Really excited now, he pressed, “Can you? Can you do it today?”
“Sure, I just need to set up a light trail and get people moving.”
“Gwyn, there’s one thing.” William hesitated, his head turning to stare next door. “The final reason I stayed is there’s one ghost hassling the kids. From what they’ve told me, he was caught in the same fire, and he didn’t die easy. He’s gone steadily bad.”
I whimpered a little. So much for the easy in and out. “Like, how bad?”
“He’s more mean than anything, but he does try to trap the kids. Just for the sheer hell of it. I’ve had to break them out of places more than once, and I’ve had it out with him multiple times. It’s why I got desperate enough to try the handprints on the window. He’s escalating.”
Abby piped up from behind me. “Is he telling you about the bad ghost?”
I turned to her. “Have you seen it?”
“Eh, only sorta.” She waffled a hand back and forth. “Jon and I both can see the impression of a spirit but it’s like a really faint afterimage? So I can tell he’s there, and he’s greyish, which isn’t good. I saw him in the backyard.”
Yeah that sounded like trouble.
“Can you show me?” I didn’t want to deal with it, but I needed to see with my own eyes how bad the ghost was before calling Mack.
William led the way out, with me following through the house and out the back sliding glass door, and onto the covered patio. It was a fun little backyard for sure—someone was a gardener in this family—but it was ruined for me because a little creek ranthrough the backyards. Nothing big, you’d barely get your ankles wet, but it apparently just enough to feed power into the greyish ghost hanging out right on its banks.
I swear every single body of water on Earth leads to Destination Fucked.
The ghost was grey, but not a dark grey, so he wasn’t a lost cause completely. I’d seen ghosts like him before, and been able to talk them down enough to pass them. But I also didn’t think this guy would be a good candidate for that option, not if he hassled and trapped the kid ghosts.
I turned my head a little to address Skylar, Abby, Isabella, and Gary, who had all followed me and lingered in the doorway. I spoke softly because I did not want to draw that ghost’s attention. “Yeah, he’s not good. I think an exorcism is going to happen here, although I might be wrong. We might be able to talk him down enough to pass him.” I didn’t think I should do so without talking to Mack first, that didn’t seem a good idea. “I’m going to call my teacher up, get him over here to help.”
I fished phone out of pocket and in that moment, everything went to shit.
The ghost apparently realized who—or rather, what—I was, and the second he clocked it, he screamed in this wordless challenge and bum rushed me. Panic zoomed right up my spine and in pure reaction, I dropped my phone and dodged sideways so he couldn’t get hands around my throat. I heard everyone gasp or make a sound of surprise as I suddenly moved, but I had no time to explain.
He whirled, because of course he didn’t have to worry about things like muscle or gravity, and he could turn on a dime.
I had exactly two seconds to respond and my brain gibbered in panic becausewhat the hell,I hadn’t even been trying to fight this guy or start anything, but he was reacting like those damn ghosts back in Black Rock and god,whywere they like this?!
I’d never exorcised before. Never had the chance, really, and only knew in theory what to do. But in that second, I realized I had no other choice. He’d try to possess me if I didn’t do something to ward him off.
He reached for me, again, screaming this time right in my face. “You come here, you goddamn slut!”
Excuse the fuck out of me?! Scared as I was, that got me mad enough to override the panic instincts. I caught both of his wrists and held him there. He fought me, but I was more powerful. Fear lit up his face as he realized he was toe to toe with the five hundred pound gorilla.
I wasn’t confident enough to just hold him or chew him out, like I’d seen Eli do so many times, and I didn’t want this to become a wrestling match, either. “Skye, get Mack on the phone!”
She whipped her phone out in record time.
The ghost, though, wasn’t giving up that fast. He leaned his head forward, like he was going to bite my nose off. The hell?!
You know what, even if I botched this exorcism, it’d stop him for a short time, and I needed that desperately right now. Grimly, I started channeling pure power in through my arms, through my hands.
I heard Skylar say, “Mack, come quick, Gwyn’s over her head—”
The ghost’s expression turned into pure terror and he now was trying to wriggle free. “No!Stop it!”
“You’ve fucked with the wrong Medium,” I snarled back. “You really think I’ll stop now when you tried to bite my nose off? Nope. Scatter to bits.”
With a scream, he unraveled, becoming nothing more than dust motes, and in a swirl of air, he just…disappeared.
I stood there, breathing hard, shaking on every level. That was exhilarating, like an adrenaline rush. Terrifying, too. I feltlike an Extreme Sport athlete who had just finished an insane course, and was now hyped up on adrenaline and a little shaky with it.
