Page 64 of The Vampire and the Barista

CHAPTER 21

Seth looked at Gio, Troy and Cairo. “You all heard that right?”

“We heard. Let’s go downstairs and look for the others. We’ve not found anything up here that can help,” Cairo suggested.

They all moved towards the staircase. Gio walked behind them, hand on his ever-present sword, ready for anything.

They reached the bottom of the stairs without encountering anything.

“That was too easy,” Troy commented.

They were just moving off when they saw the wolves, Jamie, Ivan, Olly and Adrian walk into the hallway.

“Well, none of you have been used as tribute for the bogeyman,” Seth said, sounding relieved and looking them over.

“Ian nearly was, but Adrian healed him,” Kevin replied.

“You’re getting sloppy, puppy,” Troy teased.

“It’s true. I was ducking flying tables, beds and chairs at the time, not looking for flying ice picks.”

“Sounds fun,” Seth said, grinning. “Did you find anything else?”

“Yeah. A friendly female ghost told us that Derrick sold his soul to an evil demon,” Kevin told them.

“Would killing the demon break the contract?” Cairo asked Adrian.

“It would depend on the wording of the contract. Everything can be broken, you just need to find the way.”

“Before we do that, we should look for Mathis and Gabe,” Jamie put in. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck are standing on end, and the atmosphere feels like it’s getting heavier.”

They formed a circle around Jamie, all of them looking outwards.

The rubbish that was scattered around the floor and the furniture started flying around them, slowly at first and then getting faster. They used their hands and arms to batter the rubbish away.

Adrian started muttering. He put his hand into his bag and pulled out a black crystal. He held it in front of him and muttered some words no one understood, but suddenly the rubbish stopped flying and gently fell to the ground.

“So that worked,” Seth said.

“We should find Gabe and Mathis, hopefully they’re okay,” Cairo said.

Ivan turned to look at Jamie, but the circle was empty. “Where’s Jamie?” he asked in horror.

Mathis and Gabe had searched the other rooms and found no more pentagrams, but in the final room, they found more runes, this time on the walls and ceiling.

“Someone here really liked the occult,” Gabe said, looking around at this new set of runes.

“Do you know what they say or do?” Mathis asked, looking at the ones on the ceiling. He pulled his phone out and snapped pictures of them. He saw Gabe doing the same.

“I recognise some; they are used to trap spirits. They’re very much like the ones I used on your metal box to capture the dark spirits at White Ladies, but these are not just for dark spirits; they can trap any spirit.”

“That could be why they say this place is so haunted. Although we’ve not seen much ghostly activity. There was the ghost outside and voice and the slamming door, but that’s it.”

“Maybe the others are having better haunting experiences.”

The bogeyman accepts the tributes offered.

Gabe looked at Mathis. “Tributes?”