The Peculiar Alchemist

47 || Fragmented Memories

Studying the effects of wards was certainly interesting to Sammy who, once upon a time, was actually studying them alive. Many people don't seem to find wards to be important, and they're very much a pain to study, but Sammy loved them.

He loved the idea of something protecting him from whatever evil creature he couldn't see, wasn't aware of. He never thought he'd become one of those creatures they affected – Sammy knew he'd die eventually, just not this soon.

So he watched as Briar's followers drew new wards in one of the new rooms, and he watched as the ghosts inside observed them curiously. There were at least three summoning rituals that allowed Sammy and the others into the cult, and they were all clueless to why they were summoned.

Most ghosts weren't as curious or as autonomous as Sammy, they often seemed to be lost in their thoughts and living in the past. Sammy had always been living in the moment.

Which is why he walked up to Briar wondering what sick little experiment she had in mind. "Are you trying these wards on us?"

"Yes." She answered him without even looking at him, her piercing gray eyes were focused on what was happening inside. She was more interested in that than she was interested in talking to Sammy.

That's why Sammy stood there next to her without another word as he observed. The wards were nothing like the ones he studied, but they were similar to the ones he found himself ruining when Vincent invited Toby over. They were strange, a little bit similar to the wards people used for the dead, but they were also very distinctive in their shape.

Sammy used every ounce of knowledge he had learned in the past to analyze it, the combination of shapes it took meant something. However, something about it still stumped him.

"Dead, cursed, and what..." He mumbled tracing it with his eyes, and Briar ignored him as she watched it have no effect on the ghosts inside. Sammy stepped closer to it for a better look, but then he winced at the sting of pain he felt when he tried that. Ghosts never felt pain, not unless it was from wards.

This didn't escape Briar's notice. "It's warding you off?"

"I think so." Sammy said staring in front of him at what felt like an invisible barrier, and he tried to enter the room again, the room which was filled with ghosts like him, but once again he was unable to do so despite ignoring the pain. While it didn't fully prevent him, it was affecting him until he got too close.

His whole body dissipated and reformed a few distances away once he tried to enter the room, and he looked around dazedly feeling disoriented at the sudden location he found himself in. Sammy's head spun a little, but there was something he knew that Briar noticed as well.

"It's not meant for you, but it still affects you. Why is that?"

Sammy shrugged his shoulders completely clueless, he wanted to know, too. "Do you know what the ward is for?"

Uselessly, Briar shook her head. "It's one I was given by Vincent. I guess spirits are more diverse than I thought."

"Seems so." Sammy mumbled, not entirely convinced.

There was one possibility he suspected, but one he was unable to voice out to Briar – not that he wanted to tell her anyway. Sammy knew for certain that he was controlled, he has been for a while now. His fragmented memory started a little bit before Briar had taken an interest in Aubrey.

For some reason he just remembered that, but then he realized that this control over his memory had been cracked. Some were seeping back, memories he didn't remember a few seconds ago. It just confirmed that the effects of the ward had something to do with whoever was controlling him.