Kieran Caldwell

“Uh. Okay. Two more questions.” Mac’s eyes followed the joint. “Back to where? And uh. What year is it?”

It had taken Mac a while to figure out what the hell had happened to him. Part of him was still hoping this was some mushroom induced lucid dreaming, but it was seeming more and more less likely. Which meant he was dead. Like the rest he had come here with. A ghost. He couldn’t touch anything. It was a crushing feeling. No more crazy shit with his friends. No more girls. Well, he supposed, maybe ghost girls? He had no idea how any of this worked. 

He spotted someone who looked like the weren’t dead and waved to get their attention, “Hey. Uh. What is this place?”

Kara shook her head more emphatically, closing the gap between them again to take his arms in her hands. “You’re not worthless,” she said quickly. “Of course you’re not worthless. I-I’ll find some way to fix it. I’ll do whatever I have to. Just … please. Please don’t hate me. It was an accident. I never meant–” Her throat closed up, cutting her off as she just shook her head again.

“Hate - hate you?” Kieran shook his head a little “I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to think about you, and I can only hope that I find a way to close the door before you die, that way when I take you there I don’t ever have to see you again.”

Kara stared at him in shock. She knew he was mad, it was obvious that he was, but did he really mean that? He couldn’t really mean that. She swallowed hard, shaking her head as she felt tears starting to sting the corners of her eyes.

“You don’t mean that,” she gasped out, the ache in her chest growing so strongly that she found it hard to breathe. “Kie, please.” She reached for him, for his arm. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. It was an accident.”

“No, I do mean it” he said, looking down as she reached for his arm. “It was an accident that should have never happened. It was an accident that happened because you wouldn’t listen to me. I can’t even - I can’t do my job right anymore. It’s worthless. You made me worthless.”

Kara recoiled, feeling as though he’d just punched her in the gut. Her chest ached horribly, and she pressed her hand against her sternum. “I didn’t … it’s not my fault that the lightning hit the circle in just the right way to-to make the door stuck. I didn’t know that would happen, who-who could’ve known that would happen? It was a freak accident, Kieran, and I am sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say.

"It wouldn’t have mattered where the lightning struck if there wasn’t a circle in the first place. So, yeah, this is your fault. How many times did I tell you to leave it alone? That we do our jobs because it has to be done. Don’t get attached. You can’t save people who are supposed to die, and you let them be when they have passed through the door to the other side. I don’t want your sorry. I don’t accept your sorry. Stay out of my life, and don’t try to help. You’ve already done enough.”

Kara jerked her hand away as she heard him snap at her not to touch him. She bit her lip, her chest aching as he continued to yell at her. “I-I …” She swallowed hard, shaking her head. “I didn’t know this was going to happen, Kie. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“Excuse me what was that? You didn’t mean for it to happen? I told you - I told you to leave it alone.” he clenched his jaw, huffing out a breath through his nose. “but you couldn’t do that, could you? the door is stuck, Kar. I can’t close - he can’t close it. You ruined people’s after-lives, Kara. You ruined them because you are a selfish person that wanted to make yourself feel better.”

Kara had been worried when she got home after that night and Kieran was nowhere to be seen. Then as the ghosts arrived and grew in number and Kieran didn’t reappear, she began to get the feeling that something was horribly wrong. She left the apartment to look for him, and that’s when she saw him collapse in the middle of the street. She hurried forward.

“Kie!” she exclaimed, dropping beside him and placing her hand on his back. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“don’t touch me” he snapped as he felt her hand on his back. “you happened. you and that medium happened, Kara.” he pressed his fingers into the asphalt as if somehow if he pressed hard enough he could push them through it. “and don’t even try to say you’re sorry. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear anything from you except for my name is Kara Murphy and I’m a fucking idiot that only thinks about myself and making myself feel better”

She bobbed her head in acknowledgement and dropped her hand, “We can go to my place I guess?” She laughed in an attempt to ease whatever tension she was feeling, “I actually still have the shit from the bar mitzvah. Haven’t drank it since working at a bar comes with perks.” She shrugged. 

“sounds perfect.” he nodded a little “lead the way, cause I don’t know how to get to your place and more importantly to all that alcohol.”

Death. What? Railene shook her head to clear her thoughs and held a hand out if he needed it. “That’s a statement I can get behind.” Rai took the subject change, it was something she could understand. “So let’s do that.”

“I got it” he said to the offered hand “great. let’s go drink.” he said starting to walk, before stopping, “where are we going exactly?”

“The item adds a personal touch, Kieran. It enhances the chances of making contact with the spirit but does not guarantee they will actually speak to me,” corrected the medium firmly. “Rest?! Rest?! The spirits of the citizens of this town haven’t been able to rest long before I started to get involved. Why do you think they have been trying to contact us to begin with? They can’t rest until we find out what happened to them!”

Growing flustered to the argument, Celine sighed and leaned back into her chair, arms crossed over her chest as she glanced back up towards Kieran to his mention of how Kara could not let this go. Running her hand over her face and through her somewhat white hair, Celine turned in her chair to face Kieran with hurt eyes. “Kieran…I don’t think Felix did it,” she cooed softly, shaking her head. “Something does not add up. I can’t tell you what it is but something in my gut tells me. And you are sitting her telling me…that you don’t hurt as much as Kara does with all of this? How much I hurt? The entire town? You are just sitting there telling me you aren’t upset with how this all turned out at all?”

"You think the only ones who are coming back are just the people who died recently? The door is fucking stuck open. That means that people who died last week or a hundred years ago are coming back. I tried - I tried everything I could to close that door, but it is stuck and it is your fault.” he clenched his jaw “That also means people who don’t even know what this place is are going to wind up here. Who knows if they even remember that they died” 

Railene watched from a careful distance until he spoke. She was spooked. This whole supernatural life was only getting worse and worse. Vaguely, in the back of her mind, she wondered if she’d ever be numb to this weird shit.

As he spoke she moved slowly toward him. Who the hell was ‘she?’ “Leave what?” Was the question her mouth chose to speak.

“Leave things alone. Leave death alone” he started to push himself to stand again, taking a moment to steady himself. “I need a drink...or twenty” he muttered to himself 

Sighing to the inquiry as to whether she had something stronger, Celine remained silent as well as she watched Kieran push the bowl away to make his point. Letting Kieran get his point across, Celine leaned forward across the table to set her hands on top of the table. “Alright, now let me explain a few things to you. One: considering I did not have a personal item of Marigold’s, she most likely wouldn’t have come when I called her name. Two: there was no way Kara and I could have possibly foretold that lightning would blast down from the sky right in front of us. And three: neither of us had any idea that where Marigold died would let spirits roam free aimlessly throughout Sunnybrooke.” Leaning back into her chair, Celine crossed her arms.

“I would imagine too you would want to get to the bottom of why so many of us are dying here in Sunnybrooke. I cannot speak for Kara, but I personally will be damned if there wasn’t something I could do to help us find out what is going on. So I am not going to sit here and apologize because your life is growing inconvenient when several of our citizens are dead.”

“If you didn’t have an item then why would you try to contact her? Just going to risk contact with any dead person? Real smart” he took another drink of the tea, still wishing it was something stronger. “Just because you can conjure the dead and Kara feels when they die doesn’t mean either of you know about what happens to those spirits when they die. I do. I take them where they are supposed to be at rest. Rest, Celine, but you don’t care about that, do you?”

Celine glanced up from her bowl to hear the sound of footsteps carrying someone down to the ground floor, smiling a little to see her treatment worked before glancing back down to eat more of the meal in her bowl. She watched Kieran sit down in the clothes she provided for him before scarfing down the food as she set hers down to cross her arms over her chest, observing his silence with a softened gaze.

“Did you want to talk about it?” she inquired gently.

“And now it just got weird…” sighed Celine as she closed the door behind her to let Kieran have some privacy before retiring to the kitchen to prepare some food. Not wanting to make his stomach upset after whatever he had experienced when the medium found him, Celine had prepared an easy bowl of rice, eggs, and cheese all mixed together with a cup of fresh ginger tea. She had already started to work on eating her own food as Salem ate from his bowl in the corner.

Nodding to Kieran mentioning it seemed like a good setup so far, the medium began to walk to the door as she grabbed the handle on the way out. “Just don’t drown in the tub okay? Last thing I need is spirits telling me you drowned in a tub and you haunting me,” she elaborated, her voice growing quiet for a moment as she pondered on the situation regarding the spirits before clearing her throat. “I’ll have food cooked for you by the time you are done.”

Back still turned to the hellhound, the medium continued to fill the water with a few various herbs as she turned off the water, using her hand to mix in the herbs thoroughly. “Epsom salts to reduce the ache in your joints, echinacea for wound disinfection and healing, chamomile for relaxation, and valerian root to promote relaxation as well,” explained Celine, drying her hand off on a spare hand towel before getting up to turn to face Kieran, her eyes narrowing to see the man already shirtless. “Towel is hanging there and there is a bell right here on the sink. If you ring it or I hear a firm thud, I will hurry up here to help. Sound good?” she inquired, hands sitting at her hips.