Finally, I managed to create enough free space around Baby that I could safely cut her loose and throw the tentacle attached to her back into the pit with its friends. Before I could even wonder if the sweet pup would be able to move on her own, she rolled quickly away from the edge she had nearly been dragged over.

She stood and shook her whole body the way dogs do to dry off. This time though, I think she was trying to get the creepy feeling of pit-a-cles…see what I did there…off of her. Smirking at my pun, I backed out of the reach of the pit as Baby hurried over to Samantha.

“Oh,” Samantha oofed as the little doggy soul launched itself ecstatically at her and landed heavily in her open arms. “That’s a good girl.” She cooed like the dog was a child. Oh, Christ! I moaned silently. Dogs are dogs. Not babies. But clearly not in this family. In this family, the dog was definitely a child. “Okay, girl. Let’s go get that thing and keep it away from Caleb.”

Yep.

The heroics weren’t done yet. We needed to go and save Caleb. How were we supposed to do that?

“But first we need to put you back in your body, Baby.” Sam’s words jolted me. How in the world were we supposed to do that? I didn’t know. Was returning a disembodied soul to its original body a thing that everyone knew, and I just hadn’t realized was a ‘thing’? It wouldn’t be the first time I’d missed something huge like that.

“I don’t know about you…” I tried to keep it casual because I didn’t want it to come off as me mansplaining to her, “…but I have no idea how to do that.” The ghostly woman cocked her head to the side with a shrug and sucked some air thoughtfully through her teeth.

“I’m not really sure either,” she giggled nervously “I was really hoping that just getting her close to it would work. If her body is still alive that is?” Her questioning tone felt a little too steady as if she were afraid to be too hopeful.

“She’s alive.” And the completely overwhelming relief she felt was obvious in the way she visibly relaxed. Like every muscle in her body had suddenly untensed. Her shoulders, which I hadn’t noticed her hunched up around her ears, lowered to more normal shouldery positions.

“Good. That means if we can get that thing out of me…” An almost giddy giggle escaped he lips and I could tell that she was on the verge of going manic from the stress. Like she was one more Hellmouth surprise away from a full-on psychiatric emergency. I didn’t want to watch my crush’s mind fracture under the stress of encountering the paranormal for the first time.

“Then your body is still alive too and we might be able to put you back in it.” I interrupted her quickly to keep her from having to think too hard about it. Also, I was super excited about the prospect that Samantha’s body was still alive and possibly resisting that greasy demon inside her. “That’s what I was thinking. I’m absolutely certain that you were still breathing while I was fighting you…”

We both giggled a little at how messed up the whole concept was as my thoughts trailed off. When her laughter ended, Sam walked over to Baby’s unconscious body. Baby’s soul trotted alongside her happily as if her recent ordeal with the Hellmouth had never happened and she was having a regular normal stroll down the block with her mom.

But she balked away from her body when she got close to it. She growled and snarled at it a bit. So, Sam had to reassure her precious pooch.

“It’s okay Baby. See, it’s saf-”. The hand she had reached out to stroke the physical dog-body passed right through it. “Well, fiddlysticks!” The exclamation was something she clearly said often and instead of more expressive curse words since she was, ya’ know, a mom who didn’t want to cuss in front of her kid. Though I could very much hear the intended ‘well fuck’ she wanted to say through the intonation of the word. When she spoke again, her voice was tight and high pitched, her eyes looking up at me round with panic. “This is not good!”

Into The Abyss

This Is Not Good