51: Butt Kicking Ghost Hunter

The blackness of the room plays tricks on my eyes. Shadows moving within shadows. My heart races waiting for something to happen. For that one thing that makes it all too real, the one thing we might not come back from.

“You brought it back?” Brooklyn snaps at me or in my direction since neither of us can see the other. For all I know she’s screaming at a wall, but I know her comment is for me.

“What did you want me to do with it?” I holler back.

“I don’t know, maybe get rid of it.” She argues.

My patient with her is done. “Why don’t you get rid of it...or can’t you.”

“Hazel.” Gretchen yells at me and I quickly apologize to Gretchen, not Brooklynn. I’ll never apologize to Brooklynn. “We need to calm down and work together.” She quickly whispers a soft spell that creates a small glowing orb that she cradles in her hand.

It’s not enough light to see a ghost coming at you, but it’ll do. She creates several more and spaces out around us lighting up a perimeter. The frost that is now thickly layered over almost every inch of the basement glitters under the tiny lights.

“Get together.” Gretchen demands, ushering me backwards. She reaches out behind me and seconds later Brooklynn stumbles into my back. The three of us huddle up, back to back, shoulder to shoulder. There’s a quiet raining of something seconds before Gretchen harshly pushes something into my hands. “Form a circle.”
The salt.

I do as she asks and create the curving line of the circle until my arm bumps into Brooklynn. “Take it.” I snap at her. “Shape up a little bit. Technically this is your fault, you know” I whisper at her.

I can’t see the snarl of her lip, but I imagine it’s there. She at least listens and keeps the line going until Gretchen has it back and closes off the circle. With a small shuffle forward my foot slips on the granules. Damn, I wish it was bigger.

“Wha-” Brooklynn starts to speak but several boxes in the far back corner come tumbling down, cutting her words short.

And so it starts.

Ghost man glides out of the aisle, boxes falling in his wake as he heads in our direction, but he stops short, sensing the circle. He walks along the line looking for flaws. Our eyes meet. Unlike in the dream realm he’s more humanesque, a little more corpse.

We could be here all day with him lurking just out of arm’s reach, trapping us in here.

“Girls, repeat after me.” Gretchen’s strong voice breaks through the haze of my thoughts. “As above so below, your soul must go, ” She pauses waiting for us to repeat the phrase. Once we do she continues, “the strings of death and light of after, go in peace or burn and shatter.” She waits as we repeat her again. “Now all together.”

“As above so below, your soul must go
The strings of death and light of after, go in peace or burn and shatter.”

The ghosts shrinks back, but it isn’t enough and it just makes him furious. He rushes at us only to slam into an invisible force field. We all flinch and his face spreads into a lopsided smile. He still has the upper hand and he knows it. He hurls boxes and items lying around down here at us. Those very real items do penetrate the circle and we have to dodge every one of them or try to.

It becomes a task dodging items or taking a hit while reciting the spell. We repeat it over and over again. It takes several tries to even say the first line without stumbling over the words. I take a book to the ribs, Gretchen takes a box to the shins and Brooklynn blocks the bucket that I was sitting on with her forearms.

We don’t give up though. We keep chanting for what feels like hours, but is only minutes. Gretchen tosses handfuls of salt into the air and it rains down on us, buying us time. With the sizzling and burning of the ghost’s rotten flesh our concentration shifts from protecting our faces to the spell and each time becomes a little bit stronger, a little bit louder. The ghost quivers and lets out a shrill ghastly howl.

My hands shoot up to cover my ears from the high pitched shriek. It doesn’t last long and soon the chill in the air becomes less and less, the lights stop flickering and Brooklynn’s inexperience with ghosts cuts our victory short as she steps out of the circle with an exhale of relief. “Finally.” she huffs.

But just because the ghost wasn’t strong enough to keep the lights off and keep the temperature at a freezing point doesn’t mean it’s over. The shape of ghost man appears in front of us, in front of Brooklynn in a blink of an eye. His skinless hand grabs her forearm before she has time to react, but she gets to her senses quickly and squeals as she’s stuck in his grasp.

Gretchen, mother hen, rushes to the rescue, tugging and pulling, trying with all her might to pry her loose, but it doesn’t help. I spot the salt canister lying on its side just outside the circle. As fast as my shaky limbs can muster, I grab the container and hurry over to the tug of war that Gretchen is losing.

With the opening pried open as much as I can get, it, I dump the entire contents on his head. He disappears with a magical smoky poof. We all look at each other, eyes wide, then we look at Brooklynn’s arm. An imprint of a bony hand is frostbitten into her skin.

“He’s gone.” Gretchen mutters.

“Oh, thank God.” The words slip through my numb lips. “I’m beat.”

“I’m going to go check on the girls upstairs,” Gretchen says to no one in particular. “See if the man is still here.” Her face gets a shade paler at the comment. “I’m sure there’s quite a bit of explaining that has to be done.” She rushes away without a glance back.

“And I’m going to go sit down.” A yawn distorts my last words, but I really don’t care if anyone understands me or not.

It’s only once my foot is on the first step Brooklynn’s words fill the basement. “And what about me? What am I going to do...with this?” She waves her burned arm in the air.
“I don’t know. Put some cream on it.” I yell at her as she should be able to take care of herself.

When I reach the shop’s floor everyone is gone, well mostly everyone. The once possessed man is gone and Gretchen’s two coven members Harlot and Aesha are gone as well. Brooklynn didn’t waste too much time in following me and she hovers next to Gretchen waiting for the quietest moment to demand all attention to be on her while she expresses her troubled feelings.

“I’m going to go rest in my room.” I interject before anyone else has a chance to speak. “Call me if you need me, but don’t.” My arm sluggishly soars through the air as I take a sharp turn. It’s times like these that I wish I had a door.

Brooklynn’s bickering for a few minutes fills the room before she leaves, most likely heading to Phillip’s. The sounds of Monty grumbling as she cleans and restocks floats into the room. The chatter of customers and their inquisitive questions about the mess sneaks into the room. The slow steps up to my door and Gretchen’s even breathing blasts into the room.

“Thank you for your help. It could’ve ended much worse.”

“No problem.” I groan just wanting to be left alone. My eyelids get heavier by the second.

Gretchen takes a few steps inside, “Here’s your food you left with Monty. She took a bite of your sandwich, which I scolded her for.” She steps away with a quiet mutter, “I’ll let you rest.”

Before I hear her footsteps retreat, my forehead hits the table and my eyes close, but sleep doesn’t come. My hand snakes up to grab the sandwich and I nibble on the opposite side from where Monty’s bite is. I don’t know how long my forehead is down on the table, mouth hanging over the edge eating, before I hear Monty’s booming voice fill the shop.

“Butt kicking ghost hunter is in her room, but I’ll warn you, she’s tuckered out.”

There’s a knock on the doorframe. “Go away.” I grumble not caring who it is even if it is a customer. The rest of day, night, whatever, I demand off. I toss the half eaten sandwich up on the table and grope for the coffee cup.

“Butt kicking ghost hunter, huh?” Gabriel's amused voice snaps me up to a sitting position. His eyes go directly to the scratches on my face, mouth dropped open ready to ask questions.

“Long story, but first, I really need to,” a yawn stops my words, “to sleep...for a while.”

“I’ll take you home.” With his vampire speed he’s at my side.

He lifts me up from my chair and as I come to a stand my hip bumps into the table sending the crystal ball in the center to roll. Gabriel’s hands leave my body for a blink of an eye as he races to catch it before it hits the floor. He comes back to my side with it securely in his hands.

I take it from him and place it back on its stand in the middle of the table. “I’m sure you’ll hear all about it as Brooklynn was here and didn’t make it out unscathed.” My lips twitch in a smile.

“Unscathed from what?”

“A really pissed off ghost, but that shouldn’t be too surprising, seeing as you’re already aware of their restlessness.” When his eyes meet mine, I feel the need to lay it all out for him. I tick each thing off on my fingers. “A man was here, tied up in the basement, possessed. Jezmin was banished for not helping and ultimately laughing at us. Gretchen sent me to the dream realm to separate the two identities, hence my battle wound,” I point at my cheek, “and Brooklynn has a burn on her arm in the shape of the ghost’s hand, well his skeletal hand.”

He remains speechless taking it all in. It’s several minutes before he speaks. “I think you should stay with me until after the ritual.”

That’s what he got out of that? “No, I-”

“It isn’t safe and you have bigger priorities than saving humans from possession.” He sounds almost angered by the thought of me doing something so...witchy.

“I’ll think about it.” Is all I say, not agreeing or rejecting the offer entirely. If I do stay with him until after the ritual it will be on my terms not his.

It’ll be when several people start getting possessed and there’s no saving them or when the ghosts get so aggressive that even the human population notices the dangers that lurks.

He guides me out of my office space and into the shop. His mouth nuzzles into my hair, his lips nearly touching my ear as he whispers, “I guess I have to do some persuading then.”

My heart skips a beat with all the things that he could be implying. My flusteredness results in short to nonexistent goodbyes between Monty, Gretchen and myself. I wonder if they can sense my racing heart as much as Gabriel can. They each give me that raised eyebrow, parietal winking gaze as we walk out.

The drive to my apartment seems even shorter and the night ends with me face down on the bed passed out.