6 Chapter 6 The Ritual

Ebony waited in the basement while Silas went upstairs to grab a couple things for the ritual. Her eyes kept drifting to the doll and shivers kept working their way across her. The doll was beautiful, no doubt about it. It was just creepy laying there motionless. Ebony tried to imagine what it'd be like to be in there, would it be like how she was when she was alive or would it be a puppet effect or what? It caused anxiety to rise inside her stomach. She was excited to finally make progress, to go back into the world of the living and be able to prove her innocence. Although, she didn't exactly expect this, she didn't even know what the ritual was going to do or what she was going to do after. Of course find her killer but where would she start? She doubted that she'd be able to investigate the crime scene but that was the only lead she had besides what she saw the night of her death. She shuddered again, shaking the image of the man in her hallway out of her head.

After a few minutes left alone, Silas finally returned. He stumbled down the stairs with an armful of stuff, candles, chalk, some dried flowers, a jar with what looked like dirt inside and other odd things. Ebony gave him a quizzical look and Silas just gave her a sheepish grin as he spilled the contents of his arms onto the table where the doll sat. He wiped his brows with a sigh and took up the leather book again, skipping to a page. "I think I have everything, luckily." He paused to look at Ebony, he seemed slightly excited or nervous. "So it'll take me a moment to set everything up, but after that, it shouldn't take long to get you into your new body." He returned to the book, examining the pages. Ebony's anxiety tightened inside her. "You're sure you know what you're doing?" Silas' lips pursed for a moment then he looked up at her and gave her a not so reassuring smile. "I won't lie.. I haven't done a ritual like this before but the book goes into detail.." He glanced down slightly at the book, trying to keep a reassuring expression. "Now, the book does say it won't be easy… or exactly.. pleasant." He grimaced slightly and gave Ebony an apologetic look. "I'll do my best to make sure it goes smoothly but you may become uncomfortable during."

He wasn't the best at calming her anxiety but she could tell he was genuinely trying, even if he was anxious as well. She willed her face to relax and gave him a smile, he relaxed in return. "I'll leave it to you then." Ebony gave him a nod and moved to be beside the table and the doll as Silas quickly went to work. His hands shook slightly, she could see, the earlier events and realization probably didn't help him at the moment. He fumbled with a piece of chalk and dropped it, slightly cursing himself under his breath before stopping to grab it. He seemed like a ball of nerves. Without thinking about past experiences, Ebony walked over and crouched beside him and put a hand on his arm. She immediately remembered that she couldn't touch anyone before she realized, her hand didn't faze through him like it did the cop so many days ago. Silas was looking at her in surprise, his face inches from hers. She quickly removed her hand. "Sorry." She urgently sputtered out. "I just wanted to reassure you, it's going to be ok. We got this and I trust you." She felt heat on her face, how embarrassing but she meant what she said. If anyone was going to put her spirit into a doll's body, it was Silas. Silas smiled, his shoulders relaxing. "You're the first ghost able to touch me." He chuckled slightly before standing. "I'm sorry, you're right. We got this." His face changed into determination. "Thanks Ebony." "No problem." Ebony whispered as she moved back to her spot. She could still feel the heat on her face.

After a while of crouching on the floor and moving around to draw intricate shapes and symbols, Silas stood. He dusted the chalk off his hands and returned to the table grabbing the candles, jar of dirt and flowers. He put the candles around the main circle that made up the entirety of the unique symbols. Then he spread the dirt on the inside, before he crushed the dried flowers, sprinkling the crumpled up flora onto the dirt and candles. He stood back and looked, examining his work before smiling at Ebony. "Almost done." He lit the candles with a lighter he brought down with the other items, then grabbed a box of salt. Ebony watched, wondering how all this odd stuff could put her into a living doll. Silas sprinkled the salt around the candles making a bigger circle before he picked up the doll's body and laid it in the center of the circle. He stepped back besides Ebony, exhaling from the effort. "Now comes the hard part." He looked at Ebony, his face hardening slightly. "I told you I'd help you, but I can't guarantee this will work out." Ebony met his fierce gaze and nodded tersely. "As long as you understand.." Silas motioned to the doll's body in the center of the circle as he picked up the bound book once again. "I need you to stand over the doll's body." Ebony swallowed and hesitated for a moment, staring at the doll's lifeless body curled up on the ground before she stepped forward. She slowly positioned herself over the doll and looked up at Silas, who moved to stand in front of her, outside the circle. "Are you ready?" Silas asked. The room seemed to darken and the flames of the candles rose slightly. "Yes."

Silas began chanting. What he was chanting, Ebony wasn't sure, some old powerful language that most likely died a long time ago. At first, nothing seemed to change besides the room darkening slightly. Then it got darker, the lightbulbs flickered slightly in their sockets, the electricity pulsing through them before dimming completely. The flames of the candles grew, igniting the crumbled remains of the dried flowers. Ebony swore she could smell their fragrance. Silas continued chanting, his voice never wavering as he read from the leather bound book. The flames grew taller. Then, Ebony began to feel a weight pushing and pulling on her. Pressing on her shoulders and back while pulling and dragging at her wrists and ankles, the pressure amplified when Silas changed tune of his chant. Wind roared in Ebony's ears but the flames stood tall and unmoving. The pressure became unbearable, it began to hurt like burning iron on her wrists and ankles. Ebony tried her best not to scream out in pain. It was almost done, almost. If she could just hold on. She looked down at the doll and actually screamed in terror. The doll's head turned up towards her, it's eyes wide open and its mouth gaping in a scream. Ebony tried to move her feet away from it but found them anchored, she moved her arm to try to steady herself and the doll mimicked her movement. Ebony was in sheering pain and terror at this point. She looked up at Silas. He was still chanting but she couldn't hear a word he was saying, he watched her, his eyes full of worry. She looked back down at the doll, its eyes and mouth still open. Then she was falling, just like when you fall asleep too fast. Her consciousness faded to black as the doll's face grew closer to hers.