A bulbous golden moon climbed steadily above the slumbering Florida town as Joshua Emanuel Steel slipped silently through the clay-tiled roof of the century-old Spanish-style hotel into his modest abode.  He was spent and looking forward to some much needed rest.

Astral bodies get tired too, just like physical bodies.  And roaming the creepy, sub-space terrain in and around Orange City, Fl. searching for the demon supposedly responsible for his younger brother’s demise had taken a toll on his health of late.

Now, hovering inches above his inert physical body was this thing. He drew back, shocked, angry and wide-eyed as he watched the intruder as it drew near his physical body.

Thing did not begin to describe the creature. Long, elf-like ears, scaly-greenish skin and an unusually large cranium with a pair of angry red eyes, and a body clad in tight-fitting trousers and a red-vest.  “This is no run-of-the-mill ghost,” Josh thought.

What the Hades inferno was this thing doing hovering next to his body?  Josh muttered under his breath.  But, there it was, in all its shimmering glory. 

He glanced down at the specter’s lower half, but couldn’t discern its gender. Actually, he didn’t give a bat's navel about the difference.  He wanted his body back but it was blocking his ability to re-enter it.

Then, the entity opened its mouth wide like a male lion and long, curved fangs protruded; Razor-like talons extruded from the ends of its toes and fingers.

A mixture of awe, fascination and fear swept through Joshua Steel.  It took all the inner control that he could muster too force his attention away from the intruder’s powerful magnetic gaze.

He realized he had to act fast.  For all he knew this…thing might be intending to…do… something…really unthinkable…like taking over his body!

Sunday morning. 6 a.m. Joshua was jolted out of a deep sleep by someone pounding on the front door.

“Better be important,” he muttered as he cracked the door and peeked outside.

Joshua’s younger brother charged into the apartment holding a newspaper in his hand.

“Read this!”  He pointed to an article in the Volusia Extra section of the Orlando Sentinel.

Joshua closed the door, snatched the newspaper from his brother’s hand, trudged over to the couch, plopped down and proceeded to read the article title out loud. “Suicides are up in Volusia.”

He glanced up from the newspaper, held his brother’s anxious gaze and said,  “Let me guess.  You believe that entities from the other side are responsible for the sudden increase.”

“With every fiber of my being!”

“Mark, been there, done that with you.“

“One more time,” Mark pleaded.

“No!” Josh retorted.   “If you feel so strong about pursuing this...obsession of yours...knock yourself out.”

“Okay,” Mark fired back, “If you won’t help me, I intend to do just that.  I’m not going to give up until I get the proof I need!  Even if it’s the last thing I do.”

Mark pulled the paper from his brother’s hand and began reading the article. “

 “According to a special report on Suicide, Dr. Phillip Trenfield, a local Coroner, concluded that Volusia County’s suicide rate was significantly higher than the national average.’ “

“Big deal! Averages. Percentages.  They go up. They go down.  What’s your point Mark?”

“Hold your horses! I’m getting there.” Mark continued, “The Medical Examiner stated that suicides usually result from marital and family discord, breakups in relationships, multiple health concerns, terminal illness, chronic pain, depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, loss of a job, loss of a spouse or family member and legal problems. Pick one, say drug addiction.”

Josh glanced at the ceiling, “I’m all ears.”

“Remember the case studies we researched on the devastating effects that cocaine and heroin have on the auras of individuals hooked on so-called mind -blowing drugs?”

“Yeah, and?”

 “Well, according to the research data, once the subject’s aura or energy field, however you choose to label it, is breached an astral entity could (theoretically speaking) attach itself to the breached aura of an addict and set up shop.”

Josh chimed in, “Then what you’re implying is (assuming your theory is true ) once the entity gets inside the victim’s aura, it can suggest all sorts of unthinkable acts to its host.”

Mark nodded.  “Hell, it goes on all the time.”

Josh frowned.

Mark continued, “Then the victim’s aural integrity would be compromised.”

“Aural integrity. I like that.”

“It’s a crime against humanity!  And, even though numerous books have been written on the subject of spirit possession, I’m appalled that the scientific community hasn’t taken a more serious approach to the phenomenon.”

Joshua nodded, “Okay. So, what if you could prove that this sort of thing is going on?”

Joshua rubbed his chin and continued.

“It would be for your eyes only.  The scientific community deals in facts, not intangible anomalies.  They’d ridicule you and label you a kook.

“You understand how that works, Mark.”

Josh patted the couch.

“Sit down brother, take a deep breath and try and relax.  OK.”

Mark plopped down on the couch next to his brother and released a long sigh. Josh reached over and gently massaged his brother’s shoulder.  “Look. Even if you’re lucky enough to get the proof that you’re so dogged determined to obtain, it would be foolish to go off half-cocked.   You’d need a team of highly trained paranormal investigators armed with the latest state-of-the-art technology in dealing with the phenomena.”

“I’m way ahead of you Josh.  I contacted Spirit Hunters.  They have an office in Orlando. They investigate haunted sites simply to prove for themselves that other-worldly spirits do exist, and they offer their services-which happen too be free by the way-to any and all individuals who feel that they need their services.”

 Josh nodded and Mark continued.

“Spirit hunters is armed with the latest ghost-snooping devices; high-resolution digital cameras, EMF meters, infrared motion detectors, thermal scanners and digital recorders.

“Good. They’re the professionals.  Let them do the work.”

Mark smiled, tapped his brother on the knee and replied, “But Spirit Hunters operate on leads and that’s where I come in.”

 “Let me guess.  You’re going to roam around the neighborhood in your astral body hoping you’ll get lucky and stumble across some evil spirit who just happens to be in the act of preying on some unsuspecting victim.”

“You got it!  Then I’ll contact Spirit Hunters, give them the information and location of the proposed crime in progress and they’ll take it from there. They take pride in their abilities to response quickly too crimes in progress on the other side of the veil.”

Joshua nodded his head.  He realized that nothing he could do or say would change Marks’ mind. 

When Josh discovered his brother’s body on the living room floor in his apartment, dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, he was devastated.

Deep down inside, he felt somehow responsible for his brother’s untimely demise.  If only he had agreed to help Mark one more time, the outcome might have been different, and his brother would be alive. 

Josh eased down from his position below the ceiling; and made a pass at the alien invader just to see what kind of a reaction he might get from the bigheaded bugger. 

If it turned and charged him he would be forced to make a quick decision. Either fight or flee. If he opted to challenge it, perhaps with a little luck and a swift, witty maneuver, he might manage to slip past it and reclaim his body! 

The scaly-skinned spirit spun around, assumed a crouched posture, and let out a deep, throaty snarl.  Josh drew back and retreated to his corner as near the ceiling as he could get.  It wasn’t clear to him, exactly what he was dealing with.  

And in the next moment, the formidable foe flipped to a horizontal position above his sleeping body. 

As the realization of what had just happened began to crystallize in his mind, Josh Steel tried to move but he couldn’t.  It felt like he was stuck in some kind of etheric glue. 

He watched in horror as the entity began to integrate into his physical form. Realizing what was at stake, he broke free from the adhesive fear that had gripped him momentarily and swooped down next to his body.  His intention was to squeeze in there with the darn thing, if at all possible. 

He was repelled.   He tried again and was bounced.  He probed every inch around his body searching for an entry point only to be repulsed repeatedly by an invisible barrier.

The creature’s aura, the energy field that surrounds all living organisms, was denying him re-entry into his body.  A body whose pale serene facial features now looked and seemed, in a strange sort of way, quite alien to him. Strange in the sense that he was outside of his body, observing it from a distance.

Dark, curly locks fell over his high forehead while the lean chest expanded and contracted.

Harmonious… 

Peaceful…

But the heart pumped blood too a different drummer now.

Breathing quickened followed by an explosion of reddish color that flushed the pallid face.   Eyelids twitched then flicked open.

As the realization that the opportunistic spirit had taken charge of his physical body registered in his brain, Josh Steel reluctantly gazed into those dark orbs.

Indeed!  This entity from beyond had connected with and re-energizing the high-powered, mysterious sympathetic nervous system of the highly complex sophisticated machine owned and operated by Joshua Emanuel Steel.

He watched as his body sat up and pivoted around to the side of the bed. Josh realized that the ghost had now assumed a powerful position.

It could do anything it wanted to do, no matter the fantasy, passion or crime. It could rape, rob, or kill. And if apprehended by the police, all the fiend had to do was exit the body that resided at 400 East Graves Avenue, Apartment 40, Orange City, Florida.

And Joshua Steel would have a lot of explaining to do.

Yeah. You’re right Mark.  It happens all the time and nothing is being done about it, Josh uttered to himself. 

The trespasser slid off the bed, moved to the door, disappeared down the hallway, and emerged moments later outside the apartment complex.

The body snatcher then headed for Volusia Avenue where the busy early-morning work traffic was at its peak. 

Then the SOB paused at the corner of Graves and Volusia and stripped down. 

Josh Steel (helplessly) stood and watched.  Moments later a squad car pulled up.  Someone had called the cops.  Two officers climbed out of the patrol car and cautiously approached the nude motionless body with a vacant expression spread across the face.  Josh realized then that his unwelcome guest had abandoned the body.   

A newspaper reporter emerged from the convenience store and upon seeing the bizarre spectacle reached inside his car, grabbed a camera off the seat and clicked off several shots. 

Josh drew in a deep sigh then reluctantly slipped back into his body and as he initiated that process, the whole gamut of physical sounds and sensations from the immediate surroundings, assaulted his senses.  The deafening roar of automobiles as they passed to and fro, horns blowing, and the officers pointing and saying something about putting his clothes back on. 

One of the officers asked him for identification.   Joshua pulled his wallet from his pocket and removed the license and handed it to the officer.

The second cop wanted to know if he was on drugs or medication of some kind.

He replied in a calm and non-aggressive manner that he was not.

As it turned out Joshua Steel had too do the mandatory 3-day observation period after which, all went well and the staff psychiatrist released him on the third day.

Determined to put the embarrassing ordeal behind him, Josh fired up his computer and began revising the last chapter of a supernatural thriller he had been working on. 

Just before sunrise, he heard a car rumble by outside and a loud thump. The newspaper had arrived.

He stepped outside, picked up the paper, removed the plastic cover and turned the pages frantically.  And there on a page was a picture of his nude body.  Private parts blocked out. 

He went back inside, sat down on the couch and stared transfixed at the picture of his unclad anatomy.

The fiend had got him good.  Yet, in retrospect, it could have been a whole lot worse.  The cosmic joker could have gotten hold of a gun and went on a shooting spree.   He shuttered to think of all the unfortunate individuals that had been jailed and sentenced for crimes they were not responsible for; and their only defense was, the devil made them do it. 

He tossed the paper aside, shut down the computer, and switched off the lamp.  He climbed into his dream car, a 57 Chevy, two-door coup, jet black, drove to a local deli and stocked up on cold cuts, cheese, a six-pack of soft drinks, and a box of his favorite (individually wrapped) Mocha-blend coffee.   

He returned to his apartment, made himself a sandwich, popped a top, and returned to the computer.  As he reached over and pulled the table lamp chain, blue and orange sparks erupted from the light socket.  Slivers of glass flew in all directions.  “What's up with that?” he shouted.   He cleaned up the shattered pieces of glass, inspected the lamp socket, and screwed in another bulb.   He pulled the chain again.   Light filled the room.   Probably just a faulty bulb, he reasoned. 

He went to the kitchen, opened the special coffee blend, dropped a bag in a mug, set the microwave timer and returned to the monitor.

As soon as he sat down, he heard a deep humming sound, the kind of sounds that power transformers made, then a flicker of light followed by an explosion.

“What tha…” he shouted.   He jumped up and ran to the doorway that led into the kitchen.  The pungent smell of nuked mocha hung in the air.  The dark liquid dripped from the ceiling and oozed down the now brown-stained walls.  The microwave was ablaze and shrouded in a cloud of smoke.  Josh reached around behind the burning unit, yanked the cord out of the wall socket, grabbed the fire extinguisher and covered the smoldering appliance with a layer of thick foam.

He cleaned up the mess, set the deformed mechanism on the back porch and returned to his work.

He sat down again and as his fingers touched the keyboard, the bulb in the lamp blinked twice and went out again.

"What now!"  He shouted as he looked up from the screen.

The smell of something electrical assaulted his sense of smell.  Dark smoke seeped out of the computer’s CD drive orifice.  As Joshua Steel reached down and yanked the power cord from the wall outlet, the computer burst into flames.  He leaped up and flew out of the room, grabbed the extinguisher, returned to the room and covered the smoldering unit with the foamy liquid.  He stared at the bubbling white liquid as it slid down the computer’s outer shell and dripped onto the floor.  He assessed the damage.  The hard drive was cooked.  And a manuscript that was less than a page from completion was toast.  Or was it?  He depressed the CD drive ejection button before realizing he had disconnected the power. With screwdriver in hand, he pried the disk out of the fuming aperture.

“Damn!” he shouted as he let go the sizzling hot disk.  It tumbled to the floor. 

Then it hit him.  Ghost man was back, and with a vengeance.  Except now the scaly critter had the power to affect physical matter.

The sound of a siren cried out.  Its shrill, violent scream drew near.  Josh peered out the bedroom window just as a Goliath red machine pulled up in front of the old hotel, brakes screeching the vehicle too a halt. 

Firemen climbed down from the truck, reeled off hoses and disappeared around the corner of the faded old structure.

“Around here!”  Someone shouted.  "A car’s on fire!"  Josh was already paranoid and hearing those words was all that he needed to put him over the edge.  He bolted out the door, shot around the side of the hotel just in time to see his dream car engulfed in flames.   His heart sank.  He headed for the burning vehicle but two firemen held him back.

 “The gas tank’s going to blow at any moment,” shouted one of the firemen,” Just as a loud explosion sent flames and pieces of the car flying through the air.

“Was that your car?” The other fireman said.

      “Yeah,” a dejected Josh replied.  “Was.”

“What a shame,” one of the first fireman commented, a classic not toast.”  Josh just nodded.

“I’ll bet it was your pride and joy, uh,” said the fireman.”

“Was.”

“Probably a short in the wiring.  That happens sometimes," the other fireman commented.

“Actually, the fire was caused by a jacked up ghoul who's got a bug up his butt for me,” Josh replied.

Both firemen glanced at each other and flashed Josh a strange glance. The one standing next to him replied, “I've heard some good ones, but that's about the weirdest story I’ve ever heard.  You’re covered right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, if I was you, I wouldn’t mention the ghoul thing to your agent.  If you know what I mean."

“Yeah.  I get your drift.”

 As the firemen returned the hose and put away their gear, one of them turned to Josh and said, “A tow’s on the way to remove the remains.”

Josh watched the fire truck pull away.  He approached the burnt-out shell.  As he ran his hand over the warm, wet surface, he reflected on the countless pleasurable memories that the 50’s icon had given him.  He drew in a deep sigh, went back inside and flopped down on the couch.  And the more he thought about the trouble that that evil spirit had caused him, the madder he became.  He decided it was payback time.  

He devised a plan.

He rummaged through the closet until he found what he was looking for. A baseball bat.  It wasn’t just any old bat. It was 32 inches of prime Northern Ash.  A Louisville Slugger.  He had slammed many a homer with it in days gone by.

He stretched out on the bed with the bat at his side and slipped out of his body.  Once out, he reached down, picked up the bat's astral form (as hard as its physical form) and began combing the immediate surroundings for the creep.

He crossed Volusia Avenue checking both sides of the street.  As he approached where Graves deadheaded into Carpenter, he paused.   He was in luck.  His adversary was standing next to a stop sign and had not noticed that Joshua was watching him. 

A vehicle approached the intersection.  

The motorist ignored the posted intersection and broadsided another vehicle that was coming through the intersection. 

The two physical vehicles collided then came to rest in the middle of the street.  Both drivers, stunned and confused, stumbled from their damaged cars.  Josh realized what had happened. The entity had projected thought forms at the first motorist suggesting that he run the stop sign.  What a devious imp!  He muttered to himself.

Josh eased up behind the ghost, took careful aim and swung the Louisville slugger with all his strength.  The bat made a loud thud as it connected with the back of the entities over-sized noggin, causing the fiend to fall face down on the ground.  It shook its head, leaped to its feet, wheeled around and seeing Josh pounced on him, pinning him to the ground.

As Josh struggled to break free, his attention was drawn to a strange-looking vehicle emerging from the shadows to his left.  The otherworldly craft hovered inches above the ground as it floated soundlessly too a halt several feet away.

Two officers emerged from the vehicle dressed in uniforms with the words Etheric Police/Quadrant X00.

The fiend, sensing that something wasn’t right, jerked its head around and, upon seeing the officers, bolted.  One of the officers retrieved a small device from his belt and aimed it at the fleeing spirit.  A burst of light shaped like a loop erupted from the end of the instrument, and wrapped around the rapscallion causing the demon to lose his balance and he fell to the ground.

The officers lifted the tightly bound thug off the ground and placed him inside the rear of the craft.

Then one of the officers turned to Josh and said, "We've been tracking this one for quite some time.  He’s part of a crime-ring with nothing better to do with their time than probing your world looking for humans with defective Remps.  It is an on-going problem that your police forces know nothing about.”

“Remps?” Josh asked.

The officer smiled, and then answered, “Auras. So, you can think of him as an aura-buster.”

“I think I get the picture,” Joshua replied.

“We’re sorry your brother had to cross paths with this one, but if it’s of any consolation too you, where he's going (he nodded to the fiend) he won't be bothering another human ever again.”

The officer smiled at Josh and said, “Thanks for your help.”

They got back in the vehicle. It rose into the air, and with a slight murmur the craft tilted upward and simply vanished from sight.

As Josh was returning to his body, something caught his eye.  He peered down from his position over the roof at the spot where his dream car had burned to the ground just a short while ago. 

His jaw dropped.  The physical car had been destroyed but its counterpart was still in tact. Actually, it looked brand new.

He dropped down alongside the vehicle.  It was sleek and shiny black, glistening in the brilliant sunlight.  He ran his hand over the hood and top. The smooth, slick surface felt good to his touch.   He opened the door and slid under the wheel.   He reached down and switched on the ignition.   The 283 engine roared to life.   He flicked on the radio. 

The Platters were singing The Great Pretender.  He pulled out of the parking lot onto Graves Avenue and headed for the Interstate.

Imagine that!