*}*Ariana and Christian*{*
Arian and Christian walked down the hallway, ignoring the questioning looks of ghosts who would look from their hiding places. They didn’t know what to make of the girl in the kimono with a beautifully intricate staff in her hand and an incredibly handsome young man by her side.
Ariana would stop at random, wait a few moments, shake her head and start to walk again. After a time Christian looked with interest as she stopped and repeated the process again, “Lady Ariana, what are you doing?” Ariana stopped shaking her head to look at the demon, “I’m getting a feel on the amount of spiritual energy. There are so many ghosts that I want to exorcise the area that appears to have the largest amount of spirit energy at once.”
Christian nodded. Quite clever, he thought to himself. “Lady Ariana, would you mind if I assisted you?” The priestess sent a quick smile his way, “Not at all, In fact, I’d be glad to have your help.”
In a little while (after much walking and head shaking) the two had managed to locate the place that had the greatest amount of ghosts in the area: at the base of the first floor staircase. Ariana stood in place at the bottom of the staircase facing north; a hallway ran through the area and another one faced her, this one led to the staircase. She closed her eyes. Almost instantly she felt the ghosts, and their connection to this certain place. There’s so many of them; this staircase must’ve been the place where friends hung out, laughs shared, secrets told—just like any other school.
Opening her eyes she looked to Christian, “This is the place. This staircase holds memories for many students; and their ghosts decided to stay around this area; but not anymore.” She held her hand out to her side, “The chalk please.” Christian handed the pristine white stick of chalk over to the young priestess and watched.
Ariana took two steps, still facing north, and bent down. Placing the chalk to the floor, she drew a complete circle stopping where she started. She made a few adjustments until she was satisfied that she made a perfect circle. Inside the circle now she went to a bottom angle and started drawing a star. Finished, she stepped out of the circle and surveyed the pentagram. The circle and star were both large and proportionate to the other. With a satisfied grin she got on her knees and drew symbols of protection, clarity, and exorcising around the circle, making a ring when she was done.
Christian was impressed, “You were clearly paying attention a few days ago.”
Ariana lightly blushed at the compliment, “Thank you; these symbols are only Chinese and Japanese, no other cultures. The Chinese and Japanese priests at the shrine told me about them on that day.”
Now serious, she handed him the chalk and picked up her staff. Walking to the center of the circle, she stopped and closed her eyes. She felt the pentagram’s energy start to increase when she went to the center. The energy rose off the ground and into the air like smoke; she could feel the sensation. The ghosts were attracted to the pentagram like a moth to a flame and came over to see what was going on.
“What are you doing?” A teenage boy asked.
“Getting you out of here,” Ariana replied looking at the male ghost.
“But you can’t!” A young girl ghost shouted.
“Yeah, we want to stay here in this world,” a boy with tousled hair said, “like you.”
Slowly, the pentagram started to glow with white light until it shone in the dark of the school like a beacon. Ariana looked at them with an unreadable look, “Trust me, you wouldn’t want to be here right now,” the light illuminated the priestess’s face, “and you wouldn’t want to be me.” The glow bathed all the ghosts in the surrounding area; Ariana lifted her staff above her head.
“May you go in peace,” the priestess murmured eyes closed. There was a brief flash of light and then Ariana abruptly brought down her staff, holding it tilted by her side. A long breath came out of the girl and she opened her eyes and looked around. The ghosts were gone.
“Lady Ariana,” Christian said with a smile, “the spiritual energy seems to have gone down quite a bit; it seems as though we were right about this place.”
Ariana breathed once more and nodded, “We were.” Accepting the white cloth her demon butler handed her, she started to wipe the pentagram away from the school floor. Once all traces were removed she folded the cloth and gave it back to Christian. “I think one more exorcism in an area like this and that’s all for tonight.” Christian nodded, “Why don’t we head up to the second floor and see what’s there?”
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This took a while to write. You can see Ariana’s priestess side come out more as I go on; there wasn’t much in the hospital or the restaurant (except the curse *is smacked*.)
