Page 61 of Hot Ghost Summer

Forcing a pep into my step and a smile onto my face, I skip into view and do what I always do when I’m nervous: I talk.

“So, before I take any readings up ’ere, I just want t’ show you something, because I know you blame me for what happened. But look…”

I unfasten the LPA Synchrotron from where I tied it up in my sleeves, and point to the small pivoting lever at the back of the slide.

“You were there, and I was ’ere.”

I step back until I’m up against that same steel girder as last time and tap the plasma ray against it. The clanking sound rings through the wide-open space. “The safety is on, just like it was that day… Anyway, then the ghost came, do you remember?”

In simulation, I cup one hand behind my ear. “It was really loud. I couldn’t hear you.”

A steady rumbling sound builds, as if just standing here is enough to make me feel like I’m living it all over again. Then the floor beneath me judders.

My heart rate picks up. Surely it’s not…?

Clutching the gun tighter, the grip on it through my gloves sure despite sweaty palms from the heat, I remind myself to stay calm—this isn’t my first time with a ghost—and scan for the source of the noise.

Nothing. I’m alone up here.

Louder now, the vibrations grow to deafening levels, and then comes the smell. Burning. Charring.

Sweat trickles down my spine. It’s back. Whatever the entity that killed Hollis, it’s here. Now.

Slowly, and with my back pressed against the girder, I strafe around to cover a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view. Still nothing.

Then the entire building vibrates, shaking the concrete floor and causing the camera to wobble.

My breaths come in shallow pants.

Staggering closer, I reach out to scoop it up from the floor when I notice something on the viewing screen. It’s difficult to see at first, because whatever it is lingers in the shadow of the wall. I zoom in.

My mouth runs dry.

My dad had a pair of farmer-dealer boots just like that. But on their own, the boots aren’t the problem.

The problem is that I’m alone up here. Or not…

twenty

Sadistic Ghosts

Hollis

Theo needs a new rule.

He has less situational awareness than the estate agent he was pretending to be, which, for a Master Cadet, is concerning.

Long before he felt the vibrations on the first floor, the merged video feed on the ground floor showed a significant change in the environment. I’d had to tune out his rambling about what happened the last time we were here to focus on it. Had he been paying attention, as I’d instructed, he’d have noticed it earlier too.

The apertures on the camera lenses shrink in response to my surge of anger, resulting in a sharper focus across the full panorama. That’s when I see what Theo’s zooming in on: a second entity on the first floor.

Two spirits at the same site.

This wasn’t flagged anywhere in the triage Gerald ran, nor in the email chain from Clawson & Stoker, and it changes everything.

I need to get Theo out of here. Now.

He pans the camera around, but he’s holding it too low to be looking through it himself. Even with my full-spectrum vision, all I can determine for certain is that this second entity is much stronger than whatever is downstairs.