Forgotten Ghosts by Eric Asher

Author:Eric Asher [Asher, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Eric R. Asher
Published: 2018-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Terrence Holtzman. His father had been the first man he knew that died in the war. A family torn asunder when his sister became an abolitionist. It was a dangerous time for women to have an opinion, much less an opinion on what had cut the nation in half. She left Missouri to work with the abolitionists.

It was the last time he saw his little sister. But he heard the stories of what they’d done to her. He swore that so long as he lived, he would fight in her memory.

He served in Missouri most of his years, fighting for the right to raise the first colored regiment near Kansas. And they finally won, and those proud men marched for the Union.

Terrence saw a dozen skirmishes with various units. Some were filled with his friends, some people he would’ve one time considered enemies, but most died. It was Price’s disorganized campaign that tore through the heart of the state. They cut down his friends, and while many bodies were lost to the woods, some remained. But no matter what, Terrence played his guitar in their honor at their memorials.

The last song he played was interrupted by fire, and a ball of lead. His last vision was the boy in gray, marching over the fresh graves, screaming that Terrence’s daddy had killed his, but now he’d return the favor in kind. He recognized the boy. He couldn’t be more than fourteen, couldn’t understand what he was doing, taking up arms for the Confederacy, and murdering his one-time neighbor.

The boy never saw what got him. Never saw the shadow rise from the woods, the angry flare in the forest god’s eyes. One moment he was alive, and the next vines had risen from the forest floor and shot through him like spears.

The lumbering shadow kneeled beside Terrence. It spoke. “Your music was beautiful.”

In his last words, Terrence whispered, “I knew you were real.”

* * *

I broke away from the vision with a cry. Tears stung my cheeks, and I defiantly stared up at the forest god. His charge had slowed until he came to a stop not ten feet from us. But his eyes weren’t on me. They were on the glowing spirit beside me, the tattered and stained uniform of a friend gunned down.

“But you died,” the forest god said quietly, the spikes on his body slowly receding.

Terrence barked out a short laugh. “Yeah. It sucked. But I’m glad you were there.”

“And the shadows around you?” Dirge asked. “They are ghosts, too?”

Terrence nodded. “But I don’t know why you can see me and not them. We’re the same.”

“I think I know,” Dirge said. And he turned his gaze to me. “You spoke the truth.”

“I did.” I bit my tongue, not wanting any sarcasm to slip out and possibly anger the very, very large forest god. “We were only here for the vampires and those who would do harm to the ghosts and commoners of this place.”

Dirge gave a slow nod of his colossal head before turning his gaze back to Terrence.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.