Sex With Ghosts by Ion Light - HTML preview

      “I will not negotiate for the photo,” Jeremy said. “You will give it back.”

      Chadek feigned handing it over, and then withdrew it, put it back in the envelope. Chadek asked Avril to go collect a photo album. She did and came back. She opened it to a page and pointed to Chadek’s ex-wife.

      “Oh, I remember her,” Jeremy said. “She laughs when she cums. Very pleasant laugh. I get the sense she didn’t laugh much with you. Oh, like the shyness thing. You thought she was laughing at you and so you beat it out of her? No wonder she left you for a ghost.”

Chadek set his drink down and came to the edge of his seat, folding his hands together, thoughtfully.

      “This slow escalation, maneuvering pieces on the board, is likely going to result in you having more penalties,” Chadek said. “I am a patient man. I am also a believer in free will. It is my intent to secure your cooperation in working for me. How do you make your money? As an illusionist? You hypnotize people? You hit the casinos?”

      “I don’t remember you being there,” Jeremy said. “At the haunted house.”       “I was in the batman mask,” Chadek said.

      “Oh, that makes sense,” Jeremy said, nodding, sorting. There were three batmans. “The one with the fake muscles?”

      “Who is the goddess?” Chadek asked. “Is it Shuri?”

“Shuri and I work for the goddess,” Jeremy said. “You might as well ask the angels who Charlie is. No one sees Charlie. No one meets the goddess. You have a boss. You understand this arrangement.”

      “No, I don’t,” Chadek said. “I was an atheist till that party. I have spent millions trying to recreate that trick. That led me to the occult and to psychics and remote viewing. I interviewed thousands of would be psychics and was only further disillusioned. And then I found Avril. She claimed the military trained her to be a psychic spy.”

“They haven’t done that since the 70’s,” Jeremy said.

“You really think they quit doing something that was working for them?” Avril asked.

“Good point,” Jeremy said.

“Who the fuck is the Goddess?!” Chadek snapped.

Jeremy was quiet. It was hard to keep the jovial energy as it was without Chadek’s emotions.

      “You’re angry,” Jeremy said.

      “You bet your ass I am angry,” Chadek said.

      “Because of the money?” Jeremy asked.       “Because she left me?” Chadek said.

      “So you didn’t love her?” Jeremy asked.

      Chadek came out of his chair. He lifted Jeremy out of his chair by the shirt and put a gun to the side of his head. Jeremy was aware of the sunset outside the glass balcony, sun going behind tree tops. “Turn out the light, the parties over’ was a song fragment in his head. He could smell the cognac on Chadek’s breath, in his sweat. He was aware of Tory and Maria whispering prayers. Tory pulled James’s head to her, redirecting his eyes. Some of the henchman watched. At least one looked away, not wanting to see.

      “Do you want to die right here right now?” Chadek asked.

      Jeremy maintained eye contact. “This is not love. Anger is not love. Anger is fear. Anger is about control. No one has control. Control and anger is not the path of the Goddess. Based on present evidence, your wife left you due to self-preservation. Most people don’t want to be controlled. We don’t want to live in fear. We will do crazy ass shit to avoid feeling afraid. Systems that are controlled don’t last. Something will inevitably change, and the things that once compelled them to stay together are the very things that guarantees they get compelled apart. Usually explosively. But even in the most loving environment, people change. In the safety of being nurtured, we grow, we become our full potential, and sometimes that means the relationship that once sustained us is no longer nurturing. True love is recognizing when someone has matured in our presence and evolved into a beautiful new being. Love is letting go, allowing the butterfly to fly. Love is recognizing you played a part, and that you, too, have evolved because of that love, and you must go your own way.”

      Chadek shoved Jeremy back down into the chair. “Bind him.”

      Two men came and secured Jeremy’s arms to the chair with duct tape. They even took some around his chest to keep him upright in the chair.

      “This isn’t necessary,” Jeremy said. “I am cooperating.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t trust your answers,” Chadek said. “And, I need to control your fight or flight response.”

      “You don’t have to do this,” Tory said. She had line of sight to a henchman filling a syringe.

      “Say another word and I will have you all taped up,” Chadek said. Chadek turned to back to Jeremy. “I get the sense you’re responsible for my wife’s ghost fuck. Maybe I should have a turn with your girls here, while you watch a fuck?”

      Jeremy didn’t respond.

      “What, nothing clever to say?” Chadek asked.

      Jeremy sighed. “You want me to negotiate?” “This is not a negotiation,” Chadek said.

“Then I have nothing to say,” Jeremy said.

One of his henchman came forward with a syringe.

“So, how do I get an audience with the goddess?” Chadek asked.

      “You do realize, pharmaceutical grade psychoactive substances will not guarantee a person will speak truth,” Jeremy said.

      “I’ve actually had pretty good outcomes with this cocktail,” Chadek said.

      Jeremy considered the floor, biting his lip as the man approached. “Wait,” Jeremy said.       Chadek told his man to hold. “You have something I want to hear?”       “James should close his eyes,” Jeremy said.

      “You want to shelter him from reality?” Chadek asked.

      “If you do this, people will die,” Jeremy said.

      Chadek chuckled. He nodded. The injection was administered. Jeremy grimaced.

      “Fuck that hurt,” Jeremy complained.

      “It gets better,” Chadek said, taking a seat. “Oh, and look at that. No one died.”       “You like movies?” Jeremy asked.

      “I love movies,” Chadek said. “Distractions won’t work. Thinking about non related shit only makes it easier to get to the information I want.”

      “I know. Everything’s related. Been here before. Remember that scene when Jones and

Marion were tied to a pole, right before the Nazis opened the Ark?” Jeremy asked. He glanced at

Tory. He saw her bite her lip, and gently guided James’ eyes towards her breast. She whispered to James, ‘close your eyes, baby. Keep them close till I say.’       “Yeah, what about it?” Chadek asked.

      “Sorry, nothing, just rambling,” Jeremy said. “I also like the movie Joe vrs. The Volcano.

Great soundtrack. Did you know it’s about aliens?”

      “What?” Chadek said. “No it’s not.”       “Oh, yeah, it’s about aliens,” Jeremy said.

      “Everything’s about aliens,” Avril said.

      “Pretty much,” Jeremy said. “I can relate everything back to Star Trek, if you like.”       “Is the goddess an alien?” Chadek asked.

      “Uh? Oh, no, no. Well, maybe the original one,” Jeremy said. “Did you know, Isis was in an original episode of Star Trek?”

      A slight tremor rumbled through the building. “Fuck” Jeremy said, clenching his hands. Avril nearly slid out of her chair. Chadek was the only one that wasn’t spooked.       “Is she here?” Chadek asked.

      “Oh, fuck yeah,” Avril said.

      A chord sounded. It had the quality of a church organ, filtered through a cathedral. Lights flickered and went out. Some loud complaints about the power outage and the interruption to a game downstairs could be heard. Outside was suddenly brighter than inside, but as their eyes adjusted, it became increasingly apparent that the room was becoming brighter, even without lights. A spark flared into existence, like a firefly. It hovered near the front of the desk. The intensity pulsed. Henchman drew weapons.

“What? You really think you’re going to shoot the Goddess?” Jeremy asked.

“Lower your weapons,” Chadek said.

Chadek was intrigued. He stood, and drew closer and the spark flared brighter. He tried to touch it, it withdrew. “Is this poltergeist activity?” He tried to capture it in a glass on the desk, coming down closer to observe it. It passed through the glass and rushed behind him.

Jeremy read Tory’s lips as she whispered to Maria: ‘close your eyes!’ ‘Are you kidding?’ ‘Close them.’ He tried not to think of her lips, but he smiled, imagining tasting them. Her eyes got big. ‘Was that you?’ she asked. He forced himself to look away from her. He noticed Avril’s breathing was changing. Avril moaned.

“Here we go again,” Avril said.

      The orange light increased in intensity, becoming yellow, then white, then stretched into a line, then became a two dimensional illuminated silhouette, and then became a fully-fledged woman. Her dress was simple, an ancient design that familiar, with overtones of a projected futuristic rendition or parody of the same. Her hair was dark black, straight, sharp angles. Her hair fell to her back, and over her shoulders and draped over her breast, which might have otherwise allowed nipples to be visible. Her skin was olive, shiny sun tone, as if oiled. Her lips were gold. Her eye were accentuated with dark blues, purples, black, and gold. She smiled, coyly, reminiscent of Susanna Hoff right before she breaks into ‘Walk Like an Egyptian,’ her eyes moving left, right, back. She resembled Patricia Velásquez imitating ‘Almighty Isis,’ her hands going to her waist, in a Wonder Woman power pose. Her dress flared, as if touched by a breeze. Her stance was even; she seemed grounded. The cathedral music stopped and there was silence. Avril finally fell out of her seat, going prostate on the floor, forehead touching the floor, her but high in the air. Her fingers threaded the carpet and pulled.

      “The goddess, I presume?” Chadek asked.

      She didn’t answer with words. She raised an eyebrow. She stepped forwards and bent down to Jeremy’s ear, her hands on his shoulders, and said, lough enough to be heard, “You got to have faith.”

      There was suddenly live music, no discernable source, filling the room, resonating with objects. It was retro and ultra-modern at the same time. If you could imagine Dua Lipa singing George Michael’s “Faith,” with all the pronouns flipped so that she was singing ‘You got to have faith’ then you’d have this song permanently fixed in your head, bigger than life, Broadway performance choreographed by Gillian Lynne. The goddess brought a foot up behind her, catching the guy coming up behind her in the crotch, dropping him to the floor. Weapons came up. The ammo magazine on the desk opened, as if blown by the wind, pages fanning, stopping on Texas Ranger stars. The stars came off the page, leaving the circle of the badge in place, minus the stars. The stars flew like ninja stars, penetrating henchman’s forehead, through the third eye, dropping them instantly to the floor. A wind took Chadek to the ceiling and pinned him up.

      The goddess caught one of the henchman before he fell and shoved him out the door to the hall, where weapons fire tore into his dead body before it fell over the railing. The goddess took the charm off Jeremy’s back, breaking the chain, and tossing the tiny glass vial out and down into the center of the downstairs room. The seeds spouted into an instant tree, a tree never seen before- a mustard-rose tree. The combined essence of the mustard-rose tree filled the building, capturing all the henchman up in tangles of barbed wire like branches. Blood colored roses echoed blood dripping from immobilized men, crying.

Avril was whimpering, ‘yes, thank you, yes.” She was ignored by the goddess. Jeremy’s tape flamed and was gone and he was free from his constraints. He tried to stand but fell flat on his face. His whole body quivered. “Oh, fuck me.”

      “Maria, open your eyes,” the goddess said. “Help Jeremy.”       Tory opened her eyes, too.

      “Hello, Tory,” the goddess said, touching her hair. “We approve.”

      Maria went to Jeremy. The goddess stepped into the hall, the branches making way for her, drawing people off the stairs. She tilted her head. Inside the room, the magazine with dinosaurs was blown open, stopping at a page with raptors. They came to life. The goddess provided a hand gesture; three raptors obeyed, proceeding down the stairs and outside.

      “Come,” the goddess commanded.

      Chadek fell to the floor. Maria and Jeremy followed the goddess down the stairs, through a tunnel defined by mustard-rose branches. They were followed by Tory carrying James. Chadek followed unwillingly, being dragged, his butt bouncing as he went down the stairs backwards, as if pulled by the neck. They arrived outside where the goddess asked for the magazine in James hand. He surrendered it. The Scooby Doo Van arrived out of nowhere, lights on, engine running. The door slid open. “Wow!” James said. “I t, t, told you it was real!” Scooby rushed him and pushed his head against him.

      “Get Jeremy to the safe house,” the goddess said.

      “You got it,” Fred Jones said.

      Shaggy helped Maria get Jeremy into the van.

      “Go with them,” the goddess told Tory. “Keep him awake.”

      Shuri and Bob arrived as the Mystery van was driving away. Several others of the team came up after, having arrived on boat. One was still watching behind, mumbling, ‘it looked like a raptor…’

      “Nice to see you again, Shuri,” the goddess said.       “Jeremy?” Shuri asked.

      “He’s safe. He will meet you back in Florida,” the goddess said.       Shuri spoke into her radio: “Let the Mystery Van pass.”

      “The what?”

      “You’ll know it when you see it,” Shuri said.

“Bob, you’ll find the ten million upstairs, still in the duffle bags. You know what to do with it. When the magic is gone, make sure you get names of all who died.”

      “Their families will go on the charity list,” Shuri promised.

      The goddess nodded, turned to Chadek. He was levitated into the air.

      “You have a family, sir,” Chadek said. “Because of that, I am sparing your life today. You get one freebie. Also, you are now a devotee of the goddess. You work for her. All donations will be made to the Goddess foundation. Shuri can assist you with that part. New rules. No women. No children. Break that rule, you will die. Your people break that rule, you die. I recommend you choose your help wisely. Are we good?”       “You’re not the goddess?” Chadek stammered.

“Are we good?” the goddess asked.

“Yes,” Chadek said, simply enough.

A wave of her hand brought Chadek to his feet. She stepped up and into him, whispered in his ears. “I am a goddess. Not the goddess. Treat all women as if they’re the goddess; as you treat them, so you treat the one. I am not the 70’s, children’s version of the goddess where no one dies and it all works out well. I do, however, exercise discernment, and compassion. Spread the word. Spread love.” She touched his shoulder, pinching it, driving him to his knees. “Coercing you to take a knee, this is not love. Don’t do this to others.”

      The goddess stepped back, smiled at Shuri. She produced a wedding photo, Jeremy’s parents. “Would you secure this please,” she asked.

      “Of course,” Shuri said.

“If you’ll excuse me, I am going to take advantage of this manifestation to interrupt some other crimes. Be safe.” She then took to the sky, and disappeared.

      Shuri turned to Chadek. “Are we going to have any problems?”

      “No mam,” Chadek said. “Not from me.”

      “Set up a meeting between me and your boss, and I’ll mediate for you,” Shuri said.       The mustard-rose tree disappeared. Grown men cried from relief, and from the pain of being dropped. Roses fell in slow motion, defying gravity, rose petals rained, and dissipated like snow on hot pavement.

      Bob was the last one to emerge from the building. “We’ve called Keats and told him the Goddess paid you a visit. Ambulances and law enforcement should be here shortly.”

      “Take care,” Shuri said.

Three raptors came from roaming. They approached Chadek. One dropped an arm in front of him.

      “If you put that on ice, they might be able to reattach it,” Shuri said, walking away.

      Chadek passed out.       

Chapter 15

Velma and Daphne catered to Jeremy.

      “C, c, c can you talk?” James asked the dog.

      “Uh uh,” Scooby said.

      “Here, you can give him a Scooby snack,” Shaggy said.

      “Where to, boss?” Jones asked.

      “Closest safe house,” Jeremy said.

      “Umm, might not be kid friendly,” Jones said.

      “We need to get there quick,” Jeremy said. “Before I fall asleep.”       “Oh, I think we can keep you up,” Daphne said.

      “In front of company?” Velma asked.

      “Never stopped us before,” Daphne said.

      “Keep it G, ladies,” Jones said.

      “Oh, if you insist,” Daphne sighed. “But you owe us, Jer.”

      “I owe you,” Jeremy said.

      They arrived, rather abruptly, causing some of the patrons of the biker bar to scatter. The door opened, and Velma and Daphne dragged Jeremy out of the van and led him inside the establishment. Tory followed, carrying James, with Maria at her side. All activity in the bar had come to an abrupt halt. The patrons, all of which were Hell’s Angels, gathered. The owner of the establishment approached.

      “What the hell?!” he said.

      “I seek the protection of the goddess,” Jeremy said. “For me, and my friends. I need to sleep. And I need transportation to Florida. Please.”       “Take them back,” the boss said.

Two Angel’s took Jeremy from Velma and Daphne. The Scuby Doo crew said farewell, and exited.

      “By!” James yelled. “Come back and see us.”       “You bet, kid,” Shaggy said.

      Jeremy was put on a couch in the boss’ office. Tory put James on his feet and went to Jeremy.

      “Are you okay?” Tory asked.

      “I am seeing things, hearing things… Oh, I think she just interrupted a domestic squabble…” Jeremy said.

      “You want to be knocked out?” the boss asked.

      “Just a moment,” Jeremy said. “Okay, yeah, knock me the fuck out.”

      The boss nodded, administered a sedative, and Jeremy went to sleep.

      “Was that necessary?” Tory asked.

      “He’ll be fine in the morning. My wife’s a nurse, she’ll monitor him,” the boss said. “We’ll have transportation secured for you in the hour. Meanwhile, if you’re hungry, we have food. Restroom is right there. Let my boys know if you have any needs.”

      “Why are you helping us?” Maria asked.

      He pointed to a photo of Isis, autographed.

“We saw the light, and now we’re real Angels,” the boss said. “Don’t let our rough exterior fool you.”

      “Thank you,” Tory said.

♫♪►

Jeremy woke to the sensation of movement. Without opening his eyes, he decided he was in an RV, or a bus. It was difficult to open his eyes, but he managed. It was day. There was a child staring at him, leaning against the opposing seat. Jeremy frowned and closed his eyes. A few moments later, he opened them again. The kid was still there.

      “What?” Jeremy asked.

      “R, r, r are you going to marry mom?” James asked.