Page 83 of Mack's Horribly Hellacious Ghost Town
“Okay, now I really have to ask, what’s the plan?” Should I pretend ignorance or stop them, that was the real question.
Seiji blinked up at me. “Hypothetically, I might know a way to temporarily boost the energy of an area to enhance a ghost’s physical abilities. Also hypothetically, in a completely unrelated way, I might know of a way to bait ghosts to a single area.”
It took a second, but I could put the pieces together. “You are not going to do that to the Fairchilds’ house, are you?”
“Strong disbelief takes a lot of evidence to overturn. I could see them trying to dismiss what Mack and Gwyn did even in the moment they did it.” Seiji pretended to think, looking up at the starry night sky. “I think about a week of ghosts tromping through their house should do it.”
“Allegedly,” Gwyn reminded him.
“Yes, of course, allegedly,” he deadpanned.
I had the hardest time keeping a straight face. “If you were to, y’know, allegedly do this, would you like help?”
“Yes, of course, the more the merrier.”
Quinn cackled in that deep, sinister way of his. “Oh, I’m all for this. Gwyn, lead the charge.”
She punched a fist into the air as she spun about. “Troops, march!”
I snickered along with everyone else as we trooped back to the SUVs.
Mack leaned in and whispered, “Seiji’s too cool. We must keep him.”
I offered him my knuckles, which he bumped happily. “Absolutely seconded.”
Hopefully Seiji wanted more friends. ’Cause he was about to get them.
23
Wemayhave had too much fun at the Fairchilds’ house last night. We had to sneak up on it, after all, which required hiding the SUVs nearby and skulking around doing what Seiji told us to. It was massive fun. We were all snickering and shushing each other even as we did the job.
Seiji really knew what he was doing, too. We barely had it all set up when I saw it start working. Ghosts were twice as strong and present as before, so much so even the anchors could see the outlines of them.
Somehow, or so Brandon explained, seeing only the bodily outline of the ghosts made them spookier. They looked less human, more unreadable, and therefore more sinister.
This pleased me.
Look, I’m petty and I believe in revenge, don’t expect much from me, okay?
Gwyn oscillated between feeling petty and angry with her parents. Which was entirely fair. I felt that way, and they weren’t even blood related to me. I thought she was due for some revenge and told her so, which helped settle her some. She’d yo-yoed back and forth until we all went to bed. Hopefully she’d slept.
It had taken me a second to settle enough to sleep. I felt a little foggy this morning because of it, like someone had stuffed my head with cotton instead of brains. I kind of fumbled through a shower and putting on real pants. Really, I didn’t feel awake until we were ready to go.
This morning, it was just me, Brandon, Gwyn, Beau, and Hannah. I wasn’t sure how Beau and Hannah had decided they were part of this conversation with the grandparents, but I wasn’t arguing about having backup. Seiji and Lachlan were headed back to the mines for more scouting, and the remaining four chose to clear out some other buildings and try to track down that damn mob leader. We needed to deal with him before he went full demon. I just didn’t need another headache of calling in a demonologist. This case had too many specialists already. This wasn’tPokémon, I didn’t need to collect them all.
We all loaded into the SUV, Brandon punching a restaurant into the GPS, and hang on…wasn’t that restaurant haunted as hell and next on our to-do list?
“Cher,” I complained.
“Sorry. There’s only so many places offering breakfast, and this was the only one with a menu you could eat off.”
“Fuck.” I hated food allergies.Hated them. Ugh, fine, I’d justpoofout any ghost who tried to hassle us.
While we drove, Beau leaned between the front seats, putting his hand on my shoulder. “My boy, no offense, but let me reassure her grandparents. I want to tell them that if something happens with you and Brandon, I’ll take over training Gwyn.”
I turned to see his face better. He seemed perfectly sincere? “Would you really?”
“Of course. She’s a sweet kid, smart, easy to train. It’ll be a pleasure.”
