Phasmophobia:
A Spectre’s Cry
CHAPTER 3: THE CORPSE NATION
October 31st, 2015
Xeno held out his creepily contracting claw-hand and Agnes thought about her options. Follow the creepy thing, or stay shackled to her room in her house, never to leave.
She ended up taking chance over certainty, and followed the monster. She stepped towards the portal it opened, but never touched its inviting hands.
‘Good…’, said Xeno. ‘Welcome to the Afterlife!’
With a final push from Xeno, Agnes was thrown into the black vortex. What happened in there was of no words to explain, but it was a trip Agnes never wanted to take again.
She was spewed out on the other side and hit a cold stone floor. She scrambled up and heightened her guard, just in case. Turning to face the portal, she saw Xeno’s elongated limbs exit one by one, until he was fully present in the new environment. Only now did Agnes realise just how tall Xeno really was. In this place, he could stand at full length which must have been almost four times Agnes’ own height.
‘Welcome to my home’, Xeno announced.
Agnes frantically looked around her, it was dark and damp, and at first she couldn’t even tell of she was outside or inside. She found herself in the wide open hallway of a luxurious, but antique building. Agnes believed it must be some huge mansion, or a castle even.
‘Why did you bring me here?’, Agnes asked.
‘I want to introduce you to some folks. This is not only my home, it is also the headquarters of the Ninth Circle.’
Xeno started shambling down the huge hall.
‘Follow along now’, he said, adapting an as nice sounding tone as possible.
‘Who… or what is this “Ninth Circle” then?’
‘It’s a sort of…’, Xeno seemed to think for a moment. ‘A sort of liberation program that I founded. The leading board of this organization is referred to as the Ninth Circle’, Xeno explained.
Agnes saw a spark of hope. This creature might look scary, but he works for some good cause, right? He talks about liberation, so maybe…
‘To liberate… who? Those like us who are stuck here? Can you… get me back?’, asked Agnes.
The thing burst out in hollow echoing laughter.
‘No child, it’s the other way around! We aim to take as many people into our domain as possible, build an empire of ghosts, a new society of the dead, a true Corpse Nation!’, Xeno rumbled, holding his arms spread out at their full length.
Agnes stopped in shock. She should have never followed Xeno. She looked back, but the portal they had come through had long been closed.
‘Don’t tense up now, we’re almost there, and they are ready for your grand entrance!’, said Xeno, cheerfully.
Agnes calmed herself down by envisioning a concrete goal. Xeno seems to need her to realize his empire. Agnes could abuse this fact. All she needs to do now is act along, gather information and escape his clutches.
‘O-ok’, squeaked Agnes.
Xeno placed his hand on a heavy looking wooden door, and pushed it open without as much as a strain. The huge creaking doors slowly swung open and Xeno gestured Agnes to go inside before him.
Agnes hesitantly stepped inside and was greeted with a huge space featuring a single gigantic fire-place and the longest table Agnes had ever seen. In the fireplace burned an ominous blue flame, casting the dining room in an eerie blue-ish light. A red carpet led up to the table where Agnes saw something she had never wanted to see, not even in her worst nightmares.
At the table sat about two dozen freakish creatures, all of them more terrifying, abhorrent or mystical than the last. The whole spectrum of ghost-kind sat together at one long table.
They all had simultaneously turned their heads, if they had one, to Agnes when she stepped into the room, all of them eager to see the newcomer. Agnes also noticed that there were only two vacant seats at the two outer ends of the table. One for Xeno, and one for her.
‘Behold! A Spectre will rejoin our table!’, mused Xeno. The announcement only garnered even more stares towards Agnes.
Xeno then turned himself to her and said; ‘Spectre Agnes Tedsworth, shed thy mortal name, embrace death, henceforth be known as “Phasmo”’, as Xeno held his bony hand over Agnes’ head.
‘Phasmo…’, repeated Agnes.
Xeno led Agnes to her seat at the end of the table, all the while the other apparitions never took their eyes off their new member.
‘Welcome to the Ninth Circle, Phasmo’, grinned Xeno, pulling back the chair for her to sit down.
October 11, 2022
‘Agnes? Is that really you?’, asked Mary. She still couldn’t believe her own eyes, let alone any of her other senses. This strange hellscape felt like she fell into a dark fishbowl that was a mockery of the reality she had found herself in only moments ago.
‘It has been a while since I’ve heard that name…’, Agnes said. ‘But it is me, Mary, I’m home.’
Mary felt her eyes tearing up. She wanted to embrace her childhood friend, but still found herself stuck in one spot.
‘Don’t worry, I won’t keep you in this place for long. I’ll send you back to the world of the living. First there is something important I need to tell you’, Agnes explained. ‘I know who did this to me, and why.’
‘I don’t care! Please, just come back to us!’, Mary begged.
‘I’m afraid that won’t be possible, not in the way you want, at least.’
‘Can we then stay like this?’
‘No. Staying in this realm too long will bind you to it, and I cannot allow that to happen. Just let me explain.’
‘O-ok,’ Mary admitted.
‘I have certain abilities… abilities the one who killed me plans to use for his own benefit and the destruction of life as you know it. His name is Xeno, and he taught me to use my gifts. In that process I have killed dozens of people, bringing their souls to this place. They are now stuck here, just like me’, Agnes explained while she circled around Mary. ‘I need you to understand I never did this with the intention of aiding Xeno. I needed to figure out my own abilities to find a way to stop him. And I found a way, but I need help from your side of the veil.’
Mary was dumbfounded at Agnes’s story. It was outlandish, unbelievable, like the chatter of mad-men. But it was Agnes, her Agnes, and seeing her now in this place must mean it was all real.
‘How? What can we even do to help?’, Mary asked.
‘By hunting them. They have claimed residence in places all over England. Find these places, find out who they were, what they are, weaken their forms, and I will be able to send them away. They must be cast out, then, we get rid of the leader, Xeno.’
‘“They”? Who are “They”? And won’t that be dangerous?’
Agnes stood face to face again with Mary. ‘Not as long as I’m with you’, said Agnes’s ghost, with a reassuring smile. It stilled Mary’s heart that had been racing up until now. ‘I’ll send you back now. You won’t see or hear me, but know I’ll always be with you all.’
Agnes’s cold hand touched Mary’s forehead, and with a snap, like surfacing out of a pool, Mary was back in the normal world. All of her old friends were staring at her with frightened eyes. Fanny even seemed to have fallen to the floor in fright.
Mary realised she hadn’t been able to breathe while in the realm of the dead. Her legs gave way, and she inhaled sharply. She felt a push on her back as Bradly embraced her. Slowly reality flowed back to her, warmth spread throughout her body and the shivering subsided. Lost for words, it was Bradly, who now sat crouched beside her, that broke the deadly silence.
‘Mary? What happened? Suddenly you were all frozen, eyes rolled back and everything. You wouldn’t move or respond anymore to any of us.’ There was fear in his voice. Mary knew Bradly adopted a fascination for the afterlife, but if even this was too much for him to bear, Mary wondered how truly shocking the experience must have been for them.
‘Agnes…’, she managed to get out. ‘It was Agnes, she spoke to me, she took me to a place where she can communicate with us, a dangerous place.’
‘Agnes was here? You mean she really is still here?’ The look on Bradly’s face turned from one of fear to one of ecstasy.
‘Jeez, could she not just talk to us without nearly killing Mary?’, said William with a sigh of relief.
Fanny, still recovering from the shock, slowly scrambled up to her legs. ‘That was scary!’, she shouted. Mary wasn’t sure if it was directed at her, or at Agnes.
‘Did you see her?’, asked Bradly.
‘Yes’, Mary replied. ‘She was still the same, young girl, but somehow different…’
‘Can she…’, Bradley hesitated to ask the question, but Mary knew what he was going to ask.
‘She won’t come back’, Mary said. ‘She can’t come back.’
Bradley was silent. A moment later, however, a smile reappeared on his face.
‘At least she’s still here, even though we can’t see or hear her, she’s here right now’, Bradley said.
‘So, can we talk to Agnes too?’, asked William. ‘Hey Agnes, can you, like, make things float and such?’
William looked around the room full of expectation, but when nothing started to float, he sighed. ‘Guess not then…’
‘This is no time to be playing around Will!’, said Fanny. ‘Though I do wanna talk to Agnes too… What did you two talk about anyways, what did Agnes say?’
‘We… We didn’t talk much’, Mary said. ‘Staying in that place would’ve actually killed me.’
‘That’s a scary power to have’, added William.
‘She told me she needs our help, to free her and all the other spirits.’
Mary felt her head starting to hurt. The encounter with Agnes left her memories hazy, it lingered like the scenes of dream, fading into her subconscious mind.
‘How?’, Fanny asked.
‘Something about finding bad ghosts, weakening them from our side of the veil, after which Agnes will make them disappear.’
‘Just how powerful is Agnes’s ghost, by the way?’, asked William.
‘I think I know what Agnes wants us to do’, Bradley said, tightening his grip on the piece of equipment he was holding. ‘To set her free, Agnes needs our help to exorcise the ghosts keeping her here.’
‘Won’t that mean Agnes will be gone for good then?’, asked Fanny.
‘Yes’, said Bradley determined. ‘But I can’t allow her to remain and suffer here either.’
‘I don’t like where this is going…’, William complained.
To which Bradley stood up and started gathering his equipment, putting them all back in his bag. ‘Get ready for a crash course in ghost hunting, we’re setting Agnes free, and we’re starting tomorrow.’
November 5th, 2015
‘Phasmo…’, a voice rumbled next to her ear. Xeno had come to take her. ‘Are you ready for your first lesson?’
Phasmo stood up and silently joined Xeno at his side.
‘Good. Follow me.’
After all the other ghosts had left, Xeno had appointed her a special room to stay within, promising he would teach her how to use her gifts. She had patiently waited for this moment.
Xeno led her to the main hall once more, where a portal was whirring, waiting for them to enter it. This would be her first time leaving the castle in days. She didn’t know exactly how long she had been here for, it didn’t take long before she lost count of the days due the seemingly endless dark.
Compared to last time, the portal didn’t feel so disorienting, probably because this time she knew what to expect and how to keep her bearings. Phasmo stepped out the other side of the vortex and found herself within the halls of a familiar place. Xeno followed close behind her.
‘Phasmo, my dear, do you recognize this place?’, Xeno asked. She hadn’t fully adapted to her new name yet, but she had to get used to it, otherwise she could anger Xeno.
‘The hospital where I was born’, Phasmo responded.
‘Correct, and now the place where you will train your special power.’
Xeno proceeded to lead her through the corridors that had always been brightly lit, but in their limbo now felt gloomy and mute. Phasmo passed patients and nurses alike, dodging them to not make contact.
‘Don’t worry about touching them, they won’t notice you at all’, Xeno reassured her.
‘Won’t I separate their spirits from their bodies if I do?’, Phasmo asked. ‘Like that first time?’
‘Oh, no, no. It’s the intention that is the deciding factor’, Xeno grinned, ‘the intention to hurt.’
‘But… I…’
‘Shhh, it’s fine, that investigator was of no worth to anyone, forget about him.’
Phasmo wondered if she would ever be able to. The experience of pulling out someone’s soul, effectively killing them, had scarred her own.
‘Did you know Spectres are most commonly left by animals?’
Phasmo was caught off guard by Xeno’s attempt at small talk. Not in a million years did she expect a Demon to talk to her so casually. She didn’t know how to respond at all.
‘Of course I don’t see you as an animal because of that.’
Xeno continued walking down the halls, taking turns where needed, and Phasmo followed closely. She wondered where specifically he was taking her.
‘Ah, we’re here’, Xeno said. ‘Palliative care, the place where dying patient’s feeble lives are forcibly stretched out as long as humanly possible.’
Xeno entered a patient’s room. An elderly man lay sleeping in his hospital bed. Tubes flowed from IV bags down to the man, where they were attached to his nose, throat and arms, taking care of breathing for him and feeding him. Keeping him alive.
‘This poor soul hasn’t been able to see the light of day for several weeks now’, Xeno said as he caressed the man’s forehead. There was no reaction from him.
‘But we have the power to set him free. When the living talk of the Grim Reaper…’, Xeno turned his horrible face to Phasmo, ‘they refer to you, Phasmo.’
Phasmo trembled as Xeno stepped aside and issued her to approach the man.
‘Go ahead, try using your power to free this soul from his earthly prison’, Xeno said.
‘I… I don’t know if I can do it’, Phasmo struggled.
‘forget your current view on life, you are not a murderer, you will be praised as a liberator!’
Phasmo approached the bed and placed her hand above the man’s head. ‘I don’t know how…’
‘Just feel his soul, and take him out. Free him Phasmo!’, Xeno exclaimed.
With a shout from Phasmo and a push of her hand, the man’s soul was released from his body. The equipment set up around the man gave alarm and wailed in a monotone beep. The man ghost turned to look at Phasmo, yet there was no thankfulness in his eyes, no relief, only anguish and fear.
‘Bravo, Phasmo, you did it on the first try! As expected of my favourite Spectre!’, Xeno celebrated.
But Phasmo only felt devastation at what she had, yet again, done.
~~~ Continued in Chapter 4 ~~~
