Ghostman: Ofrenda

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

* **Ghostman**, *Fernando Perez*, auctioneer for Gaumond Auction House, the premiere auction house in California
* *Mallory Romero*, art historian and employee at Gaumond Auction House, and Fernando’s on-again/off-again girlfriend
* *Richard Lively*, head curator at Gaumond Auction House

* *Octavia Perez*, Fernando’s mother
* *Claudia Perez*, Fernando’s sister
* *Stephen Perez*, Fernando’s cousin
* *Vanessa Suitor-Perez*, Stephen’s wife

* *Whisper*, an amoral magician and acquaintance of Ghostman
* *The Conqueror Worm*, murderous entity from Beyond the Veil
* *Wildorado*, killer ghost outlaw
* *Santa Muerte*, enigmatic folk saint who occasionally appears to Ghostman

We open at the funeral of Fernando Perez. Mallory Romero is heartbroken, as the pair were in a fight when Fernando died. There is a great deal of tension between Mallory and Octavia, who is greatly distraught. Claudia, Stephen, and Vanessa are kinder to Mallory, but mainly wish to comfort their mother. Richard Lively attempts to comfort Mallory, but puts his foot in his mouth.

Fernando Perez wakes up from a strange dream of his own funeral. It doesn’t seem to be a dream of the future, but it still leaves him quite shaken. He calls Mallory, but she does not answer; the pair are currently on the outs. Fernando heads in to work at Gaumond, where he hears a report of a grisly murder, one the police have no ideas about. He tries to talk to Mallory, but, knowing he’s Ghostman, Mallory only asks about the murder, and Fernando is not sure if she is implying she wants him to investigate it or blames him for being obsessed with death and pain. Richard Lively arrives and condescends to both Mallory and Fernando about work he deems subpar on a recent auction; Mallory and Fernando have a brief moment of connection, but it soon dissipates.

That night, Ghostman investigates the murder scene, floating through the walls and noting blood and viscera spread all about the room. He attempts to detect the ghost of the victim, assuming such a grisly death would have left a confused and pained specter, but instead he is attacked by a horrifying man-sized worm-like apparition. Ghostman is only barely able to get away from the powerful necromantic conjuration. Upon looking back into the crime scene, he sees nothing amiss. Ghostman returns home and removes the Cloak of the Grave, becoming Fernando again. He calls Mallory and leaves a message on her answering machine, explaining he wants to change things and be with her.

We then witness Mallory mourning Fernando’s death again, while helping Claudia and Vanessa pack up all of Fernando’s things. Claudia tells them Octavia is taking his death incredibly badly. The women talk about how much Fernando loved Toasty-Tarts, which gives them a moment of levity and fond remembrance amid the grieving. Vanessa, a literature professor, recites poems about death fit for funerals, which Mallory appreciates but that upsets Claudia, who has always dealt with feelings that she is not as “intellectual” as her brother, her cousin-in-law Vanessa, or Mallory, the woman her brother was always so obsessed with and whom her mother always resented. This conversation grows more awkward, and Santa Muerte can be seen watching from the window of Fernando’s now empty apartment.

Fernando once again awakens from a dream of a world in which he is dead. Still aching from the battle last night, Fernando calls in sick to work, dons his cloak, and heads to the Library of the Left Hand Path, a magical repository of arcane knowledge used by various occultists, good and bad. It tends to be a place he’s not always warmly welcomed. On this visit, he crosses paths with Whisper, a soft-spoken fedora-sporting magician who refuses to explain what she’s up to. After a tense exchange, Fernando confesses to her he has been dreaming of a world in which he died, in which the Cloak of the Grave never embraced him and kept him on the edge of The Veil. Whisper replies to this tale by asking Fernando to have a drink with her at her hotel; he declines, assuming she’s working some angle.

That night, Ghostman feels a presence like the one from the worm-thing at the site of the first murder. Racing toward it, he stumbles upon a freshly dead corpse, torn apart in a horrifying fashion akin to the first murder. However, Ghostman is able to shepherd this terrified soul to the afterlife, and the ghost is even able to mention a bit about the thing that attacked him, a tall man that seemed to be nothing but a massive, razor-mouthed worm wearing a large coat. The victim’s ghost gives a bit more personal information, and Ghostman realizes both victims patronized the same tailor, and had recently purchased new garments with a special silk.

Ghostman goes to the tailor’s closed office and finds the man’s body ripped apart like the others and in a state of serious decomposition. He learns the name of another customer who’d had something made with the silk, but the records of where the tailor acquired the silk have been removed. Ghostman goes to the home of the next likely victim and stakes the place out, but he suddenly finds himself dozing, oddly unable to stay vigilant: he then dreams of Mallory finding comfort in the arms of the boorish but loyal Richard Lively. The two begin to have sex, as Santa Muerte watches them through a window.

Ghostman awakens, heart pounding, and though the dream upset him greatly, he realizes another murder is taking place now. Flying through the walls, Ghostman finds the third would-be victim badly inured on the ground, towered over by a massive worm with horrifying teeth wrapped in a large ornate coat: the Conqueror Worm! A great fight ensues, but Ghostman is badly outmatched by this hew villain, who speaks in a frightening, inhuman voice, refers to its own “vermin fangs in human gore imubed” and considers itself “the hero” of this story. He is unable to prevent the death of the third victim, and the Conqueror Worm departs. Summoning what little strength he has left, Ghostman escorts the terrified ghost to the Veil before the Cloak of the Grave is fully spent for the time.

Bruised, bloodied, and unable to use magic, Fernando finds himself in bad shape on the street. He makes his way to Whisper’s hotel room, where she patches him up using magic. He tells her of the entity he fought and she references the Poe poem “The Conqueror Worm” — though she’s never heard of a monster such as this, one with corporeal powers that can stymie Ghostman’s noncorporeal nature. Fernando and Whisper begin to hook up, but he keeps seeing flashes of his dream in which Mallory and Richard were having sex. Frustrated and exhausted, Fernando accuses Whisper of knowing more than she’s letting on, and having ulterior motives. Offended, Whisper kicks him out of her hotel room.

We then see Mallory and Richard with their children at the park. Mallory bumps into Claudia, and there seems to be a lot of tension there. Claudia informs Mallory that her mother has died, having never gotten over Fernando’s death. The presence of Claudia and the mention of Fernando seems to lead to great tension between Mallory and Richard, who leaves his wife and kids in the park to go and clear his head. Mallory tries to offer her condolences to Claudia about her mother’s death, but the awkwardness remains. Santa Muerte seems to be watching the children while the woman have their tense exchange.

Fernando awakens from this dream, more confused and pained. He decides to go speak to his family, including his still living mother, as well as Claudia, Stephen, and Vanessa. His family are unaware of his dual life as Ghostman, but they can tell that he’s clearly not in a good place and Claudia and Octavia seem to assume it’s all the fault of Mallory Romero, whom they don’t like for various reasons. Remembering that Vanessa is a literature professor, asks her about “The Conqueror Worm” — Vanessa starts to speak about it but then drops a glass, frightened as if she’s seen a ghost. Fernando reaches out and senses a ghost nearby; he tracks it to the family altar, where he finds the ghost of his still living mother, who tells him about how sad his death made her. Fernando freaks out and leaves, rushing past his confused mother, who seems to blame Vanessa.

Ghostman tries to determine who the next target will be, but is out of leads at the tailor’s shop. Throwing caution to the wind, Ghostman attempts to summon the ghosts of the victims to further probe them for information; instead Santa Muerte appears to him. Ghostman beseeches her for help, but all she shows him is a vision of the Conqueror Worm standing triumphantly over the altar at his mother’s house, implying that his family will be the next victims. Ghostman also sees Whisper in the vision, and assumes she is the one who’s summoned the Conqueror Worm after all.

Ghostman rushes back to Whisper’s hotel room, finding her in the midst of a summoning ritual using a piece of his own Cloak of the Grave, one she must’ve cut off when she was healing him earlier. Ghostman, enraged, disrupts the summoning, which causes Whisper to actually shout out loud in anger. However, the summoning goes through and it is Wildorado, not the Conqueror Worm, who appears... and thanks to Ghostman’s interference, he’s outside of the circle of salt Whisper was using to keep him at bay. The spectral cowboy immediately attacks and overwhelms Whisper and Ghostman, and he wraps a lariat around Whsiper’s throat, choking her for daring to try and use him for her frivolous purposes.

But just before she is slain, Wildorado feels a powerful presence of necromantic energy, and decides to seek it out, perhaps hoping to add its power to his own arsenal. Ghostman pauses to teleport Whisper to the hospital before chasing after Wildorado, finding him at the home of Stephen and Vanessa... where the Conqueror Worm is about to attack them! Ghostman, Wildorado, and the Conqueror Worm engage in a phantasmic battle royale, and Stephen Perez is tragically slain in the fray by one of Wildorado’s monstrous bullets, which causes Vanessa to freak out and command the Conqueror Worm attack Wildorado and not Ghostman. Ghostman realizes that Vanessa is the one who summoned this creature, having found the magical silk in a chest of Fernando’s magical objects hidden in his house!

Knowing he can’t fight both horrible entities, Ghostman chooses to allow Wildorado to range free. Wildorado takes the opportunity to escape, but he does provide a parting gift by firing one of his most potent bullets as he departs; a dire crow which attacks the Conqueror Worm with predatory skill. This gives Ghostman the opportunity to summon all the power he has left and he sends the Conqueror Worm back beyond the Veil, where the angels all pallid and wan can behold him once again.

Broken and beaten, Fernando asks Vanessa how she did summoned that creature and found that enchanted silk. She explains she saw it in a dream she had about clearing out his house when he was dead, implying she shared those strange visions he’s been having. Vanessa described this as a happy dream to her, suggesting that she wishes Fernando were dead as he’s a constant source of tension in the family and his job and friends makes his mother more judgmental of her. Fernando leaves her with Stephen’s body in her broken house, telling her the silk she stole is something he didn’t even know he had.

Fernando visits Whisper in the hospital, where he learns her vocal chords were damaged irreparably by Wildorado’s rope, meaning she now can only whisper for real, not just as part of her mystique. Fernando apologizes for ruining her spell, and she admits summoning Wildorado was her own bad idea. Despite these admissions, the two don’t seem to be on good terms. Fernando then visits Mallory, and tells her of the dreams he’s had, and asks if they can be together again. She tells him she’s not ready for that, but that she is glad that he is alive and not dead. Fernando heads home and goes to sleep.

We see Mallory and Richard fighting, and Richard once again slamming the door and leaving. Mallory’s kids seem extremely upset. We see Claudia living alone, and seeming very lonely. We see Stephen and Vanessa having a perfectly pleasant evening at home. We then see the grave of Fernando Perez, where Santa Muerte waits. Ghostman appears in these dream visions for the first time. He starts to ask Santa Muerte why she’s been showing him all this, but trails off. Instead, he places a packet of his favorite flavor of Toasty-Tarts on his own grave and walks off into the darkness with Santa Muerte.