4.

“Since you guessed that this thing is a phantasm, I’m confident that it’s not. Even so, Whatever the creature in here is, that sword can kill it,” Teresa’s sister Bella said.
We were standing at the mine’s entrance doing some last-minute strategizing. Bella had refused to let Teresa use the sword unless she came with us. She didn’t trust that she would return it once the job was done.
“What other creatures leave ectoplasm behind Bella? You taught me that ectoplasm equals phantasm,” Teresa said. The way she and Bella glared at each other made me glad I never had any siblings.
“What if it wasn’t ectoplasm, genius? Did that ever occur to you? That’s why you could never have been a good mage and instead had to be a hired thug for rich snobs,” Bella said.
“Hired thug? How many times do I have to tell you, I am a bodyguard! I never wanted to be a mage either! Everyone knows, all mages are just puny, bookworms that just happen to have magic. You’re nothing compared to actual fighters,” Teresa responded. She and Bella were standing with their fists clenched.
For sisters they looked vastly different. Bella was at least a foot shorter than Teresa and had black hair. Her mahogany-colored skin was also darker than Teresa’s. The only things they had in common were eye color and bad tempers.
“Oh, I bet I could take you, Tears!” Bella said and pretended to be crying.
“You know I hate that stupid nickname! Take it back or I’ll cut you in half and have two, even shorter, evil sisters,” Teresa said and drew her sword.
“Ladies, what if we just wait till we see what the thing is to discuss this. Then we can focus all this rage on it.” I said and stepped between them.
“You’re right my love, she isn’t worth the steel of my blade,” Teresa said.
“Whatever, just stay out of the way and let me handle this thing. If you end up dead, I’ll never hear the end of it.” Bella said as we walked into the cavernous mine.
As we walked deeper, the space around us became darker and darker until it was pitch black. Bella’s wooden staff began to glow bright yellow when it got too dark to see. I was relieved to have her with us at that moment. I had no idea what to expect inside of this eerie, earthen corridor, but having a mage on my side eased my nerves a bit.
We walked into an open space that looked big enough to be an arena. Lit torches lined the walls while pickaxes littered the ground.
“This must be where they stumbled across the spirit.” Teresa said.
“Really, and how long did that observation take you to make?” Bella said.
“You know, for such a small person, you sure are a huge bit...” Teresa stopped when I raised my hand.
I had noticed what looked like a metal barrel coming out of the wall. We walked slowly and silently toward it. There was a jagged hole in whatever the strange container was.
“This looks like a binding container,” Bella said with a puzzled look on her face.
“What does that mean exactly?” I asked.
“Well, it means a few things actually, first of all it means this spirit is extremely old. The mages guild hasn’t allowed the use of these things for over 500 years. It also means though, that this person was alive when they were bound, binding containers only work on living beings’” Bella said.
We were all facing the wall with our backs to the rest of the open area. I almost missed a small, circular shadow that gradually got larger in the flickering of the torchlight. When it grew too large Teresa figured it out. She yelled sorry as she shoved me away from the area. A chunk of rock the size of a small house slammed into Teresa and Bella.
“Noo” I screamed and raced over to the massive rock.
I tried pointlessly to pry it off them. I pulled at it with every bit of strength I could muster, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Where’s Laura?” Someone from behind me said. The voice was so deep the ground vibrated when they spoke.
I turned around and saw what looked like a soldier, except he was transparent. His see-through body hovered several feet from the ground and had a green tinge. It floated slowly toward me while I tried uselessly to back away. When the spirit was directly in front of me it spoke again.
“Where is Laura?” it said. Its voice sounded like stones being ground together.
“I....I don’t know,” I said, trembling.
“Liar, you have her!” The spirit yelled and raised its blade to strike.
“Please, please I don’t know where Laura is, you have to believe me,” I begged.
In response to my plea the spirit plunged his sword into my stomach. A red-hot pain shot throughout my entire body. I started to scream, and blood raced up my esophagus and spewed from my mouth. A feeling of fear and disbelief enveloped me after watching my life essence flow out of me. I sank to the cold ground after he removed the blade. My breathing became labored as blood slowly poured from my open mouth. I felt myself losing consciousness as a warm feeling covered me. Just before I closed my eyes, for what I believed to be the last time, I saw a brilliant light shining over me.
“Wow, I’m going to heaven,” I said before my body slumped sideways.
“Hey, wake up.” A woman’s nurturing voice called out to me.
I opened my eyes and was greeted by Bella’s surprisingly warm smile.
“God, why do you look like Bella?” I asked groggily.
“You’re not dead yet, asshole,” she said and smirked.
Something about her smile made me feel hopeful.
“Hold still you’re not fully healed yet.” She said again.
The sound of metal clashing against metal caught my attention. I looked to my left and saw Teresa dueling with the spirit. It swung its sword incredibly fast. I could barely keep up with the speed of its attacks. Teresa kept up easily though. She blocked the attacks and countered with a wild swipe at its head. The spirit vanished, just before the silver blade touched it, and reappeared several feet in front of her.
“Where is Laura!” The spirit screamed before charging at Teresa again.
“It keeps asking about someone named Laura,” I said to Bella.
“I think this is a vengeful spirit, but for that to be true it would mean that he was wrongly imprisoned by the mage’s guild.” Bella said.
“How do we kill it?” I asked as she helped me to my feet.
“Honestly, if this is a vengeful spirit, we may not be able to,” she said as the sound of swords clashing filled the air.

Chapter end