A simple Truth

Second to last part of this arc! Wow, I never thought I'd have enough brain power to keep it going this long. I guess there is hope for me yet! This story will be wrapped up nicely in time for that spookiest of months, dread October. I dare say all the shenanigans the month of October usually brings will keep our intrepid monster hunters busy, so I'm letting them have the month off. No doubt they will have some interesting stories for us when they return.

Oh, did you guys think I'd forgotten about Amanda and Max? Well, I did. So here's what they were doing while François was conjuring.

“That’s not ordinary smoke. That’s some of François’ cooking.”

Amanda and Max had been scouring the entire dig site for every can of oil and gas they could find. Max went tearing through each building, frantically trying to gather as much fuel as possible and get back to the temple in time to help, but Amanda was not rushing.

She knew Charlotte well enough by now to know that Charlotte’s request for fuel was a polite request for their absence. Amanda was hardly fussed about it; she knew full well that she was out of her league with that witch. She and Max would have only been in the way. Amanda was about to point this out to Max when she saw the smoke billow out of the temple.

“He does know how to cook up a spirit, my François.” Amanda wasn’t familiar with all of François’ spirit summoning, but she could tell that he was calling up something powerful and she found herself muttering a prayer under her breath.

Max had been dealing with the whole situation fairly well until this point. Apparently he was not one to sit idly by. “So, what does this mean? Are the victorious? Shouldn’t we be in there helping?”

“What would you do to kill a witch?” Amanda asked plainly, her eyes on the rising smoke.

“I… burn her, I suppose.” Max was falling back on his history; when in doubt, set a fire.

“Right. If she had a body, we would burn her. And you and I could help.” Amanda smiled as the faint image of a skull flickered in the lighted smoke. “But she is still like a ghost, and that makes her dangerous and way beyond anything we could handle. Don’t worry Max, they know what they are doing.”

They stood silent for a moment, watching and imagining what was going on behind the ruined temple wall. Amanda sighed and turned to the cans of fuel they had already collected.

“Let’s get these ready. We’ll still need it to burn the floor of the temple and cleanse the site.”

“What?” Max looked positively stunned. “You can’t do that; you’ll ruin the integrity of the whole place. Anything buried under the temple floor will be ruined.”

Amanda smiled weakly. “Believe me Max, I’ve been in your shoes before. After tonight, you won’t want to dig ever again.”