Spirits

Chapter Five

Farrell closed the guest bedroom door, leaving Ingrid and Rose to settle in.  He'd found some of Nanna's old clothes so that Rose could change out of her bloodstained nightgown, but she hadn't seemed all that interested, so he'd left them on the bed. His family home was filled with spare rooms, almost all of them unused and dusty. Plywood sheets boarded up the windows of the room he'd found for Ingrid and Rose, it was the best he could do and Ingrid said she didn't mind.

Farrell waited behind the closed door wondering if he had made the right choice in letting them stay.  As he went to leave he felt a chill behind him.

"Did you find a replacement?" Farrell asked Marvin, not looking at him.

"I was rather hoping that you had changed your mind."

"You know I haven't.  I'm not staying." He began to walk away from Marvin down the corridor.

"Are just going to let Ingrid and Rose fend for themselves?" Marvin said sternly.  "Your father spent his entire life protecting people who couldn't protect themselves.  If you walk away now everything he worked for will be for nothing." Farrell kept walking, if he and Marvin were going to have this argument now, he wasn't about to have it outside Ingrid and Rose's bedroom. "Or were you just going to sell the house and run away again?"  Farrell stopped, clenching his teeth.  He hated how Marvin seemed to know everyone else's business without ever being told.

"I left to get away from this," he said, "you're not going to use my father's death as an excuse to drag me back in."

"And Nanna, do you really want the next time you come home to be for her funeral?"

Farrell paused. "I'll make sure she's taken care of."

"Are you so selfish that you will let innocent people die?"

"Someone will come," said Farrell, "the Oracles will send someone."  He continued to walk down the corridor again, Marvin following uncomfortably close behind.

"The hunters are stretched thin as it is," said Marvin.  "The Oracles will be hard pressed to find a replacement before everything your father worked for starts to unravel. You are the only one who can stop it."

"I won't do it Marvin!  I sat here and watched every day as it slowly consumed him.  It wasted him away like a disease, I couldn't stick around to watch him die." He didn't pause as he reached the top of the stairs.

"Lewis was covering the regions of at least three hunters on his own, and then doing the workload of many others.  You wonder why your father was drawn so thin? It was because of people like you who refused to answer their calling and left the work for someone else to do.  No one else is coming Farrell.  You'll find that when news of Lewis' death gets out the vacuum he left behind will fill very quickly with all manner of evil." Farrell said nothing as they walk down the stairs into the entry hall. He paused when he reach the bottom, turning to face Marvin.

"I'm sorry," he said slowly, "I can't do it."

Marvin stood silently staring at Farrell.  Farrell couldn't meet his gaze and looked away. "At least stay until the Oracles send a replacement, it'll only be a few days." Farrell knew what Marvin was doing, asking him to stay to give him more time to change his mind.  It might actually work, he'd been back less than a day and already things had become more complicated.  He felt the tiny threads of responsibility slowly tying him to this place, if he didn't leave soon he never would.  He opened the front door.

"I'm leaving in the morning," Farrell said flatly.

Marvin took a step outside.  "I guess this is goodbye."