Ousting psychopath killers 101

And all hell broke loose

  Cel gripped my hand so hard that I felt my blood circulation being cut off. Although the incident had taken place in the morning, Cel was still angry. Talk about holding a grudge, I usually forgave and forget if the third party presented me with cookies.

  "What did you do to her?" Cel had snarled viciously at Megan, who had shrugged and retorted, "Just got rid of those horrible memories," in a sing-song tone. I knew Cel was no angel, but Megan was no better. The way she was toying with Cel and holding the information over her head was not cool. 

  Then Cel had whipped around and transferred her anger to me. "You know! Tell me now. Or I'll ensure you never see another cookie again."

  Wait, what?! I felt a gasp of pure terror escape my mouth unwillingly. Hey now, using underhanded techniques is NOT COOL, man. But I had stood my ground, risking my cookies and therefore life in the process. Oh, the sacrifices I make for the greater good.

  The cycle had repeated with Cel firing questions like a machine gun and Megan and I sticking to our cover story. Eventually, she had given up with a cold, "This conversation is NOT over." before finally signing out of the spiritual realm. It had looked rather easy, actually: Cel Just had to sign a booklet. But after reading my thoughts, (invasion of privacy!), Megan informed me that it was magical ink and it made sure that the parties who had signed out would come back within one day or they would be teleported back forcefully. And that hurt, supposedly.

  Cel and I had gone back to my old house, which was untouched. According to Cel, time passed differently in the other realm. There wasn't a fixed equation, like one hour human time is equal to one minute ghost time, but rather time just flowed differently. Like, sometimes faster sometimes slower. Cel had informed me tightly that spirit guides had something like an internal body clock so they always knew what time it was in both realms, and that barely a few hours had passed since my murder.

  When I describe the house as untouched, I mean untouched in a gruesome way. Like, my body was still there. It was weird seeing myself lying dead on the carpet, with a hole at the back of my head and blood painting the carpet. But no matter how hard Cel and I had combed the scene, we hadn't found anything that would help us find the killer. Cel had worked hard at looking for evidence, or so she acted like she did, but one thing had given her away, to me at least: a spirit guide always knew when another supernatural had been there, but if Megan was accurate and my murderer WAS a supernatural, Cel would have sensed it. Luckily Megan had put some defenses on my thoughts so Cel wouldn't know I suspected her.

  In a nutshell, it had been an eventful but not fruitful day. I sighed, preparing to go back to the spiritual realm, but Cel had gripped my arm as we were exiting my old house. 

  I stared at her. Anger did wonders to her already sculpted features. Her expressive eyes blazed and turned from brown to midnight black, her heart shaped lips twisted downwards in displeasure and her eyebrows pulled together in a frown, but the look actually enhanced her features. But not in a good way. She was terrifying.

  "I'm asking you for the last time. What did Megan do to you?!" her trembling lips spat out furiously.

  "Nothing!" I defended myself quickly.

  "You have the audacity to lie to me? I am a spirit guide! Do you know how much power I have over you?!" I swear, I could see smoke coming out of her ears. I bet fire was going to shoot out of her eyes soon or something. But I couldn't let her know anything. I promised Megan.

  Then, I got the shock of my life. The sky was pale indigo as in human time it was nearly dawn, and  it was a calm day, but suddenly lightning crackled and thunder boomed. Rain began pouring down in torrents, but I wasn't getting wet, and neither was Cel. Then, a ring of fire began burning around us. It was probably magical flames: they were green and they weren't extinguished in the rain. The ring of fire turned into a wall of fire and the heat was so intense that sweat poured off me in buckets. A strong wind did nothing to cool me down, but it fanned the flames until they enclosed me and Cel in a theoretically impenetrable 'cylinder'.

  "Tell me." She whispered menacingly. "I am causing all this, you know? I could kill you here and now."

  Why was she so certain that I should tell her? Did she really have something to hide? Well, I was SO telling Megan this when I got out of here-- IF i get out of here. Then, the rain stopped. The fire disappeared and all was calm again. It was as if all that had never happened. Which made it all the more scarier. Unable to control myself, I shuddered. Cel could fry me where I stood! She was so powerful that she could manipulate weather and fire and who knows what else. She leaned closer to me, the unspoken question hanging in the air between us, the tension so thick that I could cut it with a knife. Her black eyes were bottomless pits and I was falling down, down, down....

  "What-EVER!" Snapping out of the half-trance, I rolled my eyes, attempting to cover up my fear with defiance. "It's a wonder you don't evil laugh too, like Dracula the Vampire or something. Is there a boot camp for spirit guides to learn all the same threats and everything? 'Coz you sound SO cliche." Woah, woah where did THAT come from? My brain is so awesome. But based on the look on Cel's face, I probably should learn to control my tongue. Oh well, who cares?

  Okay, apparently Cel did. I swear, the look on her face could melt metal. Like, seriously. "Fine! Don't tell then!" she growled. Like a dog or something. I winced, preparing for another onslaught of magical threats, Then the weirdest thing happened.

  Hero (My dog! Remember him?) came flying out of the open door with his claws unsheathed. "Hero!" I gasped in wonder. Wait, this didn't make sense. I was a ghost, so why could Hero sense me? Then the truly glorious thing happened.

  Hero BIT Cel. He BIT her. Cel shrieked and screamed, "Call off your dog, Clara!" while Hero barked profusely at her. She can manipulate the elements, and she's afraid of a dog. Oh the irony. "He's your guardian! Let him know that I'm not a threat!"

  Hero was my guardian? Um, WHAT!?

  "He's a good spirit in the form of an animal." Cel yelled, reading my thoughts again. Geez, what part of 'Invasion of privacy' did Cel not understand?! "He can sense you and everything even as a ghost!" Cool. So, everyone had a spirit guide AND a guardian. But why was Cel scared?

  "They're more powerful than you think! JUST CALL HIM OFF!" Cel shrieked like a damsel in distress or something. She read my mind AGAIN! The next time I saw Megan, I was going to demand she do something to protect my thoughts. Like, ALL my thoughts. So guardians were on a higher level than spirit guides? Awesome.

  "Heel." I muttered at Hero. He complied immediately, trotting over to my foot.

  "Dam you, Clara." cursed Cel.

  I arched an eyebrow. "Hey, I called Hero off okay. You have some MAJOR ISSUES, gurl." 

  Then, she scoffed and disappeared. Well, I guess she teleported back. Without me. Well, who cares, I didn't want to see her anyway. First Megan tells me that Cel is actually evil (Okay, she didn't actually say that, but she indirectly implied it), and now Cel tries to hurt me. Seriously, weren't spirit guides supposed to protect their charge?  Then, the seriousness of what Cel had just done sunk into me. She teleported back. Without me.

  SHE FREAKING TELEPORTED BACK WITHOUT ME!!!! Now I was stranded in the human world with no way to get back! The magical ink would teleport me back within one spiritual day, but I had no idea what the time equation was currently. It could be days or months before I got back, or even one minute, and wasn't it supposed to hurt? Like, a lot? 

    I was in deep shit.

 Then, I heard a whimper. Looking down, I saw Hero sitting at my feet, his tail wagging enthusiastically. I smiled fondly at him. "So you're my guardian, huh? At least I have you." 

    What was I going to do now?