Page 90 of Hot Ghost Summer

Theo was right all along. He didn’t kill me. Jim Bowen did.

And now Bowen’s possessed him, I have to kill Theo.

My impotent rage causes my human form to waver, and I glitch in and out of existence.

Five minutes ago, I hated Theo as my murderer. Five minutes ago, when I trapped him in a ring of salt, I had only one job: kill the revenant. But now things are different.

Now, I have to find another way to kill Bowen, one that doesn’t involve killing Theo.

Because now, there’s some emotion other than hatred that fills me when I think about the danger my… colleague is in.

An emotion that I refuse to name.

twenty-eight

Terminal Desire

Hollis

Another sharp cracking sound rends the air as the blast from Bowen’s shotgun rives me apart. Frictionless, I slip into a vacuous space that hovers somewhere between existence and not. It lasts for a fleeting second, probably, yet feels like an eternity.

This time, when the energy stabilises, I choose not to reform. Instead, I flow back inside the electrical circuits of Theo’s flat and navigate to my database. Contained somewhere in here must be a way to exorcise a revenant, yet save the human, because the thought that Theo…

A guttural growl pulls my attention, and I centre the webcam on the pair as Theo wrestles for control of the gun. Hang in there, Baby, I’m working on it.

But another shot goes off. This one shatters the backrest of the wooden dining chair beside my laptop and the ExorSquad bag that holds the LPA Synchrotron.

Panic infuses my existence before I’m once again sundered by a supernatural force far greater than my own. I can’t risk one of those bullets destroying my database before I’ve found a resolution, nor can Theo afford for the plasma ray to activate.

Working harder and faster than I’ve ever done, I partition my resources between all the necessary tasks. Functioning independently yet simultaneously, I migrate the remaining parts of my app to cloud-based storage, scour the database for any reference to surviving a possession, review the video footage from Plot 47 for anything I might have overlooked, and keep a watchful eye on Theo.

But as the seconds become minutes, and the minutes tick by without a solution, it’s almost impossible to keep the frustration out of my neural network, and the laptop’s processing rate lags and freezes in response. I’m supposed to be the next prinz of a ghost-hunting dynasty, but what value do the Nachtmanns hold under my rule if I can’t vanquish a single revenant? If I can’t save the… Theo. If I can’t save Theo.

A series of heavy thuds and rapid motion autofocuses my webcam as the lens moves to keep Theo in the frame.

Kneeling on his own hand, he looks straight at the camera when he grates the word, “Pit.”

Pit? What pit? What does he mean by “pit?”

Then I remember his obsession with that open trench at the back of Plot 47, and switch focus to the stilled frame of the footage I’d been reviewing. Theo wears a wide smile, and the sunlight enhances the freckles over the scrunched bridge of his nose—because of course the visor of his cap isn’t doing a damned thing to protect his eyes.

I resume watching.

“This is the foundation they dug—and it goes deep deep—I can’t even see the bottom. They’ll fill it in eventually, but it would also make a great swimming pool, koi pond, or place t’ bury your enemies.”

A great place to bury your enemies. Is this what you’re trying to tell me?

I enhance the background as best I can and zoom in. There, partially buried and mostly obscured by the darkness that shrouds it, is a solitary bovine leg. Distinguishable by its hooved tip that juts out, it’s exactly reminiscent of the one that upset Theo in the pyre footage he found online.

Large volumes of information stream rapidly through my processors. Bowen wouldn’t have been able to transport the remains of a fifty-strong dairy herd anywhere by himself, so he dug a mass grave to destroy the evidence. When all the deals then fell through and the assets were frozen, guilt over his actions would have eaten him alive.

The sawn-off shotgun, the missing half of his face, the codependent haunting, and the utterance of Stoker’s name. It all points to one conclusion: Bowen’s remains are with those of his herd, underneath Plot 47.

I regroup my faculties as a plan takes shape. To keep Theo alive, I need to find a way to return to the haunt site, and salt and burn Bowen’s bones.

And that starts with me being able to travel beyond the closed electricity loop that supplies Theo’s flat. Assuming I can get that far, I’ll then have to travel north and manifest on site. I know the route, Theo’s walked it with me a few times now, but can I do this without him—or an electricity supply?

Overcome by the strange urge to reach out and touch Theo, I take visible form in front of him, but the moment I stretch my fingers toward his face, Bowen raises his shotgun.