amount of money so that he could stay in one of the empty lodgings available in the vineyard. The person with the light greeted him in very quick Italian and led him to what would be his home-base for the next few weeks until this whole island had been dealt to.
He dumped his stuff on the floor at the end of the bed and sighed. Falling forward onto the bed he pulled out his cellphone and stared at it. He thought about calling Flick and apologising for the hundredth time, she had been pretty mad when he had left, but decided against it. She was probably sleeping now anyway. Jamie put his phone back into his pocket and closed his eyes. He would call in the morning and then he would get on with solving this stupid case.
|
|
|
Post by Gabe on Jun 13, 2009 23:35:10 GMT -4
Gabe was alone...he was alone since she left him...abondened him...he was alone since she decided to let him go...decided she couldn't take him any more...he was alone since she decided to die.
Gabe didn't want to be alone.
He couldn't be alone...
He wouldn't be alone...
Jamie had made a family... a new one away from Diana and away from Gabe and year after year Gabe had convinced his mother it was because he didn't understand and wouldn't understand Gabriel. Gabe had made sure Diana was there for him and he was there for her...always. He was the one who was always by her side nobody else. Not the doctors or her sisters or even Jamie...it was Gabriel...it was Gabe until she killed herself.
After she died for the first time in his existence Gabe was alone and he would not abide it but now Jamie...his father had placed himself in the proper situation for Gabe and he would make sure that his Father knew exactly who he was. Diana was dead...his mother was dead and he had in turn grown weak...her memory of him and her refusel to grieve had held him strong had made him the next best thing to normal but she had taken it with her.
But Gabe, Gabe had followed Jamie...silently int he shadows...in the wind...the dark...but now the island could give him the strength without needing anyon to remember him. Jamie had gone to the perfect spot a location which poured so much sirit eneergy and anger it could sustain any spirit for eternity make them strong enough to be human...almost...Gabe was alive...in his own way.
Gabe watched from the hallway as his father contemplated the girl back home...the one he had replaced him with...Gabe would make her invisible soon enough. As Jamie's eyes closed Gabe blinked from the hallway and stood by the edge of the bed. His eyes took in the sight of his father his own form very solid at the moment as he took in the island's energy.
Gabe's eyes drilled into Jamie as he contemplated the potential his father had...for the both of them.
|
|
|
Post by Jamie Pearce on Jun 14, 2009 1:52:32 GMT -4
Jamie forced his eyes open. For the first time in over a decade, his dreams had been plagued by memories. Memories he'd tried his best to keep buried. Memories that were just too painful to deal with. Memories of Diana... and little Gabe... of pain and of grief. But Diana hadn't been able to grieve. Hadn't been able to deal with the death of their son and he, in turn, hadn't been able to deal with her.
He shook himself off as feelings of guilt and loss threatened to overwhelm him. Glancing at his watch he sighed, he'd barely gotten three hours of sleep. Tired though he was, Jamie had no intention of closing his eyes again for a while, not if Diana was who he would see on the other side of his eyelids. So instead, he forced himself off the bed, rummaged through his bag for something vaguely caffeinated, and re-read his notes on the island, trying to find a good place to start when the sun finally rose.
The ruins of the mental institute would work, he could check it out during the day and return at night if the spirits there were of the nocturnal variety. He could... he looked up from his notes suddenly, his eyes darting around the room. Someone, or something, had been in his room... or was it still there? No, surely not, the ghosts in this island were not known for their subtlety, if it were still in the room then it would have attacked him by now... right? He went into his bag and pulled out a container of salt which he then sprinkled across the doorway and windows. It didn't make him feel any better but it would suffice for now.
His mind wandered back to his dreams, to Diana and Gabe, and he wondered where Diana was now. He hoped she had managed to finally move on, and thought about trying to make contact. But after all these years he was pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate it.
|
|
|
Post by Gabe on Jun 14, 2009 2:35:55 GMT -4
Gabe had stared at his Father's sleeping form minutes by minute...hour by hour just as he had done with his mother over the past 18 years and with every ticking second...moment he forced himself back into his mind...into his life...Jamie would remember so that Gabe could live...live the only way he knew how to. The feel of the room grew more damning at the hours ticked slowly by and Gabe eventually traveled to the side of the bed his hand resting against his fathers flesh pouring the emotions and images into him...letting him feel...letting him know exactly who he was.
Pulling his hands back Gabe burned his eyes back to Jamie as the man's eyes forced open and Gabe felt the anger spark in him as Jamie looked right through him...didn't see him...sense him...Gabe wasn't strong enough.
No...Jamie wasn't strong enough...his grief wasn't there.
He could fix that...
He would fix that...
"I know you know who I am..." Gabe whispered his voice breezing through the silence of the room as Jamie sat perched upon his desk chair attempting to focus on anything but the memories Gabe had forced him to confront.
Gabe sat perched upon his own spot on the bed that his father had recently vacated; his knees pulled up against him as a small smile filled with malice crossed his face as he whispered once more.
"I know you know who I am..."
The words fell silent upon his lips as he watched Jamie pull salt from his bag and use it as a ward on the doors and wondows.
"You've past the point of salt...I've past that point..." Gabe smiled contently as he pushed himself up from the bed and circled his father methodically.
"Are you waiting? Are you wishing? Are you wanting all that she can't give?" Gabe whispered in regards to his mother...the woman Jamie had left so many years ago.
Gabe stepped clsoer to Jamie his lips a brush away from his ear and had he been human far closer then was acceptable.
"I know you told her that I'm not worth a damn...But I know you know who I am..." Gabe whispered harshly.
|
|
|
Post by Jamie Pearce on Jun 14, 2009 2:52:45 GMT -4
Jamie narrowed his eyes at the map of the institution he had pulled out of his bag, trying to focus on that rather than the feeling that he wasn't alone. The air in the room had grown cold, and every now and then, for the briefest moment, he thought he heard words. He couldn't quite make them out, but it was unmistakably a voice, and not the wind.
"I know you told her that I'm not worth a damn...But I know you know who I am..."
A harsh voice, so close to his ear that Jamie could barely hold back a cry of fright. He fell from his chair and leaped to his feet, diving into his bag and pulling out his shotgun loaded with rock salt. His eyes searched for something to aim at but he still couldn't see whatever was in the room with him.
"At least let me see who I'm up against," he said into the seemingly empty room. "Being invisible kind of gives you an unfair advantage."
|
|
|
Post by Gabe on Jun 14, 2009 9:34:17 GMT -4
Gabe took a step back a malice filled look upon his face as Jamie Pearce...his Father tumbeled from the chair he ahd been sitting on. He ad heard him...faintly at first but then it had grown and Gabe's last wrods...so close to his ear...so close to touch had made their way fully slow.
He wouldn't be alone...not for long...
Gabe watched Jamie rummage in his bag for something...a weapon more then likely...a useless weapon but whatever would make him feel better. Gabe was no ordinary spirit...not by a long shot; it wasn't unfinished business or anger which kept him "alive"...after all an 18 month old had none of that but it was memory...his mother's memory of him...her love and devoution had kept him alive for 18 years.
His Father would do the same...
His Father was forced to do the same...
Gabe's eyes widened expectantly as Jamie turned and looked where to aim the gun at; his look of hope turned immediately to one of rage as Gabe quickly realized Jame still could not see him. It was fear...hesistation...cold...and paranoia which drove his Father now...not Gabe...it had never been Gabe.
"It will be..." Gabe groweled his voice whispered through the room with the intensity of nails upon a chalkboard.
Gabe paced the space directly in front of Jamie his eyes never leaving his Father's; if he had been visible...solid...human it might have been amusing....currently it was enragging.
"I know you know who I am..." Gabe whispered harshly.
"Being invisible kind of gives you an unfair advantage."
The few simple words snapped Gabe's anger and with one fatel movement he swept all of the belongings which sat upon the desk and sent them shattering to the ground before rounding on his father. The man may refuse to see him....but he would hear him.
In a blink Gabe was gone from in front of Jamei and in the very next moment he was behind him once more; close enough to touch the man but knowing that he couldn't...not yet.
"They've managed to get rid of me. I'm gone without a trace...They moved me from your memory, but I'm still there within your soul..." his mother had refused to see him at one point too. The doctors and their methods and treatments had stole her from him for a time...but he had won then too...he had cracked what they had made and she had remembered him and so would Jamie.
"I am the one who watched while she died...But you've always known who I am." Gabe whsipered harshly into Jamie's ear once more in regards to his mother. He should know she was gone...he should know she had left him...his mother...and now it was his Fathers turn...they both could not leave him...
They couldn't let him die...
Gabe wouldn't die again...
|
|
|
Post by Jamie Pearce on Jun 14, 2009 16:11:13 GMT -4
Jamie flinched slightly as his belongings were thrown to the ground by some unseen force, but he didn't move from his spot. He was thinking as fast as he could and it wasn't helping. Clearly this ghost was convinced he knew him, and unhappy that he couldn't see them, but he'd never been to Italy before so... unless it had followed him. This island had a lot of spiritual energy, if a spirit had followed him, this island may have just given it the strength to manifest itself.
Then who the hell was it?
More harsh words from directly behind him, but Jamie managed to hold his ground this time. He took a deep breath and tried to match the words to someone he knew. And then his dreams came back to him. Dreams full of memories he'd managed to suppress for so long, why would they resurface now? Unless someone was making him remember.
Diana? He didn't know if she was dead or not but if she was then maybe it was possible. He knew he probably could have handled things better, that he probably shouldn't have left, but would that be enough to make her hold a grudge? The kind of grudge that followed you in death?
"I am the one who watched while she died... "
Well, that blew the Diana theory out of the water. But that only left... "Gabe?" the name barely a whisper as he slowly turned around.
|
|
|
Post by Gabe on Jun 15, 2009 1:22:25 GMT -4
"Gabe?"
Gabe's words faltered on his lips as he took a step back away from his father as if he had been struck. He had wanted Jamie to remember...his father to remember but in the same way he hadn't thought he would...not yet...not so quickly.
Gabe's eyes never left his father as he watched him slowly turn around which in turn caused Gabe to take a step backwards till the wall was at his back. He had more depth to himself he could feel it; by the simple act of pin pointing the anger and emotion Jamie had breathed life into his son whether he knew it or not.
"...Hi dad," Gabe whispered as his eyes locked with his Father's for a moment before he vanished in a blink of an eye.
Gabe appeared a moment later in the hallway directly outside of Jamie's room the energy coming from him literally causing the air around him to trmeble. His body...he presence pressed against the door to his Father's room as a million thoughts ran through his head.
Jamie had remembered...had called his name
Would Jamie believe?
Would he face it?...Deal with it?...
Gabe would have to wait.
"I'm alive..." Gabe whsipered into the empty air of the hallway his voice carrying through the air.
|
|
|
Post by Jamie Pearce on Jun 15, 2009 2:07:09 GMT -4
Jamie barely managed to glimpse the spirit before it disappeared, only a pair of bright blue eyes, but there was no doubt that it had been there as it's words still hung in the air.
"...Hi dad"
The shot gun fell from Jamie's hand and he stumbled backwards until he was sitting on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands. This wasn't happening. He was going crazy. Finally the years of demon hunting and blind girl chasing had caught up with him and he was losing his mind.
He went into his bag and pulled out a packet of cigarettes, lighting one with shaking hands and breathing the smoke deep into his lungs. The toxic smoke calmed his nerves slightly and by the third cigarette he wasn't shaking anymore. Definitely going crazy. There was no other explanation. Ghosts were real sure, but ghosts from seventeen years ago didn't just pop by and say 'hey'. It was just the goddamn island getting to him.
Another two cigarettes later and the sun was beginning to rise on the island. With an exhausted sigh, Jamie prepared himself to set out for the ruined mental institute, loading weapons and other necessities into a backpack. He left a quick voice mail for Flick before shaking himself off and heading out to find something that actually made sense.
|
|
|
Post by Gabe on Jun 15, 2009 9:42:23 GMT -4
Gabe slowly slipped down the wall in the hallway till he was seated behind the door his knees tucked against his chest as he waited...waited to feel the emtions from the room behind him...to feel the despair?...Anger?...Grieve?
...No
Gabriel sat up straighter, pulling himself away from the wall and turning on the spot his eyes burning into the wall and had it been possible he was certain he could have burned holes in the wall...he wish he could have burned holes in the wall.
Jamie was denying it...
His father was denying him...
Same as before...
Always the same...
"No..." Gabe groweled his voice harsh and deadly as he pushed himself back up to his feet the feelings of being pushed aside...thrown aside....ignored....again by the same man who had refused to see him so many years ago and heaped the blame upon his mother.
He could hear words...Jamie's words...trying to make it better for her...but Gabe was the only one who could make it better...Gabe had stayed with her.
"Diana, we didn't know. He was sick. But even the doctors missed it. We took him to the clinic, the specialist, the ER in the middle of the night. They said he had food allergies. They said babies cry. We stayed up every night. You slept in his room but he cried and he cried...
Diana's reply had been simple...
"Until one morning he stopped..."
It had taken a birthday cake made for her "dead" son to push Jamie away completely and Gabe had known then what he was realizing again now...Jamie didn't know him...not at all.
Gabe could hear Jamie's vocie through the wall...leaving a message...a message for the girl he had choosen to make his family...he picked her and left Diana and Gabe.
Gabe would deal with her later.
"You won't deny me..." Gabe responded harshly as the door to the room opened and he blinked out of sight as Jamie made his way into the hallway and the sun rose in the sky beyond the window.
|
|