The Jackalope

It rained a lot on that day, years ago. I remember how it poured down, threatening to flood the streets of the nearby town. It was shortly after Yukiko had died. I’ve seen this memory replay a thousand times in my head – I am standing in the courtyard of what looks like a gothic great hall, and a woman is standing before me, draped in all black, with a witch’s hat atop her head, protecting her long, raven hair from the torrential downpour. 

“Please,” my voice is barely audible over the storm. “Please help me.” 

I can’t tell if it is the rain or tears falling from her face. “I’m sorry, Seath, I can’t –” 

“I NEED YOU!” I shout. “I need her. I’m begging you, Alice, you can bring her back, you have to try!” 

“I’m telling you I can’t!” She yells back, her voice shaky. “Yukiko’s gone, you have to make peace with that. No magic can bring her back to life. Magic was not meant to do something so unnatural!” 

“You studied soul transference with Yukiko for decades, I have all of her research. If you just tried, you could find a way –” 

“I won’t do it, Seath,” She says firmly. 

My claws form over my hands, and I glare at her. “I can’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I am going to bring Yukiko back, no matter what it takes.” 

A shadowy aura begins to billow out like a black fog from her clothes. “Yukiko never would have allowed you to turn her magic against me.” 

“I know, but I will do anything to bring her back. Even if it means fighting you!”

With a crack of lightning and thunder I snap out of the memory. I search the endless hallway for ages, throwing open every door I can find, but Lorelei isn’t behind any of them. I’m slow from my injuries, but I can’t stop searching. I don’t want to think about what will happen if the ghost haunting this manor finds her first. 

I open one door and find myself back in the study. As I cross the room to go through the other door, the painting falls from the wall when my back is turned. I spin around to see it fall back into the fireplace, which ignites and consumes the painting. As the image goes black, the painting explodes into a huge plume of smoke, and from the smoke emerges the Ghost of Stormcrest. 

He strikes me with his open palm and I fly back, crashing through the door and spilling into the cellar. 

“Wolf of the Full Moon, I must thank you,” the monstrous spirit says. “You have brought me a powerful gift.” 

I struggle to climb back to my feet, groaning in pain. The curse marks all over my body start to burn intensely. “You are becoming a serious pain in my ass!” 

“Give me your life,” He commands, stepping into the cellar. 

I summon my grimoire and ice claws. “Come and take it.” 

Just like before, the walls, ceiling, and floor burst, but the debris floats around as if unaffected by gravity. For a moment I lose my balance, but I plant my feet just in time to block his lunge. 

“You’ve already tried this trick!” I shout, grabbing his wrist. I pivot my heels and throw him off in the other direction, crashing into the wall. “My pride won’t let me lose to the likes of you. I’ve fought better opponents and won!” 

“Ah yes, the Knights of the Sun you slayed in Yukiko’s name. I know all about them, Wolf of the Full Moon,” the monster hisses. “I have seen your heart and mind, I know what haunts you.” 

“Shut up,” I growl, charging at him. Our claws clash, and I block a kick that pushes me back.

The ghost wraps his wings around himself, and when they move, he’s taken on a different form – a lean man with curly hair held back in a ponytail. He has a full sleeve tattoo of tribal markings down his right arm, leading to a sun symbol on the back of his hand – the sigil of the sun. The only trace of the ghost remaining is the wings, taking on a spectral appearance now. 

Andre. I’ll never forget his name or face. 

He glares at me with dark eyes and rushes at me. 

As I block his first strike, I realize that he has a deep wound in his chest. I see. That’s how I killed the real Andre. 

Now I’m pissed. 

Andre blasts my right claw to pieces with a fireball, but I grab his head with my left and slam him into the stone floor, then throw him back. The wings fold over Andre, and when they move again, he has a different face. 

This time he’s shorter, but extremely brawny. He is shirtless with claw and burn scars all over his body, and a deep wound in his throat from when I killed the real version of him. He clenches his right hand, where the sigil of the sun is, and thin wisps of fire ignite all around his body. 

“Clayton!” I holler. As I try to attack, a massive blast of fire singes my clothes and launches me into the opposite wall. 

My head is pounding. I can’t be sure, but it feels like I hit it hard against the stone. I’m dazed and having trouble finding my balance as Clayton comes after me. Each punch generates a small explosion, and I keep generating little jagged shields of ice to intercept them. 

I have to be careful against Clayton’s fierce fighting style, even one hit would be fatal. I narrowly dodge his swing, but the explosion from his fist knocks me back and breaks my right arm. As he swings to finish me off, I plant my left palm against him and force my claw to violently shatter. The shockwave flings him back and embeds a hundred shards of ice into his skin. 

The ghost takes on a third form – a man with brown hair and a long, bluish-grey raincoat, and a torn V-neck shirt. On his chest is an elaborate array with a symbol like waves in the center, and just below his heart are deep claw wounds. 

“Is that the best you’ve got? You think wearing the faces of dead men will stop me? Stop hiding behind your parlor tricks, coward!” I say, summoning my left claw back. 

The man, Alton, sends a bubble of water out that expands and envelopes my head, cutting off my breathing. But I already know this trick too. 

With one quick motion, I slash him, and the water drops to the floor, freeing me. Alton jumps back and begins to transform once again. 

“I already told you that won’t work on me!” I say as I lunge, but as I see the next form the ghost takes, I stop dead in my tracks. 

Juniper. 

The little girl looks almost exactly like Yukiko, except without the bluish hue to her hair and with crimson eyes instead of blue. She’s small, even for a 12-year-old, 

She raises her hand. I know it’s fake. I know it’s not her, but I can’t bring myself to bring my claw down. 

The palm of her black glove rips open and ejects a spear of blood that shoots through my abdomen. It hurts, but the blood loss robs me of even the strength to shout. My claw fades away, and I clutch the wound. As the hot blood flows through my fingers, I feel a penetrating cold seeping into my bones. 

I drop to my knee, my eyes fixated on Juniper’s face. 

“June…” 

The Ghost transforms back to his true form. 

“You are a murderer and liar too, Wolf,” The Ghost says. “You deserve this.” 

“Maybe so,” I say, as I feel my grimoire changing pages. “But you won’t be the one to beat me. My wife asked me to live, so that’s just what I’m going to do.” 

I invoke the spell from my grimoire, and two magic arrays appear at once, one below and one above the Ghost. The triangular array above creates a pyramid of energy trapping him inside, and the round array below sets him aflame in a tremendous blaze contained by the energy barrier. 

Even just shifting my weight hurts, but I force myself to my feet, howling in pain as I do, and I run back through the door I came from. Instead of the study, it opens to a bedroom. I run across to the closet door and open it, finding myself back in the hall. 

I can feel a powerful spiritual presence coming – could he have broken out of the barrier that fast? I don’t have time to question it, I just have to keep running. But with every step, my strength fades. A strange green glow approaches from behind, but I can’t outrun it. Everything blurs, and I don’t even feel myself stumble, I just blink and find myself on the ground. 

All my strength is gone now. I can’t even stand. I just feel so tired and worn out. 

A strange aura of warmth seems to radiate from something nearby. I look up, and for a moment I see Yukiko, looking down at me with that slight smile of hers. She reaches down and touches my face, and then she disappears. 

Something is healing me – the wounds on my body begin to close, my broken arm is corrected, and the curse marks on my skin disappear. My pounding headache dulls to nothing, and exhaustion slowly disappears. 

I sense a powerful ghost nearby, but it is not the monster I fought. Instead, I see a strange creature – a jackrabbit with antlers like an antelope. The creature has a gentle green glow coming from strange mystic veins running through her antlers. 

“Who are you?” I ask as the spirit finishes healing my injuries, but she says nothing. She may not be able to speak. 

She stands back as I pull myself up and rise to my feet. “You really saved me, thank you.” 

The jackalope hops down the hall, pausing to look back, as if trying to lead me somewhere. I follow the spirit, unsure of her intentions.