Page 89 of Mack's Horribly Hellacious Ghost Town
Eli flicked her fingers out, eyes on Seiji. These two had a plan already? I didn’t think I was down that long.
Seiji lifted his sword like a samurai warrior, in an overhead grip, both hands on the handle. “Eli, ready?”
“Go!” she encouraged.
Swear to god, they’d pre-choreographed their movements. Seiji closed the distance in three steps, sword swinging down, and despite Joey throwing up both arms to block his attack, it didn’t do a bit of good. Seiji’s sword sliced right through him like a hot knife through wax. The second the blade touched Joey, the dark aura surrounding the ghost fluctuated, visibly wavering like it was a heat wave, and then split entirely.
My god. Had Seiji just cut through the spectral energy Joey had spent literally a century building?
The sword went right through and away, Seiji returning it to its sheath with a click. I barely clocked the motion, honestly, as the second his sword was away, Eli moved. She dove in, once again punching Joey Halfacre with full strength.
Only now, without the dark aura protecting him, she could actually do damage because the spirit of the man was exposed. Isaw her fist, her power, hit Joey, and her fist glowed supernova bright.
The second her power touched Joey, he screamed like the damned soul he was, his soul literally splitting apart. His spectral energy spun out of control, like a mini whirlwind ripped him to shreds, and a second later, all I saw of him was a little bit of spectral energy floating off with the wind.
Thank. Fucking. God. He was finally done! After so much time trying to even locate the damn man, it was a huge weight off our shoulders to have him dealt with. Also, he fuckingdeservedthat ending after everything he’d done! As one of his victims, I felt vindicated.
Also, holy hell, if an almost-demon required this much power to take down, I was absolutely never tangling with one without EliandSeiji. I chose life.
A wild cheer went up from all around us. Oh. Shit. People surrounded us on all sides. They’d kept a respectable ten feet back, fortunately, but we’d definitely had an audience. This was going to be all over social media, wasn’t it? It had probably been live streamed too.
Seiji jogged to me, brows gathered in concern. “Mack, Eli said he hit you dead-on? Oh, I can see the energy of it. Let me clear that out.”
“I appreciate it, but the possessed boy is still in the pharmacy.”
“I’ll handle him next. You won’t take but a second.”
Indeed, that seemed to be the case. Seiji swiped a hand through my aura, and I felt the difference immediately. That stuck feeling, like something was caught in my throat, finally cleared out. “Better, merci.”
“No problem. Let’s go help the poor kid who got possessed.”
He’d likely need a stay in the hospital, just for observation, but hopefully he’d bounce back. I felt bad about making Eli,Quinn, and Booker deal with this crowd, but Hannah was already moving across the street to help them.
Eh, they had it. I’d better help Thomas. He was more the priority anyway.
Although, Jesus, how was it barely ten a.m.? Felt like it should be midnight with all that had happened today. This day was going to feel a decade long by the time it was finally over.
24
Cleanup wasn’t fun. Mack and Seiji both helped Thomas, clearing out all of the negative spectral energy still clinging to the poor kid, which finally let him wake up. He wasn’t a happy camper, and I didn’t blame him. He was also weak sauce, barely able to stand. Possession apparently was like trying to cage an electric eel inside your body and this was a common side effect. Seiji gave strict instructions to him, Mack loaded him up with two vials of holy water to sip on throughout the day, as he said it would help, and then the kid was taken to the local hospital for observation.
We had to clean up some of the mess we’d made, of course, and the crowd outside finally decided the show was over and moved on.
At least the mob boss wannabe demon was finally taken care of. That wasn’t how I’d have preferred to do it, but it was done. One less headache on our plate.
Our crew dispersed for the rest of the afternoon, needing a little downtime, which I could hardly blame them for. We were all wiped out after this morning. I rescheduled the restaurant for later. Back at the ranch, I tried to relax and settle, but I just couldn’t do it with so much hanging over our heads. Since we didn’t have anything booked for the afternoon, I decided to find Seiji, see if he could use help. If anyone needed help, it might be him.
I found him in the living room with a huge sketch pad in his lap and a pencil. He was focused, glasses on his nose, and looked quite the intellectual.
“Hey, Seiji.” I sat down next to him.
He glanced up with a welcoming expression. “Hi, yourself. What’s up?”
“Had a thought. We don’t have anything slated to do this afternoon. Is there something we can do today to help you?”
Seiji didn’t even need to think about it. “There’s two things. I need some scouting done. We know the locker is around Miner’s Creek, but how much of the area is affected? Is it just the town and mineshaft? Does it go out for miles? Does it almost touch Black Rock or cross the river? I have a lot of unknowns, and it’ll be very hard for me to undo the locker until I know how much territory I’m dealing with.”
“That’s very fair, man. Okay, so how do we scout?”
