Ghost Walk

“All I know is they’re a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Levi said. “My point is, there are a lot of us—most of whom can’t be trusted. LeHorn became convinced that others might try to kill him for his copy of the book, so he hid several of the most important pages, rendering the rest of the book incomplete and, hopefully, worthless. My father told me of the hiding places that he knew of. One of those pages—the one we need to stop this—was hidden in LeHorn’s copy of The Long Lost Friend. He thought it would be extra safe there. And he was right about that.”

“So you need to find his book?”

Levi nodded. “And that’s why I need to speak with Adam Senft. He was the last person to have LeHorn’s book. I need to know where it is now. It might be in his possession, though I doubt it. Senft was certainly dabbling in magic before his wife’s murder, but I don’t think he’d progressed far enough to secrete something like a page from the Daemonolateria on himself while in a psychiatric hospital. Not without it being detected. It’s more likely that the book—and the page—are hidden somewhere on the outside.”

“What if he doesn’t know where it is, or he doesn’t remember? What then?”

“There are other ways to find it. Divining would work, but that takes weeks and we don’t have time. So we’ll just have to make him remember.”

“You said ‘we’ again. I’m not a part of this. Like I told you before, I’m only interested in Senft for my book. That’s why I’m here. God didn’t bring us together. It was just a coincidence.”

Levi sighed. “You don’t believe what I just told you?”

Maria chose her words carefully. “I believe that you believe it. But, look—I don’t believe in God in the first place. I don’t believe that He created the Earth, so why would I believe that He destroyed another universe to do it and that it’s been covered up ever since? And even if I did believe any of that, it’s not God. It’s Allah.”

“I told you before. Allah and God are the same being. Names have power. Those are just two names for the same divinity.”

“So you say. And so have others. But how do I know that?”

“You take it on faith! Just like any other belief.”

She shook her head and sat in silence.

“Maria,” Levi begged, “I can’t do this alone. I…I don’t have anyone else.”

“I’m sorry, Levi. I really am. You seem very nice. But I’m not some occult avenger. I wouldn’t mind interviewing you some more, specifically about powwow and your father and LeHorn. But that’s all.”

“Interviewing me?”

“If you don’t mind, that is?”

“Would it matter if I did?” Smiling, Levi nodded toward her digital voice recorder. “After all, you’ve been secretly taping our conversation since we started.”

“I…” Maria felt her face flush. “I’m sorry. It made me feel better, just in case…”

“Just in case I turned out to be crazy after all?”

“Yeah, if you want the truth.”

“Go ahead and play it back.”

“Why?”

“Humor me.”

Slowly, Maria picked up the recorder, pressed the stop button and then played back their conversation. Except that instead of Levi’s voice, somebody else spoke to her. A different voice boomed from the device. She couldn’t distinguish its sex or age. There was no accent or distinguishing characteristics. It had a hypnotic, musical quality, and flowed like water.

“MARIA. PLEASE HELP.”

Maria’s jaw went slack. Her fingers tightened around the recorder until her knuckles turned white. The voice was replaced with a feint, electronic hiss—white noise. Maria advanced the recording, but there was just more silence.

“How…” She turned off the recorder and looked at Levi, her eyes wide. “How did you…your voice?”

Levi’s smile grew broader.

“Let me guess,” he teased, mimicking her earlier taunt. “You heard the voice of God?”

Maria started to respond, but couldn’t. Her mouth felt dry, her tongue swollen. She tried licking her lips. They seemed puffy. Heavy. Her ears rang. She struggled to sit up straight, but the car’s interior began to spin. Her fingers grasped the seat, but she couldn’t feel the upholstery.

“Maria?” Levi reached for her, concerned. “Are you okay?”

Levi’s voice sounded far away, as if he were speaking from the other side of a long tunnel. Maria tried to answer him but had trouble forming the words. She felt weak and her senses seemed deadened. She bowed her head, grasping for something to hold on to. Her hand felt heavy—made of lead. It suddenly seemed very hot and stifling inside the car, yet she was shivering.

“N-no…I…”

Then her eyes rolled in their sockets and she fainted.