KEEPING
PROMISES
By Gerald A. Polley
The Ancient One and his companions flew to the east of their country,
to The Ancient One's old hunting grounds. He had been summoned by
some he had had dealings with long passed. They landed by a
luxurious hotel that was obviously new. Shrubs were in the
process of being planted. A handsome man and a very attractive
woman approached them.
"Well, it's about time!" the man remarked. "Look! You made us a
promise. You said if we behaved ourselves and didn't hurt
anybody, we could stay here forever. Now look! They've torn
down our place and put up this trash! And now they've got a guy
in there trying to drive us out because we had some fun with the
construction crew. We've never hurt anybody, except that guy who
was hurting the little boys, and you said that was all right."
"Come on!" The Ancient One snapped. They walked through the
doors entering the hotel's lavish lobby. "Well, I don't see
what's wrong with this place," The Ancient One remarked. "All
kinds of gizmos you can mess with. You could create all kinds of
phenomena in here!"
"Yes," the woman agreed, "but he's driving out our power, clearing out
the ectoplasmic. We won't be able to function in here for years!"
The Ancient One smiled. "Don't worry!" he remarked, "I'll
take care of him. He held out his hand and a beam of energy shot
from it. It hit the makeshift altar the man was using, bounced
back, picked The Ancient One up, carried him across the room, and
slammed him into the wall!
"Ow!" The Ancient One moaned as he regained his feet.
"Nifelheim!" his male companion cried. "What happened?"
"Remember me telling you," The Ancient One answered, "that there's an
automatic system that protects the good from my power? That was
it! Every once and a while my powers like to remind me that I
might be immortal, but I'm not invulnerable. I should've checked
first to find out rather or not this guy was real or not. I don't
get careless too often. You can see why!" He went back to
the middle of the room and began to wave his hand around in a circular
motion. After a few moments the man at the altar stopped praying
and looked at him.
"Look," The Ancient One remarked, "I'm a Lord Of Light. This place
belongs to these spirits. It was built on their old abode.
The Lord Of Heaven commands that they not be disturbed, that they be
allowed to make themselves known as long as they do no harm."
The man smiled, closed his Bible, and extinguished the two candles on
the altar. A man nearby came over. "Are you done?" he asked.
"I'm afraid I can't help you," the man answered. "One of The
Angelic Messengers just appeared to me and told me that these people,
these spirits belong here, this is their property, that I am forbidden
to drive them out. They will do no harm."
"Great!" the man cried. "You mean I'm going to have a couple of
ghosts here that are going to be bothering my guests?"
The man at the altar contemplated a moment. "Use it!" he
finally answered. "Let people know the place is haunted.
People come flocking from all over the country hoping to have some
phenomena happen to them"
The other man looked thoughtful, then muttered "It just might work, it
just might! Come to the office. I'll pay you
anyway. A haunted hotel! It's an idea, it's a real idea!"
"There!" The Ancient One snapped. "Now that he's not interfering
we'll recharge the place.
He held up his hand and energy flowed from it in all directions, going
into the walls, the floors, the furniture. It stopped.
"There ya go!" The Ancient One continued. "Have fun!
Gotta go!"
"While we're here," The Ancient One continued to his companions as they
went out the door, "let's see if we can sink that smuggling boat.
I would love to keep what they're bringing in out of the country!"
"Yeah!" his male companion answered, patting his hand with his
ax, "Yeah!"