The Midnight Ghost

Act III

Abandoned stag trails led the way. Around the underbrush and deep into the forest they fled, fearing what magic the Hag would send. It took hours, silence heavy between them before a familiar clearing broke through the naturally chaotic rows of trees. The small dilapidated shrine was just as they had left it. The horned god of the area sat quietly among carved animals, hidden only partially by lichens. Ioana collapsed against the shrine, her body heavy and her mind dark.

"Aden, she was a dhampir..."

Aden sat beneath a nearby tree, taking more care with his weight. He still had the small doll in hand and continued to inspect it now that they seemed to be out of danger. He glanced up to see the pained gaze of his companion.

"Then the vampire dust beneath the house... Was one of her parents?" The implications were dire, but still, some threads seemed out of place. A vampire and their half-blood child living among humans. The druidic artifact had rested in the ashes. Ashes that had been made not by the fire, but by a more personal attack.

Ioana nodded, "It would seem so." Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes and tried to breathe. The hunger for the witch's blood, for revenge, was powerful. But she knew she needed to control her hunger. It wasn't her revenge to take. It wasn't her parent's body that lay beneath the ashes of their home.

"Ioana." She looked at Aden. He was concerned again. She sighed and pulled the skull from her bag, cradling it in her lap.

"Murdered to be made into black spell components. Maybe if I remove the garlic she'll come back and stop haunting."

"Could a dhampir come back from a death like this?"

She shrugged, "Vampires can come back from incineration if you leave a large enough piece. I wouldn't be surprised if a dhampir could be awakened from just their skull."

"But vampires don't get to keep their souls Ioana. To revive the body without the soul probably will not stop the haunting."

"Damn it we need to try something!" Ioana snapped. Glancing to the ground as she instantly regretted her tone. With a sigh, she leaned back against the shrine meatting Aden's eyes once more. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell."

He only nodded, understanding where her frustration came from. As a dhampir herself, she was too close with the spirit's plight. He held up the doll, drawing Ioana's gaze to it.

"How about we try to calm her with this? I feel like it could be related, given where we found the amulet."

Ioana nodded, releasing a breath she didn't know she held. She doubted the toy would really be effective given that the child had ignored their previous attempts to console her. However, with two options before her, she could see which approach would likely cause the least amount of disturbance. 

"Okay, we'll try it your way first. But if she doesn't leave after you've comforted her. I'll show her her skull. Maybe if she'll remember dying and move on to the next life." Ioana gave Aden a weak smile. They had a plan, and she could only pray that it didn't end in the village's annihilation.

As the day wore on into the evening the companions continued to plot out their plan. They would go to the village in the night when the villagers were asleep or hiding. When the ghost appeared to perform her nightly haunt, they would be there to enact their plans. Aden's first and then Mary's.

The village was quiet when the midnight hour came. The villagers all in their homes, dreading the wailing that would inevitably come to wake them. Ioana sat stiffly on the lid of a barrel, the shadows of the alleyway wrapping around her and Aden. When the child appeared, she was in the center of the town, slightly up the road from the adventures. Her wails began a moment later, just as loud as they had been on that first night.