The New Hunt

The New Hunt
Dr. Carver's POV (Spirit Guide)

I'm flying beside Sarah and Chief Kellerman as we drive toward Millbrook, and something feels horribly wrong about this new case.
"Sarah," I call out from whatever realm I now live in, "can you hear me?"
Sarah, who's directing Detective Rivera's body, nods. "I can hear all the spirits now, Dr. Carver. You, Detective Rivera, and about a dozen other ghosts who are following us."
"Other ghosts?"
"The children we saved from the ancient creature. They didn't all move on to the afterlife. Some of them chose to stay and help us hunt shadow walkers."
I look around and see Marcus drifting next to the car, along with Carmen Mendoza and several other ghost children.
"Why didn't they find peace?"
"Because they realized something we missed," Sarah says. "The shadow walkers that escaped from Tidewaters weren't random. They were specifically chosen for different missions."
Chief Kellerman glances in the back mirror, even though she can't see us spirits. "Sarah, what kind of missions?"
"Mom, each shadow walker that left was programmed to target a specific type of victim. One went after police officers. One went after doctors. One went after teachers."
"And the one we're chasing?"
"That one was programmed to target teenagers who don't know they're dead yet."
I feel a chill that has nothing to do with being a ghost. "Sarah, how many dead teenagers are we talking about?"
"Based on what I can sense, there are at least fifty teenagers like Lisa Chen scattered across different towns. All of them killed while traveling to new homes, all of them convinced they're still alive."
"Fifty teenagers," Chief Kellerman whispers. "That's an entire army of super-powered ghosts if they all get sacrificed at once."
"Which is exactly what the shadow walkers are planning. One massive ritual that will give them enough power to possess every adult in America simultaneously."
As we drive through the night toward Millbrook, I study the other ghost children following us. Marcus looks determined. Carmen looks angry. But there's something else in their ghostly looks that worries me.
"Sarah, the other spirits following us - they're not just here to help, are they?"
"What do you mean?"
"Look at them carefully. Their ghost forms are getting darker around the edges."
Sarah turns Detective Rivera's head to look at the floating ghosts around our car. "Oh no. Dr. Carver, you're right."
"What's wrong?" Chief Kellerman asks.
"The ghost children are being corrupted by proximity to shadow walker energy. The longer we spend hunting these creatures, the more likely our spirit allies are to become shadow walkers themselves."
"Can we stop it?"
"I don't think so. Being around supernatural evil for too long changes you, even if you start out good."
I float closer to the car window. "Sarah, there's something else. I can sense Detective Rivera's consciousness inside you, and it's changing too."
"Changing how?"
"She's becoming more ghostlike. Less human. If this continues, she'll lose all her memories of being alive."
Sarah's power over Detective Rivera's body wavers for a moment. "Detective Rivera, can you hear me?"
"I'm here," comes Rivera's voice from deep inside Sarah's mind. "But Dr. Carver is right. I can feel myself fading. My memories of Carmen Mendoza, of my life in Los Angeles, of why I became a detective - they're all getting blurry."
"Can you fight it?"
"I'm trying. But it's like trying to hold water in my hands. The memories just slip away."
Chief Kellerman pulls the car over to the side of the road. "Sarah, maybe we should stop. Maybe this is too dangerous."
"We can't stop, Mom. If we don't save those fifty dead teenagers, the shadow walkers will use them to take over the entire country."
"But what if saving them costs us our own souls?"
That's when Marcus's ghost appears inside the car with us. But something is definitely wrong with him. His usually bright blue glow has turned dark gray.
"Sarah," he says in a voice that sounds more hollow than before, "I need to tell you something about Millbrook."
"What?"
"It's not just Lisa Chen who's there. The shadow walker possessing that town has collected twelve dead teenagers over the past two months."
"Twelve? That's more than I sensed."
"Because they're not just dead teenagers anymore. The shadow walker has been experimenting on them. Turning them into something new."
"What kind of something?"
Marcus's ghost form flickers between his normal look and something much darker. "Hybrid creatures. Part human ghost, part shadow walker. They have all the power of spirits but all the evil of shadow walkers."
Chief Kellerman starts the car again. "Then we need to get there faster."
"Mom, wait. Marcus, what aren't you telling us?"
Marcus looks straight at Sarah, and for the first time since I've known him, I see fear in his ghostly eyes.
"The hybrid creatures aren't being created randomly. The shadow walker is using a specific type of dead teenager for the experiments."
"What type?"
"Teenagers who died trying to protect other children. Teenagers whose last living act was heroic."
Sarah goes completely still. "Like you. You died trying to expose Eleanor and save other kids."
"Exactly. And Sarah, the shadow walker in Millbrook has been specifically hunting for ghosts like me. Heroic spirits that can be corrupted into evil."
"Why?"
"Because when you corrupt a hero, you don't just get a powerful enemy. You get a powerful enemy that other heroes will trust."
I understand what Marcus is getting at, and it scares me.
"Sarah," I say quickly, "Marcus is trying to warn you that this is a trap. The shadow walker wants to corrupt him, then use him to get close to you."
"But Marcus is already here with us. If he was corrupted, wouldn't we know?"
"Not if the corruption happens slowly. Not if it's designed to make him think he's still on our side while he leads us into danger."
Sarah stares at Marcus's ghost. "Marcus, when did you start following us?"
"Right after you left Tidewaters."
"But I sensed you earlier, when I was still fighting for control of Detective Rivera's body."
Marcus looks confused. "I don't remember that."
"Marcus, what's the last thing you remember before following us?"
"I remember... I remember saying goodbye to Detective Rivera after we freed all the trapped children's souls."
"And after that?"
"After that is blank. I just found myself floating next to your car."
Chief Kellerman hits the brakes hard. "Sarah, if Marcus doesn't remember the past few hours, then something else has been controlling him."
"Or something else has been pretending to be him."
The Marcus-ghost in our car starts laughing, and the sound makes my spiritual form shiver.
"Very good, Chief Kellerman. You're much smarter than your predecessor."
"What predecessor?" Sarah asks.
"The other police chief we corrupted three towns ago. She led her supernatural team right into our trap, just like you're about to do."
"You're not Marcus."
"I'm something much better than Marcus. I'm what Marcus becomes when his heroism gets turned inside out."
The fake Marcus starts changing, its form getting darker and more twisted.
"And Sarah, since you've been so helpful in gathering powerful spirits for us, we thought we'd give you a special reward."
"What?"
"The real Marcus is waiting for you in Millbrook. But he's not the Marcus you remember."
"What did you do to him?"
"We turned him into exactly what he always wanted to be. A protector of children."
"That doesn't sound evil."
"It is when the children he's protecting are shadow walker hybrids who hunt living kids for food."
The fake Marcus leaves, leaving us alone in the car.
But as we sit in shocked quiet, Chief Kellerman's radio crackles to life.
"This is Officer Martinez in Millbrook. We have a situation here. Multiple child abductions in progress. The perpetrator appears to be a teenage boy with supernatural abilities."
"A teenage boy who matches the description of Marcus Thorne, supposedly dead for over a week."
Sarah and I exchange shocked looks.
"Sarah," I say, "what if we're too late? What if they've already turned Marcus into one of the hybrid creatures?"
"Then our best ally just became our worst enemy."
"And he knows all our weaknesses."
Chief Kellerman starts driving toward Millbrook again, but now we're not racing to save teens.
We're racing to stop the boy we thought was our friend from becoming the thing that kills us all.