I swung the light away from them. “Stairs last. Let's check out the main floor.”
We could've heard a pin drop it was so quiet.
“Ah hell, nothing's going to happen here,” Jonesy said, sounding dejected. He grabbed the LED out of my hands. He planted it under his face and started making the idiot grins people do above LEDs. We all laughed.
Then, a green luminescent shape rose from behind Jonesy and hovered above his head. Swooping down, it speared him through the chest.
Jonesy shrieked like he was being stabbed. “It's cold! It's a ghostsicle! Get it out of me!”
Tiff closed her fist around the ghost, and I balled my left hand around hers. We pulled, not with our hands but with our combined power.
The ghost—a man, from what I could tell—hovered above Tiffany and me. We let go of the tail-like portion, and it snapped back into the ghost's form, making a sucking noise like water down a drain.
Onyx had been barking the whole time. “Quiet boy.”
The Dog did not like this cold, dead-smelling thing. The Dog knew the Boy was dominant and he did not have to Protect, but the Dog did not like it.
Bry came up behind Tiff. “What is it?”
Tiff's hands dove onto her hips. “A ghost, dumb ass.”
Tiff, so delicate with her wording. Bry gave her a glare, sibling love.
Onyx growled.
The ghost glided toward me. I raised my hand and waved it through the ghost’s body. It felt like bathwater, semi-solid and warm, right and good.
Tiff mirrored my action. “So warm, like fur.”
“Like bath water,” I said.
John's mouth was slightly agape. “It's the same, but different,” he said. “You're AFTD but different people—your perceptions are different.”
“That damn thing is not warm! It's cold as hell!”
“That's an oxymoron,” Sophie said smugly.
Jonesy huffed, “I know what I felt!”
“Everyone knows hell is hot, dope,” Bry said.
“Whatever! That thing is cold as hell!”
The ghost swung its head toward Jonesy. I felt its agitation.
“I don't think it likes you,” I told Jonesy.
Jonesy backed up. Jade leaned forward, reaching for the ghost.
I caught her hand. “Maybe not.”
“I can't hide behind you all the time, Caleb.”
Before I could stop her, she whipped out her other hand and grabbed the ghost. It let out a shriek that reverberated through the house then zipped upward through the ceiling. Jade cradling her hand against her chest.
“Not smart Jade!” Tiff yelled.
I took her by the shoulders. “God, you could have been hurt! We don't know what we're dealing with here!”
“I was.”
“You were what?” I asked.
Slowly taking her hand away from her chest, she showed us what looked like a burn, just shy of the blistering kind. It was the worst in the webbing that connected her thumb and index finger.
“Was it hot?” Jonesy asked.
Jade shook her head. “Colder than anything I've ever touched.”
“Kinda like that time Carson put his wet tongue to that frozen utility pole.” Jonesy smiled.
“And you pelted him with snowballs while he was trapped,” John said.
“Yep, that was the time,” Jonesy said in a dreamy tone.
“Okay, so we know that they're dangerous,” Bry said.
“Not to them,” John said, pointing at Tiff and me.
Tiff said, “That's good, right? I mean, that's the whole reason Jonesy thought we should come. We're the... um…”
“Contingency plan,” I finished.
“Yeah, that,” Tiff said.
I bent down and kissed Jade's hand. “All better,” I said.
Sophie studied it.“Pretty angry looking.”
“Yeah, it's a war wound,” Jonesy said, cutting his eyes to the staircase.
“Ah… no. Haven't we had enough excitement for tonight?” John asked.
“Never!” Jonesy enthused, running over to the base of the staircase with Onyx at his heels.
“Wait a sec,” Tiff said. “Where did that ghost go?”
I pointed above my head, and we all looked up at the ceiling.
Jade said, “I'm game but no touching.”
I hugged her. “It doesn't seem like the ghost meant to hurt you.”
“No,” Jonesy said. “It definitely didn't want to freeze my nuts off!”
Bry and John laughed.
I said, “What I meant was, I think Jade took him by surprise. He gave her the ice blast because she startled him.”
“It's a guy ghost?” Sophie asked.
“Yeah,” Tiff said.
“Wow. Hate to see what he'd do to really freeze us,” Jonesy said.
“He was warm to me and Caleb,” Tiff said.
John said, “It's the AFTD thing. You guys are like the same element or something.”
“It was scared when I touched it,” Jade said.
“Evil?” John asked.
“Not really but, it could be. He could be.”
“I bet they got personalities!” Jonesy chortled.
“They do,” Jade said.
He stopped laughing. John’s and Bry's smiles slipped from their faces.
Tiff stepped forward. “They do?”
“He did,” Jade said.
Whoa. “What did he think or whatever?” I asked.
“He didn't exactly think. I just got feelings about him being disturbed, and then there were some random images of his life here.”
“Wait a sec, Jade,” Tiff said. “You're not AFTD?”
Jade shook her head. “No, empath.”
Tiff look confused. “So how does she know anything about what it—sorry, he—thought?”
“I was holding her when she swiped the ghost,” I said. “We've noticed in the past that I can put the zombies back into the ground better if I am touching Jade.”
“Back-in-box, back-in-box,” Jonesy sang.
“Jonesy, come on,” Bry said. He turned to Jade. “What did you mean by ‘his life here’?”
“Oh, he was the caretaker guy,” Jade said.
“Okay,” I said. “Let's cruise the upstairs really fast, then maybe we can rip by the hideaway after.”
“I don't know,” John said. “That's way across town.”
“Who doesn't have a bike?” I asked.
Jonesy raised his hand.
“Be a peg-rider, dude,” Bry said.
“For five miles?” Jonesy asked.
“Who's driving?” John asked.
We all stared at Bry.
Bry raised his hand. “Oh come on! He can't last five miles on my pegs.”
“Can you?” his sister asked.
Bry's eyes narrowed to slits. “Yeah, I can do it.”
John clapped his hands. “Settled then!”
Jonesy air-pumped. “Let's investigate!”
“Wait!” I tossed the LED to Jonesy.
He caught it then took the steep steps two at a time. Onyx, Bry, and John ran up after him.
Halfway up, John slipped. “Ouch! Damn!” He gripped his knee for a minute then went the rest of the way with an ungainly frog hop.
Jade, Tiff, Sophie and I climbed slower. At the top of the staircase stood the gang, we all stopped and stared, mouths hanging open.
Wisps of luminescent figures twirled and sailed about, lighting the area with a phosphorescent glow. As they frantically glided back and forth, they seemed irritated. There were eye-windows touching the floorboards on either end of the eaves, but the ceiling was really high down the central section of the roof.
Jonesy started inching back to the staircase. Our male ghost hovered in the middle, looking intimidating. He hadn’t been hostile to Tiff and me, but he'd hurt Jade and almost frozen Jonesy, so caution was a good idea.
Tiff pointed at the frenetic ghosts. “They're kids.”
They were swirling so furiously that it was hard to tell, but I thought she might be right.
I didn't want to leave Jade alone. I looked at Bry, and he nodded. Guy-speak, a wonderful thing. He moved closer to Jade.
I squeezed her arm and said, “Be right back.”
John said, “I’m shielding.”
Tiff followed me to where the large male ghost was hovering. As I got closer, my hair started to rise, floating with static electricity. The small ghosts flew around us, but they slowed their frantic spinning. The big ghost held out its arms, and Tiff and I each took an opaque hand.
Images flowed into my mind, and I assumed Tiff was experiencing the same thing. I saw his death in broken images, like a kaleidoscope rapidly spinning backwards—colors and shapes, profound loneliness and caretaking, feelings of accomplishment, then... a lonely death in that house with no one to take care of him.
“So sad,” Tiff said through clenched teeth.
I nodded. “Yes.”
But the images weren't done. We saw the ghost's pain as children were killed and he could do nothing. He took care of their spirits, that much he could do. He was still the caretaker for the dead.
He dropped our hands and floated back.
His message was clear. We needed to speak for the dead children.
“Wow,” Tiff said.
“Yeah.”
We moved back, and the ghosts returned to swirling again. The evilness of his message began to sink in. Children had been murdered there. Kids. Like us. Tiff and I looked at each other.
Jonesy asked, “What's the deal?”
I turned to face my friends. “The deal is that he’s the caretaker of a bunch of dead kids.”
“Told you!” Jonesy said.
“What?” Bry asked.
“I told everyone that some boy had died here.”
“Jonesy's right. He did say that a boy died here,” John said.
Jonesy scowled at John. “And there's a helluva lot more than just one.” He indicated the ghosts floating and diving in the background, holographic in the moonlight.
Sophie asked, “Why are we seeing them?”
Tiff answered, “I read AFTDs give off an aura so others can see stuff like ghosts.”
“So if Caleb and you take off, then they disappear?” Sophie asked.
“It sounds that way,” John said.
“That's sick as shit,” Jonesy said, sounding impressed.
“We'll have to do something about this,” Tiff said.
“I know.” I grabbed Jade's hand, comforted by the solidness of it after the creepy hand of the ghost.
“I wanna see if they'll disappear,” Jonesy said.
“Jonesy, give it a rest,” I said.
Bry glanced at the ghosts. “Yeah, let's book. I want to check out this hideout you guys have.”
We headed down the stairs. When we left the house, I shut the door softly behind us, the sadness and horror clinging to my mind like smoke to our bodies.
CHAPTER 31
Coming out into the moonlight, I sucked great gulps of fresh air, trying to expunge the cloying feeling of claustrophobia I took from the house.
“Okay, so let's shake that off,” Jonesy said.
Sophie shivered. “Maybe you can but not me, not for a while.”
I agreed. It would be a while before I would get over that. I bet Tiff felt the same way.
Jade said, “Let's pulse the adults.”
Bry nodded. “Great idea. Mom's going to have a kitten if we don't check in.”
We all took a moment to check in with the parental units. Then we tucked our pulses away.
Jonesy got a strange light in his eyes. “What do ya think—”
“No.” John said.
“Right. What he said,” Jade added.
Bry asked, “What, Jonesy?”
Tiff waggled a finger. “You don't know Jonesy that well, Bry. He gets these ideas that usually get us all in trouble.”
Bry grinned. “Oh, I don't know about that. So far, the night's been pretty exciting.”
Jonesy did a fist-bump with Bry. “See? Here's a dude who knows how to keep the adventure rolling!” His thumb dove in the direction of the old graveyard at our backs. “Looks like we got the green light to do more screwin' around. Let's see who we can jerk outta the pasture here.”
I shook my head. “Nah, I don't want to. I've had enough for tonight. And with ghosts so close, I don't know. Things could go bad. Besides, it seems wrong to do it for sport or something.”
Bry blanched. “Would it be like Scenic?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “That may have been because Gran was a relative.”
“Well that one zombie, Clyde, seemed… I don’t know… more aware,” Jade said.
“Caleb's raised that particular zombie… what, three times?” John looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded. “So each time he comes back, he seems to be smarter or something.”
“Last time, he seemed to communicate with the other zombies like a captain or something,” Jade said.
“Captain of the Zombie Guard!” Jonesy laughed.
“I don't want a repeat of the gran incident,” Bry said.
“Yeah, that went pretty sideways,” Tiff agreed, sucking in a huge gum bubble.
“And then Garcia and his creepy partner showed up.” Bry shook his head.
“So Garcia's corrupt?” John asked.
“It's lookin' that way,” I said. “I don't know for sure. But they're pairing mundanes with paranormals now, and McGraw was quick to show us he was an elemental, sorta like a threat.”
“I hadn't heard they had decided to do that pairing thing,” John said.
I shrugged. “They haven't, but Ward and Gale said that it was going to be a permanent rule or whatever soon.”
“That makes sense,” Jade said. “Think about what would happen if a someone like Carson decided to do crime professionally and two regular cop...”
“Cop-kabobs!” Jonesy interrupted in a donkey bray. “Whoosh!”
Jade gave an uneasy laugh, but nodded. “My point exactly. There's got to be a counter for that level of power, like a John.”
“I bet there's a ton of Nulls on the force,” Bry said.
Sophie nodded. “Jade's right. Nulls would mean the negation of all those freak-a-zoids.”
“Negation! Are you one of those smart girls?” Jonesy asked, eying Sophie.
“Sometimes.” She smiled and winked at him.
“Okay I give, what does that mean?” Jonesy asked.
John answered, “I can neutralize other paranormals' abilities.”
“Oh yeah, I remember. You do the whammy, and they can't zap us.” Jonesy shook a finger at John.
“That was alarmingly close to girl-speak, my friend,” Bry said.
“That's okay. I'm diversified and consider girl-speak to be my second language.”
Sophie folded her arms. “Nice.”
“That will count for college.” John laughed.
Onyx emitted a soft growl of alarm at the same moment that Jade asked, “What's that noise?”
I looked around but didn't see anything. Then I heard it—a soft thump-thump-thump like a giant's heartbeat thumping through a pillowcase loaded with feathers. We all spun around but didn't see anything. Onyx gave a single sharp bark, staring up at the sky. The trees above us parted like a dark invitation, exposing a helicopter over our heads, over the graveyard, over our lives.
***
Jonesy stepped forward, legs planted wide apart, stabilizing his balance. The helicopter swept the trees in a silent hurricane, their tops bending back to accommodate the force of the wind. It descended like a black spider. The sky was its web, a fat body with chopper blades like legs ready to spring down.
Onyx outright growled and barked, underscoring the oncoming threat.
Some spark of understanding swam to the surface and it was in that moment of self-realization that I felt responsible for more t
han just me and Jade.
I turned and yelled over the wind-tunnel noise, “Get to the graveyard now!” I pointed at Bry. “Protect the girls. Get them out of here!” I looked around for Tiff.
“Tiff, I need you!” She ran to me, her hoodie falling away from her face, leaving it exposed and vulnerable. I had a stab of guilt as she raced at me, but we needed to survive the now.
John and Jonesy didn’t move. They just stared up at the helicopter.
I gave them both a little push. “Go with Bry!”
They finally snapped out of it and followed Bry and the girls into the graveyard. Ropes dropped like snakes out of the belly of the helicopter. I counted: one, two, three. Resolve solidified into a tight knot of dread.
Tiff stood beside me, legs planted wide and hands balled into fists. I was counting on her being a guy right now, even though she looked so girl. If things hadn't been so dire, I would've smiled.
The shadow of the chopper blades made her face a jagged dance of light. “We're in deep shit,” she said.
“Yeah, it'll be okay.”
“Take care of my sister, Caleb,” Bry shouted.
Onyx lowered his head and growled louder as the three men climbed down the ropes.
The Bad Males had arrived, and a grinding fear was covering the Boy. Its smell permeated the Dog’s nose like a coating of oil, slimy and alive.
He would protect the Boy.
Onyx crouched, preparing to lunge. “No!” I yelled, leaping at him, doing the superman, arms out in front.
Onyx and I rolled together. When we stopped, he sprang to his feet. I got up on my knees and was greeted by the muzzle of a gun in my face.
My heartbeats ground to a halt.
I was stoked the parents had been thorough in their potty training because I definitely felt my bowels loosen a little.
“Easy there, young fella,” Gun-Holder said.
It was an M-16, its black tip a solid circle in front of me. My eyes ran the length of the barrel, the spiral shape distorted, to lock gazes with Gun-Holder. His were dead, killer's eyes.
A second guy strolled casually over and, using one finger, pushed the end of the gun barrel up in the air.
“What the hell, Parker?” Gun-Holder said.
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