TOUCHED

TOUCHED Part 1 of 10

TOUCHED

A CORSAIR Adventure

Written by James Donaldson

"Hurry, Nash!"

"I know!" I responded.

"It's almost daylight!" Melia screamed at me, her face confirming the panic in her voice.

"I know!" I shouted back even louder as I continued to pry the chain and heavy lock around the iron gates of the cemetery's entrance.

This place is more secure than a bank! I thought as I began sweating in the cool night air.

CRACK!

My efforts rewarded at last, the lock broke away and the chain fell to the ground. Dropping the crowbar, I pushed open the creaky metal gate and Melia and I rushed into the dark graveyard.

"That one!" Melia pointed to an extravagant, and extremely old, marble crypt on top of a nearby hill. Obviously the burial place of someone important in life.

Or someone who thought they were important.

Either way, Melia and I, quickly approaching the burial site at a fast jog, slowed to a walk as we approached the above-ground catacomb. The marble and stone structure, with several elegantly designed stained glass windows lining the periphery, beckoned us to approach and return that which belonged within. With our task almost over at last, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then the wraith materialized in front of us.

"It's back, Nash!" Melia screamed in surprise, pointing at the immortal creature, born of evil and appearing out of nowhere, blocking our way.

You think?

"I know!" I replied as I horrifyingly observed the incorporeal thing floating impossibly between us and the ancient mausoleum. The sinister, spectral figure, robed in darkness and what appeared to be torn, black rags, didn't have any other visual features, or legs, I could see. If I hadn't been fleeing from the thing all night, I'd most likely become frozen in place in fright by its menacing appearance. "I'll draw that damn thing away and you get that skull back inside the crypt!"

"Don't let it touch you, Nash!" Melia reminded me as she ran to the left as I ran to the right, hoping the wraith would follow me instead of her. "Remember, whatever you do, Nash, don't let it touch you!"

You think?

Fortunately, the malevolent creature followed me as I'd planned.

Having studied, tracked and battled the wraith for the past several nights, I knew full well the powers and limitations of the spectral monster. The wraith, I deduced it must be some wicked being from the beyond, as far as I could tell, despised all living things. I'd also verified the legends were true and its chilling touch instantly drains the life energy from any living creature. I'd learned this lesson first hand after it touched, and drained, the life force from two "ghost hunters" in my and Melia's presence hours previously. Now, only Melia and I remained to try to defeat the thing.

How do I get myself into these messes?

Running around the hill as fast as I could, the wraith floated eerily, and thankfully, slowly, after me. I risked a glance at Melia at the top of the hill as she, with the skull in her hand, pounded uselessly on the entrance to the colosseum.

Are you serious?

"What're you doing?" I shouted as I turned right again, attempting to add distance between me and the supernatural wraith chasing me. "Return that man's skull to its rightful resting place before the sun rises!"

"I can't! It's locked!" Melia cried out to me.

Damnit!

Turning right again, I led the wraith toward the crypt, the skull, and Melia. I knew we only had a few minutes, if even that, left before the sun broke over the horizon. If the sun rose before we returned the human skull to its burial site, the life energy of the two people the wraith had drained earlier tonight would be lost forever.

And they'd stay dead.

"Toss me the skull!" I shouted.

"The wraith's right behind you!" Melia cautioned as she cocked her hand back to toss me the skull.

"I know!" I hastily explained as I ran up the hill toward her.

"You won't have time to pry the doors open!" Melia explained further.

"I know!" I shouted angrily. "Now toss me the damn skull!"

Melia, seeing me approach with the deadly wraith floating directly behind me, tossed the skull at me, screamed in terror and ran the opposite way.

No!

Jumping, I missed the wildly poor throw as the skull sailed over both mine and the wraith's body, landing in the grass behind us at the bottom of the hill.

Are you serious?

Running in a wide circle to my left, I risked a glance behind me, hoping the wraith would chase Melia now, but finding it still after me instead.

Diving, rolling, and scooping up the skull in my hands, I turned and stood, distressingly realizing the wraith floated directly between me and the crypt. As dawn rapidly approached, Melia was nowhere to be found.

Damnit.

After pausing for a moment when I picked up the skull, the wraith continued to float down the hill, directly at me. I could run from it, but I knew the sun would dawn as I did and the two people the wraith had drained earlier would remain dead.

Forever.

Damnit.

With no other options, in a desperate, last-minute gambit, I threw the skull as hard as I could up the hill at the wraith's ghostly and ethereal head as it slowly approached me.

As I expected, the human skull sailed directly through the wraith and continued up on its arch, toward the stone crypt.

At this distance, I knew the creature, feet away from me now, would definitely touch me before the sun rose.

This is it!

CRASH!

As the thing approached me, I heard glass break and without warning, while floating now inches in front of me, its spectral arm extended, the wraith abruptly vanished; returned to whatever dark corner of the universe such creatures came from.

As I'd hoped, my "Hail Mary" throw had returned the skull into the interior of the crypt, via breaking through one of the stained glass windows on the side of the marble tomb, with seconds to spare!

As dawn lit the morning sky, I heard Melia somewhere behind me, emerging from her hiding space. "We did it, Nash! We did it! Can you believe it? We banished the wraith and saved those men at the same time! Wow! We did it!"

"We?" I teased.

Melia, standing next to me now, laughed and punched me playfully in the arm. "Yeah, we. Do you have a problem with that, Mister Corsair?"

"No, ma'am." I playfully responded. "No problem at all."