Page 63 of Purrfectly Haunted

Lucifer zooms by our side as we run up the grand staircase. The hostel is busy and guests give us a wide berth. We look like drowned rats again. The communal showers aren’t better, and we have to stand in line to take a shower. Too bad, I would have loved to tear Ewan’s wet clothes off his smoking hot body.

By the time we start cooking, it’s almost nine. We have to feed eight people tonight—Ewan and I, Lana, Shirley, Noah, Emma, Luigi, and a new girl called Nadia—so we decided to make enchiladas. The cats come and go, checking on us, before going back to their patrols in the busy hostel. The others trudge to the kitchen one by one, exhausted by their Saturday, and sit around the large table with happy exclamations when they see the food. Lana arrives last, dishevelled and rosy cheeked.

“Funny how the normalcy of a day of hard work makes you forget all about ghosts,” she says, sitting down. “Are you ready for tonight?”

Ewan and I share a glance. “We’ll improvise. The Lady in Red doesn’t have a history of being aggressive. She’s just... well... you know.”

She snorts. “A phantom aphrodisiac, I know.”

“Which reminds me,” Shirley says. “I left you a gift on your bed.’

“A gift?”

She grins. “You’ll see.”

The eight of us dig in, and Lana was right: nothing beats normalcy to fight off the darkness.

Midnight finds us still in the staff kitchen, talking and laughing with the others. They promise to take care of cleaning, so Ewan and I make our way back to our room to grab our equipment. We just want to have a talk with the Lady in Red, but I can’t help but remember the last encounter, and anticipation burns through my veins.

We find Shirley’s “gift” on the bed, a little plastic bag with lube and condoms. Ewan turns as red as a lobster and I can’t stop laughing. We don’t bother changing into our ExorSquad overalls, this ship has sailed.

We grab our guns and before exiting the room I slide the lube and condoms in my pocket. We never know, right?

The cats are nowhere to be found as we make our way to the library, but the house turns the lights on, guiding us. Just like the last time we entered, the library is dark and quiet. Then a fire roars to life in the fireplace, illuminating the wooden floors and the tall shelves.

My speech is ready.

“I’m sorry about the last time, my lady,” I say loud and clear. “It was rude of me to shoot at you. In my defence, you had no right to touch my teammate. And I had no right ordering you around. I’m sorry. Tonight we just want to talk. The house needs our help. Please.”

We wait. Ewan stands behind me, and I feel his hand on my shoulder.

Then a figure appears by the window, translucent body catching the firelight. The Lady in Red is as beautiful as the first time we laid eyes on her, her beauty frozen in death, forever. Her robe has fallen off one slender shoulder.

“A man who knows how to beg goes after my own heart,” she says, smiling charmingly.

Beg is strong a word to describe my apology, but I’m not going to contradict her.

“We know about the ghost in the basement,” I say. “But we don’t know how—”

“Which one?” she interrupts me.

I’m about to argue, but then my brain catches up. “What do you mean, which one? There is only one ghost in the basement. The woman who was poisoned. The one spreading toxic mould.”

The Lady in Red’s smile turns mischievous. “Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong, love. She’s not the one rotting the house from the inside out. She’s the one keeping him in check.”

Ewan steps up. “Him, my lady?”

She looks at us both, a look of disgust on her face as she says, “The monster who summoned us all here. He thought himself protected from our wrath with his spells and his dark magic, but even evil men have to die one day, and in death, we are all equals. We were waiting. Especially Agnes. He locked her in the basement for days, to try to unravel her secrets. We kept her company. We tried to keep her sane. But eventually he got bored of her, and poison was his easy solution. We could do nothing as we watched her drown in her own blood. He hid her body inside the family mausoleum, in his own mother’s sarcophagus. Nobody would be surprised to find bones in a mausoleum.”

“He?” I ask. I have my suspicions, but we need to be sure.

“Earl Lynch...” Ewan whispers.

“Yes,” she growls, her beautiful face now contorted by hatred. “Agnes refused to move on, even though she wasn’t a prisoner like us. She hid and and she bid her time. And when at last, the earl died of sickness a few years later, she was ready. We helped her as she dragged his soul down to the basement and buried it in the foundation of the house. If we were to be prisoners of this place, so would he.”

Understanding dawns on me. “So the thing that has been trying to bring the house down is Earl Lynch. The old bastard is fighting back. What changed? Why is he succeeding, after all this time?”

“Something happened four years ago. We spirits, we all became stronger. The energy shifted. The house too, became more alive. The monster grew stronger in the dark, and he found a way to slowly eat at the walls of his prison. If he is unleashed, I do not know what will happen to the house. But at least the others are free, thanks to you. I am, too, and yet I can’t bring myself to leave Agnes to fight him off alone. I know all about the cruelty of men.” She touches the bruises on her neck. “She does too. And we’ll be damned before we let him win.” Her voice takes a threatening edge.