Free Manitou Blood by Graham Masterton

Most of the time they don’t do it deliberately, but sometimes they really want to scare the shit out of you.”
    I paused, still listening. Then I said, “The only way you can find out which spirit is giving you nightmares is by asking a spirit guide to show you who it is.”
    â€œAnd that’s who’s here?”
    â€œYou got it.”
    Ted looked warily from side to side. “So where is he? I don’t see nobody.”
    â€œHe’s in there,” I said, and pointed toward the bedroom.
    â€œIn
there?
How the hell did he get in there?”
    The bracelet gave a sharp, impatient rattle. It had probably cost Singing Rock an exhausting amount of spiritual energy to find out who was responsible for Ted’s nightmares, and to bring him here. It had probably been highly dangerous, too. A spirit who could create the illusion of a suffocating box, and a fully laden ship at sea, was obviously not to be messed with.
    â€œFollow me,” I said, and beckoned Ted across to the bedroom door. I pressed my ear against one of the panels, and listened. At first the room seemed to be silent, but then I heard the softest of whispers, hundreds of whispers,
thousands
, like a whole cathedral filled with fervently whispering nuns.
    â€œ
Tatal nostru carele esti in ceruri, sfinteasca-se numele tau
—”
    I reached for the old brown plastic doorknob. There was only one way to find out what this spirit looked like, and that was to face it. But I can tell you that my heart was thumping so hard against my ribs that it hurt.
    â€œ
Vie imparatia ta, faca-se voia ta
—”
    â€œNo!” said Ted, hysterically, in a just-broken voice like a teenager.
    â€œTed—he’s here—but Singing Rock can’t keep him here for very long.”
    â€œI don’t want to see him!” He was almost screaming. “Please, man, I can feel how evil he is!
I don’t want to see him!
”
    On the table, the beads gave another brisk rattle.
    â€œThis is your only chance, Ted! If you don’t face up to him now, you could go on having this same nightmare for the rest of your life! Ted! Listen to me!
Ted!
”
    But Ted was backing away from me, with both of his hands raised, shaking his head violently from side to side. “I can’t do it, dude! I can’t face him! I can feel how evil he is! I never felt anything so bad!”
    â€œTed, you
must!
You don’t have any choice!”
    I didn’t want to open that bedroom door any more than Ted. It sounded as if the whisperers were growing ever more numerous—as if there were
millions
of ghostly spirits crowding against the other side of the paneling, praying hungrily for their release. And there was a
smell
, too—a really sickening smell, like cheap chicken meat with the first shadow of olive-green decay showing through the skin; and drains clogged with dripping gray hair; and lumpy milk.
    All the same, I knew that we had to confront this spirit that Singing Rock had brought to show me. If we didn’t, I might never be able to call on him again. A Sioux would give you everything he possessed, if you asked him, or even if you didn’t. But he would never forgive ingratitude.
    â€œI’m opening the door, Ted!” I told him. “You have to see this, no matter what!”
    Ted dropped onto his knees. “I can’t, man!
Please!
”
    I heard a furious pattering against the other side of the door, like a shower of locusts. On the table, however, the bracelet gave a single desultory shake, and then lay silent; and the candles began to dip and gutter, as if they were starved of air. I knew that if I didn’t look in the bedroomnow, I would never know who was giving Ted his nightmares, or why, and that he would probably end up gibbering mad, or suicidal, or both.
    So I opened the door.

5
C ITY OF B LOOD
    â€œCan we talk to her?” asked Lieutenant Roberts, nodding toward Susan