The Specter's Reign

It was the first day of Fall, and the leaves had begun to crumble and break. I watched a frail, orange leaf fall slowly from a tree and onto my windshield. It was just after 11am and a ceiling of gray clouds separated the town from the sun above. Despite this, it was a fairly comfortable morning. As I drove home from therapy, I thought aimlessly of all the troubles that plagued me. I forced them out with my breath, and they clawed their way back in. I was driving on autopilot as I approached the stop sign. I saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye. My speed slowed increasingly as I approached the stop sign. I had plenty of time to stop, but I didn’t. I felt a bump beneath my tires, and fear made my spine tingle. I did not stop or look back before I reached the stop sign and came to a full halt.

“Come on… you’ve got to be kidding me.” I said aloud, keeping my eyes firmly forward. At this point, I was breathing heavily. I had run something over. What had it been? Terrible images flooded my thoughts. I saw a broken skateboard, and a big dent in the side of my leased car. I saw an old squirrel, reduced to roadkill. I saw a small yellow dog, imprinted by my tire. I saw a young child, who had simply strayed from the yard…

Feeling as if I were about to throw up, I put the car in park and stepped out. My breathing was sharp and quick, and I could feel sweat coating my palms. I closed my eyes and tried to ground myself. Perhaps I had imagined the whole thing. But no, I knew this wasn’t true. I had seen movement, and I had felt an impact. I walked slowly to the back of my car, steadying myself against it. I prepared myself as best I could for every possibility. I held my breath, and like ripping off a bandaid, I stuck my head out to see what lay behind my vehicle. It was nothing. This couldn’t be right. I got to my knees and looked beneath the car. I saw nothing. I trailed back to where I had felt the impact and looked around. There was nothing to be seen. I looked for blood stains, dents, damage- any sign of the impact. No evidence. I felt relieved, but only for a moment. Then I felt puzzled, and concerned. I knew that I had hit something. I saw it, and I felt it. What had I hit?

I got in the car anyway, and I drove. Not two minutes later, I saw another movement on the opposite side of the street. I came to a hard stop this time, and looked. There was a handsome black cat, fur darker than the night sky and eyes more yellow than the moon. I frowned at the omen, then watched as it took two steps forwards and turned into the wind.

Moments later, there it was again, on the other side of the street. The cat followed me home. For weeks, everywhere I turned I saw the cat. It was like my shadow, except that no one else could see it; we were connected. I got used to it soon enough.

November was coming around, and it would soon be time to vote for local elections. For the very first time, our town was to elect a mayor this term. There were two candidates. One was strongly democratic, and the other just as strongly republican. As an independent voter, this made things complicated.

“Who are you going to vote for, Hudson?” I asked my like-minded friend..

“I don’t know yet. Do you?” Hudson was also an independent voter, and we both had a habit of saving our research until the last minute before we chose who to vote for.

I told him, “Not sure. I'm not happy with either of these candidates, really. I mean, this will be the first time that a single person represents our town. It’s a big deal.”

“Well, you know who I’m voting for,” Katrina chided. “And if you guys were smart, you would vote the same way.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Frickin lib,” I shook my head. “You know, I bet I’d make a fine mayor. I’m a reasonable guy, unbound by conventional political bias.”

Katrina laughed, in a mean way. “You would be a terrible politician.”

“Screw you! I would be good. You’d vote for me, right Hudson?”

“Definitely!” He cheered. “Easier to vote for a guy that you trust than someone who you’ve never even met.”

“Sound logic, by my judgment,” I shrugged, and shook his hand.

Katrina scowled. “Joe, tell them he would be a terrible politician. I am too tired for this.”

Joe scratched his chin. “Well, I don’t often agree with those two, but I must say: He might be onto something here.”

“What?” She rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand.

“Yeah, I mean, in actual politics he would be a liability, no doubt. But we are only electing a mayor, and there is no standard set so far. All we need is someone reasonable who will do what is best for the town. Plus, he can just run everything by us so that we don’t let anything excessively stupid slip out.”

“Exactly!” I agreed. “I won’t need to negotiate for the safety of the nation or anything. Although, I’m sure I could do so if I had to.”

“Stop!” Katrina demanded. “Do not try to run for mayor! You’ll only pull votes from the candidates that deserve them.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” I grinned, “I’ve just thought of an excellent plan.”

There was just over a week left before voting day. I appointed Joe as my campaign manager, and he spread the word far and wide. This was just for show, really; to lessen the shock of my inevitable win. The evening before the votes were to be counted, were you sitting outside of the town hall, you would have seen Hudson nervously hobble over to the absentee ballot deposit box holding a bag containing 20,000 absentee ballots with my name on them. You then would have seen him insert them each into the box, individually, dropping one on occasion due to sweat (a result of combined anxiety and the labor of carrying the very heavy bag). Of course, no one was outside of the town hall that night, and no one saw him. The next evening, I was named mayor.

I shook the hand of each town council member and received the ceremonial key to the city. I was the beacon of hope that our home needed so desperately; I was the shining sun. I assembled a council of wise political advisors; Joe, Hudson, James, and my buddy Chris from the postal service. Despite her opposing my election, I still allowed Katrina to serve on my advisory council. Our first meeting went smoothly, as we discussed goals. Due to the fact that there had never been a mayor before, there were no checks and balances in place. Thus, I didn't need to run anything by the town council before I finalized it. This is where the advisory council came into play.

“I think it could use a super tall slide,” Hudson said, adjusting his glasses.

“No, you’re right. We can arrange to put that in right next to the new in-ground skate park. That way, kids can skateboard down the slide and into the halfpipe if they want,” I stated. Joe and Hudson nodded in agreement. “How is the homeless population fairing?”

“It’s doing good, Nick,” Chris assured me. “Homelessness in our town was pretty low to start, but it’s down to single digits now.”

“Excellent. This is great, but we can do better. I want no homelessness. James, any ideas?”

“Well,” he cleared his throat, “I think everyone should have a home. Why don’t we just build a house for each homeless person and give it to them for free?”

We all clapped except for Katrina. “You’re a genius, my friend! Your seat on this council is well deserved.” I made a few notes.

“What of the school system's performance?” Joe inquired.

I replied, “According to my records, we are the third ranked system in the state currently. That makes us the second loser, effectively. We’ve all seen Talladega Nights.” There were nods around the room. “I suggest that we simply require that each student's scores be raised one letter grade at the conclusion of each quarter. Any student who already has an A+ will receive one hundred dollars cash, as compensation for their exemplary work. Are there any objections?”

“Great Idea!” James exclaimed. Everyone shook their heads, but Katrina spoke up.

“Wait, you can’t seriously-”

“Booooo! Booo!” The remainder of the council booed her viciously. They resented her for holding a seat on the council even though she did not contribute to my campaign, and rather actively opposed it. Her words were often met this way. I did not boo, however. I was not as petty as that.

“Silence, my friends! Let her speak.” They obeyed reluctantly.

“What the heck, James?” She scolded her younger brother.

“Sorry,” he breathed nervously, looking down at the table. “Mob mentality got the better of me.” He seemed apologetic, but this did not stop him from booing her during the next council meeting.

Ignoring him, Katrina turned to me. “You can’t seriously think that rigging the grades of everyone in the school system is the most effective way to improve our ranking!”

“I’m pretty confident that it is the most effective way, actually.”

“You have to make actual changes to the curriculum! They won’t get smarter by rigging their grades!”

“I disagree. One hundred dollars is a ton of money to a student; by rewarding A+ students with cash, it will encourage every student to strive for an A+ grade without any tampering.”

“It’s surefire logic!” Joe agreed. Chris was nodding gleefully.

“Excellent!” I smiled. “Then, I believe that will conclude this meeting!” I slammed my gavel and the meeting was adjourned. Everyone shook hands and chattered as they left. Last in the room were myself and the black cat that sat across the table from me.

“Have you any wisdom? I asked. It smiled, and disappeared. I nodded. “Figures.”

Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last. To everyone's surprise, it was less than a month before I proved to be a less than ideal mayor. The town was quickly swimming in debt. Drowning would be a better term, actually. While I was initially very well received as mayor, the people's faith quickly dwindled. They began talking, and they realized that practically none of them had actually voted for me. Tension rose in the town. There were riots, calling for my removal from office. I stopped leaving the office at all, instead, for fear of my safety. I was the clouds that submerged the town in darkness. The stress got to me, and I disbanded my advisory council in a fit of rage. I confined myself to my office; just me, and the cat.

I paced anxiously as it watched. I felt its yellow eyes glaring into me. I stopped. “What?” I asked. It said nothing. I sighed. “Governing is so much harder than I thought. What should I do?” It was a rhetorical question; but to my horror, it evoked an answer.

“Make a deal with me,” the cat spoke, its voice deep and dark. I stared at it in awe. “You carelessly took my life, and now my spirit is without a vessel. Let me share your’s, and I will make all of your problems go away.”

“Make them go away, huh…” I scratched my chin. “Does that mean that you know how to solve them? Or does it just mean you are going to kill me or something?”

“I have the answers that you seek. I was once the well respected leader of an ancient cat civilization far larger than the community that you govern.”

“No way! Really?”

“Yep.”

“That’s sick! So you totally know all the tricks of politics and stuff!”

“Correct.”

“Yeah, alright. We can make a deal. If we share a body though, who is in control? Do we split it?”

“I’m not sure, to be honest. I’ve never shared a body before.”

“Oh. Alright, it will be a learning experience for both of us I suppose. Let’s try it!”

The cat nodded, ducked its head, and leapt towards my body. Instead of crashing into my chest, it simply slipped inside of me. I screamed in pain as my body tried to reject the admittance of the additional soul. I clutched my chest, heart racing, and fell to my knees. My eyes turned bright yellow, and dark blood drizzled down my face from their sockets.. While my body was agitated and dripping with sweat, my consciousness faded. The cat laughed deeply, using my body as it lay on the floor in a pool of blood and sweat. “Sorry, kid. Looks like I am the one in control after all.”

The next day, the town council was removed from power and the next term's election was permanently suspended. Prisoners were released and recruited to form the mayor's personal army. Anyone with complaints from this point on was simply arrested. People lived in fear, but they did so quietly. The spirit really had made my problems go away.

The town felt cold under the spirits’s rule. Guards patrolled every block of the town, food purchases were limited, and school was mandatory attendance. After school or work, people were to return immediately to their homes. No one was to wander the town anymore. As such, it was very noticeable when the members of my old advisory council came strolling up to the front door of the town hall near the end of November. It was an especially chilly day; snow was falling for the first time that year. It was the type of snow that is so light and sparse that it could be mistaken for ashes from a distant fire. The council had one other person with them; a figure in a tall, dark trench coat. He strongly resembled “The Stranger,” from my final comics project of the previous year. The guards stopped them. They faced them boldly.

“Let us pass,” Joe demanded. The guards only chuckled, then attacked. Joe and Hudson quickly unsheathed their swords, which they wore on their backs, and engaged the guards in combat. The others took this opportunity to burst through the door. They made a beeline for my office, but were cut off by another swarm of guards.

“I’ve got this one!” Chris declared, panting. “My knees can’t take much more running anyways.” He pulled a pair of red nunchucks from his back pocket.

“I’ll stay and help Chris,” James decided. “There are too many for him to fight alone. We will catch up with you!” He pulled a baseball bat out from beneath his jacket.

Katrina and the Stranger heard the sound of blows landing behind them as they approached my office. Together, they kicked down the door.

“That wasn’t locked, you know,” the spirit within my body informed them.

“Nick, are you still in there?” Katrina called to me.

“Don’t worry. Your friend wanted this. We… made an arrangement.” The spirit’s deep voice echoed. “I see that you came armed,” it said, gesturing to the nightstick in Katrina’s hand. “Surely, you don’t intend to harm your friend's body?”

She was conflicted, but the Stranger sprung into action. The two exchanged blows, matching each other nearly equally. They moved fast and hit hard, each drawing blood and grunts from the other. They grappled each other into a stalemate before Katrina seized the opportunity and hit the back of my leg with the nightstick. My body folded like a chair and collapsed onto the ground. The Stranger took this opportunity to produce a pendant from his jacket pocket and force it into my chest with an open palm. He began muttering, and the spirit began to holler.

“Exorcist! I should have known. Stop this! We made a deal!”

The Stranger continued. When he finished muttering, he hollered at the top of his lungs, “Be gone!”

The room turned frigid and still as the spirit left my body with a hissing noise, taking the shape of a warm breath amongst the cold air.. I woke up slowly.

“Woah…” I looked around. The others entered the room at this point. Using context clues, I formed a theory. “That cat spirit was totally evil, huh?”

“Yes, it definitely was,” Katrina confirmed.

“Do you see a lot of animal spirits that we don’t see?” Joe asked. I ignored the question, instead turning my gaze to the Stranger.

“Who is this guy?”

He smiled. “I’m glad you're alright. I am you, from an alternate timeline. I am also a monster hunter/exorcist.”

“That’s so sick,” I breathed in awe. “So, did you exorcize me- or, whatever?”

“Yeah man.”

“Thanks dude. I owe you one. Thanks, all of you!”

Chris shrugged, and Hudson grinned. James said, “Well, I was in the neighborhood, so…”

Katrina glared at me. Shrugging, I admitted, “So, I’m not a great mayor. Whatever! At least I tried.”

The next day, I reinstated the town council and resigned from my position as mayor. The council then quickly voted to remove the position of mayor once again. My reign as the first and only mayor lasted one month. A short term for any position, and yet it was unfortunately enough to ruin any chances I had of a successful political career. Governing is a truly thankless job.