DEPARTED (#2 in the VANISHED series) #NaNoWriMo2020 ✔

t h i r t y - t w o

Arms outstretched, palms facing the ceiling, claws extended on either side of her, Penny hummed. The noise reverberated down her throat, thrummed in her chest, swam in her gut, then shot back up to her mouth where she expelled it. It was a sleek but sinister sound that signaled to her terrors, her army of maddened minions, that it was time to reopen the breach, to let her through with her newest addition. With Arielle.

"Brace yourselves, my sweets," she said between hums, eyes closed and lips locked in a vicious smile. "For soon I will bring a new soul to torment, to chase around the realm and drive to insanity. And she's stubborn, strong. You'll like playing with her. Oh, I bring you fun, my pets."

Penny had detected the girl's obstinacy as she watched her writhe on the lower floor, hesitant and horrified and angered all at once. Seeing her killer—Penny, of course—had traumatized her to the bottom of her core, and yet she'd stood tall, she'd argued, she'd fought. And that was the type of ghost Penny loved to drag into Terror. They provided for the best sort of entertainment; and she desperately needed entertainment nowadays.

All the other rebels knew where to hide, where she couldn't access them, and they no longer amused her. At first, their rebellious ways were funny, and she'd laughed many times while watching them worm away from her. But now, their movements were predictable and their raids were annoying. Arielle's arrival would shake things up.

Penny heard the moans—her terrors were waiting, ready to rip through the Void's barriers to create an entryway to Terror. Only she had the skill to slip into the Void, but getting out and home was a different story. If she summoned her creatures and surged them with her energy, they could suck her back in, to safety. Such measures were in place to prevent Void inhabitants from stumbling into Terror, to avoid overpopulation.

But Penny was working on fixing that.

The more, the merrier, no?

She took a heavy breath. "Patience, my loves... she's coming, I can smell her."

Arielle's scent was pungent. Rampant with rage, and with a thirst for vengeance and overflowing questions she'd never get answers to. It was loaded with courage but tinged with fear, and saturated with that potent tendency to doubt everything, to stubbornly cling to her existence in the Void. Such a scent was sweet, almost savory, and though Penny enjoyed it, she knew it meant she had her hands full. Arielle wouldn't be easy to coerce, and she might have to yank her into Terror by force—which rarely ended well.

She'd had to do so with other spirits, and those spirits now led the rebellion. They were the ones hunting down her demented soldiers. The ones eradicating her workers one by one, hacking their heads off and erasing their craziness, removing them from her control. And without them... she'd soon lose her reign over Terror.

That cannot happen.

The Arielle aroma intensified, and Penny stiffened as she perked up to sniff it up. "Ah, she's reached the top step." She smirked. "She defied the perimeter... and she wants to defy me. Ooh, I can feel her fury, and it's delicious."

She rubbed her hands and admired her talons. How she treasured them and all they'd allowed her to accomplish. With every soul captured, with every specter transformed to one of her soldiers, the claws grew, gained power, became deadlier. But she'd yet to slice them through any of the rebellious ones, and she craved that. She craved it so hard she sometimes clawed into one of her own minions, if only to satisfy the urge to kill, to assuage her hunger for bloodshed. But it never did the trick as much as she'd hoped.

The thought of such a craving caused her power to flicker, to flail. A brisk breeze blew through the room and billowed up beneath her dress, coating her legs in goosebumps. It messed with her balance and made her nearly tip sideways; but she clenched her abdomen muscles and jammed her teeth together.

"No." She shook her head and arched her spine and tilted backwards a tad, keeping her gaze on the door. "No time for lowering my guard. She'll prove to be a bigger adversary than I expect, and I cannot let her trick me. She cannot win."

With a quick inhale, she batted her lashes, drew in the breeze, and unleashed it in the form of another hum. This one was deeper, darker, drenched in dread, and meant to reach Arielle's ears only. It was ominous, creeping along the floor-boards like a snake, crawling over to its target like a black widow, charged with paranoia. No one else would hear how it scraped like nails on a chalkboard, how it sizzled like a steaming kettle, how it growled like a rabid monster in the night.

And when she detected Arielle's reaction—her progress paused, and she emitted a weak whimper, her fright like a mist skidding down the hall and landing at Penny's feet—she grinned.

"Oh, she's coming... she's petrified and pissed, but she's coming."

Cackling, she spun and lifted her fingers towards the mirror on the wall next to the door. She bent and extended them, and the tips of her gnarly nails caught fire. She shot that fire into the reflective surface. The glass broke, shattering to pieces, though the frame remained intact, dangling from the facade as if about to fall, but it didn't. All the shards trickled to the floor, lining up as they had months before, when preparing to launch into Arielle's chest. A sight to behold, so reminiscent of Arielle's death that Penny let out a tiny snort of laughter.

That trap had taken a while to plan, she recalled. Planting in Arielle the impulse to check out her reflection, to be intrigued by mirrors, had taken much time. It had started in the bathroom at that fancy university, and in every bathroom of every motel she and her friend had stayed at; but it didn't stick. It was only here, at the house, that Penny had managed to get messages to her and for her to pay attention to them. And to prompt her to be on her guard about mirrors, on her guard about everything.

Penelope witnessed it all. She watched as Penny used her abilities to pierce through the Void's walls and compose notes for Arielle, or appear to her in wind-form to guide her. She stood aside as Penny took command and baited Arielle, eager to devour her soul.

And Penelope only asked once, "why her?" to which Penny had reminded her it was none of her business.

"You oversee the Void, I oversee Terror. And Terror wants this girl, it screams for her... so I'll have her, and you'll do as I ask to allow that."

Never again did Penelope question her.

Arielle's fumbled footsteps were getting closer. Penny shrugged out of her memories and lowered her arms to her sides, allowing her nails to scratch against the floor-boards.

"Come in, Arielle... come see me, speak to me, confront me." Penelope sneered. "Let us see who will escape as victor, and who will burn in the depths of Terror, tortured for all time. Come."