Nameless Ghoul

Update Chapter: Alchemy

*** This chapter takes place about six months after the last one ***

Itzal checked his phone for the fiftieth time that night. Nothing.

“Itzal, seriously. Put it down,” Earth said as he passed him another whiskey. “She’ll text you when they’re almost here. The amazing thing about technology these days is it will make a sound when the message comes through, so you won’t miss it.”

The others laughed and Itzal put the phone face down on the table, sighing.

“Sorry. They’re late. I’m just worried.”

Earth squeezed his shoulder and sat down at the table with the others. It was whiskey night and Secondo’s ghouls were mostly half way drunk already. Itzal had only had a few, but he hadn’t planned to be too far gone because Sunshine and the rest of the Ghost Project were almost home from their latest tour. They should have been back over an hour ago, but there’d been no word so far. He had tried to concentrate on the card game and the conversation, but it was no use, so he’d given up and was just concentrating on the drinking now instead.

He’d been staying in the room he kept in Secondo’s ghouls’ lair so that he wasn’t alone while the band was away. They’d been gone a couple of months, and he had been to see Sunshine a few times. They spoke or face timed every day, but it was nowhere near enough; he missed her so much that it physically hurt sometimes.

He hated sleeping alone now, and the bad dreams that had mostly stopped always came back when she wasn’t there. Some nights, when the dreams were particularly bad, he'd woken up to find Quinn sitting on the floor by his bed. The quintessence ghoul quietly sent him soothing mojo to calm him. The older ghoul always stayed silent, but he stayed until Itzal fell back to sleep. They never spoke about it afterwards, but he was so, so grateful to him.

Itzal filled his days with work for Secondo, security, and small missions, besides the training they all did. He’d also been studying his Alchemy with Sammael, a ghoul from the Academy who came a couple of times a week to work with him.

The reading from that kept most of his evenings occupied, as he had a lot to catch up on and he wanted to do well. Secondo had encouraged him as it was a skill that the Clergy valued greatly. When he was fully trained, he would work closely with the ex Papa and the witches, and his powers would enhance the Clergy’s already impressive magical portfolio. As far as he could tell, he was doing okay and he’d already used magic that he hadn’t even known he possessed to change one thing into something better.

Another hour went by and most of the others had headed off to bed. It was just him and Quinn left. They’d moved into the lounge and the TV was on.

“I think they’re here,” Quinn said suddenly. 

Itzal checked his phone and there was still nothing. He scrunched his brow in confusion.

“Nobody has messaged yet.”

“Come on, let’s go check,” Quinn said with that knowing smile he got when he was seeing something that everyone else was oblivious to. Itzal felt a little spark of hope that maybe Quinn was right. They got up and headed out of the lair, Itzal dutifully following him. He felt the buzz of the alcohol when he stood up and he smiled at the thought of seeing Sunshine again. “I wonder why they’re so late?” Quinn said.

They walked out through the side door that led to the garages, and sure enough, the tour buses were just coming to a stop on the gravel driveway.

Itzal broke out into a stupid grin, and Quinn laughed. He should have known by now not to doubt his intuition. They waited patiently as the ghouls and ghulehs piled off the bus. Everyone looked exhausted as they greeted them and after what seemed like forever, his Sunshine appeared in the doorway of the second one.