Skeleton Keys (on hold)

Chapter Twenty Two

I stared at him for only a moment, trying to decide if he was serious or not, before reaching for my Scythe Key.

"Mary, what's going on? How'd we get downstairs?" Lizzy had pulled herself up, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Opening the door in my mind, I felt the weight of my Key change in my hand and watched the Scythe blade arch high over my head. I glanced back at Lizzy to see her expression change from frightened to something closer to terrified.

"A demon, a Charon and an human. Oh, how delightful!" a creepy voice said, with a sharp grating noise that sent chills down my spine.

I turned in time to see an eerie glow begen to form in front of Apollo. Mist rose from the floor, tendrils snaking through the stacks of junk and furniture.

"I am so going to enjoy this." A body started to grow up out of the mist, forming a broad shouldered, see-throughish man.

"What is that?" Lizzy cried in alarm.

The ghost, that was the only way I could think of it, rushed towards Apollo, swinging an arm shaped wall of mist at him. Apollo dodged, and took a swing of his own with his staff. It ghost dissipated, only to reappear out of Apollo's reach.

"It's a spector," Apollo called back to us, dodging another attack. However the ghost was ready for Apollo's next move and knocked him back with what looked to be a solid punch. "A little help would be nice," Apollo said, picking himself up.

Quickly, I grabbed Lizzy and pushed her down behind a wrought iron headboard that was leaning against the back wall.

"Just stay hidden, Apollo and I will take care of this," I said to her, as I adjusted my grip on the Scythe.

"Wait!" she called after me as I turned to consider the fight between the ghost and Apollo. They were trading attacks in the front part of the room, Apollo standing on the bar trying to get better height as the spector kept dodging in and out of reach near the ceiling.

Spinning my Scythe around so that it was in front of me, which was difficult on it's own in the tight confines of the junk filled shop, I moved through the piles of junk and picked a moment when the spector had its back to me. When it was distracted with Apollo, I made my move, swinging the blade with all the force I could managed. And it hit nothing.

The spector had disappeared, and I completely lost sight of it.

"Mary! Behind you!" Apollo yelled, and I whipped around, knocking an old chair with the butt end of my Scythe, but it wasn't fast enough. The spector hit me in the face, sending a shock wave of cold shivering through my body as I fell hard to my left.

"Mary!" I heard Lizzy call out, and the crunch of something ceramic shattering.

I looked up in time to see Apollo puff before me, blocking another hit the spector had intended for me with a swing of his staff.

Pulling myself to my feet took effort, but I didn't hurt too bad. I raised my Scythe again and yelled at Apollo to move. He puffed out of the way, and I brought the Scythe down on the spector. He dodged, but I managed to knick his shoulder.

It yelled out rage, pushing me back against a dresser hard enough to knock the air from my lungs. I saw Apollo reappear behind it, through it almost, and shove the palm of his hand into its side. I saw the shock wave of orange power ripple through the spector's body as it turned away from me and toward Apollo, spouting curses at him.

The spector grabbed at an old china cabinet and pulled it to crash on the floor, the old plates inside shattering across the floor right where Apollo had been standing.

Apollo reappeared next to me leaning on his staff, trying to catch his breath.

"What are we going to do?" I asked him, before stepping forward to take another swing at the ghost with my Scythe.

"Distract it!" Apollo called to me, and disappeared again.

Easy for him to say! The spector laughed at me, throwing another punch at my stomach that I just managed to dodge. I swung at it, starting to get the hang of handling my Scythe in the tight confines of the shop.

"You are nothing, little girl," the spector spit at me. "A babe lost, crying for its mother."

Bringing my Scythe around, I managed to swipe the blade through it's torso, causing to spector to double over in pain, cursing at me.

"Oh, you're so weak that a baby can hurt you?" I shouted back it, and had to jump out of the way multiple times as it lunged wildly at me again and again. "Any time now, Apollo!"

Thick, glowing orange ropes shot around the spector from behind, wrapping tightly to hold the spector in place. I moved to look around it and saw Apollo standing on the other side, his eyes on the spector as his lips moved, almost as if he were whispering something I couldn't hear.

The ghost struggled with the ropes, managing to pull an arm free. "I'm going to enjoy ending you, demon. I'll pull that power from you until there is nothing left but an empty shell!" It pulled another arm free, but was still struggling with the tightening grip the ropes kept on its middle.

I caught sight of an old wooden chest at Apollo's feet that he was nudging closer to the spector. Rushing over, I pushed it as close as I could, positioning it right under where Apollo held the ghost in his ropes.

Sweat broke out across Apollo's forehead, the color of his skin draining away until he was paler than I'd ever seen him. He moved the spector down, using the ropes to force it into the chest.

"No! No! You can't! You can't do this to me!" the spector screamed as Apollo struggled with the lid of the chest, pushing it down until it closed with the spector trapped inside.

With a click of the lock, there was a bright flash of orange light, blinding me and forcing me a step back.

Everything was dead silent, so quiet I heard Lizzy barely whisper my name across the room. It took a moment for my eyes to clear.

"Apollo?" I could just make out the the chest in front of me and his body slumped over it awkwardly. I reached out and shook his shoulder a little. He didn't move.

"Apollo?!" I pulled him off the chest, laying him on the floor to find him unconscious. The chest shuffled to the side an inch or two, the spector inside making a screeching noise.

Movement caught the corner of my eye and I looked up to see that Lizzy had come out of her hiding spot. She was looking down at my Scythe, I had dropped it without noticing.

"Is he alright?" she finally asked in a shaky voice.

I looked down at him. He hadn't moved since I pulled him off the chest. I leaned down. His breathing was a little labored, his skin still pale and ashen.

"I don't know," I told her. I tried waking him again. He didn't move.

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for Chapter 23, out on 1/13/16, when we find out what happened to Apollo!  <3 J.D.