Ghost! (?)

Anthony grinned at Perry and closed his eyes, and after an eye roll, Perry closed his eyes as well.
“God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s hosts to save me
From the snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a multitude.”  Here, Gali paused and Perry’s eye instantly snapped open.  After taking a breath, she started talking again.
“Christ…” he muttered, making sure no one else could hear him.
“I summon today all these powers between me and evil,
Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom.
Christ shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may come to me in abundance.”
     After waiting several beats to make sure that Gali was, in fact, finished, everyone opened their eyes.
     “Did you just pull that out of your ass, or what?” asked Anthony, cocking an eyebrow at Gali.
     “I thought it was pretty!” said Samantha.
     “Yeah, actually it’s the Lorica of St. Patrick, it’s not like I just said it.  I have this… thing… for being able to recall just about everything I read.  So I just found one I liked and….” And then it was like someone flipped a switch in Gali’s brain and her shyness completely evaporated.  “All right, let’s do this.”  She stepped over the broken gate and started walking to the right of the cemetery.  “Whoever’s coming with me, let’s go.”
     “Wait, wait,” said Mr. Rhodes.  “You’re going to be in the other group and I don’t know what I’m looking for.  What should I do?”
     “I think that for tonight, we can just try to walk around and get a feel for everything.  Walk slowly, try to be quiet, and just listen.”  She turned around again and stepped over a row of headstones.  From a distance, her red flashlight made it look like the grass was covered in wet, sticky blood.
     Mr. Rhodes shrugged and started walking in the other direction.  Samantha followed him, as did Anthony.  Perry took a step in their direction and then realized that Gali was walking by herself, which was not supposed to happen.  What the hell, I get stuck with freak girl all by myself?  He started jogging to catch up with her.

     Samantha was walking alongside Anthony, while Mr. Rhodes trailed behind them, leisurely taking a sip of his coffee after every few headstone rows.
     “What do you think those stars are that are next to some of the headstones?” asked Anthony.
     “I don’t really know,” said Samantha, “Maybe their families just buy them for people?”
     “They’re for veterans of the Civil War,” said Mr. Rhodes.  
     “Wow, this cemetery must be pretty old then,” said Samantha.
     “I think that aside from the school, it seems like most people just come here to die,” said Mr. Rhodes, “There’s not a whole lot going on here.”
     “If I see one more tombstone that says ‘Devoted Father’ or ‘He or She shall be missed,’ I’m going to spew chunks,” said Anthony.  “Seriously.  If anyone puts that shit on my tombstone, I’ll haunt their ass until the day they die.”  Samantha giggled.
     “Ooooohhh, don’t make me laugh!  We’re supposed to be quiet so we can see the ghosts!”  Anthony snorted.
     “Our flashlights are white, damn it!” said Anthony.  “We won’t see them anyway.”  Even Mr. Rhodes started chuckling.  Anthony looked across the tree-shrouded cemetery, searching for Gali and Perry.  He started to move a bit away from Samantha and Mr Rhodes, pointing his flashlight at tombstones as he walked, looking to see if there were any interesting ones.  He knew that the others were only about 50 feet away, so he was not very concerned.  He could hear the wind blowing louder in his ear.  Wait…. Now it was not such a sweeping sound moving through branches, but rather defined.  It sounded like there was something right next to his ear, exhaling slowly.  Slowly, but getting louder and louder.  Suddenly it was a dull roaring, filling his head.
     “Aaghhhh, fuck!” he shouted, grinding his palms against his ears.  He bent over double, his eyes clenched shut.  “Shit, shit, shit!”
     Far away, he could hear a voice.  “Anthony!  Anthony, what’s wrong?”
     “Hey!  Anthony, get a hold of yourself!”
     The roaring stopped suddenly and it was as though it had intensified his hearing.  Leaves were crunching under Samantha’s and Mr. Rhodes’ shoes as they ran toward him and it was so loud that it echoed in his ears.
     But as soon as the roaring stop, it seemed like it turned into something physical.  A blackness, filling him from the inside and rising up.  He was kneeling on the ground now, with his hands palms-down in front of him, trying to suck in air.  He felt like the darkness was seeping out of him, through his eyes, through his mouth.
     “Anthony!”  The voice, it was… it was who?  Samantha.  She reached out and put her hand on top of his hand.  “Anthony, what the hell is going on?  Anthony!”
     Upon contact, the darkness evaporated and he was able to inhale.
     “Anthony, your hand is freezing!  What’s wrong, what happened?”  He sat up, putting his weight on the front of his feet.  He lifted his chin and looked at Samantha.  
     “I don’t know.”  She saw fear in his eyes, quivering.
     Mr. Rhodes bent down next to them.  “What happened?  Did you trip on something?”  Anthony grinned, while at the same time replying acidly,
     “No, I did not trip.  I… fuck.  I don’t know what the hell happened.”  He wasn’t meeting their eyes, choosing instead to look away.  Samantha was studying him closely, squatting with her weight resting her toes.
     “Let’s leave,” she said, “I’ll go get Gali and Perry.”
     “No!” said Anthony.  Samantha turned around and narrowed her eyes in confusion.
     “What do you mean, no?” she asked incredulously.
     “I don’t… I can’t…. be alone right now,” he said, feeling like he was five, yet acknowledging that there was no way in hell that he was physically able to swallow his pride and just go immediately home.  Mr. Rhodes rocked backwards and sat on the grass.  Less than a minute later, Gali and Perry showed up with Samantha, looking concerned, but asking no questions.  Samantha must have told them not to bother asking.   Perry stretched his hand toward Anthony.
     “All right, man, get up and let’s go.”  Anthony obliged.  
     “Well, said Mr. Rhodes, “If you don’t want to go back quite yet, then I guess we had better go somewhere.  It’s shitty food, but we can go to McDonald’s.  It’s really not that far from here.”  Everybody nodded, and they left the graveyard, exiting over the battered gate.
     Gali was looking pretty thankful that Mr. Rhodes had taken charge and decided what to do next.  She really didn’t know what to think.  Samantha had shown up out of breath and said that she had found Anthony swearing and bent over.  Her initial reaction had taken less than a second, and the first thing she wanted to ask Anthony was, Did you see one?  Did you see a ghost?  But she realized that this would probably come off as grossly insensitive to everybody else.
     Mr. Rhodes walked in front of the group now, his hands now empty.  He had given his mug of coffee to Anthony to try and warm him up a bit before reaching McDonald’s, and flashlights were no longer necessary because they were back underneath the light of the street lamps.
     Samantha’s hands felt cold.  One of them was clutching her unused camera, while the other hung freely at her side.  It had been the hand that had touched Anthony’s, and despite the fact that his hand was ice cold to the touch, hers felt quite warm when she thought about touching him.


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