I'm treating today's prompt as a rather appropriate title for the Epilogue to the story :) Which will take today and tomorrow to complete, but then we're done! (Not least because it turns out I can't fit all of today's tying-up of loose-ends into one post.) Any feedback you have on the whole thing is welcome too, though I appreciate reading it in chunks like this is hardly the best experience for anyone.
Afterglow The ghost soldiers were stood to attention by the side of the white van when Collins climbed up the steel ladder to the airfield access point. The van’s driver was stood near them, with the side-door of the van open, looking alert. Inside the van Collins could see Adams sat on a seat, leaning against the window and wrapped in a blanket. She looked as though she was asleep. Behind her, at the back, William was sat handcuffed to the armrests of his seat. He was still deathly pale and only the rapid rise and fall of his chest betrayed that he was still alive. “You’re alive,” said the van driver. He smiled. “Your dog’s around here somewhere, too.” “What happened to them?” Collins inclined his head towards the soldiers as school had drilled into him firmly that it was rude to point. “What do you mean? When we got here they were mostly standing around looking puzzled, so Sarge got them lined up and looking attentive.” “They were guarding the area when we came,” said Collins. “We had to use Timothy to distract them.” “He must have done a good job then; they weren’t guarding anything for us.” “You should come and collect your dog, son,” said an oddly-familiar voice behind him, and Collins turned, wondering if the middle-aged athletically-built ghost would be visible or if he’d found some other way to hide himself and make Collins hunt for him. He was standing there, a couple of centimetres above the grass with a wisp of a smile on his face. “He’s over in the hangar, I’ll show you.” Collins glanced at the van driver, who was patting his pockets and looking for a cigarette. “Sure,” he said. They walked several metres away from the driver and then the ghost said, “You’ll have a whole bunch of questions now.” “Yes.” Collins took a moment to think. “Ethel—” “You’re not going to get many answers there,” said the ghost. “Nor for questions about the Inspectral either. Mostly because they’re the only ones with the answers you’re looking for. But I can tell you that Ethel is a really old ghost.” “When Tony was making me go back to the Device,” said Collins, thinking hard. His memory of what had happened on the staircase was hazy. “Ethel wore the Robes, I think. I thought ghosts couldn’t affect the real world like that.”
“Heh. Ethel was definitely caught up in the Radiance, lad. He can be a lot more solid than most ghosts if he wants to be. Don’t know how he does it, and he’s not wanted to talk about it with anyone I know.” “The Inspectral said something about that. He said that the Radiance made people thinner and ghosts more solid. That he thought one took from the other. But… I thought Ethel was probably alive, you know?” “He likes it that way,” said the ghost. “It gives him an advantage in a tricky situation that no-one knows he’s got. Sensible policing, that is.” Collins thought a bit and noticed that they were taking a longer route to the hangar than strictly necessary. “How old a ghost is he? Only when he came out of the robes he was wearing clothes that looked, I dunno, historic? Antique?” The ghost laughed easily. “You don’t ask a ghost their age, lad,” he said. “But a ghost’s real clothes, if you like, the ones they died in… well, his would have been fashionable somewhere around 800AD. Much like his name.” Collins stopped walking and stared at the ghost. “There are ghosts that old? I thought… I don’t know what I thought. That the Radiance created them I suppose.” The ghost started walking again, and Collins had to move to catch up. “Best not to be seen too openly talking to me, lad,” said the ghost. “Me showing you where your dog is, that’s one thing. The Inspectral won’t like it if he thinks we’re chatting behind his back. The Radiance brought the ghosts out, might be a better way to think of it. It’s probably related to some ghosts going solid.” “How many ghosts are there?” They entered the hangar, and Collins could see Timothy lying on the floor at the far end, near a water bowl. They were nearly half-way across the hangar before the ghost answered. “Lots,” he said. “It’s why the world is so quiet these days. Any questions that aren’t about ghosts?” Collins thought about that too, and they had reached Timothy who jumped up to greet him, his tail wagging enthusiastically, when he realised he did have another. “Ethel said I was glowing after I’d been in the room with the Device. Does that mean anything?” “Hmm,” said the ghost. “Well. That sounds like you’re Radiant.”
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I'm treating today's prompt as a rather appropriate title for the Epilogue to the story :) Which will take today and tomorrow to complete, but then we're done! (Not least because it turns out I can't fit all of today's tying-up of loose-ends into one post.) Any feedback you have on the whole thing is welcome too, though I appreciate reading it in chunks like this is hardly the best experience for anyone.
Afterglow
The ghost soldiers were stood to attention by the side of the white van when Collins climbed up the steel ladder to the airfield access point. The van’s driver was stood near them, with the side-door of the van open, looking alert. Inside the van Collins could see Adams sat on a seat, leaning against the window and wrapped in a blanket. She looked as though she was asleep. Behind her, at the back, William was sat handcuffed to the armrests of his seat. He was still deathly pale and only the rapid rise and fall of his chest betrayed that he was still alive.
“You’re alive,” said the van driver. He smiled. “Your dog’s around here somewhere, too.”
“What happened to them?” Collins inclined his head towards the soldiers as school had drilled into him firmly that it was rude to point.
“What do you mean? When we got here they were mostly standing around looking puzzled, so Sarge got them lined up and looking attentive.”
“They were guarding the area when we came,” said Collins. “We had to use Timothy to distract them.”
“He must have done a good job then; they weren’t guarding anything for us.”
“You should come and collect your dog, son,” said an oddly-familiar voice behind him, and Collins turned, wondering if the middle-aged athletically-built ghost would be visible or if he’d found some other way to hide himself and make Collins hunt for him. He was standing there, a couple of centimetres above the grass with a wisp of a smile on his face. “He’s over in the hangar, I’ll show you.”
Collins glanced at the van driver, who was patting his pockets and looking for a cigarette. “Sure,” he said.
They walked several metres away from the driver and then the ghost said, “You’ll have a whole bunch of questions now.”
“Yes.” Collins took a moment to think. “Ethel—”
“You’re not going to get many answers there,” said the ghost. “Nor for questions about the Inspectral either. Mostly because they’re the only ones with the answers you’re looking for. But I can tell you that Ethel is a really old ghost.”
“When Tony was making me go back to the Device,” said Collins, thinking hard. His memory of what had happened on the staircase was hazy. “Ethel wore the Robes, I think. I thought ghosts couldn’t affect the real world like that.”
“Heh. Ethel was definitely caught up in the Radiance, lad. He can be a lot more solid than most ghosts if he wants to be. Don’t know how he does it, and he’s not wanted to talk about it with anyone I know.”
“The Inspectral said something about that. He said that the Radiance made people thinner and ghosts more solid. That he thought one took from the other. But… I thought Ethel was probably alive, you know?”
“He likes it that way,” said the ghost. “It gives him an advantage in a tricky situation that no-one knows he’s got. Sensible policing, that is.”
Collins thought a bit and noticed that they were taking a longer route to the hangar than strictly necessary. “How old a ghost is he? Only when he came out of the robes he was wearing clothes that looked, I dunno, historic? Antique?”
The ghost laughed easily. “You don’t ask a ghost their age, lad,” he said. “But a ghost’s real clothes, if you like, the ones they died in… well, his would have been fashionable somewhere around 800AD. Much like his name.”
Collins stopped walking and stared at the ghost. “There are ghosts that old? I thought… I don’t know what I thought. That the Radiance created them I suppose.”
The ghost started walking again, and Collins had to move to catch up. “Best not to be seen too openly talking to me, lad,” said the ghost. “Me showing you where your dog is, that’s one thing. The Inspectral won’t like it if he thinks we’re chatting behind his back. The Radiance brought the ghosts out, might be a better way to think of it. It’s probably related to some ghosts going solid.”
“How many ghosts are there?”
They entered the hangar, and Collins could see Timothy lying on the floor at the far end, near a water bowl. They were nearly half-way across the hangar before the ghost answered. “Lots,” he said. “It’s why the world is so quiet these days. Any questions that aren’t about ghosts?”
Collins thought about that too, and they had reached Timothy who jumped up to greet him, his tail wagging enthusiastically, when he realised he did have another.
“Ethel said I was glowing after I’d been in the room with the Device. Does that mean anything?”
“Hmm,” said the ghost. “Well. That sounds like you’re Radiant.”
Greg - I try to accommadate with prompts... sometimes :)
Good to have some answers here in the wrap up. Though you've still managed to have a cliffhanger for part two with that ending :P
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