Spirit Trafficking

My jaw dropped upon seeing what was in the cargo hold.

what I saw with my second sight was horrifying

I covered my mouth with my hands, my glittery bangles jangling together were the only audible sound in that hold, but across the veil…. was a symphony of suffering that sounded like hell.

I wished right there that I had never taken this job.

I should probably explain what I'm doing on a huge ship in the middle of the night, I needed the work.

My friend Sharae knew how tight money was for me, she had contracted aboard the River Spirit a year ago and had made a decent profit doing protection work for them.

The River Spirit’s captain, Richard A. Fullman, was very superstitious and hired witches and psychics regularly to ward off any ill luck and to scry for him and warn him about any bumps in the road ahead… so to speak.

Capt. Fullman had asked her for a recommendation of a talented psychic medium and she had done me a solid and recommended me.

I normally would have had another psychic reader on this gig with me, but due to all the hex work tossed at my little metaphysical shop in the past couple of years, most of the readers did not want to work with me… I couldn't blame them.

Sharae is one of the few who will still work with me, and she is a heavy-duty witch, nothing really scares her.

My husband Del, to his credit, refused to let it affect him, but he had not worked in months and had almost been killed twice when he worked driving deliveries for our local market.

My mother was helping us out by watching Lacey, Del and I’s two-year-old little girl, and chipping in with her social security.

Lacey had been the target of some nasty hexes, and we had all discussed leaving the business and the island behind us.

Then Del had gotten into those accidents and our money had drained away.

We would not be leaving anytime soon if I couldnt raise the cash.

When Sharae told me about this job, the captain needed someone who could communicate with the dead and who was discreet. It was too good to pass up and would solve a lot of my problems, so against my better judgment, I accepted it.

You know the saying about things that are too good to be true….

Unearthly shrieking and wailing made my mind numb as the air grew frigid around me. An inconvenient time to wear my flowy, strappy paisley dress, although truthfully, I could have been layered for the Arctic and I still would have frozen. This was a supernatural cold, driven by the dead who were currently in row upon row of cramped tanks.

The burly crew member with the long scar over his eye that had brought me here clanked around inside the hold, checking the tanks. It was obvious that he could not see what was writhing in those tanks, he was checking the thermometers on the glass of each tank and nodding as he went.

When I arrived on the ship, “Scar” had been assigned to greet me and take me directly to the cargo hold. All he had said outside of “follow me” was that Captain needed to know if I was “authentic or another fake.”

Now I understood what he meant.

Scar eyed me, smiled, and headed out the hold door. When I remained rooted to the spot, he grunted at me and motioned for me to follow him away from the hold. I nodded, tears falling down my face and freezing once they hit the air and followed him wordlessly down the small hallway.

We ended up on deck where a man in a captain hat leaned over the ship rail, smoking a cigarillo.

“Boss, she’s the real deal.” Scar’s voice held a note of relief.

“Well, well, letting Sharae out of her contract actually paid off then.” The captain straightened and turned to look at me. He eyed me and smiled broadly “I expect you want to run right off this ship, don't you?”

I put on my best poker face and looked him straight in the eye” First I would like an explanation as to why I am here. You obviously know that you have spirits in that hold, what do you need a clairvoyant for?”

He adjusted his jaw” Fancy word, clairvoyant.”

I waited.

He blew out a gust of smoke” Just need you to tell me if any of them ghosts get loose. I had one get past the protective wards that Sharae and her little coven put up on the last run and hijack one of my men. He killed three of my crew, it will not happen again.”

I blinked.

He knew I wasn't going to go for it “It would be steady work. Roundtrip, pick up, drop off, and home. You can support your family easily with what i will pay you.” He blew another gout of smoke.

I kept my expression neutral, “Why the hell would you even take this kind of risk. If you know what they can do… why?”

He barked a laugh out” Money, girl.” Scar sniggered behind me, and I got an uncomfortable notion.

“There can't be much market for ghosts...can there?” Confusion on my face.

He half smiled” Much more than you think. It's less trouble than selling tribe members and it will not get me in any kind of legal bind the way selling kids does. It is a good deal.”

“What?!!!??” I wanted out of there at once and began to back up until I felt Scar get closer behind.

Scar put his meaty hand on my arm and squeezed “Tribesmen sell their rival tribes. Parents sell their children by the dozen…they make endless supplies. If you do not have a voice, you better have protection. If you have neither, you are prey.” He said it matter of factly and I caught a quick empathic flash of a small & scrawny child that looked a lot like Scar being hustled onto a boat by a woman with several other small children and tossed into cages with other children who were just as thin. I saw through the child's eyes as the woman turned away from the boat and ushered the other children with her. I almost retched from the vision.

The captain looked at me” You are better than Sharae mentioned, psychic visions on contact. You will do well.” He began to turn away.

“No, I don't think so. I need to leave, now. There is too much risk on this job.” I needed to word this precisely or I knew that I would disappear.

He looked at me darkly “Well if you want to keep your family safe, you will take the job. I can get quite a bit for your husband and your mother. I guarantee you that your little girl will end up in a brothel, she will bring me a fortune as pretty as she is; now girl, choose your next words very carefully.”

I blew out a breath “Ok, you got me over a barrel. Fine, how many trips is the contract for?”

“As long as there is a market.”

“I need protection against possession myself, I'm sure that Sharae gave your men some sort of amulet... I will need one of those. Do you have a spare jumpsuit?” I leeched all emotion out of my tone.

He smiled” No need. Sharae and her coven warded the hold and the tanks. They told us to get lead glass that is tempered to withstand extremes of cold and iron tank frames dressed in salt and to keep the cargo hold salted. We haven't had any trouble since then and you are a security measure.”

“I see” and I did. Sharae was going to pay for getting me into this.

The captain nodded at Scar who yanked me back to the hallway and shoved a jumpsuit in my hands, pointing to a small room for me to change in. Which I did once I shut the door, stuffing everything into my reading bag that Id brought with me I stepped out to find Scar waiting for me.

He pulled the bag from my hands and riffled through it, pulling out my phone and tablet, and then handing the bag back. With another grunt and a nod, Scar led me to my “Station.” A small alcove by the cargo holds so I could monitor the situation, it had a bed and toilet as well so I guessed I wouldn't leave it much. Lovely.

“How are you guys trapping all these ghosts?” I never knew spirits to just hop into a holding vessel. It took work to cage one.

Scar smirked” Ask your friend Sharae, her coven catches them for us. It was the coven that suggested it to go along with trafficking children. We have been working with covens for years, slavers need protection too.” He left me standing there, horrified. I got the distinct impression that he enjoyed my reaction.

I pushed out my empathic senses to make sure that I was all alone. I then closed my eyes, leaned my head back, and fell into a meditative state which is how i communicated with my spirit guides & ancestors…well, the dead in general.

My guides had seen everything and had remained quiet to conceal their presence. They looked pissed, I didn't blame them…my guides had warned me to avoid both Sharae and this job and I hadn't listened. We came up with a plan, all I needed was to enlist the trapped souls in the cargo hold for it to work, which wouldn't be hard, they were pretty angry at this point.

.

Next, I stretched out my senses until I found Hollow, the guide who had stayed with my family. I always leave a few spirits around my family when I'm not there for a warning system, I sent her all that had happened, and she went to get Del, my mom, or Lacey if neither adult would listen. My family needed to disappear.

That done, I went to work.

Speaking with the trapped spirits was the hardest part, they had already been betrayed by the coven so expecting them to trust someone was a big ask. However, their alternative was eternal slavery so when they calmed down, we managed to reach an agreement.

The plan relied on the ghosts getting it cold enough to shatter the glass of their tanks, I would clear off Sharae’s protection wards & nullify her charms for the crew, and they would get out and do damage, possessing and killing the crew and captain, then I go home and that's that.

It went pretty much according to plan, except for the concussive blast of all the tanks shattering at once in the hold and blowing off the door after I pulled the warding down. I took off down the hall to find a hiding spot while the spirits took revenge, my guides right on my tail.

The red emergency lighting went on and sirens shrieked as I ran, then the gunfire started. Shotguns, automatics, a couple of grenades blew out behind me, I didn't look back, I just ran.

I ended up getting turned around and instead of the lifeboats, I came out on the deck.

Captain Fullman was swatting at something frantically and then he saw me "You!! You did this!!” He screamed at me, hauled out his pistol that he had had somewhere in his pants and tried to shoot me as I ducked and dodged for my life. I was so frantic that I didn't even feel it when Scar came up behind me and grabbed hold of me.

He carried my thrashing body over to the captain; it was right then that a spirit blurred into the captain’s body and shot Scar. Scar had good reflexes; the bullet hit the meat of his shoulder instead of his head. Then Scar seized up as a spirit floated up through the decking and into him.

The spirits nodded at me and turned to finish off the crew.

I stood panting, I needed to get to the lifeboats but was cut off.

I considered jumping overboard, but one look at those waters had me realizing that there were, if possible, more angry ghosts in the sea around this ship than onboard.

Then I sensed it, these were the souls of the humans that couldn't be sold, that had fought back, that had caused too much trouble or that the crew had broken to the point of no return.

I felt sick and heartbroken for them. Being a psychic sucks sometimes, being an empath sucks most of the time.

I felt my guides close in around me to protect me. Azul, one of my three main guides said with force “JUMP!”

“No way Azul!” I was NOT going into that without a lifeboat or something to separate myself from the spirits and possible underwater predators.

“JUMP!” two of my guides chorused.

I shook my head.

“On three!” I heard them shout.

“Guys, STOP! I can figure this out!”

While I stood debating my options, one of my guides grabbed me by my jumpsuit and pitched me full force overboard into the waters below.

“SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS!!!!!????” Did I mention that I cannot swim?