“We’d only been married a year. She was going to have a baby.” The dead man’s voice cracked. “I promised her I’d come back when the war was over.”

“You have. Not making it in time isn’t your fault.”

The clock was ticking, but I needed the host to come to terms with reality.

Marcus stared at the ground, deflated. “They came here and asked for volunteers. Really? After throwing us out of the house I built with my own hands, after taking my father’s orchard away, and putting us out here in a shack that wasn’t even fit for pigs, where the wind blew right through the walls, and I was supposed to leave my wife in that damned shack, and they wanted me to go fight their war?” The ghost stood up and stared off into the distance. “But I did, because I was born in this country. It’s all I’d ever known. I felt like it was my responsibility…Did we win?”

“Yes, we did, because of guys like you. Now listen to me. I need you to do something—”

“No, you listen to me, stranger.” I could hear the anger creeping in.  “When those doctors interviewed me, said they had a special assignment, said I could help end the war faster, and then we could all go home…I believed them. Then they drilled a hole in my head and filled it in with evil. Every time it tried to take over more of me, I fought it off, but then they’d just drill another hole.” He curled his hands into fists. “They’ve got to pay for this.”

“They are all gone. They’re either long dead or about to be. The only people paying now are a bunch of innocents that had nothing to do with any of this. Your wife was pregnant? Well, so is mine. And she’s in danger right now. Some of those people dying out there might even be your grandkids for all you know.”

That thought took him by surprise, but this was a lot for a ghost to digest. “But how—”

“I need you to call off your monster. I need you to take him and go back to the dream world.”

“But I can’t. He’s become too strong. I was trying to keep him in check back when I first met you, but while we were asleep, it’s like he got stronger while I got weaker.”

“Then we’ve got no choice,” I said slowly. “I need you to die.”

Marcus stared at me, incredulous. “What?”