The Spirit Box (8)

Chapter 8: The woman I used to call my wife.

“You know, Emily, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm impressed," I said, leaning against the wall of Emily's cubicle. "Trying to be a better person takes morals, and I’m honestly surprised you've got 'em. You’re usually so unscrupulous!"

Emily looked up from her desk, a slight blush creeping across her cheeks. "Gee, thanks, Fred," she said, her voice soft. "I'm really trying. It’s nice to hear a compliment from you for a change, even if I am unscrupulous."

Just as I was about to say something more, my cell phone buzzed with an urgent message.

“My office. NOW!”

It was from Chief. I walked in.

"I just got a call from some maniac, apparently Emily's been kidnapped. They're demanding a ransom."

“Wait, what? Emily’s right over there in her cubicle,” I said, puzzled.

“Apparently, that’s Emily’s twin. She’s just as horrible as her sister. The kidnapper paid her to fill in for Emily so nobody would notice she was missing until this guy was long gone,” Chief said.

“That bitch! Taking money and letting her own sister get kidnapped.”

I stormed out of the room.

“Erica!” I shouted. She stood up straight.

“Yes, dear.”

“Shut up and sit down.” The whole office was staring at me now. I stomped over to her. She smiled pleasantly.

I was shouting even louder now, I wanted the whole station to hear. I wanted to humiliate Erica for what she had done.“Your sick. Your sister is sick. Your mother is sick. All your cousins and aunts and uncles are god damn sick! You let your sister get kidnapped for money? And said nothing! Nothing! Are you for real? You’re inhuman, you monster!”

“Oh, what do you care, Fred. She cheated on you! She hasn’t ever really loved you, and I’m sure you don’t care about her after all she’s done,” Erica said.

“What’s wrong with you? She’s your sister!” I screeched.

Erica shrugged and smiled.

“I’m placing you under arrest.”

“For what?” Erica shouted.

“Conspiracy to commit kidnapping.”

“Is that all?” She giggled.

“And being a bitch.”

“That’s not a crime,” she shouted,

I grabbed her by the arm and turned her around so I could handcuff her.

“Her rights! Don’t forget to read her her rights,” Chief shouted.

“Oh, yah. You have the right to remain silent and blah blah blah!” I said.

I took her to a cell and locked her in.

“Hey, this is a men’s cell. There’s men in here,” she shouted.

“Oh is it? And are there? I hadn’t noticed…” I said as I walked away.

I walked back into Chiefs office.

“So what do we do?” I asked.

“We rescue Emily. I know she’s horrible, but it’s the right thing to do. And like you said to Erica, Emily’s trying to be better,” Chief said and smiled.

My heart sank. "Not this again," I muttered, feeling the familiar weight of responsibility settling on my shoulders.

As much as I didn't want to admit it, I knew I had to save Emily.

“Where do we start?” I asked.

“Well, the kidnapper tried to make his number untraceable by rerouting his call through several routers, but my boys down in tech traced the call anyway. The guy is in Mississippi. We don’t know how he got Emily there so fast, but I already got you and Yi plane tickets. Go save your evil ex,” Chief said.

“I never thought I’d hear anyone say that,” I said with a slight smile.

Chief handed me a map he printed of Mississippi and marked the location the call came from.

“There should be a cabin here, according to the trace. And not to hard to find, I used google maps and it looks like it’s the only cabin for miles around,” Chief said.

Great, it was a creepy cabin in the middle of a large, creepier swamp. The perfect home for Emily, if only I could leave her there.

I grabbed my spirit box and Yi and I hopped on the next flight to Mississippi.

When we arrived, we made our way to the river, the air thick with humidity and the smell of damp earth and mold.

“This place even smells like Emily,” I quipped. Yi laughed.

We rented an airboat and sailed down the river looking for Emily.

I was about to shout her name, but I realized the kidnapper might shoot her if he heard me.

Oh, what the hell….

“Emily! Emily, are you out there?” I shouted.

I heard rustling in the bushes. Crap.

I inhaled John.

An alligator swam towards my airboat. I could have sailed off, but I waited to see what it would do.

It boarded my boat and opened its large tooth filled jaw.

I punched it so hard it flew off the boat and hit the water with a loud thud. It quickly swam back to land.

“I get to punch the next alligator,” Yi said and smiled.

“Fine,” I said and rolled my eyes before slowing the boat down and eventually coming to a stop.

“This looks like the area on the map where the cabin is supposed to be,” I said.

“It does? How can you tell? All these bushes look the same to me,” Yi asked.

I pulled out the map and saw the fork in the river we just passed and the X right passed that.

“We just passed the fork,” I said and pulled to the side of the swamp.

“I smell William H. Smith. Somebody’s using his spirit, and they must be nearby,” John said.

“Who’s that?” I asked.

“A famous kidnapper and murderer. I met him once briefly, complete psychopath. Rambled on about how there were no laws in the early days of humanity and there should be no laws now, and he’s entitled to do whatever he wants, etc.” John said.

“Good to know. Yi, you might want to inhale Lee. Apparently someone’s using the spirit of a psycho kidnapper, and they’re nearby,” I said. Yi inhaled his spirit and his muscles grew to the size of mine.

We kept walking through the bushes until we came across a cabin.

“Let’s check it out,” I said, but before we got too close, I heard Emily’s voice shouting, “Fred, don’t go in. It’s a trap,”

“Shut up, bitch. How’d you get the duct tape off?” Another voice said, then a slapping sound.

We turned towards the voice and saw the man.

“Don’t you touch her, asshole,” I shouted.

“I’m William H. Smith, and I do what I want. I was the original sovereign citizen, and laws don’t apply to me… this lady here is mine for the taking, and…”

Before he could finish speaking, I took out my gun and shot him once in the chest.

“That should shut you up,” I said.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” he said and kneeled on the ground while taking out a remote.

“Crap. Fred, he has this whole place rigged to blow,” Emily shouted.

I grabbed Emily, still tied to a chair, and we ran to the swamp. I tossed Emily in before me and Yi dove in, and the cabin and some of the surrounding woods exploded while we were underwater.

When the explosions were finished, Yi and I swam back out of the swamp, and I dragged Emily and her chair to the surface.

Emily wasn’t breathing.

I started pumping her chest in an attempt to give CPR.

She still wasn’t breathing.

“Yi, would you like to give her the kiss of life?” I asked.

“Thanks, but hell no!” Yi said.

“Guess I have to do it,” I said.

After I breathed into her, she started coughing up mud and what looked like a thick, dark oozy bile.

“Maybe that’s the evilness finally coming out of her,” Yi quipped. I laughed.

Emily had just enough energy to briefly give Yi the finger.

I stood up when I heard a loud rustling in the bushes.

The place was still ablaze, but there was one bush left untouched that could easily be a hiding spot for something vicious.

I drew my gun and another alligator popped out and started charging me.

I tried to shoot it, but only mud came out of my barrel.

The alligator opened its jaw and used it to pull me to the ground, but thanks to John’s muscles it barely punctured the skin. I kicked it off, got up, grabbed it and sent it flying into the bushes.

The gator started to charge again, and stopped midway.

“You destroyed my last body. That man was also my friend,” the gator said.

“What the hell? Did that gator just talk?” Yi asked.

“It sure did. Is that you, William?” I asked.

“Yes! And you’ll never win this fight. Not with my brains and this new alligator body,” William said.

“If you say so,” I said and smiled. William charged.

“Yi, look for William’s spirit box while I keep him distracted,” I said and tackled the gator-man to the ground.

The fire was mostly out, allowing Yi to run back to the cabin and sort through the ashes.

“Don’t you touch that box,” William shouted and tried to escape my grip. But I lifted William up by the tail and swung him back and forth.

When Yi got back, I slammed the giant gator to the ground one last time, making sure William was subdued.

Yi opened the box and I tickled the gator until it sneezed, releasing William’s spirit back into the box.

“You better hope I never escape again,” William shouted.

“You won’t. I’m adding you to my collection, which is in an underground vault I had built, just for bad spirit boxes like yourself,” I said. I heard shouting as Yi closed the box.

“You ready to go home, Emily?” I asked.

“Sure am! I’m going to teach that bitch sister of mine a lesson she’ll never forget,” Emily said.

“Don’t worry. I already had Erica locked up,” I said.

“Is that all?” Emily asked.

“I might have accidentally put her in the men’s prison,” I explained.

Emily smiled.

“Serves her right,” Emily said, and we all started laughing.

“Let’s go home,” I said and put my arms around Emily and Yi.