Page 46 of Mack's Horribly Hellacious Ghost Town
The office lady pushed her glasses back on her nose and cleared her throat a little. “May I help you?”
Brandon gave her the charming smile every Havili had mastered. “I believe you can. Not to alarm you—no one’s in trouble—but we’re FBI. Special Agent Brandon Havili, and this is my partner, Special Agent Mackenzie Lafayette. We’re here to pull Gwyn out of school.”
Could I take a picture of this woman’s face? She was the perfect meme for shock right now. I had to bite the inside of my lip to cage a laugh. “Gwyn’s a Medium. We’re taking her on as my apprentice, you see.”
“Oh!” Half of her alarm was shelved. “Gwyn, that’s amazing for you! I bet you’re excited.”
“Very.” Gwyn nodded fervently. “I’ll be moving with them, so…”
“Right, there’s some paperwork we need to do there. Do you have custody papers?”
“Yes, ma’am. My boss does, to be precise. She’s waiting on a point of contact to send them to.”
“Perfect. I think the principal will need to speak with you too. Hold on just one second.”
While she bustled to the principal’s office, I rehearsed a few things in my head. Always went better if I had a prepared line or three.
The principal turned out to be an elderly lady with greying brown hair, nicely dressed in a shin-length black dress and brown leather boots. She zeroed in on Gwyn first, coming straight to her.
“Gwyn, are you really a Medium?”
“Yes, I am,” Gwyn answered patiently. Almost as if she’d answered this question many times?
Was I missing some history here?
The principal’s bright pink lips pursed. “I had a feeling something was very off with you. Your parents swore you weren’t.”
“They’re wrong.” I stepped forward with my hand outstretched. “Special Agent Mackenzie Lafayette, FBI Paranormal Activity Division.”
She took my hand and sized me up with a sweep of her eyes. “Nice to meet you, Agent. I’m Principal Holland. You’re to be her mentor, correct?”
“Yes, ma’am. This is authorized by my department, and we do have custody of Gwyn. I can show you the papers.”
“Ah. You answered my next question. Well, come in, let’s do some paperwork.”
Seemed straightforward enough, so we followed her into a somewhat small office. Really, aside from three visitor chairs, the principal’s desk, and a single bookcase filled with books, there wasn’t much furniture in here. Or room for more.
Principal Holland sat behind her desk, pulling up something on her computer. “I just need some information and signatures. Also, I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name?”
“Brandon Havili,” my fiancé answered steadily as he took the last seat, bookending Gwyn. “I’m Mack’s anchor and work partner. Really, Gwyn will be in our custody.”
“Ah, I see. I’ll make a note. Will she be transferring to a local school?”
“Likely not, as we’re constantly running all over the country. But we’ll figure out school for her, don’t worry.”
“Then I won’t worry about forwarding her records anywhere. Just let me know if you need them.” She focused on the screen some more. “I need a copy of the custody papers first.”
I pulled those up on my phone and forwarded them to her, signed where she asked me to, reviewed a few records with her, but it was fairly straightforward. We were all wrapped up in a few minutes, which only left me with one question for her.
“Principal Holland, are you aware this school is haunted as hell? In fact, I think hell would be less busy.”
She let out a long sigh. “I am. I can’t see anything myself, but the number of incidents in this area is…well, ridiculous. Gwyn’s attack was the worst we’ve seen in recent history but not isolated.”
“We’d like to clear this area of ghosts, if you don’t mind?”
Her eyes lit up and she eagerly asked, “Can you do that?”
“Of course. It’ll just take some time. I’ve an Exorcist friend on the way now, due any minute in fact, and between the three of us, we can clear out all the bad ghosts, at least.”
