“Y-you can see me? But how? I-I’m supposed to be dead,” the ghost of the man said as soon as he noticed I was looking straight at him. “A-are you a ghost too?”

He was visibly shaken and almost seemed ready to run away at any moment. I also noticed something that I couldn’t see on his physical body, he had the eyes of a Spirit.

With my right hand still on his real body, I raised my left hand to calm him. “It’s okay, I’m not here to hurt you. It’s nice to meet you. You used to work for Eliana, right?”

The man nodded. “So are you a ghost too?”

“I guess you can say that. Anyways, were you listening in on what Eliana was telling us to do earlier?” I asked.

He set his eyes to the floor while he answered, “No. Until just now, all of your voices sounded muffled and I couldn’t comprehend what anyone was saying.”

“That’s strange.” I didn’t get the chance to Din’s mother whether she could understand the nurses. Maybe that’s something all the normal ghosts have to deal with. No, I can’t get distracted right now. I shook my head and brought us back to topic, “Eliana wants to know who kidnapped you. Do you have an idea?”

The man remained silent.

“Looks like Lorelei can see the ghost,” Din mentioned to Eliana.

I turned to see Eliana’s reaction.

“Really? That’s great! Can she figure out what happened to him? That’d help us a lot,” she was too overjoyed to the point that it looked fake.

Din turned towards me, to which I nodded.

“Why don’t we start with your name?” I suggested. “I’m Lorelei.”

“My name is John Millers,” the ghost introduced himself.

“Hi John, do you think you can tell me what happened when you got kidnapped?” I asked.

John sighed, “You don’t have to treat me like a kid, I’ll just tell you the story outright. That’s all you’re here for, right?”

I didn’t exactly appreciate his tone, but I kept a smile on my face.

He began, “I was out during patrol one night when I suddenly felt nauseous. I had to leave my post to go back home, but on my way, I was grabbed by my neck. I remember struggling, but when I came to, I was in a prison cell. I thought I’d done a crime, but that wasn’t it. There was no trial or any explanation, I was kidnapped for sure, I thought.”

He gently rubbed his neck. “I wasn’t alone. There were about three to four people in each cell. I couldn’t tell exactly how many cells there were, but there was a lot. Whoever kidnapped us put a collar around everyone’s neck. I asked the people in my cell if they knew what was going on, but they didn’t know much either. Just that some guards would come and drag someone out their cell once in a while. I remember the screams whenever a guard would pull someone out. There wasn’t anything I could do. I just had to hope they didn’t choose me.”

“What happened to the ones they pulled out?” I asked.

“They were experimented on. I don’t know what they did, but when they took me out of the cell, they tied me up on a metal table surrounded by a bunch of men with white lab coats. They covered my mouth and nose with a mask. The mask had a tube connected to it and they had some kinda gas going through the mask that made me fall asleep.”

“What was going through the tube?”

“I don’t know, but it smelled like herbs. It felt like the smell of the herbs made me fall asleep. But that wasn’t even what was bad, the herbs actually helped me keep my sanity.”

John moved over to Eliana and apologized, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry… I’m sorry I let you down. Boss…” He was whimpering in front of Eliana now. He seemed to want to cry, but there was no tear. Eliana was looking at Din for a response.

“What’s going on, Lorelei? Did he say anything,” Din asked after noticing my worried expression.

I shook my head. “I’m asking him, he’s just… emotional right now.”

Even though Din appeared confused, he still accepted my answer and waited patiently for me to talk to John.

“John, what happened during the experiment? Eliana needs to know what happened to you. Even though she was late and couldn’t protect you, it doesn’t mean she can’t help the many other people you mentioned that were in the cells.”

I didn’t want to push him too hard, but Din and Eliana were waiting for me to do this. I had to figure out what happened for them.

To my surprise, John raised his voice, “I don’t want to remember what happened!” He then moved closer towards me before continuing, “Every time I close my eyes, I remember that experiment! How they poked me with needles, how they shocked my brain! Do you know painful that is?!”

John covered his face and continued whimpering.

“They shocked your brain?! John, how did they do that? They told me they found no traces of torture on your body. You have to tell me,” I pleaded. “There could be others that could get kidnapped as well. And if she doesn’t know what’s happening, she can’t do anything to help them.”

Maybe I could find a way to guilt him into telling me what happened. He didn’t seem like someone who would abandon his comrades at least.

Even though there were no tears, he wiped his eyes before answering, “The needles, they would inject something inside of me. Whatever they put in me, it shocked my brain, I thought I’d go insane. It was so painful! But then I would fall asleep because of the drug, and then after a while I’d wake up from the pain again and then I’d fall asleep again only to wake up later on.”

“Were they periodically injecting you? Was there a reason for that?”

He scoffed. “How the fuck should I know? I couldn’t even see what was happening. I’d wake up from the pain, see the bright light in front of me, and then fall right back asleep. I still remember the pain though. Argh—!”

He began scratching his head furiously. “That cycle of pain and drowsiness continued for a long time until I finally woke up with no pain. I felt at peace. That was when I was finally out of my body, as a ghost. I could tell my body was done with. The men in the lab coat checked if I was still alive, but when they saw that I’d died, they told the guards something and the guards carried me out. In the middle of the night, they rode on a carriage and then threw me on the side of the road where no one else was nearby.”

“You saw yourself get carried out?” I asked.

John nodded. “It felt like I was tied to my real body. Whenever they would pull the body far enough, I would feel a strong force pulling me towards my body. Even if I wanted to not look at my dead body, I had no choice.”

“Then you know where their base is, right? Do you think you can show us where it is? Maybe on a map?”

“It’s just business with you, huh? Well, I guess I did say I would tell you the story outright,” he scoffed. “As for a map, there’s no need. Boss will know where it’s at.”

“Huh?”

“Tell her the entrance to the enemy’s base is in the garden of the governor’s mansion. There’s a secret door in the garden behind a bush of roses. Directly through that door leads to a sewer system and then if you keep going, that’s where you’ll find the cells. Beyond that is the lab where they perform their experiments. There were a couple of other rooms, but I never saw what was inside.”

“The governor’s mansion? Okay, thank you so much, John. I’ll tell Eliana everything you’ve told me.” I said with a smile. I almost lifted my hand away from his body before he suddenly stepped up.

“—Before you go… do you think you can tell her something for me?”

“What is it?”

“Tell her… that I’m sorry. That’s all.”

I chose to not question him any further. I moved my hands away from his body and his ghost disappeared from right in front of my eyes.

Din, who had been waiting patiently, listened to me eagerly as I repeated all that John told me. After hearing the entire story, he nodded, and then repeated the story to Eliana.

Eliana’s expression didn’t change throughout the telling of the story. She retained a serious face with a slight look of regret.

Even after learning that the enemy lair was inside the governor’s garden, it didn’t faze her at all. It was like she had expected that to be the case.

Turning to Cyen, she instructed, “Get everyone available to meet here tomorrow morning. We’ll be discussing plans for the upcoming attack on Governor White’s mansion. Possibly after two days.”

She then turned towards Din and bowed, “Thank you so much for your help. I’d suspected Governor White of being behind this, but I wasn’t too sure. There are too many packs in Newron to just be able to suspect one group. Without your help, it would’ve taken us far too long to realize who our true enemy was. If there’s anything we could offer you in return, we’d gladly offer it after the raid.”

“If you could, I’d like for Tal and Mun to join me on my journey. And if possible, whatever you know about Spirits, if you could tell me as well.”

Without a second thought, Eliana nodded. “I can do that for you.”

“There’s one more thing,” Din added. “I would like to help you on your attack.”

“Din, what are you saying?” I asked. There was no need for him to put himself in a dangerous situation like that. This was unrelated to him.

“Are you sure?” Eliana asked. “Why would you want to help us? You’re not even from Newron, correct?”

“I can’t just sit back when I know lives are at stake. Just listening to that story made my blood boil. I never knew there could be people that would do that. Kidnapping is bad enough, but to mentally torture them as well, I can’t stand by it. I’ll help you stop them from hurting any more people.”

There it was, Din’s heroic sense of justice. I should’ve realized he would offer himself up for a cause like this. If I had just lied, maybe he wouldn’t have put himself in harm’s way.

“Thank you, Din Morrison. We would gladly accept your offer.”

They shook hands.

“Din, your mom told me to watch over you and to stop you from doing anything stupid,” I told him. “This is something stupid and I can’t allow you to do it.”

Even though there wasn’t any way I could stop him, I still told him regardless. Maybe I could guilt him into not going with them.

“Don’t worry, Lorelei. I’ll be alright. I’ll make sure to put a stop to them!”

I couldn’t believe him.