Page 82 of Mack's Horribly Hellacious Ghost Town
I didn’t fault the grandparents. Gwyn had told me they lived in California, and they didn’t see her face-to-face often. A lot could be hidden with distance, as I’d seen while a cop. I didn’t think Gwyn really blamed them, either, but she was livid with her parents. Understandably.
Grandfather Fairchild stepped forward to speak to Gwyn. “I’m not entirely comfortable with you going off with these men—”
Gwyn was quick to defend us. “I want to be with them!”
Hannah came around her to speak to him. “Hello, my name is Hannah, and I’m a retired FBI agent. I say we pause this conversation here, yeah? We’re all tired, upset, and you’ve got a son to deal with. Can we pause this, cool down, come back tomorrow to talk about it? We can meet you for breakfast somewhere.”
Grandfather hesitated strongly. Grandmother was shaking her head.
“Gwyn, I’d feel better if you’d just come back for tonight—”
“No,” Gwyn said flatly.
The flat, angry tone was enough to cut her grandmother off in a second.
Knowing this had to be hard, I tried to explain. “Ma’am, respectfully, you can’t protect your granddaughter. Black Rock, hell, this general area, is a hotbed for activity. I’ve literally never seen a placethishaunted. You’re not equipped to handle ghosts. You have no idea how to protect Gwyn if something comes for her. It’s why we had to issue an order of protection and take custody of her to begin with. When I said earlier how she wouldn’t have survived to graduate high school, I wasn’t exaggerating.”
The mother picked herself up off the floor, tears still streaming down her cheeks, but her eyes were haunted and glued to her daughter. “Gwyn, please. We’ll…we’ll talk about it, okay?”
Gwyn turned her back on them and walked out of the police station. Mack caught my eye and I gestured for him to follow her.
“Gwyn!” Mrs. Fairchild scrambled to race after her.
I blocked her again. “Ma’am, stop. I know she’s your child, but stop. You’re not helping her right now by acting like this.”
She clutched my arms, near screaming at me. “She doesn’t have to be a Medium! There’s nothing wrong with her being a little girl!”
There was seriously no hope here with this one. She still didn’t get it.
“Yeah, it’s a hopeless case,” Eli drawled. She walked right up to us and did something shocking. For the first time in my presence, she took her prosthesis off, revealing that her residual limb ended halfway down her forearm and was sheathed by a liner. She held her prosthesis up, jabbing the steampunk arm in the air. “Look at this. This was a price I paid as a Medium. It’s not a matter ofchoosing. We can’t ignore our talents. We can’t even try to hide them. Do you really think anyone would choose this life? You think I’d rather be special than have all of my goddamn limbs?”
Mrs. Fairchild started crying in earnest then and collapsed back to the ground.
Not a mentally strong woman, this one. I glanced at her husband, but he still stared catatonically down at the floor.
Shaking my head, I pulled out one of my cards and handed it to the grandmother. “Not tonight, ma’am. Just, not tonight. You’ve got your hands full. Give me a call in the morning and we’ll do breakfast. I’ll run you through what training for Gwyn looks like, where she’ll live, and all of that. I promise you, she’s in the best of hands. She’s actually the third apprentice my family’s taken on this year.”
She did a double take, eyes flaring wide. “Why?”
“Sounds weird in this day and age, I know. But I’ll tell you all about them tomorrow.”
With an uncertain nod, she agreed.
I ushered everyone out because this seemed a good moment to escape and I was taking it. We left quite the scene behind us, as the cops were all buzzing about what they saw, the mother was openly sobbing, and I could hear a lot of muttering from the grandparents. It was not going to be a fun night for that family.
Booker fell in beside me as we walked out and muttered, “Good call taking Gwyn from them.”
“Yup.”
Once I was outside, though, I realized Mack, Seiji, and Gwyn had their heads together. They did not look upset, as I expected, but rather like the Grinch contemplating his battle plan.
What was happening here?
“—now remember,” Seiji intoned in the manner of a wise sage, even stroking an invisible beard, “I did not teach you this.”
“I have no idea what you mean, Master.”
“Such an excellent apprentice.” Seiji grinned at her like a co-conspirator.
