Jahla just wanted…to tell him he wasn’t useless. That her not telling him had nothing to do with something he was lacking, and more to do with her not wanting to see him cry. She wanted him to come back here and let her hug him, to help build him back up. Jahla also wanted to punch Rowden in the motherfucking face. Because he was the one who’d ingrained so much negative self-image into the redhead. Having done so long before Jahla had ever met the man.
Swallowing, she angrily rubbed away another tear as it broke free, before looking to Red and starting to ask, “Should we—” But Jahla cut off, jerking in shock as she was suddenly no longer in the library, but somewhere outside in the city.
Red’s eyeswidened as Jahla went rigid, her eyes dulling and becoming slightly glazed. He had seen the look far too many times to mistake it for anything other than what it was—a vision.
Jahla remained quiet for a moment, her face blank, clearly no longer there with him. Then suddenly, as her eyes returned to normal, she screamed, “OLLIE!” Giving her head a shake, she stood up with a look of sheer panic as she gasped, “We…we need to find him!”
“What did you see?” Red demanded.
“Ollie, h-he…” she whimpered, before blurting out, “NOBLE! Ineedto call Noble!”
His tears having finally stopped,Ollie took a deep breath, and just kept driving forward. As that was all he could do.
He had this. He didn’t need anyone. He never had anyone anyway. Honestly, Ollie never really even had his godfather. Red had been there, but he had been keeping things from him from the very first moment they met, and then it was just one lie after another. His best friend had also lied to him. And his boyfriend…
He supposed the whole ‘boyfriend’ thing was just made up. Ollie’s bottom lip wobbled as he held back the tears that tried to rush forward. Sniffling, he took another deep breath.
Had… Had any of it been…real? Probably not…right? Ollie roughly wiped a tear away when one broke free.
Whatever…it was…whatever. It was fine. So he had no one? No big deal. Ollie was used to being alone. And yes, he may not have anyone, but what he did have was…ghosts, and ghost-like things, who he could help. That was something, at least.
So that was what he’d focus on. He would do the only thing he could that made him feel wanted and helpful. And like, he had the potions, and the spell was simple… So what if cluster ghosts, even just as a concept, were scary, and in reality, were possibly much worse? He could do this… Maybe.
No—he had this. He’d do it all on his own, and show everyone that he wasn’t useless… He wasn’t…
Ollie sniffled and wiped at his eyes again.
After parking the car a little bit away from the alley, Ollie took a deep breath, just sitting there for a moment before pulling out his notebook, and turning to the page that the spell was written on. The spell was slightly repetitive in its wording, so there was that, at least… Easy to remember.
After repeating the spell several times in his head, along with reviewing the instructions, which were basically just either shattering the bottle underneath the cluster ghost or pouring the potion on it, Ollie put the notebook away and got out.
As the chilly air hit him, he took another deep breath, and then winced when he noticed how dark the entrance to the alleyway looked from where he stood. Yeah, doing this at 5am had been a choice. But, at least the rain had stopped…
After fishing one of the bottles from his messenger bag, he slowly made his way down the sidewalk towards the dark alleyway that was getting creepier by the moment. He may have been limping ever so slightly, thanks to his cut feet. Ollie’s heart, that had already been racing from the second he’d arrived, didn’t get any slower as he approached.
At the mouth of the alley, his eyes started to adjust and focus, as he took one more deep breath before softly saying, “You got this, Ollie.” Then, he took a step forward into the darkness.
The thing he noticed straight away was how quiet it seemed, and…empty. It wasveryempty, aside from some litter. Shit—had the thing moved on already?
Ollie just stood there, staring at the nothingness. Eyeing the brick wall that made up the dead end, he hesitated, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. His shoulders sagged as all the built-up tension whooshed out of him at the thought of everything going to waste.
Sighing, Ollie turned to leave, but froze with his back to the dead end at the sound of an odd, stuttering crack that almost sounded like joints popping.
“Hello there, little witch.”
He shivered as the words practically floated to his ears, sounding as if they’d come from many voices speaking at once in unison. The book…hadn’t mentioned them being able to talk.
Swallowing hard, his left hand clenching around the bottle as it began to shake, Ollie slowly turned around, taking a hurried step back when he saw just how close the cluster ghost was to him.
Crouched only feet away, with its head tilted to the left, peering at him through long, dirty hair, was the creature currently wearing Jack Haye’s face. The cluster ghost’s clothes were just as they had been, with patches sewn together, yet thereseemed to be even more than before. His eyes were darker, and his teeth appeared much sharper as he sneered.
Then the cracking noise started again, as the cluster ghost turned his head the other way. The action was jerky, like there were joints and bones where there shouldn’t be, and cracks happened with every movement. “Can’t say I’ve ever been able to talk before. Is this your doing?”
Ollie’s stomach dropped at the creature’s words.Oh…please, don’t tell me this thing is managing to feed off my apparent ability to be a battery pack for ghosts?!
Shit, he didn’t have time for this! Giving his head a shake, he pulled himself together, and without another thought, he threw the bottle at the creature’s feet. As an odd purple smoke rose up once the glass had shattered and the potion had spilled free, the cluster ghost let out a high-pitched, painful shriek, while Ollie cried out, “I command thee, abomination of Jack Hayes. Unmerge what should not have merged, un-trap what has been trapped, and disperse all to where it belongs!”
As the shriek continued, Ollie began to feel hope that he’d actually done it, but then the sound abruptly cut off, and the cluster ghost straightened its head with a loud crack, as a vicious smile spread across its face, growing far wider than any human’s would be able to. And that was when Ollie noticed something he wished he had sooner—it wasn’t see-through…
