Page 56 of Mack's Horribly Hellacious Ghost Town
Gwyn absorbed this information with a cant of her head. “Really? Even Eli does this?”
Eli was walking ahead of us and turned to speak over her shoulder. “Doesn’t matter how powerful you are, anyone can get overrun with enough numbers. Learned that in Scotland.”
Lachlan gave a bombastic side-eye. “Like you Yanks are doing any better here. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw hand grenades with a bungee cord attached.”
I laughed. The Highland case had definitely been out of the ordinary. “In any case, ma petite chère, it’s all right to retreat if you get overwhelmed. Just make sure before you really start the case that you have a safe place to retreatto.”
Gwyn lifted her hand like she was in a court of law. “Got it.”
I was glad to see she’d kept her bag on her. Not only would Booker’s gift of things safeguard her, but it was also an excellent opportunity to teach her what all to do with it.
The basement stairs looked like something out of a horror movie. They were incredibly crowded with ghosts, most of them watching us in a very eerie way, which didn’t help the nerves any. Mine were jumping worse than frog legs in a hot pan. We kept going, though, grimly. No one expected to enjoy today.
I just hoped a week was enough to clear the building.
Prayed, more like.
We finally reached bottom, and lord almighty, I wished we hadn’t. It was awful down here. Not just the dimness or the cloying musty smell of poor ventilation, but as bad as the main floor had been with ghost trails?
This was worse.
This wasfarworse.
I waved my hand in front of my face like I was trying to wave away cigarette smoke. The ghost trails filled up the spaces in between the ghosts, so it felt like I was walking into the London fog on speed. Honest to god, it felt claustrophobic. “Good lord, what the hell!”
Davina drawled behind me, “Took the words right from my mouth, mate. What the hell? If the basement’s like this, what’s the attic like?”
“Can’t even see anything proper,” Lachlan muttered. “But this space doesn’t feel like a hunch, more like a trailer.”
We all groaned but Davina shoved a finger into her cousin’s ribs, making him squirm. “You. No borrowin’ trouble before we can get to it. Right, then, who’s doing what?”
Beau lifted a hand. “I say let’s try to pass the good ghosts on first. It’ll make it less crowded down here. I’ll start up a path.”
Brandon took off his backpack and handed it over. “Tea lights and anything else you might need.”
“Bless.” Beau took it happily.
“Gwyn and I will lay down some salt circles.” Mostly because I wanted to teach her how to do it and I wanted her to have a very firm grasp of where those were. “But Davina, please don’t push yourself. If you start feeling bad, please just retreat.”
“I’m not a strong enough Medium to go all day,” she admitted. “So I likely will, but I will help for at least a while.”
Lachlan raised his hand. “How about I set up seals around the stairwell? Keep the ghosties from running.”
Quinn pointed at him. “Great thought. Do that. I don’t want to have to chase these bastards down later. You got the stuff you’ll need?”
“Just now thought of it, so no?”
“Booker does,” Quinn said with complete confidence.
Booker shrugged and started pulling things out of his bag. Eli looked about her. “I want to explore, get my eyes on things. I’ll exorcise anything I come across in the process. I have a bad feeling this basement goes in every direction and there’s nooks and crannies here we need to know about. So nothing hides in them.”
Davina pursed her lips and made a decisive nod. “Beau, I’ll help you set up and pass some ghosts.”
“Sure, I welcome the help.”
We seemed to have a breakdown of jobs, so we split up. At least a little. Once we got everything set up, we’d work as a more cohesive force, but Eli was right about getting thelay of the land. It wasn’t just one big room down here, but a bunch of compartmentalized rooms. I had to wonder, why the walls? What had been the purpose of this level? Gambling dens? Speakeasy? Probably at some point it had been a little of everything.
Brandon had a sixty-pound bag of salt on one shoulder, following us as I hunted for good spots to put these circles down. “Gwyn, first rule of the circles, put them adjacent, not on top. So, say, base of the stairs is a great place to put a circle, because we’re constantly caught between climbing up or fighting something off. But you don’t want to put it square and center.”
