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“Open your eyes and see for yourself.”

Andrew seemed reluctant to do so, but eventually his eyes peeled open. He looked down at his hand. Normal and see-through, then his arm and body. He walked over to the mirror on the wall and glanced at his spectral reflection.

There was nothing of the monster left.

“I’m…me.”

“It worked. I felt it move on.”

Andrew turned to me. If he could have cried still, I knew he would have. “Owain…I can’t…I don’t even…”

“Don’t say thank you. Don’t say anything. You were the one who controlled yourself. You could have killed Gerald, but you didn’t. You didn’t let it take over.”

Andrew sank to the floor. He couldn’t experience physical exhaustion anymore, but this was exhaustion on a deeper level—the emotional and spiritual weight of his afterlife crashing down on him.

“I…I felt the call,” I said softly. “You had the chance to move on.”

“I felt it too.”

“None of us would have blamed you if you wanted to go. I hope we didn’t make you linger…”

Andrew smiled. “I wanted to stay. In that moment, no matter what…I decided to stay.”

I sank to the floor next to him, wishing I could hug him properly. Instead, I wrapped my arms around his form again, letting his essence hug me. “I’m so happy you did.”

“It’s really over, right?”

I nodded. “It’s really over. ExorSquad is done.”

twenty-five

Squad Ghouls Party!!!

Owain

“He might still return,” Andrew said after several moments of silence as the rest of our ghostly friends drifted in.

“He might. Sometimes it’s hard to dig all of the roots out and stop the evil from growing, but I think we make a pretty good landscaping team, don’t you?”

Several pairs of spectral eyes blinked at me.

Heads were tilted. I saw Harri mouthing the word landscaping as he tried to grasp what I had just said.

“Indeed!” Bronwyn said finally, breaking the silence but I caught her shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders at Barth, who was scratching the top of his hat.

Popty let out a soft ping.

I huffed. Nobody appreciated a good analogy anymore. Maybe I should stick to the alliteration.

“Even if he does come back,” Ryan said from the doorway, making all of us turn. “Fertiliser is good for growth. Of the plants. And shit.”

I frowned and he rubbed the back of his head.

“Because you said landscaping…”

“Maybe we should drop the whole gardening analogy,” Ted suggested from behind Ryan.

PING!