I mean, really objectively good stuff.”
“I know, but is this Maryann?” Nora asked. “The girl can write a song, but this is poetry. This is another level.”
“What is this?” Isabella said, squinting at some writing at the bottom of a page that seemed to be jammed in between the last line of a poem and the edge of the paper. “'Help me help me.' Wait, does that really say that?”
The other two took a closer look, and then started to check the other pages more closely. Sure enough, on many of the pages with just poems, there were similar messages crammed into the corners or near the edges.
“This one says, 'I can't stop.' What is going on?” Nora asked.
“I can check a couple of things,” Isabella said, “but I think tonight we're just going to have to confront her and find out what is going on.”
Leah sighed. “That sounds like a plan. A crazy plan, but a plan. I'm going to put this back before she wakes up.” She returned the notebook and found Maryann was still asleep.
That night as Leah got ready for bed, Maryann paced nervously and finally sat down at the desk. “I'll go to bed in just a minute,” she said irritably.
“I didn't say anything,” Leah replied mildly. “I'm going to pop over to Nora and Isabella's room for a minute and be right back.”
“Whatever.”
Leah opened the adjoining door and went inside, leaving the door pulled to but not completely shut. Isabella cast a spell on herself and the other women to allow them to see spirits and auras. “Whoa, that is not right,” she said immediately, looking at Maryann. Her normally bright aura was a dark, unfocused miasma.
“What does that mean?” Leah asked.
“Um, I'm not sure. Possession, maybe?”
“Oh, well, I'm not trained to do exorcisms.”
“We'll have to figure something else out.”
“Then the first thing to do is talk to her,” Nora said, and walked into the room. “Maryann, what's going on here?”
Maryann jumped up from the desk and started to talk but not in English. She was clearly agitated and possibly near panic.
“What in the hell is she saying?” Leah asked. She tried asked, “Do you speak Spanish?” in that language and, “Do you speak French?” in that language, which resulted in Maryann looking less panicky but more confused. Maryann did start to speak more slowly as though she realized the band could not understand her.
“I didn't know you spoke French,” Isabella said.
“Yeah. I wanted to take Spanish as my language course but my parents said that wasn't right since that was actually my second language. So I took French because I figured learning another Romance language wouldn't be that hard. But she's not speaking either of those, even though it sounds kind of like it, which is why I asked.”
Nora then said something to Maryann in a very halting voice.
Maryann looked surprised, and then answered.
Nora replied, again slowly and haltingly, and Maryann answered again.
“Well, there's that,” Nora said.
“What? What did you say?” Leah asked.
“I think she's speaking Latin, which is why it sounds like French and Spanish and isn't either.”
“You know Latin?”
Nora shrugged. “It was required in my high school. And according to her, I have a terrible accent.”
“You went to a way better high school than me.”
“Wait, then how come the lyrics are all in English?” Isabella asked.
“I don't know,” Nora answered.
“Maybe because people who are truly fluent in more than one language can switch between them,” Leah offered. “My family switches between English and Spanish all the time and sometimes in the same sentence. I only know this because some of my friends told me. I had no idea because it all made sense to me.”
“So maybe if we keep talking to her in English she'll switch?” Isabella asked.
“And I can try to translate in the meantime,” Nora sighed. “But this is going to be really hard. I'm going to try to translate a language I have never heard spoken and that I haven't worked with since high school.”
Maryann had calmed down considerably and spoke up again. “I believe we can understand each other now,” she said in an odd accent. “When I get upset, I forget how to communicate to others in my state.”
“Who are you and why have you possessed Maryann?” Nora demanded.
“My name is Livia. I am trapped in the pen,” she said, gesturing to the fountain pen Maryann had received as a gift from the mysterious fan.
“That pen is not from Rome,” she snapped.
“No, no. I will start at the beginning,” the spirit called Livia said. “I was born in Rome and I fell in love with one that would never love me in return, although I did not know it at the time. I wrote poetry to my beloved, so much poetry, and then I wrote poems about my unrequited love. I begged Venus for her blessing. I begged the Muses for their blessings. I thought if I wrote a poem with all my heart and my passion, it would move even the hearts of the gods. But I was rejected by my beloved. I cursed the gods and I vowed I would never love again. I refused to eat or sleep and my world went dark. I awoke again to a young man writing poetry to his beloved. I was not dead. I shared his mind, and his language, when he wrote and I know not where I was when he did not write. I was neither asleep nor dead; I did not exist. I shared his passion and gave him the words and one day my world went dark and I awoke to an old man. I eventually realized my psyche was in a pen and that when the pen was used, I woke up. This has happened so many times I have lost count.”
“So you're haunting a pen?” Leah asked.
“I suppose. I am bound to this pen. I believe it was my pen, so long ago.”
“I'm pretty sure Romans didn't have fountain pens,” she replied dryly.
Livia sort of shook her head. “No, no, obviously not. This pen has changed shape as the times, and the writing utensils, have changed. I have tried to escape. I found I could influence those whose minds I shared but they never seemed to realize I existed.” She laughed bitterly. “I have become the very Muse I once shunned.”
“But you've possessed Maryann,” Isabella said.
“This woman is different from the rest,” Livia said. “I believe she became aware of my presence and was going to be rid of the pen. I became afraid and started to assert myself while she slept. I don't understand much of this world, but I do understand that a pen is no longer necessary to write. My pen cannot become one of these computer devices. If no one ever picks up the pen again, I will be trapped forever! I did not mean to hurt this woman but I want to go to my final rest and I know not how, but I feel time is running out.”
“Is she lying?” Leah asked in a low voice.
“I can't tell,” Isabella said. “It sounds like it could be the truth.”
“We will try to help you, but we need Maryann back. If you've shared her mind, you know she's a very generous and nice person and would want to help you.”
Livia paced back and forth. “I don't want to go back to the darkness.”
“Listen, Maryann is getting sick because you won't let her sleep. If she ends up in the hospital or worse, she can't write and you'll end up trapped anyway,” Isabella replied.
She continued to pace. “I do not wish harm to her. She wants to write great songs, although she hears the music better than the words. Please, please do not leave me to oblivion!”
“Livia,” Nora said in her 'snap-out-of-it' voice.
She startled.
“We want to help you and we want Maryann back. You need to let go of her so she can help you. I don't know if we can free you from this condition, but we are probably the best chance you have of being freed.”
She paced back and forth for a few more minutes. When she spoke again, she had lapsed back into Latin, but Nora managed to parse it.
“She agrees.”
r /> Livia sat down in the chair and closed her eyes. After a moment, Maryann jumped up. “You guys! The pen! The pen!” she exclaimed breathlessly.
“Yes, we know,” Isabella said. “The ghost trapped in the pen told us her story.”
“Okay, good. Now please help me! I mean, I feel sorry for her and all but I'm exhausted and I can't play and I can't sleep and I'm really worried!”
“Maryann, calm down!” Nora ordered. In a more gentle voice she said, “You have to help us help you and help Livia, okay?”
The redhead took a few deep breaths. “You're right, you're right. Okay, possessed objects and curses. Isabella, any ideas?”
“Wait here,” she said, and went to her room and got a piece of paper and wrote down some Japanese kanji. She walked back in and held out the paper. “Put this in your pocket, just in case.”
Maryann took the paper and the pen on the desk jumped into the air and fell back down again with a very heavy sound.
“Spirits can't be trusted,” the blonde explained. “If she wasn't telling us the truth, I want to make sure she can't possess you again. That charm should help, and you should protect yourself before we do anything else.”
“Good idea.”
“Then try some divination. If she thinks the Muses or Venus cursed her, maybe you can turn up something.”
“Right, that's a good idea!”
“Wow, she is really scatter-brained right now,” Leah murmured to Nora. “And what do we do?”
“If it comes to it, banish the ghost in the name of Christ,” Nora replied in a low voice. “Right now we say some prayers to protect ourselves as well. The ghost