To the Sunset

Narrator: Sèance

All three were chained to the walls of their cells, with cuffs that fully covered their hands, wrists, and forearms. The key that I used to unlock my handcuffs didn’t fit, but luckily the cop that Edict had ordered to “Stop” had a large keyring on him. One key unlocked all three cell doors, another worked with the cuffs for their hands and feet. Eventually, I freed all of them. Another cop came into the room about halfway through me unlocking Symbiosis but Edict gave the “Stop” command again and he froze along with Breeze and the first cop. 

“Hey, we’re going to need to speed this up? I can’t hold them forever.” Edict said. I glared back. I sped up. 

Once I got everybody out of the chains the three of them came up with a plan, so we handcuffed each of the ‘good guys’ to a cell and then made our way to the front of the Sheriff’s office. Scanner had offered to help me walk and I couldn’t really refuse at this point. There were only two more cops in the building. Edict ordered them to “Stop” and they did, freeing Breeze and the other two from Edict’s previous command, she said that holding multiple commands at the same time was hard. Either way they were too handcuffed to do much about it. We had the keys, too. 

I rooted through the station, collecting any handcuffs I could find. There were some with longer chains, maybe 2 or 3 feet long compared to the couple inches on normal cuffs. I thought they’d be useful for my costume.

“C’mon, C’mon, c’mon, get done with whatever little class project you’re doing! You helped us back there but we’re running out of time!” Symbiosis said in a shouty grumble, clicking his finger beside his head. As I gritted my teeth I zipped the bag and then me and Scanner made our way out as quickly as we could, which wasn’t very fast. Edict was already working on the closest car in the gravel parking lot, while Symbiosis had gathered two large duffel bags from the police station and ran past us through the open door. Hypocrite.

“Why are you getting uppity about my chains while you’re doing this?”

He gave me a smirk, which I could see even beneath his cloth mask. “These bags are cash.” Now that I saw him move there was an aspect of his costume I hadn’t noticed before. Along his forearms and calves there were lines, little raised sections of his costume. On his right side they had little lightbulb shaped protrusions on his left side, an inverse mirror of them, concave instead of convex. I got the impression that they could snap together, connecting like puzzle pieces to tie his arms and legs together. Not sure why though.

He carried the two duffel bags of cash out and got beside the car Edict was trying to open. A black, four door, kind of 1970s-ish thing with a long, square front hood. It looked obviously more stylish than any of the 2023 cars that surrounded it. It was 2023 right? Yeah, I was still 16. 2023. The other cars had that stupid kinda-round, kinda-blob look that most of the other cars in the area did. There were the two police cruisers as well, Dodge challengers I think? My dad had been really into cars like that-

I abruptly stopped that thought before my power conjured him to face me. 

Edict was still working on the door when I raised my hand. The ghosts I knew were still around, and now that the action had calmed down, their eyes bored into me with looks of concern. I didn’t want their eyes on me. I pushed them away but they didn’t vanish. Mike and Lisa seemed to get it, turning and walking away, ghostly feet not making a sound against the gravel. I pointed to the car door and looked at Wanda, the former trucker turned ghost. 

“Get us in.” I commanded in my best Edict impression. Being a ghost, Wanda floated right through the door. I used my power on it and suddenly Wanda could touch it, she opened it from the other side. 

“Thank ya’,” Edict gave me a little smile, before she pulled down her mask so it covered her mouth. She slid into the car.

I looked to Wanda, and then pushed my power into the chassis of the car while the ghostly woman began hotwiring it. As much as I felt like I couldn’t command the anonymous ghosts I dug up from graves or found wandering the world, I knew for sure that Wanda didn’t have to answer me. I knew ordering her was just the same as if I’d asked when I was alive. I didn’t like that, but she helped anyway. She pushed together some wires and suddenly the car spurted to life. She turned and gave me a knowing, deep, concerned look. Was there fear there? Apprehension? Pain? And then her ghost disappeared into the ether. 

Edict had already popped the trunk and Symbiosis slammed the bags into it before slamming it shut and doing a kind of dive over the other side, opening the shotgun door and pressing himself in. Scanner helped me into the back where she laid me down and then got on the other side. They all made clean motions, I got the sense that they could have gotten from the door opening to speeding out of the parking lot in six seconds. I was injured and more clumsy so I made the routine take about twice as long. Hopefully that was fast enough.

As soon as I was in, before I could even get my seatbelt on, Edict slammed on the pedal and sped out onto the streets of Nestlegrass. She immediately hung a right and didn’t take her foot off of the gas pedal, blowing through an intersection. 

It was dark, and there were no streetlights and the moon was about halfway up in the sky. Nestlegrass was a small, podunk country town. None of the buildings exceeded two stories and most of them seemed to be relics of the wild west. I didn’t see any other cars on the road.

Now that I was sitting down, away from the police station, I started gasping. I didn’t realize how tense I’d been or how tired I felt. 

“Word?” Edict said. I wasn’t sure who she was talking to until Scanner perked up.

“Breeze and the cops are still in the cell room. They're struggling, angry. The other two are still obeying your stop command.” She paused, “uhhhhh. A Couple people on the move, there’s a driver about 1500 feet out to the right, northeast. He’s chasing you, wants to cut you off at the next intersection,Take a left. ”

Edict nodded, and put the instructions into action. I looked to Scanner and Symbiosis.

“Y’all two tell me your powers as well. I need to make sure I can trust you.” As I said that, and thought that, I put a handcuff around my wrist, made it corporeal, and then put it around the arm of one of my ghosts. 

The soldier with the hatchet in his head. I commanded him to take it out. He ripped the Hatchet out of his head, causing undead blood and the viscera of his brain to spill out of it. He adjusted the hatchet in his hand and held it, silently. He floated in the back seat, as if he was between Scanner and I. But he didn’t interact with anything, obviously. I pulled a handcuff to him and then made it corporeal, cuffing his wrist to mine. He’d stay. I’d like to have at least one competent fighter with me while I was around these people, and he was within striking distance of all of them. 

“Why the fuck did we take her?”  Symbiosis jerked back and looked at Edict.

“First off, she saved our asses.” Edict responded. “Second off, she’s injured, and third off we owe it to her to take her to a doctor for her injury on account of the first off. And fourth off…just fuckin’ tell ‘er.  She already knows my power; it's not like we can do anything about it now.” 

Symbiosis looked back to her, then back to me. I raised my eyebrows. He shrugged. 

“Alright, fine. Uh, yeah. I got a striker master power. I touch someone, I can bodyswap with them.” He said.

“Well then, I’m glad you weren’t the one who offered to carry me around.” I responded snidely.

“Eh whatever,” he put his hands behind his head and kicked his feet up on the dash, Edict quickly made a ‘shoo’ gesture at his feet. Silently commanding him to put them back down. He did, rolling his eyes behind his mask in the rearview mirror.

“Um.” Scanner said quietly, “I can sense people’s emotions. I hear them…Like uh, right now Edict is relieved that we made it out of that, and happy that we’re safe. She’s kind of suspicious of you, but she’s also concerned for you. Probably because of your leg.” She was looking down and fiddling with her thumbs, her head cocked with her ear raised towards the window. 

Edict shrugged a shoulder, still focussed on the road. 

Scanner continued, “My range is pretty good, so I’m getting a look at who's coming. The cops don’t really know what our situation is yet but I’m going to keep us out of their way. Your song is…ummm…weird.” She paused for a second. My song? What did that mean? She said she could hear people’s emotions. 

“...But cool.” Scanner said, finishing her thought. Great. I was in a car with two pretty powerful Master classification capes and a telepath.

“Don’t use your power on me.” I glared at Scanner, then turned to all three of them. “You try-”

“Hey, hey, hey, Don’t worry.” Edict cut me off in a gentle tone. It wasn’t a command, I could tell. There was something about how her voice shook that reverberated in my head when she used her power. I liked that. It made it so it was obvious when she was controlling someone.

“We’re not here to hurt you, you’re not here to hurt us.We both help each other out. I was serious about what I said before, by the way. You help us out of that jail, we’ll help you out with that leg. We have a doctor back at the base. It’s decently far, maybe an hour? But hopefully thanks to Scanner we’ll get there undetected. I think we owe you that at least. Maybe it doesn’t mean much to you, but I’ll give you my word that neither me nor my minions will use our powers on you.” I was glaring at her now, my expression unchanging. She continued, “Well except Scanner, she can’t help but listen. Asking her to not use her power on you is like asking you to shut your eyes whenever she’s in your presence. But like, she’s not going to fuck with you or anything.”

Scanner gave me a couple of awkward affirmative nods. Symbiosis just shrugged. “Yeah, no reason to.” he said, “besides I wouldn’t really want to be in your body right now anyway. So how does your power work, you do ghost shit right?”

I almost chuckled. “Yeah, Yeah I do ghost shit.” 

Scanner gave another read, Edict responded to it, ducking down an alleyway and then swiftly pulling left into another adjacent street, pushing her foot down as she made the turn. We turned and then swung back onto the main road. Edict drifted 180 degrees and then shot up another path, pavement turning into a dirt road as it ascended a tree-covered hill. We continued our escape, and I heard sirens in the background.

We turned a corner around the hill and suddenly all the buildings of the small town were gone, nothing but trees and darkness remained. We headed further and further into the wilderness. I sighed in relief. I preferred that. 

Symbiosis started to ask a series of stupid, almost deliberately annoying questions and I lamely dodged them or just refused to respond.

“So, how do you get the name Gwynedd? Are you Welsh? Your accent doesn’t sound Welsh. You sound like you’re from Texas.” he prodded.

“I’m not from Texas.” I drawled, southernly.

“What do you hate about Texas, girl?” He badly copied my accent.

“I’m not a girl either.” 

“Oh. uh. Sorry?” 

“I don’t care.” I raised my hand, flippantly. 

“She’s from Louisiana.” Scanner said, absent-mindedly. She had gotten out a rubix cube which she was fiddling with while staring blankly at the back of Symbiosis’ seat.

“How-” I turned.

“You were thinking about it.” Scanner responded in the same tone, then shot back at Edict. “Next right, 5000 feet. We can cut through the Krugel estate like last time.” Damn it. telepaths.

“So like, you ever done any actual cape stuff?” Symbiosis went back to his questions. “What’d you get arrested for anyway. According to Scanner, Breeze was reaaaaal pissed.”

“And disappointed.” Scanner added.

I growled. Symbiosis gave a little chuckle at that.

“I’m not going to judge you man, look whatever you’ve done, we probably done worse. Bank robbery, grand theft auto, killed that one guy, the casino heist, the memory job.”

Edict raised a hand, “Hey hey hey, saying ‘we’ killed that guy made it sound like either of you did anything on that mission. I did all the work. I killed that guy.”

“What,” Symbiosis snapped back “Oh just cause I didn’t use my power. I was useless to you? We were there the whole planning phase. Me and Scanner.”

“Well Scanner,” Edict asked, “Would you say that you killed Mr. Margales?”

“I don’t.” Scanner stammered. “Uh.. I… No? Also, there’s a couple more people around but I don’t hear any tails. No one’s that determined or alert. A couple people are scared but that’s probably more of a fear of the dark forest thing. I think we’re safe.”

“Alright, good.” Edict perked up and smiled under her mask. “See, we made it out thanks to my plan, just like that time when we killed that guy.”

“You’re plan!” Symbiosis huffed. “The only reason we got out was because of ghost girl! Or uh.”

“It’s fine.” I said. “You can call me whatever. Guy, girl, I don’t care.”

“The only reason we got out was because of Séance here. If we had done what I suggested.-”

“You know I love you, but what you suggested was dumb as shit, Symbi” Edict cut back in. 

“Yeah but at least it would have been fun! We went to jail either way apparently.”

“We were gonna be fine, they’d have to take off my gag to feed me eventually.”

They continued this pointless stupid argument, but they didn’t seem truly mad. Or, at least, there was a shade to it. It wasn’t fully real. Edict was right, she did love Symbiosis. And Scanner. They were a family, I realized. And for a second, I thought I saw my mother’s face in the darkness between the trees.

The next couple hours went by in a haze. We drove into Edict’s secret lair, Scanner and the hatchet ghost helped me up and into the building hidden in the woods. I was laid on a table, and a man in a labcoat and mask hovered over me and yelled at the three capes for being so careless with an injured girl. He gave me an anesthetic and I passed out. 

A while later, I woke up with my leg in a cast, in a large, comfortable bed in a cozy room. A young, light skinned girl with straight brown hair and a blank expression sat on an armchair across from me, idly playing with a puzzle of some kind. Before I could articulate myself she began talking.

“It’s February 18th, 2023.” It was Scanner’s voice. I couldn’t remember the last time I knew what day it was. She continued, “You’ve been asleep for slightly more than 13 hours. Doctor Wan said your wound was ultimately minor, but you’ll be in that cast for a couple of weeks. You'll need crutches, and you might not want to put too much weight on it even after you’re out. Oh, and you had a lot of minor bruises, probably from getting pushed around by Breeze.” I realized how hungry I was and cursed myself before Scanner kept talking. “Edict wanted to have food ready, but you’re up a little early so it’s…yep, not done yet. I’ll get some to you, at least like cereal or something.” I had subconsciously thought that I’d have to get my ghosts to bring me something if I was immobile, the thought of the capes doing it hadn’t crossed my mind. 

“Oh, and if you’re worried about owls, we don’t tend to get them here.” Of course she also knew about my stupid irrational fears. They’d been pretty common where I grew up and one night I’d seen one move its head to look right at me as I turned a corner in the dark, it scared the crap out of little kid me. Stupid. It still scared me. Even worse. It reminded me of home, of my town, of my family. Worst. I shut down that thought and hoped Scanner didn’t see it. If she did she didn’t comment.

“And no. No one used their powers on you. I mean, other than me hearing you. Edict’s power doesn’t work while you’re unconscious, and I can tell I’m talking to Séance and not Symbiosis right now.”

I decided there was no point in not being up-front with Scanner. It wasn’t like she couldn’t tell if I was being duplicitous. 

“Why?” I asked.

Scanner shifted so her ear was cocked towards me, but she didn’t stop staring at the puzzle. 

“Why did you help me?” I continued, “Why did you show me your face? Why-”

She cut me off. “Edict was being honest back in the car, she thinks she owes you. But no, you’re suspicions are correct. There’s another reason, we want something from you. Edict thinks it’s best if we don’t tell you until you accept… If you accept.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. First of all, how was I supposed to accept or reject Edict’s theoretical offer if I didn’t know what she even wanted? 

Scanner cut before my thoughts could get far. “She wants you to decide one-hundred percent. In or Out, no take-backsies. No disappointments. If it’s important to you, we don’t want you to hurt anyone.” 

I suppose that was…better than the alternative. Ugh. I still hated talking to people. I looked out the window past my cast. A beautiful view of Pine trees, undergrowth covered ground, and cloudy skies. That’s where I belonged. Not here. But I couldn’t leave until my leg was fixed, and I hadn’t had the opportunity to eat food that someone other than a ghost had cooked for…For too long. I turned back to Scanner.

“Fine. But I have a price. I do this for you, you give me anything I want, and none of y’all ever see me again.” A small smile cracked my face. I liked deliberately pushing her, seeing how much I could get.

Scanner shifted her head slightly, cocking it away from me. She wrinkled her nose and then spoke in her signature soft monotone, “I can’t speak for Edict, but…your offer is good. If you’re sure that you’re on board, I think we can start talking details.” She cocked her head again, this time turning her head right slightly, further away from me.

After pausing for another couple of seconds she announced “And your food is done. Let me call Edict over. Oh, and thank you.” She turned her head toward me, looking me in the eyes for the first time. “What we want from you? It’ll mean a lot. It’s important. Thank you for offering your help.”

“Can you stop beating around the bush and tell me what it is you think I can do for you?” I asked, finally getting a word in.

Scanner paused for a second, furrowing her brow. Then the door creaked open and Edict and Symbiosis entered, half in costume.

“Yeah,” Edict said. “I want to see my husband.”

“God damn it, How many times do I have to tell people I can’t bring them back!” I almost shouted in frustration. “I get it, my power affects ghosts. My power makes people see ghosts. But that’s NOT HOW IT WORKS!” 

My power flared around me, a mass of ghosts surrounding the bed. Hatchet soldier was back, along with a small collection of bloody-robed priests and a trucker with a deer’s antler sticking through his chest. I was sitting up on the bed now, which had become corporeal and rune-covered.

Edict was right in front of me, practically at the foot of the bed glaring down at me with an even frown, something dark in her eyes. She held out an arm to block Symbiosis from approaching me, and Scanner was still in her chair. Her hand was up to her ear, cringing from the noise like my voice was a guitar amp. 

None of them were wearing masks. Scanner had been in normal clothes the whole time, and both Edict and Symbiosis had entered  without them. Symbiosis was white, and had the same shade of brown hair as Scanner. Looking between them, it was easy to see they were related. Same gaunt features, same wiry noses, same light green eyes. Edict had dark brown skin and matching eyes, carrying a weight behind them, and an intent.

Her voice was calm, but powerful even though I could tell she wasn’t using her power. “Calm down. It’s fine. If you can’t bring people back from the dead, then we won’t ask you to. Obviously.”

Maybe she was somehow using her power because her words completely worked. My power inched back into me, out of the bed. 

“Alright, Alright. Fine.” I said. “If that isn’t what you want, what is?”

“You can summon ghosts, right?” Edict asked, rhetorically. “We’re asking you to summon his.”

I sighed. I could do that. It wasn’t too different from when I was trying to find a doctor yesterday. 

“Yeah, alright. Yeah I can do that.” I forced myself to look her in the eyes. “Do you have his body?” 

“No and getting to it will be difficult,” Edict said, disappointment obvious in her voice. “Why? Do you need it?”

I shrugged, “My power works better when the body is near. Or maybe it’s just about memory? I always pick up ghosts in graveyards or burial sites.” 

Edict swore under her breath.

“What can you tell me about him? It’s easier the more information I have. Also, like. Trinkets. Stuff that belonged to him, stuff he cared about. Journals maybe? If you knew him pretty well that’s already pretty good. I might not need the body.” I couldn’t stop myself from talking “I can’t, uh, guarantee that It’ll work. Or well. My ghosts tend to be…quiet? They don’t always seem as lucid as they were in life? Not all there, y’know? Or I might not be able to get him. It doesn’t always work, and I don’t always have control over who I get.”

“We gotta try though.” Symbiosis finally spoke up. It seemed like he might say more, but he didn’t. Instead he walked to one side of the bed and leaned on the wall, looking out of the window. He was about my age. Come to think of it, Edict didn’t seem that much older.

There was a pause, no one responded. Then, I could see a subtle smile creep onto the edge of Edict’s face. It broke into a full one as she opened her mouth.

“Thank you, Séance.” She gave a small laugh. “He…He called himself Swagger.”

The odd breaking of tension made me chuckle. “Sorry did you say Swagger? What kind of name is that?” 

“He was a body controller.” Edict replied, looking out the window. Lovingly? Maybe longingly? “And he thought it was funny, he was like that. A joker. He liked to piss off the people we fought.” she continued.

“He was our brother.” Scanner said, deadpan.

“He was a dumbass.” Symbiosis said, with a loving grin on his face.

“He was our dumbass.” Edict finished his thought, and Symbiosis eagerly nodded in agreement.

“I…I’m sorry for your loss.” I almost said it like a question, it was unconvincing. But they didn’t seem to notice. “Sorry, did you say you were married?” I looked back at Edict.

She launched into another story, about their wedding. Edict was 21 now, but they had married at 18. Symbiosis joked about how they could have gotten married earlier because it wasn’t a legal marriage anyway and ‘who was going to stop them.’ Swagger (real name Franz) was also taking care of his siblings Symbiosis (real name Marc) and Scanner (real name Lena) after their abusive father had “mysteriously disappeared.” He had kept a short journal which she hadn’t read, as well as a decent amount of keepsakes from jobs they had done before he died. They had a good number of photos of him, most including at least one of the others. A better collection of anchors than I ever had for a ghost. I kept collecting over the next couple days.

I still couldn’t really move, but they moved me into a lounge chair and cleared a room in the compound to set up the seance. Anything he’d owned or used that they still had they moved into my room. I had ghosts help with arranging it in concentric circles, the smaller stuff in the middle. Symbiosis had brought up the idea of moving Swagger’s “lucky refrigerator” into the room, but was shot down. Near the center were a dozen photos in frames, as well as a collection of newspaper headings detailing high-profile crimes Swagger and the group had committed.

They brought me food. A lot of it was stuff I remembered having, pop-tarts, cereal, potato chips. But there was also stuff you have to bake or grill or cook in an oven. No ovens in the wilderness. 

Apparently I had a very large appetite, and that annoyed Symbiosis. 

“Tough luck” I told him. “You want to see your brother or not?” That shut him up. I should’ve felt bad. Was that right? It’d been so long since I had any kind of handle on social situations. Either way, he had left the room. No point in it now.

Two Days Later...

It was time. All preparations were made, and my leg (while still being in a cast) was in good enough condition to not have to be elevated above my chest, whatever the doctor meant by that. 

I knelt at one end of the dark room, extending my power through the altar we’d constructed to Swagger’s-Franz’s-memory. I pulled for him, as if I was holding a rope and dredging his soul from the depths of a tar-covered bog. My power was cool to the touch. I spread my hands along a picture of Franz, smiling while pointing at a burning ranch, which I had made corporeal. Edict, Scanner, and Symbiosis were all kneeling at the altar with me, squeezed into the space I could put my power. After practice I’d managed to get about half of the room corporeal but it was still cramped. Playing over the scene was a slow gospel song, something that Franz liked that still evoked the right tone. This was a call to hell, to let a spirit come to earth.

Ghosts appeared left and right, as if my dredging for Franz was pulling them up as a byproduct. They beat on the altar and the floor, in tune with the music. It kept my focus on continuing the summoning. Good. Some of them started singing along with the recording. There was a strange bent to it, like they didn’t really understand what the words meant. Puppetting them into the air in a trance. The three capes had a moment of uncertainty, but resolved to continue after looking at each other and me. Edict began singing along, and the siblings followed.

I kept tugging at the metaphorical rope, straining my body and losing my grip on my surroundings. Touch, smell, and sight all left my periphery with only the ghostly song and the use of my power remaining. I finally tugged to a breaking point, raising my hands from the floor, arching my back and screaming as my power surged and the ghosts echoed my voice. 

In an instant light flashed around me, the record player lost power, and the flock of ghosts disappeared. There, at the center of the room, was Swagger. In his full superhero costume, another white mirror of Scanner and Symbiosis’. It had black accents and long, flowing sections that obscured his body. Over his face was a loose white sheet, tucked into a golden crown which sat on his head. The left side of his body was blackened, a 3 inch hole blown into his ribcage and lightning shaped scars arcing out of it and onto his arm and leg. The left side of his mask was gone, and I could see his cheek covered in the melted remains of his eye.

He was posed at an odd angle, flailing back. As soon as he appeared, he let out a, “-UUUCCCccckkkk Yooooouuuuu.” 

Halfway through the phrase he seemed to realize his surroundings. He paused, and a silence fell over the room. Edict, Symbiosis, and Scanner were awestruck. I even managed some excitement. I actually did it! Swagger slowly looked around the room, confused. He let out a few breaths. 

“What?”

No one answered.

He repeated, under his breath, “What?”

Edict barrelled into him going for a hug, but before she made contact she swung her body around and Swagger caught her in a flamenco-dancer pose. Edict smiled. Scanner and Symbiosis followed, actually succeeding in hugging him. Swagger was skinnier than I would’ve thought, his flowing costume obscuring his form.

“We missed you.” Scanner said.

Swagger looked down at Edict, cocking his head to one side. She mirrored his motion exactly. He seemed like he was getting ready to say something before Edict interrupted. 

“You died. Do you remember, fighting the Seven Wonders?” Her voice was quiet and soft.

He put his hand to his chin, and nodded. Then he broke out into a full, toothy grin. “It worked. I saved your ass.”

Edict put her hand to her forehead and sighed, but she couldn’t suppress a laugh. 

“I die for you and this is the thanks I get. Tough crowd.” He joked.

“Well,” Symbiosis spoke up. “I for one, am glad you died instead of her.” 

The boys both cackled. The joke was barely funny. But they cackled anyway.

The laughter stewed for a couple seconds, then Edict made her way back to the group hug and spoke “Hey, seriously though man. That was stupid as hell.” 

“I did the first good thing in my life and died to save you, how-”

“You died at all.” Edict cut him off. “It’s so stupid…I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Swagger replied. Then he looked up from the hug and out at the room. “If I’m dead, how am I here? You guys didn’t die, did you?”

They all shook their heads. I took the opportunity to speak up. 

“You’re a ghost, Swagger. They call me Séance. I brought you back.” It sounded cooler in my head.

“It’s been two years.” Scanner added, still clinging to Swagger.

“Well then. It looks like we have a lot of catching up to do!” Swagger pushed Scanner out of the hug and sprung into an exaggerated dance pose, still holding her hand.  Edict made a similar move, facing the other way. 

“Aww man I’m a ghost now, I guess we’re gonna have to be friends now Séance because I’m back and we’re going to paint the town red! So what can I do? Walk through walls? Disappear? Fly? Ooooooh this is gonna be fun.” He rubbed his hands together, and walked out of the corporeal radius. His body turned hollow and glowing, and I turned back at the three living capes. 

“Nah. We had a deal. I bring him back, we talk, I get what I want, and I leave. I don’t plan on staying around and…this one is more personable than most of my ghosts. I don’t like it.” I said.

Swagger’s mood sank along with his shoulders. “So, just an opportunity to say goodbye then.” 

The faces of the other three fell. Edict walked back to Swagger and held his head in her hands. She twitched oddly as they held each other, but she never stopped smiling. 

“So, dear” She looked up at Swagger. “Anything you ever wanted to do before you died?”

They came together and started making plans, telling jokes, hugging. It was an interesting feeling, seeing them. I had given them this reunion. I had helped them, gave them something I never had and never wanted. It felt…good. Yeah. Fulfilling, like finishing a meal when I was starving. But I insisted about the deal when I did because I knew there was only so much of this I could stand. Family, talking, people. They would have their time, and then I would leave, and I would be right again. Something about that felt off. But that’s what I’d done for however many years before now right?

They were shouting in a corner, the three siblings rushing over each other to approach me. They spoke over each other, loud and insistent so I couldn’t actually pick anything up. Scanner’s body slipped out of my power and he slipped right through the bodies of the other two. Edict followed, snapping the others quiet. 

“What they’re trying to ask is: do you do possessions?”