Spooky Ghost's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The lights came closer. Spooky Ghost pressed against the broken parlor wall and watched the road. Lanterns bobbed in a line. He heard boots on gravel and the dull swing of hammers against thighs. Edmund flickered beside him, no longer grinning. "They'll tear the manor apart," Edmund said. "They've done it before. Boards, nails, salt in the corners. We'll have nowhere left to lurk." Spooky Ghost felt his glow shrink. He had finally learned to scare. Now they would drive him out before he could ever scare on Halloween. Two small shapes drifted down through the ceiling. They were twin ghosts, pale blue, in matching nightgowns. One finished the other's sentence the way sisters do. "They're almost at the gate," said the first. "You have to go," said the second. "We hide when they come. You should too." Spooky Ghost looked at the front door. Fists pounded wood. A man shouted for the ghost to show itself. "Go where?" Spooky Ghost asked. "They're everywhere." The twins pointed together toward the far window. "The burned cottage," they said. "The witch's old place. No grown-up will set foot inside. They're too afraid." Spooky Ghost slid out the back wall and raced low over the weeds. Behind him the manor door cracked open. He reached the charred cottage and stopped. Its walls leaned black and crooked. Dried herbs hung by the broken door. The air smelled of old smoke and ash. He drifted through the splintered wood. Inside, a woman sat cross-legged on the floor. She had not run from him. She did not even flinch. Her hair hung long and dark, and strings of colored beads lay against her gray shirt. Her eyes were pale, almost white, and they fixed on him like she had expected him for hours. This was the town's medium, the one people whispered about and avoided. Miriam Ashwood lived where no one else would come. "They're hunting you," she said. Her voice was calm and low. "Sit. They won't follow you here." Spooky Ghost hovered near the door. "Why would you help me?" "Because they drove my kind out too." Miriam tilted her head toward the voices outside. "Let them search the manor. They'll find cold rooms and empty chairs. Then they'll go home." He listened. The lanterns moved through the manor across the field. He heard hammers strike walls. He heard a man curse the dark. No one looked toward the cottage. No one dared. The herbs swayed by the door, and the ash held still. After a long while the lights turned back toward town. The boots faded. The hammers stopped. Spooky Ghost let out a slow breath he did not need. Miriam watched him settle. "They won't tear the manor down tonight," she said. "But they know a ghost is real now. They'll be back with more than hammers." She pulled a bead through her fingers. "If you want to truly scare this town, you'll need something stronger than standing still."