Journey to Psitharis

Chapter 32

Thirty-two

"Thank you." My new little comrade hugged me. Her cheek rested against my neck.

I was still trying to figure out what exactly had happened. "Wait a minute. Did I just bring you back to life? All of you? With a touch of my hand?"

"Yeah." She stepped back to look at me. "Weird, huh?"

She looked up at Masaru fearfully. "Is he going to eat me?" Masaru was eyeing her with suspicion, but he didn't seem too threatened by the mass addition to our group.

"He's harmless. You just gotta get him on your good side." The little girl reached up to touch his face, and several of the adults flinched. He was skittish at first, but once her tiny hand softly touched his cheek he sniffed with indifference and laid his head back on the ground. "So, what's your name?" I asked.

"I'm Lyra. And all these people around us, they used to live here. But we all died and we wound up here. But you brought me back. You brought us all back. How'd you do that?"

I looked at the huge mob surrounding us. There were so many of them, whispering to each other, staring at me, trying to decide if their benefactor was a friend or foe. "I honestly don't know. I just wanted to fix you, fix all of you. I guess I wanted it badly enough to make it happen."

"We tried to get you help us before. Only you ran away before we could get you to understand." A flash of memory brought me back to a very harrowing night in the graveyard, when a little ghost child wrapped his arms around my waist, trying to get me to stay. Derf, I thought to myself. They were trying to get my help, not attack me!

"Yeah. Sorry about that. But at least we got it figured out, right?" I smiled at her. Suddenly Lyra was pushed out of the way, by the same little boy who "attacked" me that very night.

"Hey Lyra, move over! It's my turn!" His little blue eyes looked up at me, his now-brown hair tousled in his face.

"Well, long time no see." I laughed. He smiled a little crooked smile.

"Zade, ma'am." I grinned at him.

"Okay Zade. Nice to finally meet you." He gave me one more squeeze before bolting back to an older woman who looked a lot like him, dark hair and all. I winked at Zade's mom and got a silently mouthed thank you in return. I spent a half an hour talking to differing individuals in the crowd, getting as much information about their lives and what transpired to put then in the graveyard. They were the people who, as I grew older, ceased to exist in my mind. They had either died by Calperal's hand or had just faded away at some point. All I had to do to bring them back was remember them. And all they had to do to return was force me to remember. And as the spirits of the graveyard, they were fully aware of my role in their creation, as well as my need to restore Psitharis. And I suddenly found myself surrounded by allies.

Masaru got tired of waiting for my attention and nudged me so forcefully I nearly landed on the ground. He lowered his head and I climbed up on his back, standing over the massive crowd I had just produced. Dawn was approaching and it would only be a few more minutes before we knew if their transformation would last past the break of day. I had to make some sort of speech, but what was I going to say?

"Okay. I guess it's time to get down to business. Let me be honest with all of you. In two days I go into Dream Land to save my friends. If they are left to Calperal's punishment they will certainly die. I could use your help. But I need to know you want to help me. If you choose not to, I will understand. You can leave this place and go home for the first time in a long time. It's my fault you got stuck here in the first place. But if you will help me we will save three people who are being held unjustly. I know it's a lot to ask, but if you're willing to help me, I'll be more than willing to fight to get this world back to where it was before. So, if you want to stay and help me, I'll be more than happy to have you here. If not, I'll be okay with you going back from whence you came. So....who wants to fight to get our world back?"