Ghost Squad

by Claribel A. Ortega

  Lucely raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Lopez said it was just an urban legend.”

  “That’s what teachers always say, and then after school they put on their dad jeans and go searching for things themselves. Lucely, if we found that book, don’t you think it could help Mamá?”

  “How?” Lucely was skeptical, but she knew better than to underestimate Syd. She was always good at coming up with a plan.

  “Think about it! If the spell is able to wake the dead, it could wake Mamá, right?”

  Lucely scratched her chin. She knew more than anyone that ghosts were real and that other people wanted them to be too. It’s why they spent money to be freaked out on tours. And if there was a spell to wake them, maybe that’s exactly what they needed to help Mamá.

  “I admit, it’s the best plan I’ve heard yet,” Lucely conceded. There might be nothing she could do about losing her home, but she could at least try to save her firefly family.

  “Technically, it’s the only plan you’ve heard yet.” Syd laughed.

  “I’m sorry I’m being so negative. I’m just worried about Mamá and the whole house thing.”

  “Duh. That’s why I’m trying to help you! Mr. Vincent said your dad had until the end of the month to come up with the rent money, right? Well, that should be plenty of time to save the fireflies and help your dad’s ghost tour stop sucking. We should marathon every season of Phantom Hunters for ideas and come up with a plan. Leave it to me.”

  Phantom Hunters was Syd’s favorite TV show, where three women and a cameraman search for paranormal activity in abandoned hospitals and other haunted locales.

  “Dad’s tour does not suck!”

  Syd cocked her head to the side. A knowing look on her face.

  “Okay, maybe it sucks a little, but be less harsh, Syd. Sheesh. I’m delicate and a Hufflepuff.” Lucely bit her lip. “I mean, it might work, sure. But I dunno. If the book were real, someone would’ve found it a long time ago.”

  “Exactly. And if anyone found that book, I bet you I know who it was.”

  A smile spread across Syd’s face, her eyes meeting Lucely’s. They were clearly thinking the same thing, because a moment later they answered at the exact same time.

  “Babette.”

  ORANGE-AND-YELLOW FLOWERS DOTTED the ivy that hung from the balconies above Lucely and Syd as they rode their bikes through town. When it came to Halloween, every store on San Marco Avenue went all out with their decorations. Fake tombstones lined the sidewalks with names like Emma Goner and Ricky D. Bones. The candy store was decorated like a gingerbread house, and one of the workers stood at the door dressed as a witch, inviting children inside. There were cobwebs and fake spiders on everything from the lampposts to the mailboxes, and green and orange lights adorned the trees, which looked even cooler and spookier at night.

  It was a crisp day, the kind where you could get away with shorts but still needed a sweater. Their baseball caps were pulled low to shield from the sun. Syd’s cap had a macaroni noodle on it, and Lucely’s a hunk of cheese—Babette’s weird Christmas gifts to them last year.

  Syd’s grandmother, Babette, lived on the north side of town, just a few miles from school in an old house in which she also ran her occult shop, Babette’s Baubles.

  A small, hand-painted sign just off the side of the main road marked the gravelly inlet where Babette’s customers could park their cars. From there, visitors had to walk along a narrow dirt path surrounded by a dense cover of trees until they reached the clearing where Babette’s house stood. Finally, they could either take a rickety footbridge over the swampy, alligator-infested water or paddle across using the small rowboat that Babette kept moored to a dock just out of sight. If you didn’t know to search for it, you’d never know it was there. The shop was attached to Babette’s house, hints of purple peeking out of the few spots where the ivy hadn’t completely obscured the paint.

  Lucely and Syd stood in the clearing weighing their options: the footbridge or the rowboat. Even though Lucely knew that the footbridge was only enchanted to look old and decrepit, she still couldn’t help but feel as if it might collapse underneath them at any moment.

  The girls piled their bikes into the small wooden boat—careful to balance the weight so they wouldn’t capsize—and paddled the short distance across the water.

  The house seemed to sway in response to the wind, making sounds like an ancient owl. Wisteria adorned every window, and although it looked lovely, Lucely knew that wasps frequented the plants outside Babette’s home, and she seemed to like them there.

  They parked their bikes on the porch before going inside.

  The shop smelled of incense and fresh bread. Babette loved to bake, and there was always something in the oven.

  The door opened with a low, rumbling creak, as if saying, “Come iiiiiin.”

  The moment they stepped inside, the cats descended on them.

  Each of Babette’s eight cats was named after a Goonies character, thanks to Syd. Mouth, a scraggly mange of a cat, began wailing incessantly, looking for either attention or a snack. Sloth, a brawny sphinx who was missing an ear after getting into a fight with another cat, rolled around on top of a table in the entryway, knocking over a few cobwebbed candelabras. But it was Chunk who rubbed her hefty body against Lucely’s leg and let out a low, clipped “meow” before rolling onto her back to display her massive furry belly.

  “Hey, Chunk,” Lucely cooed as she bent down to give her what she wanted: tummy rubs.

  Lucely had been here before but usually only for sleepovers with Syd, never for anything like this. Babette’s house was just one of those places with never-ending secrets, a labyrinth of passageways and hidden rooms to explore. She imagined it would fit better in Diagon Alley than in the Florida swamp. There were doors Lucely had never even opened—doors you thought led one place but took you into a completely different part of the house. It could be frustrating when you needed the bathroom in the middle of the night.

  The wing of the house where Babette conducted her business was just off the main entryway, leading to a small hut with plants, onions, and knickknacks hanging from the ceiling. It looked small, but when you went inside, the shop was much bigger than it appeared. The walls were lined with candles (some lit), books (some turning pages of their own accord), and all sorts of strange items. Potions for everything from bad luck to baldness sat on tables and shelves throughout the store. And everywhere you looked, there seemed to be a cat tail swaying or little paws sticking out from cozy corners.

  “Close the door, you two! Or else you’re gonna let one of the cats out.” A raspy but strong voice came from the back room. Syd jumped at the sound of her grandmother’s voice, and Lucely quickly closed the door.

  “How did she even know it was us?” Lucely whispered.

  “Witch, remember?” Syd mouthed, the corner of her lip curling up.

  There was a long-standing rumor in town that Babette was more than just some reclusive peddler of rare oddities and objects of the occult—that she was actually a witch. Syd seemed more pleased than bothered by the rumor. She threatened to hex anyone who dared make fun of her beloved Babette, and they eventually got either too bored or too scared to keep bullying her.

  “Why aren’t you girls in school?” Babette appeared from the back room, her beautiful gray dreadlocks piled high on her head. She swept through the room as if she were floating, like her feet were not even touching the ground. Tall and elegant, with high cheekbones and warm, dark skin the same color as Syd’s, she wore a thin, blue caftan with long sleeves and silk trim.

  “It’s four in the afternoon, Nana. Did you just wake up?” Syd hugged her grandmother.

  “When you get to be my age, girly, no one can tell you when or for how long you get to sleep.” Babette let out an amused laugh.

  “Oh, baby.” She took Lucely’s chin in her hands. “You’re getting so big.”

  “Hello, Babette.” Lucely’s cheeks burned.

  She
was used to her dad being affectionate with her, but Syd’s family took it to a whole new level.

  “Are you just here to pet the cats or what?” Babette hitched an eyebrow at Lucely, who had picked up Chunk and was cradling her like a baby. Chunk wasn’t the cuddliest cat, but she didn’t mind being carried. Any excuse to not walk was fine by her.

  “Can’t we just pop by for a visit without having some ulterior motive?” Syd said, feigning offense.

  Babette pursed her lips. She was always suspicious. “You can look around but be careful. Don’t you go breaking anything—otherwise I’ll make you dust the bookcases until you’re as old as I am.”

  “Meow,” Chunk added.

  Both girls groaned.

  Babette had about thirty large bookcases filled with scrolls and books in varied sizes that looked as if dust had been gathering on them since the printing press was invented. Once, they had made the mistake of coming over to her shop and making too much noise as she helped customers and got roped into helping her dust them. It had taken them hours to finish, and after about the seven-hundredth sneeze, Lucely vowed never to dust again.

  But it had been the day Lucely and Syd came over to do research for a class project that something curious happened. They had been going through Babette’s collection of local lore and history books when Lucely had accidentally revealed a door hidden within the folds of the room. They had barely gotten a chance to peek into the secret room before Babette found them. Her face ashen, eyes wide.

  “That section is forbidden,” Babette had said, dragging them out of the room. “Bad things come to little girls who meddle.”

  She had made them promise not to go looking for it again, so she must have been hiding something in there.

  Babette went into the kitchen to make her tea for “the headache you two will most likely give me” while Lucely and Syd walked toward the bookshelves at the back of the shop. Chunk and Mikey, the smallest of all the cats, followed on their heels.

  The girls searched the highest shelves first, using a teetering stack of books to boost them up.

  “Do you at least remember what the book-key-thing looked like?” Syd asked.

  Lucely bit her lip. “Umm … not really. It was old, and it had a dark cover.”

  “Oh great, may as well be camouflaged then.”

  The silence stretched between them as they tested each book. It was like trying to find the needle in a haystack. Chunk was stretched out on a pile of books, already snoring. How cats could fall asleep in such weird places, Lucely would never understand.

  Syd broke the silence. “I don’t want to jinx anything … but if you and your dad had to move, where would you go?”

  Lucely didn’t want to think about it. But she had anyway, even if she couldn’t admit it.

  “Not sure. Somewhere boring I bet.”

  “I won’t be there, so, duh.”

  “If we have to leave …” Lucely started, a knot forming in her throat. She shifted a few more books around before stealing a quick glance at Syd, embarrassment washing over her. She knew Syd wouldn’t push it, but she didn’t have anyone else to talk to about it, so she continued, “If we move, I’m afraid that we’re gonna lose our connection with the fireflies.”

  Syd pulled her in for a hug. “Don’t you worry about that. We’ll just make sure you don’t have to move. We can chain ourselves to the tree! Or have a massive bake sale fund-raiser and invite the whole town! You’re not in this alone.”

  Lucely smiled to hide the way her heart tugged painfully. But Syd was right; she wasn’t alone. Her mom might not be around anymore, but her dad was always there when Lucely needed him most. And Syd could be pushy, but she was also always there when it counted most with the words Lucely needed to hear. This was why they were best friends.

  “Let’s try some of the higher shelves,” Syd said, rolling the sliding wooden ladder from the corner of the room to the nearest bookcase. Lucely kept looking over her shoulder, worried about Babette finding them snooping.

  “If she comes in, we can just say we’re doing research for a school project again, no biggie.” Syd shrugged, stepping onto the ladder.

  Lucely slowly pushed the ladder as Syd tried the rest of the musty books without success.

  “Well, that was an epic waste of time,” Lucely huffed, leaning back against the bookcase she had just finished searching. Before she even realized what was happening, Lucely found herself falling backward through the air. The hardwood floor greeted her with a thud.

  Syd spun at the commotion to see Lucely in a daze as she tried to reorient herself.

  “Luce!” Syd rushed to her side. “Are you okay?”

  “What happened?” Lucely’s vision slowly came back into focus. She turned toward the wall of the room. Where the bookcase had been just moments before now stood the entrance to Babette’s secret room.

  Syd pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight to illuminate the room as they cautiously inched inside. A small collection of books sat tucked away on a low shelf with a label that read: DO NOT TOUCH. Just below, in a fine script, it said, AND THAT MEANS YOU, SYDNEY FAIRES!

  “Your grandma is so freaky sometimes.”

  “Says the girl who lives with ghosts,” Syd said.

  “You got me there.” Lucely grabbed one of the books and opened it, causing a cloud of dust to erupt in her face. A fit of coughs clawed at her throat as she strained to hold them back, afraid of alerting Babette.

  Syd was helping Lucely wipe the dust off her face when Lucely noticed the corner of what looked like a crudely bound notebook under a pile of tattered papers. She fished the book out.

  “What is it?” Syd asked. It appeared to be bound in some sort of short brown fur and looked like it would fall apart at any moment.

  Lucely flipped through to a random page. The words For the Removal of Stubborn Warts were scribbled at the top followed by instructions in a language she couldn’t read and a list of ingredients.

  “Could this be …” Lucely started.

  “A book of magic?” Syd and Lucely said in unison.

  Every page was filled with scrawled handwriting: spells to reverse wrinkles, to recover a lost item, to give an enemy the stomach flu. Lucely turned back to the first page to see if there were any clues about whom the book belonged to. “There’s a list of names here, but they’re all crossed out except for the last one: Anastasia M.”

  “Never heard of her,” Syd said.

  They scanned through every page in search of anything that might help revive Mamá and stop whatever was hurting Lucely’s fireflies. As she came to the last few pages, her hope dimmed.

  “Wait!” Lucely gasped. “A few pages are missing—torn out by the looks of it.”

  “Maybe the spell we need was here.” Syd examined the section with the torn-out pages.

  Just then, Chunk mewed and Babette’s voice carried into the room from the kitchen. “You girls want any snacks? I’ve got some leftover frog leg stew and some chicken livers that I can fry up if you’re hungry.”

  Lucely’s stomach plunged like she was going down a steep roller coaster.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Lucely whispered, stuffing the spell book into the waistband of her jeans before scrambling out of the room. Together they worked to get the bookcase closed.

  “If she catches us, we’ll be stuck doing her chores until we’re old and wrinkly, like, twenty-seven!” Syd whispered frantically as they tried to close the heavy secret entrance. Just as the bookcase settled back into place, Babette walked into the room.

  Lucely’s heart was pounding. She was sure Babette could see the fear in her eyes just as sure as Lucely could see the sweat on Syd’s brow.

  “What are you girls up to? Lookin’ more scared than two trapped mice.” Babette hitched an eyebrow.

  “We were just looking around and Lucely read a story about a witch with no eyes and got freaked out and …” Syd babbled nervously.

  At the same moment, Lu
cely blurted out, “We were looking for a book about Las Brujas Moradas for a school project. We learned about them in class today.”

  Syd narrowed her eyes at Lucely, her mouth still open, unable to respond.

  Babette pursed her lips. “Out, out. This room is full of all sorts of things you two have no business involving yourselves with or knowing about.”

  The girls cringed as Babette ushered them out.

  “Wait just one minute,” Babette said.

  Lucely and Syd froze. The spell book tucked under Lucely’s shirt seemed to be getting hot against her skin. They’d been caught, for sure.

  “Stay put.” Babette pointed a finger at them before disappearing back into the library.

  “Oh my gosh. She’s going to lock us up in her basement and never let us out,” Syd squealed.

  “It was nice knowing you, Syd. I’ll miss you when we’re both dead.”

  Syd winced just as Babette came back into the room, cradling something in her arms.

  “I do have one book you might like.” Babette still looked angry, but there was a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Magic and the Occult: A History.”

  Both girls looked at each other.

  Babette sighed as she handed it over to Lucely. “This book has everything you’d want to know about witches, including the greatest coven there ever was: Las Brujas Moradas.”

  Lucely held in a gasp.

  “I thought they were supposed to be evil,” Syd said.

  “Bah! Don’t believe everything your teachers recite from their history books. Everyone wants to paint a powerful woman out to be wicked. How do you think witches got their name in the first place, hmm?”

  The book didn’t just look old; it looked like it could spontaneously turn into ashes in her arms. And it had what looked like squished mouse poop on the inside of the cover.

  “Where did you find this, Babette?” Lucely tried her best not to look too grossed out.

  Babette paused. “In one of the local cemeteries, I think.”

  “In a cemetery? What kind of place is that for a book?” Syd asked.