Haunting Sin by Leila Knight Page B

prepared for his attack, when suddenly a dark figure barreled into
him.
    I heard male grunts and saw Richard
and another man in a fierce fight. The new man was human and that was enough to
make him my new ally. I bent down and searched through my purse determined to
help the stranger. My shaky hands couldn’t find the cheap plastic lighter. I
threw down the sage in frustration. In the moonlight my eye caught the glint of
my glass bottle of salt. I quickly grabbed the bottle and went running in the
direction of the noise. The two men were wrestling in the dirt. I saw a long
gun scattered on the desert floor. I slipped behind the two grappling men and
uncorked my bottle.
    I poured a heaping mound of salt
into my hand and catapulted it in the direction of Richard’s back. As I
thought, the salt didn’t have much effect on him, but it was enough to give the
other man the advantage. He kicked Richard off of him and got up just in time
to stop what would have been a devastating blow from the ghost. In their
struggles the gun was flung towards me.
    I bent down to examine it and
prayed it could be useful. There were a thousand thoughts running through my
head at that moment, mainly my concern over discovering my hero had what
appeared to be an assault rifle. I picked the gun up; I was apprehensive it
would do Richard any harm but I was willing to try. Glass crunched under my
foot. The rifle’s ammunition seemed to have been contained in a now broken
glass jar connected to the base of the gun. A slew of quick curse words escaped
my mouth.
    The moonlight outlined the shards
of glass and a few rounds of ammunition. I heard labored breathing and I knew
it was that of my rescuer. If I didn’t do something soon, Richard was going to
send us both on an express ride to Hell.
    I shook the rifle in my hands
relieving it of two small pieces of ammunition. I squinted my eyes and held it
up to the moonlight. It was a metal screw. I twirled it in my fingers,
surprised by its weight. It wasn’t just any metal; it was iron, the perfect
ghost and ghoul repellant. I smashed the rifle to the ground, shattering what
was left of the glass jar. I groped through the sparse grass for the iron
nails. I searched as quickly as my hands would allow because time was running
out and I could hear the tick tock of the Grim Reaper’s clock.
    I finally managed to collect a
handful of nails. I ran over to the grappling men. My hero was obviously
getting a beating from the savage spirit. Richard saw me approach; he stood up
and placed his foot squarely on the man’s chest. “I could eat his soul. You
know that? But women just taste so much better!” Furry erupted inside of me; I
stopped at ten feet in front of him. “Taste this!” I yelled and threw the iron
nails at him. The nails seemed to seep into him and pause half way through his
body. Shock was on Richard’s face and then it turned to fear. I hate to say I
was pleased by his fear, pleased to know that he felt at least a small bit of
the terror he has caused to all those women.
    I stared at Richard’s body as its
solid form began to fade into translucence. The atmosphere became electric.
Static made the fine hairs stand on my neck. I could hear the man behind me
slowly rise to his feet. Shock stapled me to the ground. I couldn’t look away
from Richard. Coils of energy seemed to snake out of him. He began to quake and
I started to cautiously walk backwards. Suddenly light encompassed his body. I
felt a heavy weight tackle me to the floor and cover my head as Richard
exploded, sending shards of iron shrapnel rocketing towards the ground.
    I opened my eyes and peaked through
large hands at the now quiet desert. I decided that was the end of Richard, the
murdering sex fiend ghost. My eyes stretched when I felt hot breath caress my
neck. I had considered the stranger a friend when the situation was two humans
against one insane ghost. Now that the ghost was out of the equation, I felt
like our truce was