Ashes of Eden

"Mom…"

"Eric?" Carter whispered, his voice sounded older and tired. Unlike in Eric's memory, where he'd been eleven and Carter sixteen. When he'd been dead scared of their father.

"You know, I pinned your brother for a tough guy. Not a momma's boy." Was that Nadia? Sure it was, Eric knew that dry sarcasm anywhere and he'd only heard it for two days.

"Our Mom died at childbirth." He heard Carter. Tone stone cold. "He never met her. He must be hallucinating."

A quiet pause. Eric's mind swam. A pain in his body just wouldn't let him open his eyes or move like he wanted to. A pain going beyond physical.

"I'm sorry. I wouldn't have joked about it if I knew."

"But you didn't, so it's fine. I don't give a crap about that, anyway. Fi, isn't there a place we can take Eric? A place to help him?"

"Huh. His fever's gone down. And there are barely any marks on his neck… Eric should come out of it soon. You're worrying too much. You should sleep."

"You look like death warmed over." Nadia added.

"I still look better than Eric. So, I'm fine." And Eric could hear in his brother's tone that that was the end of it. "Can you still see the marks, Nadia?" his brother asked. When silence was the only thing, besides labored breathing, Carter spoke again, "Nadia."

Nadia squealed miserably, as if instead of tearing out an answer, Carter was wrenching out teeth. "Yes, okay? Yes, I still see them, Carter. Are you satisfied with my answer? Does it make you happy?" wasn't she snappy today. What marks were they rambling on about?

Carter didn't give an answer. Instead, it was Fi's thinner voice Eric heard in his demented state.

"These marks were caused by a Dybbuk. A human spirit that's been corrupted upon its death."

"A ghost," Nadia's voice grew a pitch.

"Yes. A lingering spirit eventually becomes a Dybbuk. But… I heard the people talk and there's been many attacks lately, a lot of horrible deaths. Not just suicides, but murders. Dybbuks are evil, but they can become evil after a long time in the Living Plane or they can become that way immediately after death. It all depends on the circumstances."

"What do you mean?" Eric was surprised Nadia was the one encouraging Fi to go on.

"Well, Dybbuk originate from vile emotions. Hate, fear, envy, vengeance. Very strong ones. When a spirit dies experiencing those troubling emotions, it'll be consumed by them. Becoming them. The spirit will remain trapped here, instead of ascending to the Spiritual Plane, where it would find peace." The buzzing of Fi's wings reached him. "Because they stay trapped here, with the living, they wish for bodies again. Hunger for them. They'll try possessing humans after tormenting them, maybe for days, weeks. Sometimes they'll use the body to kill others. Or when they don't get the body, they'll whisper things into their ear. Like planting thoughts about suicide, to create more of them, to make others suffer as they do." The sound of Fi's wings stopped. Maybe he was sitting on Carter's shoulder, the little nuisance liked that. "It's very rare for a human to have the Sight and you're not even from Eden."

"The… Sight?"

"Yes, it's..."

"Are these symptoms normal?" Carter cut the Fairy off tersely.

"Hum. Well, Dybbuk don't go for healthy people like Eric. They always go for weaker humans, ill people of either mind or body. Or they'll haunt them until the person becomes weaker. Since Eric interrupted the Dybbuk's… huh… playtime, it tried possessing him. Eric's spirit must be very strong, that Dybbuk was a monster among them. I've seen a lot to know. I never saw anyone react this badly before to an attempted possession, though. People usually go catatonic and unresponsive for a few days until those markings fade…"

"Something else is wrong with him?" Nadia asked softly, surprising him.

The surprise didn't linger very long, replaced by a jolt to his muscles. Tendons tensed and Eric felt himself being stretched paper thin. A groan tore from his throat. A big, sweaty palm clammed his forehead. Carter whispered something in his ear, but Eric was beyond his brother's reach. Softly, he drifted into a void, a blackness that swallowed him whole and Eric allowed himself to be eaten away.

***

"I gotta say, didn't expect you to be so good. Maybe I'll come for seconds, heh?" the man's laughter carried over his broken body. The man's shadow fell over his small frame and he curled up tighter, horror stricken eyes peeled open. He couldn't understand what happened—why it happened. Malvato had… sold him? But this man—this pig—was leaving Eric's tent. Malvato couldn't have sold him, then, could he? Does it really matter? A voice curled in his mind like bitter smoke, choking the life out of Eric. It was the only thing he had left now. His life. He'd lost his dignity when he got pushed into his bedspread and… Eric swallowed, hugging himself tighter. But he couldn't get warm.

Eric sat up, a silent scream dying in his throat. He was panting. Sweating from every pore. Eric lifted his hands, watching them dance as his spotty vision adjusted. They were large hands—just like that man's. The man who'd… No. That hadn't been real. Eric curled his hands into fists. It was a nightmare. Just that. Eric couldn't remember the last time he'd dreamed about something so unsettling. He'd dreamed he was little again, just a helpless brat and for some reason a man came into his tent in the middle of the night and…

"You're awake!"

Eric's breathing stopped. Lifting his head, he spotted Fi hovering a bedside table that had seen better days. The wood was holed in some places, the thing looked like it had a serious case of termites. Eric opened his mouth and a croak came out instead of his voice.

"Carter's going to be mad about leaving you. But he's been here for almost five moons, Nadia convinced him you'd be safe with me and the priest. It's not like anyone wants to slash your throat," Eric would never find the right words to describe just how glad he was for Fi's presence and his non-stop blabber mouth. "…Nadia convinced Carter he needed to go outside. They've been gone for a while."

Eric grunted in quick response, reaching out for the pitcher on the weak looking side table. He didn't bother with the wooden cup, drinking straight from the source. The water was a little warm. How long had it been sitting there? How long had he been out? Eric frowned: why had he been out in the first place?

Wiping his dripping mouth with the back of his hand, Eric asked, "What happened?"

Fi's eyes bulged, "You don't remember? You and Nadia tried stopping a Dybbuk attack!" Hmm. That word… sounded vaguely familiar. "It tried possessing you, but thank Fauna your spirit is resilient."

"Fauna…?" Eric whispered under his breath. He shook his head. "The woman—I remember. Nadia… ran off. There was a woman trying to kill herself." She'd done it, too. Images played in Eric's mind-eye all to clearly, with too much detail. His run-in with this so called Dybbuk made him touch his throat.

Fi shook his head.

"The Dybbuk marks are all gone. Honestly, I don't know why it took you so long to wake up. If the marks don't fade, that's a really bad sign, but yours faded in less than two days."

"How long have I been down?"

"Almost five nights," Fi floated closer to Eric's face. He scrunched his nose when the Fairy tapped his foot on it. "Do you know the strangest thing? Nadia could see the Dybbuk. The marks on your throat, too."

Eric thought he'd heard something about that when he'd been between delusions and reality.

"Only Fairies and gifted people can see spirits and auras." Fi gave him a stink eye. "Did you lie about not having Magik and glamour where you're from?"

Eric was getting sick of people making assumptions. First Nadia, now Fi.

"We didn't lie. Why would we?" his voice was jagged.

Fi flew back when the door swung open. Carter walked in—more like limped in, looking like a zombie—two shades paler than usual. His brother's shoulder length hair was greasy and disheveled, his petrol blue eyes were sunken in. They lit up once they landed on Eric sitting in bed. The empty pitcher was tossed from Eric's hands when Carter threw himself across the tiny space, wrapping his arms around Eric's shoulders. Eric stayed in his older brother's tight embrace, arms pinned at his sides. Ten seconds went by and things began to feel awkward. Especially because Nadia was leaning on the doorframe, giving them a side-long look.

"I'm okay," Eric eventually managed to spit out. He was feeling very uncomfortable. Maybe because Nadia was watching them. Maybe because he wasn't a little kid anymore. Maybe because that damned nightmare was still making his skin crawl. "Carter. I'm—I'm fine. Just… let go."

Carter pulled back, grabbing Eric's shoulders in a strong, gentle grip. His brother's eyes searched long and hard along Eric's face. Then they travelled across the rest of him. Like he was making sure Eric hadn't lost a limb. Carter's eyes hardened for a split second and his thumbs dug a little deeper into Eric's shoulders.

"I've been worried sick, douchebag. The least you can do is let me hug you." Carter's voiced sounded like it hadn't been used in days. Guess they had that in common. "Have you been awake long? Does anything hurt? Are you hungry? You've got to be. I'll go find the priest." Priest. Fi said something about a priest, too. Eric snuck a look across the room. It wasn't the same room that Inn girl showed them. In this room—cubicle, really—was only one bed. Eric saw blankets and what looked like animal skin scattered on the ground. Above the door was a strange symbol. The circle was made up of two steel ropes, welded and woven together. In its middle, were four spear heads, they too were metal. Each pointed in one direction, reminding him of a compass rose. The spear pointing at the ceiling had a carved sun, the one pointing in the opposite direction, had a symbol that Eric didn't know. The one pointing to the left, had the letter C cut diagonally by an arrow, and finally the right spear had a square drawn on it.

"A priest?"

"Yeah," Nadia spoke for the first time. Unlike his or Carter's, Nadia's voice sounded as strong and detached as ever. "After the Dybbuk attacked the woman and it attacked you, the Inn owner didn't want to keep a 'marked one' because he thought you might attract Dybbuk. No one helped us. Only this town's priest."

Eric had never been a fan of religion. Never really saw the appeal. But it really was everywhere, even in Eden. A world completely apart from theirs. Eric glared at the symbol hammered above the door again.

"That's their equivalent of a cross. They call it the circle of spears." Nadia clarified, sitting on a dark skin. He saw her glare at his neck. "I thought my mother was a worry-worm, but now that I've met Carter I know she's way out of his league. It's like she plays little league and Carter is an elite player or something."

Eric nodded. His brother had always played mother, father and brother to him. Sometimes Eric wished Carter would worry about himself, instead of hovering his shoulder at every turn. Sometimes. Because Eric couldn't lie and say it didn't make him feel safer to have his big brother. Carter always comforted Eric after a nightmare. He used to have loads as a kid. Carter told him he used to wake up crying, kicking out, screaming. Heart bursting in his ribcage. Eric remembered some faintly.

"I saw it when we were waiting for your brother." Nadia whispered quickly, like they were on a tight schedule. Eric noticed Fi had left the room at some point, probably trailing behind Carter. "When Carter came here for clothes and we were hiding… there was a coldness..." her shoulders recoiled, but Nadia shook them out immediately.

Eric would've rolled his eyes at her show of tough gal' if she hadn't struck a nerve. He almost fell out of bed, "That was why you freaked out?"

Nadia took a few seconds to react. In the end, she grimaced, nodding. Okay. Eric could forgive her that spaz moment. That hanging chill... Brr. Eric remembered Carter wrote some paper for a class and he described something as 'death's cold breath'. Well, he could tell his brother he'd felt death's breath on his skin and deeper. Eric snapped out of his thoughts, though.

"Wait. You saw something?"

"Yes," she hissed, angry. Ah, the mood swings. "Look, I've been going crazy these last few days. Carter's been obsessed with your health—which I get, you're his brother—but it's been driving me up the wall, Eric. I… Fi's always hanging around Carter, I can never get him alone."

"I think the pipsqueak isn't your type."

"Don't be an idiot. God, I already regret saying anything to you." She muttered, massaging her temples.

Eric rubbed his neck. Nadia's look of fear came dancing into his mind's eye. He'd seen his own fear in her silvery gaze.

"No, you won't. Okay?"

She didn't look like she bought it, but went on regardless. "While you were out, Fi explained about Dybbuk. Long story short, they're evil spirits who want to possess people's bodies. Anyway, not everyone can see them. Fairies can and so can people with the Sight."

"Right," Eric tried keeping up with all the terms being thrown is way. He was dimensions away from school and it suddenly felt like he was sitting at his desk, wrestling a book. "And the Sight is…?"

"I don't know!" Nadia gritted desperately. Eric was expecting her to throw up her arms or punch the bedside table and break it in half. She contained herself. "Fi was going to explain it to us, but Carter cut him off and he's been avoiding talking about any Dybbuk stuff."

Eric took a minute to absorb the information. Nadia said she'd seen this Dybbuk monster. Not everyone could see it, except Fairies and people with Sight. Nadia wasn't a Fairy. She was a hundred sizes too big, missing wings and an annoying squeaky voice.

"You have the Sight?" Eric blurted.

Nadia hung back, "You really didn't see it?" Eric shook his head. He saw her pale a shade and her eyes moved to her crossed legs. "It was hideous. It didn't have legs, it looked like it was wearing a centipede's body. From the chest up, it was human—well, not completely. An extra pair of arms were jutting out below the shoulders. Its mouth was a gaping hole. Just a hole. No tongue or teeth. It was foaming—and coming out of its eye sockets…" Eric didn't think Nadia noticed. She was gripping the animal pelts harder as she described the Dybbuk. Her neck was flushed, her face drained of color. He almost opened his mouth to tell her to stop. "Coming out of its eye sockets were antennas. It was wrapped around the woman before you tackled her and then it… it grabbed your throat. It was hollering, screaming…"

Nadia's words died down. Eric wasn't the only one who'd heard the hurried footsteps. It wasn't hard, if his brother stomped a little harder maybe he'd wake up the dead. Nadia slid him one last glance. He read it like this: don't bring this up with Carter. Wouldn't Carter want to solve this mystery now that Eric was alright? His brother happily shoved a plate with a loaf of bread and meat his way. Still, this was Nadia's business. If anyone should bring it up should be her, right?

Eric grabbed the stuffed bread and chowed down greedily, almost choking twice. His brother ran out saying he was getting more water. Fi trailed behind him. Were those two best friends now? It could be because Carter was the one who'd struck the deal with Fi. Maybe the Fairy wanted to make sure nothing happened to his older brother. Ready for another bite, Eric paused, bread inches from his greasy, flour covered lips. A pinching in chest left him breathless. He shut his eyes. Images flashed by and the pinching eased. When Eric opened his eyes, it was gone altogether. But Eric glared at the woven circle above the door. Why did it suddenly feel so damn familiar?