"I believe you," he said, regaining control.
I could breathe again. Was it going to be that easy?
He added, "But you can find it."
No, it wasn't.
"I don't know where to look," I said.
"The poleax is in the Light, but the answer is in the Black."
He started moving again. This time when he looked at me, I sensed something different. Something sinister. He wasn't trying to scare me anymore. He was stalking me. I backed off but couldn't go far because of the snare of corpses.
"The answer has always been in the Black," he muttered.
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"What is the Black? What does that mean?"
Damon reached out and grabbed another corpse. He took its skeletal arm and wrenched it from the body like he was snapping the leg off a roast turkey. He stripped the finger and hand bones away until he was left with one solid bone, which he clutched like a weapon. My stomach lurched again, both from the gruesome image and the realization that he now had a weapon . . . and was coming after me. I looked around for an escape route but saw only a sea of the living dead.
"You will walk the road and enter the Black," Damon said. "You will find the poleax."
I was starting to panic. "Tell me what the Black is," I said, groping for something, anything, trying to buy time for I-didn't-know-what. "Where is it? How do I get there?"
"There is only one way to enter the Black," Damon said.
"Okay, how?"
He picked up the pace.
"You must die."
It had come to this. All that had gone on before meant nothing. I was going to die. If there was anything I'd learned in the last week, it was that spirits existed. Maybe that was good because I was about to become one. My back hit the mausoleum. I had nowhere to go. Damon rounded the reflecting pool. He wasn't in a hurry. I think he enjoyed watching his prey sweat.
"This will be painful," he said with a hint of glee as he tapped the brown bone in his outstretched hand. The guy was a monster in more ways than one. He was about to add to the body count and that excited him. He stood opposite me, his legs apart, staring me down through dead eyes.
I glanced around for something I could use to defend myself. What a waste. Even if I found a stick or a brick, I was no match for this giant of a ghost. There was only
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one chance for me. I had to make a run for it . . . straight through the crowd of bodies. They were gruesome but frail. What was the worst that would happen? They'd grab me and throw me back at Damon's feet? If they didn't, getting lost in the thousands of bones might slow the ghost enough for me to get away. Or hide. Or do anything other than accept death without a fight.
"This is your choice," Damon said as he took a step closer. "I will allow you to stay in the Light if you bring me the poleax."
That was my lifeline. If I agreed to help him find his precious weapon, I would live. I didn't know what a poleax was or why I was the one who had to find it, but as I stood there seconds from death, I was ready to agree to anything. My mind flew back to what had happened over the past week. I had been tortured by this guy. Worse than that, he had killed Cooper. And George O. And Reilly. Who knew if Cayden and Vrtiak would ever be the same? I didn't know who this ghost was or how he came to be, but he had frightening powers. Would getting the poleax make him even stronger? What then? Who else would he terrorize? How many other lives would he destroy?
Damon stalked closer, clutching the sharp bone that would end my life. I wondered how badly it would hurt.
"Answer me," Damon growled. "Do you live in the Light? Or die in the Black?"
I didn't want to die, but how could I help this guy after what he'd done? How could I live with that? It would be like trading my soul for my life, and that wasn't a swap I was prepared to make. I stood there, paralyzed, unable to make a decision. I couldn't stand looking at the demon anymore, so I made an incredibly feeble gesture and turned away from him. He could do whatever he wanted. I didn't care anymore. I was done.
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What I saw when I turned around changed my mind about that.
Of all the things I had seen ... all the illusions, all the incredible images that haunted me, nothing could have prepared me for what I was confronted with after I made that turn. It made me believe that in spite of the corner I had been backed into, I might not be done after all.
Standing on the rim of the reflecting pool, leaning against a shattered statue with his arms folded casually, was my best friend.
Cooper Foley was back.
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Chapter 25
Cooper didn't look anything like the other corpses.
There were no signs of injury. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, not the jacket and tie his parents had buried him in. He looked pretty much exactly as he did in life with one small difference: I could see through him. He seemed solid enough until one of the corpses behind him moved . . . and I saw the movement through Coop's body. It wasn't Cooper's body standing there--it was his spirit. He had come back to help me this one last time.
Whatever he was going to do, he would have to do it fast because Damon was almost on me. The ghost warrior saw that I was focused on something other than him and looked up to see Cooper.
Cooper gave him the finger.
Damon looked shaken, or about as shaken as a spirit
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warrior from another time could look. He glanced quickly to me, then back to Cooper.
"Is this what you wish?" he called to Cooper. "For him to join you?"
Damon was surprised to see Cooper, which meant it wasn't an illusion he had created for me. Cooper was really there. Or at least his spirit was. He didn't speak, which wasn't like him. He looked to me and held up both his hands and patted the air as if to say, "Don't move."
Not moving was the last thing I wanted to do. Cooper or no Cooper, I had to do something or this giant ghost would skewer me with a cadaver bone.
"You can save him," Damon bellowed at Cooper. "End this now. Make him see."
I didn't need Cooper to save me. I could do it myself. All I had to do was agree to help Damon. I looked to Cooper. He held his hands up again and slowly shook his head "no." His movement made his image become more transparent, as if the act was using up his energy, but his intent was clear. He didn't want me to help Damon. Damon whipped back toward me and lifted the bone weapon high over his head.
"I will let you live," he snarled at me. "If you bring me the poleax."
I looked to Cooper. Cooper didn't look nervous at all, but Cooper never looked nervous. He took a few steps toward me, smiled, and gave me the sign. The double okay that meant everything was going to be fine. If he could speak, I knew what he would say: "Trust me, Ralph." That effort was his last. Cooper's image faded. He was gone and I was alone.
I looked up at the spirit warrior, who had the bone held high, ready to bash my head in. His body was shaking with rage. The scars that slashed across his face were angry and red. He was loaded and ready to strike.
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"What is your answer?" he shouted.
All I had to do was agree to help this monster find his poleax thing and my life would be saved. A simple "yes" and I'd be spared the pain. But a horrible death might be easy compared to what would come after. If there really was a Morpheus Road, and many different paths to take on it, giving in to this monster might send me down a route that was far worse than anything I could imagine. In the end, the answer wasn't easy, but it was obvious.
I stood up defiantly, looked straight into the dead eyes of my tormentor, and said, "I'm not helping you."
The demon raised the bone higher. I didn't flinch. I trusted Cooper.
Damon shook with rage. He took a step backward and with a ghastly, anguished scream he went ballistic and brought the bone down . . . smashing it onto the ground.
"Raaaaaa!" he screamed, the horrific bellow echoing off the marble tombs.
The bone shattered, sending shar
p white splinters everywhere. The pieces multiplied, spread out, and flew away from the impact point. The wave of bone material grew like ripples on a lake. Several hit me but passed through harmlessly.
They were shadows.
Illusions.
Cooper knew what he was doing.
The storm of bone matter hit the circle of cadavers and cut through them like an acid-laced buzz saw, vaporizing everything it touched. Row after row of the living corpses disappeared. The bone matter acted like an eraser, spreading wider, wiping them out of existence. The corpses didn't react. They had no feelings. They weren't real. In seconds every last body was gone, leaving only the destroyed remnants of the cemetery . . . and Damon.
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The demon spirit was down on one knee, breathing hard, still clutching the remaining fragment of bone in his big hand.
"You have no physical power, do you?" I said. "Cooper knew that."
"There are worse things than physical pain," Damon said between breaths. "I gave you a choice. Now you must live with the consequences. How much are you willing to endure before giving me what I seek?"
Damon raised his fist into the air and looked to me one last time.
"You will walk the road with me," he said. "And you will suffer."
He brought his fist down, punching the ground so hard that the earthquake returned. There was a rumbling sound that could have been thunder, or the final destruction of the cemetery. I stumbled forward, tripped over the edge of the reflecting pool, and fell into the water. The pool was maybe six inches deep, but my head hit the bottom as water stung my eyes. I fought to stay conscious. If I had been knocked out with my head in the water, Damon would have gotten me to the Black after all.
The Black. What the hell was that? And why did you have to die to get there?
I raised up on my hands and knees, my head spinning. I kept my eyes on the water until my head cleared, watching the water ripple between my outstretched arms. As the water grew still, a bright light appeared and reflected off the surface. I thought of the light that had guided us out of the boathouse. Had Cooper come back? The water settled and the light came into focus. It was unmistakable. It was real. I lifted my head to see it and my heart sank. It wasn't Cooper. It was the sun. Whatever force or illusion Damon had used to darken the skies was no longer in play. Puffy white clouds drifted across a deep blue sky. It was
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a beautiful day. The same kind of day that we had buried Cooper. I looked around to see that the cemetery had returned to normal. There wasn't a bit of damage. It had all been an illusion. Cooper knew that, which was why he didn't want me to run ... or to agree to help Damon. He knew that Damon couldn't hurt me. At least not directly. If I had done something stupid like run out into traffic or drive a boat into a floating plane, that would be different. Once again, Cooper had saved me.
"Man, I thought for sure you were going to take off," came a familiar voice from behind me.
I thought it was another illusion. Or my mind was playing tricks. Or anything other than what I hoped it would be.
"Kinda creepy to be swimming in a cemetery, Ralph," the voice said.
I whipped around to see Cooper standing by the mausoleum. He was barely visible. It was more like seeing a faint echo of Cooper. I stared at my friend's spirit, stunned, unable to speak.
"Close your mouth, you look like a trout," he said.
Cooper's image disappeared, only to appear again a few feet away. I stepped out of the pool and stood across from him.
"I... I don't understand . .. Cooper? What's happening?"
"Very cool, Ralph. That took guts."
"Not really. I trusted you."
"I'm trying my best," he said. "It's hard. I don't have much control."
Every time he spoke, his image disappeared, only to appear somewhere else. It was like the wind was blowing him around.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Well, no. I'm kind of dead, Ralph," he said. "But it's cool in the Black. Sort of."
"What is the Black?"
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Cooper disappeared. I glanced around quickly, desperate to find him.
"Cooper!"
He appeared again on the far side of the memorial garden. "You're in Trouble Town, Ralph."
"Yeah, tell me about it. Who is Damon?" I asked.
Cooper disappeared again and reappeared on the exact opposite side of the garden. "A total foul ball, but you know that. Don't help him. Whatever happens, whatever you see, don't help him."
"What is the poleax?" I asked.
"I don't know for sure, but he wants it bad. It's why he killed me, Ralph. To get to you, to get the poleax."
My head spun. It really was true. This whole thing was about me.
"But why?" I cried. "I ... I don't know anything about a poleax."
Cooper disappeared. This time he reappeared directly in front of me. I took a surprised step back.
"I'm doing what I can to help you. You know that, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."
"Keep your head on straight. Don't believe the impossible. Damon can do stuff I can't. He's had a lot more practice than me. But remember, it's all an illusion."
"So what happens if he gets the poleax?" I asked.
"Then it won't be an illusion anymore."
I had no comeback for that. It was too frightening a concept to even imagine.
"I got your back," Cooper said as he winked out, then came back. "Just like always."
"I miss you, Coop."
"Me too. Those things I said? I'm sorry. I was mad."
"I know."
"And tell Sydney I think she's cool for what she's doing."
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"She really cares about you," I said.
Cooper smiled. It didn't matter that he was barely visible. His cocky smile came through. "Of course she does. She's not a total Agnes."
He may have been dead, but he was still Coop. How strange is that?
"Don't be sad for me, Marsh. I'm okay. There's a lot going on. Some of it is pretty sweet. Then again . . ."
"Yeah. Then again." I reached out to Cooper, but he disappeared. As his image faded, I heard him say, "Be cool. I'm around." But it was like whispers on a far-off wind.
I waited a few seconds for him to reappear.
"Coop?" I called out.
There was no answer. I felt like I had lost my best friend for a second time. But he had said he would be around and I believed him. I believed in ghosts. And why not? My best friend happened to be one.
Things had changed so much over the course of one week. My toes had been over the edge of the abyss between life and death and I had no idea why.
The sound of two sharp beeps of a car horn echoed across the cemetery. I ran for the sound without even thinking. I sprinted past the now peaceful mausoleum, up the hill of ancient graves, and beyond the weeping willow tree on top, where I could look down the far side ... to see Sydney's silver Beetle, right where she had parked it. The door opened and Sydney stepped out. I sprinted down the hill, weaving my way through tombstones, and didn't stop until I reached her. If I hadn't been so overcome with emotion, I wouldn't have done what I then did. I grabbed her in a bear hug and held her close. I didn't care that I had crossed a line. I wanted to hold her and know for certain that she was real.
She was definitely real . . . and she hugged back.
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"I thought you were dead," I said.
"I thought so too," she replied.
"What happened?"
"It was that statue. The angel. He closed his wings around me and everything went dark. I must have blacked out or something because the next thing I knew I woke up next to my car."
I held her at arm's length, looking into her beautiful eyes.
"None of it was real," I said.
"Yeah, I got that," she said. "But still, when I was in the dark, I heard a voice. It sounded like Cooper's."
"What did he say?"
&nbs
p; Sydney snickered and shook her head. "It's wild what your mind can do when you're under stress. I could have sworn he said: "Keep the tattoo. It's you."
I laughed. "I'll bet that's exactly what he said."
Sydney gave me a curious look. "What happened, Marsh? Was it Gravedigger?"
I took one more look around the cemetery and at the fresh grave where my friend, her brother, was laid to rest. Where his human body was laid to rest.
"Gravedigger is gone. For good. But it's not over, Sydney."
Sydney nodded. "Didn't think so."
"I don't know what's going to happen next, but there's one thing we can rely on."
"What's that?"
"Cooper's going to be there for us. And I think you should keep the tattoo too."
"That's two things," she said with a wink.
"Marsh," I heard someone call.
We both turned quickly to see a guy standing alone on the far side of Cooper's grave. It was Ennis Mobley.
"Now what?" Sydney said, worried.
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"It's okay, he's a friend," I said, though seeing him standing there alone in that cemetery didn't feel right.
"Ennis!" I called out. "What are you doing here?"
He didn't move.
"Is this another illusion?" Sydney asked.
I walked toward him, making a wide circle around Cooper's grave. Ennis kept his eyes on me the whole way. Sydney followed close behind.
"What's the story, Ennis?" I said. "I thought you went to Pakistan."
"I had no choice but to return," he said.
I walked right up to my mom's old friend and reached out to touch his arm. I didn't think he was an illusion, but I wanted to be sure. I was relieved to find that he was solid.
"You came back just for the funeral?" I asked. "That's nice, but you didn't even know Cooper."
Ennis scowled. I saw beads of sweat growing on his forehead.